Welcome to The Get Real Podcast, your high-octane boost and in the trenches tell-it-like-it-is reality therapy for personal, business and real estate investing success with your hosts, power-preneurs Angela and Ron. It’s time to get real!

Angela: Hey, welcome to The Get Real Podcast. This is Angela Thomas and I’m here with Ron Phillips. Hey Ron.

Ron: How are we doing?

Angela: Hey, so we’ve got another fun topic. I think we like all of our topics. We always say that, but yeah, so today we wanted to talk about something that’s really the really close to our hearts that matters a lot to us. Actually in the other company where we sell real estate all over the country our purpose is that through service we build people. That’s kind of our purpose and our mission. And we came up with that because it means a lot to us and it’s who we are. We didn’t just come up with that because we thought it sounded cool or whatever. So we want to talk about that a little bit today. It has a lot of different meanings. It’s not just it’s not, it doesn’t just apply to the business it applies to every area of your life. Right, Ron?

Ron: Yeah. I mean, I think that coupled with our core values, those are all core to us. And you remember, I mean when we went through the exercise that we went through to actually come up with, with all of those. And I mean it was a game changer for our company and because, it’s what were talking about today, you know, people, people is the name of the game and this is how you figure out who your people are, right?

Angela: Yeah, that’s really true. It’s changed everything we do. We no longer, I mean everyone in our company has to share that value and those values with us, obviously, but it’s also changed how we interact with, you know, potential customers and leads. We’ve gotten a lot more picky because we want them to fit our core values as well. But anyway, I’m getting off track. So through service we build people. I mean we kind of chose that because we believe, I mean first of all, we want to help people. It feels good. But we also think that financial freedom is, attained by helping others, right? Ron do you want to talk about that?

Ron: It definitely is like, I get I think everybody, you know, if you could get on Facebook and you, and you see all these post by all these people who are self made millionaires and I just laugh. I think it’s the most comical thing ever. If they weren’t serious about it, then I guess it would be comical, right? But I really think they are, but I don’t think they’ve actually stepped back and thought to themselves, just how many people who have been involved in their success. You can’t do this thing alone. You can’t create a business that, I mean, you can’t create a business that sells stuff to yourself. You can’t create a business to sell service yourself. I mean, I don’t know if people have understand how financial statements work, but a statement of cash flows that comes cash comes from you and goes to you ultimately doesn’t work, right. So.

Angela: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So we want to talk about that a little bit today. And the first part of this is, you know, that we, we actually learn and get better and grow ourselves personally by helping and teaching others in every area of our lives, right. I’m helping others feels good. We all know that. And ultimately of course, helping others is profitable. So we want to talk about each of those points a little bit today. And just take a closer look at this. So first off, the we learn and get better by teaching. Ron, I know that you weren’t in college super long, but I remember in college, not that wasn’t a jab. Sorry, but…

Ron: I know it was a jab. Angela, now my feelings are a little bit, I wasn’t able to languish in college for as long as you and many other people listening to this were.

Angela: Yeah, well, I mean, I didn’t enjoy it.

Ron: I don’t know what to say now.

Angela: Yeah. I’m sorry.

Ron: I may have to be quiet for a minute.

Angela: Yeah. Well you get over your hurt feelings I’ll just talk about this. So I remember in college, especially in anatomy and some of those, you know, I was trying to do premed, so some of those medical type courses, the only way I ever did well in any of those classes was by offering to tutor other people in my class when really I didn’t know any more than they did. And I would like I’d take them and I’d like draw out pictures for them of all the concepts and where everything was. And that is the only way I did well in those classes. I mean, reading stuff, listening to lectures that never ever worked for me. I’m sure it works for some of you out there, which is awesome, but I had to teach it or I’d like flunked the class. So that is true for me at least in every other area of life as well. I mean, we get better every day in our business by helping to raise up those around us. And Ron, you are always talking about that. So if you’re not hurt anymore.

Ron: It’s a big deal. I’m kind of over it. I’m looking at the ocean. We should tell everybody that I’m a little bit chilled out today because I’m staring at the ocean, you know.

Angela: And it’s snowing in Utah, so I’m not jealous.

Ron: I drove to the beach today because I want to be here and I thought, man, why can’t I just do the podcast here today? So that’s what I’m doing. And so you’re getting laid back chilled Ron today and that’s the reason I don’t want anybody to think that, you know, that I, you know, that I’m a downer today or something. It’s just, you know, the essence of the beach that is all around me.

Angela: I think you are talking slower, actually.

Ron: I am, way different than normal. The beach does that to you. So anybody who gets super animated, you should take a trip to the beach.

Angela: Yeah, yeah. And check it out.

Ron: Okay. Sorry. What did you ask?

Angela: Yeah, I was just, I was just asking about, you’ve talked a lot about how lifting those around you and your company helps you.

Ron: Oh yeah. And I’ve been, this is another thing too. I think that is a big, big misnomer out in the business world. So many people think that you can’t share everything that you know, because if you do, then the other people know it and they don’t need you anymore. I think that is so short sighted. The whole idea of being in business is to serve other people. The first people that you should serve I mean it’s kind of like your family, right? I mean, the first people you should start with the people you care about, you should care about the people who are in your company because they’re the people who are servicing your customers and your clients. And therefore if you serve, if you care about those people and you serve them, you should be wanting to build them up. They should, everyone in your company should be, should be wanting to do and learn more and become more. Everyone should want to become a leader. And it’s our job as owners and as business leaders to create other leaders. And the short sighted of the thing is that people, business owners out there, they think that if they create other leaders that these people are going to leave and go be their competition. And you know, I guess that could happen.

Angela: That’s a sad way to look at it, yeah. Shoot Ron, you cut out there.

Ron: It’s so selfish, so selfish to think that way. Because how cool is it that you can multiply yourself out into the world and serve more people? So the way you look at, the way you maybe you should look at it is, you know, when you drop a pebble in a pond or in a lake, it creates this ripple effect. And that’s in fact what you’re doing. If you can create leaders that serve more people, all you’ve done is multiply your effect on the world. And I just don’t, I guess I just don’t see it the same way as a lot of other people do.

Angela: Well and Ron, what happens when you build up leaders around you? I mean, what’s happened to you? Every time you train and help other people grow and build them up around you and teach them what you know, you can’t help but be elevated yourself to the next level that’s what happens.

Ron: It’s what you were talking about earlier. So from a selfish perspective, when ever year teaching someone else, obviously you’re learning and you’re learning more. And in addition to that, if you, if you build more people up and they know more, you’re able to, your capacity increases as a company and because your capacity increases, therefore you can do more business, you can help more people. And ultimately, if you’re running your business properly, that should bring more money in addition. So selfishly, you should want all of your people to grow into leaders because if you do selfishly, it benefits you in so many ways.

Angela: Yep. Yeah. So is that…

Ron: It makes you feel good.

Angela: Yeah. Which you know, that’s the next one. Helping others feels good. I mean, this is a selfish reason, but I mean, the reason I’m excited to go to work or to work in our other company on Monday morning is because we’re helping people. We have a mission and a purpose in our company. We’re actually helping people. And I know that nothing we do should ever be hurting anyone. I mean, we’re very careful about that, so I can feel totally good. And so do all of our, you know, all our employees and our, everyone that works in our company, that’s why we love it. We really believe in the mission of the company and we feel good because we know we’re helping people.

Ron: I mean, it’s always really nice to hear it too, to have people, you know, comment on Facebook about how you’ve changed their life and yeah. What you’ve done, that really, really affected them. So again from a selfish perspective, from a selfish perspective.

Angela: I know, right, we get to hear about not just them, not just changing, you know, the investors live for whoever worked with us. But I mean, a lot of times they’re telling us about how, you know, it improved their whole family’s life or they were able to, you know, travel with family or you know, support their parents or send kids to college, you know, pay for their kid’s wedding, whatever it is. It’s really cool to see it touch their whole family and their circle so it just feels good. We love doing it. And of course that applies in every area of your life. It’s helping others is obviously it’s a charitable thing to do, but you can’t help but benefit from it every single time. No matter what it is, so…

Ron: Whether it’s in business or whether you’re, you’re serving at church or whether you’re, you know, you’re just serving, you know, you’re with your civic duties, whatever you’re doing.

Angela: Helping someone in a grocery store. I mean, you should just feel good, right?

Ron: You should be giving to and serving people around you. But in business specifically, and this whole, this whole business about, you know, it’s all about me, man. I wrote this blog post on. Here it comes.

Angela: Here it comes.

Ron: Here it comes. I wrote this, I wrote this big long Facebook post about The Art Of The Deal and how is, I mean I hadn’t read that book for a long time because I really don’t I just, I don’t see myself in that, in that book. And but anyway, a lot of people suggested that I should read it. So I read it and man, it is so self serving that book is the epitome of the opposite of everything that I believe business should be about. Which I guess begs the question, can you be a complete douche bag and still be successful Angela and…

Angela: Well apparently you can right.

Ron: I mean, so if you want to be the guy who was out there and says that you did everything by yourself, even though you didn’t, you can still be successful and you know, I guess God speed. I don’t want to be that guy.

Angela: I guess they have a different. I was just saying, I guess they have something different driving them because I mean, I just don’t enjoy working unless I know that it’s helping someone. And maybe that’s just, I don’t know how we are, how our core values are. It must be a core value difference, but yeah. What’s driving you to success and to work that hard if it’s not to help someone, you know?

Ron: Yeah. So I mean it’s so critical that I think we already did an episode on core values and how incredibly important they are for your business. But it really is important because if, if you guys have heard my core values and you’ve heard Angela talk about core values and how we, you know, our team is pretty solidified along those core value lines because that’s just who we are. But if you’re the person out there who wants to do everything yourself, except for when you need somebody to do some work for you, I guess you better figure out what your core values are too. so you can find those other selfish people that want to work in your company with you.

Angela: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Ron: Because if you’re that person and you actually do what I just said and you train them up because they’re also selfish people, they will leave and they will be your competition. I can guarantee it.

Angela: Yeah. Good point. So, okay, and the last one and the most obvious one is helping others is profitable. And I know we’ve touched on that a little bit, but I mean, if you’re helping people, I mean, can you think of a business model that works? I mean, we talked about, yes, you can still be successful if you’re selfish, but their business still has to help the customer or it wouldn’t make any money, right. I can’t think of a business that, I mean they’re helping people on accident, you know, maybe they’re not happy about it, but I can’t think of any.

Ron: You know these people who talk that way, I really think that they, a lot of them I think don’t mean it the way that it sounds. Because I know several of them and they have fantastic businesses that serve lots of people and they treat their clients really, really well. I just don’t think they think through the words that they use and how they affect the people around them. Because, you know, if I went around spewing that I was self made and that I did everything by myself, I can’t imagine that it would make my team feel very good.

Angela: Yeah. Not really as part of your team, I can say no it wouldn’t.

Ron: Right. And that just doesn’t make any sense, you know, and that somehow I just magically came up on all of this money without serving anybody’s needs, which is just not true. To the extent that you can serve them the most people’s needs with the best product and the best service, you will make the most money, right. Just like business 101.

Angela: Yup. So true. And of course it’s good to do like pro bono work we offer, you know, all of our education and information completely free of charge, coaching, whatever, so that’s awesome. But your business does still have to make money. So on the other side of the coin, I’m just saying, you know, you can help more people if your business is profitable. So while we want to help people, there is nothing wrong with charging a fair amount for your services or your products, whatever you’re doing so that you can continue to help more people, right.

Ron: Yeah. We are capitalists here at RP Capitol. We, we do believe in making money. But yeah, we believe in serving we believe serving people first. I think that’s the key differentiator, right? I don’t think that it’s, I mean I guess you could just sell products. But I believe that if you serve people first, you retain that you retain that customer long term. Which has proven out in our numbers, 70% of our people, our longterm customers, they buy from us over and over and over again. I don’t think that that’s necessarily because we have the greatest properties. I mean, we do have fantastic properties, but I bet if they spent a ton of time looking they could probably find a better one. I mean, I think it’s because of a combination of, of fantastic products coupled with really, really good service and us serving them first that they we retain them as a longterm client.

Angela: Yeah. I mean, a lot of those people have become very close friends. We really do care about them and their success and I think they feel that, which is great. So if you want to be more successful in your business, the key is to find out how to serve more people and to serve them better. And we’re constantly looking for ways to that. I mean, we’re doing some big changes right now, trying to figure out how to serve more people and to help solve the problems they’re having. And that’s what you constantly got to do to grow that business. So you know, as far as financial freedom goes, sorry, go ahead.

Ron: I was just going to say interesting enough in this process that we’re going through right now, we’re doing something entirely different. Um, was funny when we sat down and we met about this for two or three days money came up last. We were trying to figure out if what we had really would serve our clients.

Angela: How long did we spend doing research and asking clients exactly what they wanted and then trying to figure out how to, how to make it work. I mean, that was the whole first day, right?

Ron: Yeah. And most of the second day, I don’t think we got around to talking about money until the end of the second day. And even then we were just trying to figure out how to, you know, to see if this thing had legs financially after we figured out what it was, which we believe it does. The majority of the time that we’ve spent on the project has not been about money. None of it was about money. It was about how can we serve more people and help the ones that we already have.

Angela: And I truly believe if we were thinking, you know, let’s start another business. Let’s run a business to make some money. I mean, that is not how you find success. You got to think about how to serve people first. And that’s, yeah that’s what we love and that’s what makes it fun for us. And that’s what keeps us, you know, waking up excited every day.

Ron: Here’s the thing, I think we would’ve come up with a completely different product. Yeah. We started out what we actually have come up with, which I think is which I think is really, really good. I don’t think we would’ve gotten there. I think it would come up with something completely different and we would have, it would have never been as big as we’re thinking right now.

Angela: And is that is so true. Actually, the only thing that helped us get that big was feedback from current customers that what they needed and what’s missing in the market, so true. So financial freedom does not happen alone and you know, it’s all about serving others. So if you’re ready for, to get to your highest level of personal financial success, you know, you have to think about what you can do to serve more people, right Ron?

Ron: Absolutely. Absolutely. It is through service that you will succeed every time.

Angela: Yep. All right, well thanks for listening everybody. If you have any comments about this episode or questions or you know, you want to go subscribe to our podcast, check out our website, GetRealEstateSuccess.com. You can subscribe there, leave us feedback and let us know what else you want to hear about. Thanks Ron.

Ron: Yeah, guys, when you leave your feedback, it makes sure that when you click 5 stars, because I know that’s what you’re going to do.

Angela: Of course.

Ron: Make sure you actually leave a review. That helps us out a lot. We would really appreciate it. You know, definitely show us a little bit of love in the form of a written little rating on there. We would really appreciate it. And then, yeah, tell us what you want to hear.

Angela: Thanks guys

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