Episode 392 - Dionne Malush, Co-Owner Realty One Group Gold Standard

00:00:00 - Dionne Malush

I think for real estate especially, it's that cyclical part of it. They roller coaster ride when the dips go down and there's no closings, and they start to believe that they're not going to be able to do it. How am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to get through this? And then they sit in here with me for 20 minutes, and then they go back out, and then they light the world on fire because we have that shift in mindset.

00:00:23 - 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 392 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend. This week we are headed to Pittsburgh, the Steel city, the place where the Pirates and the Steelers and the Penguins all wear black and gold, which is very cool and very unique in the sports world. Now, I have to be really honest, you know, because my teams have not fared well. Sometimes against those teams, I'm not the biggest fan, but we are going to be talking to a big fan of those sports teams and of the Pittsburgh area. Her name is Dionne Malish. She is a co owner of Realty one group, gold standard realty in the Pittsburgh area. Like many guests, real estate wasn't the first thing she did when she entered the workforce. We're going to talk about what she did first, how she got here, and, of course, we'll talk a little sports. Let's get this thing started. Dion, welcome to the podcast.

00:01:46 - Dionne Malush

Thank you so much for having me. After that intro, I don't know if I'm the right person. I think you have the wrong one.

00:01:52 - Bill Risser

I got the absolutely right person. I know it. This is going to be a lot of fun. First of all, you were born and raised in the Pittsburgh area. I don't know if I've had. I had another guy who went to Penn State. He went to Penn State. He was a happy valley guy. I want to find out, first of all, your favorite thing about the area. And then after that, what's the biggest misconception about the Steel City?

00:02:15 - Dionne Malush

Well, that's a tough one. Okay, so let's start with my favorite thing. So I am a huge sports fan in Pittsburgh, and imagine if you live here, you most likely are a sports fan. And I love the Steelers and the Penguins, and I even love the Pirates most days. But I think that they stand for so much of what Pittsburgh is. The grit, the toughness, the, you know, the wild craziness of all sports in Pittsburgh. And I think it's just. It's who we are. And that's what I love about the city, is the community that forms around the sports teams. There's none like it in the whole. In the whole United States. I don't think there's anything bigger than a Steeler fan. Steeler Nation.

00:02:58 - Bill Risser

Look, I'll agree. Number one, I don't know any other city where all the teams have the same colors. I mean, there's no other city that does that, right?

00:03:08 - Dionne Malush

Yeah, well, the Pirates try to throw in a little bit of red in there, so. But it's still predominantly black and gold, and, yeah, it's pretty cool to have that and have everyone just bleeds black and gold here and live games. There's nothing like it. And you can feel the energy from afar. So, you know, that's the one thing I do. I mean, I do love a lot of things about Pittsburgh. I've been here my entire 56 years. But for me, the sports, the time of year, the sports teams that, when the playoffs, when they are in championship games, it just. There's. It's amazing.

00:03:39 - Bill Risser

Look, six Super Bowls. I'm not sure how many the Penguins have won, but it's multiples. Pirates. Pirates have, you know, gone through some slower times, but holy cow, there's some good young players on that team, and skiing is going to be, like, unbelievable to watch. You have to admit that there's a lot.

00:03:56 - Dionne Malush

Yeah, a lot of it good. Unfortunately, they don't always pay enough to get the players, but they have players. They have good players. So let's. Let's win some games. Pirates, I wish that they would win. It was fun. A couple of years ago when they were. There was that one game that could have put them in the playoffs, but they lost. But it was still incredibly magical going to that game.

00:04:14 - Bill Risser

So, Deion, there's got to be, you know, one favorite moment in your Pittsburgh sports history. What would that be?

00:04:21 - Dionne Malush

There's a lot of favorite moments, Bill, to be honest with you. But my all time favorite is Santonio Holmes in the end zone. Literally, his tippy toes were on the edge of the goal line, and he made it. He got the touchdown. Ben Roethlisberger was freaking out. I was freaking out. Everyone in my life was freaking out. That was one of my favorites. James Harrison running the ball all the way back. Anything Ben Roethlisberger did was. The true grit of Pittsburgh is Ben Roethlisberger. He could fight no matter what. His teeth could be knocked out, his nose could be broken, and he's still up there. Fighting represented everything this city is about.

00:04:56 - Bill Risser

Oh, deion. Dion. Dion. I was living in Phoenix at the time, and so you're talking about the game against the Cardinals when Harrison ran back, 100 yard fumble return as the clock expired in the first half. And then. And then Santonio Holmes caught the ball out of bounds, but they gave it to him anyways.

00:05:14 - Dionne Malush

It literally was on the edge. It's tipping his serious. I could see where I was at. It was the greatest. There are so many great football moments of living in Pittsburgh. I mean, you don't get six Super Bowls without having great moments.

00:05:27 - Bill Risser

No, you're absolutely right. Well, that's great. I'm like, that was a heck of a Super bowl. Probably one of the best games ever. So congratulations. I'll just say that. Let's go to that biggest misconception about the Steel city.

00:05:41 - Dionne Malush

It's hard for me to say that because I always have so much good to say that. I really don't. I can't think like that. Like, I don't think about positive and negative because you can't think of at the same time. So I try not to think negative. So let me think. If I had to think about Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh dirty still town or something like that. Like, I've maybe heard that over the years, and I think, have you ever been downtown Pittsburgh? It's so beautiful. There's amazing buildings that has the most incredible view. It's just. I don't know. I can't think of anything negative. Give me something maybe that you heard, and I'll see if I can give you a comeback to it.

00:06:17 - Bill Risser

No, I don't. I don't really. Look, I had the chance to visit Pittsburgh one time. We were. We were traveling through the kind of eastern United States with our son, getting him up to school in Syracuse and the. It. I was blown away. First of all, I was on a highway that came out of a granite wall over a river. You probably know the bridge I'm talking about. That is spectacular. And being a sports fan, seeing the ballpark and the stadium and everything from downtown across the river. It is. You're right. It's fantastic. And I've never been in a city that has such steep walls, you know, because it's down in the. Down in the river, down in that. Like a canyon. Yeah, it's amazing. It's an amazing place.

00:07:01 - Dionne Malush

Do you know that? I think the Pittsburgh has more bridges than any other city in the world, including in Italy. So that's pretty cool. The bridge thing. Mount Washington is where you view it, the three rivers coming together. It's just amazing. So if you're a boater, like I am, boating on the rivers is like living at the ocean. It gives us that same sense of, there was something so amazing here to do, and if you take advantage of living in Pittsburgh, you can have one heck of a great life, because I was just on my boat yesterday. It's amazing. And there's. It's just. I don't know. Led Zeppelin did a video many years ago coming off, I think it was through the liberty tunnels and coming out, and then the view of Pittsburgh when they came through, and it was really cool. So I do love this city. I haven't moved yet. I mean, I'm definitely thinking about moving south sooner than later, at least half the year. But I love this city and what it stands for.

00:07:56 - Bill Risser

Yeah. Well, that's great. One last question, and with. Get into the important stuff. How big is the Pittsburgh Philly rivalry? I mean, is it. Is it. Is it a real thing?

00:08:06 - Dionne Malush

Actually, it's only a real thing when we play games against them, like, we don't really pay attention to outside of the state. And I have a friend who recently who is a Philly guy, and so it's fun to tease. But overall, I think that, you know, in our division is much greater rivalry than the Philly Pittsburgh one.

00:08:22 - Bill Risser

Yeah, that's true. And it kind of doesn't. It doesn't apply in football at all. So. Yeah, that's. Yeah. Cool. Well, it's great to hear your passion. That's it. And I know that passion doesn't stop in sports because you're doing some amazing stuff in real estate. Let's talk about that. But first of all, like many in the real estate space, it wasn't what you were thinking about coming out of school. You had a whole different career. Let's talk about that first. What did you do right when you got out of college?

00:08:51 - Dionne Malush

So I went to art institute and graduated, and as soon as I got out of art school, I started my own business, and it was amazing, and I loved it. So I created a business doing graphic design work, screen printing, embroidery, you know, promotional products, all of the visual things that I love, and I did good. And then I got a job for a couple of years in between there. So I realized the importance of having health insurance and benefits. And I did the graphic design business on the side of working at a local hospital in their design department. So I learned a lot there. But I also learned that I could do both. And I think that started me, actually probably not. There was one point that I had three jobs when I was just in high school and getting into art school. So I always was feeling my time, making sure that I was working all the time. So then I started the design business. I started working at the hospital. And then I realized after about the third year of doing that that, you know, I was just going to go back on my own. I wasn't really meant to be told what to do, and I knew that. But I did like the benefits, that having a job for a minute, you know, I had to think through that. And then once I built my business up enough that I could do it, then I actually stepped back into having my own business full time. And then I've never stopped. Sense.

00:10:09 - Bill Risser

Yeah. And obviously that led to real estate some way, shape or form. How did you get drawn into the world of real estate?

00:10:16 - Dionne Malush

So I'd always had some interest in real estate. You know, I bought all the Carlton sheets and all the different things I sold in the middle of the night on tv. And I had a small interest in real estate. But what happened was in my graphic design business, I got into a partnership that went bad. And at that point I realized that I needed to not have all my eggs in one basket. So I kind of married the industry of real estate and graphic design and stepped out of the gate doing things differently than most agents in the Pittsburgh market. When I first started, agents were using Microsoft Word to create where I was actually creating houses like a product because I would give it just a different graphic appeal. And I just did things so differently than everyone else. So I came out pretty strong, and I realized in my second year of real estate that I made as much as I did in my 17th year of my design business. At that point, I thought maybe I really need to focus on real estate for a while. So I made the design business. After the breakup of the partnership, I made that my second business and real estate became my full time.

00:11:16 - Bill Risser

I'm going to say you're still probably doing a ton of design work. I would just imagine it's part of your life.

00:11:21 - Dionne Malush

I still do it every day. In fact, over the weekend I had this idea. I was going to create this image and I created it and I sat there and thought about it. I do love graphic design so much. And the fact is there's a lot of software out there, a lot of things people can use nowadays, and stuff looks better. I agree. But there's still a skill set that, you know, that I have and I know, and I'm super fast. I can get things done in a record time. If I wasn't aging and my arm wasn't hurting, I'd be able to do things even faster. But yeah, I do have a pretty good skill.

00:11:52 - Bill Risser

Well, it's like, it's copywriters and graphic design artists. That's. I'm huge fans of both. It's such, it's so difficult to do either of those well.

00:12:01 - Dionne Malush

And for me, it just second nature. When I try to teach our agents, they just sit there and they're like, can you slow down? And I try. So now I'm trying to slow myself down in teaching so that I can help them, you know, use software like canva, which to me, look, it's so easy. But to the agents, if they've never used it, especially they have no idea where to start. So I have to learn how to be a better teacher. And I'm learning all the time because I love to learn how.

00:12:26 - Bill Risser

How big was the leap to become an owner? I mean, you co own realty, one group, gold standard, and kind of covers the Pittsburgh area. Let's talk about that.

00:12:36 - Dionne Malush

So originally I started as an owner of a local Northwood office. They were a family owned company and I was a percentage owner in that office. And I had an opportunity to join a Keller Williams office and become a partner with one of the top agents in our region. And that didn't work out as planned. So I had met my partner, my current partner there, and he decided that he was going to take a look at this franchise model. And he asked me if I was interested. And I said, heck no. I have no desire to own a real estate company. I'm good. I'm actually thinking about moving south. Well, he goes out to the regional office and comes back and says, you please take a look at this. So I said, okay, I'll take a look, but I'm not doing it. And don't, you know, I took a look and fell in love with the brand because I love branding and marketing, right? I fell in love with the brand. They were black and gold. What better colors for the city of Pittsburgh. Then they had this disruptor model which was 100% commission plan, which in Pittsburgh it's been the same thing for years. Like hundred years the same thing. They were still, some people were still getting 50% commission. So I saw an immediate need. So for that reason I jumped on the idea of starting a real estate company in Pittsburgh and I think the disruption was the exciting part for me.

00:13:53 - Bill Risser

Yeah, Cuba's created a very impressive operation. You know, I had, I got a chance to work closely with them in my time with rate my agent and first of all, have you been to their hub in California?

00:14:03 - Dionne Malush

Yeah, at the beginning when we first started six years ago, it's changed a lot. So now I haven't been to the new one.

00:14:10 - Bill Risser

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Branding is a big piece of the puzzle. It's great. Now for you, first of all, you have a lot of agents and you do do a lot of coaching and you are actually a follower of Napoleon Hill in his book think and grow rage. And there's an entire coaching program. Right. That goes with that. How did that come about for you? And was it before or after real estate?

00:14:32 - Dionne Malush

So actually when I was 18 I got the book. I didn't read it. So I had it in my library for years. And about 2000, I think it was 2006 when the movie the Secret came out. And I was on a vacation with my parents and I realized that when I got back home that I only have half the money for the next month's bills. But I wanted to do that vacation because it was important. But I was nervous because I thought, how am I going to pay the bills? Ironically, I get back and I watch this movie, the secret. Since I was a creative person, the visual adaptation of it really hit me harder than reading a book. So I watched the secret and I realized I can have anything I want. Like I don't have to live in fear all the time. So that's when I started my journey of personal development and I focused on thinking grow rich for a while and then I go back and forth. But now I have to say for the last year or so, I really put a big focus on Napoleon Hill. And I actually joined the Napoleon Hill Institute to become a coach there. So I'm learning every day, ten times more than I ever knew. And sometimes I think I really don't know anything compared to some of them. And knowing that what you think about you bring about and the things like you can't think positive and negative at the same time. So you get to choose which one you get to pick. I've been through a lot in the last twelve months. I lost my dad, which is my. One of my favorite people on this earth. And it was difficult. But I have to say, if it wasn't for personal development, I'm not sure I'd be where I am today.

00:15:57 - Bill Risser

Yeah, you're passionate about this and also passionate about helping others, whether it's inside or outside the industry. While we're talking about this, can you share the most common, I don't know, like a limiting thoughts that, you know, that you have to help people with?

00:16:14 - Dionne Malush

I think for real estate especially, it's that cyclical part of it. They roller coaster ride when the dips go down and there's no closings, and they start to believe that it's, you know, they're not going to be able to do it. How am I gonna pay my bills? How am I gonna get through this? And then they sit here with me for 20 minutes, and then they go back out, and then they light the world on fire, because they have that shift in mindset. So I think just a lot of eliminating beliefs come from, honestly, from sometimes even being in Pittsburgh, there's a yde. There's that mindset here that some people cannot push through. But I hope that our agents know, and, you know, I try very hard. If they need that help, I can do that. I also teach a weekly, I think, and grow rich mastermind that I've been doing for six and a half years. And we go through books, and we do kind of like a book study, but then we get back together and we talk about it and we go through it. And honestly, I have seen people's dreams come true in that group, and I've watched them, you know, take things off their dream boards and just be super excited about what they're doing. In fact, I just had one yesterday. Someone called me and said, hey, I just got this, and it was on my dream board. And so another thing off my board. So if you surround yourself with me and you take advantage of that, it's great, and people love it. But again, there's still some agents that don't in our own company, just because they want to do it their way, and we're not pushing them to do it any other way. If they want help, we're here. So, knowing that I know about mindset and being amongst people that just truly believe it, it's incredible to watch. I started a self discipline camp this last three and a half weeks, where we get up at 530, we get up 515 530, we have a call from 530 to 630 every morning. And I have to tell you, I can see the difference. I can see the difference in my attitude in my day. You know, you just feel, you feel incredibly powerful and it's helping. And I know this stuff. And I also know one thing that's important is you can't just read it and then just think that that's all you have to do. It's, it's work. You have to work at it. But it's worth it so much. I would just much rather be in this state of mind that I'm in than any other.

00:18:19 - Bill Risser

Wow. Yeah. Implementation is critical, right?

00:18:23 - Dionne Malush

Correct.

00:18:24 - Bill Risser

Yeah. Yeah. You've had that brokerage now for six years, which is awesome. And I always like to ask this question to a broker owner. It's, it's growing. And running a brokerage is not easy work. It's, it's hard work. You know, there's, there's always going to be something that's on, on fire and needs to be worked on. So for others that are thinking about that as an option, or maybe they're, they're, they're, they're just convinced they want to do this, is there some simple advice you have that would, you know, help them in the right direction?

00:18:55 - Dionne Malush

You know, don't do it. It's. I mean, it's not as amazing as you think. You know, the model that we have, we give back most of the money to the agents, and so we have to have a lot of agents to make this really work to get to the point where we want financially. We probably could have stayed in real estate and been crushing it by now, which we were doing that already. You know, Mike and I had a good, solid base and taking on, you know, 200 people, and everything that goes with that is a lot. I think it's the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's also the most amazing thing I've ever done. So you can't expect it to be easy. We've had agents leave our company and start their own, and I know they can feel that it's not easy anymore. It's different. And so my biggest piece of advice is don't go into it thinking, oh, my gosh, everything's going to be amazing because it's going to be great, but then it's not. But you have to know enough to seek expert counsel and find out the answers and not try to do everything on your own. When we first started realty, one group was not the company they are today. And we had to make up a lot of, a lot of stuff, and that was difficult. And so now they have amazing systems, amazing mentoring, amazing onboarding, amazing coaching. We didn't have that when we first started, so all of that came on our shoulders and it was, it was hard. So, you know, my biggest piece of advice is don't walk into it with your eyes closed. Make sure your eyes are wide open. Go in knowing that there are going to be a lot of challenges, but you can get through them. That's the biggest part of adversity. There's always something of equal benefit in that adversity. You push through, get to the other side, and then amazing things will happen.

00:20:39 - Bill Risser

Wow. That's a fantastic answer, Dion. That's great. Would you recommend coaching to that owner? Just as a no brainer? You have to have someone there.

00:20:49 - Dionne Malush

Oh, absolutely. I've been coached my 20 years in real estate. I think out of 20 years, 17 years, I've had some type of coach, life coach, mind coach, real estate coach. I haven't had a fitness coach because that's just not my thing. But I've had coaches, and I would recommend anybody be coached. Let's talk back to Ben Roethlisberger. How many coaches does he have? He has a running coach, a coach mindset coach, you know, coach after coach after coach. Professional athletes have coaches for a reason. Why don't professional realtors, professional insurance agents, professional, you know, cars. Everyone should have a coach.

00:21:26 - Bill Risser

I love that. I love that.

00:21:29 - Dionne Malush

I love it, too. I think it's coaching. It's great you have someone to talk to, to push you through, to help you, give you advice. It's great.

00:21:36 - Bill Risser

Nice. Well, let me, let me veer off a little bit, and I'm going to go into the weeds a little bit with you on what's happening today in real estate. We had the NaR buyer agent compensation thing, sort of, oh, I guess not get resolved, but it got moved down a path towards August 17 and the fact that things are going to change the way compensation works, the way buyer, broker and listing brokers work together. How are you preparing for August 17?

00:22:11 - Dionne Malush

So we've been preparing for months, and we have had meetings every week for months. Realty one has had meetings. Realty one group, gold Standard has a weekly meeting, and we talk about the first 20 minutes to half an hour. We talk about anything that's come up in the industry. So we're prepared on that part. We're working now on getting some visual things that people can use to help them to show their value as a buyer's agent. We're doing that. We are. The best thing we have as a company in Pittsburgh is we are broker, which I'm not a broker, and Mike is not a broker. Our broker is a real estate attorney. So she's able to look at everything a little bit differently and advise us the best way. So we have a lot of experience here, and we use that experience to help the agents. And as the next few weeks go on, we're going to continue to work with them to get them prepared. It's something that's happened. Respa happened to us in this industry in 20 years, and everyone was freaking out because forms change and things change. You just adjust to it and you learn it. You have to learn, though. You can't just sit there and think you're going to open up the file and fill out the contract and you're going to be like, what is this wording in the contract? I never saw that. Well, if you didn't watch the calls that par has or the call or on the weekly trainings that we're having, then you may not understand it. So it's really important that people understand contracts as they change what the shift means and just show value. Be professional, have a great presentation, get out there and understand what you're doing. So, I mean, I think we're as prepared as anyone I know. There's been some agents that we, our agents have come across that said they haven't even talked about in their company. Like, what are you talking about? And that's not going to be realty one group, gold standard.

00:23:54 - Bill Risser

Nice. Yeah, that's going to be. That's going to lead to a lot of success. Every time there's, you know, something thrown in the way a barrier put up, it's. It's. Who can navigate that barrier the best. It's going to actually do very well. So congratulations on being so prepared. We have a couple more questions left before I let you go. I know you're. You've got a lot to do. I the. You've got a podcast going. Shine on success. First of all, tell me how. How was it starting up the podcast and, and how are you enjoying, you know, your conversations?

00:24:25 - Dionne Malush

So starting it happened because I was grieving and I was trying to fill voids in my life. And so, to be honest with you, that's why I started it. And all of a sudden, I talked to one of my coaches and I said, I think I want to do a podcast. And he said, okay, well, I can help you. Let's get it done in 30 days. So we actually, we did it in about 37 days because I had gotten sick in the middle of it and had a cold, so I couldn't talk real good, so I couldn't get started. So we started it, and I wanted to make it for entrepreneurs that have adversity and push through the other side to have success. And I think it's. I think it's pretty cool. I like it a lot. I think that it's a lot of work. But my favorite part of the whole thing is the networking that I'm doing in this world. It's not just in Pittsburgh. Like, I'm meeting people from all over the world, and I have a connection with that. I think is as a professional, no matter what industry you're in, if you had a podcast and use that as the reason, it will be well worth it. Because I'm making incredible connections every day. So I love doing it. It's work. And then I finally got to a point where I hired a VA to help me for once it's recorded to take it to the next level and get everything done so I don't have to take that time. That's been helpful a lot. So, yeah, I really like it, and I'm trying to learn. My ultimate goal is how do I get more people to watch it, download it. But after talking to several people about the same subjects, it's really not about that as much as the impact that I'm having on the people that I'm even recording with. So it's pretty. I'm just looking at it differently.

00:26:04 - Bill Risser

Look, I completely agree. It's the connections you make. If I need to reach out and find out something about what's happening in Pittsburgh, I'm going to call you because we had conversation and you've got the same thing. You're growing is this. It's just this network of people who would happily take your call.

00:26:24 - Dionne Malush

Right? And I love that so much. And I really didn't think about it for a while because I was so worried, like, how many people are watching or listening? How many people? And really, at the end of the day, if I affect one person every day, I'm succeeding in my goal. This gives me an opportunity to affect many more than just one person. So I, you know, in six months, I have affected a lot of people. I love that, and that's my goal. I want to, you know, I want to create positivity in this world and shine on. Success means constantly shining your light in a world that's so difficult. Oh, my gosh. It couldn't be any more difficult than we're going through as a country right now, the things that are happening. So, you know, I want to bring that light, and this, this allows me to do it.

00:27:08 - Bill Risser

That's fantastic. That's. That's one of the best descriptions, just the best recap of why you're doing your podcast. Fantastic. I love that. Dion, let me. Let me get you going, because I can tell you are so busy, it's unbelievable. I have the same, the same question I've asked every guest since, well, 2015 was my first episode, and coming up in a week, it'll be my 9th anniversary of this podcast. Thank you. What one piece of advice would you give a new agent? Just getting started.

00:27:43 - Dionne Malush

So, one thing, as a creative person, they say that there's a left brain, right brain thing. I kind of have both sides. Thankfully, I have both sides of it. And I started tracking every piece of business that I had from day one when I started in real estate. I tracked the name, the address, their phone number, and I tracked where the business came from so I could look at any given year and know exactly what I was doing, look back and say, okay, I got five calls from Internet marketing, and I'm getting my money's worth, right? Or I got none. Or I sent out all these newsletters, so I was able to track it in an Excel spreadsheet. And to me, that was one of the most important things. When I was, when companies were looking to attract me to bring them to their company, they would say, you know, tell me about your business. And I would spew out all these numbers and they'd be like, wow. And it was impressive. I also kept track in a book of every deal I ever closed so that I could use that book for marketing. So I had this little black book kind of marketing and of past clients so I could show that to other people as a great marketing tool. Build a sphere of influence. That was one of the biggest things, because I know that you can get probably 10% a year from your sphere of influence if you market it correctly. So if you have 200 people in your group, you can look for 20 deals a year. Right. The average agent sells between ten and twelve. In my last five years of just being an independent agent, before we started the company, I was averaging about 75 to 78 transactions per year by myself. And I had a TC from contract to close. So there's a lot of teams out there right now that aren't averaging that for an entire team. So I just I was constantly in touch with my, with my sphere of influence. And in those years, I could track almost every single year was 72% of my business came from my sphere of influence. So build that sphere of influence. Track everybody you know, multi level marketing. They teach you that memory jogger. We have a memory jogger for our agents. Go in, fill it out, build the database, and work that database.

00:29:43 - Bill Risser

Fantastic. Dion. This has been so much fun, and I'm very excited to watch what you're doing. Very excited to get more of your podcast episodes under my belt. I've got three down. I got a lot to go because you've been putting them out there and. Yeah, and this is just fantastic. So thank you so much for doing this. And I might be reaching back out to you again, you know, to bring you back on, to get you updated, maybe in a year or two.

00:30:09 - Dionne Malush

Yeah, I would love that. Anytime. And if you ever need anything in Pittsburgh, and if you come here, I'll take you to get a permanent brothers sandwich, because that's well known in Pittsburgh. French fries and coleslaw, the italian bread. You'll love it.

00:30:21 - Bill Risser

I can't wait. Thanks, Dion.

00:30:23 - Dionne Malush

All right, have a good one.

00:30:25 - Bill Risser

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