Why Helping Others Win is the Key to Business Success: Insights from David Sidoni

Brad Knoll: 00:00:00

Welcome to student of the game podcast, where we help you master the fundamentals, fall in love with practice, and win at the game of life.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:08

I'm your host, Brad Knoll.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:09

Welcome to the classroom.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:14

Welcome back to another episode of student of the game.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:16

I'm with my buddy, David Sidoni.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:18

How you doing, David?

David Sidoni: 00:00:19

I'm fantastic, thank you.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:21

So, first of all, a quick story about David.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:24

He's from Orange County, California.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:25

So shout out to my west coast lady listeners here.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:29

Before we hit record, I told David, I said, unfortunately, I'm kind of boring.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:32

I don't watch a lot of tv or I don't watch a lot of movies.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:36

David's a former Hollywood star.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:37

I mean, he's been in tvs and in movies and had some lines here or there, but he does have a Ted Lasso shirt on.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:44

I am a big fan of Ted lasso.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:45

So, as people know, I like to coach small business owners.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:48

I like to coach my team.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:49

I'm a coach at heart.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:51

I grew up as a coach's kidde, and Ted Lasso was awesome.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:55

So, Dave, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit, and I can expand on that.

Brad Knoll: 00:00:59

But I'm excited to have you on the show today because this is the first time we've had somebody that we're talking about small business here on this podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:01:07

And you're somebody who's been in the industry, you've had some careers, you've been a realtor, you've had a great, successful business, and then you pivoted and went into podcasting, and now you're creating a business off of podcasting.

Brad Knoll: 00:01:18

And I think a lot of times the listeners kind of get stuck, like they stuck in the day to day, and they don't understand maybe there's other revenue models out there.

Brad Knoll: 00:01:26

So why don't you introduce yourself a little bit to the listeners?

Brad Knoll: 00:01:28

Thanks for being on here.

Brad Knoll: 00:01:29

And it's how to buy a home podcast and something that is in my daily updates.

Brad Knoll: 00:01:35

So I've been listening.

Brad Knoll: 00:01:36

I'm a fan.

Brad Knoll: 00:01:36

Thanks for joining us here on the podcast.

David Sidoni: 00:01:39

Well, I got to start off by saying, no, shocker that a guy who maybe doesn't watch a ton of tv and movies.

David Sidoni: 00:01:46

If anything, that coach Brad likes Ted Lasso.

David Sidoni: 00:01:51

I mean, come on.

David Sidoni: 00:01:52

I imagine you got texts from everybody, you know, telling you you needed to watch it.

David Sidoni: 00:01:57

Cause just like, he's quotable, I've been listening to your podcast for a while now, and you're the mantra master.

David Sidoni: 00:02:04

So I think you and Ted are both quotable for me.

David Sidoni: 00:02:09

I started my career very strangely.

David Sidoni: 00:02:12

I was gonna be a division one soccer player.

David Sidoni: 00:02:14

And then my senior year at high school, the high school of the arts, came to my campus, and that was one of my real passions.

David Sidoni: 00:02:21

So I ended up studying musical theater for a year and giving up my scholarship opportunity, much to the chagrin of my father.

David Sidoni: 00:02:29

And then I had ten years in show business, got ready to settle down, and moved back down here to Orange county and got into real estate.

David Sidoni: 00:02:38

And I enjoyed real estate for about a dozen years or so.

David Sidoni: 00:02:41

And then I got to a point where I started to figure out that I wanted to do something different, because I saw what I believe was a disservice to first time homebuyers.

David Sidoni: 00:02:52

So I tried to figure out at the time, I thought maybe I was going to be a YouTube star.

David Sidoni: 00:02:58

And I started studying like crazy, listening to entrepreneurs, business people who had found different ways to do the business of their business.

David Sidoni: 00:03:10

A lot of that, you know, some of the people that were.

David Sidoni: 00:03:13

and starting to grow back in: 2018

David Sidoni: 00:03:21

And so I did the podcast as kind of an aside.

David Sidoni: 00:03:25

Cause I was doing everything, all the pieces of social media.

David Sidoni: 00:03:28

And then the podcast blew up.

David Sidoni: 00:03:30

And suddenly I woke up one day and said, this is gonna be my third act.

David Sidoni: 00:03:33

It's kind of a culmination of everything that I've done in my life.

David Sidoni: 00:03:36

And it was an opportunity.

David Sidoni: 00:03:38

So then I had to.

David Sidoni: 00:03:41

What is it?

David Sidoni: 00:03:41

There's a podcast I listened to from the Gary Vaynerchuk people.

David Sidoni: 00:03:45

Build while flying.

David Sidoni: 00:03:47

That's what I had to do.

David Sidoni: 00:03:48

I had to build the plane while I was flying and figure out how to best use my talents to turn this into something that could fulfill my passion, which was helping these people, but at the same time, become a viable business with all the systems and everything in place that I knew could help it fly.

Brad Knoll: 00:04:05

Well, I mean, first of all, you said, in my words, you'd call pivot, but you said build while flying.

Brad Knoll: 00:04:11

Right.

Brad Knoll: 00:04:11

So one of the things that we both breezed over a little bit is you worked at Disney.

David Sidoni: 00:04:17

Yep.

Brad Knoll: 00:04:19

I've got here, in my notes, that you've appeared in a Disney movie, hosted several tv shows on E.

Brad Knoll: 00:04:26

MTV, Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, and then I was listening to Rob's podcast, and you talked a little bit about the junior version of the Pat Sajak.

Brad Knoll: 00:04:37

Tell us a little bit about little Wheel of Fortune there.

David Sidoni: 00:04:40

Yeah, it was actually really interesting.

David Sidoni: 00:04:44

The FCC came down with a mandate to all the major networks.

David Sidoni: 00:04:48

This is pre streaming in the nineties, where they had to have educational programming on Saturday morning.

David Sidoni: 00:04:53

They didn't want it just to be cartoons.

David Sidoni: 00:04:55

And, yeah, the spelling in Wheel of Fortune counts as education.

David Sidoni: 00:05:00

So CB's did a junior version of Wheel of Fortune.

David Sidoni: 00:05:04

I was Pat Sajak.

David Sidoni: 00:05:05

My vanna White was a motion capture cartoon.

David Sidoni: 00:05:09

So she was, like, behind the word wall in with all the ping pong balls all over her, and it was a cartoon that I looked at all day long.

David Sidoni: 00:05:17

And I was a television host for four or five years and had a great run.

David Sidoni: 00:05:22

And then one day, I was just talking to my agent and realized, like, you're either Mario Lopez or Ryan Seacrest or you're hustling every day of your life.

David Sidoni: 00:05:33

And that was when I made the pivot into real estate.

David Sidoni: 00:05:37

And because I had worked at Disneyland in high school and college, it was just coincidence that later on in my showbiz career, I did a Disney movie, and I worked on Disney Channel.

David Sidoni: 00:05:49

But I built a lot of my business through my relationships and through my connections to the people at Disneyland who are good, kind, wonderful people, got a nice, steady job.

David Sidoni: 00:06:01

And when you put in a loan application, that Disney is something that everybody recognizes.

David Sidoni: 00:06:06

And so I help them turn into first time home buyers, and then the rest is history.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:11

That's awesome.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:12

So, one of the things that, like, the name of this podcast is student of the game.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:15

And a lot of people think, like, oh, Brad, play basketball.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:18

This is a sports podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:19

We're gonna talk about sports a little bit of, like, the goal is really not to talk about sports, but what the goal is is to say, there are clues in your past.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:26

There are clues in other people's past.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:28

And if you stay curious and if you pay attention to what's happening around you, you can use that.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:33

I have to imagine.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:34

Okay.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:34

And so, again, I'm gonna go to sports for a second.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:36

So, Kobe, his nickname was the Black Mamba.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:40

These successful athletes had this alter ego, this character that they were playing.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:45

They had to get into a character in order to perform on the athletic field or the court or the course or whatever that is.

Brad Knoll: 00:06:53

I have to imagine that understanding how Hollywood works and understanding playing a character has.

Brad Knoll: 00:07:00

Has that helped you in, like, now we're talking about your real estate career.

Brad Knoll: 00:07:04

Did that help you in your real estate career, knowing that you were kind of playing this character?

David Sidoni: 00:07:08

Yeah.

David Sidoni: 00:07:09

And, you know, it's shocking because it's in ways that most people don't think about.

David Sidoni: 00:07:17

When it comes to my Hollywood career, I was what I would call like an offensive lineman, maybe more like a random, you know, utility fullback or a slot receiver.

David Sidoni: 00:07:27

I was not the superstar.

David Sidoni: 00:07:30

I got to where I got to because of everyone knew they could count on me, hard work gonna be there.

David Sidoni: 00:07:37

And, like, on a scale of one to ten in Hollywood, if ten is, you know, the best singer or the best dancer or the best, I was, I was an eight or nine, but I was an eight or nine in everything.

David Sidoni: 00:07:49

And so that kept me working.

David Sidoni: 00:07:53

And because I had that mentality on set, I kind of loved to watch how everything worked.

David Sidoni: 00:07:58

A lot of actors do their job and go to their trailer, and they're just about them by watching everything that happened.

David Sidoni: 00:08:05

When I got into real estate, everyone said, you're going to be awesome because you're an actor and you know how to talk to people.

David Sidoni: 00:08:10

I immediately found out it was less about being an actor and it was much more about being the stage manager on a show or the assistant director because you're putting out fires all day long and keeping the ball and keeping the train going down the tracks.

Brad Knoll: 00:08:25

If you want to get into, first of all, if you want to get into real estate right now, I mean, you're definitely not the actor or the front person, right?

Brad Knoll: 00:08:31

You're the guide, you're the Sherpa, you're the stage manager.

Brad Knoll: 00:08:34

I love that you said that.

Brad Knoll: 00:08:35

So if you're going to, if you want to start a business right now, because you want to be the man or the woman or whatever, the reality is you're not going to go very far.

Brad Knoll: 00:08:45

What I just heard in this short period of time we're talking is the more people you impact, the further you're going to get.

Brad Knoll: 00:08:51

And you can't impact a lot of people when you want to be the.

David Sidoni: 00:08:53

Hero, like, you just can't correct 100% and understanding that there are heroes in movies, but there are other heroes.

David Sidoni: 00:09:02

For every Luke Skywalker, there's a yoda, for every Harry Potter, there is a Dumbledore.

David Sidoni: 00:09:07

And as a business leader, you have to realize your customer is Luke and Harry.

David Sidoni: 00:09:14

You're Yoda, you're Dumbledore.

David Sidoni: 00:09:16

And with your team, it's the same thing.

David Sidoni: 00:09:18

You know, you want to make your team shine, you want, you want to make your quarterback, you want to make your point guard look incredible and let them get all the glory.

David Sidoni: 00:09:27

You just sit back and coach and show them how to do it.

Brad Knoll: 00:09:30

It's so good.

Brad Knoll: 00:09:32

I've got kids that play sports, and one of the things that I tell them all the time is like, you know, in order for you to be the one, right, the person, the man, the woman on the field, you have to help other people exist.

Brad Knoll: 00:09:43

You have to help other people hit their goals.

Brad Knoll: 00:09:45

If I can help somebody else hit their goals, the ripple effects of that, I'm getting whatever I need.

Brad Knoll: 00:09:50

If I can go help a lot of people win.

Brad Knoll: 00:09:52

And that, that's actually my life motto is help other people win.

Brad Knoll: 00:09:54

Help others win.

Brad Knoll: 00:09:55

People ask me all the time, how did you build the business?

Brad Knoll: 00:09:57

How did you do this?

Brad Knoll: 00:09:58

How did you do that?

Brad Knoll: 00:09:58

I said, well, you might be looking at the wrong way.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:00

It's not about how, it's about helping others win.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:05

You know, it's the acronym that we created, help others win.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:07

And that's really how you become successful.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:10

So now you have all this background in acting and show business and Hollywood, cult, whatever you want.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:15

You worked at Disney, you understand service, you understand, how can somebody wait in line for 3 hours and still have a smile on their face?

Brad Knoll: 00:10:21

Like, that's customer service, that's taking care of people.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:24

You get into real estate and you have this experience of, you just feel like there's a miss in the real estate industry.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:31

Before we get into how to buy a home podcast, you were a realtor, a successful realtor, building the team, having buyer's agents, having people working for you.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:40

And, and there was this stirring, if you want, Rob calls it.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:44

You know, you were chiseled, but, but talk about what happened in your real estate career that kind of gave you this transition to be a podcaster and to really fight for these first time home buyers.

Brad Knoll: 00:10:57

It's.

David Sidoni: 00:10:58

I'd love to say that I had it all figured out when it originally became an idea, but as most ideas, it birthed from, you know, my own internal feelings.

David Sidoni: 00:11:09

And those internal feelings were, it was my wife looking at me one day when I was building a team.

David Sidoni: 00:11:13

And I, I thought building a team was going to be like just doing the inspirational, motivational, educational part of coaching.

David Sidoni: 00:11:22

I didn't realize that when you're building a team, that there's a lot of business aspects to it, and that's not necessarily my favorite part of the job.

David Sidoni: 00:11:32

I almost kind of want, I realized later, oh, I'm not a team manager of a large business.

David Sidoni: 00:11:41

I more the face of the company or the education and training only.

David Sidoni: 00:11:48

And so I was getting a little burnt out and frustrated.

David Sidoni: 00:11:51

But it was a good business realization for myself to understand what my best role was.

David Sidoni: 00:11:55

And my wife looked at me and said, you're only happy when you work at the Disney.

David Sidoni: 00:11:59

People and so I thought, okay, well, what if I just get, you know, dissolve this whole team and start fresh, and I make a new team that has a division that focuses on the thing that makes me happy?

David Sidoni: 00:12:13

And then I thought, okay, well, how do I grow that division?

David Sidoni: 00:12:17

And then that's when I started researching and looking into social media and YouTube and eventually podcasting as a way to reach more than I could just through the relationship of my database, but actually reach other first time homebuyers who were feeling the frustration that I felt.

David Sidoni: 00:12:38

And then as it progressed as a business owner, I'm sitting back and I'm realizing, this isn't a Southern California frustration.

David Sidoni: 00:12:45

This is a national frustration.

David Sidoni: 00:12:47

So then I started studying the industry, and as I studied the industry, I saw a giant hole.

David Sidoni: 00:12:54

And then that's when I heard every coach I've ever had in my life, whether it was in soccer or a director or now my business coaches, I've had for 18 years saying, go for it.

David Sidoni: 00:13:07

Make a difference.

David Sidoni: 00:13:09

And so that's when I decided to try to speak to as many of these people that were being relatively ignored by an entire industry.

David Sidoni: 00:13:19

And when you're customer centric like that, when you're explaining there's a new thing that's going on right now with the customers, they've had a phone in their pocket.

David Sidoni: 00:13:28

A lot of people don't realize, like, 36, and I think it's 36 or 37 years old, they've had yelp since they were 16.

David Sidoni: 00:13:35

So they've been looking at customer reviews far differently than someone my age, you know, and their concept of what they.

David Sidoni: 00:13:46

They hear from each other changes their perception of businesses.

David Sidoni: 00:13:51

So I wanted to reach out to them and let them know, this is just for you, because I see that the industry is missing it.

Brad Knoll: 00:13:59

That's so good.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:01

I've actually.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:01

My wife and I talk about this a lot, is we want to create a business where, you know, she used to be a nurse in her former life, and so she was a big fan of Grey's Anatomy for a long time.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:09

And I think, what is it?

Brad Knoll: 00:14:11

Seattle Methodist or whatever the hospital was, they coined themselves as a teaching hospital.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:16

And again, because I wanted to date my wife, I sat and watched Grey's anatomy shout out, I guess, to the early two thousands, but they were a teaching hospital.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:26

And the thing I told Lindsey a long time ago is, like, I want to be a teaching real estate office.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:30

And if I have a group of interns that I can mold and kind of, like, figure out, I get to understand how the next wave of consumers is going to think, and I think it's really important in our business because, you know, I don't want to go off in the deep end yet because we've got a framework to follow here.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:47

But I think it's really important to understand what are your consumers thinking?

Brad Knoll: 00:14:51

You know, a lot of times, you know, I'll brag and say I've got 21 years of experience.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:55

Well, that actually can be a detriment, too.

Brad Knoll: 00:14:57

If I have 21 years of experience and I think about how things used to be, that's not going to keep me in business.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:04

you know, you say hindsight's: 2020

Brad Knoll: 00:15:07

That's just telling my story.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:09

That's telling you how I've built my business.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:11

But I've got to continue to grow.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:13

I've got to continue to evolve.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:15

And by having an intern program, it helps us to think about, you know, you made the comment like, these kids buying homes today, everything they do is on their phone.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:24

So you're in real estate.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:26

You have this idea to get your voice out there because you're passionate about first time homebuyers.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:33

I've heard the phrase that fame is the most efficient business model.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:37

Now, I think you have to be a really confident person to understand, or maybe self aware is better than confident.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:43

You have to be a really self aware person to understand that concept of fame is the most efficient business model.

Brad Knoll: 00:15:48

I don't do what I'm doing to get famous, but what I understand is if I can leverage technology, if I can leverage a platform like a podcast and my voice is heard by more people, I can impact more people, I can inspire more people.

Brad Knoll: 00:16:00

And I feel like that's what you're doing, you know, with how to buy a home podcast, there's.

David Sidoni: 00:16:04

I believe that a lot of good business people, you get to that point when you have that position to expand your audience, because you've done it one on one, whether it's at the kitchen table or at a consultation or in your office, you've done this numerous times.

David Sidoni: 00:16:19

The new world that we're living in just opened up the idea that, oh, I can do that same one on one education where it's 100% caring for that person and that individual on a broader scale and more people can see it.

David Sidoni: 00:16:34

And that's why one of the huge pieces of the podcast has been listener interviews.

David Sidoni: 00:16:41

And I get more response from other people, hearing other people talk about the process, and it's made that platform and that megaphone so much bigger.

David Sidoni: 00:16:53

That now I'm able not just to help people here in Southern California, but people all over North America.

Brad Knoll: 00:16:58

One of the reasons, and I love that because I think, you know, I'm not familiar exactly with where exactly we met, but I know we shared a table at Nashville and we both read together and we had a great conversation.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:10

And I just knew iron sharpens iron, and we were very similar in kind of our thinking.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:15

You know, one of the reasons I built a team was because I got a slow start in real estate.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:20

When I got started in real estate, it was very transactional.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:22

It was for sale by owners.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:23

It was expired, it was cold calling.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:25

It was door knocking.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:26

It was all the traditional methods of being transactional.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:30

And one of the reasons I built a team is so that I can help them have success faster than what I did through a relational business model.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:37

But when we talk about helping people who are coming behind us, I think that's what you're doing right now.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:44

I want to talk a little bit about the fundamentals.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:46

You pivoted.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:47

You were like, hey, I'm this realtor.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:49

I've got this business.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:50

This is great.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:51

It's kind of stressful.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:52

I've built this big team.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:53

That's awesome.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:54

However, maybe we're missing the mark a little bit.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:57

Maybe.

Brad Knoll: 00:17:57

Maybe we're not talking to the people that I want to be talking to every single day that you really can, can invest in.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:02

So when it comes to, let's just talk about podcasting, because I really want to talk about how to buy a home podcast, I've actually shared this with my team.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:09

I'm like, you need to listen to this guy.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:10

He knows what he's talking about.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:11

You're going to be a better realtor if you listen to this podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:13

This isn't just for buyers out there.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:15

If you're a realtor listening to this, you better be listening to David's podcast, because that's what the buyers in this market are hearing.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:21

He's the voice of first time buyers.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:22

He's actually the voice of buyers.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:24

Matter of fact, if I have a seller, I'm going to send them your podcast because the sellers need to know what the buyers are equipped with.

Brad Knoll: 00:18:30

But before we get into all that, talk a little bit about what are the fundamentals to building a podcast.

David Sidoni: 00:18:37

Well, it's funny that, I mean, I appreciate that, and I do.

David Sidoni: 00:18:43

For me, once I started building the podcast, I thought initially, okay, I'm going to take everything that I've learned at the time, 13 years in, and just put it on a podcast.

David Sidoni: 00:18:52

And I thought that was enough.

David Sidoni: 00:18:54

But then I thought back to the very first thing I learned when I first, I was 35 years old when I pivoted from show business into real estate, and I got super lucky.

David Sidoni: 00:19:04

And I went to Brian Tracy, motivational business, not a motivational speaker.

David Sidoni: 00:19:10

He's a business speaker.

David Sidoni: 00:19:11

And I bought the entire six cd set, you know, and hundreds of dollars.

David Sidoni: 00:19:18

The number one thing I remember is he said, if you're in an industry, get up and read 30 minutes every morning.

David Sidoni: 00:19:24

Just having the information at the, you know, the tip of your tongue on the top of your brain, it just puts you ahead of the competition, the rest of the skills and all that stuff.

David Sidoni: 00:19:35

Yes, you need to learn that, but you have to start with the fundamentals of know your business, know your craft.

David Sidoni: 00:19:41

Have you ever talked to someone that's crazy passionate about a hobby?

David Sidoni: 00:19:45

Well, if they were a business owner, then they'd be the best person to talk to about oil painting or, you know, model car design or whatever it was.

David Sidoni: 00:19:55

And then, thank goodness, you know, I was books on tape back in the day.

David Sidoni: 00:19:59

We live in a world where I've gotten probably two or three different PhDs over the last six years through podcasts and through audible books constantly.

David Sidoni: 00:20:10

Every time I walk the dog, every time I wake up in the morning, every time I, you know, have lunch, I've got a podcast or an audiobook going in my ears to learn and educate myself.

David Sidoni: 00:20:22

The books are the fundamentals, you know, listening to the classics on how to run a business.

David Sidoni: 00:20:28

But the podcast is the current day to day information on what's going on in the industry.

David Sidoni: 00:20:32

So that's one of my big fundamentals.

Brad Knoll: 00:20:36

So reader education.

Brad Knoll: 00:20:38

I mean, I hear, I hear what you're saying.

Brad Knoll: 00:20:40

Like, my very first car had a cassette.

Brad Knoll: 00:20:41

But I remember when I, after I was given a car, my first car I had to purchase.

Brad Knoll: 00:20:45

I remember one of my things now, right?

Brad Knoll: 00:20:48

I just bought a car for my daughter.

Brad Knoll: 00:20:50

We can get into that later.

Brad Knoll: 00:20:51

But one of the things that I had to have was a CD player because my parents gave me, like, Mark Victor Hansen's, like, selling tips.

Brad Knoll: 00:20:58

And, you know, I had all these cds from, from our mentor, Brian Buffini.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:02

And it's like I have to have a car as a CD player because this is mobile university, right?

Brad Knoll: 00:21:06

It's mobile university.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:07

And so you're saying one of the fundamentals is education.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:10

Whether you're getting that through reading cassettes, cds, podcasts, the fundamental, the strategies and tactics always change.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:17

We talk about that all the time.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:18

But the fundamentals never change, and it's putting more inside of yourself.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:22

It's understanding that I have to be a reader if I want to be a leader.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:26

I have to be a learner if I want to be a leader, and I love that.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:30

What else?

Brad Knoll: 00:21:30

Are there any other fundamentals of building the podcast?

David Sidoni: 00:21:34

I think it's falling in love with the same things I learned as an athlete and as a performer.

David Sidoni: 00:21:40

It's finding the different ways to fall in love with practice.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:44

Took the words out of my mouth.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:45

I love this.

David Sidoni: 00:21:46

Yeah, you have to.

David Sidoni: 00:21:47

I mean, you know, there's, there's understanding and enjoying the practice and realizing how little time I'm behind the mic.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:56

Go, I want to.

Brad Knoll: 00:21:57

Before we hit record, you talked about Joe Montana.

Brad Knoll: 00:22:00

I've never heard this before, but I resonated with a lot.

Brad Knoll: 00:22:02

Tell the listeners right now about Joe Montana and the Super Bowls.

Brad Knoll: 00:22:06

And like, first of all, he went to Notre Dame, which is in our backyard over here.

Brad Knoll: 00:22:09

But talk about Joe Montana falling in love with practice and the mathematical equation you have here with playing versus practicing.

David Sidoni: 00:22:16

Yeah, I had to go back and look it up because I heard it years ago somewhere where he was talking to, you know, kids doing one of his camps and talking about understanding and believing in the fundamentals and working on those drills and working on the practice.

David Sidoni: 00:22:31

The kids were like, dude, you want four Super Bowls?

David Sidoni: 00:22:33

You know, like, of course this comes easy for you.

David Sidoni: 00:22:35

And he's like, okay, a game's a little over 3 hours.

David Sidoni: 00:22:41

They've done the research on it.

David Sidoni: 00:22:43

The playing time is only eleven minutes of a football game.

David Sidoni: 00:22:47

So that's five and a half of the offense, five and a half for the defense.

David Sidoni: 00:22:50

That means he's won four Super Bowls, but he was on the field for 22 minutes, period.

Brad Knoll: 00:22:58

That's four Super Bowls and VP, NFL MVP, hall of Famer.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:05

And the amount of time he's actually playing the game is so little.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:08

If you think about that.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:10

I had a listing appointment today.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:11

All right, so we still go on buyer calls and listing appointments, and I've got a great team that helps me with the transactions.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:18

And this seller came into our office today for an hour, and I prepared for 2 hours this morning, an hour and a half yesterday.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:29

And then last week I had massive preparation for this appointment.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:33

And the appointment itself was only an hour.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:36

And the amount of talking that I did, the amount of preparation that came out of my mouth was probably maybe 15 minutes.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:43

It's exactly what you're saying.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:45

And there's so many small businesses that can relate to this.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:47

It's like you're not in front of the client, but how many times do we get in front of the client or the customer or whatever?

Brad Knoll: 00:23:51

Or even in your case, the listener, and this is what they see.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:55

Right.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:55

But falling in love with practice.

Brad Knoll: 00:23:56

I love that you say that, because that's actually our second point, is falling in love with practice.

Brad Knoll: 00:24:01

What do you have to do as a podcaster to fall in love?

Brad Knoll: 00:24:03

Because so many people are like, Brad, oh, you just get in the mic and it's awesome, and you've had almost 50 episodes and how many thousand downloads, and here you are, and you're actually a really big deal that our listeners are finding out about right now.

Brad Knoll: 00:24:15

But what does falling in love with practice look like for you when it comes to podcasting?

David Sidoni: 00:24:19

You know, it's really funny.

David Sidoni: 00:24:21

It comes back to one of the things that you were talking about earlier, because you are a solo voice in a room.

David Sidoni: 00:24:28

A lot of the show business stuff was very helpful for me, understanding script writing, storytelling, and understanding that.

David Sidoni: 00:24:36

Like, when you're on a movie set and you get your script, there's jokes about it, it's rainbow colored, because every time they rewrite it, they send the pages in a new color, and it gets out of control with that to make up colors.

David Sidoni: 00:24:52

There's like, you know, we always joked about the Goldenrod and the fuchsia pages because they ran out of red, blue, orange.

David Sidoni: 00:24:57

And so understanding that drafting and redrafting and redrafting.

David Sidoni: 00:25:02

Although you and I have, like, I think you sold yourself short, those hours that you put in, the four or 5 hours of preparation for that single listing appointment, then the only 15 minutes of talking to.

David Sidoni: 00:25:13

Let's not forget about the years of time with you doing the Fundamentals to understand the process.

David Sidoni: 00:25:20

You know, when was the first time you took a class on how to sell a home?

David Sidoni: 00:25:24

That day, those Fundamentals you did that day you brought to that meeting.

David Sidoni: 00:25:29

And so I have to remember that when I write something out, even though I'm, you know, expert, guru, whatever you want to call it, doesn't mean it's perfect.

David Sidoni: 00:25:39

So taking the time to step back, always walking away, going back and looking at points, and then what you were talking about earlier, listening to the consumer, 100%, you have to listen.

David Sidoni: 00:25:52

I mean, people used to spend thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars on customer surveys.

David Sidoni: 00:25:59

We live in a wonderful world right now where you can figure out exactly what your consumer wants by reading the comments.

David Sidoni: 00:26:05

When you put information out there, if it's received warmly, I mean, understanding, to filter through the trolls, they're always going to be there.

David Sidoni: 00:26:13

But the positive things that you get, everything I do is based on what the listeners are asking for.

David Sidoni: 00:26:19

And that took a while for me to evolve.

David Sidoni: 00:26:23

I said I was customer centric.

David Sidoni: 00:26:25

I said I was consumer centric.

David Sidoni: 00:26:28

But I also thought, well, I have all the experience.

David Sidoni: 00:26:30

Let me tell you how to do this, because basically you're in an industry where you're getting hosed.

David Sidoni: 00:26:35

So let me help you.

David Sidoni: 00:26:36

Let me help you.

David Sidoni: 00:26:36

Let me help you.

David Sidoni: 00:26:37

And then suddenly I went, the best teachers listen.

David Sidoni: 00:26:40

So let me hear what you are struggling with, not what I see you're going to struggle with.

Brad Knoll: 00:26:49

Time out.

Brad Knoll: 00:26:50

Student of the game is brought to you by Knoll team real estate.

Brad Knoll: 00:26:53

Our mission is to eradicate mediocre real estate transactions on your largest financial purchase.

Brad Knoll: 00:26:59

You shouldn't have to deal with average.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:01

We do this by helping you save time, reduce your stress, and helping you keep as much money in your pocket as we can.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:09

You can help us out by introducing us to your friends or family who want to make competent real estate decisions, whether buying, selling, building or investing.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:18

At Noel team real estate, we are connected to a group of realtors who sell one in every eight homes in North America.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:25

If you know someone moving out of your area, there's a great chance we can connect them to somebody we know, like and trust.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:32

Remember, relationships win.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:34

Now back to the show.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:37

This is, this is great.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:38

This just came to me as you were talking.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:40

I have a question.

Brad Knoll: 00:27:41

This was not pre prepared, so forgive me, but what motivates you more?

Brad Knoll: 00:27:45

Is it, is it proven the trolls wrong?

Brad Knoll: 00:27:47

Or is it, you know, adding some value to the people who want to listen?

David Sidoni: 00:27:52

There's a couple great people I listened to who have been big in social media when the rest of the world was like, what are you doing?

David Sidoni: 00:27:58

And I just respond like, oh, sorry, man.

David Sidoni: 00:28:02

Hey, hear what you're saying.

David Sidoni: 00:28:04

Good luck to you.

David Sidoni: 00:28:06

Anyone who has the time to be a troll, God bless them.

David Sidoni: 00:28:10

Boy, their life is not worth me assuming that their opinion is something that's going to change all the people that I affect.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:19

So, I mean, I think there's this whole generation out there of like, you know, you got to prove the haters wrong.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:23

And I'm glad for your answer.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:25

I agree with that.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:26

And it's like if I woke up every day just to prove the haters wrong, like that, that's going to get old.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:30

Like, I get up every day to help others win.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:33

I just want to help others win.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:35

And there's going to be people who don't understand that.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:36

And I tell my kids all the time, David, it's like preparation creates separation.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:40

You know, if you want to separate yourself, don't hang out with the haters.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:43

Like, just.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:43

Just prepare.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:44

Understand, you know, who you're serving.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:46

Maybe.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:47

Maybe it's a teammate.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:47

If you're.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:48

If you're a high school athlete or college athlete, you know, maybe it's.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:51

Maybe it's your staff.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:52

If you're a leader, you know, if you're a salesperson at your clients, you know, just.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:55

Just understand that.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:56

That preparation really does create separation.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:58

Not.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:58

Not focusing on the haters.

Brad Knoll: 00:28:59

But I do.

Brad Knoll: 00:29:00

I do like to see those funny videos every once in a while where.

Brad Knoll: 00:29:03

What's it, the bad memes or something where that.

Brad Knoll: 00:29:07

Where the actors are reading, like, all of the hate mail.

Brad Knoll: 00:29:11

The gymnast.

Brad Knoll: 00:29:12

That's pretty funny.

Brad Knoll: 00:29:13

When we talk about fall in love with practice, you talked about making it a game within a game.

Brad Knoll: 00:29:17

What do you mean by that?

David Sidoni: 00:29:19

Well, you know, I've listened to a lot of different people, you know, everything from John Wooden's pyramid of success or listen to Bill Walton talk about it over and over and over and over again.

David Sidoni: 00:29:31

But, you know, it's understanding that those moments in practice where everyone wants to do the scrimmage, but you want to do the drill, and you want to see if you can do it better than you did you did last time.

David Sidoni: 00:29:42

And, you know, I heard people talk about constantly trying to improve, and I think a lot of people think improvement means to.

David Sidoni: 00:29:51

You've got this at this level.

David Sidoni: 00:29:52

You've got this at a nine.

David Sidoni: 00:29:54

This at a nine.

David Sidoni: 00:29:55

This is a nine.

David Sidoni: 00:29:55

But this part of your game is a little weak, so you should be trying to improve.

David Sidoni: 00:29:58

I agree with that, but I also think that you can improve on the areas that you're already doing well, lean into your strengths and finding a game within a game.

David Sidoni: 00:30:11

For me, I mesmerized watching Steph curry warm up, and the guy's got sick handles, and he still is out of control with his Harlem Globetrotter style warm up routine.

David Sidoni: 00:30:23

And I have my kids watch it.

David Sidoni: 00:30:26

And that's a guy who understands that this part of his game is incredibly elevated, but he challenges himself every single pregame to get even better.

David Sidoni: 00:30:37

And, you know, if.

David Sidoni: 00:30:39

If I'm going to emulate someone, I'm going to watch my boy, especially because he's a short dude who played basketball.

Brad Knoll: 00:30:45

Who was overlooked for a long time.

Brad Knoll: 00:30:47

And he actually.

Brad Knoll: 00:30:48

And he actually says, had he gone to a bigger school, he wouldn't be Steph Curry, who Steph Curry is today.

Brad Knoll: 00:30:53

So he.

David Sidoni: 00:30:54

And it was that run.

David Sidoni: 00:30:55

It was a run in the NCAA's.

David Sidoni: 00:30:56

He would have been drafted even lower if his team didn't make that run.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:00

Absolutely.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:02

Okay, so here's what I want you to do.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:04

We're going to pivot just a little bit on this podcast because my listeners need to understand who you actually are.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:10

So we've heard.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:10

You've heard your backstory.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:11

We've heard a little bit about how you pivoted from being a realtor to understanding.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:16

You went to becoming a podcaster because you wanted to niche down and you had this passion.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:21

And so, falling in love with practice is a fundamental of yours, but it's something we talk about regularly on the pod because it's something that I tell my kids, like, all the time.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:30

Like, I don't care what you do.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:31

Be an actor, be a baker, be a basketball player.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:34

You can't be great if you don't love to practice, if you don't love the process, if you don't, if you don't love to show up your blood, sweat and tears when nobody's watching, you can't be great at it.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:44

I'm sorry.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:44

Like, challenge me.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:45

You just can't be great at it.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:46

Back to one of the things you're talking about.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:48

I think it was a Marcus Buckingham book called go put your strengths to work.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:51

David and I were in the same audience back in the early two thousands, and we didn't know each other back then, but we heard the same thing and we were kind of riffing offline.

Brad Knoll: 00:31:58

And Marcus Buckingham shared a story, if you remember this, about Tiger woods.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:01

And at the time, Tiger was like number one in driving accuracy, number one in distance, number one in greens and regulation, and he was something like 104th in sand saves.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:11

And Mister Buckingham kind of made the point like they asked Tiger, well, don't you want to improve your sand saves?

Brad Knoll: 00:32:19

And he said, no.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:20

And he was like, emphatic.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:21

He was like, no, I'm going to improve the times.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:23

I'm never going to be in the bunker.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:25

You know, I'm going to improve my strengths.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:27

I'm going to be in the fairway more often.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:28

I'm going to be on the green more often, and I'm not going to focus on the thing that I'm not that great at.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:32

And so if you're listening right now and you kind of have all these things going on in your business and you're trying to figure out, okay, I've got this bakery and I'm baking pies and I'm baking muffins and I'm baking rolls, but I do catering and I do this and that, but I'm a little weak in this area.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:47

Let it go if I'm a little weak in, in transactional real estate, but I'm an amazing podcaster.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:53

Go do more podcasting.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:54

Bring in more leads, bring in more, you know, teach.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:57

Teach the community how to fish.

Brad Knoll: 00:32:59

Yeah, but falling in love with practice.

Brad Knoll: 00:33:01

David, I want you to tell the listeners a little bit about how to buy a home podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:33:05

I'm a huge fan, by the way.

Brad Knoll: 00:33:07

How to buy a home podcast is not just for first time buyers, but I know that's your niche.

Brad Knoll: 00:33:11

Talk about where you started with that podcast and where you are at today.

Brad Knoll: 00:33:17

You're going to hear, you're going to hear a lot of bits and pieces right now.

Brad Knoll: 00:33:20

You as a listener, you're going to hear about how he's falling in love with practice.

Brad Knoll: 00:33:24

But be really specific.

Brad Knoll: 00:33:25

Where is, where is how to buy a home?

Brad Knoll: 00:33:26

Where did how to buy a home start and where is it at today?

David Sidoni: 00:33:30

It started as it was a direct pivot.

David Sidoni: 00:33:33

And so for a lot of business owners, just, you know, I think you can look at it from a marketing standpoint if you're a business owner and you're trying to understand how this podcast worked.

David Sidoni: 00:33:42

For me, it was one of several different marketing pieces that I was trying out.

David Sidoni: 00:33:49

It was Facebook, it was Instagram, it was YouTube.

David Sidoni: 00:33:52

Eventually it was even TikTok.

David Sidoni: 00:33:54

But I started a little late on that, and there was a big push for audio at one point.

David Sidoni: 00:34:01

And so what I did for my business was I wanted the message to get heard by as many people as possible.

David Sidoni: 00:34:07

And I thought that I was going to be a YouTube star.

David Sidoni: 00:34:11

I mean, I was a, you know, a television host.

David Sidoni: 00:34:14

It seemed like that was going to be it.

David Sidoni: 00:34:16

But because I didn't know the fundamentals of YouTube and I didn't understand what it took.

David Sidoni: 00:34:22

What I did was I fell into a smaller fish in a much or a bigger fish in a much smaller pond with the podcast.

David Sidoni: 00:34:31

And I listened and I understood that there was the average age of the first time homebuyer is 36 years old in America right now.

David Sidoni: 00:34:40

And I do not think that's because down payments are too expensive and houses are too unaffordable.

David Sidoni: 00:34:47

Because in the average market where it's a $400,000 average first time home, the average two bedroom is $2,000.

David Sidoni: 00:34:56

And it doesn't take that much understanding how many 28, 29, 30 year olds do, you know, who have their stuff together and figured out what they're doing in their life.

David Sidoni: 00:35:05

The problem is, between 30 and 36, they go online and they're not getting clear and concise information.

David Sidoni: 00:35:12

Well, I discovered when I was doing all these things that podcast listeners are analytical, intense researchers.

David Sidoni: 00:35:21

And don't let the goofy Persona fool you.

David Sidoni: 00:35:24

Like I said, I can talk NFL and musical theater equally passionately.

David Sidoni: 00:35:30

So understanding how to take the goofiness of who I am and my Persona and my character mixed with all the business pieces, I didn't realize that the podcast listener soaks that up.

David Sidoni: 00:35:44

And so I listened and I learned and realized, you know, at the beginning, as I started to grow, this is something that can happen.

David Sidoni: 00:35:52

And now we're sitting at, you know, 1.6 million downloads and thousands of first time homebuyers every year getting educated time.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:00

On time.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:00

On time.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:01

1.6 million downloads.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:04

Yeah, man.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:04

Pat yourself on the back.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:05

That's fantastic.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:06

And you started this win in: 1820

David Sidoni: 00:36:09

1918, was research I did.

David Sidoni: 00:36:11

That's the other thing I researched for a year before I started it.

David Sidoni: 00:36:15

I continued doing real estate full time, and on weekends, I was figuring out how to become a podcaster.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:20

You know, if there's nobody listening to this, if just my team listens to this, like, speak to my team for a second.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:25

I got some team members that are like, I don't know.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:26

I don't like how I sound.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:27

I don't like my voice.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:28

I don't like how I look on social media.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:31

Talk, talk.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:32

If there's no listeners right now, like my mom and a couple of my team members, speak to my team members right now and tell and encourage them to get their voice out there, their face out there.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:42

What can they do to kind of break down that wall of, I don't like how I look.

Brad Knoll: 00:36:45

I don't like how I sound.

David Sidoni: 00:36:47

There's the happy medium between what you were talking about.

David Sidoni: 00:36:51

I don't want to be famous, either.

David Sidoni: 00:36:53

Fame doesn't matter to me.

David Sidoni: 00:36:55

Educating, helping, and lifting up the consumer, that matters to me.

Brad Knoll: 00:37:00

Fame's a byproduct of the service you put out in the world.

David Sidoni: 00:37:03

Yes, exactly.

David Sidoni: 00:37:05

And, you know, I mean, to me, you're like the most famous relational business coach in the country, and that's, to me, you're famous now.

David Sidoni: 00:37:15

To.

David Sidoni: 00:37:16

Would my kids think you're as cool as Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa?

David Sidoni: 00:37:20

Probably not, but I do, you know?

David Sidoni: 00:37:22

And so it's kind of like, you know, that thing, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear absolutely if they put it out there, somebody in their database is going to go, that's exactly what I need right now.

David Sidoni: 00:37:38

But if you don't put it out there, don't worry about the packaging.

David Sidoni: 00:37:42

I mean, I am the biggest dad joke cringy nerd on my podcast, but if you listen to the next sentence, I'm going to hit you with facts and data and real information that's going to help you progress.

David Sidoni: 00:37:54

So you have a financially stable life.

David Sidoni: 00:37:57

And so, so the packaging, I think, is get your team out there, get them to do their thing.

David Sidoni: 00:38:04

Find out what it is, find whatever it is.

David Sidoni: 00:38:07

If you're good, if you're good at hanging out, then have Monday night football parties and invite your clients.

David Sidoni: 00:38:14

You know, if you're good at writing blog.

Brad Knoll: 00:38:17

Yeah.

Brad Knoll: 00:38:18

If you're, if you're good with the elderly, show up and, you know, bring some dinner and have dinner around 430 at night or whatever, like, you know, understand who your tribe is.

Brad Knoll: 00:38:27

Right.

Brad Knoll: 00:38:28

I'm hearing that, that theme from, you understand who your tribe is, and if you're Uncle David to people and it's like you can speak their language, then, then go do more of that.

Brad Knoll: 00:38:37

Okay.

Brad Knoll: 00:38:37

So I've, I kind of have a, you know, peek behind the curtain a little bit.

Brad Knoll: 00:38:41

So tell the listeners a little bit about this unicorn network you've built.

David Sidoni: 00:38:46

Well, one of the things that I noticed, and again, this gets big picture macro business wise.

David Sidoni: 00:38:51

When you're looking at the way an industry works, you not only have to realize how your team works, but how other teams work and how other larger entities work.

David Sidoni: 00:39:02

In our world, we have brokers, but then we also have individual teams within the broker.

David Sidoni: 00:39:08

And understanding how each of those work can help you determine how you want to build your business, where you want to put your own fundamentals, what you want to spend your time improving, and where you want to grow.

David Sidoni: 00:39:21

Understanding that differentiation is the key in business.

David Sidoni: 00:39:25

What are you going to be that's different from somebody else?

David Sidoni: 00:39:30

Everything in real estate is based on numbers, so the broker is constantly recruiting.

David Sidoni: 00:39:36

Get me more, more people, more realtors, more realtors, more realtors.

David Sidoni: 00:39:40

You know, the, the real estate company with the most amount of realtors.

David Sidoni: 00:39:44

That's what they, you know, slap on all their marketing.

David Sidoni: 00:39:47

We have, you know, the best realtors and the most realtors.

David Sidoni: 00:39:51

I decided to go kind of elite, go way down and just take the best of the best of the best, you know, and like, if I was that guy from Hoosiers, I, instead of having the team, I'd have five Jimmy Chitwoods and so that's good, by the way.

David Sidoni: 00:40:11

And I realized right away that you could, because there are 1.3 million realtors.

David Sidoni: 00:40:17

47% of them didn't sell a home last year, and 87% of realtors quit in five years.

Brad Knoll: 00:40:24

What industry does that like?

Brad Knoll: 00:40:27

How many industries are there?

Brad Knoll: 00:40:28

I like cpas.

Brad Knoll: 00:40:29

Like, 50% of cpas don't do any tax returns.

Brad Knoll: 00:40:32

Are you.

Brad Knoll: 00:40:33

What?

David Sidoni: 00:40:34

Yeah, bro.

David Sidoni: 00:40:36

Sorry I called you bro.

David Sidoni: 00:40:37

That's my Southern California and me.

Brad Knoll: 00:40:38

Oh, good.

David Sidoni: 00:40:40

That lets you know when I've really, you've really hit me in my heart.

David Sidoni: 00:40:45

It's like I could go on for hours about it, about.

David Sidoni: 00:40:49

But the key was I found a hole in the industry and the industry is a big boat that's not going to turn around.

David Sidoni: 00:40:57

But what I can do is instead of building a business the way everybody else does, where you get as many people as you can and then you play the numbers game.

David Sidoni: 00:41:05

But what?

David Sidoni: 00:41:07

That's why I started the podcast, because it bothered me that they were doing the numbers game with the consumer.

David Sidoni: 00:41:13

Here, go work with this person I'm hoping works out.

David Sidoni: 00:41:16

And there's an 87% chance when you want to sell your home in five years, they're going to be back at their old job.

David Sidoni: 00:41:23

That's disgraceful.

David Sidoni: 00:41:24

And that's not right when you're saying.

Brad Knoll: 00:41:27

The numbers, though, like, just be very pragmatic for a second.

Brad Knoll: 00:41:30

So first time homebuyers typically have a lower average sales price.

Brad Knoll: 00:41:32

And so that's why a lot of realtors, a lot of people in our industry, you know, don't chase after them, but I would challenge that.

Brad Knoll: 00:41:37

And you're the expert on this.

Brad Knoll: 00:41:39

I mean, I feel like I'm an expert, but you're an expert.

Brad Knoll: 00:41:41

From digging into the data, I believe in my 21 years experience, I found that first time homebuyers not only are like the beginning of the life cycle of all business, because they end up having families, they end up moving up, they ended up upsizing.

Brad Knoll: 00:41:55

Their kids move out, and they end up downsizing.

Brad Knoll: 00:41:57

Like it's the most profitable long term client we can have as first time buyers.

Brad Knoll: 00:42:02

And not only most profitable, I think it's the most referable type of clients.

Brad Knoll: 00:42:05

I think when you serve a first time buyer like this is what people don't know about real estate.

Brad Knoll: 00:42:10

In real estate, we don't just serve people who are getting married or people who got a promotion.

Brad Knoll: 00:42:15

The majority, we call it the three ds, death, divorce and delinquency.

Brad Knoll: 00:42:18

You know, when somebody dies, they don't have a group of people around them that everybody dies at the same time, you know, divorce, they don't have, like, a group of friends that are all going through divorce same time.

Brad Knoll: 00:42:27

That would be weird.

Brad Knoll: 00:42:28

But when you're a first time buyer, you're kind of hanging out, right?

Brad Knoll: 00:42:31

Like, you know, like, follows, like, first time buyers hang out with each other, and then they bring all their friends.

Brad Knoll: 00:42:39

I, like, talk to that talked about, like, it's missed because of the low average sales price, but we should not be missing out on this demographic because it's the most profitable and most long term business model there absolutely is.

David Sidoni: 00:42:53

So I'll give you a real estate specific example that other business owners can figure out a way to do it in their business as well.

David Sidoni: 00:43:03

When you help a first time homebuyer buy a home, everybody wants to give them a gift.

David Sidoni: 00:43:08

Everyone wants to give them something.

David Sidoni: 00:43:10

The simplest and easiest way for you to quad Drupal, the money that you made with that first time home buyer is to hold a house warming party for that first time homebuyer.

David Sidoni: 00:43:20

They will bring all their renter friends, and if they're, if they're snarky, spiteful people, they're really going to invent all their renter friends so they can rub their face in it.

David Sidoni: 00:43:29

But I'm being goofy.

David Sidoni: 00:43:30

But you know, that the fact it's.

David Sidoni: 00:43:33

And every business owner can find a way to do that when you have someone buying your daughter bought her car for the first time.

David Sidoni: 00:43:40

I saw it on social media today.

David Sidoni: 00:43:43

If you sell someone their first car, all of your correspondence back to them should be about what an amazing accomplishment this was and how incredible.

David Sidoni: 00:43:53

And then they tell all their friends, who are petrified because they've heard the horror stories of going to a car dealership and getting grinded, and so figuring out that there's a referral source, and I laugh.

David Sidoni: 00:44:06

In real estate, people work like crazy.

David Sidoni: 00:44:08

I'm going to be the best.

David Sidoni: 00:44:09

I'm going to be the best.

David Sidoni: 00:44:10

I'm going to be the best.

David Sidoni: 00:44:10

And then they go sell the home of Sally, who's been living there for 35 years, and Sally leaves and she downsizes to Florida, whereas, and, great, you made triple the commission.

David Sidoni: 00:44:22

But if you gave blue Star a ribbon service.

David Sidoni: 00:44:26

Oh, that was opposite blue ribbon, a plus, gold star.

David Sidoni: 00:44:31

How about that?

David Sidoni: 00:44:32

If you gave that service to a first time homebuyer, I mean, the joy that they're going to have bringing people over to their home instead of cramp sitting in an apartment, when they want to watch the Super bowl, when they want to get together for Thanksgiving or the holidays or friends giving just the opportunities to realize that you sell your product to multiple different niches.

David Sidoni: 00:45:00

Some niches are in that season of life, like you talked about.

David Sidoni: 00:45:06

It's not everyone gets divorced and dies at the same time, but, boy, everyone does a lot of these things, and all their friends ask them about it.

David Sidoni: 00:45:12

And if you don't believe me, go to Reddit.

David Sidoni: 00:45:15

This whole world talks to each other about, how did you do this?

David Sidoni: 00:45:18

How did you do that?

Brad Knoll: 00:45:20

Yeah.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:20

And at the end of the day, the bottom line is it's still referral.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:24

It's still introduction.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:25

Like they're happening, but they're happening in a different vehicle.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:28

Real quick.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:29

Before we get into winning at the game of life and what that means for you and where you're going to take this podcast, I want the listener to hear this.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:35

So David Sedoni is passionate about first time homebuyers.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:38

If you can't tell.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:39

All right, created.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:40

Created.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:40

How to buy a home podcast, you need to go listen to it.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:42

Even if you don't want to buy a home today, you need to go listen to this podcast because you're going to understand the housing market by listening to this podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:49

It's really good.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:50

I was actually walking my dog listening to multiple episodes of yours, and I'm like, man, this is really good.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:54

I could actually turn this into team meeting.

Brad Knoll: 00:45:57

There's so many different ways to unpack your information.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:03

I'm gonna say this, and I don't know, I'm sure you've thought about this, and I'm sure people have told you this, but they haven't.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:09

I'm the first one.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:10

Sorry about that, because people need to tell you this as a realtor.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:13

A really, really good realtor.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:14

Might sell 20 homes in a year.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:16

Might sell 30 homes in a year.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:17

Really, really good realtor.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:21

If you're in an industry that you're passionate about and you want to pivot into a podcast because you really care about helping people in real estate, we can get paid referral fees.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:30

We can introduce somebody to my friend in Orange county, my friend in Denver, Colorado, in Florida, in North Carolina, and we can get paid a referral fee.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:38

There's things that you need to look at as a business owner.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:41

Where is their revenue to be made from?

Brad Knoll: 00:46:43

That aligns with my core values.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:45

That aligns with the service and the passion that I want to instill into the marketplace.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:51

Make this up.

Brad Knoll: 00:46:52

crushing it and he's selling: 2030

Brad Knoll: 00:46:56

Has buyer's agents, let me give you some numbers.

Brad Knoll: 00:47:00

In: 2022

Brad Knoll: 00:47:07

In: 2023

Brad Knoll: 00:47:16

The amount of people that he is impacting is surpassing the amount of people he can impact in his backyard.

Brad Knoll: 00:47:22

Think about that.

Brad Knoll: 00:47:24

Think about that.

Brad Knoll: 00:47:25

If you're a landscaper or you're a CPA and you're impacting your client base, that's in your backyard, and you start a podcast because you want to help people with some problem or some challenge, the scale in which you can do that is unbelievable.

Brad Knoll: 00:47:39

ng, you told me there's about: 1200

Brad Knoll: 00:47:55

And it's because of the work you're doing.

Brad Knoll: 00:47:56

Is that correct?

David Sidoni: 00:47:57

Yeah.

David Sidoni: 00:47:58

And what's interesting with the numbers that you gave, those are the ones that became part of my business.

David Sidoni: 00:48:05

Those are the ones that stayed with the unicorns.

David Sidoni: 00:48:07

It's double that for people who bought a home.

David Sidoni: 00:48:12

And I understood the very beginning of my business model.

David Sidoni: 00:48:15

There were going to be a lot of people that were going to take my education for free.

David Sidoni: 00:48:18

But again, I'm a business nerd.

David Sidoni: 00:48:20

And I went and looked at it and thought, okay, this year we're 32% of every single purchase is a first time home buyer.

David Sidoni: 00:48:27

That's about 1.2 million people.

David Sidoni: 00:48:29

When we hit our 4 million units at the end of the year, 1.2 million people, fine.

David Sidoni: 00:48:35

I don't care if 225 people go through the services that I offer and another 300 or 400 just use me for education.

David Sidoni: 00:48:45

rk out, and that's why I have: 1200

David Sidoni: 00:48:50

But that also gets deeper into the fact that one of the things I'm focusing on is the education point, and that's helping people a year before they're even shopping for a home.

David Sidoni: 00:48:59

And that's a whole different part of you can use a podcast, especially if you have a little bit of passion, like you mentioned, a landscaper.

David Sidoni: 00:49:08

If there's some kind of passion for the career path that you've chosen, you can take the passion part and put that into a podcast that has education and a niche of people.

David Sidoni: 00:49:18

You will find.

David Sidoni: 00:49:19

Some of them will listen just to listen and never reach out to you.

David Sidoni: 00:49:22

But some of them will then eventually look for your area of expertise in whatever that niche is.

Brad Knoll: 00:49:28

You've blessed us, and I want to figure out how we can bless you here for a second.

Brad Knoll: 00:49:31

So I want to talk about winning at the game of life, but I want to.

Brad Knoll: 00:49:35

We won't go into detail because I want people to listen to your podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:49:38

But here are some things that David shares on his podcast, I believe, and I've heard this from the great coach, Kristen Tabert.

Brad Knoll: 00:49:45

Talking about the problem is usually not the problem, it's how we think about the problem, right?

Brad Knoll: 00:49:50

That's how we think about.

Brad Knoll: 00:49:51

Most people think the problem is the high interest rates right?

Brad Knoll: 00:49:54

Now, I was with my twelve year old son last night, and I know you talk about this stuff on the podcast, and if somebody wants to know more about this, they can listen to my next episode.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:02

Or what I would hope is they listen to how to buy a home.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:05

But I was talking to my son about investment real estate, and we went through some scenarios.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:09

He's twelve.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:09

Okay.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:10

So we were talking about how to buy, like, a $200,000 rental property in our backyard and what that looks like.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:16

And I said, okay, if you're putting 20% down, this is how much you have to put down.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:20

And if it grows this much, here's the thing.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:25

Make up numbers, right?

Brad Knoll: 00:50:27

If you buy $200,000 house and you put 10% down, that's $20,000, and it goes up to 240, what percent of return did you make?

Brad Knoll: 00:50:38

No, I know what you're thinking.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:39

You're calculating 200 to 240, right?

Brad Knoll: 00:50:42

But the cash that you invested was $20,000.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:45

You doubled your money.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:47

That's a 200% rate of return.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:50

Buyers, listen to me.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:52

It's not the rate.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:53

It's not the payment.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:54

It's the investment overall.

Brad Knoll: 00:50:56

And David's podcast will teach you how to be a confident home buyer.

Brad Knoll: 00:51:01

Please go listen to the podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:51:02

David, winning at the game of life.

Brad Knoll: 00:51:04

What is winning at the game of life look like for you?

Brad Knoll: 00:51:06

We believe on our podcast, relationships win.

Brad Knoll: 00:51:08

And in the game of life, relationships win.

Brad Knoll: 00:51:11

What does winning look like for you?

David Sidoni: 00:51:13

Okay, this is where I'm supposed to give you a really philosophical, well thought out answer.

David Sidoni: 00:51:18

And I decided that to really understand myself and be real.

David Sidoni: 00:51:23

And I'm just thinking this right now.

David Sidoni: 00:51:25

I didn't think about this ahead of time.

David Sidoni: 00:51:26

I was.

David Sidoni: 00:51:26

I was sitting here going, I'm supposed to say something like, you know, really effective.

David Sidoni: 00:51:32

No.

David Sidoni: 00:51:32

Here's what winning the game for life is for me.

David Sidoni: 00:51:34

I discovered this in my third act, and I love it, and I love helping people.

David Sidoni: 00:51:39

So I don't know is where I'm making enough money that I can do a live stream two or three times a week and be a guru that answers questions like Clark Howard, who used to be on CNN, or Dave Ramsey, or, you know, the people that just people respect.

David Sidoni: 00:51:56

And then I live in New York City and I go see a Broadway show every night.

David Sidoni: 00:51:59

That is winning at the Game of life.

David Sidoni: 00:52:03

The real, like, who I am to my core is I almost feel like I'm up by 20 in the fourth quarter right now because this happened.

David Sidoni: 00:52:16

I haven't won the game yet, but dang, I get to wake up every day and help and motivate people.

David Sidoni: 00:52:22

Ten years ago, I wasn't here, but I'm here now.

David Sidoni: 00:52:26

Help and educate people who, frankly, are being ignored or steered wrong.

David Sidoni: 00:52:32

And that feels pretty darn good.

David Sidoni: 00:52:34

And if I continue to do it in this way, you know, there's.

David Sidoni: 00:52:40

There's little parts of it like, boy, I'd like to really understand how to be a better CEO.

David Sidoni: 00:52:43

And I'd like to really understand, you know, what my hiring process is going to be over the next five years so that I continue to do.

David Sidoni: 00:52:50

But then when I say that, I realize all those things are so that I can just live in a position of waking up where some people want to hear the advice and I can come and answer people's questions and help them move forward.

Brad Knoll: 00:53:07

That's awesome.

Brad Knoll: 00:53:08

You're doing it.

Brad Knoll: 00:53:09

And I love it that you're doing it.

Brad Knoll: 00:53:11

In the game of life, relationships win.

Brad Knoll: 00:53:13

And my kids today are like, dad, send this man his flowers.

Brad Knoll: 00:53:16

Send this woman her flowers, which is just accolades and appreciation.

Brad Knoll: 00:53:21

Who's somebody in your life that you want to thank?

Brad Knoll: 00:53:22

Who's somebody you want to send some virtual flowers to that got you here today?

Brad Knoll: 00:53:26

Maybe somebody who's helping you right now, maybe somebody in your past that got you to where you are.

David Sidoni: 00:53:30

You know, it's interesting because people ask me this all the time.

David Sidoni: 00:53:34

I've had so many different mentors, you know, the original founder of the high school darts that I went to, a guy named doctor Ralph Obesik, who basically turned my life in a complete direction, much to the chagrin of my soccer coach and all the directors and wonderful people I've worked with.

David Sidoni: 00:53:53

2006, when I went to a buffini event and I met my coach at an event, wasn't even a member yet.

David Sidoni: 00:54:01

The first five or six years of my business career, having a coach, from day one, she's affected everything I've ever done.

David Sidoni: 00:54:10

Her name's Nancy Arroyovia.

David Sidoni: 00:54:12

She since left the company to go do something else.

David Sidoni: 00:54:14

But she understanding what a business.

David Sidoni: 00:54:19

I learned everything about the business, but then I also understood what a business coach can be.

David Sidoni: 00:54:24

And when you're coming from a place of athletics and performing and you have coaches and directors, it was a new world for me.

David Sidoni: 00:54:31

And she absolutely is 100% the reason why I am where I am today.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:37

That's awesome.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:37

Great, great answer.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:38

By the way, if you're, if you're a high school athlete, what I heard, David, I heard you say, if you're a high school athlete, and it's like, I'm a track star.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:44

I'm going to run at Oregon.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:46

You know what?

Brad Knoll: 00:54:47

Sometimes life throws you something that you just got to pay attention to, and it's okay to pivot.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:52

And the way you've pivoted to get you where you are today is you mentioned it.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:56

You are winning at the game of life.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:57

And that's awesome.

Brad Knoll: 00:54:58

And my next question is, how can the listener support you?

Brad Knoll: 00:55:01

But I think I know, because you've answered this a lot on your own podcast is, number one, go listen to how to buy a home podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:07

Number two, go leave a review.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:10

It's fantastic.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:11

Go leave a review.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:12

Because that's what keeps things going.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:13

That's what keeps it ad free.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:15

I'd appreciate if you listen to it, especially if you're into my back, if you're in my backyard, listen to David.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:19

Cause when you're ready to buy a home, you're gonna win.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:22

If you're buying a home with us, you're gonna win.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:24

We've actually helped some of the listeners on David's show.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:26

It helped connect us a little bit.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:28

And so I know how the listeners can help you.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:31

How the listeners can help me is if you like this episode, you know, screenshot it, tag me on social media, and if I see some of those out there, I know that you like this content, and I'll make more of it, and I'll bring David back on and we can talk more about how to buy a home.

Brad Knoll: 00:55:44

Today we're talking about how to have a podcast, but anything else that the listeners can help you with.

David Sidoni: 00:55:48

David, we had a hack on my YouTube channel, so check out the YouTube channel how to buy a home.

David Sidoni: 00:55:56

It's going to be coming out when this podcast hits the air.

David Sidoni: 00:55:59

We're going to be starting again.

David Sidoni: 00:56:00

But howtobuyhome.com is everything you need.

David Sidoni: 00:56:03

And I will give you a reciprocal plug and throw you some flowers, knowing that we were going to have this opportunity to talk.

David Sidoni: 00:56:11

And as you know, I do that mobile university in the car.

David Sidoni: 00:56:17

I've been listening to your podcast and I am learning tons from people from all different walks of life.

David Sidoni: 00:56:23

And I appreciate so much what you're doing.

David Sidoni: 00:56:25

Thanks, Brad.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:26

Thanks so much, David.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:27

I appreciate it.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:28

I just, like I said, I grew up in the locker room.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:31

I didn't go to business school, but I got a master's degree in business from the locker room.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:35

And it just taught me a valuable lesson.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:36

It taught me you can learn from people all the time.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:38

You can learn from people like David.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:40

If you have a business right now, you might not be at the level of doing a podcast, but you can learn something.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:45

And that's the beauty of it.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:47

Stay curious, stay hungry, stay humble, and continue to grow.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:50

So, David, thanks for being a guest today.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:52

I appreciate it.

David Sidoni: 00:56:52

Thank you, sir.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:53

All right, that's a wrap.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:55

Enjoy the episode.

Brad Knoll: 00:56:56

Share this with a friend, and if you don't mind, send us a screenshot, tag us on social media and we'll make more of these.

Brad Knoll: 00:57:02

Have a great day.

Brad Knoll: 00:57:05

Thanks for listening to student of the game podcast.

Brad Knoll: 00:57:08

Whatever game you are playing, I'm cheering for you.

Brad Knoll: 00:57:11

See you in the next class.