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Highlights

• [00:44] - His journey to becoming a leadership guru.
• [04:20] - Lessons he learned in B2C sales that he still applies today.
• [07:00] - Moving from selling knives for Cutco to selling insurance, and beyond.
• [10:55] - Why having 1099 salespeople could be the secret to your success.
• [12:29] - What it’s like working for a bootstrapped startup.
• [18:19] - How to build yourself up enough to be able to navigate your career challenges.
• [22:22] - Going from being the one-man sales department to building a team.
• [28:51] - Focusing on the NOW as a core life philosophy and the power of being forward thinking.

In this episode of the Transformed Sales Podcast, I had a chat with the Executive Vice President of Sales at HomeStack, Robert Arauco. HomeStack is a rapidly growing tech startup headquartered in Los Angeles, CA with one goal in mind: To reinvent the way real estate is done today. They do that by designing personalized apps for real estate agents. The apps provide agents with live and accurate data, where they are the only point of contact for their users. This allows for agents to directly communicate with their clients and incubate long-lasting and profitable relationships.

Robert kicked off his career working as a 1099 salesperson for Cutco where he was able to master the psychology of sales. He then went into selling life insurance and later transitioned into the W-2 world working in social services. He eventually realized that he needed to get back into entrepreneurship and managed to get a role in a new tech startup (HomeStack) as its sole salesperson. They managed to bootstrap the company into the success that it is today. Tune in as Robert talks to us about what the psychology of sales is all about, the importance of continual learning in sales, why a salesperson's overall health is a big part of their career, what it’s like working for a bootstrapped startup, and how to build an effective sales team.

Quotes

“Emotional intelligence is important. Listening is important. Figuring out how to handle objections and not argue with people is important” - Robert Arauco

“Listening and asking the right questions is very important so that you can really discover the truth to solve problems” - Robert Arauco

“The psychology of sales is not just about reading the person” - Robert Arauco

“The only time you really fail is when you stop, when you give up” - Robert Arauco

“Sales is the bloodline of any company, so if you’re not brining in any revenue, how are the employees gonna feed their families, and how are you gonna grow to bring in more help so the company gets to where it needs to be” - Robert Arauco

Learn More About Robert Arauco in the Links Below:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-arauco-4a00a810/

Connect with Wesleyne Greer:

• Wesleyne’s Website - https://transformedsales.com/
• Wesleyne on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleynegreer/
• Wesleyne on Facebook - https://web.facebook.com/wesleynegreer
• Wesleyne on Twitter - https://twitter.com/wesleynegreer
• Email Her at wesleyne@transformedsales.com

Hello, and welcome to another episode of

the transforming sales podcast today I am so excited to be

interviewing Robert arou. CO How are you, Robert?

Very good. How are you?

I am doing awesome. Let me tell you a

little bit more about Robert. He's an entrepreneur at heart

with a deep understanding of sales, reading human patterns,

and has a true appreciation for leadership. Staying true to the

numbers is needed to be successful. But a leader that

can connect with people can take you far, a combination of the

two makes you unstoppable. And that you didn't just pop out of

the womb with this amazing leadership concept. Tell us

about how you kicked off your career and how you got to where

you are today with this nice formula for leadership success,

for sure. Yeah, I know the leadership definitely

came kind of later in life. In the beginning it was more of

like all me, me me, how much money can I make, you know, all

that kind of stuff. And it molded into building a tech

company and but I started at first I realized I was good at

like selling to my neighbors when we had the school

fundraisers and all that I'm like, Alright, I see a dog here.

How can I start the conversation and get them to actually talk to

me right now? Other than being just a cute kid, right? So you

still always win those contests. And then I got like a letter in

the mail from vector marketing. They're the management branch to

sell Cutco knives. So I know a lot of your listeners probably

that was one of their first jobs in college or like around that

time they mass recruited, but at first I was like, I'm gonna sell

knives. But then they cut a penny in front of me. And I'm

like, oh, yeah, I could sell this all day. So the beginning,

you know, was neighbors and referrals, learning how to build

relationships. And the thing I learned about from Cutco really

was just like the psychology of sales. And this is in person at

the time, right. So don't sit across from someone sitting next

to them. Because there's natural like barriers. When you do that,

and people drop their guard. When you sit next to them. Make

sure when you're done presenting a knife, put it in the correct

position and roll it. So now it's not a messy table and the

person's like I don't want all these freaking eyes on my

counter like it's a clean presentation. So I did learn a

lot of the psychology of that which did translate into my

career starting home stack. We build apps for realtors

brokerages and teams that look very similar to like the Zillow

is Redfin's of the world from like a user experience

standpoint, but we personalize it to where they can add it to

their marketing and all that but that's why I went from selfish,

Robert to making tons of money 1099 Traveling working 25 hours

a week to now you know, averaging 60 to 80 hours a week

running the tech company. Hmm.

I really love those lessons that you gave us

from your experience with Cutco is Cutco even still around.

Number one, still number one, number one

still number one, like sometimes when I'm

walking in Costco, I see somebody from like, cowork Oh,

company there.

Yeah, most of their sales are driven by

recruiting college kids, getting them to first introduce this to

their family and friends. And then maybe 10% of them move on

to the next phase of like learning how to build referrals

and you know, getting deeper into the into the game.

Ah, so their whole strategy is get them young

and hungry, get their close network, and then it's like,

okay, we know your neck probably gonna last six months, we'll

just get a new batch.

I mean, it's up. They don't fire you unless you

do something crazy. Like I've heard some stories but. But

like, naturally, if you run out of referrals, like you got to

now go and sharpen knives to then build your base that way.

But a lot of people just don't make it after a month or two. It

gets harder. What

kind of sounds like some companies I've heard

about lately. If you don't produce well, you're, we're

booting you out. So the lessons that you learn the psychology of

sales, I don't think we talked about that often enough. Right?

So it's those subtle things that you mentioned that a lot of

sales people they forget, right, they forget the human element.

So share with us some more of the things the core lessons that

you learned and that you still use today in your early career

in b2c sales.

Well, at the end of the day, like you can be the

salesperson that just talks and talks and talks and feature

dumps and you know, everything under the moon about the product

you're selling, but that's not going to get the deal closed

most of the time like Occasionally you will run into

the person and they're just want the knives or they want the app.

And it's an easy sale. Emotional Intelligence is important.

Listening is important. Figuring out how to handle objections and

not argue with people is important and how to like, best

dig out the real objection. Like, Hey, I just, you know,

don't want to do this for this reason. And then you dig in by

asking certain questions to really discover what the truth

is, and offer a solution to that problem. So the psychology of

sales really is not just reading the person. And now we all have

to evolve after COVID I actually used to thrive in the person a

person because I like there's an energy element to that, like you

can see their body language a little differently. Now, people

don't always have their zoom cameras on, right, there's not

that like, Oh, I see them like their arms, sweating, or like,

those elements are gone now. So when it comes to digital

listening is even that much more important and asking the right

questions so that you can really discover the truth to solve

problems.

Listening, really paying attention to the

person sitting next to you or sitting across from your in

front of you on the camera. And again, I think that it's the

subtleties, right. Like one thing that I tell salespeople,

when we're working on a training session is a person looking

down. Are they looking away? Are they looking at you? Are they

leaning in? Are they leaning back, right? It's like the small

subtle things, the cues you pick up on. And one thing that I

really love is I like when people start using my words, I'm

like, Yay, I've been graded in your mind. You're using the

words I'm using

exactly. matching their body language, their tone.

And sometimes though, like you got you got the guy that's just

like so low energy, and you almost want to like give them

energy. So like you hype him up a little bit, not too much to

where you intimidate him, right. I can get him excited about

something you see a little smirk and then you build off of that.

So did you go directly from Cutco to launching

your own company or how what happened in between?

So I got over selling knives. It took six

years and I was like you know I onto something new. My buddy who

used to actually sell with me, Cutco started selling life

insurance. He's like, bro, you can make so much money. It's

like easier, you get residuals and blah, blah, blah. So I got

licensed to sell that. I personally didn't like it. I do

find life insurance and those products very important.

Especially now that I have a family of three daughters and a

wife. I'm like, Dude, if something happens to me, like I

need to know they're gonna be okay. At least financially,

right? So did learn a lot from that ended up jumping into the

corporate world because my dad's aerospace engineers, he's like,

Hey, man, like you've been 1099 Your whole life? Like, why don't

you just give the W two world a shot just to see it. So, yeah, I

was like, alright, you know, this is a time where I don't

want to do life insurance. Let's try that. And I got a job at a

skilled nursing facility. Luckily for me, I applied for

the marketing position, but they didn't give that to me. There. I

don't want to offend anyone. But like, I found out later why I

didn't get that position. Because I wasn't a girl or and

or gay. I found out later, like I wasn't a girl was a gay. And

that was, I guess, the prerequisite for that manager to

hire me. But it was a blessing in disguise. Because like that

didn't work out. I ended up doing social services. But I

ended up meeting two of my best friends because of working

there. One was my boss. One was the guy that I met briefly and

then got me the job. And then a girl that I was in class with to

get my social services certificate while I had the

position. I don't even know if that's ethical. I was like,

literally in school, I had the social services position that

ended up later introducing him to my wife. So that little six

month period was a huge part of like where I am today, which

then made me realize I'm an entrepreneur, like I need to get

back into this space. And I remembered one of my buddies

growing up was starting a tech company. So hit him up that same

day, his business partner who I didn't know posted on Facebook

that they were looking for someone in sales, so it ended up

being one of those serendipitous things and, you know, when I met

him, I was like, Hey, guys, I'm already making six figures like

I know you're starting up. So I just want a $40,000 base and

then commission opportunities and we're good to go. And

they're like, Dude, you're probably gonna make like 10 to

$15,000 the next two years, but here's where we're going. Right

here's where we're gonna be one day but right now you're not

you're not gonna make anywhere near that. So at the time, no

family talked to my dad about it and will gray wall who's the CEO

of Homestuck I've known the guy since I was five like we've

always kind of been that like, quarterback to receiver

connection. The guys just is brilliant and good at what he

does. And Matt Potter, the other business owner. His father owns

a real estate company here. And he's kind of like that Steve

Jobs. Elon Musk ish, like, has social skills, but also kind of

like is like, what the hell's this guy thinking about right

now like always outside the box thinking, the stuff that he

comes up with is something you just don't think is gonna land

right now. But then when it does land later, you're like, That

was genius. So building apps 10 years ago, for iPhone and

Android was not the thing to do. BlackBerry was the big phone.

And Realtors thought I was gonna go out of business. So we were

like, way ahead of our time, even now, like it's slowly

getting there where Realtors like, No, I have to have this.

Yep, hmm.

You gave me a lot, there's a lot to unpack. So

in your adult life, you literally lived as a 1099.

Person, literally. Because when you said you were with cutover,

six years, I was like, I wonder if that wasn't a 1099? Was it a

W two, and then we all know insurance is usually a 1099

position. And so you had like a stint of about six months where

you were a W two? And you say, Yeah, this is not for me. So as

a 1099. And one thing that I love telling sales leaders, when

they're hiring people, and like, oh, they don't have industry

experience, they don't have this, they don't have that. I'm

like, Yeah, you know, some of the best salespeople that I've

ever met, a successful 1099 salesperson is gonna be so good,

because they're hungry. They know they have to eat, they

kill. That's what you do every single day. If you don't kill

it, you don't eat that day.

Yeah, it's, you know, it's not for everyone,

obviously, there's people that want the safe route. And it's

just not in my DNA. I like taking risks. You know, now I'm

now I'm a dad, right? Like, I gotta take more calculated

risks. If I had the family at the time, I don't know if I

would have taken that exact position. But it was literally a

situation where I'm like, I know, I'm gonna see will the

rest of my life. I don't want to be that guy that wondered what

if, right, like, I know, I'll probably make half a million

dollars a year, be a VP of Sales somewhere else, you know,

corporate world in the sense. But that was my chance to start

a company from scratch. And then eventually, you know, get to the

point where we're selling this thing for hundreds of millions.

Hmm. So talk to us about really starting at a

startup like the grassroots stages like those early days,

because, you know, everybody sees these big SAS tech

companies like, Oh, they're so amazing. They're so great. But

that's not where they started. Talk to us about what that was

like,

Oh, this was completely bootstrapped. We're

still even to this day, self funded, no seed money, like we

are getting to the point now where the seed money starting to

make a little more sense, just for rocket fuel for growth. Now

that like everything, you just can't, you can't throw money at

a problem, like something that's not tested, you know, a proven

concept. You can't just throw money at it and hope it works

out. It just usually doesn't. So the bootstrap days was like,

alright, well, I know how to make phone calls. I know how to

connect with people. I have zero idea about real estate. I'm

like, 24 at the time, no idea that real estate. So let me

learn this. Let me dive in. Let me read books. Let me talk to

man whose dad owns a company. Let me just sit with Matt's dad

for two hours and like, absorb as much as I can about the

industry so that when I talk to them, these people, I have the

lingo down, escrow closing deals, open houses, like those

types of things, right? But I'm not gonna lie, like the first

six months were extremely difficult, getting hung up on

all the time. What are you talking about? I don't even have

an iPhone. And it was that learning curve. But, you know,

like, I understand in sales that as long as you put in enough

effort, and you do take the time to like, dive in and improve

your your game and learn like what is happening in the

industry. The numbers always play out, make enough calls,

need enough people, the numbers are gonna play out eventually.

So just the early days was just really learning.

It was learning, right? And that's what so many

companies, salespeople, sales leaders, they don't do is they

don't get into the customers world, they stay in their world.

They learn all about their products and how great their

products are and what it can do. But like you said, it's like I

need to learn their language. I need to learn what matters to

them. And that's really what sets you up for success to be

like, we're self funded. We because once you start taking

investors money, they control what you do, and then you

they're like, We want you to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow,

and you don't hit those growth targets. And then like we've

seen in the news, what happens you have to cut 20 3040 50% of

your workforce, right? And so it's better to say we know that

we have a good customer base, we have a good product with the

kinks worked out. And we believe in this before we started taking

outside money.

Oh, yeah. And you know, 90% of startups go out of

business after like two or three years? I think it is. We did

almost a few times. Like there's literally the first year on the

job, we started getting things rolling. And then Apple decides

to change their mapping system from Google Maps to Apple Maps,

broke the app completely, like you couldn't search for homes

anymore, which was like the main thing it did. So we had a

decision to make it was like, alright, well, do we try to fix

this? Or do we build a new app? So the logical thing at the time

was like, We got to build a new app. But now we also need

equity. So I'm literally selling the app with slideshows,

presale, hey, this is where it's gonna be, this is the concept,

you're gonna get a huge discount, we only want half of

the build fee now to secure your name and the different things

and it'll be ready in six to eight months. Trust me, you got

to trust me, this is where we're going. So there was multiple

stories like that. But you know, and life in general, like, the

only time you really fail is when you stop. When you give up.

Right?

You've given us you know, three great lessons,

right? The first one is get into your customers. Well, the second

one is you don't have to build it before you start getting

customers. Like some people like develop, develop, develop,

develop and have zero customers. And then they're like, oh, yeah,

now we need investment. And they're like, Okay, well, how

many customers? Yeah, it's like, no, no, no, don't build it and

think they will come. And when life throws you lemons and

oranges and squash, you had to figure out how to make something

edible out of it. What can I do next? How can I make this

better? And I can imagine that starting from scratch probably

made the product even better, made it stand up even stronger,

because you had already had a year of development. So you knew

what not to do you knew the things that you did, and that

covered it up a little bit. Right.

Yeah, no, I definitely played into the

different phases of each app that we built. But yeah, I mean,

you know, there's a difference between, like, accepting certain

things, right? Like, there are things out of your control. And

there are things you just like, you know, like it happened,

like, I just gotta get over it, I gotta move on. But there's

certain things like when you're super passionate about,

especially like a business doesn't matter if you started

the company, or you just want to climb your way somewhere else.

The only thing that's gonna get you there, aside from luck, is

you. So I'm a big believer that if you really want something,

the answers will come. As long as you put in the effort and

have the passion behind it.

Yes, it's all about knowing that the person

who I am, what I contribute to this world to this company is

worth it, right? And whether I feel like I'm making a

contribution today or not, I'm moving the needle for you one

step at a time. It's one day at a time, sometimes it's an hour

at a time, I've had weeks where it's like when people like oh,

it's just one day at a time, hour by hour, what next hour

what's coming up next on my calendar, okay, and I can candle

that then what's next. But I know that really as when you're

in the growing phase of either a company or a team, there are

those moments that get tough. And so as you had these ups and

downs, these hills and valleys, what are some methods that you

use at times where it thought that, hey, we're not going to

make it out of this? How did you build up yourself enough to work

through that?

I mean, it's evolved over time. In the

beginning, it was more of an ego thing. Or it's like, hey, oh,

no, I'm not letting this happen. Like, it's not happening to me,

like, I know, I'm good. I know a company is good. We got the

right group of people like it, then I don't wanna say like, I

forced the change I wanted, but like, it was more like, it just

was egocentric. Right now, I'm realizing the difference between

like, when you shift your goals to like, only about you like,

it's just temporary, like it phases away. It just doesn't

last, when you shift your perspective to doing it for the

company. For the people that work there. The employees like

we have health insurance. Now we have all these, we have 401k

plans, like sales is the bloodline of any company. So if

you're not bringing in revenue, how are they going to feed their

families? How are you going to grow to bring in more help. So

the company gets to where it needs to be and we have a lot of

salary base people in the company now they don't

contribute towards the revenue necessarily, but they're

necessary to keep this thing flowing. And if the revenues are

coming in, they're not feeding their families. They're not

providing the insurance that they need. And, you know, my

family is my motivation to so how I Get out of any slump now

is meditations a big part of it like you gotta breathe. If

you're in the wrong state of mind, every call is going to be

in that state of mind. Like, yeah, something and turn it

around, you have a great conversation and like you

flipped your own script because of that. But I'm a big believer

in taking even like two to five minutes to just stop, just stop,

meditate, breathe, refocus your perspective on what's important

in life, and where you want to be, and then go back to

attacking, and building relationships. And, you know,

taking it on that way, and it's just a lot less stressful to

like your health is the biggest part of sales, you're not

getting enough sleep, you're not happy with your, you know, maybe

your physical appearance, you're not doing certain things that

like are going to translate into how you talk to others, how you

present yourself how you feel, in general, because energy is

contagious. If you're in a bad mood, it's not hard for someone

to pick up on that. You try to hide it all you want. But

eventually, they're going to catch on to that when you're in

a great mood when you're passionate. It's contagious. And

who knows, like, maybe you're the person that uplifts that

person that day, to now do what they need to do on the other

end, nothing. So,

so good. That's so good. And I really liked what

you said in the beginning thinking about, hey, sales is

the lifeblood of the organization. I was actually

telling an employee recently, I was like, they're 15 people

whose lives I'm responsible for. And she was like, Wait, hold on,

did you have a hiring Blitz? I was like, No, you and your two

kids. And then I listed all their employees and their

passions, like, oh, because as leaders, that's what you think

about it's not just me, it's not just my family. It's not just

the employee, it's your family. It's how you're gonna pay your

mortgage and your bills, right. So all of those things good

leaders really think about and because of that, the stress or

the pressure sometimes comes down on us. And so we have to

know how to disconnect, take a moment to say like, sometimes

you might just be like, Oh, I don't have meetings for a couple

hours. I don't have anything pressing, I think I'm just gonna

take a nap, right? And that's okay. Because you know what you

need to refresh and reboot. So as the company was going, you

went from being the sales department, to building a sales

team. Tell us about your trajectory from being an

individual contributor to growing your team.

It was tough, even weird, like, my co workers

are like, Alright, we just got to find more Robert or alcoves,

right, like we need to replicate you. And like that would always

fall flat on its face. Like we just everyone's unique in their

own way, right. And when you're in a situation where you're

1099, and your paycheck is like, mainly dependent on your

efforts, you're like, well, now I'm giving this attention in

this time to this person who's not like even listening to what

I'm saying, like recruiting is tough. Even now, like to this

day, like we've had times where we've recruited like five sales

reps in a row, and train them together, and got them going,

and then they all failed. So now it's like, Alright, we're gonna

take our time we, for anyone that recruits SDRs out there,

satellite is a very good program. It's kind of like a

recruiting agency, but it's basically a two month college

for STRS. And they dive into psychology and like cold

calling, and like, the path to tech sales and different things.

But anyways, like we interviewed six people from them this week,

all of them are polished, all of them are asking the right

questions, but and it's tough. Like now we have a grading

system, like we have to grade each of these people based off

of like culture fit, you know, remote selling setup, like

different things like that. And what I've learned most lately of

being a leader is the empathy side of things is very

important. Because if you don't connect with your people,

they're going to leave. That's the beauty of like connecting

with your people, they can get a job offer that may even be

20 50,000 more, which is probably the right move, you

know, for their family or whatever it is, but like they

don't want to leave, because they love working with you the

organization notation, they see the upside of growing within the

company. But that was my weakness at the same time.

always been good with connecting with people, even at that

skilled nursing facility. I didn't know how to do all the

paperwork because it was brand new to me. But me connecting

with the patients was what I was good at taking them outside for

some fresh air, making sure their day was right. I even had

a lady that she had dementia. I bring her a flower every day.

She called me on her deathbed. After I was already gone from

the company. Her daughter called me like hey, my mom wants to see

you. She misses you. I'm like, do you she has dementia. And she

remembered me like that. Anyways, connecting is the most

important thing. But what I've learned lately is you got to

have accountability. He got to stay true to the numbers, the

Northstar. It's gotta be a healthy mix of the two. Like,

are you running a bunch of groupie sales people, everybody

just gets along and has fun and there's not as much

accountability to like hitting metrics. Are you running like a

bullpen or it's all about numbers turn and burn. You know,

whatever revenue first. I don't like that. So the healthy blend

of the two. And to be honest, I think when you hold someone

accountable, you actually care about them. Like that's a sign

of caring, in my opinion.

Yeah. Wow. A scorecard for hiring. It's like

all the makings of the things that we need to do to really

ensure that we're getting the best people for the positions.

And I love to say hire slow fire fast. And some people like oh,

wow, why do you say that? But Mike, because of you take your

time and hire the right people. And if they don't hit the

metrics, the things that you know that they should be in week

two, if they're not doing this, let's have a conversation, get

you up to speed. And week three, if you still aren't getting it,

then there's something that's not right here. Because you're

right, having that empathy and that compassion. Sometimes it

hurts us as leaders, because we hold on to the wrong people too

long, right? And so we have to find that balance between, yes,

I need somebody who's driven who's driving, but I have to not

push them too much. Push them just enough. And really having

that individualized coaching plan for each person on the team

is so so important.

Yeah, definitely. Another little strategy I've

been implementing lately, too, is like, as that team grows,

it's just harder to like, Give everyone that one on one

attention that, you know, people like it, like, they're looking

up to you. They're growing, they're trying to become you

sometimes in a sense, right. And what's been really working

lately is not just we use stack for our whole company, or sorry,

slack for our whole company to interact. So shout outs to the

whole team, like, Hey, Christian, just set up three in

a row. You know, they love that, and quick videos to like, quick,

like 32nd to one minute videos that are high energy, either

directly to the person, right? Like, Hey, I know you've been

struggling to talk to 10 people so far, but that's okay. It's

all about the next call. It's, you know, how can you improve

your strategy? Think about the 10 people that just said no to

you, and what could you have done different there? You know

what to say? So let's connect, like those small things

sometimes make the biggest difference. And from a time

standpoint, now, I don't have to spend 15 minutes with that

person trying to like get them back on track emotionally. And

you know, from a driven standpoint, that one minute

video did the trick. Obviously, you need the FaceTime by like,

that has been something I've implemented lately, that's made

a huge difference.

proactive versus reactive leadership. That is

amazing. Having setting the stage for people to know that

this is an environment where we're not just shouting you out

for closing a sale, because I think a lot of times,

salespeople, that's why I call that that's a lagging indicator,

what are the leading indicators? What are the behaviors we need

to drive to ensure that we're hitting these revenue targets?

Let's encourage those small things along the way. So even a

brand new person in their third week, and they just made their

first call, right? Hey, team, guess why such says just did

this, they booked this meeting, they did that that helps

motivate them because they feel like I'm a valued part of the

team, even though I'm brand new. Exactly. So you have had a very,

very diverse career and you have three wonderful kids and you're

married. What is the one thing that you are most proud of

accomplishing within your life, whether personally or

professionally,

that's a tough one because like, I'm always the

guy that's like, looking forward, but I've put a huge

emphasis and now I've noticed like that's one of the tricks to

life. Like, you dwell on the past. Like that's the problem

with salespeople, too, is like there was a time of Cutco

crushing it number one, number one in the nation winning

trophies, blah, blah, blah. And then I had some personal stuff

in my life that happened that affected my sales. And then when

I tried to get back into it, I was like wondering why it wasn't

happening anymore. It's because I was focusing too much on the

past. Right? Not on the now. And then there's people that get too

caught up in the future. And they're just like, hey, you

know, this is where I want to be. This is where I want to be

and they're only focusing on that. And especially when you

have a family, like now you're a lot of times you're in

neglecting them, because they're next to you in the living room,

and they want your attention and you're too busy, like planning

something on your phone or whatever the case. So a big

thing that I focus on now is focusing on the now. Because you

don't know what's next. You can have the biggest Plans of the

World you walk outside, something happens. You're gone.

Right? Yeah. Sorry. Can you repeat the question? You are

tight? I just want to make sure. I'll make sure I'm answering it

the right way.

You did, you did. And I think that really to

round that out the past two years, if it taught us nothing

else, it taught us that nothing is promised to you and nothing

is in your control. Because literally people had these grand

plans for 2020. In March, it's like, no, like, Okay, I'll do it

in three months, six months, then a year, it is like 18

months. And it's like, okay, I guess this is a new normal,

right? Because we're whilst like, we're living in this space

where we're just holding on. And then you're like, I have to

start adapting, I have to start changing. And those that didn't

adapt the businesses that went out of business, they're the

ones who didn't adapt. They're the ones who didn't change. The

people who may have been laid off, unfortunately, during that

time, and they're still not able to find a new position is

because, again, they're still living in what I used to do, or

what I my last position was, and they're not really trying to

think about, well, what can I do now? Where am I today? And how

can I impact the world with where I am today? And what I'm

doing?

Yeah, that's a must. And our business grew

during COVID. Like, that was one of that forward thinking type of

things like we were using zoom, three years before COVID hit. So

like, getting a realtor on the Zoom call in the beginning was

what am I downloading, like, this is gonna change my

computer. And I don't want to do this compared to like, now

everybody knows what to do. They click a link they're in. And we

were already perfectly set up for that. And the pitch changed.

How are you going to stay in front of your clients? If you

can't be face to face? It's on this thing. Right? Stay on their

phone

is good. That's good. Yeah, you guys had that?

Like you said that Elon Musk. Tim, lat whole bit of all these

forward thinking people that we think about if we think about

Tesla, and SpaceX, and even Apple, you know, like, 10, like

1520 years ago, what was apple? So remember, big box that I had

an elementary school that I would be typing on, right, like,

that's the Macintosh that I remember. And now it's a

household name. And so I think that really what your

organization has done is you've always been forward thinking.

And so when the time came for you guys to step up and accept

the hey, we've always been here, it was easy to captivate the

market.

Yeah, no, we, we doubled down on everything. We

went from one state to 48 within about two years, of where we can

offer the product because wow, yeah, well, it's it's a very

complicated thing, because like, there's what's called the MLS.

So this is like a data company where the realtors upload their

listings. And it's Yeah, I don't know, it was gorgeous. It's

like, there's some mafia style aspects to it, where it's like,

we don't want to let you and like you got to pay, you got to

do this, she's got to follow these rules. And like, you have

to be able to adjust to each market, you have to be able to

get that data in and pay these fees and everything. And it's

unheard of to go for a startup to grow that fast. In times,

yeah. But we were able to do it.

Yep. And knowing that you're in the housing

market during the housing, boom, I really, really, and now we're

about to go into that low and people still want to be ahead of

their customer, they still want to be in front of the customer

so they can be top of mind. So you definitely are set up for

success. This has been an amazing conversation, Robert,

what is the one best way that people can get in touch with you

if they're wanting to connect? If you're

a realtor broker or something like that home

stack.com That's like stack of paper will build you your own

app. We'll walk you through the process. And we have coaches

that assist with marketing and teaching you the system if you

want to reach out to me directly. I do have a LinkedIn

account. That's probably the best route. Robert Ralco. My

last name is Ara. You. C is in cat. Oh, the only Robert Ralco

in the United States. won't be hard to find me there.

I'm only Wesley. I gotcha. So again, thank you so

much for spending your time with us today and enriching us with

all the ins and outs of being a 1099 going into startup SAS and

into growth mode. We definitely appreciate all of your

expertise.

Thank you. We really appreciate you for having

yawn and, and all of your listeners like this lady knows

what she's talking about. So keep listening. Keep coming

back.

Thank you so much for the shout out. And that

was another episode of the transformed sales podcast.

Remember and everything that you do find a way to transform your