Seven figure success starts when you start thinking like a CEO.
Welcome to the John Kitchens Coach podcast.
Experience this your host John Kitchens.
Get ready to think bigger and transform your business into
a path to lasting freedom.
What is happening?
Everybody, man.
Thank you guys.
Tuning into another episode of Agent to CEO podcast and
we are in for a treat today.
Chad, what's happening brother?
John, thanks for having me.
I'm looking forward to it.
Yeah, man.
Looking sharp.
Looking sharp, and so thanks sir. Yeah, I, I, I'm really, you know, obviously
introduction with through Ryan and, um, just, you know, conversation,
being able to connect with you.
Man, I really looking forward to, to this conversation.
Just, you know, my, my, my intuition, right?
Kind of looking at, you know, folks, obviously you've been in this
game long enough and as, as well.
But it's always, you know, being able to, to come across somebody that has built
a foundation off of solid principle.
And it was one of the things that, that really made me lean in, you
know, with you in, in, in your story.
And so I, I'm excited to be able to jump into that.
I mean, there's so many di different directions that we can really go, but
Chad, I would love for you to just, you know, you know, give us, give us
a little bit of context, give a little bit of background, and, you know, go, go
as far back as you want and just, just kind of, you know, navigate the stories
that have brought us to, you know, the intersection of where we're at today.
Absolutely.
Thanks Sean.
I, I could tell that we were gonna get into that just from our first conversation
the other day about this podcast.
And of all the things we talked about that was what you gravitated to.
So, uh, it's one of my favorite things to talk about.
I'm sure we'll get into a lot today, but, um, I'm looking forward to that as well.
So, my story, the way this works out is I had absolutely no
background in business whatsoever.
Uh, growing up I had no desire.
I had no money, consciousness.
That's kind of the way that I like to describe it.
Uh, growing up I was, I played soccer, ended up with a soccer
scholarship to college, and I played guitar, still play guitar.
And, um, that was really the dream.
My personal dream was to play guitar all day long, to travel
the world, playing guitar.
And so I literally walked away from a soccer scholarship because I'd started
a band in college and, uh, walked away from the scholarship, went all in with
music, got signed to a local label, developed a following locally, and,
um, uh, maybe a year and a half into that we recorded an album and some
people thought they were gonna make money off of us going out to Hollywood
and getting signed to a major label.
So I think I was 20 years old.
We got flown out to Hollywood and, um.
With 40 of our fans, and we ended up playing a showcase, um, concert in
front of all the major record labels at the Whiskey A Gogo as a 20-year-old.
It was totally, totally amazing, amazing journey.
That was the journey upward.
But then when we got those rejection letters over the next several
months, I had no life skills at that point and I didn't know how
to deal with the rejection, and I just spiraled outta control.
So by the time I'm 23, I'm at complete rock bottom, completely
broken, can't even hold a job.
And so the way I ended up in real estate is at that lowest point, my uncle reached
out to me and he was never a realtor, but he is always been in real estate
and he retired from passive income in real estate when he was 44 years old.
And so that was that moment when I was at Rock Bottom and he reached out to me
and said, Hey, I know you're struggling.
Why don't you come live with me for a while?
I've got this 3000 acre farm.
It's got 75 miles of motorcycle trail.
Why don't you come hang out with me?
And I took him up on it.
So yeah,
I would've
too.
Right?
So we spent, we spent months, a couple months driving around
listening to Rich Dad, port Dad on it was probably on cassette.
Yeah.
And uh, and then we would go eat at a restaurant and we would
walk out of the restaurant.
We'd get in the car and you go, guess what?
I own that building.
And then we would go get a car wash and we'd leave and you'd say, Hey, guess what?
I own that car wash.
And then we, you know, we, we did all these things and I think it
really just opened my eyes that there was something else out there.
Maybe another way of achieving freedom.
So, moved back to Texas, saved up some money.
Got my real estate license.
The dream was Rookie of the year, and I was nowhere close to Rookie of the year.
And so that's how it all got started for me.
I, I love that.
So riding around with, with, with, with uncle, what were like, what were some of
the main like principles that he really tried to instill into you that you kind
of, that part of that foundation Right.
That we're talking about that, we'll, we'll, we'll get into, but
yeah.
Is there anything that like he, like you still to this day, still think
about or, or make decisions on or, or
Yeah.
Base what you're gonna do off of what you know, that time with him?
Yeah.
So, uh, definitely part of the, of the foundation came
from that time with my uncle.
Um.
Really, you know, if you, if for any, any of the listeners that are familiar
with Kiyosaki, you know, what he's really talking about is a couple things.
Mainly the cashflow quadrant.
So,
yeah.
Uh, when I look back on that season of my life, what really stands
out to me is that I was chasing freedom, um, through my own dream.
And so, um, what I saw that he had, he had won freedom and he had won time freedom.
And so, um, when I moved back to Texas, I knew I needed, I knew, I
understood the concept of, uh, not just trading time for money from him, and I
understood some of these things, but.
Uh, what I didn't understand, I didn't have enough life
skills to even pull it off.
So I knew I needed to have a positive mental attitude and I needed
to do these things, but I ended up needing much more than that.
So what the way it played out for me is I got my real estate license, and
then a couple of weeks after I get got my real estate license, one of
the guys in the office walks up to me.
He says, Hey, you know, I see you're reading all these books.
I can, I can tell you're very focused, but um, here, just take a listen to this cd.
And it was a, uh, it was from a men's conference called The Men of Destiny.
And uh, the title of that CD was the Home Run Man, meaning Like Baseball.
And in that message it talked about a man of honor has to have
vision, focus, tenacity, and faith.
Hmm.
And so I, I got ahold of this CDI hadn't been to, I had not really been to church
since I was maybe two or three years old.
And, um, you know, I didn't know what to expect, but I was, I
knew I couldn't do it on my own.
So I, I was listening to the CD and I had just never heard of any, anything
like this with what I call biblical strength or manhood with honor.
And I pulled over on the shoulder road and just bawled my eyes out and drove over to
my girlfriend's apartment and put the CD in, and basically told her that day, like,
this is what I'm committing to becoming.
And so that was 22 some odd years ago.
T uh, 21 and a half years ago.
And, um, that's my wife now.
And so that's where the foundation really came from.
It was, it was, it was, uh, the first spark was from my, my uncle, but then
he lived the entire, yeah, the entire priority structure for my life came
from what I learned from my pastor.
I've been in the same church for 21 and a half years.
That's wild.
That's so amazing.
So what was the, what was the name of the cd?
Who was that?
Uh, Dr. Jean Lagerfeld.
The church is Faith Christian Center in Arlington, Texas.
It, it's pretty wild.
So in oh four, he had already been pastoring the longest of
anyone in Arlington, and he is still the pastor of the church.
So that was, he was already the longest serving pastor in, oh, 21 years ago.
And he is still there.
Yeah.
That's so powerful.
Right.
When you, you we're, we're at those moments to where.
You know, I don't, I don't know if it's just completely broken down, but maybe
completely open, uh, to really receive and, and, and willing to listen and
yeah.
You know, it's, I can, you know, you know, how can we be more open and
more receptive and more, you know, from a, from a true learner mindset.
And, you know, it's, it's, it's crazy when, when those, when
those things happen, right?
To where we're able to, you know, receive something and it just hits
us and it just changes the trajectory of our life and what we're on.
And more so, like the way we think about things and just sometimes it,
we just need that framework, right?
Like, like the, the honor framework of vision focused, tenacity, faith, right?
It gives you a foundation to then be able to, to build from.
And, you know, sometimes we latch onto different foundations
and things that don't serve us.
And, and I, you know, it's,
yeah.
It's that circle.
It's who we're around.
It's what we're consuming, it's what we're absorbing.
And it's crazy, man, how sometimes the wrong advice, the wrong belief
system, how it could, you know, set you down a path that will, yeah, that
will take you decades to, to, to fix if, if you ever are able to fix it.
'cause most people, they just, they, they latch onto it and they just don't, you
know, find themselves in a situation or being pushed to challenge those beliefs
or getting the people around them to challenge those beliefs to become better.
And so that, you know, that, that first, and just making, you know, you just,
you made that declaration is, I mean, I don't even know, is a commitment or a
declaration more, you know, more powerful.
But you, you made that and that, that just started the
trajectory that your life is on.
Yeah, that's well said.
When I look back on it all, um, I was a shooting star early.
So I just made a commitment that I'm, I'm never gonna be a shooting star again.
You know?
It, it does, it, it goes even, even more so in, you know, I, I look at
what happened in my parents' lives and I don't hold anything against
them, but all that didn't work out.
And so, um, I think through how are these decisions gonna, I never
have been willing to build the business at the expense of my family.
Yeah.
And so, and that there's no judgment on that.
I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad, but it just, because of what
I'd went through, I, I made the decision that the reason why I would
become great in business was so that.
All these other things would succeed so that that, you know,
I know you wanted to get into it, but that, that became the purpose.
And it is the purpose to, to have this priority structure.
Because what I'm interested in doing is having the best
year ever, every single year.
Mm-hmm.
I, I, and, and so that's, you know, and, and we mentioned honor.
That's why Honor is, um,
one of the core values is we call it uncommon honor.
So I want to demonstrate honor to the ones who show me the way,
and I'm still doing that, right?
I'm still doing that 21 years later.
And then I, my goal is to show Uncommon Honor towards my peers and then uncommon
Honor towards the least of these, towards those who you would consider would
be someone that could never help you.
And, uh, because I, I know what it was like when I was helpless.
And so I just, I just have never forgot, you know, I wake up every day
and I remember that what I was capable of at age 23 and my own strength,
and, and that's where I started.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, you built two different disciplines early on, right?
That the discipline of, of, of sport and then the discipline of music.
Yeah.
Right?
You built up two and there, and there's, there's so many similarities, right.
To be great at anything.
I mean, it it, it takes time, it takes the discipline, it takes the focus,
it takes the tenacity and, you know, in, in faith context, it's also having
faith in the process too, right.
And, and building those disciplines.
And, you know, that's for, you know, kind of the, the organization and, and
coaching program and everything kind of as, as we were building coming up.
Um, that's the thing that we looked for, right?
We didn't want to look.
To build somebody into a winner.
We were looking for traits and attributes of success that they've put in the
work to build disciplines on their own.
And that was always one of the things that we looked for.
Obviously, you know, growing up in your neck of the woods, like I, I don't
care if you won Blue Ribbon for your, you know, best show pick, like Yeah.
'cause that's discipline that takes work to be able to achieve anything.
And so, you know, kind of our mantra was, is like, we don't create winners, we
just help winners win bigger and faster.
And
Yeah.
You know, I thought a lot about that, you know, over the years, and I don't
even know why I even, I mean, I even thought about it last night for some
random reason that that hasn't even been at the forefront of my mind.
And I was like.
Just thinking through conversations and, and you know, even the
statistics in this industry.
What, I mean, what do we have, you know, 74% of agents didn't sell a home in 25.
74% of agents didn't sell a home in 24.
It's gonna be more of the same this year.
Like, like that's not gonna change.
And more and more agents are gonna get out.
The top producers like yourself and Ryan are just gonna continue to
gobble up more and more market share is, is what's, is what's happening.
And, and so I'm just thinking through like, the people out
there that are winning, like they have a track record of winning.
They have a track record of, of putting things in place to where they've been
successful that led 'em into this life.
And like being able to be disciplined.
I don't, I mean, it, it never panned out, but you had enough skill and talent.
To get you to one of the most iconic places in the whole world to play,
to play music as well as, you know, the discipline it takes to play any,
any sport to get into any college and D 1D two, it doesn't matter, right?
You, you, you know enough in you to get a scholarship to go get school paid for.
You're doing things right over an extended period of time for that to be true.
So that, to me, that found that that success foundation and the
working hard is, is there and then, you know, then being able to,
to, you know, up on top of that.
But I love the honor and I love, you know, unpack that.
Like, what, what does that mean when you say, man, uncommon honor?
Like, what, what does that mean?
What do you, how do you convey that to your team, to those
that you're cascading that out.
They see that, what does, what does that mean by definition?
Well, I, I like what you've just said there, you know, uh, to Tide.
What we've just talked about together before I get to Uncommon Honor, um,
you can have those success principles.
You can have that, you know, talent, talent has a trajectory.
You know, I, I agree with you completely.
You're looking for that talent that, um, when you pour into them,
they give you energy back because they just go and do what you teach.
Yeah, I, I agree with that completely.
Um, however, when you add that to
a, the best priority structure, that's, that's what I've always been after,
because you can have all the talent in the, how many, I call it the lie of fame.
How many people do we see, uh, go to the top and then just destroy their life?
You know, movies, athletes, politicians, you name it.
And so that's, that's why I was seeking the other part.
There was a book that I read right around this time, and it was actually
referenced in those first messages.
I heard my pastor, uh, preach on those CDs.
And it's written by w Clement Stone.
It's really old, and it's called the Success System that never fails.
See, I'm, I'm interested in that.
I don't.
Mm-hmm.
You can, you can be the most go-getter, the 10 x lifestyle, crush it, hustle,
grind, all that, all that stuff.
But if your body's falling apart or your key relationships are falling apart, or
this, there's this wake of destruction behind you, what good was it for?
Right.
So, uh, uncommon honor, you know, to me it's, it's, uh, you could, what's
the easiest way to describe it?
I wouldn't say sowing and reaping.
So however I treat someone, I would want to be treated that way.
You know, if I'm dealing with a, an agent, a peer in a transaction, even though I'm
representing my client's best interest, it still doesn't have to be a war between
me and you on the other side of the table.
Right?
Or if I talk to a, let's say a buyer lead and they, they, from the sound of it,
they may not ever get their life together to where they can actually buy a home.
I don't treat 'em like they're less than human.
And let's say I have a mentor and at some point I've done some
of the things that they've done.
I don't go, um, trying to lord it over them or act like I'm better than them.
That that's what uncommon honor is to me.
It's just treating people the way that I would want to be treated.
Yeah.
You know, from a leadership standpoint.
It's two things.
One, it's, it's sh telling them the truth in the sense of showing them how
to do it, not holding anything back.
And then on the other side is telling them the truth, even when
they may not want to hear it.
Yeah.
Because of the gaps that they have.
And I, I think a whole lot of leadership is the ability to tell people the truth
in a way that they could receive it.
Mm-hmm.
Most leaders that, people that call themselves leaders are not willing to say
what needs to be said in any given moment.
One thing I repeat constantly around here is if at any point I'm unwilling
to say what needs to be said in this environment, that's the minute that
this environment will begin to die.
Say that again.
If at any point I'm unwilling to say what needs to be said in the
environment, that's the moment that this environment will begin to die.
Hmm.
That's so good.
That's so
good.
I, I, I, I, I tell myself that, John, when, when, when that someone
in the room says the wrong thing and you're tempted to just like, let it
go, but then everyone else in the room would hear what they just said.
Are you gonna let that be the last thing that's said that gets
permeated into the environment?
Or are you gonna be the leader and are you gonna step in and
say what needs to be said?
Yeah.
I love that.
And it, it, it's, it's in a way too like what, what, what I'm hearing and just kind
of even looking at, you know, the values that, that we've leaned into over the
years, it's, it's really more of a, a very candid type of conversation, but, but in
a kind way, not nice, but in a kind way.
And that's, you know, telling them the truth, right?
Being able, being willing to have.
The difficult conversations.
Not afraid to work through the whole conflict resolution, not afraid to have.
And, and those conversations are a lot easier when you're standing in truth.
And it, it's,
yes,
it, it really helps, you know, to, to navigate through that.
And like, as you're talking, I'm just, my mind's just running through different
situations and scenarios and like where I failed, where I have failed as a leader.
Not saying things because of my people pleasing tendencies of, of growing
up and always wanting to be a people pleaser and not wanting to, you know,
wanting everybody to, to get along and not wanting to have, you know, conflict.
But there's so many great ways to be able to, to get into and, and curate and create
that environment, Chad, to where you can be very candid and, you know, speak in a
way that people, you know, hear the truth.
You're speaking truth and calling them out, but.
But also, you know, in a way to where, um, and, and you said it earlier, right?
And, and, and I, I, it clicked and I wanted to come back to it, but one of
the things that you were describing with, with the man of honor, and you were, you
were kind of talking about it, but you were talking about uncommon honor amongst
others that really can't help themselves.
Right?
So to me, that's helping us get real clear on our leadership style.
And, and you're coming from a really, a servant's heart servant leadership.
And that's, that's the position we wanna come from, right?
Like all the different styles of leadership.
And sometimes people will do things and return for, for them to do
things that's, you know, more of a barter type type of leadership.
And, and so ultimately getting to the, the ultimate holy grail
of the servant leadership.
But you're, and this is why I wanted to get into the values because.
You're laying the foundation, you're laying the found, that's where it goes.
It's like, listen, this is what we, you know, these are
the shoulds and should nots.
Like this is what I believe, and this is, you know, how, how we
approach, you know, our community.
Yeah.
Let's talk about that for a sec. So, um, we, we haven't really gone into it.
We, we talked about me getting into real estate and then the goal was
rookie of the year, nowhere close.
But then I started to build all these habits and then I met a mentor.
He had sold 215 homes the previous year, and he, and it was right
before the great financial crisis.
And he said, look, if you do exactly what I teach in this class, you cannot fail.
And I thought, okay, well that, that works for me because
I'm good at following directions.
Teach me
you're valid.
You know, you're valid.
And the track records there.
And I have been going through this intense three or four year period
of really cleaning up my habits based on what I was learning.
In faith Christian Center's environment.
And so I just went all in and I replaced my wife's income.
I became the individual agent of the year.
I fell in love with leadership and then, you know, I was at KW for 17 years.
During that time, we went from a little office of 50 agents to eventually becoming
the most profitable Keller Williams office in the world two years in a row.
And then I think it peaked around six to 700 agents.
My team was the top team of the year, three years in a row in that office.
At one point, from like a July to July, we had sold 371 homes, 109
million, 3.2 million in commissions with like 12 agents, just as,
as dialed in as it could be.
But I, what I was on a mission for was, I have to keep growing.
I can't just sit still.
So I asked myself this focusing question now that we kinda
understand, I don't wanna go forward and then wreck everything.
So my, my focusing question was, what do I have to put in place?
So that no matter how big everything gets, I would never have to compromise.
And, and that's where my, my core values came from.
And so I actually got on the phone, I called the HR department of Dave Ramsey.
Okay.
And I said,
I said, Hey, how, how did Dave Ramsey do this?
Because he's in the mainstream and everybody knows him, but they
also all know what he believes.
He is not getting into any trouble or anything.
So how did y'all do it?
And they basically, the HR department said, we, we have our core values.
And then when we're, when we're doing, um, interviews and
things, we just tell who we are.
We don't, and we just say what we are and we don't ask any questions.
And then people self-select.
They either run towards it or they run away from it, and neither one's, okay,
so I have all this on my camera roll.
I sat down with my team for an hour and a half and we got a giant whiteboard
out and I asked them a question.
I said, now these can't be the things that we're aspiring to have.
I wanna know right now what is present in this environment
that's changing your life.
And we just wrote everything down for an hour and a half.
And then over the course of about six weeks, I, I, I simplified
it down into these core values.
And so now that with the Chad Smith team, but then also with our coaching
community, which is any agent of any brokerage, could be a part of it.
We lead with the core values.
And so these eight core values define who we are, what we
believe, why we do what we do.
And it's the predetermined way that we show up in the environment.
And so the only time I'm ever rough with anybody is if they're in violation
of what they already agreed to.
Yeah.
And that's what we needed to get to, that, that's, that's how you
have the permission to be strong or to be bold in that leadership
because you already said yes to this.
Yeah.
You already said yes to this.
And it's all of our job to protect the environment that we all
agreed is the reason we're here.
Yeah, that's so, that's so good.
And, and I, I loved, I loved the process.
Right.
And you were real clear.
It's not what we aspire to, it's what we are.
Right.
It's not
aspirational.
Right.
And, um, you know, our, our process, you, you'll laugh at this.
So we started, um, a company out of, out of our office with a
gentleman by the name of Matt Wagner.
We started radio and television experts.
And so that was, that started with our office.
Kinder was client number one for Matt.
Um, I handled for the first two years, three years actually.
Yeah, first three years.
I handled all the backend, all the booking, all of the billing,
e everything kept Matt, you know, in line as much as you can.
And, and you know, obviously Jay running and gunning and, and helping
Matt grow, grow, rate, and, um.
We had, you know, Matt, you know, host in first rate event.
So he held it at our office in Lotton, Oklahoma.
And, um, the, you know, uh, top in the world, uh, at the number one company
in the world, which was KW at the time, Mr. Chad Goldwasser out of Austin,
Texas comes in and, um, Chad's kind of breaking down his business and he
gets into this thing about core values.
And, you know, Jay and I are kind of just sitting back.
I look over at him, he looks at me and he goes, core values,
we don't have any core values.
I said, I know we don't.
And he goes, man, Chad's, Chad's number one in the world.
I like what Chad has.
Let's just use Chad's.
I go, okay, that's great.
Let's do that.
And I think a lot of people do, right?
They borrow and they don't even really understand what they are.
Yeah.
They, they just wanna check the box and say they've got core values.
And of course it was a complete disaster.
We didn't even look at 'em.
You know, we had 'em, but we didn't do anything about it.
And I forget, you know, the moment where it was just a, you know, eye-opening that
we better get some real values in place.
And we did pretty much the same exercise you, however, we just left
ours on the whiteboard for a couple months and just let it really marinate.
And we were like, okay, what do we, what do we really admire?
That might have been the word.
What do we really admire about that person?
Like if we could take one thing away from them that they're like,
we just absolutely love, what is it?
What about that person?
Right.
What about that person?
And we let it, we let it marinate.
We've had as many as 11, we've had all the way down to, you know, 5, 7, 8 is
kind of where it's hanging out about now.
And same process, right?
We let it marinate for a while before we ran out and, and got the, the tattoo.
And they continue to evolve and, and you know, what's, what's, what's really wild?
That took time, just like it took time with you.
But what's so, so crazy now, like with, with AI had, um, helped, um, a
large merger of a team up in Canada at the end of last year come together.
Three different teams, three different cultures, three different value system.
And so we start working on the vision, bringing everything
together, and he's just feeding AI.
Their values, right?
The other team's values the values coming together.
Here's our vision.
Where's go, Hey, walk me through this.
I want you to, you know, interview me.
Ask me as many questions, one question at a time until you have enough information.
I really wanna distill it out, man.
It came out with the perfect three core values.
It wordsmithed it in a way in like Chad, in like 30 minutes of just work now.
Now listen, multiple decades to get there with the values, to then
be able to feed it, to distill it down in 30 minutes, right?
That didn't happen in 30 minutes.
That happened multiple, multiple decades.
You know, many, many different people To be able to drill it
down, but was really wild, right?
You have re massive teams coming together to form one massive mega team.
And the first thing they, they went to, they knew in instinctively they needed to
nail the vision and nail the core values before we can move on to anything else.
And I was like, I. This is gonna be something special, right?
Because if you build it off of that foundation, like, like you have been
able to and, and just what I tell people, and I'm, I'm a big vision guy and I
love that you said the man of honor, the very first thing is what's the vision?
Right?
What's, what's the vision?
And, and like,
yeah.
You know, I, I've left kinder twice and the reason was because the vision faded.
And he knows, I mean, if he, if he comes back to me and you know, says,
Hey man, here's the new vision.
What do you think?
If I get excited about it, I'll probably jump back on board.
Right.
Um, and, and it's just the way, way I am.
And, and not everybody wants to create the vision, but they want to be a
part of a vision to where they feel,
yeah,
they can make a difference.
And they can, they can live the life they wanna live.
And that's why I tell leaders all the time, especially for somebody like you
building a massive following massive organization, which you have like.
If you didn't have no vision, your key people would be gone.
They wouldn't be there.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That, that's a big part of it, right?
So there's a cool concept, um, and this ties back to honor where every Dr.
Every dream is a dream inside a dream.
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Every dream is a dream inside a dream.
Mm, that's
good.
So people get, that's good.
People get stuck on ego.
You know, I, I, I don't wanna put my dream inside of somebody else's dream.
Every dream's a dream inside a dream.
Every dream's a dream, inside dream.
So you just have to choose who you're connected to.
But one of my, another one of my leadership frameworks is the moment
that a leader becomes a limiting factor to talent is the moment that you get
out of business with that talent.
Mm.
And I just became crystal clear on this.
And so the day that I, there's an agent on the Chad Smith team, and he
joined the last week of April, 2012.
He has two master's degrees.
He, he joined for, um, it was either 22 or $24,000 a year as an ops person.
But he's always been a research.
Up to that point, he had always been a researcher his whole life.
So he wanted to learn everything about real estate before
he ever became an agent.
Well, now we're 14 years in.
He sold 81 houses on the Chad Smith team last year while helping me build systems.
But I told him from the day I met him, I'm not afraid of you being great.
And I, my commitment to you is that I will never become a limiting factor to you.
So these are the things that I think leadership requires, right?
How many people, uh, of all the people we come across ever,
like nail down that vision, but then who's willing to defend it?
Yeah.
Because the minute you stop defending it, it it'll be over in no time.
Yeah, that's exactly, yeah, that's exactly, that's exactly it.
That might be one of the best leadership frameworks.
Anybody that's wanting to build anything that's going to attract and weather
any storm, the leadership framework, I'm not afraid of you being great.
Right?
Like that is so, that is so good, brother.
That is so good.
I. Wow.
Yeah.
I'm gonna let, yeah, I'm gonna let that one marinate.
I'm definitely gonna, that's a writer downer for sure.
That's, that's absolute gold.
I mean, that is absolute leadership gold and it, and it's so many, and, and you
know, one of my favorite kind of, because what gets in the way is ego, right?
And one of my favorite, one of my favorite concepts is outcome over ego.
And it, you know, ego, ego is about being right.
The goal is to get to Right.
And that's what I tell my team all the time, right?
Like, that's good.
Like, you know, we just, I just, I'm kind of going off the cuff and I'm
just like, in a moment and I'm like, listen, I, I could be 100% wrong.
And it's not about me being right.
It's about us getting to, right.
So like, if I'm off base, please tell me, please tell me, please tell me.
Like, I don't want to be right.
I want us to get to right.
And that, that falls right in there, right?
Like, I'm not, like, it ain't about me and I'm not scared and I will
never be afraid of you being great.
You know, like that's like.
I mean, just think of a, if, if, if you had a leader tell you that
early on in your development,
right?
I do.
You know, that's, that's my pastor, you know, that, that's ultimately it.
You know, it's, uh, and, and then I'm working to model that and,
and it's, but it is very rare.
So, uh, let's talk about this for a sec. A lot of the go-getters in real
estate, they're, they're driven.
So there's typically go, go back to like what we talked about,
sports or early achievement.
There's that competitive nature.
Well, mm-hmm.
Ultimately, competition is rooted in scarcity
because somebody's gotta win that, which means there has to be a loser.
And so I, I, and I was wired that way, so I had to choose to move
beyond a competitive mindset.
So the only person I'm competing against is my own potential, my own capacity.
How do you shift that, Chad?
I mean, I hear it.
I hear it.
It's, it's okay.
Kind of get my head around it, but how do I actually put that into practice?
Well, it, it is gonna go back to my, my belief systems.
You know, uh, the first murder was jealousy was due to jealousy.
Mm-hmm.
And so if you go, if you go to the Genesis, Cain and Abel are brothers.
Abel brings the his best to God, and then his brother brings some as an offering.
And then it says in Genesis that Kane's, um, his face was downcast and then God.
So my answer is right here.
God says to Kay, why are you downcast?
If you do what's right, will you not be accepted?
Hmm.
And so that's it.
So to me it's everything.
Everything operates in seed time and harvest.
And so I don't need to be concerned about whether or not John Kitchens crushes it
and knocks it outta the park because if I do the right things, I'm gonna win.
Mm-hmm.
And so I, the game is not about me versus someone else.
The game is about me versus me.
And so I, I think for me, the only way I made it out of it was once I realized
that God was actually for me and that all I have to do is just do the right thing.
That's how I got out of it.
You know, there, it was funny when we became the number one team in KW
Arlington, when I was, when our team was number five or six in the office, I
got, I always got along with everybody.
But then when we became number one, I never fell out with certain
people, but they fell out with me.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's this competition thing.
So we were walking in the office one day and there was this other team walking
outta the office and they wouldn't even acknowledge that we existed.
And I looked at one of the guys on the team and I said, don't they realize
that we're not in competition with them?
And my teammate said, well, you're right.
We're not in, they're not our competition, but I'm pretty sure we're theirs.
Yeah.
Right.
So a lot of people are, are stuck in this, but if you're a leader
and you're threatened by your people, you're never gonna go big.
Mm-hmm.
You're never gonna go big.
You're gonna run off all the talent every time.
Yeah.
Well, how are you gonna do something great over the long haul
if you're running everybody off the minute they start to get it?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it's just, you're, you're, you're insecure in, in, in your role.
Right.
It's the.
I'm afraid of you being great.
That's brilliant.
That's the exact opposite is what it is.
And so how, um, is it, is it the surrounding, is it the mentor is
your pastor that helps you kind of navigate and work, work through that?
Is that is like for you, overcoming those beliefs, working through those situations?
Like and, and just like anything, right?
It's always trial and error, right?
It sounds good until you actually put it in practice and
you're standing in the fire.
So for you, how, how, how were you able to learn that, embrace it and, and really
where it, where it's really rooted in for you and now you just live by it?
So it was outta necessity in oh nine.
I won the individual agent of the, of the year.
So there I was standing there in January of 2010 with the award, like number one
indivi individual agent of the year.
And my, my first daughter's won.
And then my wife's expecting, and I'm thinking this is not.
You know, I'm grateful, but this is not it.
Yeah.
There's not, there's not enough capacity here for me to accomplish
what's in my heart to do.
So I just basically studied leadership.
There was probably a, at least a three year, maybe three or four
year period where the only books I read were about leadership.
And so my first two mentors, the real estate agent, mentor, and then my pastor.
Now, I, I was still learning from them, learning from, I'm still learning
from my pastor on, you know, how to, how to apply what he's teaching, but
I, I, I, there was a second lens that I looked at great leaders on, and it
was, how are they dealing with that trouble in the, in the environment?
Why do they say what they say when, when there's a challenge?
And so I, I, I started to look at everything.
Through a leadership framework.
And I read every John Maxwell book, you can imagine.
And then I, I, I volunteered on all these.
Um, 'cause John Maxwell recommends this, I volunteered as a leader in all these
volunteer roles, unpaid volunteer roles.
'cause if you want to test your leadership skills, just go lead
a bunch of volunteers mm-hmm.
Where you can't lord, a title or a position or money over them.
Yeah.
And so I just immersed my, that's what I do is I, I just immerse myself in it.
And, um, because I haven't worked nights or weekends since oh nine.
Yeah.
Because of my priority structure, because my wife, I'm, I'm there,
I'm investing in my family, my kids.
I've driven my kids to school every single 95 to 98% of all the days they've ever
gone to school since K four started.
Yeah.
I, I, I, you know, I go with them to the week long summer
camp, every game, every event.
I, I have my, their entire teenage years I have a relationship with them.
There's no, there's no, um, period of the teenage years where
you people say you lose them.
That has nothing to do with me.
Well, how could I do that?
The only way I could do that was by figuring out what my
framework for leadership was and then actually living it out.
So I, I've led and empowered and fulfilled what my commitment was to great team
members because it mattered to me to actually be able to be there for my
wife and my kids, and to serve at church and, and to do all the things that I do.
Well just, yeah.
I mean, you, you, you, you got this, everybody has the ingredients.
You were just given the recipe and you trusted the recipe.
You had faith in the recipe and you just, you, you were very fortunate to
have a great mentor, multiple mentors in your life that didn't lead you down
a wrong path, but led you down a, a path to where you're able to be today.
You know, I, I agree with that a hundred percent.
And at the, the same time all this has happened, I've watched
hundreds and thousands of people leave those environments.
Yeah.
Or find.
Why
do you think that is?
Uh, so this, this is something I've been talking about a lot lately.
Why is it in the same way that the minute you start, tell
me if this is true for you.
The minute you start talking about, let's say, uh, uh, organizing your morning.
And, and having a, a morning routine or saying business affirmations or
having a vision board or writing out your goals or tracking your KPIs.
Um, paying somebody to do a profit and loss statement.
All, all the things that are actually the ingredients that would help you.
The minute you start talking about 'em, people start saying things to you like,
oh, yeah, I, yeah, I've heard that before.
Mm-hmm.
I've heard that.
I've tried
that.
That didn't work.
I, I've heard that before.
Yeah.
But, but yet, if you, if you walked up to the same people and you, you started
talking about the Dallas Cowboys or the Patriots, or the Seahawks or the, you
name the sports, or you started talking about politics to some of them, or
you started talking about celebrities or whatever, whatever's going on.
You could have the exact same conversation about that stuff over
and over again, and no one would ever go, yeah, I've already heard, I've
already heard that about the Dallas Cowboys 36 something odd years in a row.
It's like the exact same season.
Right.
But they, they never say that when it's inconsequential.
They only do that.
And so I think it's almost like a defense mechanism where, or, or like
a, a reverse polarity of a magnet where they're literally repelling success
in the things that can help them.
Yeah.
So that, that's totally explanation for it because
Yeah,
it's how, how what I talked about this in our meeting this morning.
What, uh, you actually get to choose what you see in other people.
Hmm.
Like what you choose.
What do you see in your clients?
Are you, are you constantly complaining about the troubled clients?
Or are you one of these people, I've heard all kinds of agents say, you
know, uh, uh, that their clients are stupid, or this or that, or, or do
you get road rage when you're driving and you just focus well, well, what
do you choose to see in your spouse?
Yeah.
Be focused on what do you see in your children?
Like there's, there's all kind.
Nobody's perfect, there's all kinds of pros and cons in everybody,
so what are you choosing to see?
And, and so for me, having been in the same church for 22 years, I'm
just choosing, I, I'm intentionally choosing to see what I need to see.
'cause I, I can still grow in that environment.
Yeah.
Man, there's something, something to be said with a commitment to longevity.
It says, it says a lot about the environment, the leadership,
but also says a lot about you.
And, you know, I, I obviously being in, in this coaching game for, for 14 years
now, um, you know, I've got clients that I've been working with for 14 years and
the ones that more stability, like they have more stability in their life, they
have more foundation in their life.
It, they're, they're rooted in truth.
And there's so many out there that like, are looking for the quick fix, right?
Oh yeah.
They're looking, they're, they're, they're just, they're just shuffling,
you know, chairs on the Titanic.
They're just not really like, alright, let's get this outta the way.
Where's the real issue?
Let's fix that and then we're gonna go fix the next thing,
then we'll fix the next thing.
We'll fix the next thing.
And, you know.
Uh, you know, I, I, I'm the same way, right?
Like, I mean, I have, I have Matt, I got introduced to Matt,
you know, four or five years ago.
I'm still with him, right?
Like, are, are there times to where, you know, I'll go a couple stretch, a
couple months and just like happening, but then just committed to it, right?
And there's just something to be said about that People that, you
know, are committed to do the work versus looking for the easy button.
And the easy button is work.
I mean, it's just do the work.
That's the easy button.
Oh, I just, you made me think of two things that are, that
are really important right here.
One is we talked about having great people stay with you, right?
Um, because I'm still helping my pastor, my leader's dream and vision come to pass.
I can expect to have other people stay with me.
To help my dream and vision come to pass.
So I, because I did it first and I'm still doing it, I can expect
the same in my own environment.
And then the second thing I'll say to what you were just talking about is, you
know, I, I was a KW guy and, and they have really, really amazing agent training.
Yeah.
Some amazing agents there.
I'm so grateful for that time.
I would not say that they've been well known as being like the leading
in the industry for marketing.
Right, right.
So I got into a different environment when I began this to understand marketing.
And it's hilarious to me that there's like the marketing script that you
fill in your, your calls to action with your headlines with is how to achieve.
The pain without, or how to achieve the desired result without the pain.
Right.
Literally, it literally feeds like the magic bullet
uhhuh
train.
Yeah.
And, and so I, once I've wrapped my head around all that, I just want
the complete opposite direction.
And so the way that I've built what I've built over the last couple years is I
took the consistency of what I've built in my morning meetings and I said, look,
no one's gonna be able to say that.
Um, I attracted them and then I was nowhere to be found.
So I'm just gonna turn the, the morning huddle I have with this a hundred
million dollar team into a daily broadcast, and I'm just gonna pour into
whoever shows up 260 plus times a year, and then I'll make it their fault.
If they don't succeed, it'll be on you because I'm gonna be there.
I'm gonna be there every single day.
Yeah.
Unless it's a major holiday.
I'm sitting right here with my game face on, and I go live, and
then I give them all the answers.
And then I'm just looking for, I just, I'm just looking for
the winners to help 'em win.
That's it.
That I love it.
That's so good, man.
And I, I love that with, you know, the, the daily and I mean, it goes back to,
you know, kind of what we were talking about and just, just even how you were
built, you know, being able to build two disciplines at a, at a, at a young age.
But you said, you said some absolute gold in there.
I'm not gonna let it just slide on by.
Okay.
It's, it's a, and you know, being, being a little bit older, um.
Grandparents, probably more so than, than than parents.
Um, a little bit older, you know, generation.
And I think a lot of this is obviously rooted in, in, in faith and in
church, but what you said about I'm, I was so focused on, on helping
others achieve their, their vision.
Yeah.
That if I'm, uh, if I'm helping and if I'm modeling that behavior and that leadership
style, it's gonna be contagious and people are gonna see it, and then they're
gonna want to help me achieve my vision.
So it just cascades and it just, it continues to, to rip the, you know, the
ripple effect of being able to do that.
And that's just absolute gold.
It's just an absolute reminder, right?
Like if you just, you come from that positioning and
you said it earlier, right?
I mean, this is all another to your leadership style, right?
It goes, goes right into that from really, truly embodying and what
it means to be a servant leader.
In, in all that we do.
And it's, it's the ultimate, right?
It's what we're all striving to get to.
And yeah.
Do we, do we bounce around to, sometimes we're a little selfish, of course,
sometimes we're a little selfless.
Of course, sometimes we wanna barter, of course.
But where do we live?
And man, you're living in that servant, that servant leadership role.
So, Chad, what I mean, obviously through, you know, decades with, with your church
and with your pastor, um, almost two decades in the, in the KW ecosystem.
I mean, you're, you're definitely, you know.
Um, doors are opening for the, you know, the top of the top
rooms, you know, for, for Yeah.
The level that you guys have been operating at.
But you mentioned, you know, obviously reading all the Maxwell books, but were
there any other leadership books that you dove into that, like one that still sits
on your desk that you referenced back to that really helps you, you know, in any
type of leadership situation that you, you, you know, you'll, you'll go back to
Yeah, it's called Wooten on Leadership.
John Wooten, W-O-O-D-E-N.
He won, he won 10 national championships with UCLA and had two undefeated seasons.
And, you know, a lot of this, um, just executing on the plan.
I, I could even attribute some of the, the, the non-competitive side
to Wooten because you know that John Wooten, I mean 10 national
championships, 200 seasons, remarkable.
He didn't even, uh, do typical attraction.
They didn't do, uh, college recruiting, and he also didn't do scouting reports
on the teams that they played against.
The only thing that they did is focused on fundamentals.
They had a, a, a pyramid, they had a pyramid, uh, of all their core values
that he taught, and then they just worked on executing on their game plan.
That that's what I'm doing.
So I literally, on my phone right here, those are my eight core
values and I have my own pyramid.
Right.
Oh, I love
that.
So, so that, that's ultimately what I'm doing.
And, you know, something that just came to mind is my, I mentioned that
I started this coaching community, and I didn't want the brokerage to be a
limitation because I, it's just, these are the core values, and if you're
in alignment, come be part of it.
We'll grow together well, because that was going so well.
A startup brokerage came along, which I have no desire to be a broker.
Like I, I believe that when you have your realtor hat on and you're serving
your clients, you're a fiduciary.
So it doesn't even really matter what you believe.
You're there to put their interests ahead of your own.
Yeah.
So
when I, when I met them in the startup brokerage, I said, Hey, I'll help you in
the best way I can, but I just wanna make sure that while I'm doing this thing over
here, that's my own, um, my own coaching committee, that you're okay with that.
And they were like, yeah, no, no, no.
We, we would never interfere with that.
We, we, we want you to do that.
Well, now I have another person that I'm helping them fulfill
their vision, their dream.
And so I, I love that.
Like, I love helping leaders fulfill their vision.
And then I have hundreds, if not thousands at this point, people
helping me fulfill my vision.
And so to me that's.
W you said it earlier, I think it's only an ego to think that you,
you're the only one with a vision.
Yeah,
right.
So I, you're just looking for alignment and so, you know, I'm helping Realty
of America fulfill their vision.
I'm helping Eddie Garcia and Mark Deemus.
They asked me to be the director of education for that entire company.
So I spent a whole year and I built like end to end everything that I could think
of that would empower agents and, and, and, and gave that into that environment.
Well, that's just another seed zone, so that I know that I can go even
further and meet more and more people and my reach would be even greater
to meet more people to talk about what I love talking about, which is
the core values of the real solution.
Oh, I don't think I told you the name of the coaching community.
The real solution.
So the
real solution.
The real solution.
So the, the name of it, it comes from a lunch I had with one of my best friends,
and so this is way back like 2010.
He, he was a rookie at Keller Williams.
He, he had been working on the oil fields and had a, like a major accident
with his leg and he thought, I've gotta get out of this or I'm gonna die.
Yeah.
So, so he is a, he's a rookie agent, young man, early twenties.
And he is like, I wanna pick your brain.
I'm gonna take you to lunch.
So, all right, let's go.
So we go across the street, we sit down, he's a high D, he's just direct.
He's like, so how'd you do it?
Do you want, do you want the Keller Williams answer or do
you want the real solution?
And he was like, oh man, give me everything.
And that's when I walked him through like, Hey, I have this priority structure
'cause I don't want to have one.
I don't wanna go forward and make a bunch of money and then
everything come crashing and burning.
I said, so I put God first and then my wife next second only to God
and then my children after that.
And then I pursue excellence in business to serve everyone
I have an opportunity to serve.
And you look at it to this day, actually tonight, um, one of, two
of my daughters are playing in, in the state semi-final basketball game
for our church's private school.
And his son will be playing on Thursday in the state playoffs
for our church's private school.
You know, I'm, that's, that's a 15 year relationship right there.
Yeah.
But,
but there have been dozens, dozens and dozens of people.
And what I wanted, my goal is just to let my light shine and then they
come to me and say, well, what is it?
And I'll say, well, do you want the brokerage answer or
do you want the Real Solution
Solution?
I love it.
Yeah.
That's so good.
Ties right in, uh, the name naming, naming convention was right there for you.
Uh, it's so good.
It's, it's funny, you were, you, you were talking about, you know, the
priority structure and, um, I read, uh, I don't know, end of last year, right?
At the beginning of this year, but, um, I think it was, um, kind of a
study, if you will, on, um, individuals in their early nineties, right?
Kind of what their priority, their their priority structure is.
And in this order they go.
It's, it's always faith, right?
Yeah.
So it's like, and, and, and I think, you know, early on, um, you know, church for
me was, I, I didn't have a choice, right?
So it was one of those things.
And the second that I had a choice, I ran away from it, right?
Just because it was just like, I, I didn't have a choice and it was like,
you know, kind of rebel against it.
And, um, but first is faith, and then second is family, then friends.
And they joke, right?
You gotta put your friends up there 'cause you need somebody that to,
you know, you need some pa bearers.
So you gotta have some friends and, uh, I mean, this is coming
from 90 year olds, right?
Given this perspective.
And so, you know, hey, and, and they all admit, right?
You know, hey is out of whack.
I wish I would've got this in, in this order a lot sooner.
Um, faith, you gotta have the, you gotta have the family.
'cause you want, you want people to be hanging out with you when
you, when you get to this age, you gotta have some friends.
You need some pall bear.
Um, then your fitness.
Yeah,
then your finance.
Yeah.
And so taking the five F's and that's coming from 90
year olds, that's the order.
And you know, I think a lot of folks struggle with that framework.
Um, you know, being able to get great mentors, um, get the right
books, listening now to the right podcast, getting in the right rooms.
Yeah.
Getting into the right churches, getting into the right locations.
Environment is everything.
Right.
Environment is greater than willpower.
Um, you know,
that's
great.
One of my, my favorite, my favorite, one of my favorite quotes, and
especially it ties into, to environment.
It's a Nipsey Hussle quote.
And he is like, listen, you know, if you look at the people in your
circle and they don't inspire you, you don't have a circle, you have a cage.
Hmm.
And it's, it's just that constant reminder of always, if I'm, if you're
gonna audit anything, audit that circle, audit that friends list, audit those
mentors, audit the, the what you're listening to audit, you know, who's
coaching you, who's, who's leading you.
Yeah.
Um, and I, I, I'm a firm believer too, right?
Like, if looking at those five things right there, do you have
a coach and, and a mentor in every one of those areas, right?
That's helping you to, to grow and improve because it's constant work.
Like what You've been down the path for multiple decades.
Yeah.
And, and, and knowing you, you ain't slowing down.
No, no, no.
I'm just getting started.
What you said there is spot on and I'll add this to it 'cause it.
It, it, it is in addition to everything you just said.
'cause I agree with everything you just said.
In this modern day, either you train the algorithm or the algorithm will train you.
Yes.
And so you, you, you know, you have to be so aware right now that, um, it,
how much time I, I, I don't, I haven't studied this so I don't know this,
but it seems that they're becoming, the phones are becoming more magnetic.
They have a greater ability to hold our attention.
Mm-hmm.
Without us, I mean, I don't, I don't, I can't explain that.
I don't know that I haven't studied it, but I am becoming more and more
and more intentional on, okay, so what is this algorithm gonna feed me?
What am I gonna permit?
To be.
Now, I've always been pretty strong on this.
I mean, I, you know, I'm very careful about what
mm-hmm.
Comes in through my eyes and my ears, but I'm just more aware with ai, with,
because you realize that everybody that watches this, hopefully they realize
that when you scroll, that's ai, that type of AI has been around a whole
lot longer than interfacing with chat GPT or one of, or gr or one of those.
And so it's just in the same way, if your friends aren't inspiring
you, is, is your feed inspiring you?
Yeah.
' cause if it's not, it's the same thing.
Yeah.
Fix it.
Right?
That's the, that's the thing, right?
Like, laughing with anybody or their coat, you know, you hear 'em,
you're like, man, my feet is trash.
And I'm like, well, you know, you caused that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's on you.
You did that.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
And the default, the default is negative.
If you go, you go pull a brand new iPhone out of the box and you know,
you, you create a brand new, uh, like identity email address and you just
tell 'em you're your age and it will send you the recipe for destruction.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
And so that's how, that's how serious we have to be about it.
You're, it's your life.
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna choose to focus on?
So, good Brother Chad, we can, we can go on for days, man.
I, I really, really appreciate you carving out the time jumping in here.
I knew this was gonna be absolutely fire.
Thanks for having me.
I, I, I mean, I have.
Notes upon notes, upon notes, and like, there's so many great little nuggets
that came from that and can't wait to, to go back through and, and re-listen to
a lot of the, the things that you said.
There's so much truth and meaning in, in a lot of, um, the things that you shared.
So, brother, appreciate you, um, a ton for jumping in here and, and sharing
your wisdom and man, I can't wait to to run it back and do it again with you.
Awesome.
Thank you for having me.
It's been awesome.
And I'll see you on the next one.
You got it guys.
Connect with Chad.
Um, I know we've been, uh, scrolling down here.
Best way to follow at DFW Real Estate Team, Chad Smith.
Chad, any other ways that they can, uh, get connected with you?
A best way to get plugged in?
Yeah.
You know, um, that, that handle is actually our, our team handle.
So my personal Instagram is at Chad Smith Real Solution, or you
could go to the real solution.com.
Okay.
I love that.
It's good stuff, guys.
Get out there.
Follow Chad.
He is, uh, definitely a, um, someone to pay attention to in this
industry, doing things the right way, making decisions off of our values.
And man, I'm, I'm excited to watch the continued growth and I know, uh,
our paths will cross many, many times.
Awesome, John, thanks for having me today.
I appreciate you.
Appreciate you.
Thanks guys.
See it.
Thanks for tuning in.
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