Million-Dollar Real Estate Advice from a Top Leader

Hi and welcome to Let's Talk About Real Estate Podcast, the podcast for real estate agents

absolutely everywhere. I'm Lisa B and during this podcast we're going to be talking about

everything real estate. What's working? What's not working? AI, automation, technology,

EXP Realty and absolutely everything to do with real estate. I'll have guest speakers as well

where we'll answer your questions from the Facebook group. Let's talk about real estate.

If you haven't joined the Facebook group, make sure you do that now and we'd be happy to help

answering any questions and again welcome to the show. Welcome to Let's Talk About Real Estate

Podcast and today my very social guest is Hank Abink. Hank is a big deal in EXP Realty with

about a thousand real estate agents. Yes you are and I'll explain what that means later having a

thousand real estate agents in his team. Hank helped me a lot over five years ago when we first

started in the EXP in Australia with hindsight from everything that happened in America to what

we'll go through here which was amazing. Hank is a real estate coach and all-round legend.

Today I want Hank. Hank is very much the things that I love about you, Hank, is that you're

brutally honest. If I said to you, do I look fat in this? You'd go, yeah probably, yeah you know

and I like that because that's the way I am. I like people that are honest. I don't want anything

sugar coated and I've seen you you're like that with me. I see you like that with other people and

that's what I really like. I like it that I know if I want an answer to something you're not going

to beat around the bush and I think that's what makes a good coach as well. You're not just

panning to somebody else and oh that's okay. You know try again next week because why haven't you

done it? That's what I love about you. So welcome to let's talk about real estate podcast, Hank.

Well thank you for having me and I always wish I could like wrap that up and put it on my mom's

refrigerator because she'd be so proud. So thank you for that warm introduction. Yeah you know

fierce conversations. I'm not sure when that flip where that switch actually flipped with me

or actually I do. My son was born and we found out that he had to have open heart surgery and I

went from work in 18 hours a day to being a people pleaser to being I've got three hours a day

to work. So I just lost my filter and I'd be like hey Lisa if you're a lucky little I can't work

with you right now. If you're gonna I home like let's go and and I just lost my filter because I

no longer had the luxury of like tiptoeing around things and surprisingly I was getting done in three

hours what I used to take 18 hours to get done and I was getting better results because people loved

it. They loved the fact that I was just upfront and forthright and oftentimes it comes from pain

where we start losing that filter and I mean it's made a huge difference in my world.

But people respect your time more too you know it's like no I've only got one hour they're not

gonna be yeah they're gonna make the best of that one hour you know they haven't got three hours

with you so you know I think it gives you more respect too doesn't it you know. And I think what

happens is people get into destructive abundance and when they have more deals coming in than what

they can handle rather than raising their standards what they do is they try to dilute it and try to

do more than they get crappier results and it actually works in the opposite effect because we all

know those agents that start out they start killing it and then also they end up having a business

that goes up and down and it's because of that destructive abundance and they don't raise their

standards and we all know that girl in school that didn't have high standards. I talked about

that with you before we got it the podcast was has this PG-13 or do we have it? You go for your

life Hank it's it's whatever you want it to be. Well there's an example because right there

that got people off neutral they were either like oh this guy's funny or this mates funny as

you guys say don't under or this guy's an appropriate and that's intentional because I want to find

filters where when people are judging me they can either move towards me and be like I like this guy

or he's not my tie like he's he's loose with a lip see he cusses a little bit he can he can get a

little bit out of the out of the coloring lines and to me that what what's helped with that is it

helps people filter through and whether or not they want to be in a relationship with me. Absolutely

so you're known for your hankisms aren't you like people yeah what what are some of them that you

can think of well sometimes I just have to look at my tattoos and if you're listening to this

and my forearms says math versus drama and where that comes from is so many times people would come

to me and they'd be talking about whatever's going on I said okay well Lisa before we talk about

the drama let's talk about the math have you been doing enough calls to actually give yourself

an opportunity to have a different result have you gone to the gym for the last year to expect

that your body would be able to transform and most people they get stuck in the drama in their math

doesn't give them a chance to actually succeed subtraction leads to multiplication another tattoo

that I have on me patients with a sense of urgency all these hankisms are a different way of saying

something that the people that came before us like it's eczicular or you know all the legends

and I just say I'm a little bit different way yeah so tell us patients with a sense of

urgency tell us what that means to you so most of us are lacking one or the other for me ADHD you know

driver I have a lack of patience almost my whole life you know I'm the definition of trying to

outerm stupid I'll just work and what I thought was oftentimes I needed some patience you know my wife

and I when we were trying to get pregnant you know it was like we want to get pregnant and have the

baby but it needed nine months of gestation and you don't want that baby coming sooner and some things

just need a little bit of time and so I would like anybody watching this do a self-assessment do you

lack patience or do you lack urgency and having awareness around what you're lacking because patience

to me was the magic sauce and XP is a good example I came to exp freedom I didn't come for another

job and the reality was I needed three to five hours a week consistently not 40 hours a week for

intensity and do it for three months because exp wasn't going to work by giving just three months it

took me eight or 19 months to have my first victory but because I was patient with a sense of

urgency 19 months I got my first victory but most people would have given up because they're so

impatient and they need that immediate feedback. Absolutely and back and on your wall that you've got

B brave and what's that you'll get over it yeah B brave don't we don't we have to be brave though

like you know in life it's like putting yourself out there there's so many things where you know we

can just ignore things and it just gets worse and worse and worse you know you do have to be brave

to tackle things otherwise whatever you you haven't tackle gets worse everything else gets worse

and you know being brave is just such a thing where it's you just have to you know so how do you

get somebody to do something that's difficult so you're coaching someone and they have to be brave

how do you get them to do that like I need to do something and I'm not doing it how would you

try and influence me or or see that I need to do it so for every day you bring this up the title

of my new book coming out is called fix it and so a lot of times we got to have people be brave

and up to actually look at what's going on and not to pretend pretend to not know what they know

you know my wife and I for the last two hours have been texting back and forth and I had to be

brave and share some things that were going on knowing that it wasn't going to be a comfortable

conversation wasn't going to be one that you know was going to be awesome yet the reality is the

alternative is not bringing it up and then having it faster and having it grow and causing something

bigger and so in the book what we're going to talk about is fix it and right here in my this

tattoo says fix it because I tell people you got to be strong or to use your words be brave so

first thing is we've got to properly diagnose what's going on in nine times on a 10 what I find

with people they're actually treating the symptom not the actual diagnosis sort of problem and the

example that I use is the guy that's 50 pounds overweight and the easy thing would be saying hey

man you need to go work out okay well why is he really overweight well he started drinking

and when he started drinking started eating more well I just started drinking while my wife's a

nag or and well why is your wife a nag and you go down and it's actually three four five six seven

eight layers deeper and the 50 pounds overweight is just symptom and so usually what I find is

if I can help people properly diagnose what's actually going on it's usually pretty easy to fix if

you're being honest with yourself you know one of my handcisms is awareness is transformational

in and of itself so if we can help people be brave and actually figure out what's really going on

the awareness typically once they get awareness they'll know the next great thing to do

absolutely and I know there was an agent that you were coaching and he quite often puts on

on Facebook he'll say how you were brutally honest with him he lost weight and changed his life

forever I can't remember who that was Josh yeah he was a buddy and he came on a zoom

in a buddy close enough but I saw him he looked offline said dude you look fat as fuck and I mean

this is how I would say it to him I wouldn't just go say at least I there's no way in the world I

would ever say that to you that way but it's what he needed was for somebody just to call it out

now if you would have said hey dude you know I've got a I got an issue with my what's the

thyroid thyroid yeah thanks I would I would have felt awful but he goes I mean he was mad

but guess what you know that's what he needed and the guy looks like a beast now because

everybody else was talking behind his back and I cared enough to just punch him right in the face now

he wanted to punch me in the face but he couldn't because he had let himself go in his marriage and

everything has transformed since then and so another handchism is this I care more about you

than I do us I mean I think about our last phone call I was giving you advice that wasn't

necessarily best for me but it was best for Lisa because I cared about you if I put you yourself

first our relationship will grow and be even better together if I have my priorities in the right

order absolutely and he's the guy that says yeah buddy isn't he yeah buddy yeah and there's

an example of branding right I cuss a little bit I wear hoodies I wear my hat backwards and

he says yeah buddy so here's Lisa in Australia who's never had a conversation

but you'll see Josh it's yeah that's right and quick little tip on Josh he has the success code

which is this skill set time on task experimentation till you get a victory and you get confidence

to get momentum there's more two of it that's a quick drive by he has this tattooed on his body

right here because of how big an impact this little modality that Hank put together is

wow that's amazing that's amazing crazy it is crazy it is crazy and I love how you've got all

of those tatties around just to remind you you know and and whenever you're talking to people

you're you're reinforcing those anchors on yourself aren't you you know it's so like every talk

about it's there where that came from was I was saying the same things over and over again

one day I knew I was going to be having this conversation so I juckily wrote it on in Sharpie

is what we call it here yeah and they're like oh my gosh you should get that tattooed and I

thought if I can test my principles on my body people should hopefully give me the benefit of

the doubt that like they're like grabbing yes they were absolutely and look how committed you

want to exp a yes you know exp tattoo this is would you like to know the quick story behind that

yes when I first joined um there was a lady that had in the exp tattoo and I'm thinking

you're crazy it's like a part of it and I go what made you do it she goes when I made a million

dollars in revenue share I said that I would do it well I'm like just thinking I was like well

when I make a million bucks I'm gonna do it like thinking there's no way I'll ever do it

well what happened was I crossed the million bucks and then I crossed the two million dollars

in revenue share and somebody called me out they're like dude you said you were getting the tattoo

when you made a million bucks so one day I'm flying into Tampa with another guy it was Sunday night

at midnight I go hey man is there tattoo parlour over open he goes you won't believe it someone

just joined the exp that runs the tattoo shop let's go so 12 o'clock in the morning in Tampa, Florida

Rob and I are getting this Rob talk we both got the tattoo exp and I mean I've made $2.8 million

in revenue share working three to five hours a week in this model I mean it just gives me goose bumps

absolutely yeah no okay when I get a real quick you can't do it you want to know why you can't

do it why much better you want to know how it's why because I'm way smarter than you I'm stronger than

you I'm and this is this is what I get as share with people like here's the great thing about

exp is you got to be willing to commit you got to be willing to be consistent and you just

got to do the work there's nothing special about me I'm not that good looking I couldn't even get

into university and and like I'm going ball so like if I can do it anybody can do it and you need

some luck along the way yeah that's right and it's it's a real estate it's the same thing you just

need to do the actions don't you the actions that are going to lead to the results absolutely all right

so can we get into a little bit of coaching for any real estate agents that are watching this now

so a brand new agent coming into real estate what advice would you give them and I'm talking about

not you know going your sphere of influence and all that mentally so I want to talk about mindset

so what do you think the mindset for somebody coming into real estate knew should be

I believe in yourself so zig zigzag or came to us with B2 ad first you have to be it before

you can do it before you can have it meaning you have to believe that you can be a successful

real estate agent now the nice thing about YouTube is information's a commodity so go and find

somebody that you can relate to and they're not so far along in the journey that you can't relate

but find somebody that can be a guidepost so this is where the success code comes in you gotta work

on skill set the first listing that I put in took me three days because I didn't know what I

didn't know I didn't get the right forms I had to go back and get new signatures but once I had

that skill set what took me three days now it takes me 30 minutes driving down the highway

putting lipstick on and I don't where the lipstick point is is some of you can relate that you do

in a second so the first thing is have the mindset that you're going to out work your stupidity

so most likely you're going to have to work 18 hour days because the sooner you can get that

skill set get the time on task and you're experimenting so you get some victories pretty soon

the experimentation will be experimentation you'll go if I do this then this will happen

so I'm going to tell you work work as if you know the worst the worst boss you've ever had

worked to that standard and chances are you'll be successful the first year will be a struggle

second year will be a little bit better third year you'll start getting the payoffs of all

that hard work and here's what I want you to not do don't start choosing significant

silver sales and then you know keep spending your wheels doing things that actually don't get

you there because most people what they do is they start raising their lifestyle they start spending

too much money stop doing all the things they got them there in the first place and then they get

behind in taxes or they get behind in bills and then it's this constant struggle so back to the

question if I was getting brand new in real estate what would I do I would work my butt off

follow people that have gone before me and out work your mindset yeah awesome okay so somebody

that's in real estate struggling with results what advice would you give them basically the same

isn't it but yeah I would ask them hey let's look at your last 30 days and would you be proud of

the work that you've done based on the last 30 days could you expect any different results

than what you have Lisa I can tell you what I've done every hour on the hour during work days since

2016 it's no wonder it's no wonder that I have a lot of sex I mean success and so what matters

measures so I have this right here 50-25-1 are you getting it from a 50 people a day where they're

off neutral either like you or hate you get 20 handshakes when you shake someone's hand you get

an energy exchange sometimes like you're an asshole or oh my gosh Lisa I'm married and I'm not

sure the energy that's going on but I'm happily married and I can't shake your hand anymore

five conversations and a conversation is where you're getting their their information so you can

follow up you follow them in social media and you exchange something of commonality and then the

one is where you have such a powerful conversation that both of you can remember where you were

when you had that conversation I remember you and I had a conversation that was in Ottawa on the

river and you had something going on and I remember talking to you there and what I loved about it was

you didn't show up as a victim I'm actually I think you might have a little bit and I gave you a

little hank and then you end up getting to responsibility because victim to anger to responsibility

and I could remember on that phone call I was like she's that responsibility she's going to make

this work and goalie said now if you had a show on this victim there's no way and I think at the

time I needed to call our CEO and make something happen where I needed to go grease some wheels

and because of how you showed up I remember taking time on a trip to help you because that was

by one of the day and if you can have powerful conversations where you remember where you were when

you had them yeah 365 times a year everybody knows a hundred people yeah yeah definitely 36,500

people within an arms reach and see your calendar you've like you said you know where you are

because you've got everything documented in your diary and you stick to it so a lot of people

don't do that you know it's sort of like making sure you've got those appointments booked in you've

got you know your tasks that you have to do booked in the that are the priorities which a lot of people

don't do so yeah or they put it in there and it's a suggestion I think is how do you make the

pain of not doing something greater than the pain of doing it and we were supposed to have a call

yesterday it didn't get in my schedule we figured out why but the reality is I know this if I follow

my schedule I win yeah anytime for off of my schedule I'm leaving it to chance and whether or not

I'm going to succeed um definitely okay so what do you find are the biggest challenges for real

set agents um with your coaching what what do you find stops them moving forward

uh they're not ready for me meaning people come to me because they know I'm about to put my

size 10 right where it needs to go so the biggest challenge is if somebody's interested now this

happened a lot more in the beginning someone's interested they won't last with me because

everybody gets three strikes first time you don't do something strike one second time strike two

the third time strike three and some people pay me up front for the year well if you get three

strikes you lost that money so most people that come to me and then they don't succeed is because

they truly haven't committed yet just like you as real estate agents I have enough filters in place

where most people won't make it into my coaching schedule unless they've made through filters so

rather than have destructive abundance I put in filters where people won't make it's actually

listing with me unless they're truly committed so they're just yeah interest did not commit it

yeah there's a just isn't there yeah and I don't try to say people yes yes okay so when you

started an EXP or or give us your journey into into EXP and and explain about your team of

a thousand agents that you've got and what that means well depends on how far you want to go back

yet I was I was traveling in the country North America I had 600 flights in three years and all

sudden one day my wife called me it's much much more in depth in this but she said Henry needs

to be older and that's my oldest it was at that moment I decided that's not a result that I wanted

and I needed to do something different well when I stepped down for my position and I opened my

own coaching company it was no longer welcome at my prior company and what I find with a lot of

agencies they're happy whether at until they're not I love my old company yet the reality was

I wasn't doing what they wanted me to do so I was no longer useful to them therefore they kind of

put me as an outcast so I came to EXP because when my son was born he had to have open heart surgery

and it was at that time I was selling real estate full-time and I realized if I can't show up I don't

make money so it was in 20 2009 when I made the decision that at some point I'm going to have an

income stream where if life punches me in the jaw that I don't have to show up meaning I can do

work today that I'll get paid tomorrow on and when EXP came in I was like oh my gosh if this

thing works it can completely change my life now again my result turned typical because I'm better

looking then and most and smarter than most yeah I'm three to five hours a week I created an

income stream that's done actually I should check to see if we've crossed the three million dollar mark

we're we're real close to that and that's since 20 2016 so you know and this is off three to five

hours a week so my journey was this 19 months I had a friend call and say Hank I'm interested in

the EXP I said don't come she's like why I go you're a single mom we're not in your market yet

and I don't want to put you in harm's way she goes I'm a big girl I'm coming over so she came

she closed two deals in her first two weeks she closed eight deals the next month and then 42

deals between her and a couple others that came over so it went $400 to $830 to $100 and I was like

this math works June of 2017 until January 1st I helped 95 agents join our company and this is

God's honest truth Lisa for six months I worked my butt off I I waved the flag I sang from the

mountain tops and those 95 agents of helping them get what they want turned into agents in Australia

we've had over a couple thousand agents join us we're currently at 988 and yet it was from a six

month sprint because I got intentional and I helped some people come over that's amazing isn't it

and the lifestyle that you've created and the people that you've helped into EXP there's

so many success stories isn't there just amazing it is and you're one of them and and this is what

it's tough to be a prophet in your own area code now think about this if you guys knew my standards

me taking a zoom call or a podcast at six o'clock on a Tuesday night it doesn't happen me getting

up at four o'clock in the morning when we zoom for all those months every you know once a week

here Lisa's talent and and she will care more about you than then you probably do and you know

I might not always like her she may push your button she may push you a little bit you guys may

need to agree to disagree and here's what I know if you partner with Lisa she's gonna go win

and she has been winning I think I could be wrong you have one of the biggest reps your lines and

all of the EXP and us for yeah we do yeah yeah we've got over half of the total country so you say

you say that so humbly and I'm gonna say you know what if you're watching this and you have an

opportunity yeah Lisa might have known you at times or she might um piss you off to say the least

however if you lock arms with her you're gonna go win so if you're watching this and you've been

praying to God here's your message go sign up with Lisa because here's what I'm trying to get her

to do go find 10 people that can get to a hundred people meaning stop worrying about the

soldier on the ground the average agent in Lisa you do such a great job helping agent salons

yet I'm begging and pleading with you is go find 10 people that have influence and help them grow

to a hundred and start working on those generals so if you're watching this and you're a person

of influence you're somebody who wins Lisa will get to a thousand people and you could be one of the

10 that she helps get there and your timings now yes absolutely yeah no amazing I just I love

um you know just everything from the five years that I met you just everything that you've helped

me with and and just what we've created has just been amazing and yeah I'm really proud of it I'm

really proud that we've got three and um the agents that we've got the lives that we've changed

just been amazing so all right so what's the best advice that you can give real estate agents what

would be your best I mean you've given so many tips what's the best thing anybody who's seen to this

good to work don't kid yourself on what you're actually doing real estate simple it's not easy

and do the math you're spurn enough to figure out a schedule and then follow the schedule I mean

most people that I talk to they're having lots of success success leaves clues they're doing the work

they they're their calendar supports what their goals are I can look at their bank statement and

their bank statement supports what they're doing in the reality is most people their activities

are a better indication of what the results are going to be than what their goals are and it's

simple it's not easy just get to work thank you so much for joining us and I'm going to send you a

little video on Damien the average because these are the glasses I said to you I couldn't find my

normal black ones and I had to wear these and I feel like Damien the average and you didn't know

who she he was so I'm going to send you a little clip after this as well but anyway thank you so

much for joining me you are amazing my pleasure okay thank you for listening to let's talk

about real estate podcast we hope you enjoyed the show if you have a question about real estate

and please join the group on Facebook also called let's talk about real estate for those of you

who are interested in EXP please join us at 10 a.m. Brisbane time every Wednesday morning for EXP

explained thank you again for joining us and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and see you next week