Episode 378 - Megan Farrell-Nelson, The Megan Farrell Team with REAL Brokerage, LLC

00:00:00 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah. So I was 26, like I said. And it, it was, I walked in as from kindergarten world, right, where you're like, be kind and treat each other with the golden rule. And then I walked into a real estate office and I was like, hi, I'm Megan and super bubly and super, you know, just basically who I am now again. But I was greeted with not as much excitement as I had, let's, let's, let's call it that. And just a lot of like, I remember the first day I did floor time and the agent telling me that I was going to flounder just like the rest of them.

00:00:36 - Bill Risser

You're listening to the real estate sessions and 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 378 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're going to go up to the palm coast of Florida and we're going to be talking to Megan Farrell Nelson. Megan and her husband Brady have a team with Real Brokers LLC. They've been in the business roughly twelve years, kind of in that range, doing some really cool stuff. I've had a chance to work with them at the re bar camps in Florida, whether it was at the state level or one coast up in Jacksonville. So I know you're going to enjoy this conversation. Let's get this thing rolling. Megan, welcome to the podcast.

00:01:35 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

00:01:38 - Bill Risser

Well, I can't tell you how much fun I think we're going to have today because you and I were re bar camp. Know we've been in a few sessions together. I'm watching you take a picture right now, so I know you're going to post this. A social thing. I wouldn't expect anything else. That's great. Well, Megan, I want to start at the beginning. This is what I do. I like to find out the backstory of interesting people in the and so, doing some research, I was looking around, I saw a lot of Pennsylvania in there, a Scotia of North Carolina. And then you've been in Florida for a little while now. So I'm just going to guess born and raised in Pa am I. Right, correct whereabouts. And tell me a little bit about growing up in Pennsylvania.

00:02:25 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah. So I'm actually from Scranton, which everyone thinks is so cool because the office, Denver Mifflin, does not actually exist there. But yeah, I grew up in a city called Clark Summit, right outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Grew up with all the seasons, including the snow. And it was college. I can remember I was walking to class in college and my face hurt and my hands hurt and I was like, this ain't it for me. And I was going to school to be a teacher at the time. And so when I graduated, there was a big push for hiring in the Carolinas. And so I went down to the Carolinas because I knew I wanted to get out of the snow and ended up getting a teaching job.

00:03:04 - Bill Risser

Scranton is, I think, that's closer to Philly than Pittsburgh. Right.

00:03:08 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

It's northeast. So, like, the pog knows I'm about an hour and a half outside of New York City.

00:03:14 - Bill Risser

Okay. So I'm just going to know, do you grow up as a Phillies fan or an, when you, when you live in Scranton or does it go the other way?

00:03:22 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

I grew up as a New York Giants fan and a Yankees fan. Yeah. Crazy.

00:03:28 - Bill Risser

How does that happen?

00:03:29 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Philadelphia is actually further away from where we live than New York. And I don't know, I guess you kind of go with your parents, right? And my dad was a Giants fan and a Yankees fan. And then my mom's side of the family, they're like hardcore eagles, like, season not. We can't be around each other if the teams play each other kind of.

00:03:47 - Bill Risser

Stuff, which the Giants and the Eagles play every year.

00:03:55 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

And my brother moved to DC and I was like, cool. So now you're like, Redskins, Eagles, Giants. So perfect.

00:04:00 - Bill Risser

Got it all covered. So tell me, growing up in Scranton, I know roughly how old jars we're talking 20 years ago. You're going through high school, right? And before that, what is it like growing up there?

00:04:13 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

My dad was a builder and my mom was a school teacher, so I was always involved around my parents because my dad, we could go to the job site whenever we want. Like, had a bobcat in our backyard still. There's a bobcat in my parents backyard right now, which, if you don't know a bobcat is a piece of machinery, not the animal.

00:04:37 - Bill Risser

It's a little tractor.

00:04:38 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

It's kind of tractor guy. But yeah. So I grew up basically, like on construction sites or at school with my mom or with my mom after school and things like that. So I kind of was immersed in the real estate business world without really knowing that, and then the teacher world, which is the path I ended up pursuing initially out of college.

00:05:01 - Bill Risser

By the way, I have to ask you about college.

00:05:03 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah.

00:05:04 - Bill Risser

Tell me a little bit about that, because I've never heard of.

00:05:08 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah, King's College. It's in Wilkesburg, Pennsylvania, and it's like, christ, the. So it was a religious school, I guess I was not religious. That's not why I chose to go there. I went for sports because at the time, that was my thing, was sports. And that's how I picked my college. But, yeah, I went there, majored in early childhood and elementary education.

00:05:35 - Bill Risser

Awesome. Now, wait, you said sports. Did you play sports there? Was that part of the plan?

00:05:40 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah. So my mom is actually a d one, NCAA national champion in field hockey. She was on the national team? Yeah. She's in all these hall of fames all over the place for field hockey.

00:05:54 - Bill Risser

Where'd she go to school?

00:05:55 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

She went to Chippensburg University, which used to be d one. Now it's d two, but at the time it was d one. And, yeah, they won the national championship. She was like, MVP. She's incredible. And I started playing when I was really young, and then it kind of was like, oh, well, you're going to play, and you're expected of me. And then my middle school years, I was like, I'm not playing and I'm not being like my mom. And then I came back around to it in high school. And turns out some things are also inherited. And I was pretty good at field hockey. And when I went to college, my girlfriends who played hockey, some of them played lacrosse, and they were like, hey, why don't you try out for lacrosse? I said, okay. And I tried out, and I ended up making the starting team my first year. So I played field hockey and lacrosse in college.

00:06:45 - Bill Risser

Wow. So for those that don't know, me included the difference between field hockey and lacrosse, one, I'm going to guess, is the stick you're holding. They're quite different, am I right?

00:06:58 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah. So you have a hockey stick, and it's obviously the balls on the ground, but honestly, it's very similar. So I'm showing, Bill, when you dribble, you do this on the ground, and then when you run with the lacrosse ball, so it's the same basic motions with your wrists, just one's in the air and one's. And they both have goals. So you're trying to get down the field, up and down the field, and really, it's a lot of speed game and an endurance game. Another fun fact about me is I'm a marathoner. Yeah, I've run five full marathons. And so, yeah, I'm a little bit of a, I guess, like, glutton for physical pain when it comes to that kind of stuff, but, yeah.

00:07:41 - Bill Risser

Wow.

00:07:42 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah, I was really good at running in college.

00:07:45 - Bill Risser

I guess both those sports, incredibly physical. Right. I don't think. There's not the level of contact that can happen sometimes in sports, but I'm sure it's still there. And you probably have a few stories. We'll get to those on episode two. I could talk to you the whole show about your. I had no, we've, we've met quite a few times. We've worked together, and I've never knew that you were a lacrosse and field hockey jock. That's great. All right, so let's get to the fact that you get out of school, you end up in North Carolina teaching, but somehow we have to get you to Florida in real estate. What's that transition look like?

00:08:28 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

So I was a school teacher making $30,400 a year in North Carolina, which as a 20 year old, that's not such bad money. But once you start getting to 25, 26, and you have to talk about buying houses and stuff, it's a little bit more challenging. And I was working at a gym, I was waitressing on the weekends, and I was teaching full time. And that sounds all good when you're single. But then I started to build a life with someone else, and I needed a different income. That person I was building a life with lived in Palm Coast, Florida, and I lived in North Carolina. We had dated long distance, and at the end of the school year, he owned a commodities brokerage. And it was time for one of us to move. And so it made more sense for me, who made $30,000 to move my life. And also I could teach in Florida. And when I got here, I knew I didn't want to jump right back into teaching. So I was know, hanging out a little bit and just staying at home, enjoying the beach and Florida life. And I actually got really kind of depressed. I was. I need. I need something. I know this is going to sound kind of weird, like, you can only go to the beach so many times when you're by yourself, right? And I was 26 and I was excited about life, and that just wasn't it. So upon a few suggestions from some friends, they were like, hey, why don't you get your real estate license? You like people, and you like to talk. And so I was like, okay. And that was almost eleven years ago, and eleven years later, we're still here, still doing it. But, yeah, I got my license in 2013 and joined a local brokerage down here and just hit the ground running.

00:10:19 - Bill Risser

First of all, I've interviewed a lot of people on the show, and you didn't teach a long time. Just a few years. But I'm going to assume even in those few years, whenever I talk to teachers who move into real estate, there's a slight advantage there. I think there's just a different way of thinking about things. Education is a massive part of a great agents tool chest. So my guess is that was a big help for you, right?

00:10:44 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah. So I was actually a kindergarten teacher, which I adored. And so when I transitioned, I was like, all right. I went from taking care of their most valuable possession, which is their baby, right, to the largest transaction. They're going to have experience. And so it's kind of like kid gloves both ways. And like you said, over explaining things is really big in real estate and education. And I went from teaching people who knew nothing about standing in line and reading and writing to breaking it down on a very low level for them. And so it really did transition naturally into helping with real estate because I was able to break it down. I'm able to break it down now, even, and talk to people who've never sold before or take it up to people who have done it. Lots of. Yeah. And everyone, like teachers and nurses, they're the best agents because they know that's. That's another thing. Brady, also my husband and my business partner, he was a former educator. And so it's kind of cool how we do. Like, we just left an appointment this morning, and we were both educating the whole time. And it's really been a fun transition, and not just with our customers, but also now we have an office in a team where we're recruiting agents in, we're training them. And so that has been a huge thing. We didn't even realize when we opened our office how much that was going to be a part of what we enjoyed is the education part, because it brings us back to who we are in our core. We are educators. So it's a really cool transition. Now I can sell one house and make $30,400 instead of.

00:12:34 - Bill Risser

True. Yeah. Especially on the coast in Florida. So I want to ask you this. You are relatively young, maybe I'll say very young that first year in the business, because it tends to be a second career. But usually people are in their 30s, sometimes even 40s, right. Maybe even later before they make the leap. So, first of all, what was it like the first year? I mean, I could imagine that you had some old veterans hanging around, that it was just a little bit different. Any stories from there?

00:13:04 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah. So I was 26, like I said, and I walked in from kindergarten world, right, where you're like, be kind and treat each other with the golden rule. And then I walked into a real estate office and I was like, hi, I'm Megan, and super bubly and super, just basically who I am now again. But I was greeted with not as much excitement as I had, let's call it that. And just a lot of, like, I remember the first day I did floor time and the agent telling me that I was going to flounder just like the rest of them and being like, so nice to meet you, Sharon. That was kind of my first experience with it. And then I think it's just like starting anything new. It took me time cutting my teeth, as they call it, to get the earn respect. I was the youngest president of our local board ever, too. I was president in 2019, and I was 32, I believe, at the time. And that was even more challenging than getting in the business. I could get people to trust me with their house, but once I got into leadership, they were like, what's this little girl going to teach me? So it definitely was an uphill battle at the beginning, which anything new is. But I also think I had an advantage being young because I didn't care what anyone thought, right? I moved here, I knew one person, his best friends were real estate agents, so I wasn't getting referrals from them. So I had to go knock on doors. I had to join clubs. I had to join. I supported the humane society when I got there because I knew everyone liked two things. Everyone likes their kids and everyone likes their dogs. And so if I could find a group that if I'm there, they already like me because they know we're on the same page. I did that with the humane society, and I wasn't embarrassed to knock on doors. I wasn't embarrassed to make calls. I wasn't embarrassed to do video. And that was back when video wasn't the cool thing. Everyone, I remember, they were teasing me. She puts her listings on Facebook, and I remember sitting in the seat and ignoring it and feeling really bad because I also came from kindergarten world as a teacher who if I thought someone was doing something not right, I would have reached out and offered help rather than stood behind them and commented, but don't worry, because the next year, I remember the same agent, as I'm sitting there on the computer, came up to me and said, hey, are you putting your listing on Facebook? And I said, yeah. And she said, how much money do you think you made last year off of Facebook? This is probably in 2015. And I was like, I can account for exactly $30,000. And that was the first year I had made six figures. So I was pretty excited that 30% of it came from social media. And she was like, wow, can you show me how? And I could have been a jerk, right? But I was like, yeah, absolutely. And so I ended up teaching a class. And so that's kind of how I got into teaching things, was just from doing it first. But back to what you were saying, being young definitely was an obstacle because I never had bought a house before, so I was like, really coming into it fresh, but I did not have the ego or the bad habits. I didn't have anything. So I really could do whatever and fail and not care. I just had to get back up. I failed so much and I cried and I fell, but I never stopped getting back up.

00:16:38 - Bill Risser

You started with like a regional kind of a local company, right? Were they kind of up on the training and mentoring or were you kind of on your own?

00:16:47 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

No, the brokerage I was with is a phenomenal brokerage in northeast Florida, one of the largest. And they had a great training program, and that's why I went there, is they had a great training, a non competing broker. But with that came the split that matched all that support.

00:17:05 - Bill Risser

Yeah, no, there's a cost for everything. Nothing's free. I understand. Yeah, but that's important. It's important to know that with no sphere to speak of, there's no tougher way to start in this business than what you had to do. A place where you don't know anybody. And there's other success stories that have been on this show, and it comes from what you did. It's just getting out there doing the work. Right?

00:17:28 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah. Well, and I think that had I known, I say it all the time, had I known what it was going to look like, I probably would never have gotten into real estate. I remember sitting down and making my first business plan with my broker and had goal income and I had 50,000. And he was like, okay, we're going to up that a little bit. And not me being like, no, I could never do work to make that much and just like, going through all of it and all the work, I thought that it was going to be, and then it turned out it was more. But it's really shaped me as a person. All of that, like the grit and the perseverance and crying about sellers doing whatever, and just. It helped me learn, too, throughout the years, because at 26, the world looks a lot different than today. But it helped me to get better at my job because I wasn't afraid to fail. So I was going through this stuff with strangers. And if I messed up, okay, onto the next. But, yeah, I'm very grateful. I always say, whenever I meet young people in their 20s in real estate, I always give them my number. I'm always cheering them on, and I always try to reach out because I know how hard it was and how unsupported. And so, you know, Brady and I really try to, like, if somebody brings an offer that has something wrong with it, we will negotiate on behalf of our client or customers, and then we'll help them instead of shame them or say they're bad. We help people along and we teach people as we go.

00:19:10 - Bill Risser

I see a lot of that with you at the bar camp, whether it's a state bar camp or one coast, which we just had a few weeks ago. As we're recording this and talk about the opportunity, there's a lot of young people at those re bar camps. It's pretty cool. You made a comment about running for the know and actually president of the board and your local association. You're a big supporter of the volunteer and the work that volunteers do. Not at the local level only, but at the state level, you've been involved. Nar level, you've been involved. Why do you find this so important?

00:19:46 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Well, it was really how I got started on education for myself. I had not really much going on my first year, and I remember somebody, an experienced agent, coming by my office and saying, hey, anything to do today? And I said, no. And they said, well, come on, we're going to the board. And at the time, we didn't have a young professionals network in our local association, so I ended up founding that. And through founding it, I met at the time, inspectors who were my age, lenders who were my age, and the younger people were coming in. So I advocate for board involvement because those people I met are my inspector ten years later, my lender ten years later. And the relationships I have from that group are so easy for us to do deals together because we have that core relationship and we all are vested in education and doing things the right way. Right. Ethically. Yeah. And it just taught me to what the business is and understanding the bigger picture. And I think the number one thing that agents don't do, I really think it's the number one thing they don't do, which makes me crazy, is they don't learn the contract. They just know what blank spots they need to fill in. Right. They don't understand a contract. And I think that's one of the major things that Brady and I, we understand that contract forward, backwards, inside out, and we can advocate for our customers because of that. And I only know that because of how involved I am at a state and national level, because I know when they change the contracts, I know why they're changing the contracts. I know what's going on with insurance. I know all of that stuff because I'm at the board and I have a pulse on all those updates. And so it's really interesting to me. I didn't realize how much it did give me a leg up in my career from getting business in my local market and also building relationships around the country. Our involvement at the state level and nationally gives us between 30 and 40% of our business coming from Realtor to realtor referrals. So our business is basically 100% referral unless you find us on social media. So it's either past customers or agent to agent. And I focus a huge part of our marketing dollars and our energy into agent to agent referrals. And that wouldn't be possible without that, without my initial foot in the door at Nar and then, of course, coaching nationally after that.

00:22:21 - Bill Risser

Megan, I want to talk to you about a time in your life that you've been open about. You've actually written about it, a book, and it was a very traumatic event. And if we could just talk a little bit about how that affected you and how you've worked really hard to get to the place you are now. Do you mind sharing that story?

00:22:40 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Thank you for asking. I'd love to share that. So, several years ago, I went to a conference just like I've done many times before and have done several times since. And at that conference, at the networking event afterwards, unfortunately, I was drugged and then sexually assaulted. And it was by people at the conference, fellow agents. And obviously that experience shook me to my core. My husband and I were married at the time, and we were in business at the time, and we had an 18 month old little boy at home at the time. And it. It was hard. It was really challenging. And the part that, surprisingly, was the most challenging for me was after I came forward about it. It was all the abuse and harassment that I got for coming forward. That abuse took me to a really dark place. And it was almost three years ago now. It was three years ago now that I was at the point where I was contemplating suicide.

00:23:48 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

And I wasn't just contemplating it, I actually planned my suicide because I just couldn't take being called a liar and not being believed in all these things. And I didn't understand why I was being again victimized for doing what I thought was the right thing. And I looked at my, at the time, almost two year old son, and I looked at my husband and I said, hey, I need help or else I won't be here anymore.

00:24:13 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

And immediately we had started researching some places for help, and I ended up going to a women's only trauma recovery center, and it was in another state. And I was gone for 105 days, away from my baby and my husband. Looking back after what had happened, the assault, I was in a lot of pain, right? And I knew that there's two ways I could go about healing. I could either go through the pain and process and heal, or I could try to live my life while numbing it with substances. And my choice. I knew that if I picked up a drink, the pain was so severe, I knew that if I numbed it even a little, I probably wouldn't be able to stop numbing it. And so, by the grace of God, I quit drinking, and I never picked up a drink since. And that was over three years ago.

00:25:11 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Over 1000 days ago. And so I think that horrible situation I went through, I think that being able to turn away from substances and being able to take care of myself when I needed to are really what helped me heal and continue to heal. And after going to treatment and coming back, I had to really decide how I wanted to move forward with my future. And one of the things I did, which I think was a blessing because I had time off, is my calendar was absolutely clear. And so I could take my calendar and I could fill in the things that I love to do and the non negotiables for Megan.

00:25:54 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

And I started with boundaries around my working hours and put that in. I started with putting in know, and that's an appointment, non negotiable. Put that in. Even at the time I penciled in time to put toes in this, I put toes in the sand. And even if it was just like driving five minutes with my toes in the sand, at the beach, at the beginning of this healing experience.

00:26:20 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Sometimes I really just needed that five minutes to get my toes in the sand to bring me back to reality. I have been able to transform my life. When all this happened, I had been running at 100 miles a minute, right? I was all about recruiting. I was all about sales. I had to be the top sales. Even if I hit my goals, it wasn't enough. Can any other real estate agent relate? And this situation caused me to hit that wall at 100 miles a minute.

00:26:51 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

And sometimes this is my story, right? Everyone has their own story, but they can be very similar. So from that, I was able to regroup and build a life that I love now in this industry. I love it. Brady and I bickered more before this happened in our business than we ever. We don't argue about anything in our business now. It caused us to get really organized. It caused us to dial in on our focus and really just find out what brings us joy. Because I didn't just go through this, right? Like, my husband and my business partner also went through his wife going through this experience. So it's not like our team was just like, one person could run it and everything was fine. We really had to look in and find, why are we in real estate? What parts of this job bring us joy? What parts of this job are we really good at? And what parts of this job do I never want to do again? And from there, we were able to outsource the stuff we didn't want to do, and we were able to really put our goals together as to why we're doing it.

00:27:57 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

And now, even on hard days, I can look at the bigger picture and see, okay, this is why we're doing it. Or like this morning, going to a listing appointment with my husband. He took Elijah to school, went to the office. I stayed home with the babies. The sitter came, and we met at this listing appointment. And it brings me so much joy today to pull up to a house and see my spouse there.

00:28:20 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

That joy wasn't there before because I was so consumed with the numbers and so consumed with the image I had to put on. And so it's a shitty situation, but it's brought us back around to what really matters. And including the new baby, we just. It's. I have a whole different experience postpartum this time than I did with know when I had Elijah five years ago, I was president of the board chair for the YPN for the state on, like, four NAR committees and however many charity boards in our local area trying to be everything to everyone.

00:28:59 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

I really was. And so I was nothing. Because you can't show up as everything to everyone. I was like a dulled down version of me and a tired version of me and a mean version of me. I was really mean if things didn't go the way I thought they should. And that's because I was wound so tight and so stressed out and so anxious. And today I knew we had a son twelve weeks ago, little Lucas. And I want to be home with him because that's what's important. And so now I'm figuring out how do I be a mom and work? And it was the opposite, right? Like my focus now is family and what's important.

00:29:37 - Bill Risser

Good. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that. I mean, I know that's not easy, but I think it can definitely help someone listening. So that's awesome.

00:29:44 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

If you are listening and this is something like alcoholism has affected you or the life of excess that comes along with real estate. And that pressure to be bigger and be better all the time has affected you and you want to reach out or change your relationship with alcohol. I'm always here. I'm happy to talk about it and happy to be a support in your.

00:30:09 - Bill Risser

Have we'll in the show notes we'll have ways for people to reach out to you. So that's know you talked about Brady and getting know running a business together as husband and wife. Let's talk about the building of a team a little bit, right? Just to give a little, maybe a couple tips and tricks that you learned along the way that would help someone who's at that point where they're thinking of doing the same thing. Starting a team.

00:30:30 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah. So I love this question because I literally did everything wrong in building a team. Like I said, I told you I failed a lot and I started a team. My team. I had my license for eleven years and I think my team's nine years old or eight years old. It's right after. So I was 27 building a team knowing nothing about the industry. And I would say if I could do it again, here's how I would do it. First hire is a transaction coordinator. If you don't have a transaction coordinator in this business and you are doing more than one deal at a time, you are not doing a service to your customers. I truly believe that our transaction coordinator, her name's shout out to Joanna. Love her. She comes to too. She. I call her my safety net. She's my brain and just keeps everything intact from there is when you can bring in buyer's agents. I think the number one tip I would give, if you're talking about building a team, is to talk to team leaders and to really see what it looks like. Because to run a team efficiently and to provide the value you need to provide to agents, it's a lot of work. And I think people think like, oh, I'll get a buyer's agent and they'll do my showings and they'll show buyers and I won't have to do it anymore. And that is not the case, especially if you want to run it at a high level and you want people to do business your way. So the three biggest mistakes I made was, one, I hired a buyer's agent first. You can't do that. You have to have systems in place to bring on a buyer's agent. You have to know how you run your business first. So definitely don't hire a buyer's agent out the door. The second biggest mistake I did was I stayed at a brokerage that didn't support my team way too long. So you need to make sure that if you're building a team that you have the support of your broker, because it's going to be a lot of work and a lot of leaning on them a little bit. And maybe even having a broker or someone there to help you would be best. Which leads me into my third one is I started a team without a coach and so I had no one guiding me in the right way to do it. And I think that's why I had so many mistakes. But hiring a coach that's done it before that has the team or had the team that you want would be definitely the first step to moving in that direction.

00:32:59 - Bill Risser

Awesome. Megan, we're getting towards the end here. I'm looking at the clock. I'm going to go over time. You're going to get.

00:33:08 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

We're good on time for me.

00:33:09 - Bill Risser

But yeah, you have a saying that moves you forward. I don't want to say the saying. I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. How'd you find this nugget and how do you use it? Is it a daily thing?

00:33:21 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

So it's don't quit before the magic happens. And actually the first time I heard it was in a meeting, a twelve step meeting room. And I thought it was really beautiful because I was sitting in a room full of people trying to better themselves and heard this phrase and tried to apply it to my life. And really what it came back to was just in the real estate industry, you can't quit, right? I always tell the new agents, all you have to do is outfail the person next to you, and then you're going to make it right, because that's how it goes. And so, for me, when I heard don't quit before the magic happens, it reminded me of this meme I saw back when I first got started. And it's underground. It's two men with pickaxes. And they're heading, you can tell they're hacking away at the dirt and they're trying to get there. One guy has his axe over his shoulder, and he's moving forward towards the diamonds. And then the guy below him is turned around and has it on his shoulder, and he's looking disappointed and walking away from what his goal was. And what neither of the men see is just how close they are to the diamonds. And the man who was walking away was maybe one or two hits with his pickaxe away from those diamonds, but he quit. And the other guy who's up there still going at it, he's one or two hits away from the diamonds and he's not quitting. And so that meme, really, it's a silly meme. And I'll send it to you, Bill, so you could link it if people want to see it. But that silly meme, I found it eleven years ago, and it's still something that sticks with me, because you never know when you're going to find success in this business. And it could be on that next call, right? How many times you hear no, and then you pick up the next call, and this person, it's like they needed to hear from you. Like you're the agent of their dreams and you're able to help them, whatever their real estate goal is. And if you didn't pick up and make that call, that last call, after you were told no or f off 500 times, you wouldn't have been able to get there to that magic. And so I think really, it's just out failing the person next to you and also learning from those mistakes. And that's part of the magic as well as hitting those goals.

00:35:39 - Bill Risser

Megan, this has been great. I'm going to wrap it up with the same question I've asked every guest, and you get your shot at it. And that is what one piece of advice? This is really hard. It's one piece. What one piece of advice would you give a new agent? Just getting started.

00:35:53 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Well, I'm going to have to tease you a little bit on this, but the piece of advice is, the same piece I'm going to give you about your wonderful podcast is get on video.

00:36:07 - Bill Risser

I knew I was going to get in trouble with you. Go ahead. Video.

00:36:11 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah, video. If you take a look at the history of real estate agents, we really were the first people to put their pictures on business cards, right? It's what you do. It's not an if, it's what picture are you going to use? Right. And the reason for that is because buying real estate is such an intimate purchase. It's not a pair of shoes. You're helping people decide where they're going to raise their families or you're helping someone sell their mom and dad's house. And so you need to build that relationship with them and that trust with them. And video is the quickest way to do it. And there's nothing anyone could say to tell me otherwise. 93% of communication is nonverbal, and so you can't get the full effect by picking up the phone and calling. And video can look like a lot of things. It doesn't have to just look like a listing, tour online. It doesn't have to be you out front of a house or explaining how the home buying process works. It could just be you sending a video, know, like, hey, Bill, it's Megan. Happy birthday. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Hope you have a great day. Talk to you, you know. Hey, Bill, I was just thinking of you. It's Thursday morning and you popped into my head. I hope you're having a great day. Talk to you soon. It could be a quick text like that, but what it is, is you're showing people who you are. They get to see your smiling face. Everyone loves smiling faces. Just the psychology behind video is, and you and I, right now, we are seeing each other, and so we're building a relationship. My brain doesn't know you're on the screen. I don't know if you've ever watched a show when the main character dies that you've been watching it for years, right?

00:37:51 - Bill Risser

Tough.

00:37:52 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Have you ever had one? You're sad. For me, it was the walking dead. So I don't know if anyone's a walking dead fan listening, but when Glenn died on the walking dead, I was physically ill for three days. And I was like crying about his wife and how she was pregnant. Brady's like, megan, Glenn's not real. And his wife might be pregnant, but Maggie on the show, she's not really pregnant either. And I'm like, no, but it's because I spent eight years building a relationship with Glenn on the screen. I've never met Glenn. He's not real. But guess what? I loved him. And when he died, I was sad. Translate that into real estate. I get my face in front of customers, and guess what? When they meet me, they don't shake my hand. They hug. Right? And I get calls that say that aren't like, hey, we're interviewing agents. It's, hey, come list my house. I see what you do for all the other listings. A lot of times when we're up for those Facebook groups, that's the listing appointment. We were at this, you know, looking for an agent Flagler. Everyone comments on it. I said, brady, let's get this people's phone number. And I sent them a video text. And we were at their house this morning. And so, yeah, video. There is so much magic in video. And really, all it is is your relationship building without being face to face. And the best part about it, for me is, the second best part is that people see me and love me, and they call me and they want to work with me. The best part is the people who don't love me, I never waste my time on them because they build the relationship and they don't like me. Right? They look at my videos and they're like, I will never work with her. She is just bubbly and smiley and too much for me, and they never call me. And so it really has differentiated our business, set us apart in our business, with our customers, and also with our time. So get into video. Just do it. You look like what you look like, you sound like what you sound like, and all the people who see it love you.

00:40:01 - Bill Risser

I do have a video channel on YouTube. You can go find it. It's Bill Rister. There's over 350 videos there. I'm picky, and I do different things.

00:40:12 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

I guess I told you I had to tease you.

00:40:17 - Bill Risser

This has been great. If people want to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

00:40:21 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Yeah, feel free to follow me on any social media platforms. It's Megan Farrell Nelson on all of them. You can find me there. If you get there, my cell phone's there. And if you want to call me, feel free to reach out anyway. But social media is the best start. And Megan Farrell Nelson.

00:40:40 - Bill Risser

Megan, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much for taking some time out today and taking care of this. And I can't wait to see you at the next event. It's probably going to be an event somewhere in Florida. But we will meet again.

00:40:52 - Megan Farrell-Nelson

Thanks, Bill. Have an awesome day.

00:40:53 - Bill Risser

Thank you for listening to the real estate sessions. Please head over to ratethispodcast.com forward slash re sessions. To leave a review or a rating and subscribe to the real estate sessions podcast at your favorite podcast listening app.