Episode 377 - Jacki Semerau Tait, Coach, Author, REALTOR - Realty One Group Mountain Desert

00:00:00 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I think everything is relationship. I think if you're a small business owner, which as a real estate agent, you are a small business owner. And that's the first thing that any new agent needs to understand. This is not a job, this is a career. This is where you own your business. And if you're a small business owner, relationships are everything.

00:00:23 - Bill Risser

You're listening to the real estate sessions. I'm your host, Bill Risser. With nearly 25 years in the real estate business, I love to interview industry leaders, up and comers, and really anyone with a story to tell. It's the stories that led my guests to a career in the real estate world that drives me into my 9th year and nearly 400 episodes of the podcast. And now I hope you enjoy the next journey. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 377 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend. Today we get to go back to Arizona, where I lived for 17 years. However, I live down in Gilbert, Arizona, which is part of the valley of the sun and very hot and very dry heat. I'm tired of hearing that phrase when it's 117. You don't care how dry it is. But we're going to Flagstaff. That's where Jacki Semerau Tait lives. She's with Realty One Group, Mountain Desert. She's a coach, an author, doing some really cool stuff with real estate up in the mountains of Arizona. And let's get this thing started. Jacki, welcome to the podcast.

00:01:26 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Thanks. It's great to be here.

00:01:28 - Bill Risser

I'm really excited. I've got a Realty One Group agent on the podcast. I am such a fan of what Realty One Group is doing. I'm going to just guess you are too. Is that safe?

00:01:38 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I am. I've been with realty one for eight years and counting.

00:01:42 - Bill Risser

Yeah, that's think their culture and just all those different things that Kuba talks about. It's pretty neat. So it's exciting to have you on here. And I like to start at the beginning. So I'm going to ask you this question. You currently live in Flagstaff, which, wow, is a really cool. We're going to talk about that a little, but, and I think there's a Scottsdale connection. So you've been around the state a little bit. So are you a native Arizona?

00:02:07 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I am not. I actually grew up in the Chicago area, born and raised in Elgin, which is a suburb of Chicago. And then my dad got transferred to Phoenix. He was with American Airlines and he got transferred to Phoenix when I was 15. So I came to Scottsdale kicking and screaming, so to speak. So when I was 20, I moved back to Chicago. I lived right on Lakeshore Drive. It was a fabulous time. And then it got cold and I went, oh, I'm going back to Scottsdale. So I've been in Arizona ever since.

00:02:41 - Bill Risser

There are a lot of snowbirds from Chicago in metro area, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, you name it. Right. It seems to be very popular. It's where the country splits up and they go to Florida or they go to Arizona. Right.

00:02:55 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Or they go to Phoenix. We used to say Phoenix was a suburb of Chicago.

00:03:00 - Bill Risser

First of all, which high school did you go to in Scottsdale?

00:03:04 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Horizon. I was a horizon.

00:03:06 - Bill Risser

Horizon. Okay. All right, cool. So I know the area a little bit. I lived in Gilbert for 17 years, so my son went to high school at Williamsfield, a new high school down there at the time. So know a little bit about Scottsdale. That's cool. Horizon. Tell me then, being kind of centered and focused in Scottsdale. And you went back to Scottsdale when you came back, but somehow we have to get you to Flagstaff. So we'll jump ahead a little bit. What got you out of the heat and the extreme heat and into probably some of the best climate in the whole state? Right?

00:03:39 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I love it here. We've got all four seasons and it's incredible. But yeah. So I actually got married to my husband in 2013 and he had a second home in Flagstaff before we met. When we got married, we would spend some time up here, but the builder who had built the house that we had had been after him to come and work for him kept saying, why don't you come work for us? Why don't you come work for us? So Mark and I had been married for about a year and a half. And he goes, yeah, I think I'm just going to take this lunch meeting. I'm just going to go. I'm like, why not? Never hurts. You never know. So he calls me after the lunch meeting and he said, you know, I think we should do this. I think we should move to Flagstaff. And to his surprise, I said, ok, let's do it.

00:04:29 - Bill Risser

Wow, that's awesome. That's cool. Yeah, tell me, especially for people listening, I've had a couple of people, I think you know Paula Montifefer, maybe from when she was there.

00:04:40 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Do you know her?

00:04:41 - Bill Risser

Yeah. So Paula I knew Gary is another guy that's kind of involved with the associations up there. But tell me what people should know about northern Arizona, right? There's a lot more to Arizona than brutal heat.

00:04:56 - Jacki Semerau Tait

There is. I think the thing that people need to know is in northern Arizona, you do get four seasons, especially in the Flagstaff area. In Flagstaff, where it's 7000ft, so we have the same type of climate as what people typically associate with Denver, Colorado. And I think a lot of people forget that when they think Arizona, they think dry heat, 120 degrees, saguaro cactus. That's what they think. But no, we've got the Ponderosa Pines, the four seasons. Last year we had a brutal winter and had record breaking snow, 180 plus inches. So, yeah, that's what you need to know. And here's the thing. It's beautiful in northern Arizona. Once you get up north to about the 3000 foot level, there's so much to do, there's so much diversity. You've got the red rocks of Sedona, you have the old mining town in Jerome, you've got the pines and the snow up in Flagstaff. So there's a lot to see and do and it's beautiful.

00:06:01 - Bill Risser

Yeah, I'll definitely second that. I mean, we've made quite a few trips kind of up the back way when you live over in Gilbert Mesa area. Right. And just had a blast up there. Great. So here you are, you're 15 years old, you're relocated. And I know that's going to be just traumatic for a 15 year old girl to be dropped into a new high school. I'm just going to guess you're thinking a little bit about what you want to do with your life, but I'm going to guess real estate was not even on the radar. Am I right?

00:06:28 - Jacki Semerau Tait

There you are correct. When I was that age, so I started ballet when I was four years old. And so when I was 15 years old, I had really been involved with ballet and dance for a long time. And my goal was to become a professional ballerina and then ultimately to be a choreographer.

00:06:52 - Bill Risser

Wow. First of all, then I have to know this. How far did you take that? I mean, that had to be. There are schools, right, and there are companies. I think if I have that right, where you can move on from high school into a process to continue. Did you go that far or how did that.

00:07:13 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I did, actually. Yeah. When we moved down here, part of the. Again, I was a bitter teenager. Like, you're pulling me away from everything. And part of that was the ballet school that I was at because I was kind of top of my game there. So when we moved down here, my parents got me involved with the school of ballet, Arizona, and so that was an experience. And then I started to branch out beyond ballet, and I started going to a different studio, taking jazz classes, modern classes, and just really fell in love with all the different genres. And so when I got out of high school, I decided I was going to major in dance in college. And so I did that very briefly. I am a college dropout, and so I did that briefly. And then at some point, though, I did go back, and every once in a while, I still actually go back to community college and take a dance class. So it's a lot of fun. And the other thing I will tell you is, when I moved to Chicago, I moved there to pursue my dance career. I was 20 years old, and I was going to audition for the Ruth page foundation in Chicago.

00:08:21 - Bill Risser

Wow. So first question comes in my mind. Does your husband dance? Well, is he a good dancer? Yeah. No.

00:08:30 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Okay, so now I have to tell you how we met.

00:08:34 - Bill Risser

Well, let's go for it. Yeah. Perfect.

00:08:38 - Jacki Semerau Tait

So, in the Scottsdale area, association of realtors, they have charity called the Hutch fund. And that is something that was put into place to help realtors who maybe fell on hard times, and it was to come alongside them, help them pay their bills while they go through cancer treatments or the loss of a child or whatever the case may be. And so for their big fundraiser, they decided to do something called Star Night. Star night was something they did at the Scottsdale center for the Arts. Did it on know. It was kind of the big. I say it's a Broadway style, but don't misunderstand and think that was Broadway level. We were not. But kind of a Broadway style talent show. And so the second year that they were doing that, they needed a choreographer, and so I got to dust off my choreography skills, and I did that for them. And that's how I met my husband. He's a singer songwriter and a realtor, and so he was one of the people who was in that show, and the rest is history.

00:09:46 - Bill Risser

Wow. Okay, cool. I had no idea. That's great. Well, let's figure out. So what were you doing then? When you decide the danceway is not going to probably be it, what was that first career for you? What were you doing before real estate?

00:10:00 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I was in sales and marketing.

00:10:02 - Bill Risser

Okay. Yeah. Which is a great entry point for real estate. Right. So that makes sense.

00:10:08 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Absolutely. My first sales job was as a sales coordinator for a hotel in old town Scottsdale.

00:10:18 - Bill Risser

How does real estate enter the picture?

00:10:21 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Well, at the time. So I got married young, had a couple of lovely daughters and my then husband at the time, and I decided that we wanted to start investing in real estate. And so we started to work with a real estate agent who just did not understand what our needs were. And I was frustrated. And at the time, I had these two little a toddler and an infant. And I said, well, I'm a stay at home mom. Why don't I go ahead and go to real estate school? So I'll get my license, I'll represent our needs, and then we can do this on our own. And so what happened is I started going to real estate school, and I fell in love with the process of real estate. I just fell in love, which is very od because I'm a creative. And so for me to really grab onto the legalities and the intricacies, but to me, all these pieces that you have to put together, it's kind of like putting together a puzzle. And when you do it well, you get a great outcome. And it intrigued me. And so I looked at my then husband and said, I think I really want to do this for a living. And so that's what I did. It was 2002. I got my license, and I started to go to work representing clients. The funny thing is, it was shortly thereafter that my husband and I ended up getting a divorce. So we never did buy our first investment property together, but changed the course. So it was all good.

00:11:50 - Bill Risser

Yeah. So over 20 years now in the business, you do a lot of really cool stuff. I mean, if you look at your website and we'll have links to all that in the show notes, one of them is you really embrace coaching. You really like helping other agents succeed. And I think that's awesome. How did that part of the business come about?

00:12:08 - Jacki Semerau Tait

So, interestingly enough, when I did get divorced from my husband, at the time, I did start to go to work for a title company. I worked as a special operations manager out of their corporate office. So I took my sales and marketing. I had a couple of years at that time under my belt in real estate, and then I started to work for our corporate offices for a title company. And part of my job was to put together programs to help agents be successful. The theory was the more we can help agents become successful, then the more business they have to bring to our title company. And so that was a really, honestly, it was a great gig. But that was part of how I started to see that Realtors needed one on one coaching. Realtors needed group coaching. Realtors needed just some type of whatever is going to resonate with them, specifically people to help them put their systems in place, people to help them grow, and people to really just kind of come alongside them and hold them accountable. So that was how I started in coaching, and that was in 2004.

00:13:13 - Bill Risser

And you've been doing it a long time now. And so obviously the curriculum has changed over the years. I'm sure you're talking about something different in 2008, nine and ten than you were just a couple of years ago when things went haywire crazy. And there was so much business out there. Let me ask you this. Looking through some of the things you do, one of the core components that you talk about, which I really want to hear how this works out, is work life balance, because in the world of real estate, I don't know if that's really possible, but I think you take it from a different, slightly different angle. Do you mind sharing your thoughts on that?

00:13:51 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Not at all. It became really important. So I have to tell you, through the course of the 20 years that I've been involved in real estate, 22 years, actually. I've had my ups and my downs. And so, yes, you mentioned 2008. I was in an all time low, got down to my last $4, had to short sell my house. I mean, it was a whole thing. And so when you're on that side of thing, you're working 80, 90 hours a week because you have to, to try and pay the bills. So then once you get yourself back into a good flow of things, you figure out your business, you get yourself into a spot where you're experiencing success. Now you start working 80 9100 hours a week because you never want to lose it. You never want to go back to where you had nothing.

00:14:42 - Jacki Semerau Tait

So you're working so hard that way. And I think we hear this in our industry all the time. Oh, I'll answer my phone at 10:00 at night. I was texting clients at six in the morning. And so for me, I had become an absolute victim of those two extremes, and it cost me my health. At one point in 2018, I ended up in the hospital, and then I went home and was bedridden for ten days and had to start going through a journey to figure out what was wrong with me. And really it was just, without getting into all of my health issues, what triggered the symptoms and everything like that was literally just not getting enough sleep, not eating properly, just working myself way too hard. And that's when I said, okay, something's got to give, something's got to change. So what I started to do for my work life balance is I started to say, okay, I can't always put work as the priority.

00:15:39 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I have to put my loved ones as a priority. I have to prioritize my health. And so I started to build more of a team around me. At the time, I did have a team. I was leading a team of agents, and I spoke to one of the agents that was on my team and I said, listen, do you want to become an equal partner with me? Because I don't want to do this alone anymore. I want somebody to help me with the heavy lifting. She and I get along great. We have very similar ways of doing business, but we have different strengths and different weaknesses. So we're a good fit together. And so that was one of the things, and that's what I encourage agents, is you don't necessarily have to get a business partner or be on a team, but find people that you can put around you, whether you're hiring them, whether it's another agent, that you're just bouncing business off of each other so that you can go take a vacation or you can go to dinner with your family and not be interrupted.

00:16:35 - Jacki Semerau Tait

So I started putting boundaries around my time where no phones at the table, I'm not going to answer a call from a client when I'm having dinner with my kids and my husband. Just not going to do that. I started putting boundaries around my time. So I did start to say I work from 09:00 a.m.

00:16:54 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Till 07:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Let's face it, those are very generous work hours and there's nothing that needs to happen at 8910 o'clock at night that can't wait until nine the next morning. And then I also try to protect my Sundays. Now, of course, all my clients know there's going to be times in real estate. Sometimes that perfect house comes on the market Saturday at 04:00 and, you know, people are going to be fighting for it. And I've got buyers who've been looking for exactly this. We have to go see it on Sunday. That's okay, but it's an exception and not the rule. And so what I found was that, number one, my clients ended up having a higher level of respect for me as a professional.

00:17:38 - Jacki Semerau Tait

That was the first bonus on that. And then the second bonus was that because now I was protecting my time. I had time for downtime. I started going to bed early. I used to be the person who would stay up until wee hours of the morning, sending emails, doing all the things. I started going to bed early, getting a healthy night's sleep, eating better, taking care of myself, all the good things. I became far more successful in my business by cutting down the amount of time that I made myself available to my business.

00:18:10 - Bill Risser

Yeah, that time management, it's talked about a lot, but implemented very little, I think. So you're a shining example of why that's got to be there. Yeah, that's great. You focus on relationships. I absolutely love that. I think it's the most important piece of the puzzle in the world of real estate. Right. What are your thoughts there?

00:18:31 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I think everything is relationship. I think if you're a small business owner, which as a real estate agent, you are a small business owner. And that's the first thing that any new agent needs to understand. This is not a job, this is a career. This is where you own your business. And if you're a small business owner, relationships are everything. And not just one of the things. When I coach agents and we go through relationship and how to build your business by referral through your relationships, when we talk about that, it's really important that it's not just, oh, I'm going to collect people and I just need more people in my database and I need more people in my phone and that type of thing. It's not that building relationships is more about, well, how can I serve you? How can I, what I have to offer as a professional be of value to you? And when I start the relationship, the professional relationship, at any rate, with that in mind, then it becomes very easily a win win. And people have a lot of respect and they honor your time and your expertise because they know you have their best interest at heart.

00:19:45 - Bill Risser

Yeah, I love that. And I think you also incorporate into what you do to help agents when they're just getting started. What you know now, it's not fair, right? If I'm a new agent talking to you, you're going to be going, well, you want to do this, this and that, but you really break it down for that new agent. What they need to do, the habits they need to create are super critical, super important, so that when they're 20 years in, they're having these same easy conversations you and I are having now. Right. So what does that look like?

00:20:17 - Jacki Semerau Tait

And that's interesting that you say that. I mean, I train our new agents with realty. One group, Mountain Desert. I lead our agent success program and then I also do coaching for more seasoned agents. And I will tell you that when the newbies come in, the one thing that I always say is you have more time than money when you're new. And at some point that will change. At some point, you're going to get to a point where you have more money than time. And that's okay. That's when you switch over and start looking at doing your business a little bit differently. But when you get started, you have more time than money. This is the time to systematize how you build your, you know, my very favorite quote is from James clear in atomic habits. He says, you don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. And so, as crass as that may sound, or you systematize your relationships. What do you mean? Well, let's face it, as human beings, we are not created to have the amount of relationships that we now do. Between our social media presence, where we have 5000 friends on Facebook and 10,000 followers on X, and 100 people dming you a day on Instagram, we are not made to sustain that level. So you have to have some systems in place that help to control all of that and remind you of things. And so that's what we really work on as new agents. Let's try and get those systems set up before you need them. So if we have those before you need them now, you're already learning how to rely on those systems as you start to go and grow and build your network.

00:21:57 - Bill Risser

Say hi to Dan and Jeff for me. Right.

00:21:59 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Oh, I will, I will.

00:22:01 - Bill Risser

Yeah. Mountain desert is a great operation, doing some really cool stuff. Let's see. You are very vulnerable publicly. You talked about the $4 story. I don't think I had that exactly right. And actually, I'll have a link to that in the show notes as well, if you're okay with that.

00:22:21 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Yeah, awesome. Absolutely.

00:22:22 - Bill Risser

Yeah. So talk about how important resiliency in, and I would think this is going to go for every agent out there. Everybody has to be able to fight through some of those things that are out there in this space.

00:22:38 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Well, Bill, I'll tell you, the one thing that we all have in common as human beings is that we will face adversity. And I know that right now our society is trying to tell us like, hey, if you set up everything right, you can be safe and you can be secure and don't risk anything. Just stay safe. Stay safe. And that seems to be the messaging from our society at large. But honestly, you got to put some risk out there. No risk, no reward. The bigger the risk, potentially, the bigger the reward, but the bigger you can fall. And I think that in real estate, again, you're starting your own business. It's a hard thing to get into, and it's sort of on the job training, if you will, when you're doing real estate. And so when you're facing that adversity, because it will come, you have to have, number one, your why has to be big enough. You've got to have that really strong. Like, why am I doing this? If you're doing it because you think the commission checks are big, you are in this for the wrong reason. It's not going to serve you. You're not going to be top of your game as an agent, and it's just not a strong enough. Why? Because sometimes I heard, and I wish I could remember who to credit this quote to, but somebody once said that real estate is the highest paid hard work and the lowest paid easy work that you'll ever do. And it's so true, right?

00:24:16 - Bill Risser

So true.

00:24:18 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Yes. The upside, the potential is there, and there's no ceiling in real estate in terms of how much you want to grow. You determine that for yourself. When I coach my agents, I always tell them, like, if you're looking to be that agent who wants a million dollar GCI, I am not your coach. I'm not the one for you. Because to me, that doesn't drive me. It's not exciting. Who cares? Let's focus more on how many people we can serve. And if we focus on how many people we can serve, those commission checks become the natural byproduct. And then they almost just become like, oh, look, it's like gauging your temperature. Look at this check is great. What have you. So, yeah, where all of that is concerned, I think you have to have that biggest why? To drive you when things get hardest. That's first and foremost. The second thing is to remember that when you are in your moments of adversity and whether it is just like, oh, this is tough, I don't like it, or you're down to the bottom of yourself. Like when I share in my $4 story, no matter what, remember that this is just a part of your story and this is going to serve your higher purpose later down the line. So instead of getting bogged down and really putting the blinders on and just seeing the fact that, oh, I'm stuck in this point of misery, look up into the horizon of your future to say, well, where do I want to be? Where do I want to be? In a year from now, five years from now, whatever the timeline that you want to give yourself, but see that result and then do the actions today that are going to get you there, knowing that your story is just part.

00:25:59 - Bill Risser

Of the journey mindset. Right. We didn't really talk about that much in this episode, but it's a big piece of all of this. You've got to be there and thinking that way. Otherwise it's really tough to get out of those situations. It's funny when you talk about serving, I always think about agents who tell me how many families they helped this year, not how many units they sold or how much GCI they got. I mean, that's really the way to talk about it.

00:26:27 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Right? I agree. I would far rather tell you about the people who I helped, who had a dream to get a second home. I've been working with them for years, and they first started looking at Flagstaff. Then they decided maybe Tahoe. Then they came back around. I was able to spend a really long day with them, take them to our three golf course communities in Flagstaff, get them the knowledge so that they could make the decision which one they wanted to be a part of. And then we found them this house. And I have to say, the way their eyes lit up when they saw the house and then dreaming about spending the holidays there and being able to come, I mean, it's just, that's part of the juice. Or the client, the first time home buyer that you help, or the people who are living in what they thought was their forever home. And then he got a job opportunity that was too good to pass up in another state. And so now it's trying to help them sell what they thought was going to be their forever home and finding somebody who's going to love that house for them instead. I mean, it's those stories that. That's the juice.

00:27:32 - Bill Risser

Yeah. That phrase, being authentic, is bandied about quite a bit right now. And I think you're living it. It's who you are. Right. And I think that's really important. Is that how you feel about it? Is that what that term means to you?

00:27:48 - Jacki Semerau Tait

It is, but I'm glad that you ask about this, because, again, I think there's a misnomer in our society right now about what that means to be authentic. I think that there are certain people, if you go on social media and you watch and you'll hear that buzword. Well, I'm just being my authentic self. I'm being true to me. And I think the problem is that some people take that word, that phrase, become authentic, and they actually translate that into some kind of a permission to behave badly. And I think that's not what being authentic is, because, let's face it, we all have areas of us as human beings. Again, we have areas of us that are ugly, they're lazy, they're nasty, they think mean thoughts, whatever the case is, right? And then we also have that higher level of who we are created to be. And I think that part of what our purpose on the earth is, is to try to overcome and become that highest version of yourself. I think that's part of what we're here to do. And then we share that with other people and help each other along the way. And so, yeah, I hear the whole thing about being authentic, and I think, well, that doesn't mean over sharing your life, even though I get very raw, real and personal in my $4 story, but I don't take you through every single second of that moment. I take you through it, and then I tell you what I learned from it. So we're not getting bogged down in the details that are sad. It's not about, look at me. How sad my story is, look at me, how rough I have it, look at whatever, and then adversely, it's not about, oh, look at me. How good I have it, look at me. None of that. I think being authentic means you're sharing the journey with other people in terms of, I've come a long way, I got a long way to go. So I'm just open and honest about that. And I think that is what really serves the whole let's be authentic. But it's not always easy.

00:29:58 - Bill Risser

That's really well done. That's well said. I will be listening to that a couple more times once I get the episode. I love that, Jacki, it's know, because you're with group, you know, I was with Ratemygen for three years, and so it's the best partnership that the company has. And desert Mountain's cool, flagstaff down into Lake Havasu, I think, and Bullhead City and all that stuff. So they cover the whole gamut. I mean, it must be just awesome being with that team.

00:30:25 - Jacki Semerau Tait

It's great. And I have to say, first and foremost, I love, like you said, our franchise is Realty One Group, Mountain Desert. Daniel Collins is the owner, who you referenced. Jeff Hoover is our Coo. Mimi Lundy is our broker. And I'm telling you, that is a power. You know, here's what I really love about Realty one group, and not just Mountain desert. So mountain desert. We cover all of northern Arizona. Just opened up a new office in Sholo, too. So we've Verde Valley, Prescott, Havasu, Bullhead City, Kingman, and now Sholo, Flagstaff. Obviously, all that good stuff.

00:31:04 - Bill Risser

Yeah.

00:31:04 - Jacki Semerau Tait

All that to be said, Realty One Group, corporate, and therein. Why we fit in so well with them as a franchise is that they really are agent centric. And I know a lot of companies, it's about building the brand of the company, whereas with Realty one group, the brand of the company exists to help the agents. And so the agents get really excited. We're about to have our one summit, and you are never going to see more people wearing obnoxious black and gold outfits. And it is so much fun. I mean, you'll see sequin jackets and everything like that. And it's something to be a part of. And so it's a very powerful symbiotic relationship between Realty One Group, the corporation, the brand, and Realty One Group, the agents. So that's why I love being a part of this brokerage.

00:32:01 - Bill Risser

Well, I know you're a fan of Justin Holman, at rate, my agent, he will be in Vegas at the one summit, so you ought to stop by the booth and say hi.

00:32:08 - Jacki Semerau Tait

I know, I'm looking forward to meeting him. I'm actually going to be speaking at one of the breakout sessions. And I told Justin, I was like, hey, if you guys can print out some stuff, I'll have you in there. Because I'm talking about sphere of influence marketing. And I am a big believer in collecting reviews is a big part of how you are able to increase your sphere of influence marketing.

00:32:30 - Bill Risser

Yeah. Awesome. All right, Jacki, I've taken up a lot of your time here, so let's go ahead and I'll ask the same question I've asked every guest, and now there's 376 answers to this question. So good luck. You have to be something unique and different. I'm just kidding. The question is simple. What one piece of advice would you give a new agent? Just getting started.

00:32:52 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Get a mentor. Get a mentor. It is that simple. Honestly, I think it's a disservice to new agents that it's not a requirement. Appraisers have to go and shadow appraisers for a specific amount of time. Home inspectors have to go and shadow a seasoned home inspector for a certain amount of time before they're allowed to practice on their own. And I do think it's a disservice that in real estate, that's not a thing. So just because you're not required to do it though, doesn't mean that you shouldn't. I think the best advice I can give you is pair up with a mentor. Look for a brokerage that has a mentorship program. I'll plug Realty One Group Mountain desert if you're anywhere in northern Arizona. But Realty One Group is very big on their mentorship programs, and I know there's a couple of other brokerages that are as well. So that's my number one piece of advice. Do not come into this and think you have to be a lone wolf.

00:33:50 - Bill Risser

Very good. If someone listening wants to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

00:33:56 - Jacki Semerau Tait

The best way to do that is to go to stepstrength.com and there you're going to be able to connect with all the different things that I've got going on, the books that I've written and programs coming up, and even the YouTube channel that I do with my husband called Empty Nester Life. So you'll find it all there.

00:34:17 - Bill Risser

Nice. That's awesome. Jacki, this has been great. I can't thank you enough for taking the time out to talk with me. And continued success. It's a great story. It's really cool. I'm excited to be able to put this out there. So thanks again.

00:34:33 - Jacki Semerau Tait

Thank you, Bill.

00:34:33 - Bill Risser

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