The Agent Podcast - EP 76 - John Schuchman - Surviving as a Real Estate Agent
[00:00:00] John Schuchman: I think the thing is, and you know, I share this on my story, but my last W2 job, I was working at a bank.
[00:00:05] John Schuchman: I was in their management trainee program that they hype up as like thousands of people apply. And you were one of the people we picked. And I remember saying to them, like, you know, there was a point I'd been in retail banking with them and got promoted to this program. And they're like, we want you to go back and be an assistant branch manager or a branch manager.
[00:00:21] John Schuchman: And I said to myself I said, so you're telling me the best I'm ever going to do is like, be an assistant branch manager making $50,000 or a branch manager making $60,000 a year. And they said, yeah. And, and I didn't lose my job till two weeks later. But I think that conversation in my mind was. You're done.
[00:00:39]
[00:00:50] Ray Sjolseth: Hello and welcome back to another episode of the agent podcast today I'm here with my buddy, John out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, John, welcome to the show, man.
[00:00:58] John Schuchman: Thank you so much, Raymond. Pleasure [00:01:00] to be here. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:01] Ray Sjolseth: Yeah, I'm glad you're here, man. Fellow podcaster, real estate agent and you know, shit talker. So, it's right, man. Let's dive into it. Why real estate?
[00:01:09] John Schuchman: Yeah. So it's very interesting. And I shared this recently on my podcast. Cuz so many people say to me like, well what's the journey. Like you talk about hating W2 jobs and that's kind of where, what people, how people look at me. But really what I found. So, and. Not to get into a long story, but basically the 32nd version is since the time I was 18, I've been in tons of W2 jobs and never, you know, none of them were really my niche.
[00:01:37] John Schuchman: Either lost jobs or went to another job. I've probably been more fired from more jobs than anyone in the world. Not because like I wasn't robbing banks or anything or doing anything crazy. I'm a dreamer, I'm a visionary a good buddy of mine. Vincent GLISI says that having like ADHD is like the CEO's disease and that's very much like me always like bouncing from one thing to another.
[00:01:58] John Schuchman: And so I just think I'm, I'm [00:02:00] such a dreamer and a visionary. That I'm always looking for the next thing. And, and I'll present it like this. Like I remember, you know, one of my jobs was a manager at Chick-fil-A and I'm trying to improve things, do better, get better coach people and like, but at 1230 during the lunch rush, when they're just trying to get 150 cars through the drive through in an hour, they don't want you to improve anything.
[00:02:20] John Schuchman: They want you to like shut up and get the food out the window. And so that's sort of an example where, you know, dreaming was for like 9:00 AM when the store was slow, slow not for 1230. And so I just was never good at w jobs. When I lost my last w two job. Which was February 26th, 2019. Me and my wife kind of felt like, you know, I applied for jobs for about six months and got to a point where someone recommended real estate and thought I'd be good at it.
[00:02:45] John Schuchman: I've always been good at sales and relationships. And so we sort of made that decision that if I didn't get, you know, I had applied for a few jobs, had some interviews and we were like, if we don't get one of these final few jobs, we're gonna, you know, trust that God, you know, has [00:03:00] us like in real estate full time.
[00:03:02] John Schuchman: And So that's what I'm doing. And that's kind of where I've been the last couple years. So basically, you know, licensed two and a half years, and that's kind of what led me on this journey.
[00:03:10] Ray Sjolseth: So, let's dissect that a little bit. What was your, what was your childhood like? How did you grow up?
[00:03:16] Ray Sjolseth: Yes, I grew up sort of all over the place.
[00:03:19] Ray Sjolseth: My mom and dad were separated and so I was all over the place. All over the country really lived in Nebraska at a certain point, lived in North Carolina. I've probably moved 20 times during my lifetime, at least. And so one of the interesting parts about that is I think about real estate is I know the emotional, like trauma that can happen when you move all the time.
[00:03:38] Ray Sjolseth: And so, I think. It helps me with clients know, Hey, I know this is an emotional decision, whether you're buying your dream home or your first home, or you're selling a home, you know, I had a client recently that they were moving to a retirement community. So whether it's your first home and there's the joy of that, or you're old enough, you know, you're in your eighties or [00:04:00] whatever.
[00:04:00] Ray Sjolseth: She was and wanting to move to a retirement home. There're so many emotions. And so, I think that really helped me relate to the clients, like happy emotions, sad emotions, like just be there by their side, try to take the stress off them as much as possible.
[00:04:14] Ray Sjolseth: So, what did your parents do? What kind of jobs did they have?
[00:04:18] John Schuchman: W2 jobs, all their life. My dad's still, you know, we have two kids. My wife and I have been married five, six years. We have two kids, our son just turned two and a half and our daughter just turned one. So it's like a circus over here, most of the time but my dad often says, Hey, well, when Kaden goes to college, so my son's two and a half and I'm.
[00:04:38] John Schuchman: Have you seen like the entrepreneurial journey I've been on? Like, I'm probably not gonna encourage him to go to college if he wants to. Great, but I spent eight years in college, you know, it's like Tommy boy, like, you know, a lot of people spent eight years in college, Richard, but I wasn't a doctor or a lawyer.
[00:04:53] John Schuchman: So, so that's what I grew up with. So actually, it kind of makes sense that I went from w2 to w2 to w2, that's just what I thought people did. Education, I went to get my MBA and he even now will say like, do your MBA, like I'll help you finish it. And I'm like, I don't, I don't need the money.
[00:05:09] John Schuchman: I don't want to finish an MBA. Like I'm having so much success in real estate. And so, I think it's Just his mindset is like you go to work, you go to school for 15 years to make really good money where I just see it a little differently. And I do think you. There're news articles that we've all seen about the great resignation they call it.
[00:05:28] John Schuchman: And I think COVID really changed a lot of people where they're realizing I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to go to a job that I hate to work for a. Boss that I don't like be treated like garbage by people to then go and buy stuff. I don't need to impress people. I don't care about, you know, Dave Ramsey has this thing that, where he says people buy stuff, they don't need to impress people.
[00:05:51] John Schuchman: They don't like something like that. And so it's just, yeah, I think a lot of people are really changing their mindset on that and I'm not criticizing my dad, I think at when he grew [00:06:00] up, that's what people did and now he's kind of seen like, oh, there's actually another path. And that, that was real estate for.
[00:06:05] Ray Sjolseth: Well, it's interesting, right? Because we spend the majority of our life trying to figure out who we are and get to our authentic self. And it's usually by means of absolute pardon my French fucking catastrophe or on the brink of catastrophe that it happens. And like, you know, we were talking a little bit before we hit record.
[00:06:25] Ray Sjolseth: And that's what it sounds like. Like you got to a point where it was crucial times and desperate and something needed to give. And real estate was your vehicle to like to create that new path and those new opportunities for you and yours.
[00:06:39] John Schuchman: Yeah. And Raymond,
[00:06:41] John Schuchman: I, I think the thing is, and you know, I share this on my story, but I, my last W2 job, I was working at a bank.
[00:06:47] John Schuchman: I was in their management trainee program that they hype up as like thousands of people apply. And you were one of the people we picked. And I remember saying to them, like, you know, there was a point I'd been in retail banking with them and got promoted to this program. And they're like, [00:07:00] we want you to go back and be an assistant branch manager or a branch manager.
[00:07:03] John Schuchman: And I said to myself I said, so you're telling me the best I'm ever gonna do is like, be an assistant branch manager making $50,000 or a branch manager making $60,000 a year. And they said, yeah. And, and I didn't lose my job till two weeks later. But I think that conversation in my mind was. You're done.
[00:07:21] John Schuchman: You're not doing this. You will not do this. Now. They then let me go. Two weeks later, never written up, never anything, but I think it was really a blessing where I suddenly had to make it. Okay. My wife was pregnant at the time with our now two-and-a-half-year-old. And we had to say, okay, what the heck are we gonna do?
[00:07:41] John Schuchman: And then I got my real estate license and, and here's what I would say to realtors out there. I got my real estate license, and I hustled my butt off. So, for you out there that are like, why aren't I having success? I would caution you and say, are you doing real estate full time or is this like something you do on the side?
[00:07:58] John Schuchman: You know, I coach realtors [00:08:00] and you know, I have a podcast that's grown a lot and I talk to a few realtors a week and some of them say to me like, well, I can't post on social media about real estate because of my full-time job. And I'm kind of like, the conversation's over because you're not actually going to do anything to improve your situation.
[00:08:14] John Schuchman: I had no choice. Right. And it turned out to be the best thing, but if I wouldn't have lost that W2 job, would I have just kept on the hamster wheel of job after job, after job maybe. And that's why I feel like God blessed me with getting fired. But once I was in real estate, I'm like, okay, now you have to figure it out.
[00:08:32] John Schuchman: What are you gonna do? How are you gonna make it? And. I've done it. Right. So I doubled, so my first year, full time, would've been 2020 from that year, which went relatively well. But from that to 2021, I tripled my income. And now it's like, once you're in that range now it's not like, make more money.
[00:08:51] John Schuchman: It's like, okay, how do I optimize? How do I. Do this so that I can help other realtors, you know, do great, a great job for my clients. And then, you [00:09:00] know, I really want to be with my wife and our kids and see, you know, our, my family grow up. Like I want, I don't wanna miss that.
[00:09:06] Ray Sjolseth: So, let's jump back to talk about your definition of hustling hard.
[00:09:10] Ray Sjolseth: Right? What does that, what does that mean? What does that look like for you?
[00:09:13] John Schuchman: Yeah, a big piece of that for me. I, I love this. This is, and that's a great question. A big piece of it for me was I was going to tell everyone about real estate, right? So I remember being at the apple store and I got a new computer.
[00:09:28] John Schuchman: I got a MacBook pro or whatever to, to go and work and do real estate. And the person said to me, you know, I was just having a conversation. Right. I'm good at relationships. So, we were just having a conversation and she said something like, what's the computer for? And I'm like, oh, I'm a realtor. I'm licensed with my company.
[00:09:45] John Schuchman: And so I think. I, and again, I'm not gonna be pitchy or salesy. Like I wouldn't have been like, oh, Hey, I'm a realtor. Do you wanna buy a house? Right. People see through that. But what I did was I used conversations to grow my business. I would talk about real estate, social [00:10:00] media. If you, if anyone listens to my podcast, I like.
[00:10:03] John Schuchman: Talk about social media all the time. Like I put business cards on social media, pictures of them put stuff in stories. Instagram and now reels and TikTok are huge. I've built like a six-figure real estate business. Without paying for advertising, it's all organic stuff through social media. And hustling hard to me was part that right.
[00:10:22] John Schuchman: Having conversations and part at that time was doing anything I could to make money. So I was oh man. It's it scares me to think back. But during that time, when I lost my job to then my first real estate deal closing, 14 months later, I. I drove for Uber. I drove for Lyft. I drove for door dash. I drove for what other ones?
[00:10:44] John Schuchman: The only one I didn't really do was groceries, but anything else. And then now I never got clients from it, but I started learning then how to have conversations with strangers, which in real estate we do all the time. And so like, there's, you know, I. I'm looking out my window right now. And there there's a target five minutes for me.
[00:11:02] John Schuchman: And I remember picking someone up at target here in Lancaster, driving them home 15 minutes and they had come off their shift at work. So I remember structuring that conversation to before we got to their home, say like, oh, do you rent? Do you own? And then said, oh, well I'm a realtor. Right? They were sort of like stuck my captive audience in the.
[00:11:22] John Schuchman: For those 15 minutes for me to talk about what I wanted to talk about. And so that has helped me in the real estate business. Right. I can cater conversations now, again, I'm not just gonna pitch you. I'm not gonna be but I'll bring up real estate and I. Yeah, that was the thing. And, and I even get emotional thinking about it.
[00:11:40] John Schuchman: Hustling was just, I would do anything we could to pay our bills. Like we didn't know. Right. My wife was working her W2 job making 40 grand and we survived. But I was like, her dream was always be a stayed home mom and be debt free. And I'm like, I have to do this. Right. I have to honor her. Like, how can I provide for her?
[00:11:58] John Schuchman: And it was, it was a lot, man, but it was just a, a ton of hard work. And now it's taken time to pay off, but now I'm like, wow, this is, this is why.
[00:12:07] John Schuchman: I did all that.
[00:12:09] Ray Sjolseth: So, let's go to triple your income in the form of building your business. What are, gimme a couple, two or three things that you feel. Are anchors to your success as to why you had that success.
[00:12:25] John Schuchman: Yeah. Thank you so much. I love these questions. They're all amazing questions. I social media for one and client reviews, like I said, I was sharing my, on my show, my journey, and I talked about the power of perception. So, my first client ever, I showed 63 homes too.
[00:12:45] John Schuchman: Yes. I see your face. I, yes.
[00:12:47] Ray Sjolseth: Oh man. It was that. That is, is an investment in the relationship.
[00:12:51] John Schuchman: It sure was. And I only made $2,000 off it at the end, but I could not do that today. I'm too busy to do that today, but I have the time [00:13:00] and I did it. And what I did was anytime I showed that client a house, probably almost, I mean, maybe 50 of the times, Instagram story showing houses today to a client.
[00:13:14] John Schuchman: Instagram story, maybe a post
[00:13:16] Ray Sjolseth: content content, content content.
[00:13:18] John Schuchman: Yep. I love it. I would post that I was showing houses. So I remember there still is a guy. His name is Corey, rest in peace to your real estate career. Corey, who I did my onboarding class, who we went through the classes together to become realtors.
[00:13:32] John Schuchman: I remember Corey messaging me at one point saying, dude, you're killing it with these open houses and all these showings. And when I really wanted, I did tell him, but I couldn't really share this publicly. I was like, I'm broke, dude. Like I'm worried. We're not gonna be able to keep our house. Like I'm showing 63 homes.
[00:13:49] John Schuchman: The one person I haven't made a dime. I don't make any money till that guy, you know, till that client, that couple buys a house, but I still, I saw the power of social media. I saw [00:14:00] that people were saying, wow, you're really crushing it in the business. And I'm like, oh my goodness. It's the power of perception.
[00:14:05] John Schuchman: People are perceiving that I'm crushing it. Now. I was honest. If someone would walk up to me, I'd be like, well, I really only have one client right now, but I'm using that. I wasn't right. I wasn't dishonest. I wouldn't post showing my 25th client, their first home. I, I just said showing a house today. And in terms of like the hustle, I remember having to take my son.
[00:14:25] John Schuchman: Once my wife went back to work in December, I would take him to showings, you know, in his car seat. And I would do anything I had to do to meet people and talk about real estate. So social media and the power of percept. And reviews. So if you go to sites and, and search for me. So if you go to a big one for agents that like rate my agent.com, if you search Lancaster county 2021, whatever last year was, I was number two out of 1000 something set 1,500 realtors in terms of most reviews.
[00:14:59] John Schuchman: I only had 30 deals. Like I am not the biggest agent in Lancaster. I'm probably not in the top hundred, but reviews are such a game changer for realtors, because like I can say I'm amazing all day. Right. Nobody cares. But if my clients are talking about how amazing I was, that's a game changer. So again, combining.
[00:15:20] John Schuchman: With social media, I, every single review I've ever gotten and a hundred percent of my clients have given me reviews. So that's another part. Every single client has given me a review. I then share that on social media, John can talk about how great he is. Raymond can talk about how great he is till he's blue until we're blue in the face.
[00:15:39] John Schuchman: But if Sarah, your client says, wow, Raymond was an amazing realtor, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you share that people are like, I want.
[00:15:46] Ray Sjolseth: Okay, so let John, let me pause you there, man. Yeah. Social media. I get it. Perception. I get it reviews. Most people, not even agents, most people as business owners and operators fail at this.
[00:16:01] Ray Sjolseth: Yeah. Where did that discipline come from? How are you making that happen? Do you have an automated follow up sequence? Do you have a VA? Do you have some dude chasing your clients down the street like what is happening for these reviews?
[00:16:14] John Schuchman: Yeah, well, that's thank great question again.
[00:16:17] John Schuchman: I talk about it during the entire process. So from the first meeting, I'll sort of joke like, and then we get to the settlement table and you love me so much that you tell all your friends and you leave me a great review. And then now I'm sort of, you can even see my personality. I'm super SNAR and sarcastic.
[00:16:32] John Schuchman: I joke around cause we have a good time. Yeah. I even during the whole process. So like for instance I had a client and they settled probably three weeks ago on a custom home. And the day before settlement, I messaged them and said, Hey, can you guys do me a favor? And the guy goes, no, John, I'm not writing your five star review right now.
[00:16:51] John Schuchman: so he already knew. So during the whole process, like. When I like, there's been times where I'll miss a call, I'll be on the phone or a podcast interview. And I miss a call I'll call back and I'll be like, Hey, sorry, I missed your call. And then I'll joke. Like, you can leave that in the one star review at the end of the transaction and they laugh.
[00:17:09] John Schuchman: Right. But then if I do so now I don't do this all the time. Like, if you say, thanks for sending those docs, I don't say, oh yeah, leave that in the, but, but like to know your audience, right? Yeah. Know the audience, but there's like my clients. Like me super sarcastic, like to joke around. Usually we have a good time.
[00:17:25] John Schuchman: They joke about like Johnny bringing lunch today. Cause I love food and I'm eating all the time. And so like when. So I remember the same client a month prior to that was like, Hey, you know, thanks so much for doing that. I really appreciate you getting that offer in last minute. And I'm like, yeah, don't forget that in the five star review and he laughed about it.
[00:17:44] John Schuchman: I have to, to answer the second part. Do I have a system? Yes. Now it's just me. I don't have a VA. I'm, I'm getting there, but I have a note and I'm happy to send it to anybody, but the note basically says. Thank you. And, and I've learned now that to send it right before settlement, or say like, Hey, if you type something up and you come to settlement in the 15 minutes that they're going and copying documents, I'll show you, I'll put it in private mode on my computer.
[00:18:13] John Schuchman: Let you log in. Yeah, you can just copy and paste it. You don't have to, like, I don't need to see what you write, but then it's done there. Right. I, I remember having, having a client, the, the 80 year old client, I sold her house for I just had just typed something up and bring it to settlement, or like, you can text it to me at settlement.
[00:18:31] John Schuchman: It'll come on my computer, you can copy and paste it. And so that's really helped a lot, but basically I just say, Hey, when I'm asking, I say, this is a way you can help my business. And I think, you know, and I mentioned, I think before we started the episodes, talking to you about a, a realtor Sean Cochran there in, you know, in Chicago, he leaves a review everywhere.
[00:18:51] John Schuchman: He goes, like he goes to eat, he goes to eat. He leaves your review. It helps his SEO on Google when he's doing that. And so he gets thousands of hits a month. So I just think one. I try to leave reviews where I go, if I have a great lunch, John Shukman realtor, the Google page leaves a review, and that helps.
[00:19:09] John Schuchman: But I think when you explain to people, Hey, this is a way that really helps my business and you try to make it convenient. Like our company does them on the back end. So like, I try to get them on Google, but even if not, I'm like, Hey. Just shoot me a voice memo that I will send to our back office people and they will type it up word for word and make it a review.
[00:19:30] John Schuchman: Like I think a lot of clients don't leave reviews because one we don't ask or we don't ask the right way. Right. So, so my 70 year old client, 80 year old client selling a house. I'm not telling them, Hey, by the way, you need to go put this on Facebook. I'm realizing the limitations. So I'm saying, Hey, if you don't have a Google account, I will create one with you at the settlement table.
[00:19:54] John Schuchman: And then I'll let you post the review. And that's been a game changer, man. I, all of my clients. So what I've done, I don't know. 50 deals. Every single client's left a. And some of them even do so I've, I I've hired videographers like three or four times to interview clients. I take it to another level.
[00:20:12] John Schuchman: So anyway, I that's a long answer, but hope I hope that helps.
[00:20:15] Ray Sjolseth: No, I love it. I'm actually making notes over here to the left of my screen, because a couple things that you hit on one is just the ability to keep asking in a noninvasive way. Right. And let 'em know in the beginning that, Hey, it's coming.
[00:20:31] Ray Sjolseth: Mm-hmm , it's not a big ask. But you help me, I'll help you, right? Yeah. And then at the rate, my agents thing, definitely like again, with having, whether you're in the top one, 100 or 1000 is irrelevant. And the fact that you go there and you have all those reviews, that's a gold mind for so many reasons.
[00:20:50] Ray Sjolseth: I teach a, a Google my business class and I talk about reviews, but I love that. what Sean is doing is brilliant. if you take your business page and that business page is the one leaving reviews everywhere, man, that is so much free traffic cuz you're right. It's literally thousands and thousands and thousands of views on a regular basis.
[00:21:12] John Schuchman: And imagine too, like, I, I think about it, you know, we're so busy in our businesses and you share, you got so many things going on. If some, I have to put myself in the other shoes on both sides, so my clients aren't annoyed. And I'll just say, Hey, sorry to annoy you. And usually the answer is, oh, no, don't be sorry at all.
[00:21:30] John Schuchman: We're so sorry. We forgot. We'll try to do that today. And normally they'll tell me something like, if we don't do it within the next week, please remind us there, there comes a. I've actually had clients where like, I'm like, oh, you're gonna mess up my 100% streak. Aren't you now it doesn't matter. Even the fact that I'm over.
[00:21:46] John Schuchman: I bet 50. I bet most realtors don't even have more than half their clients.
[00:21:50] Ray Sjolseth: Yeah. Hundred percent.
[00:21:52] John Schuchman: Yeah. So, but I think it's just, okay. I can tell I'll go back to it. The, people you want speaking for your business are your clients. If you, I have a Dropbox link with every, you know, I just had someone who's about to list a one and a half million dollar house.
[00:22:07] John Schuchman: And they said, John, we need someone to hustle and grind and we need someone that's gonna be a bulldog. I had. Videos one with the person that I showed 63 homes that said, John is the hardest working agent we've ever worked with. So I sent them a 32nd clip of that. And then I had another client that ended up being my stepdad, but they didn't know it was a diff and, and it said.
[00:22:30] John Schuchman: The quote directly was from him said you know, they say in business that you want like a bulldog that term, you know, a bulldog, he said, John, is that bulldog and you definitely want him negotiating for you. Now I beat out two other agents that live within five minutes of this house and I'm an hour.
[00:22:49] John Schuchman: It could have been anything, but I have a feeling part of it was literally two of my clients spoke to two of their concerns about speaking kindly about me. Sure. And so I don't think you have to be like, oh, let's go hire a videographer. Like John did. Hey, let's just sit at the settlement table.
[00:23:07] John Schuchman: Hey Jim, thanks so much. Would you write this review? Boom. There you go. Hey, you know why? While we're sitting here, are you guys comfortable? Just like I'll film on my iPhone a one minute clip about the experience with me. Boom, game changer, because then, and it's content content you can share, you know, and I share coming soon active under contracts, sold the review and then probably a video.
[00:23:31] John Schuchman: They see my client six times again, I'm not lying. They, they can see it's 1, 2, 3 main street, 1, 2, 3 main street, but then to see the client write that, and then a video you're like, oh my goodness. And, and internally I think clients in the way, the reason my business has grown clients see that like see my Facebook and stuff and they say, wow, I, those people look happy.
[00:23:52] John Schuchman: I want to experience that.
[00:23:54] Ray Sjolseth: He's doing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I love that. I mean, That [00:24:00] is an awesome system, whether it was intentional or created on accident is irrelevant. It is an awesome system and very simple to D.
[00:24:07] John Schuchman: And I think, yeah, and I will share. So I used to be in the photography business right long before.
[00:24:14] John Schuchman: And so, well, how did your photography business grows? Well by somebody I shot a bar mitzvah and then this person told somebody else, Hey, John did a great job out the bar mitzvah. So when I got out of that and out of the w two life into real estate, I'm like, well, how do I go this business? Well, let's try reviews.
[00:24:30] John Schuchman: Every time. I have a piece, have a review that I share on social media. Normally someone messages me like, oh, Hey, I didn't see you were doing real estate or something.
[00:24:38] John Schuchman: I, I had a friend who I have not, I have still not seen them in 12 years. We used to go to church together, but I've not seen them. They wanted to sell a house. They never liked my stuff. They never interacted with it. A year, they bought a home and I saw something and messaged them. And you know, they, they were already working with an agent a year later, they were selling that home, never contacted me at all.
[00:25:01] John Schuchman: And then all of a sudden they said, Hey, John, you know, we really love your social media. Your clients look really happy. We need to sell our house, but we wanna move to Texas. Can you handle this? But I still have not seen them. They, I handled everything here. We had notarized docs sent to text. So my encouragement to the people that listen to your show is just because someone's not interacting with your stuff or commenting like, oh, you're a ma they're still seeing it.
[00:25:25] John Schuchman: Right. So keep doing, keep doing it, sharing your content. People are seeing it and seeing wow Raymond's having success. I, I didn't know he was in real estate. Even. I post about real estate, probably two or three times a week. And there's still people that don't know.
[00:25:39] Ray Sjolseth: Yeah, it happens, right. Depends on their algorithm and what's happening and what's going on in their life.
[00:25:46] Ray Sjolseth: What let's jump to your podcast. Where did your podcast come from? First of all, I love the name, the real estate survival guide. Like that's amazing.
[00:25:54] John Schuchman: Thank you so much. I keep mentioning this guy, Vincent just because he leads a mastermind, let him in, and it's it's for entrepreneurs and he does an amazing job.
[00:26:00] John Schuchman: He has a great podcast. The total, I bet I'm gonna butcher, but it's basically the total life freedom podcast. And what he's trying to teach people is like freedom in their business to time. Financial and money? No. I said, yeah, like time location and money, freedom. And, and I learned from him, you know, I remember being at a point, you know, not even, yeah, about a year and a half ago where I'd been a year into my real estate career.
[00:26:25] John Schuchman: People that I trained with were like asking me questions multiple times a week. And I, I remember saying like, I don't have the bandwidth for them to call me every week. And he's like, John, start a podcast. Of course, we all have that doubter in us. It's like, no, I don't deserve to start a podcast. And I, I remember being like I just sold my first house in April and it's October.
[00:26:46] John Schuchman: I don't deserve to have a podcast and he's like, stop. Like you have a voice. People obviously need to hear it because they're contacting, you release a podcast for people. And so the heart of the podcast. I don't wanna see realtors become statistics. It's one of the hardest businesses. And I say this on the show, but 80% of realtors are outta the business in two years.
[00:27:07] John Schuchman: 87% of are outta the business in five years. And so it came from a heart of like, I don't want realtors to fail. I remember how hard it was thinking. Like, are we gonna be able to afford our mortgage this month? right. Two years ago. And, and that's where it came from. And then as I started releasing it, people would find it.
[00:27:23] John Schuchman: I mean, you've seen it with your show, right? Like when someone in one of the real estate groups says, Hey, what's a great show. I see people tagging your show. And so that means you're impacting people. And so that's really where it came from. I didn't know what the heck I was doing at the beginning.
[00:27:35] John Schuchman: Sometimes I still feel like I don't. Right. We all have that imposter syndrome. Yeah. But it's really helping realtors feel like they can survive. And some of it's just good business sense. But that's, you know, I've joked with my wife that like one day, this right here, hopefully in a nicer house or whatever, but this is where I'm gonna sit one day and like probably have a six figure in another six figure business that I've built from this desk.
[00:27:59] John Schuchman: And again, it's not about numbers, like, but I'm just trying to help people. I remember being that new realtor and thinking I can't do this, I'm not gonna make it. And I wish I would've seen your show in the stories or seen a show like mine. And so that it came out of. This isn't out here and it has to be it's grown a ton and I love one of my favorite things has just been the interactions I get to have from the podcast.
[00:28:24] John Schuchman: You know, people find it. I I've put a, you know, a couple times on there that I'll do like a free social media audit for them. And again, I'll do it for any anyone out there. And I don't like, and, and, you know, I had one realtor say like, well I I saw it said like podcast host slash coach at the real estate survival guide on your profile on Facebook.
[00:28:43] John Schuchman: I'm not interested in buying anything. And I, I wrote back, I'm like, good. I don't have anything to sell. . Yeah. That's and eventually, yeah. And eventually like over the next few months, I'll, I'll, I've had realtors that are asking me, like, can you create a membership community? Like what Vincent has done, but for realtors.
[00:28:58] John Schuchman: And so they're pushing me. So I'll probably eventually do it, but it's not, it's not really for money. I. I hope no one goes through what I went through and I hope that people can see there is so much opportunity in real estate, whether you're investing, whether you wanna be a licensed, you know, a realtor showing clients houses and selling them.
[00:29:19] John Schuchman: There's just so much potential that like, I wish I would've done this 15 years ago.
[00:29:24] Ray Sjolseth: well, it's so interesting, right? Because you go to school, you get your license and that's all you're. Right. No one tells you, Hey dude, you just became an entrepreneur. You're a startup. Congratulations. Like you're your own boss, your own employee, your worst enemy, your best asset, all of these different things.
[00:29:42] Ray Sjolseth: And you know, that's kind of how this started too, is just, people are suffering, dude. Like they are so lost and overwhelmed and. Let alone the bad advice that's out there. Right. And you know. You're promoting your podcast. You're in and out of Facebook groups, you're looking at what agents are saying, what coaches are saying.
[00:30:00] Ray Sjolseth: And there are those people that be like, oh, I don't wanna buy anything. Oh, you don't have to buy something. But listen, dude, you learn one thing. Maybe you can grow your business 20%. You know, whatever that means to you, it could be one house a year. It could be a hundred, but yep. Yeah, you have to have that open mind.
[00:30:16] Ray Sjolseth: And if you're gonna be a business owner, It's important to have an open mind and realize what you don't know and what you have the ability to learn. And for me, that's one of the things I love about the podcast, like I have created an unbelievable network of really awesome, cool, nice, warm, caring people, but I've also impacted a ton of agents with the reviews I get or the messages I get.
[00:30:39] Ray Sjolseth: You know, now I have like a few agents calling me to talk about investments. Like, dude, I found this 10 unit building, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, just call me, let's talk about it. Let's work through it before you commit to something, you know, and really make sure you understand what you're getting into and what that looks like, the pros and the cons.
[00:30:54] Ray Sjolseth: Right? Yeah. But like it's a great feeling to be able to be impacting people like that.
[00:30:59] John Schuchman: it is. And I think that, you know what you just said, I've been processing so much. That's like my, one of my words of the year's impact, I don't just wanna make a ton of money. I really want to help people. And so if that's the podcast, if that's the community that I eventually start and, and again, you know, some, some people are like, oh, are you gonna sell something in one day?
[00:31:16] John Schuchman: Like, Probably, but that's not really why this started. I started to help people you know, some people and I I've mentioned his name a few times, but like Dave Ramsey, some people are like, Dave Ramsey is this huge rich guy sitting on a hill, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you can follow Dave Ramsey's plan for free.
[00:31:31] John Schuchman: Listen to his podcast, do what he says on the show. Maybe I don't, maybe you don't agree with like, oh, pay off your house. Maybe like, and that's fine, but he's giving the content for free. If you want more access to that. Go pay for it. But I think and I think for all realtors out there, you have an audience, whether it's your clients, whether it's other realtors in your area who look up to you and say, wow, I wanna be like them.
[00:31:55] John Schuchman: You know, I have realtors that are like, oh, I hope I can be like you. And I'm like, don't, I'm a, nobody. Like, I'm a, I'm a guy that like, I've had an opportunity. I sh you know, have a podcast it's grown. but so could you, so could anybody, and I think I love connecting with people like you because there are good people in the real estate business, right?
[00:32:15] John Schuchman: We're not all slime balls, just trying to sell our clients something. I think there are people that care about the relationships, whether that be with clients, with other realtors. My favorite part about the podcast really is. It's for realtors it's to help them. I'll have clients that find it and then they're like, oh yeah.
[00:32:32] John Schuchman: Now I trust you even more to do this real estate deal. And I'm like, oh great. But that's not why I released a podcast. I remember one. Client was interviewing a long story, short, like a client was interviewing multiple realtors. And it was actually a mom interviewing for her kids because they were busy doctor.
[00:32:49] John Schuchman: Anyway, it doesn't, but she interviewed me and she said, I just wanna make sure you're not like a part-time realtor. And I'm said, so that's so funny that you say that I just released an episode for realtors about why realtors fail. This was early last year when the podcast started go listen. And she listened to that and they hired me.
[00:33:06] John Schuchman: And you know, that was a $400,000 house but I didn't, I wasn't trying to get clients. I'm just trying to help realtors. And I think when you just, this is the thing about a podcast, when you just try to be helpful and help people, I feel like through like God's blessing or the universe, whatever you wanna call it, that does come back.
[00:33:23] John Schuchman: It really does. I agree when you just try to be helpful.
[00:33:25] Ray Sjolseth: Yeah. I agree. Show up and help. That's. Yeah, man. I
[00:33:30] Ray Sjolseth: love it. So it's been crazy. It's been podcast is growing so fast and like, I didn't, I mean, I remember releasing and being like, oh, well hopefully I get more than like five downloads a month. now it's.
[00:33:42] Ray Sjolseth: And now it's grown a ton to be, I think top 5% of podcast worldwide, which is just insane. I mean,
[00:33:48] Ray Sjolseth: that's huge. How'd you do that? What's your magic trick. That's awesome. Congrats.
[00:33:52] John Schuchman: Oh, geez. I don't know. I, I think thank you. I think one of the things is just be helpful. So like, you know, in those real estate groups that we're in we, you can't pitch.
[00:34:00] John Schuchman: I can't be like, Hey, here's a podcast, right. Click the link. But what I can do is go there and be helpful. So I, in one of those groups that has like a hundred thousand people, I was recently recog. I, I like, you know how it gives you those weird badges or whatever. Oh yeah. It recently said likes. Yeah. Like most helpful or whatever.
[00:34:17] John Schuchman: And I think that just meant, like, I comment the most, which made me feel like sweet. I I'm glad I wanna be helpful. And so I try to, I try to spend some time each day and there answering questions. And when it's a question that could go back to something in my podcast, like I know someone recently was like, Hey guys, I'm trying to do this on the side.
[00:34:38] John Schuchman: Like, what are you gonna do? And I'm like, you know, you'll have success when you like really put your heart and soul into this. And I shared the episode about working part-time you know, I, and, and people have found it and they tag me. So I think like they're doing the advertising for me. I've got a few dozen realtors in there that listen, that will tag me and I appreciate.
[00:34:56] John Schuchman: But it's just being helpful. I, I, one realtor [00:35:00] in there she reached out and she said, Hey, I, I posted in there asking about the best podcast. Yours was one of the ones they shared in there. So I'm sure she enjoyed that. You've got some great interviews. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. And. She said she listened to mine and of the 40 podcast, she heard mine was one of the, like three or four that stuck.
[00:35:18] John Schuchman: And I'm like, awesome. And I just I'm like, great because you're getting help. And I didn't say, Hey, go buy this. Cuz there's like, there's nothing to buy. I'm just, I'm thankful that people are finding it and it's helpful. I think I want to see more and more realtors believing in themselves having the confidence.
[00:35:34] John Schuchman: Right. Like I just shared my story on here. Like again, two years ago, Two years ago, my first deal settled April of something 20, 20, 20. So two years ago, I hadn't even had a settlement man. so a lot can happen if you believe in yourself, if you work hard. And if you're just helpful to others,
[00:35:53] Ray Sjolseth: I love that John man, what a great conversation and congratulations to you, your wife and your babies for your success.
[00:35:59] John Schuchman: Thank you. It's a lot. I feel like we have a zoo here sometimes, but yeah. You know, I know that a lot going on. I know that feeling, man, trust me. I know that feeling. All right. It's crazy, man. Where can people find you? Where can they find the podcast?
[00:36:12] John Schuchman: Yeah, absolutely. So thank you so much. And thanks for having me again, your show's great.
[00:36:15] John Schuchman: And I enjoy it. So thanks for letting me be a small part of it. Yeah, man. Today privilege for me. Yeah. Good. Thank you. You can find me I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, whatever John shook in the Lancaster realtor on Instagram and stuff like that. Happy to connect like seriously, and it's not pitching cuz I got nothing to sell.
[00:36:34] John Schuchman: Like if realtors want help with social media, I've. I do the social media now for our team. And I've taken it from getting five 50 views a month. Not kidding when I took it over last January. So January 21 to now about six to 8,000 views a month by the stuff we're posting. So if people want help, they can connect with me there.
[00:36:53] John Schuchman: I'm happy to jump on a free call. They of course can find the podcast I'd love and if they enjoy it, I'd love to, and I love having [00:37:00] realtors, you know, after this, we're gonna have to have you on my show cause I love having. You know, realtors and people in real estate on. But yeah, you can check it out anywhere you can.
[00:37:08] John Schuchman: The website is the real estate survival guide.com. But anywhere you listen to podcasts, if you search real estate survival guide, it's gonna come up. I'm currently redoing the website, but it, you know, you'll find it. You'll you know, the headlines there and you can kind of see the links to, to subscribe.
[00:37:24] John Schuchman: So thank you so much. I hope that this is helpful for your listeners and that they just kind of feel hopeful and encouraged through this
[00:37:32] Ray Sjolseth: friends. If you are listening, listen to John's podcast and don't forget to leave him a review and let's keep his a hundred percent client streak on the other side of real estate, going down the podcast side, John I awesome, man. You so much. Thank you, man.
[00:37:48] John Schuchman: Thank you. I appreciate your time. It was awesome. Connecting with you a little bit and look forward to we'll do it again. I'll have you we'll have to have you on my show and, and definitely not be the last time we talk for sure.
