Erica Jolles: Ask and Listen

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host, Tracy Hayes, best of the best without a doubt today on the show, 10s of millions in production just in the last 12 months, a nice balance of listing and buyer's ideals. So she has mastered both. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and sociology, if I got that right. A master's in social work, yes, yes, from the University of Southern California. She is recognized by the Jax rule producers magazine as a top agent in Northeast Florida. I love her. Video she's been doing recently on social media. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. Let's welcome this very successful agent. Let's see what makes her tick. Erica jolis of Round Table, Realty, welcome to the show, and I want to make sure I pronounce your last name correctly. It's jawless, jawless, jawless. You really accent the O, yep. Erica Jas to the show. I tell people, it's like without a jaw, jaw less. Yep. Okay, I was gonna ask you that before I was at that pre show. When you have those names that are could go either way, but I appreciate you. I appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. Didn't have to travel far, no, the 10 feet above your head below. You often come in the office, or you like to work from home a lot. You know, it's funny, it depends upon what's going on. When I'm really busy, I tend not to come in the office as much. But when I when things are a little quiet, or I'm getting a little stressed because things are quiet, I come in the office because there's a lot of energy down there, and just being around the people there, it invigorates me, and it gets me. I can get complacent. I've been doing this a long time. Yes, so being around other people, seeing what they're doing sometimes, will give me the motivation I need to started dig in again. That brings up somebody using the word complacent, and you've been doing this for about 16 years, if I recall, it's over 16 years. Yeah, I think we probably, I entered, entered the business in September of, oh, five. So I'm, I'm, you know, a couple weeks from my 17th anniversary. Yeah, in the business. But yeah, you can become complacent. And when I just get so disheartened, sometimes when I especially these very new loan officers, guys with sometimes just months to just a couple of years, and they're hiding at home and, or they come in late, and I'm like, do you understand the potential, right of what you're doing? And you know, some point you're going to hit, like, right now, it's a little tougher, right? So are you going to fall out because you didn't put the work in last spring, right? You know, you don't know it's feast or famine. So come in and put a hard day working, right? And, like said, the energy just talking shop, yep, yep. But I will say, you know, and it's funny, my broker, Howard flash, and he and I joke around that I'm the female version of him, you know, when you're I've worked really hard, so I'm not gonna say luck, but I've worked hard to get to where I'm at. And when things are moving along and you're having closing sometimes, you know what, I don't need to follow up. I don't need to touch my people. And you forget about I forget about it. And then every January, in fact, that's a whole story in and of itself. Every January I freak out because I have nothing going on. And every January, Howard and my assistant, who's my mom,

Erica Jolles  3:53  
they remind me they're like Erica, it's January. You're like this. Every single year, you need to chill out, right? You know? So and that's when I started kick things into gear. But I'm trying to get better. I'm definitely trying to be better about keeping in touch with my past clients, one way or the other.

Tracy Hayes  4:09  
Well, what I've seen develop, especially in the last few years, is there's services out there that can help you a lot of times with those things. And you have to come to a realization, oh, hey, I'm not reaching out to my past clients. Okay, why don't I just pay a virtual assistance just to call them and say hi, because if I'm not doing them, at least somebody's doing it for me. Have you looked at things

Erica Jolles  4:31  
like so I'm not tough reach? I know. Yeah. I'm very possessive of maybe one might call it control, but I like to think of it possessive, and this is one of the reasons why I wouldn't do a team is because if they're my people, if they're my people, they're my people, and I don't want somebody they don't know, calling them my mom, who's my assistant. She's actually out in California. She was a realtor for 30 something years, and now she has retired, so she we have a system in place where, you know, once I've closed after. Or, you know, four weeks they get something from me, you know, an email. At the six month mark, they get a gift from me. At the one year mark, they get something for me in the mail. At the 15 year, 15 month mark, they get something. And then every year, in November, I send all my clients a copy of their settlement statement. So that way, when it comes time to file for their taxes in tax national homestead, exactly. So I have a system, but where mom, kind of, she tracks that, yeah, that's right, that's right. And she doesn't, everything's mine. So, and the phone calls are for me, and, you know, I'm getting better. I'm trying to get better.

Tracy Hayes  5:30  
How did mom make those phone calls? Yeah, better.

Erica Jolles  5:33  
She's really good. Whenever I get my leads and they come in and she answers the phone, I will say, eight out of 10 times she turns elite into something that's awesome. Yeah, she's really good.

Tracy Hayes  5:43  
So get back on track of the show. Where are you from?

Erica Jolles  5:46  
I am from Southern California. Specifically, I grew up in agora, and moved here from Simi Valley, agora, agora. Yeah, okay. There's a lot of depending upon when you live there. Newcomers call it agora hills, okay? Because we were unincorporated. It was the country. I mean, there was like, you know, it was probably like what Julian Creek Plantation was to people who've lived here their whole life, right? But at the grocery store, there are places to hit your horses up to, wow. Now it's where Hollywood lives. To stay out of Hollywood. It's about 25 minutes inland of Malibu and an hour south of Santa Barbara. It was a great place to

Tracy Hayes  6:20  
grow up. Oh, so I was wondering how, because one of my questions you had in the Ronald Reagan why called the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, right? But obviously that wasn't that far

Erica Jolles  6:30  
away, correct, but that came to be so I went to grad school at USC, and then, just like I tell my kids, life is about who you know, and so you need to be nice to everybody you meet, because you never know when you might meet them again. You might need to call upon them. Yep. So I was given a position at USC. I didn't ever want to practice real social work. I wanted to be a college counselor of sorts. So this woman who I was put in touch with, through somebody I know, helped me get a job at USC as an undergraduate admission counselor. Then I was commuting 100 miles, round trip on the train in Los Angeles, I knew how to use the subways. Most people don't know how to do that. I even took a city bus. One and done. That's it. And so I after having been there for three years, the same woman who helped me get my job at SC had since moved to the Reagan Library, was looking for somebody who had the knowledge to use an unusual kind of computer program and event planning, and it was three miles from home, so she hired me, and I was there for five years, and was part of a team that helped raise $32 million for the Reagan Presidential Library Foundation. We helped bring Air Force One, or President Reagan's Air Force One. It was retired, right? We built a museum for it. It was a big deal. I learned more in those five years than I learned in any of my years of school

Tracy Hayes  7:40  
that when I originally worked for loan depot, because this is my second time around, they flew me because they're home offices in California, and I was there for two weeks. Yeah, you kind of had the weekend off in the middle, so I drove up to the library. Oh, wow. And I, you know, because I was born in 70 so when I came to old enough to realize what the first presidential election. I remember us, I think, as a sophomore in high school. And, you know, they were like, Oh, you got, you know, you gotta stay up and watch the whole Well, that was the one where he landslide, and was basically over by eight o'clock Eastern time, right? And, but, man, I was in tears, yeah. Oh, that is such a did you hear the Air Force? One? Saw the Air Force? One walked through it. And actually, I brought my the following year, I went back out, and for a couple of weeks, I worked one week while my wife and kids toured around them. The second week, we toured some more and went north, and I took them to the library. So I've been there twice, but man, when I walk through so I'm by myself, and you're walking, they take you through the path of the thing, and that last part in and eventually his passing, and they had the videos on the wall. I'm crying, yeah? I am crying. That was, it was such a well done emotional Yeah, just the way he spoke in here is that that's I had to touch on him. When I saw that, I was like, that is awesome, because

Erica Jolles  8:54  
I it's a pretty special place. So I was there when the Air Force One took its final flight. I was there when they took it apart. Oh, wow. We they five in the morning. They had to take it down the highway, up what we call the shining city on the hill, up the hill, and then put it back together again. Yeah, so I it was a tremendous, you know? And yes, it's a rather emotional experience. And I will tell you politically, I didn't care about politics. It was a job three miles from my house, yeah, California. That's all I cared about.

Tracy Hayes  9:19  
If you've never, if anyone is ever the air they have air force, one the weights position, you can describe it, and it's facing this whole glass, so when you're standing there, makes it look like it's flying over, yeah, it's taking off. It's, yeah, over the hills of California. There the rolling. It's just so well done. The whole place was well done. Okay, so you're there, yep. And I see your, you had your first brokerage on LinkedIn as Magnolia property. Is that here or

Erica Jolles  9:43  
no, that was here. So what brings you? So we moved here. So my husband, I met him. He was in the Marine Corps. He is from Maryland. He hated California, but we stayed out there, and we had our second child. And at that time, my job was pretty there was a lot. It was pretty demanding. You know, I was answering, in some respects, directly to Mrs. Reagan. Oh, wow. I had a boss who did not have children, and so the whole work family thing didn't jive for her.

Tracy Hayes  10:07  
She must. Was she a political appointee at one time, totally dedicated?

Erica Jolles  10:11  
No, no. But there are those people. And I used to use people in my I used to like joke around that these people that like work for the in the administration, how they are always talking about it, but now that I work there, like I get why you talk about it, it is definitely feared a cocktail party. It's much more exciting to talk about that than real estate, I'll tell you that. But so i My husband was a CPA, and we just decided it was time to leave California. So I actually sent his resume out, and he had a couple opportunities. The best one being here. We he interviewed in May, and then in August, of 2005 we were here, and I had gone from working full time, plus having two kids in daycare, where their diapers are being changed, they're being fed, they're being taken care of somebody else, and living in a community that I had grown up in, and I suddenly moved here, and I was suddenly taking care of two kids, changing diapers, feeding them, And I knew nobody, and I am an ambitious person. I was going crazy, right? I'm like, This is not for me. And so I met a woman who had said that she was looking for an assistant. She was a realtor, maybe 10 hours a week. And I just wanted, honestly, to make enough money to have a lady, lady, that was really it. And so I became her assistant. I thought this would be easy. You know, my mom's a realtor. I know something. I was her assistant. I was getting done what should have been 10 hours done in two hours. And I realized I'm too smart to be someone's assistant. So then I went and got my license, and then that was March of 2000 and I will just say every year it's gotten better since then. Wow.

Tracy Hayes  11:36  
So even during the because you were you started the same time as CC, Underwood, Christina, well, these are all great real estate agents in the region. I can name off some others that have been on the show started at a similar time. Yep. And then so when you hit, what do you do when you hit that probably start feeling it 2007 but definitely by 2008 and 2009 you said you kept moving forward. What were some of the things like, Oh, my God, you know, because it's really the first downturn, right? You get slapped in the face with it. It's like, what? Okay, what do you do? Well, first of all,

Erica Jolles  12:09  
I should also back up and say that I, when I first started, the first four years a woman who I became her assistant, we became partners, okay? And I was working because I wanted to be working. And I had come from working, you know, I was asking people for $100,000 gifts, making donations. So so as the market didn't affect me in some way, they didn't know anything different. It was just, you just work, and you work through it, and you have to work hard. I mean, I love when people say they want to get into real estate, because it's easy money. And I'm like, show me the easy part. Yeah. So I will say that time period, I learned so much. You know, that's how I learned about short sales, because in the very beginning, before David, he can, for example, started his whole business where he would take on the short sale and do the negotiating. I remember my first couple of short sale deals. I was the one negotiating with the bank. So I learned a lot. I mean, every experience was a learning experience, right? And I don't know that I was, you know, I don't I It wasn't about, obviously, it's about the dollar signs, right? We all want to, we're working hard. We want to see our efforts pay off, but it was just about getting, I don't know. I don't even think of it as being hard.

Tracy Hayes  13:15  
Well, the opportunities were there, right? You just had the mold. What's going on. And this sounds like you just, you went with the flow. Yeah. I didn't even realize maybe David mentioned that when I had him on the show, because, you know, been 10 months or so last fall. But I didn't realize he actually does total sense, because his business is slow, you know, from the title side, right? And why not go out and I need to create the business. I need to actually get involved in, put the value out there. That was brilliant. But seems like you just, Hey, okay, here's the next obstacles, next hill I got to climb. Well, it starts with the first step,

Erica Jolles  13:47  
right, right? That's exactly right. Yeah, I never, it was like I didn't know anything different, right? Because I started off not really knowing how to do real estate, because, you know, you think you go to school and you what you learn in school means absolutely nothing, right? So I think it's fair to say, the first couple of years, I was still learning, and then the recession hit, and the housing market took a dive, and so then I just had to keep working hard.

Tracy Hayes  14:08  
Tell us a little bit about because you just mentioned a few minutes ago you were calling on people to make six figure donations to the library. How did you take that experience overall from you know, five years of your basically your post college life, and some of those things you learned are dealing with people on the phone and immediately put it into your real estate play.

Erica Jolles  14:30  
So that's a really interesting question, because I tell this to people all the time. So let's back up. Before I worked at the Reagan Library, I was a college admission counselor, so I was planning events nationwide for kids, trying to recruit them to come to USC, okay, talking to them, listening to what their needs were, trying to educate them on the opportunities. If this was a match, whatever, then I'm a fundraiser again, talking to people, listening to why they love President Reagan, trying to educate them about President Reagan, about the importance of our of leadership and future generations, and then real estate so the. Basic principle you learn when you're getting your master's in social work is you need to start where your clients are. Number one, it's not about where you are. It's not about where their family is. About start where your client is, right. So if you think about that principle, and I've applied it to every single one of my careers, I've had it start where my clients are. Listen to what their needs are. Don't if they tell you that they can spend a half a million dollars on a house. Don't send them $600,000 homes. It's not for I'm not there to spend their money, right? So it's always listening to what my clients needs are, regardless of what my needs are, right? It doesn't matter. And then, you know, try to, obviously, when it comes to housing, meld, husband, wife, partners, sisters, fathers, daughter, whenever everyone together,

Tracy Hayes  15:43  
that's it interesting. How you you brought that in together, the social work in, you know, obviously not everyone's been a social worker or took to but actually that's a social worker has to get down in the thick of things and in areas that maybe most of us don't even want to go, but you have to find out what's what's the baseline of these people, where's the foundation, and then you can start influencing them, or encouraging them, or whatever it is that your goal is, and trying to do that, and how that works directly with buying a halt. That's brilliant.

Erica Jolles  16:17  
Well, and you have to ask questions, and not just ask questions, but you have to listen to the answers, right? You can't be formulating your next question while you're there telling you their answers. Yes. And you know one of the questions, for example, when I'm working with retired people or people who are empty nesters for one reason or another, they're relocating here, that's a hard time in life to start meeting people, especially if you're not moving to a 55 and older community. Yes. So the question I always ask is, how do you envision you're going to spend your days now that you're retired? And I will tell you nine out of 10 times, and people like, gosh, I haven't even thought about it. Okay. Well, what do you like to do?

Tracy Hayes  16:48  
Because they've always worked, right? They just are programmed, or they take care of kids, yeah, and they program for that, and all of a sudden

Erica Jolles  16:55  
that's gone. That's right. So, so okay, what do you like to do? You think you're going to go to the beach? Are you involved with your church or synagogue? Are you? Are you an artist? Do you like maybe you want to get involved with continuing ed classes at the university, right? And then, okay, this is what you like to do. Well, how far are you willing to commute, right? And then you just, you know, it's all about asking questions. And the funny thing is, some people would say, Oh, well, you're nosy. I'm really not. I don't I do not like small talk, which is one reason I don't go to a lot of realtor events, because if I want to talk to you, I want to get to know you, right, right? So I want to take that information and help my people, my clients, create a life. Your relatives from the northeast, yeah, my parents, I was born in New York, but

Tracy Hayes  17:35  
okay, yeah, I was born in New York as well, yeah. And that is the stereotypical New Yorker we are. And I was told, because I think my wife is from Florida, and she's a little more restrained from, you know, asking those questions, I and I've said this, I think the last three episodes of it on it, we as humans, we deal with the same things just at different times in our lives, right? And whether it's a financial loss or personal loss, family member, whatever it is, we all deal with these pains, and when you come to the realization that we've all been down the same path, just you might have done it in California, another guy might have done in South Carolina, it doesn't matter. It is really the same path that when you actually start talking a little more probing, like, Hey, why did your kid fail out of school or something, you're asking questions that are relative to the conversation. That's right. And in the let in, you're letting them know that, hey, I am. I want to find the because I'm sure you preface your whole conversation with, let's find you the best house in the right location, with all the things are gonna make you happy. Let me and you start asking those questions, and

Erica Jolles  18:37  
they will talk to you, yep, yep. And you know, and in some cases, if one of the spouses we this is another conversation I'll have. Is, if one of the spouses is working, I will often say to the other spouse, okay, their job is to go to work and make money. Your job is to create a life for your family here. How are we going to do that? Who are what do you want to do with your kids? What are activity? You know? So again, it's the systems approach, like social work. So you start where your client is, yeah, and then you bring in all of these other pieces, which makes the hole let me throw.

Tracy Hayes  19:05  
I won't call it a wrench in your engine, but not really, but because I know this happens all the time, because of the internet and everything we see, a lot of our buyers are on there, searching and trying to do as much research as they can. And a lot of the times, I'm sure they come with you, hey, I want to live here. But then you start having this conversation, and it's like, okay, that's not really where you want to live in.

Erica Jolles  19:28  
What you're telling right? Well, I mean, I think it's important to, again, listen to them and visit that place, right? You know, for example, they say they want to live at the beach, you know, in Jack's beach. Let's just use that as an example. And we're talking about all these other things. I'll say, great. This is a great opportunity. These are the options you have. But keep in mind, you may be commuting to do X, Y and Z, or if you live in Jack's Beach, these other things that you don't you like to do are not going to be at your fingertips, right? So I think it's important that they come to the realization on their own, with my guidance and education,

Tracy Hayes  19:58  
what you're you sound like you let. And I there's needs to be more age, I think you probably should do some trainings if you don't already do them downstairs at round table. I think a lot of Hayes and a lot, I think there's a good amount of agents that kind of just roll with the punches from their, you know, from their respective buyers, and the buyer will tell them they want to live in jet speech, okay? And then just go to jet speech instead of asking those few other questions, because you may find out, Oh, you know what, they actually want to live over here. Because Can I show you one of it? And all of a sudden they fall in love, and you're like, Oh, my God, thank you for asking me questions, and the fact that they roll the punches and are afraid to ask some of those questions, and you're not being personal. You're doing your job right? Your job is to find out, really where they want to live. They only know so much. They only know what they know, right? They don't know that's right. And, you

Erica Jolles  20:46  
know, one of the things I will tell people, especially when I'm working with people new to the area, is, there's nothing that I would hate more than they buy a house and they call me a year later because they've met people at work or forever, and they say, Well, why don't we look at this area or this area, you know? So I rather give them the whole overview. It's someone said to me before I got my first job, with every interview you have, you're that much closer getting your job. Well, I feel like with every community you look at, you're that much closer to figuring out what's going to work for you, right? So I you know, you can't return this, you can't return a health Yes, you can put it back on the market, but we all know how that goes, right? Yeah. And I think, you know, it ties into this whole notion that we have downstairs. Our sort of slogan, or tagline is people before property. So before I even worked with Howard and Keith, that was my that was sort of, it's about the people. I will tell people over and over again the product I sell our houses real estate. But I'm in the business of people, and I will just as easily talk somebody out. I went to a listing appointment recently for somebody that I know they're empty nesters. They all of their friends are selling their big houses and moving to apartments or condos on the river this out or the other well, this couple lived in a very modest home with a swimming pool in the backyard, and they love their home. And I said, What? Why are you moving? This is affordable for you. It's right in the location you want to be in. Like, I just don't get it right. And they're like, thank you. Yeah, you know. And they're not, and now they're making changes to their home. I'm like, invest in your home and stay in your home. You love it

Tracy Hayes  22:17  
the best in the business, like yourself. I had Patrick Wiseman in here a few weeks ago, and she was talking about how she's run the people similar like that are like, Hey, why don't you keep it rented out? Let me show you how that will right, Jane, where she could have gotten the sale right, but she actually showed them how to improve, put themselves in a better financial spot. But one of the questions I actually had on here was because I know Howard's very proud of his tagline, people before property. And, you know, define that and what that means to you.

Erica Jolles  22:45  
I mean, I feel like I just, I mean, it's again, putting my people's needs before my paycheck, right? You know? I mean, a lot of, one of the thing that my mom taught me, the that I'll never forget when I first got into this business, is, Don't count your money until it's in the bank, right? Because, before they have closing table and not tell me what she did, right? No, don't cut your money. I was always a chicken, and you know, because a deal could fall apart of the closing table, and ultimately, if my clients are not happy, they're not going to refer me. My most important, I don't know what the word is, but there's nothing more important than my reputation, right, right? So if I am not putting my clients needs and people before they, you know, the house first, you know, then I am not doing them justice, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  23:34  
and the, you know, this is a very common theme that comes up, and you were saying that about the dollars. And the realization is, if someone comes in front of you as a real estate if you're a new real estate agent or a new loan officer, it doesn't matter. We're paid to buy the volume paid by the volume, the size of the loan paid by the purchase price of the house. Person looking for the $500,000 home probably isn't going to turn around and buy a $200,000 home, and vice versa, right? And the reality is, you have to work with the person who's in front of you to get to the next person that's right in line. And nothing says just because you're working with the $200,000 version, that you're going to miss the 500,000 because obviously the volume you do, you're dealing with multiple clients, probably at all different points at any one time. And you

Erica Jolles  24:18  
know what? Let's tie this back to my fundraising days. You know, your $1,000 donor today could become your $100,000 donor tomorrow. Yeah. So my, you know, $300,000 buyer today. Give them 10 years, they might be buying a million dollar home, or a $600,000

Tracy Hayes  24:32  
home or whatever, right? And we're probably going to see a lot of it, of Avenue already, where these people did buy their house two years ago, we the pricing on the homes, it's, you know, higher than it's ever been. And they're turning around saying, Hey, let me take some of this equity, and I can, you know, put money down, have this almost the same loan amount. Interest rates are a little higher. Yeah, you know, I'm saying they're relatively to move to that now they're moving, you know, to that area. Maybe they're going from the west side to Ponte Vedra. I don't know, whatever it may be, but they're gonna be making those moves. You know that whenever. Guy took an application from a customer, bought a $218,000 home a year ago. He has some nice equity in it. Now they're looking to sell that home, take that equity and move up to a $400,000

Erica Jolles  25:11  
home. I'd like to know where there's a $218,000 home.

Tracy Hayes  25:13  
Well, that was, yeah, that was definitely on the west side, for sure. I didn't, I can't remember, but there was, there's someone, somehow they go. But you know, there's some 10 of homes that were, I think there think they're living in a town home, yeah, that there's a fortune area there. There was, I don't know they got to be 250 now, but there are hot cakes of 200,000 Yeah, going as fast, yeah, you could list them. But in that, I use the terminology you never know what's under the rock that you Unturned, right? And that, that, like I said, that $1,000 donor, that $200,000 home buyer who knows, might have gotten a raise, whatever, and now they're changing. And maybe they only had one income a year ago. Now they have two incomes, and now, that's right, you know. And now a kid, and now they're ready to That's right, you just never know, yeah, and you've got to just enter the lottery, turn over the rock and keep moving, and treat every person like you said, when you start, you're talking about people, to me, the houses sell themselves, right? Someone's gonna go in their house. Oh, I'd really like the right? I love the location. You don't really. It's not like trying to sell someone, upsell someone in a car or something, that maybe that's gonna push their financial days if someone walks in, the houses sell themselves, right? But you and your longevity is totally determined on how you how that transaction with the how you made them feel through that tire, 3045, 60 days.

Erica Jolles  26:26  
And I think, honestly, I mean, I'll tell you, I this is something else. In fact, I have a meeting tomorrow night with these new buyers. They're young, and I'm going to say, look, we're going to go look at houses, and I'm going to point out the pros and cons to you, and you may choose to still move forward with the house, and I'll support you, but I'm not doing my job if I don't point out things, because you're thinking about today and I'm thinking about tomorrow, right? You know, the resale so if it's on a corner lot with a ton of cars going by, I'm going to tell you, right, that you're not going to be playing out. That's right, but you might love it, because it's a huge piece of property, right? And that's fine.

Tracy Hayes  26:59  
Do you find? Yeah, I always remember when we bought our house here, and it was November of 2008 as rates were dropping, we made the offer. We closed in December of oh eight. And I think how many times did I did we actually visit the property? Right? We went over there a couple of times. And you don't really get to, like, get a true feeling, especially if you're coming from outside the area, until you've been living in a home for a period of time, and how important is for an agent like said, Hey, here's it's on a cul de sac, or it's not on a cul de sac. Are you going to have kids? You know, here's where the schools are at. Let's look go see how far they're away and how that's going to transact, and how important that is. That person, when they move in, they're satisfied, they're not having a buyer's remorse 12 months later, right?

Erica Jolles  27:43  
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, you know, I point out a lot, just for that reason, everything from one of my biggest pet peeves, this is just me, but i Nothing drives me more crazy than standing in a place and seeing three different, three or more different kinds of floors. Oh, yeah. So I'll point things like that out, and I'll always say this is my issue, but I do want you to see this, because it probably is something that you might have

Tracy Hayes  28:05  
to agree. It sounds, it looks, obviously, someone flipped out the floor in the living room because I thought it but then it matches up to the kitchen, and the kitchen's a different flooring. It just doesn't, and that's not the it might have been the style, right, years ago. That's right. Not the style today, right? Yeah. 100% Yeah, yeah, no doubt. All right, so we talked about the people. Now, what do you do? You've been doing this 16 years. We've had obviously worked your way through the Collapse and 789, and 10, you had to learn how to do the short sales and all that stuff. Then we went on this, this kind of a road here, I think, for almost a decade, and then all of a sudden we have this super high, and I wouldn't say we're at any sort of low, but everyone likes to think, as it was last year, right? You know, it's still trucking along. People are just a little more bashful because of price point and rates, right? From that standpoint. But what do you do to keep yourself polished when you're in front of customers. Are you a book reader? You listen to podcasts? Do you like to read industry journals? What are you to keep yourself or you just listen to Howard? What is it

Erica Jolles  29:09  
that's really, you know what? So I don't listen to podcasts. I mean, I listen to podcasts like armchair experts. Like things to keep my to make me laugh. I don't listen to industry things. I don't I read things on Facebook sometimes or Instagram, and I'll sometimes go to oh my gosh in the news, and I'll read that I don't read but it stresses me out.

Tracy Hayes  29:28  
Like I've gone reading industry type, yeah, everyone's thoughts, right?

Erica Jolles  29:33  
And like, when you get the Florida magazine, realtor magazine, and reading what you could be doing, what you should be doing, it stresses me out. I'm doing okay, you know. So to answer your question, what I'll do is I'll sometimes sit down with Howard and we sort of have, like, a, okay, are you doing this? Are you doing this? Are you doing okay? You're not doing this. Why have you stopped doing this? It's time to kick it in again. You know, a perfect,

Tracy Hayes  29:53  
oh, sorry. Well, so Howard's kind of like your in house coach. Yeah, I would say he's

Erica Jolles  29:57  
sort of like my coach and mentor. I mean, it's really fun. And he's younger than me, and we argue like brother and sister, but he's but he gets my he gets me, he gets right, he gets my craziness. How I get stressed? Because he does a saying, you know, I was gonna say A perfect example is this January and February. It was really slow, you know, after being crazy and I'm like, What am I doing? What's going on? I have nothing going on. So I got on Tiktok, which I've never been on Tiktok before, right? My dad would get on Tiktok during the pandemic, when things were shut down, and he's like, You should find this person or that dog or whatever. And I there's a realtor in Atlanta, Georgia, who has really made a presence for herself on Tiktok, and I was fascinated by it. And I'm like, I want to become the Jacksonville version of her. So I started doing all these Tiktok videos. Well, then it became such I don't want to like I do the video like I'm gonna do them today. When I leave you I do probably 10 or 12, but it's a process to post them and do it. And so again, business started to pick up. And so the marketing person I use, she is not able to post things on Tiktok. For me, she can only do on all the other social so I stopped posting to tick tock, but they're going to all my other social media sort of places, you know? But that's a perfect example of my sometimes lack of follow through, right? Like I should still be doing them on tick tock there.

Tracy Hayes  31:12  
Well, that I think you and I know in our business, sitting down, and I've been here, loan depot's got a ton of technology. They, there's so many different ways that you can do the business, do the business here, it almost is. It's overwhelming, right? And, and there's all these gadgets out there, the real you guys are being bombarded by as a technology change. There's somebody creating a new app to do this and do that, and that you can get lost, right? And all that stuff, right? But since you brought the social media, I have noticed you obviously unless it's just because I'm now following you, I have your regular video where you kind of sitting there at the table and bring in whatever subject you can and the importance, I'm sure, obviously, as you've read, or it's just consistent, right, right?

Erica Jolles  31:54  
And that's and that's what I'm doing. And so I'm doing them pretty consistently. Originally, I was trying to post them three times a week. Now maybe at least twice a week. It just sort of depends upon what I have in me, right, right? And topics, you know? I mean, so, but I love doing them. I It's so fun. I joke around saying, if real estate doesn't work out, I'm going

Tracy Hayes  32:12  
to become the next Oprah. Yeah, I see a lot of people posting the generic ads wherever they're, you know, there's sources for that, and they tell you flat out the social media. People said those ads really don't get you anything. You have got to put yourself in if you're showing a house, put yourself at the beginning of the video and then show the house right, or show yourself somewhere in there they want to see Right, right? And the reality is, and I've mentioned this many times before, I mean, since I've been doing the podcast, you know, 14 months now, I've gotten more of my circle of influence, constantly seeing me on there, right? And they don't care what you look like. They don't care if you stutter. They know you. They love you already. So it's not but you've got to stay on top. If you stayed on top of your influence, your circle of influence, yeah, enough. You will actually get enough, you know, to stay alive in the business, then go out and get what your is bonus, which right out outside of that and consistency on the social media, and just do it. I mean, the reality is people, I think people, as in the pro se, people want to see the real you, right?

Erica Jolles  33:16  
But I will say Robert Adams, a dear friend of mine who's also a realtor here in town. You know, we used to joke around. I'm like, it's so much easier for you to do that you can leave the gym and do a social media post, right? If I'm leaving the gym and my hair is tied up and I'm sweaty, there's a little bit of

Tracy Hayes  33:33  
vanity. There's some people that could play

Erica Jolles  33:35  
that role. I feel like, I hate to say it's a man versus a woman thing, but I don't, I'm not going to be as comfortable doing something if I have not put makeup on that day, or if I I don't really care what I'm wearing. But so I think it's, it's an interesting in fact, I, you know, you mentioned technology. So I ordered a gimbal, right? You know what a gimbal? So you hold your phone

Tracy Hayes  33:56  
is always, you always look. You can walk with it, and it doesn't right?

Erica Jolles  34:00  
I ordered it back in the end of May, you know, many times I've used it. You haven't, not because it's like, I ordered it because I thought it was the greatest thing. And I do all these videos. But the reality is, I gotta, you gotta, I gotta work with what I have, what I'm good at, you know, so that I like to dive deep with what I know.

Tracy Hayes  34:16  
There is a little bit of a setup, you know, I'll shoot little videos, but it takes a few seconds to set. And a lot of people have asked me, Do you rehearse it? I was like, no. I said oftentimes, why I'm actually, I know I have to shoot a video, and I'll get in the phone, set up, and I've got the little remote where I shut off the video notes. I don't if you see me reaching us because I misplaced it, I've got the remote. And oftentimes I'll just think of the subject while I'm putting this on your What am I gonna talk about? So I'm putting that through my head, and then I go, you know, try to do like, 60 seconds or 90 seconds. If I get a little long winded, and it's just a topic. But the real point of it is, it's not like someone's doing research with your video, right? Point is, you're on the street, right? That's true. That is what it's all. That's what when people. Really break it down. Why are you doing is to remind people that I do mortgages, you do real estate, right? Friends and family, we're here, you know, call us.

Erica Jolles  35:08  
That's right, that's true. That's a good point. Yeah, that's a really good point.

Tracy Hayes  35:11  
The bottom, yeah, the people get so caught up on when they're gonna say something really stupid to see if the person on the other end catches it. Yeah, you know, right?

Erica Jolles  35:19  
That's a good point, actually. Yeah, you mentioned, do I like to read? What? So I'm, I don't think that this is where you're going, but I'm an avid reader. I am a voracious reader, but I read. That's how I like then out, yeah, I just read novels, correct? I just and I read all the time, and that's I actually did that all through graduate school. People didn't understand how I did it, but that's how I just shut my mind down. I mean, I, you know, I knock on wood. I had a very successful year last year, and I do it all myself. My assistant is the best, but I don't let her. I mean, they don't let her. She just shoots out emails and she keeps things organized for me. So I work a lot. I mean, I work non stop, and so when I'm down and that's reading, and I think that's one of the reasons I don't read real estate related books or leadership

Tracy Hayes  36:02  
related off. That's right, yeah, shut it off and let your mind go off on. Think about, even if it's really thinking about, you're reading the novel, you're entertaining yourself, but it's because you're having, you're reading it, you're you have to shut everything off. It's got to be quiet. It's, you know, you're in your little space and and reading that. You know, that's very good point, because I think one of the things I talked about it with Billy Wagner the other day, as he gets up in the morning and he goes for a walk, and he and 20 minutes of that, you know, he's, he might be listening to a podcast for 40 minutes, but he blocks 20 minutes of that morning, of nothing, let his mind catch up, come just, you know, reset his day, and that sort of thing. And that's the kind of thoughts, and that's probably what you're the best for you. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, well, you brought up your assistant. You did an extremely high How are you doing it? What? How do you so this is, I think, one of the challenges a lot of agents have of going from, you know, so many deals to, you know, 5060, deals. You know, they need to actually let someone else do some things, right? How did you make that break what are the things that you assign your system to do, and you count on them to do it? You don't. I think some people think they have to, like, look over someone's shoulder, make sure they're doing you have to hire that right person that you know when you're out showing that house that they're doing what

Erica Jolles  37:16  
they're supposed to right? Well, it's my mom. First of all, that's I can have a conversation with her, and I can yell at her, and she can yell at me like, you know, again, she's a New Yorker, so we could have words with each other where I probably couldn't with another person who I didn't know, so I can get things done. The other thing is, she's my mom works seven days a week for me, so if I have showings on Saturdays, she's sending out feedback requests on Sundays. Okay? So any other assistant works Monday through Friday, right? If I am, you know, and she's in California, so she's three hours behind. So if it's, you know, let's just say it's nine o'clock at night here, and I had a 6pm showing on one or a 6pm showing, you know, all callers sometimes say, Hey, can you send out a feedback request for first thing tomorrow morning, and I'm calling her late at night our time, saying, can you make this call? So you know, we definitely have first and foremost, she keeps me organized. She comes to my house and she gets very frustrated because she thinks that I am I in my mind, it's organized chaos. But she has highlighters and post it nodes. I mean, and you can only imagine what her Tupperware cabinet looked like. I mean, she's very organized all aspects of her life. My dad respects it, so it's works well

Tracy Hayes  38:29  
for them. She grew up in the age of the Tupperware party, right?

Erica Jolles  38:34  
But she so she has her definitive her definitive duties. I guess you can say things that I wish she could do for me, like, for example, she can write amendments for me, but I'm not at the point where we even got the point where I could say, Hey, I'm not showing a house, but I need you to write a contract for me. You know, that's she could do it, but she'd want me to be on the phone with her, talking her through each thing. And I'm like, so a lot of what she does is just the computer work, organizing things that touches to my past clients. She sends out all my anniversary cards, my birthday cards, all that well, even

Tracy Hayes  39:05  
when you say, I had a friend of mine agent, he was with exp, and he was very happy when he finally he got that virtual assistant picked up on a lot of those things that you just mentioned. You are at a road of mediocrity, unless you are doing a lot of the you know, the past client things right, and you're not tapping into that past clients. You're missing out on those clients that are going to start pushing you right, start compounding your units monthly and over the course of the year. And you know, if that, if there's any one thing I think, at an agent who's trying to do it all themselves, to probably lack on is continuing touching their path.

Erica Jolles  39:43  
That's right, that's right, right. Love what I'm doing. So I will be with friends, and we'll be sitting on the beach, and my phone will ring and they're like, God, just give it a rest, or if I'm on vacation with but the thing about it, it's no sweat off my back. I love what I do. I it like I thrive on it. I like.

Tracy Hayes  40:00  
That, have you always said that? Is that something and, you know, like, or, I mean, I think a lot of not everyone, but one person said they'd never thought of quitting. But, I mean, there's times where it's kind of driven you to a point like, I'm, you know, I'm gonna give up on it. I should. Have you ever had that thought anytime in the 17 years?

Erica Jolles  40:15  
No, I haven't. I mean, you know, I'm getting older, you know, I'm a newly empty nester. And my husband is also self employed. He has his own CPA practice. You know, we start talking about the future and how we can both slow down and retire. I'm like, I'm never gonna not do this. I'm never gonna not

Tracy Hayes  40:31  
well, you literally could, right, may not do the volume right, handing off, right?

Erica Jolles  40:36  
And that's where I have to then I don't have an ego like I just I am who I am, like, what you see is what you get. But when it comes to my ambition and my success, I the only person I'm competitive with is myself, and so to bring it down, I'm gonna have to have a real like, heart to heart with myself and be like, okay, it's okay that you're doing this. Because instead of working all this, you're, you know, going to Yellowstone, which is what you want to do or something like that.

Tracy Hayes  41:01  
Would you agree? I think you would agree, based on what you just said to the agents that are out there. Whether you're a real estate agent, you're a loaner, it doesn't matter what level of business you're actually in. If you want to move forward, the number the only obstacle in your way is your inability to grow yourself. That's right. You are. It's like playing golf. You are playing against yourself every time you're it's your mindset. You know, are you personally growing? Are you learning? And if you're not doing that right, absolutely.

Erica Jolles  41:32  
Now I will say, I also tell if I'm talking to a new agent, and this is one of the reasons why I think I was fortunate and was successful early on, is because I had another my family had another income coming in, so it made it easier for me to spend money. But the only way to make money is that you have to spend money. You have to get leads from somewhere when you're first starting out. Yes, you can sit open houses, you can do those kinds of things, but you can't wait for the business to come to you. You're gonna have to go after it. So if you're not gonna spend money for leads, you need to pound the pavement like never before to get the leads and work 'em.

Tracy Hayes  42:08  
So back in 2006 you're you go from being an assistant to got your license, and you're out there were lead buys a thing at that time, or what were some of the things you did to of course, you had your husband's income, like you said, coming in, so you didn't feel like, Hey, I gotta I better sell a house right now, or I'm not gonna eat next. What were some of those grassroots things that you did?

Erica Jolles  42:30  
So again, I had a business partner, and she had been doing this already for, I don't know how many years, and we sort of had a niche community within the Jewish community, and we made our presence known at events. We attended events. We put an ad in the Jewish news, and then I would say, probably, so I've been doing this 16 years, so maybe 14 years ago, she calls me and she says, Hey, I'm at this convention thing, and there's this thing called Zillow. What do you think about us buying a zip code? And so we invested in Zillow. So I've been with Zillow for so long, and the more I now you have to spend more, and you get a whole heck of a lot, lot. Yeah, I mean, it's painful, but I've been buying leads from Zillow for 14 years, right? And I wish that Zillow would reward me for that, but they don't.

Tracy Hayes  43:11  
I've heard this. Do you know? You know, because your grandfather didn't, you don't pay. How does that work?

Erica Jolles  43:16  
I don't think there's anything you're paying with. If I called Zillow, that's right, you're there's nothing I get nothing special. Yeah, I get nothing special. And I, and I used to be the biggest proponent of their customer service in the very beginning. Like, if I got a call from another company, let's just say realtor.com, I would be the first person to say you guys need to do things like Zillow. They're so on top of it, they're calling me. But it's like anything else has gotten too big. It's just kind of gone by the wayside. So when

Tracy Hayes  43:44  
the operators, or the initial intent, they've moved on, or sold it off, or whatever, they get too far away from where the actual rubber meets the road. Yeah, yeah. From that standpoint, you mentioned the Jewish community. How important is it for an agent? And I've seen some other agents. They take, they've taken over their subdivision. They're the they're Austin with EXP and pre throw him pronouncing his last name correctly, like he does his a beacon lakes. You know he is. He talks about shooting the video, hey, this is what's going on this month at Beacon Lake. Says he's he'll be walking his dog, and people will say, hey, Austin, and he doesn't even know who they are, yeah. How important is it to really, you know, focus on a group and you put that information out and become an expert in that wherever it's a Jewish community or a subdivision or whatever,

Erica Jolles  44:32  
well, you know what? So the Jewish community was easy for me, because it's my family. For me, without that Jewish community, I would not have had a life here when I first moved here, so I was just showing up and supporting things, just because it was a mutually beneficial experience, right? But I'll give phone calls, you know? I'll also give my time. So if I get a phone call from one of the synagogues and they're hiring somebody new, and they're like, Hey, we have three candidates coming in. We want them to have a tour of the community, I don't know if they're gonna buy. Don't know if they're gonna move here. I don't know what they're gonna do. Will you do it absolutely, you know. So it's sort of a give and take. Yeah. Now it's funny, you should bring up a neighborhood, because I've never been one to farm a neighborhood. However, I live in a smaller subdivision that's newer, and I've sort of, I have, I send out postcards every month. I've sold a whole bunch of houses in there recently. What I do also, this comes down to time, and I should do more, but I don't have that much time, but we have a neighborhood Facebook page. Whenever somebody asks for a referral, I'll always make a comment, well, I always refer my clients to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I think lets them

Tracy Hayes  45:31  
know that you're an agent that's right, and you have experience of referring people out, and you've used

Erica Jolles  45:35  
these people right, that's right, but you're an agent that's right, that's right. So I think it's paying off, you know. But I think you have one has to find their niche, whatever that might be, you know, there's a woman in our office who was started off not that long ago, doing this, and she got really involved with the rotary club down in the World Golf Village area. And I think that's really paid off for her. Another woman, one of my close friends, she her sort of niche community became her gym, you know, so big or small, you just have to do

Tracy Hayes  46:03  
something with it. Stories. Ryan sirhant joined like, three or four gyms just to run into people.

Erica Jolles  46:08  
Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, interesting, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  46:12  
I read both those books. I remember just vaguely in there, but someone brought it up. The other, Hey, you didn't mention that in one, huh? That's but that's the people before property. I know, you know, with slate Realty down the street, he's big on his agents being involved in different communities, right? Because he's teaching you that you've got to become part of the thread that's right, of what's around you. You can't sit on the outside and not be involved in things. People got to know and see you, right? And when they know, like and trust you, right then they're ready to do business with you. And it could be the postcard every month that they're getting, and know that you live in the community, and just say, Well, I've never met her, but I know she lives in the community, so she must be the best person to sell

Erica Jolles  46:51  
my home, right? And I also think, again, this is for newer agents, and maybe this is because I'm from Los Angeles and I'm used to driving, but a lot of realtors just hone in on one area I work, from Palm Coast up to Fernandina. Now, granted, I don't know very much about Palm Coast or Fernandina, and I will tell my clients that, and I will find out the information. But in a given day doesn't happen often, thank goodness. But I could start off my day in St Augustine, go to Orange Park, back to Mandarin and end up in Atlantic Beach. Don't mind driving, you know? And not everybody's like that.

Tracy Hayes  47:20  
A lot of you liked it. So you're probably, do you engage your so what are you doing while you're driving? I'm trying

Erica Jolles  47:24  
to get as much business done as I can on the phone while I'm driving, much to everyone's chagrin, because they're like, You shouldn't be doing this while you're driving, but I try to do as much

Tracy Hayes  47:31  
as you always have someone you can call and say hi to and try to knock some of those

Erica Jolles  47:36  
out, right? Or I'll be on the phone with my mom and we're kind of going through what needs to be done. Or I'm just listening to my like entertainment podcast, you need to, like, zone out also, you know, right? But I do like to try to get as much done as I can in the car on my way. You know, it's interesting. So, and I'm actually going to do a, I think, a tick tock about this. But so one of the benefits of covid for me was I was one of those people. I always brought people in my car. Some realtors Don't ever bring people in their carpet. I always drove in my car. It's just much easier when you're touring around a neighborhood. You can point things out to them, very

Tracy Hayes  48:06  
generally, having a conversation the building. That's right.

Erica Jolles  48:08  
Well, now with covid, I sort of stopped putting people in my car. So now I get work done in between things, so I'm getting more accomplished. So you know, it just depends upon again, you need to know your audience. That brings

Tracy Hayes  48:19  
up an actually interesting thing, though, means you, when you are driving around the car, a lot of times, you can get off on conversations and actually learn a lot about something, right? That's right, because they're comfortable in your car, that's right. And you just start, something's brought up, something said, and they

Erica Jolles  48:32  
start talking, right? And that's how I know if I had a good day or not, is because, you know, sometimes you're on, not you're on 24th you know, the whole time you're in the car. And if it's just a conversation like this, where it goes and it goes and it flows and it's easy, awesome, but if I go home and I have a headache, I'm like, That was a hard day. And that doesn't happen so often, because I could talk to a wall and make it okay.

Tracy Hayes  48:50  
But and how many times in that conversation, leaving that house, that they end up buying, they're actually they're talking about it the husband and wife, you know, they're having that conversation in front of you who intercede when you need to intercede, or say, Yep, that's right, or answer their question right there. And by the time you get back to their car, they're like, let's

Erica Jolles  49:09  
write the culture that's right. Remember, I have a master's in social work. I did learn something about counseling. And though I'm driving with, you know, partners in a car and they're going back and forth and arguing about this or that or other, I'm sort of bringing working to bring peace to it all. So that way, when we get back to their car, they have, you know, the foresight to decide, is this the right house for me, or do we need to continue looking

Tracy Hayes  49:28  
right, right based on how that conversation is going? And you say, if they're arguing, then it's probably not the right. Someone doesn't like it, but if they're like, they're back and forth trying to convince each other, right? But oftentimes happens, all right, we're gonna go on our downward, wouldn't say downhill, but kind of come in for that landing Air Force One year. How important to you is educational piece? Obviously, in 1617, years, the contracts are different. You've had to learn how to do short sales, that sort of thing today. You have, you could probably talk about the contract without even being in front of you, and what paragraph or something that something might be talking about whatever, because you've done so many of them. But with the market conditions and, you know, things changing. You know, obviously last year, getting 23 offers on a home. We're still getting multiple offers. But you know, the house might sit for why is that house sitting? You know, you're having those kind of conversations. I price it right. How important is to educate yourselves in many ways, obviously, whether it's sitting with Howard or like you said you'd like to come into office, or just going down to nefar and getting a class, or a class that might be sponsored by a loan company, or something like that, where you have a guest speaker coming in and educating and educating on some

Erica Jolles  50:43  
piece of real estate. So the day I stop learning is a day I'm done in this business. So education is by far the most important thing, I think, in order to get ahead. Now, the kind of education for me, personally, I much prefer learning from Howard having workshops in our office. I don't have the patience to be honest, to go to nefar, where people ask silly questions over and over again. I'm just, I just don't have the patience for that. I've never had the patience for it, so I just choose not to do that. But I think education is central, right?

Tracy Hayes  51:15  
So new agent out there that just getting started wherever they're broken, and when the broker offers, yeah, I think I always say, I tell everyone, every one says they went to their broker because of the education. Oh, they're, they're what's Keller Williams or Caldwell, or whatever it's. They have all. They have the great education. Okay, well, let's agree that they all offer the education piece. We know some are better than others, obviously, because you could see the agents coming, right? And why agents move from one place to share is maybe they run the education line out or the leadership line out so they go to another brokerage and get some new information. But for a new agent that, you know, go down to nefar or, you know, if they're sponsoring something at Landmark, educational wise, you've got to put that into your weekly schedule

Erica Jolles  52:01  
for sure? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I did last week, Howard was in that breakfast of champion. And, you know, there's a lot of events that, networking events that bring Realtors together in the town. I'm not a big fan of the networking events, but I am a fan of the educational events. So if I can go and sit and listen and learn something, and if I could take away one thing, right, it was worth it. You mentioned the contract. I don't know the contract inside and out. In fact, I was with another eight real estate company for 10 years before I moved to Round Table Realty. I thought I knew it all. I knew nothing until I came over here. Yeah, I

Tracy Hayes  52:32  
assume you're with Howard. You must know now,

Erica Jolles  52:36  
but I call Howard. I'll call him at 11 o'clock at night and say, Okay, talk me through the inspection, the inspection part of the contract, even though I know it, I need you to just, we need to, you know, go back and forth. So, yeah, we're

Tracy Hayes  52:50  
built in. These are built in, live or plug in. Yeah, for sure. He's on the he's on the speed dial. We mentioned consistency earlier because we were talking about social media. But what are some other things that you've done over the years, and maybe in, like, Well, you mentioned, like, some there's some certain times where you've fallen off, right and realize that it affected your business, and you needed to get right back on, you know, like reaching out to past clients. What are some couple of things that you do and have done consistently that you've seen the fruits come from you?

Erica Jolles  53:15  
You know, I think it's more, not so much of consistency in terms of reaching out, but it's consistency of who I am. I'm consistently honest with my clients. I'm consistently, you know, I don't cover things up, like lay it out in line for them. I mean, I think when

Tracy Hayes  53:30  
you were talking earlier about asking the questions, yeah, you know, when you start doing a lot of volume, a lot of people are like, Oh, I'm just asking you, let's get the next one. Yeah, I think forget the one that's right in front of them. And I think you're, what you're trying to say to me is, I do the, I do the whole role with every single, yeah, that's your consistency.

Erica Jolles  53:49  
That's my consistency. Yeah, from day one to day, you know, day 30 or day 45 with closing, whatever I'm I'm there the whole way with my people, right? And afterwards, I mean, you know, let's face it, social media, Facebook makes it much easier staying in touch with people, because, you know, if you comment on there, like one of my clients, we closed it was quite a process. We finally got them in their house last week. She posted on Facebook last night. If anybody needs some moving boxes, let me know I have them. And I commented, this is the best post I've seen all day. You know what I mean? So just sort of that

Tracy Hayes  54:20  
interaction that you're watching and seeing them, and that's right, yeah, you're touching them. That's right, in a way, and staying

Erica Jolles  54:25  
in touch with people when they have babies and birthdays and weddings and anniversaries and kids getting married, you know, all that kind of stuff is, I think, important too.

Tracy Hayes  54:32  
Well, that actually goes to one of the because I'm throwing down the common themes there, and that's showing up, oh, yeah, necessarily physically. But like you said, responding to someone on Facebook that's showing up, that's being present, Yep, yeah, reading and responding to them in a meaningful way.

Erica Jolles  54:45  
That's right, yeah, that's right. My husband gets upset with me, not so much anymore, but in the beginning he'd be like, we don't need any more friends, because I would just bring everybody in my house. I just, you don't know, what about you? Yeah, it's me. You need to put somebody on your kids emergency contact. I'm happy to be that person. Okay? Yeah, you know, I, I put myself in their shoes. Remember, I Tracy. I was a transplant here 17 years ago. I made a move. So I know what all of this like. So your

Tracy Hayes  55:09  
circle, obviously, Howard's in your service, surrounding yourself by high level people in this industry. And you know what it could be a lending point. It could be just real estate is how important is to be interacting, or when you go to like you went networked at Landmark week and a half ago, you know, say hi to some of these people, and keep these people close by, because things are going on in the marketplace, and they're high producers, too, and they they see what's going on, to reach out or just have a relationship of collaboration.

Erica Jolles  55:40  
So I think that's a really interesting question, because I don't necessarily need to reach out, but it's a way you treat people. So for example, you know, there are some high producing realtors that I have no problem picking up the phone and calling them and asking them for advice. Hey, you have a listing out of the beach, right? I have not had a listing like this. I'm getting one. Give me some guidance, because if you treat people the way you want to be treated, they're going to help you. If you are courteous and professional throughout the transaction, when you need to ask them for help for something, they will be there. So for me, that's more important. I surround myself with successful people, but I don't define success in terms of volume. I define success like I have a couple of mortgage people that I work with, and most of them are women also, but it's also people that help that we build each there's a group of us or so. Let me think there's two of us that are realtors, one a mortgage person, one is two of them are marketing directors for two different companies. We the five of us are pretty close. I'm the oldest, by the way. I'm getting old, but they're all young, and they have little kids and whatever. But we get together, and it's so fun because we just like, we can sit and we can like Yammer, and we can talk, but we build each other up. It just to me, that is a definition of success.

Tracy Hayes  56:46  
Obviously, you're always probably talking about the industry in one shape or form or another, and somebody's inputting, you know, here's a way to spin that, right? You know, here, hey, I run into this. I don't know what, which way I go. This is what I did, and it was successful, right? And you keep your energy that's right level going, and, like I said, to be able to pick up the phone and call somebody. Maybe you don't see them for six months, maybe, yeah, talk to them in six months, or whatever, they know who you are, right? And you've the door is always open, right? You pick it up and say, Hey, what's going on? Okay, what's the biggest mistake you've made in almost 17 years?

Erica Jolles  57:18  
I've made a lot of mistakes. I would say the biggest mistake was that I can think of is this is going back many years ago, I had clients buying a pretty expensive home in Marsh Landing, and she's like, Well, should we do a walk through? And I'm like, that's your plan. I don't really know that it's necessary a final walk through. And then we closed, and when she went back to the house, the sellers, I was new in the business. I want to just preface that the sellers fail forward. Yeah, the sellers, when they were moving out, they had scratched their stone marble floors. Oh, and had we done the walk through, right? We would have so it cost me. I mean, that's the other thing. When I make a mistake, I will own it, and I will do what I have to do.

Tracy Hayes  57:58  
I could have gone back. I'm sure the movers was the one who did it, that's right, and they could have gone back after them and got that. That's right,

Erica Jolles  58:04  
yeah, that's right. I've never forgotten that, and still to this day, when I see this person, I just it's embarrassing, because I would never not do it now, yeah, so I would say that was probably my biggest mistake. It was my learning experience.

Tracy Hayes  58:15  
Yeah, huge learning experience. There are real quickly you had a new agent coming in, maybe they're talking to Howard, or whatever. Howard said, Hey, will you talk to this person? What are three things that that you think are important for a new agent today coming in the business, that they need to know?

Erica Jolles  58:31  
Well, I think I've said most of these, but I would say treat people nicely, or, you know, with professionally, with courtesy,

Tracy Hayes  58:38  
be consistent in your and be thorough in your and we want to call it because, because you're thorough all you're consistently having conversation, that initial conversation, have that with everybody.

Erica Jolles  58:49  
Yeah, absolutely, I would say that. Like I said, be prepared to spend money to you know, you have to spend money to make money, and be open to learning at all times, at all avenues

Tracy Hayes  58:59  
you can't I think the open for learning, obviously, is out there, and people don't realize it. They tend to think learning only happens in the classroom, right? No, you know, learning happened on that transaction. Sure come for one of you, for someone you may be mentoring to hear that story. Yeah, they're going to do a walk through on

Erica Jolles  59:16  
every for Well, I hope so. I mean, you know, and I love nothing more than when newer realtors in our office ask me if they can join me when I go on a listing presentation, I mean, it's flattering to me, and they can't believe sometimes when I say, Yeah, of course, I want to see you be as successful as you can. So come and by the way, let's talk about it after let me hear what you learned, and let's hear what questions that you have.

Tracy Hayes  59:36  
How did you feel when you were actually talking or doing something? How did you feel as another person, did you like what you were doing? Did you say something? Because we don't always. We may say some stuff nine out of 10 times, everyone's just taken in that one time. We because we're New Yorkers, we said something that, you know, raised the hair on the back of their neck, right? You know, to get that feedback right when you said this or you made this gesture. Sure that didn't go well with me, right? Right? We want that

Erica Jolles  1:00:03  
feedback, right? Exactly. It's really helpful. So I it's like, it's a two way street, the

Tracy Hayes  1:00:07  
new agent coming in. Don't think now, I know there's a lot of structure and some teams and so forth, and they come in from there's others like, Hey, hang your license here. And hey, we're having some classes when there are. And you just assume when there's not a class or something that you're told to go to, that you're sitting at home and no, you know whatever you're doing, the realization is you should immediately. And I think you'll agree with us to find someone like Erica to say, Hey, I know you're your top agent in the office when you're going out in your next showing Tracy appointment. Can I tag along? Right?

Erica Jolles  1:00:40  
I mean, Howard does that, and that's a great yes and like and or just go and be in the office, because you'll hear things around you discussions. You know, a lot of times, to Howard's credit, when there's a new agent in the office, if I call him with a question, he'll put me on the speakerphone so they can hear what's going on and learn from it. Awesome. But there's so much conversation that could go on that you can just pick up bits and pieces. You just real estate is not easy to do. You have to put in the work. You have to put in the effort.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:07  
It's one of those things where my crew, my first 12 years, was in the call center between Quicken Loans and a couple years at loan depot's call center. High volume. I did a lot of luck. So when I come out into retail, it doesn't move as fast out here as a sense of the volume. Real Estate's that same thing. You're only doing so many transactions a year. You don't know everything, right? And to hear the story about the scratch and the floor is priceless, right? And to hear everyone else's horror story is priceless. So you don't do it, right? That's right. You do it because if it's a good thing, right? Exactly that works. And you got to show up, you got to be in the office, and then obviously have someone like Howard that thinks, Oh, hey, you should hear this question, so you don't have to. That's right, when you're but in the business center, if you're not going to ask that question, all right, two minute warning here. We're going to wind down, what is your favorite thing, or you and your husband's favorite thing to do here in Northeast Florida, because I always like to talk about Florida lifestyle. I do my little video on Sunday when I'm boating. What in the lifestyle Northeast Florida? What do you like to do?

Erica Jolles  1:02:05  
That's an interesting question. So we have a condo down in on Anastasia Island. Okay? So we like to go down there on the beach, yeah, and just escape and just chill out at the beach and do nothing. I mean, that's probably Mrs.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:16  
Scott's got one. I think it's a mini Island, if that mistake, and she does the same thing.

Erica Jolles  1:02:20  
Oh yeah, it's just nice. But honestly, I just like to be at home. I don't like to cook. I don't like it. I just like to be at home and chill and just, yeah, do nothing. I'm going on, relax,

Tracy Hayes  1:02:29  
dress, put whatever you want to watch on the team, whatever it may be, or just it just kick back. That's right, it's kind of when we're in Florida, you kind of miss that a lot of times. Because up north, you remember, like in New York, when it snowed, you couldn't go anywhere. So you were forced to do that. We're not necessarily forced to do

Erica Jolles  1:02:42  
that, right? Which is interesting is one of the things I like when the world kind of shut down because of covid, because we were forced to stay at home, yeah, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:49  
Is it more important who you know or what you know? And why? Oh, ask what,

Erica Jolles  1:02:54  
who you know or what you know? I think it just depends upon what outcome you're looking for. I mean, who you know, can help you like it helped me. It was all about who I knew that got me my job at USC and got me my job at the Reagan Library, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:03:08  
They taught you how to, you know, raise the money, or what to say. Well, more than

Erica Jolles  1:03:12  
that, but it was because I knew somebody that I got the job, because she sought me out. What you know, I think what you know is important, but I think how you disperse the information is more important. Oh, that's interesting, especially on that well, you don't want to be a know it all. And I think it's important to, again, it's essential to listen to what others have to say.

Tracy Hayes  1:03:31  
Yeah, yeah. I know the number of players to hang out a lot at the St John's board, and you'd have those agents that come from wherever, and they're sort of retired, not actually really doing it. But they go to the they go to the classes, the board, or whatever, and then they want to, like, tell the

Erica Jolles  1:03:45  
instructor, right? And that's why I don't go to just write that questions and the

Tracy Hayes  1:03:50  
know it all. Yeah, yeah. 100% Erica, I appreciate you coming on today. Thank you. This was fun. I appreciate it. I appreciate you. And you're just downstairs. Erica's online. She's got all the social media reach out to her. I'm sure she'd, you know, field any questions or anything new agents out there, or an agent, if you just, you might be in the business for five years. Would you just hit a lid? You're like, being half of that. What is it? What do I need to do? What am I missing? I'm sure Erica would have that conversation. I'd be happy to. Thank you. Thank you.