Episode Transcript
Frank Hereda (00:02.482)
What's up everybody. Welcome to another episode of Focused Free Fit. And I'm excited today because we have another great real estate coach in the house. So Mr. Chris Stafford, welcome to the podcast.
Chris Stafford (00:19.372)
Hey, thanks so much for having me, Frank.
Frank Hereda (00:20.794)
Absolutely. I am excited to have this conversation today because just from our original conversation, there's a lot of things that you're doing that I am passionate about and I can't wait to hear what you have to say about it. So as a tradition on this show, I like to ask everybody to tell us a little bit about where you started, where you grew up, early life, family life, and then, you know, kind of tell everybody about Chris Stafford and we'll get started there.
Chris Stafford (00:48.088)
Great. Well, I'll tell you, I don't know if it's that interesting to a lot of people, but I was born and raised in Detroit. I don't know if you can hear my slight Midwestern accent. And I grew up sort of on the wrong side of the tracks. My family didn't have a lot of money. And what that meant for me is I started, I mean, this is really interesting to people or not.
I started smoking cigarettes when I was 11. I started smoking pot when I was 12. I started dropping acid and doing drugs when I was 13. And I spent my whole teen years basically on drugs. then believe it or not, in college, I started doing cocaine and I started dealing cocaine. I've never set this on a podcast before. No one's ever asked me this. Yeah, full transparency.
Frank Hereda (01:35.976)
I love it. I love the honesty.
Chris Stafford (01:41.454)
And then that was through my second year of college. And you know what I did, Frank, is I took a trip from Detroit out to California, which is where I'm a listing agent right now in San Francisco. But I actually went the whole coast of California with a buddy of mine. I'll never forget it because we drove this really super cool brand new T -bird. This was in 19, had to have been 1977, I think. We just thought we were hot shit. You we just thought we were like the bomb. And we went all the way up.
from San Diego all the way up to San Francisco and it just totally blew my mind because I saw you know I compared to dreary Detroit There's a sunny Pacific Coast and these people were beautiful. The cars are beautiful The houses are beautiful the mountains and everything else and you know on the flight back to Detroit something just clicked in me and I realized that there was more to life than doing drugs and living in Detroit and I made it a goal of myself to get my
happy butt back out to California. And so I literally went back, I dropped out of community college and I enrolled myself with my parents help and actually some family help in a private college. And two years later, quit all drugs, drinking everything. And two years later, I graduated summa cum laude and as a CPA and I passed my CPA examination on the first try, worked for Pricewaterhouse .com.
Coopers for two years in Detroit and got transferred to San Diego after that. And so I achieved my dream. I was super happy and I totally cleaned up my act and I realized there's a lot more to life out there than living on the wrong side, if you know what I mean.
Frank Hereda (03:22.748)
Yeah, I do. I just find it so interesting. So why do you think you started doing drugs and smoking cigarettes at a young age? Was there something that made you do that? Did you see that, that you were like, hey, maybe that's what I should be doing? was it, how are your parents? Were your parents involved in your early life? Like, why do you think that you went that route? I'm so impressed that you made the turnaround, but what brought you into it in the first place?
Chris Stafford (03:43.618)
Yeah.
Chris Stafford (03:47.438)
Wow, you're asking some good questions. No one's ever asked me this before, You know, the bottom line is, full transparency is I was physically abused when I was a kid. And not sexually, but basically my father just beat the hell out of me when I was a kid. And so I was really insecure growing up. And it was really easy for me to succumb to peer pressure.
Frank Hereda (03:51.581)
I try.
Chris Stafford (04:15.468)
And I live, like I said, on the wrong side of the tracks and all my friends were doing that. So for me to be accepted, I had to do it. And so it was all this, this thing about being accepted and, yeah, it took me a while to sort of figure that out years and years of counseling. And it really ties into something later, you know, and stop me if you're sick of this story, but it really ties into something later that I realized in my life that in my twenties and my thirties and to a certain extent in my forties,
you know, as a CPA and then transitioning into real estate, I made a lot of money. but I use that money on stuff like, you know, $5 ,000 suits and Mercedes Benz and these long European vacations. And I, and I did it. I, I realized to impress everybody. And it was just, you know, looking back now, I mean, it was just a colossal waste of money and energy on my part to try to seek the approval of everybody by buying all this crap.
And so yeah, that's one message. I have many messages today, but that's one message is that authenticity and being yourself is so key in anything that you're doing.
Frank Hereda (05:21.332)
I love it. That's a great message. And I appreciate you sharing your experience. That's really interesting to me. I think it makes it even more impressive that you did all of what you did, right? When you start off that way and, and then you've got to make a 180 degree course, correct? So that's pretty impressive. And I really think that it's interesting that you made the change just from a simple trip. And do you think that it was like that you just never saw anything outside of Detroit? And once you did, you were like, my gosh, this is just.
Chris Stafford (05:32.949)
Mm
Chris Stafford (05:36.908)
Right.
Frank Hereda (05:49.92)
I can't even believe it's like a whole nother world. Is that kind of what you think made you? Yeah.
Chris Stafford (05:54.126)
absolutely. Absolutely. You know what? Two things happened. One was I got this from my mother. She was a passionate traveler. She traveled all over the world. She was a travel agent. So I think that that sort of awakened the travel in me because I'm passionate about travel. I frequently like, as a matter of fact, next week I'm moving to Argentina for a month and I'm going to actually work from Argentina, put on my little digital nomad hat.
And so I just love working and traveling the world from different parts. So that's one thing. The other thing it's like, I mean, this is such a crazy reference, but I really felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz that I came from Kansas. And when I went to California, I saw, you know, this magical land and everything was vivid and bright colored and beautiful and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I was super naive and I was super,
Yeah, I guess naive is the word that I was a novice. I never saw anything else in the world other than the Detroit area. And so yeah, it just, there are two things that just sort of like woke up something in me and that's why.
Frank Hereda (07:03.892)
Cool, okay. So let's fast forward. So you're a CPA at a successful firm. Everybody's familiar with PricewaterhouseCoopers. What did you do after that as far as why did you make the transition into real estate? You were at this successful firm, why real estate?
Chris Stafford (07:23.106)
Well, you know, when I was in college, I went and I took an accounting course and accounting was just easy for me. And so that's the reason that I went in to accounting and became a CPA because it was just so easy. And the truth is, when I was working at PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Diego, I worked there for a long time and then I worked, they transferred me to the New York office and worked in the Detroit office and finally they transferred back to San Diego, to San Francisco. But the truth is, I
It was really easy for me. I was really good at it and I made a lot of money doing it, but I hated my job. I hated my life. mean, I literally, Frank would go home like I was crying on the inside because I just hated it. I'm a really outspoken, a really gregarious kind of guy. This is why I love real estate so much because I love meeting new people. And here I was, you know, stuck in this office, beautiful office, but I was just like stuck in this office. And I just,
I just really hated it and a good friend of mine at the time, actually, the agent that sold me my first home in San Francisco, who ended up becoming a really good friend of mine said, listen, you you hate your life going to real estate. And I was really passionate about real estate because I would go to open houses and stuff. And I loved real estate. And I thought, you know what, that's, that's the truth. And my only regret in life is I didn't make that change sooner. I worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 11 years. I remember saving up enough money. So I had at least a year's worth of savings because
you everybody says you're not going to make any money right away in real estate and I just did it I just made the switch and I never looked back was the best decision I ever made
Frank Hereda (09:01.62)
That's pretty cool. So let's talk a little bit about you're in San Francisco and you started to do real estate, I think, right? So you started in San Francisco and
Chris Stafford (09:12.27)
Well actually I moved, I spent a year working for Pricewater, they had transferred me up there, so I worked for a year and then I switched, yeah.
Frank Hereda (09:17.844)
Okay, okay. So you started doing real estate and talk to me about real estate and how long have you been in it and how that went about, how that came about.
Chris Stafford (09:21.646)
you
Chris Stafford (09:27.726)
Yeah, so I started in 1927 and my God, I think I've been in real estate for over 30 years. I want to say 32, 33 years, something like that. I just, you know, I love real estate and I started off, I got a real estate coach right out of the gate. I think after a week of being in real estate, I've got a coach and I spent, Frank, spent a thousand dollars a month on this coach, which back then,
Frank Hereda (09:33.887)
Ehh...
Chris Stafford (09:57.142)
It's still a lot of money now, but back then that was a lot of money for me.
Frank Hereda (09:57.78)
What year was this? What year was this really?
Chris Stafford (10:02.67)
So this had to have been like 90, I think I moved to San Francisco in 91, so it would have been 92, I think.
Frank Hereda (10:07.848)
That's probably what are we talking Mike Ferry? Because he was about the only one then.
Chris Stafford (10:11.864)
How did you know? How did you know?
Frank Hereda (10:13.172)
I've I'm a coach for Tom and I also and I also did some stuff with Mike very before that so I'm very familiar. Yeah.
Chris Stafford (10:18.606)
okay.
Chris Stafford (10:23.342)
Cool. Yeah, no, like I was a total acolyte. I went to all the seminars and I made a hundred cold calls every single day and the whole bottom line. Yeah, so yeah, he was the man. I still, he has some sayings that I still use to this day. yeah, thousand dollars a month, man. That was a lot of money.
Frank Hereda (10:43.656)
Heck yeah. So you got a coach, which I thought, think that's super smart. What made you get a coach? I mean, obviously you see the importance in it, but most people will never make that investment in their career. They don't see the value. They won't part with the money. Why did you see the value in coaching so early before even really getting into real estate?
Chris Stafford (11:01.378)
Mm
Chris Stafford (11:06.902)
You know, I guess that's a really good question. I figured out early, I can't recall if somebody told me or maybe I saw an ad or something. I figured out early on that I really, to cut my learning curve because I was really hungry and I really wanted to cut my learning curve and I thought to myself, well, I'm not going to make any money on this for the first six months and blah, blah, blah. But I ended up.
getting my first listing literally in three weeks. And then I think a month later, I got my first check. And so that I have to say that a lot of that had to do with the coaching because if you go from a corporate job, especially to being an entrepreneur, which is what every real estate agent is, and you don't know what to do, you don't know what's going on, you don't know what's important. And so I guess I was smart enough to realize that I wanted to cut my learning curve right up front and getting a coach was definitely the answer.
Frank Hereda (12:01.832)
I find it interesting all the time. I mean, I went through this with the investment industry. I got all my investment licenses when I first got out of school. And, you know, when you're an entrepreneur or doing anything for the most part, whether you're a plumber or electrician, it doesn't matter. You go get your license. But then that's just to get into the business, not how to build a business. And I feel like that's one of the biggest gaps in the real estate market. I'm guessing you would agree. But and so I think that's where the coach really comes in handy. But
Chris Stafford (12:13.966)
Mm.
Chris Stafford (12:21.656)
Yeah.
Chris Stafford (12:27.48)
for sure.
Frank Hereda (12:31.09)
You clearly started off and you got a sale right off the bat. You got the listing right off the bat. So you had that go get them attitude and you're gregarious, like you said. what, what ha walk us through your progression into being, you know, today. What, what took place?
Chris Stafford (12:36.226)
Mm -hmm.
Chris Stafford (12:39.95)
Mm
Chris Stafford (12:47.182)
Well, I think that I stayed, I always had a coach. You know, I've always, I truly believe in coaches. I have a coach Frank for every area of my life. I've got an investment coach. I've got a spiritual coach. I've got a trainer. mean, if you want to cut your learning curve and get better fast, it's always good to have a coach. And so I kept my coaching going for the longest time. And then what was really key to me too is I also, and I think this is important for anybody.
I also thought it was really important to try to find other people that were doing more better than me. And so I hung out with a lot of real estate agents, especially with my friend who had been in the business for a long time. I met a gentleman, George McNabb. I'll never forget. He was the manager of another brokerage that I really liked him a lot. So I went to his brokerage and I literally followed him around.
because for over the course of, don't know, 20 years, he probably went to three different brokerages. The last one he started himself. And so I follow him. just, you know, he mentored me, he tutored me. He was really good about helping me with investing because I think it's truly, you know, as you know, speaking to the choir, talking to you, but you know, you can have an amazing lifestyle as a real estate agent, you know, in the United States, but you're never going to be wealthy.
And it's what you do with your money and the investing that is going to truly make you wealthy. And he was the one that put into my head early on, invest in real estate, invest in real estate. And so that's what I did. So I'm still selling as a listing agent in San Francisco. I have a team back there, very small team. I'm currently basing myself out of Panama because my partner and I wanted to experience another country and culture and all that kind of stuff. Just yesterday I came back from San.
San Francisco. So I go back to San Francisco and meet with my team every, usually every two months, roughly meet with my clients. You know, it is one of the shake hands and kiss babies with all my clients. And I usually stay back there for about a week and then I come back here. But I just love being in real estate. I love investing in real estate. I should you know, all my friends, why are you still selling real estate? Well,
Frank Hereda (14:53.51)
Yep. Yep.
Chris Stafford (15:08.43)
I mean, number one, I'm passionate about it. It's just, I don't know what I would do and I just don't want to give it up. Number one. And number two, I think for my real real estate coaching clients, they really like the fact that I'm still in the trenches and I'm still selling. So I sort of know what works now and what doesn't work. so yeah, that's a 30 years later. There is where I'm at.
Frank Hereda (15:28.724)
That's That's amazing. Well, obviously you're successful because you've been in it for so long and it is a challenge, right? To have a business and all the things you face day to day. I would like to know, mean, you know, we're going to get to this because I'm going to ask you, but I'm curious to know. So if you were, let's say I'm a real estate agent, I'm watching this or I want to get into real estate and I'm wondering one, like top three lessons you learned about, you know, being a successful real estate agent, what would you say?
Chris Stafford (15:38.372)
yeah. yes.
Frank Hereda (15:57.592)
And then I want to ask the same question on the investing side. tell us what you think on the, you know, like, what would you say? Like, Hey, I'm in real estate. I want to be a successful listed agent. What would your advice be?
Chris Stafford (16:09.934)
My advice would be top three things I would tell a new agent. One would be, you know, get a coach. I mean, I strongly believe, you know, whether you hire me or whether you hire Frank or anybody else, find a coach, somebody that you really connect with. I think that's, you know, something that's really super important because what I know for sure after 30 plus years is you can, you can be successful on your own. It's just going to take you a hell of a lot longer.
And if you want to be successful now, get somebody who is more successful. If you don't hire us, find somebody else. And so that's my number one piece of advice. My number two piece of advice would be really make sure that you understand that this is all about marketing and finding clients, finding listings. I am a listing agent, so I concentrate all my marketing efforts on finding listings. But
I think a lot of real estate agents go into this thing and they think to themselves, you know, I'm going to just sit around at the water cooler, eat donuts and all these listings are going to be handed to me. And nothing is further from the truth. You know, you really have to bust your butt. What's the saying that real estate is like the easiest low paying job in the world and the hardest high paying job in the world? You got to bust your butt if you want to make, and you can make a lot of money in real estate, but you got to do it smart and you have to put the work in.
Frank Hereda (17:20.07)
Yep, something like that.
Chris Stafford (17:30.082)
And I think the third thing too, that you really, that most people, their eyes gloss over when I talk about this, because this is integral to my coaching program and that is one of mindset. You have to be dealing with your mindset every single day. You have to make sure that you're mentally strong, physically strong as well, because you know, if you're sick, if you're hungover, if you're eating junk food and you feel like crap,
You're not going to have the motivation. You're not going to have the driver, the incentive to put the time in to do what you, what you have to do. So, it's really important that you have the right mindset, have a strong mindset practice, a strong gratitude practice and a strong workout practice to make it, to be successful as a real estate agent. So there's my three. How did I do Frank?
Frank Hereda (18:17.118)
I think that's great. I think you did amazing. and look, the nice thing is you've clearly been doing it and it's been working. So that's the greatest testimony of all. So that's, that's what I would recommend. Everybody listen to what you just said. My, you know, it's, it's interesting. well, before I go there, tell me why, or what your recommendation would be. So you said invest in real estate. Obviously you've got to watch your money, right? You've got to be a good steward of your finances.
or you're going to end up someplace you didn't want to be in life. So what would be a couple of tips you would give somebody who is in real estate or wants to get into real estate to do with their money? And if they're going to go into real estate, how do they pick? mean, there's how many different sectors of real estate? how do you pick? then from there, where do you go? What do do?
Chris Stafford (18:47.041)
Yes.
Chris Stafford (19:09.602)
Well, one caveat I just want to say, number one is that I don't necessarily, I think it's smart to invest in real estate because that's what we do. We're realtors. We know real estate. but other people may have a passion for something else for, you know, I don't know, investment stocks, you know, that kind of stuff. When I talk to my stockbroker, which is very rarely, excuse me, my financial advisor,
and he starts talking to me about stocks, my eyes glaze over. I mean, I just, I could care less. I have a stock portfolio, I have a bond portfolio and all that other junk, but I don't pay attention to it. I just have a guy that is doing an amazing job for me, but we know real estate. So I think real estate is a, is a great thing to invest in, in addition to everything else, because we know it. And now I took a route that might be a little bit different. I'd love to get your take on this. I took a route that was a little bit different.
Frank Hereda (19:40.69)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Stafford (20:05.396)
in that I found a company, well, first let me say this, every single real estate market across the country is unique and different. Okay, you can't just make a generalization. So some real estate markets are stronger than other markets, they're better investments. And so my philosophy investing in real estate was always to invest in single family homes. And I preferred new track homes, the typical thing that every American family wants, the three to four bedroom house, new.
you know with the yard that kind of thing and it didn't have to be located in california and quite frankly didn't have to be located anywhere near me because there are a identified certain markets across the country where i mean they're just booming and usually the markets that are really booming the ones that are really good investments are the real boring markets of the boring cities that nobody ever talks about and so i used a company to help me identified the areas that i wanted to go to
And for instance, two areas in particular that I really liked that I thought were really boring, but have been just amazing to me from an investment standpoint. And that is I bought purchased homes in Oklahoma city, and I purchased homes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and brand new track homes, you know, so great cashflow, really strong local economies for a variety of reasons, great depreciation. And then once the depreciation sort of went out after about
you know, 10, 15 years and then the maintenance. like the newer homes because I didn't have any maintenance issues. Then I would sell those and get into a new area. But that's just sort of like my personal thing is single family homes because everybody wants them. Everybody wants to buy them and they're great cashflow and depreciation.
Frank Hereda (21:42.194)
Yeah.
Frank Hereda (21:49.14)
Yeah, I think it's a great strategy. It's interesting. You know, usually the play on single families is that someone's staying between the media or below the median price point of a home, right? And then there's less to fall if there is a correction. And if not, you have all the upside potential plus the cash flow. So interesting. does that so that's what you've done consistently is just single family homes and then upgraded every 10 or so years when you start to have maintenance costs and that kind of thing and depreciations worn out.
Chris Stafford (22:06.232)
Yeah.
Chris Stafford (22:16.27)
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I remember the first time I did it, I thought this was really weird, but I, did a lot of leg work off front and I got a great property manager, great realtor, a mortgage broker. and I remember the first time I did this, I flew to Oklahoma city. We were literally there. probably I have boots on the ground, less than 24 hours. And in that time I bought three houses and then I just went back to San Francisco and took care of everything else remotely.
So the key obviously is having really good people there, especially property manager that you really trust. And for me, it's worked out really well.
Frank Hereda (22:53.656)
And do you, are you, obviously you're using, yeah, financing so you can claim depreciation and do those types of things. But do you feel like, you know, a lot of people are scared to leave their area, but I think that was the right move for you because you live in San Francisco. So, I mean, that's an expensive area to be in real estate, as you know, a lot of places in California and you can afford so much more as you go inward into the middle of the country or even.
southeast where I live. So is that basically why you did it though?
Chris Stafford (23:22.147)
Yes.
Chris Stafford (23:25.73)
And the cap rates don't make sense in California. It's really, especially in San Francisco that I work in San Francisco in the San Francisco Bay area, the places are so expensive. Even with the high rents, it's still just financially, it just doesn't make sense.
Frank Hereda (23:40.296)
I'm interested to talk with you about how you make your business work, why Panama, and what's it like running a real estate team in San Francisco and going to Panama. Are you doing real estate in Panama or just living in Panama while you do real estate in San Francisco?
Chris Stafford (23:58.488)
So why Panama? So my partner is from Brazil and Panama is actually equidistant. So it's seven hours to fly to San Francisco nonstop, seven hours down to Brazil. That's one reason. Panama has so many great features, especially for gringos like me. There are no taxes, property is very inexpensive, the people are so friendly, the food is great, healthcare is better than what I had in San Francisco.
I actually am in a hospital, not in a hospital. My doctor's in a hospital that is affiliated with John Hopkins University. I mean, there's a lot of things. We had a list of like 18 things that were really important for us when we were looking at other countries to live in. So I do not sell real estate here in Panama. Panama, Frank, you get a kick out of it. It's like cowboy land. I mean, there's no MLS. There's no such thing as an exclusive listing. A seller wants to sell their apartment. You could have eight different listing agents. It's crazy.
Frank Hereda (24:49.012)
Yeah.
Frank Hereda (24:56.328)
That's crazy.
Chris Stafford (24:57.454)
yeah. So, but what I figured out really, is that in my particular situation with my real estate team in San Francisco, I guess I'm sort of like the rainmaker, you know, all the stuff that I do is the marketing. I do all the marketing. I interact with all the clients. I'm the that finds listings. do listing presentations on zoom. I do the contracts. I can do the negotiate. I don't do the contracts. I don't touch paper, but I do the negotiating.
and so I'm sort of like the upfront guy and I realized that, you know, 90 % of that stuff you can do remotely. I don't need to be there boots on the ground. Now I have a really strong team there that I trust implicitly. my business partner there, he and I've been working together for, geez, it's gotta be over 25 years. So I just have a really strong team there that I communicate. So I'm working, I'm working San Francisco real estate.
Frank Hereda (25:48.254)
Wow.
Chris Stafford (25:55.886)
half the time here in Panama and the other half the time I'm working my coaching business. yeah, you know, my two favorite D words are Frank is delegate and defer. And I'm and I'm really good at both.
Frank Hereda (26:07.888)
Love it. think that's the number. Yeah, well, you and I are both delegators and I talk to my clients all the time and I say the three things that they need to focus on all the time. Automate, eliminate and delegate. So I'm always, I'm all about that. So why Argentina? Why Argentina for a month? Just because you've never been there or is that a common thing?
Chris Stafford (26:22.062)
I love it. I love it. Cool.
Chris Stafford (26:33.304)
So, we love the country. We've been there. I've been to Buenos Aires. No, it's just sort of like what we like to try to do is like move to another country and stay there for like a month, maybe a month and a half just so that we can, and work from there. I mean, we literally are telling our family and friends, we're not taking house guests. We're not entertaining any visitors. We're literally just going there to work and enjoy the culture. I love travel, number one. I love
Frank Hereda (26:35.964)
Yeah.
Chris Stafford (27:02.762)
experiencing other people's culture and food and all that kind of stuff. So we like Buenos Aires and the thing I'm struggling with though right now, this is interesting. Not that anybody cares about this, but Argentina is relatively sort of in the same time zone as the United States. So that makes it really easy for me to work and contact people and clients and all that kind of stuff. Probably going to do Mexico city next year and Rio de Janeiro. So
We love Rio. I've been there many times. My partner's from Brazil. So we love Rio de Janeiro. Probably spent a couple months there working. We love Mexico City. Honest to God, I love Mexican people, but I tell you the rest of the country, I'm not that crazy about. Full of respect, due respect. But I love Mexico City. Mexico City is one of the most amazing cities that I have been to. It's like Mexicans New York City.
Frank Hereda (27:48.616)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chris Stafford (27:58.238)
And the sophistication and the money and the food and the people are just super sweet. yeah. So the one thing I haven't figured out yet is we really want to do Europe, but that's a nine hour time zone. And so I've got a buddy of mine who works in the wine country, north of San Francisco, and he just bought a house on, on Lake Como in Italy. And when he goes there, he had his work day is like from 6pm to 2am.
And so I'm trying to reconcile that with my schedule because you know on a good day I can stay up till 930 So I don't know how that's gonna work out because yeah, I'm usually up at zero dark 30 so
Frank Hereda (28:32.08)
Yeah, I'm with you. I'm like you, man.
Frank Hereda (28:38.868)
But I mean, let's be honest, at the length of time you've had your partnership and the length of time you've worked with the people on your team, you probably can make it work for a short period of time. So.
Chris Stafford (28:49.172)
Absolutely. Yeah, that's what I've been talking to my partner and my business partner and just I'm sure there's a way to make it work and we'll make it happen. But right now I think for the for the next year, I think we're gonna stick we're gonna stick in the Americas for now.
Frank Hereda (28:55.674)
Absolutely. That's pretty cool, though.
Frank Hereda (29:03.55)
I think it's great. I love all the things you're saying. I love traveling. We do that a lot too. New cultures, definitely a passion of mine. So I think it's great you're doing it. Good for you. I know everybody's listening to you going, gosh, this guy's living my life. I want to live. Because that's what it sounds like as you're talking. You're like the most interesting man in the world type of stuff, right?
Chris Stafford (29:14.392)
Cool. Cool.
Chris Stafford (29:18.646)
I
Chris Stafford (29:23.736)
Yeah, it's Frank. It's all a mirage.
Frank Hereda (29:25.714)
Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. You're like, this is terrible. tell me, you know, I saw something earlier about micro momentum marketing. What in the heck is that?
Chris Stafford (29:38.85)
So for my coaching program, basically it is a way for real estate agents to start new marketing without freaking out. know, one of the things that people come to me and you, I'm sure you've heard us a million times, is our real estate agents don't know what to do. They don't know how to market. They think that all this stuff's just going be handed to them on a silver platter. And so one of the things I do with my coaching program is I really, I personally like to really get to know my coaching client.
and find out what are the things that they think that they would be interested in doing and do consistently. Because as you know, the money is in the consistency. So we start off starting new marketing techniques. Like for instance, I have a new client that just started last week and was literally doing nothing. She was posting Facebook ads. That's all she was doing. I mean, she wasn't even calling her sphere of influence. She was afraid to do that. She was afraid to, you know, do probates or expires or whatever it is.
And so I don't have like a strict method. Like you've got to do ABCDE. I get to know everybody. I like to get to know each person, find out what their personalities are, what their strengths and their weaknesses are, and what will they do consistently every day. I got a guy in Southern California that loves door knocking. Go figure. Can't stand it myself, but he's killing it in door knocking, but he won't call it fear of influence, which blows my mind. but the micro mental marketing is getting people to. Yeah, exactly.
Frank Hereda (30:58.483)
Yep.
Frank Hereda (31:03.454)
That's most people.
Chris Stafford (31:07.714)
But the micro momentum marketing is getting people to start new things, and you can actually use this in any area of your life, but getting people to start using new things by taking baby steps and taking just small incremental steps. interestingly enough, there's a very popular book by Clear, think, is this thing called Atomic Habits. And it's very similar to that. It's taking baby steps to achieve a longer term goal.
Frank Hereda (31:28.114)
Yep. Yeah.
Chris Stafford (31:33.918)
And if you can, you know, circumvent the amygdala in the back of your, you know, the fight or flight risk response and start new projects and start new marketing, you eventually become more confident, you get better at it and you want to do more of it. And so that's basically the thesis behind it.
Frank Hereda (31:49.864)
I love it. think that's so true. I always tell my everybody basically that, eating the elephant, right? This one bite at a time. How do you an elephant? Same thing, small pieces, right? And, but I find that people don't achieve their goals. Most cases it's same thing. They just try and do everything all at once. And then they just get overwhelmed or they get, you know, scared or yeah, freak out and it doesn't, doesn't serve them. So
Chris Stafford (31:57.742)
Exactly.
Chris Stafford (32:10.338)
doesn't work.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'll tell you there's a book right now out that is just probably the single most impactful book that I have read in the last five years for my business, my coaching business. I'm not getting paid to say this, but there's a book by Dr. Benjamin Hardy called 10X is Easier Than 2X. And did you read it? Isn't that an amazing book? I love that book. And so that's all about, just have crazy goals out there and really concentrate on just that.
Frank Hereda (32:32.508)
Love it. Yep. Yeah.
Chris Stafford (32:45.432)
And I love that you used earlier the word eliminate. And that's what I'm going through right now, Frank, is I'm trying to eliminate the things that aren't really gonna help me achieve my goals. But love that book.
Frank Hereda (32:54.408)
You know what's funny is when you eliminate stuff, but then I find that it's not long till I have to eliminate more. That I replace that, when I eliminate something, I put something in it and then I'm like, wait a second, why am I doing this? It's like a constant thing we need to do. I find myself doing the same thing. It's pretty crazy how we just add more stuff.
Chris Stafford (33:08.302)
Right. Yeah, I personally, I personally, I know I personally find it difficult to eliminate because and I'm going through that process. As a matter of fact, Dr. Hardy has a course and it's actually starting on October 1st, the first day I'm in Buenos Aires. And so I'm taking this course. It's a 90 day challenge for the fourth quarter. So I need to sort of like improve that myself and figure out I do a lot of stuff from a marketing perspective.
and I'm really going through some introspection right now. What is it that I can eliminate? What is it that I'm doing just because I love doing it, but it's not getting me closer to my goal? So I'm having that conversation with myself. I'm talking to myself right now, Exactly, exactly.
Frank Hereda (33:50.642)
Yeah, well, hey, I do it all the time. My wife's always like, are you talking to yourself? I'm like, absolutely. No one else listens to me. I might as well. But I think it's really a travesty because I find that most people, and I think not just agents, it's everybody. They're going, I was saying this the other day when I was speaking to a group of people, they're sleepwalking through life. They don't know where they're headed. They're just literally like,
Chris Stafford (34:17.506)
I love that you said that.
Frank Hereda (34:19.954)
I don't even know what they're doing. They're sleepwalking and hoping that they end up somewhere they like? I'm not even sure. What do you think about that?
Chris Stafford (34:26.03)
Mm -hmm. absolutely. I think that all of our lifestyles are like we're going 180 miles an hour and we're living an unconscious life and this is one of the things my spiritual advisor Really, you know hammers into me. I talked to this woman you get a kick out of this Excuse my language, but she says she's an 88 year old woman living in Las Vegas We talked about twice a month and she says to me she said Chris. She says we're making all this shit up. Anyways, let's make up good stuff
And part and parcel of that is you have to be conscious to really design a life, to design a business, to design relationships, families and all that kind of stuff. And you have to be conscious in life and to make up the good stuff. so it's really important for me is I really take, you know what I do, it's something sort of silly. I have a strong gratitude practice. I have a strong mindset practice, but I also set timers.
on my iPhone throughout the day where basically the message is live your higher self. And it's it's an alarm that goes off and it's a really cool little chant belly kind of thing. And it just, you know, for 30 seconds, for 20 seconds, I just stop, be grateful for what I'm doing, be grateful for whatever and just try to be more conscious because you're absolutely right. think everybody, and trust me, man, I'm 65 years old.
And I can tell you life, the older you get, the faster that calendar flies by. And so it's really important to really stay present, live a conscious life and enjoy it and design a cool life.
Frank Hereda (36:04.116)
I agree 100%. I'm 47 and I feel like it just is blowing by. At what age do you think you started living life that way?
Chris Stafford (36:11.629)
Yes.
Chris Stafford (36:17.496)
I would say, you know, my 20s, 30s, probably my 40s. In my 40s, I went through a lot of counseling and my shrink basically brought a lot of stuff to light and all that kind of stuff. I would say really it was like when I was in my 50s. My 50s onward till now are probably the best years of my life in terms of being really fulfilled. I don't want to use the word happy because I think that's a BS word, but just being joyful.
you know, always trying to get yourself into a state of joy, because I think that's the most important thing. And there are things that you can do to bring yourself into a state of joy. But I firmly believe that when you're in that state, that from there, you can do anything, you can be anything, you could do anything. And so that's my goal, really, every single day.
Frank Hereda (37:07.764)
I love that message, that's great. And I love the fact that you have a coach in all areas of your life. I think everybody needs that. And I think that's really smart. Really smart.
Chris Stafford (37:16.086)
absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. mean, because there's so many things. And plus, the other thing too is not only to cut your learning curve, but if you want to really be good in all the other areas of your life, who has the time to figure it all out? know, find somebody that's already done it, you know, and latch on to that person, because they're going to help you achieve great results faster than just doing it on your own.
Frank Hereda (37:28.401)
I know.
Frank Hereda (37:41.396)
That's cool. Where can everybody find you?
Chris Stafford (37:47.17)
just go to my website which is theagentunleashed .com that's theagentunleashed .com you can sign in there you can book a call with me you can see I've got a bunch of free training but that's the best place
Frank Hereda (38:00.166)
Awesome. So we'll put that in the show notes and everybody can find you any, any final thoughts. mean, it's been great getting an idea of what you're doing and what you got going on. sounds amazing. Anything else that you want to leave anybody with? This is the pressure where you say something profound.
Chris Stafford (38:15.672)
Just don't, yeah, well don't know how profound it is, but I'll tell you the most important thing, Frank, that it's, I've said it a million times, mindset and health. That is the thing that you have to spend all your time on. You have to be really focused on that because the older you get, I'm telling you, stuff happens and you need to start good habits right now because that's what's gonna get you through a healthier life and a healthier business.
Frank Hereda (38:42.824)
We didn't even touch on health. could be another two hour podcast. We'll have to maybe a touch on that. That's a biggie. but I agree a hundred percent. I appreciate you being here.
Chris Stafford (38:46.606)
Yeah. That's why I look so red. just came out of the pool and the sauna.
Frank Hereda (38:56.21)
Well, that's what happens when you live the life. I don't have that kind of life yet. That's what I'm working towards. What the heck? Sauna in the pool. I'm all about it, but I appreciate you sharing it, man. Yeah. Hey Panama, I'm in, I have never been, so that would be cool. But, thanks man. I appreciate it. Everybody. If you have any questions, we'll put everything in the show notes and everybody on the next episode. Thanks so much. Bye everybody.
Chris Stafford (39:02.338)
Hahaha
Yeah, there you go. Come on down to visit.
Chris Stafford (39:10.827)
Alright.
