Episode 393 - Mary-Anne Gillespie, CEO - Red Apple Coaching

00:00:00 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Real estate agents are not good operations people. I don't care who you are. They are not built for operations. I am not built for operations. You know what? I know this. And so I have not found it is less than 7% of realtors who can flop into both roles very easily. That's 7% or less.

00:00:21 - 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 393 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend. We're going to the great white north. We're going to Ottawa, Canada. I've never had a guest on from Ottawa. It's Marianne Gillespie. She is the CEO of Red Apple coaching. And I'm going to tell you right now, buckle up. This is one of the highest energy conversations I've ever had on the podcast. Enough of this. Let's get this thing started. Marianne, welcome to the podcast.

00:01:15 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here, Bill. What a great podcast to be on. So very excited to represent.

00:01:20 - Bill Risser

Well, I. Look, I love talking to my Canadian friends and friends to be. I think we're going to find out. That's going to be our situation, and I love to find out about these different parts of Canada. I have had the opportunity to travel through Canada a little bit, but I've never been to Ottawa, and I feel bad about this, Marianne, but I'm going to tell you what I know about Ottawa. One, I know it's.

00:01:43 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Let's hear it.

00:01:44 - Bill Risser

It's the capital of Canada. That's a big deal.

00:01:45 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Yes.

00:01:46 - Bill Risser

Yeah. It's kind of stuck between Toronto and Montreal. It's kind of, you know, is that the two closest big cities? Is that right?

00:01:53 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

That's perfect.

00:01:54 - Bill Risser

Okay. And I know that it's the home to the Senators in the NHL, and I don't know what happened to the Rough Riders, but they're now called the red blacks. So I need some help.

00:02:02 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

They are.

00:02:03 - Bill Risser

You can fill in the gaps and. And share your favorite things about your hometown. And then maybe the biggest misconception.

00:02:11 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

That's awesome. I think. I think, yes. Because we're the. We're the capital of Canada. I think one of the things that is really interesting is that it is where all the government, so the parliament buildings are here. So this is where the government's in session. This is where the prime minister lives. Love them or hate them, what? It's where kind of everything goes around. So we're a very, as we like to call it, we're a political city, but we're our government city as well. So some beautiful buildings, some beautiful architecture and whatnot. But what we also have in our city, which makes it even more special, is that we're that perfect balance because we are, we are very close to Gatineau, and Gatineau is Quebec, and, and we're only literally about 20 minutes. It's like one bridge separates. And when you head over from Ottawa, which is loaded with green space, which makes it so beautiful, is that you, you can literally drive 20 minutes and you're at some of the most gorgeous Quebec lakes that you've ever seen, with mountains and lush greenery, and it's like a playground. So I think the biggest misconception about Ottawa that people never really hear about is, you know, that we are a very outdoor community. So whether it's winter, whether it's summer, we have the gatsanos, which are our playgrounds. So we are snowshoeing, we are skiing, we have lakes, we have everything you can imagine. So it's probably, I would say if you have a family, best place to raise them. If you are like a business owner, there's tons of successful businesses because of the government town, and we have a tech sector and everything. It's a very, very, very hidden kind of place where people don't understand how great it is to live here. It is like being alive. It's like the best of all worlds. And I'd say that the biggest thing that people don't know, kind of like the one thing that we don't love, is that everybody's asleep by 08:00, though. So we're a little boring. So. So that is the truth. We are a little boring. I'm from Montreal originally, and we are, we are. Ottawa is. Is boring. So. So if you are. If you like to, like, whoop it up during the day or anything, and you're okay with, like, no nightlife whatsoever, that Ottawa is the place for you.

00:04:16 - Bill Risser

I grew up in San Diego, and they had the same rap, right, because you had La to the north, and San Diego was just a quiet little sleepy town where all the admirals went to retire.

00:04:25 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So, yeah, I love. Exactly. Yeah. It's a little sleepy here. But you know what? At the end of the day that, you know, if you ever want, you just go over the border to Quebec and they're open to like, five in the morning, so you're fine.

00:04:37 - Bill Risser

So I'm assuming then you speak French fluently.

00:04:41 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I do, yes. I was born and raised in Montreal, and although there's a big fraction of people who are, you know, English speaking only in Montreal, it's like, that's another misconception. So there's a lot of anglophones only. But, yeah, once you're from Montreal, born and raised, it doesn't matter how. How long you don't live there. You will always be from there.

00:04:58 - Bill Risser

Yeah. We're recording this on the opening day of the Olympics. And so I'm thinking you have a huge advantage over a lot of us because all the french stuff they're going to be talking about there, you don't have to look for a translation. It's going to be cool for you.

00:05:10 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I don't have to, although parisian French. So I used to live in the south of France for a brief time period, and I thought at the time I was naive, and I was like, I can do this. And when I arrived, I was like, I can speak French. And then I was like, what are you speaking? I'm like, what is that? So European French and Quebecois French. And that is something that I did not know at a young age. I was like, it is entirely different. It is literally black and white. They are two different languages. So believe it or not, we'll struggle just as much as you guys will. Totally. But it'll be fun. We'll pick up little pieces of it. Right?

00:05:44 - Bill Risser

Yeah, that's true. That's true. The seven words. I know, it'll be great. I found out doing a little bit of research, like most guests I've had on the podcast, you weren't thinking about real estate as a teenager. Like, oh, I can't wait to get into real estate. You had other hopes and dreams and things. Let's say start at maybe 15 years old. What are you thinking about? What was that dream career going to be for you?

00:06:10 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

You know, it's like, I came from a very simple family. You know, it was interesting because my life story is that I had lost my family when I was younger, so I ended up becoming homeless as a teenager. So almost any dreams that I had were actually completely altered. But at the time, I think, like, you know, when I was growing up, I think I had such a love for animals that I wanted to be a veterinarian. And then real realized that, that I couldn't, that, that my profile of, like, you know, I would never be able to euthanize a pet. I would never be able to, like, do any of that stuff. Like, I wanted to save everything. So it was more coming from, from the compassionate aspect, but, but being a vet was kind of where I always wanted to go.

00:06:52 - Bill Risser

Well, the compassion is going to show up a little bit later in your life, so that's cool. That built into you. That's good. Are you able then to attend university?

00:07:01 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Eventually I did. So that was great. Fought really hard to get out of the circumstances because sometimes what a lot of, I speak all over the world about overcoming adversity. And when I was homeless for a good year, I really had to fight hard to get through everything. And that was one of the core fundamentals that my mom had always kind of taught me is she's like, get through university, put yourself through university. So I had, and, and, you know, I would say, to be very honest with you, it did absolutely nothing for me. Like, I was never a very strong student. I'm a very creative, energetic kind of person. So the discipline of university was a great lesson for me, but I also just wanted to get through it. So I took sociology, anthropology, which literally has done nothing for my life.

00:07:43 - Bill Risser

What was the first gig before? Because we're going to talk a lot about real estate and what you're doing now, which is amazing, but what was the first thing you were doing right out of school?

00:07:51 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So I ended up working in the call centers through Bell Canada. And I was so competitive that we were taught how to upsell. So way back in the day, we were told how to sell those fancy phones, the Vista 100, the Vista 350, all those digital display, hardcore phones. And then when things evolved, we were also taught on the customer service lines how to upsell products and how to do all that. And so I was in the call centers on these big floors at Bell Canada, answering all the phones before they outsourced to other companies and stuff. So it was all in house. And I remember just being obsessed with scripting, obsessed with being able to sell people. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And then the points that I got and the money that I made through upselling, I was obsessed with it. I would literally, literally sell out every phone that they had to the point where they were like, how is she doing this? Like, how in the world is this girl doing this? And so then it ended up. I started creating the online system, Emily, who then is what you have now in the systems. And I started helping with the scripting and helping with the upselling. And so that's where I started off. That was the actual beginning of my sales career is to really understand that. I didn't know at the time, but I was starting to get exposed to the fact that scripts, dialogue, selling on the phone, how you talk to people gives you different results. All that started imprinting at a fairly young age. So I loved it. It was awesome.

00:09:19 - Bill Risser

It wasn't from another source. This is something you kind of, you understood. You just kind of inherently understood that I have to do something that's very consistent and repeatable and I've got to make sure that I'm doing the right thing at the right time. You developed that on your own?

00:09:34 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

All on my own. We didn't get any sales coaching or anything like that. You know, none of that stuff ever existed there. It was just really, it was like, look, you need to like, you know, like why, like think, like you need to sell these phones. Like these are, and these at the time were very expensive phones. And then it was like, okay, so, so I just started learning and then I just had this really good ability to sell and I just knew. I started putting all the dots together and then I would just reflect back just like I've taught coaching clients is like reflect back on each call, figure out what happened, what did you do, what worked, what didn't work and I would take copious notes and then I would be like, oh, I just sold three phones to this person. How, what did I say differently to that person than that person? And I really paid attention to what people needed and what they didn't need and how to bridge the gap of what they needed into what I was offering.

00:10:22 - Bill Risser

How old are you at this time?

00:10:24 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I was just a kid. I was like, I think I was like 17 at the time. 1718. Yeah. I was putting myself through school and university and then I moved my way up.

00:10:33 - Bill Risser

Let's bridge that gap over to real estate. Then there's always something, some trigger, some moment in time or something happens in your life that real estate gets introduced. What's your story?

00:10:45 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Well, I mean, when I was a young girl, my mom, immigrant from Poland, they would, you know, she would drag me to open houses. We were pretty, pretty poor growing up in Montreal and we would go to open houses that were just beautiful houses and we just go in and we just look and, you know, it was really just kind of like, I guess you could say, you know, in, nowadays they call it, you know, future visioning, right? So, so we would go look at all these open houses and I just, I absolutely loved it.

00:11:11 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So I always loved that aspect of real estate. And then throughout my younger career, I left Bell Canada and I went and I joined a software marketing company in Ottawa. Anyway, long story short, they started me off just as a desk job. And I was like, look, I could land accounts. I could land Google. I'm like, why can't I reach somebody at Google? Why can't I land these accounts? So I worked really hard and I moved my way up the ladder fairly rapidly because I had this ability. I took all my scripting and skills and ability to connect with people on the phone and stuff. And I became vp of sales. I was the youngest vice president of sales and they published me in the Ottawa Citizen. At the time, I believe I was 22 years old.

00:11:50 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And so I remember I was sitting there and I was at the top of my game. I was getting accounts at Google, youngest VPS sales. I literally just made it into the paper. And this is how it happened. I opened the Guinness Book of World Records. I remember just going, I was in a very, I'm not going to lie, you know, Silicon Valley north is what we call it here. And I was in a very male, predominant industry, you know, where every time I would have an accolade, it would be very hard to be taken seriously as a female. Even though I was a young vp of sales, it was very, very hard. And I remember just going, you know, I loved it.

00:12:22 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I was good at it, but it wasn't waking me up in the morning where I was excited about it. So being young and being on my own, kind of thing like that. I remember picking up the Guinness Book of World Records. I opened it up and it said, what are the top five, five careers that make the most amount of money? And so I looked, and number one was a dentist, and number two said, real estate agent. And I remember, I don't even remember what the other three were. I just remember going, dentist, I can never do. Like, that's just that that's not going to happen. And then I remember looking up, going, well, real estate agent, what's this all about? So I looked it up and I was like, all I have to do is like, go to school for this time period. Like, I don't eat. I don't need to be a rocket scientist. Like, every skill that I have exists that would make me a great real estate agent. And I love the industry. I'm like, why wouldn't I do this? So I literally walked away from everything.

00:13:11 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I found out that the number r1 estate agent in the entire country happened to be in my city. So I went after I pursued this individual, and I said, hey, listen, I'm going to give up a really great career. I'm amazing. How can I work with you? And he's like, well, you don't have your license. He's like, so while you're getting it, you can be my personal assistant.

00:13:29 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And I remember saying, okay, that's good. I said, can you do me a favor? He says, what? I said, what makes you so successful? He goes, I get every listing appointment. I go on. He goes, and I have an amazing coach. I said, I want to be in the room of those coaching calls. I want to be in the room of those coaching calls. I want to hear it. I may not have my license, but I can listen.

00:13:46 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And he's like, sure, no problem. And then I was exposed to Howard Brinton, who ends up to be one of. Yeah, so he was the coach that exposed me before I even became licensed. And that is the most ironic when I look back and I think, what an incredible. Like, you don't know how important your decisions are back then, but. But it was probably the best decision I ever made. It took the most guts, and. And it pre framed my career for when I was licensed and went out on my own.

00:14:10 - Bill Risser

I've chatted to a few people that talk about Howard Brinton very lovingly. I mean, he's.

00:14:15 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

What a. What a brilliant coach. Like, what? You know, looking at. Looking at what. What we have in the industry today and looking at what he brought to the table. Oh, my God. Trailblazer.

00:14:24 - Bill Risser

Yeah. So along the way here, you probably started off at a. Did you. You didn't start off at Keller Williams right away, did you?

00:14:32 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

No, I started off actually at re Max when I was. When I was mentoring with this individual and then eventually moved to mentor with the owner of remaxe. Then when I got licensed, I left Re Max, and I started my career off with Coldwell and then moved over to Keller Williams.

00:14:48 - Bill Risser

And Keller Williams is where you get to start flexing some of those coaching and training muscles. Right. Let's talk about that.

00:14:56 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Keller Williams was like, they approached me. So my first year in the business, I did 80 transactions, and I was like, that was coming from being a transplant, not originally from the city. I had to work really hard at that, and I loved it. And then my second year, I did over seven figures. So I was like, it was, it was actually something that I was like, everything I learned, I just applied and I truly, truly am passionate about everything.

00:15:18 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And then Keller Williams approached me because I was with a small brokerage that I loved, but I was also the biggest fish in the small brokerage very quickly. And so I know enough about where you want to be, and that's not the best place for you to be sometimes. And there really was, it was limited. And so I made a decision. Well, Keller Williams called me and said, hey, we have a position for you being team leader.

00:15:41 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And I'm like, well, this is interesting. I've never heard of you guys because it was the first inaugural office that opened in Canada, and they're like, come on over and talk to us. Well, in order to be a team leader, you had to give up your sales. I was like, well, that doesn't make any sense. I'm not going to give up a million dollars a year for 70,000 a year. That's a little strange. Anyway, so I was like, I'm not going to do that.

00:16:01 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So they said, okay. They said, well, here's all the education, coaching and development. We have all this stuff here. And I was like, what? And I was fascinated by what they offered. They're the only real estate company that had, you know, its own university. That's incredible. And I was like, this speaks my language. So I ended up moving over there. And then I noticed in the office that I was at, it was an inaugural office.

00:16:22 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And I was like, it was really interesting. So, never had an office in Canada before. So it was just in the infancy stages. But I noticed the pattern that was happening is that they had a bunch of agents that weren't producing. So I went to the owner and I said, you know what? You have agents that aren't producing. I could change that for you. And he's like, well, we don't have a budget for you. And I said, I don't want a budget. I said, just give me a portion of everything, everything that they produce.

00:16:44 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I'll put the money on me. I said, I'll put the money on me. I said, you don't have to pay me a cent. And I said, but I said, you give me a desk, give me an office, and I'm like, and give me a percentage of everything that they earn. And I said, I will build you something that'll blow you out of the water. And so it ended up that I built it to the point where recruited over 300 agents and number one production office in the world. We beat Gary's office. I remember calling his office leadership and I called them two weeks into the position, I called him, I'll never forget Ross.

00:17:15 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

He's a good friend of mine still. And I called Ross and I said, hey, my name is Mary Ann Gillespie, I'm from Canada. He's like, hey, you know, it is Texas Sachs. And I said, look, you guys have like 700 agents and you're american and all the above, and we're just a squirt in Canada. And I said, I said, but I just want to tell you something. I said, can I pick your brain on a few things here and there as the year progresses? Yeah. I said, the other thing is, I said, I should warn you, I'm going to take you guys down. I'm coming for that number one spot. And I'll never forget, he laughed and so hard. And he said, he goes, good luck. He says, I love this. He says, I'll help you as much as you want. He goes, I promise you I will, but good luck. And I'm like, yes.

00:17:51 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And so we did three year, every year that I worked with that office. We took Gary's office right down to its knees every single year. And we won worldwide production every single year, built and built the number one office in the world. And I remember just saying to Ross, he's like, we have such a good friendship. And he's like, I didn't mind losing. He's like, because Mandez. And he goes, you had a vision. And he says, you did it. And that was the kickstart of knowing that I knew exactly how to coach. And that's where the passion took over from saying, I love selling houses, I truly do, and running a team. But my passion and strength is really to see things through that way. So it was awesome.

00:18:27 - Bill Risser

Let's talk about a couple of the key strategies that you talk about. So let's start with systems first because it's amazing how many agents struggle with really putting a system in place. That's that we said it before, that's repeatable, that works. That helps really keep you on track. So is this like a big roadblock for some of your clients when you start working with them?

00:18:53 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Well, yeah, I mean, like, how I explain it in coaching is this is like, picture that your, your business as a real estate agent is just like a house. And from the ground up is where you house the sales. That's where you might have a couple agents on your team. It's where your listings are. It's where all that stuff is, right? Yeah. You know, your lead generation possibly, like, all the stuff is from the ground up, that brings in the money, but yet then underneath is always of a house, is always the foundation, and the foundation is where your systems live. That's where they all live. So, you know, when you're building a house in real estate business, we build it opposite. So we build the top of the house before we build the foundation. And that is normal because we have to bring in revenue. That's what pays the bill. So we run out, we lead generate. We're taught to lead generate. We're taught to go, go, go. And that's what we expect when we get into the business. We're like, okay, we got to get the sales, we got to get the clients. So that's working on that upper portion of the house from the ground up. Well, eventually, what happens when we get coaching clients coming our way? What's happened is they've done a pretty decent job of building from the ground up. And in some cases, maybe they did an opposite, but they've done a good job. But then they're looking and they're going, Marianne, what are we going to do? The house is crumbling. We realize we don't have a foundation, and the foundation is what's critical, that if you don't build it at the exact same time as you're building, or at least in a good momentum at the same time, and you don't invest in somebody to help you with that, to building the foundation, the house will crumble. You can only build a house so big without a foundation before it crumbles. So it either will keep you at a point in your business where you're realizing and going, I didn't build the foundation. So now I'm taking a hit on the house and it's starting to crack and crumble, and now I have have to go backwards or you have to do what we highly suggest. Real estate agents are not good operations people. I don't care who you are. They are not built for operations. I am not built for operations. You know what? I know this. And so I have not found it is less than 7% of realtors who can flop into both roles very easily. That's 7% or less. So the number one thing that I always say is, I say take 12% of what you're making every single year and reinvest it into somebody who's helping to build the systems and really look at the, you know, start with the systems that are bleeding. You revenue, whether that's a database system, whether that's a follow up system, whether that's a lead flow system, whatever the system is. And usually it's a database system. And, you know, good old Gary coached me and taught me really well on that one for a long time. It's usually just stop trying to do it on your own and really invest in that 12% of your growth. Put it back into your systems so that you're building the foundation. Because I've not seen anybody who's built a successful business without a foundation, or at least some point they realize it's cracking.

00:21:38 - Bill Risser

Right? I love that analogy. That's great.

00:21:42 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

It's a smart one. It is what happens. And equally, you can run into the realtor who's a high C, who's obsessed with systems, but then they're not. Like, they're so obsessed with systems that they're not building the house. So then it's like, now you've got catch 22. You're like, wow, you have some of the best systems I've ever seen. You have literally no passion to get the sales out. So now we're stuck in trying to move them away from systems, but they're in such a weed that it's like they've got to let go of that. But they don't have the revenue to let go of it now because they didn't focus on the sales. So it's like this catch 22.

00:22:15 - Bill Risser

It's almost like, it's like only if there was a network platform like Uber or match, that would connect those C's and those DS together.

00:22:26 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I wish. It's like, but you have to remember, right? It's like, it's like you don't. A lot of us enter into the business because we love selling or we don't even know if we love selling. And so your learning curve is like, pretty huge to start jumping into everything and saying, hey, I've got to really jump in, do a lot of work and learn all these systems and stuff like that. Like, it's overwhelming. It's a fire hose, right? It just doesn't stop. Which is why I focus most of the time on saying, you know, give over those tasks and own the tasks that, you know, you're good at. Our number one, highest dollar ly wage thing is going out there and finding clients. So stop wasting time trying to build the foundation. That's not what we're good at.

00:23:05 - Bill Risser

You use the word resiliency a lot. It's a very powerful word. It's a very powerful action. And so I'd love to have your take on that. And also a piece of that for me, or maybe a result of that, is the way you talk about giving back. So I don't know if I can merge those two together for you, but is that possible in this conversation?

00:23:27 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Like, how would you, how would you frame that?

00:23:29 - Bill Risser

Well, I mean, the way I look at it is, you know, by being able to overcome. Right. Because I like a resilience, being able to overcome all these situations that occur. That's part of the world, especially in real estate. Right. Especially successful people. You're going to run into more issues. You're going to have to really be, be able to handle it to market shifts. You're going to be able to handle just changes in Nar, whatever is happening. You've got to be able to handle that. I tie in the giving back portion of this as I need to be able to kind of set up other people to be just as resilient as I am. Does that make sense?

00:24:04 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Yes.

00:24:05 - Bill Risser

Yeah.

00:24:05 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Yes. Okay, now I get it. So I think one of the biggest value set that I hear from my clients a lot is they always come back to me and they say, you know what? They know that they, there's no excuses. If you look at my, you know, everything I've been through in my own personal life and my own personal journey, you know, we're going to talk about that a little bit later, is going from 300 pounds to an iron man, world championship athlete.

00:24:27 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Everything that I've ever executed in my entire life, I have beaten the odds. Like, who would have thought this could end up like that? Who would have thought you can go from eating food out of a garbage dumpster to running a multi million dollar real estate business to running a multimillion dollar coaching company. Like, who would have thought all that? So there's never been an excuse. And there are, there are moments and there are days just like everybody else that I say to people is like, I've been through it all. I really have. And I think that there's an element of saying, look, look, you know, when you, when I buried my mom and, you know, I think that was the moment that I was like, that was the worst moment of my life.

00:25:04 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

The resiliency that I offer to my clients is to say guys like, you know, so the hardest thing you're going to do is have to negotiate your worth in commission. Come on. I recently went to, I spent time every Christmas and New Year's. I like to go to take a wild vacation to somewhere and really immerse myself in the culture.

00:25:21 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And I went to Africa and I ended up camping in the Serengeti and spent time with a group of locals. And one of the things that they said to me is they said, what do you do for a living? And I said, well, I'm a real estate coach. And they're like, what? And they're like, what does that mean? And so I told them, and I said, you know, this is what I do. And they're like, so how many houses are in your city? I said, in my city there's a million houses.

00:25:42 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And I said, you know, it averages on different clients. And they said, okay, great. And they said, so like, how much? What does the physical work that realtors have to do to sell houses? I said, well, physically, I mean, it's really variant. It doesn't like, because they wanted to know if they had to be in very, very good shape because they're, you know, african community.

00:26:00 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Like they're always on the go. They're like, how? How in shape do they have to be? I said, not at all. There's no physical requirement to be, to be a realtor. And they're like, really? And I said, yeah. And they said, well, what about education? I said, well, if you're in the States, it's only a few weeks, and if you're in Canada, it's a little longer, but you still don't need like a university degree or anything. And they're like, what? And I said yeah. And they said, so it's not that hard to get I said, it's not that hard to get a license. Like, you know, I don't think it is. And they're like, oh, and what do they have to do to find clients? I said, well, some will doorknock, some will have contacts, some will have to phone, some will have to do that.

00:26:31 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And they sat there and they said, well, what do they make per house? And I said, well, it depends. Anywhere from 7000 to all the way up to 30, 40. Like it really depends, right? And then they said, well, is there a limit to how many houses they can sell? And I said no, like these are all hilarious questions. I'm like, no, there's no limit at all. I said, you know, the tax man will come for you, but overall you're fine.

00:26:50 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And they looked at me and they're like, can we ask you just one more question without insulting you? And I said, sure. And they're like, why are they paying you? And I'm like, what do you mean? And they're like, they're paying you to make them do this stuff. They're like, what are you talking about? And they said, how do we, like, we'll come, we'll come to Canada. We will do it. We will come to the United States. We will do it. They could not believe that in this day and age that people would complain and it was hard to lead generations.

00:27:18 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

They're like, if that's all they have to do, they just have to go. I said, well, sometimes it's like a little harder because of life. And they're like, because of life, they're like, they're going to make seven to like $30,000. They're like, they could sell as many houses as they want.

00:27:29 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

They're like, I would doorknock 8 hours a day to find clients. And I said, you could barely get people in door knock one to 2 hours a day. And they're like, they couldn't comprehend in their head how, you know, and I don't want to say, you know, but it's a different lifestyle. But they couldn't comprehend in their head why we found it so difficult to go to lead generator and prospect and all the above, and they couldn't figure it out.

00:27:53 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And so I said, that's what I bring to the table, is that when you have a coach that has been through so much in their life that they're not going to let you complain. Like, you sound ridiculous. If you've been through my life and you know my story, which a lot of my clients do, and then you're going to sit there and tell me that because it was raining, you didn't go out and lead generate, that ain't going to fly in my world. So, so it's like, that's never going to fly. So I don't get that excuse, right? So I never get that. And I think the value that my clients always say is the transferable feeling that they get is they're like, you know what? They love that I've been through that.

00:28:25 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

They love that I compete in Ironman's. They love that every single aspect of my life I have lived. The real example of saying I am not just a social media person lying about what's happened in my world. I am the real deal. I go out there, I compete in the Ironmans. I have pictures of me at 300 pounds.

00:28:42 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I know many people know. You could look up, you know, when my mom died, like, all that kind of stuff, and I'm like, it's like, it's all existed. And it's like, and it's really, really a great place to be because nobody gets to stay in their land of excuses with me. They know that it comes from a good place of me truly, truly believing that, you know, you just need that one person in your world to believe in you and not to let you sit in comfort, to really pull out the best version of who you are and to say how, what is your value? Why are you doing this? And you know what? Let's get you to where you feel really you're getting the life that you really, really, truly want.

00:29:19 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And that's where I come in is. And they love that because I won't push them where they don't want to go. But if you want to go somewhere, I'll be the person to get you there. I'll believe in you.

00:29:28 - Bill Risser

You know, that work life balance thing, that's a part of, I'm sure a part of what you do as a coach as well. And I don't know if you're hearing this, but I really feel like I'm hearing some voices out there say, oh, it's not really possible. You know, you've just got to work real hard and eventually you'll get to a place where you can have more of a work life balance. But early on, it's just all work. What do you say to them?

00:29:50 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I say, that's not true. I say what you have to do is you have to figure you can have balance at any point. We choose to get into real estate because we want freedom. And that's why we're not working for people is you want freedom. So you have to give yourself the freedom. And the truth is you have to build your skills. If you're early in your career and you're finding that you have to work so hard all the time, you don't. You just have to remember early in your career you're skill building. And as long as you're investing your skills and then you're spending majority of your time using those skills to acquire clients, then you're not going to have to work 80 hours a week. You're going to use those two aspects are key in that phase of your career. In your next phase of your career, you're going to start to, you know, you'll have clientele and you'll have to start working on systems and stuff, but you don't have to. And the truth is, I truly believe in one of the foundations that I personally live on is the entrepreneurial time system. Where you get one day off a week. I think the falsity in real estate is that you have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

00:30:50 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And the truth is that there's a lot of wasted time, and you have to. I interviewed a guy. I was speaking. He said it brilliantly, and I'm just going to rephrase what he had said. He said to me this. And this is so genius. So he comes up to me after I was speaking last month at a conference, and he said, I just want to tell you. He goes, you're awesome. He goes like, whatever. And I'm like, okay, I'll take it. So I asked him about himself.

00:31:12 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I said, how long have you been in the business? And he says, I've been in the business two years. And I'm like, amazing. And this is last month. So it was about six months into the year. And he said, I said, can I ask you a question? I said, I'm always curious. What's your production like? Because he's two years in the business, and he's averaging $100,000 a month. Okay? I'm going, what? And I'm like, that is crazy. Two years in the business? I'm like, dude, that is like, that is like, gangbuster.

00:31:36 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I'm like, that is, like, so good. And I said, so what's your secret? He says, I'm like, I'm glad you asked me. He said, my secret is this. He goes, the truth is, he goes, I learned very early in my career. He says, I took a look, and I said, what do I want to earn? And, yes, he's ambitious, don't get me wrong.

00:31:52 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So he says, what did I want to earn? So he took it and he says, okay, if I don't want to work more than 40 hours a week, he goes, because that's what an average Joe in an average job, you know, makes 40 hours a week. Okay? So he says, if I take a million dollars and I divide it by 40 hours a week and all the weeks in a year, 52 weeks in a year, he goes, he averaged it out to be something like $900 an hour or something.

00:32:14 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So he says, typically, that's what I would be worth. He goes, so I had to put on my board. He says, I have the philosophy in my head that for dollar 900 an hour, he goes, this is what I'm worth. Any activity in my life and my business that is not, that I am spending more time on that is not even close to dollar 900 an hour is me away from that and he says, so I made a conscious decision that every check I got, I would take something that was not $900 an hour and that I was doing consistently and I would leverage it.

00:32:44 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So he says, for example, he goes, I had to look and see. How long was it taking me to do all my meals every week? Then he took a look, and he said, okay, that was a waste. He goes, technically speaking, it was costing him at dollar 900 an hour. He was spending an hour a day doing it. He goes, that was a lot. So he says, what did I do? He goes, I took. And he goes, for $30 per hour, he was able to hire somebody to cook his meals for the week, bring them in, drop them off on a Sunday, and he's good.

00:33:11 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

He goes, so there's, he goes, I just gained seven extra hours and I saved a ton of money. And then he says, you know, the next thing is, he goes, I took another look, and he goes, and I had to look. And he says, how long was it taking me to load my listings? He goes, so I found somebody to do that for me. He says, and then I took all that time and just replaced it and made sure that everything I do has a high enough value between that seven and $900 an hour. He goes, and that has made the difference in my career. And I said, that is, the smartest way to put it, is to look at what you want to earn, divide it by 40 hours a week.

00:33:43 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

That becomes your hourly wage, and then every day, check your systems and say, what am I doing that is significantly under that, that I could be hiring somebody for that wage that would free up that extra time. So I'm focusing in on the higher productive stuff to get me that income. And too many realtors are out there thinking, you know, I have to work 80 hours a week. But then if they look, they're spending probably half of that time surfing social media, which is actually $0 an hour.

00:34:17 - Bill Risser

Marianne, let's. I want to close out kind of with this, this journey you went on to compete, literally. Look, there are lots of Ironman events. They're, they're the mini ones, and I, they do one here in St. Pete. St. Pete, Florida. There's, it's really fun to watch them come out of the 1 mile swim and head off on the 40 miles.

00:34:36 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

That's so cute.

00:34:37 - Bill Risser

Yeah, it's all good. Yeah, but you said, no, that's not me. I'm just going to do whatever it takes to go all in and let's see if I got it. Is it like 3.1 mile in the water, 112 miles on a bike, and a 26.2 miles marathon? Right?

00:34:55 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Yeah, yeah, right.

00:34:58 - Bill Risser

Go ahead.

00:34:59 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And I pay to do that. Like, what's up with that? That's the crazy part, is I actually write a check and pay, get on an airplane. Like, I, you know, that's the part that kind of makes me wonder sometimes. I'm like, what happened? You know, it was funny because, because I've been through so much in my life, and I think a lot of people go through different periods in their lives where maybe they have different addictions. They do different things. My addiction was really, like, just, you know, what coping mechanism was? Food. There's a point where you go through so much in your life that you just look for a coping mechanism that works. And mine was food. And, you know, I've never been a large person in my life, but I definitely would like to say that there was a period of time where I ate everything, and I really didn't, I didn't mind.

00:35:38 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I ate everything, had a great life, you know, went everywhere, did everything, and I was traveling back and forth to Texas a lot with business and, you know, Keller Williams and all the above, and I would go back and forth and I would be on airplanes, and I would be, you know, eating out all the time. And so the lifestyle of being athletic was just not possible. And then I would just be more and more stressed. So then I would just eat more. And so I didn't know how to control it. And, you know, unfortunately, I didn't, I didn't deal with it the right way.

00:36:06 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So I became 300 pounds. And I remember going out cycling. I didn't bike, run or swim. And I just remember is that I saw a picture of myself cycling. Friends let me a bike and they took me out, and I didn't fit in the, in the picture frame. Like, I was so large, I didn't actually fit in it. And I remember sitting there just going, that's incredible. And I said, please don't post that on social media. And this is just five years ago. This isn't like 15 years. This is five years ago. And I remember just going, that's not, that's not who I feel like I am and who is this person? And I wasn't unhappy at 300 pounds.

00:36:38 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

You know, this is what I always explain to people. I'm like, I loved myself at 300 pounds the same way I love myself now at 150 pounds, like, I love myself no matter what. I don't judge by physical wellness of how you are. I just wanted to feel like who I truly was. And I knew inside there was an athlete, but I just didn't know how to get that person out. And I didn't want to be 300 pounds because there was, you know, my whole family is dead. You know, we have a, we have a big line of a unique cardiovascular, you know, issue that runs through it. So being 300 pounds was a really stupid thing to do and be at that, you know, based on my family health history.

00:37:18 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So I said, you know what? I just. Same thing as that stinking Ripley's believe it or not. Anyway, I went, I googled this time. There was notebook, and I googled, what's the hardest thing? Like, what is the one thing that requires a lot of dedication but is one of the hardest things for people in the world to do? And it actually pulled up Ironman. It said, one of the hardest things is Ironman. And I said, okay. And I looked and I'm like, swim, bike, run. I don't have a bike. I don't swim, and I don't run. At 300 pounds, I was like, done, let's do this. So I went out and I said, based on my history, what am I going to do? And I said, well, I'm going to hire five of the best coaches in the world who can work with me on this and let's see what happens. Happens. So I pulled up a list of all the top Ironman coaches in the world, and I reached out. Most of them were american.

00:38:03 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I reached out to all of them, and I would say I found five that that were like, that didn't think I was crazy. I started off with, I'm 300 pounds. Do not tell me I can't do this. And, you know, a significant amount of them were like, there's no way you can. And I was like, I can. And so I found five that really, truly believed in me. I hired them. I invested a lot. And then I say we did. It was like an exorcism for two years straight where every day it was like another exorcism. It was swim, bike, run, yoga, mental, like everything, eating. And we watched the weight come off and come off and come off. And during COVID I ended up deciding I was like, I wanted to do my first one in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I'll never forget, you know, the training.

00:38:45 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Our pools were shut down. So I was swimming in Canada in outdoor pools, literally freezing for 15 minutes at a time and getting out double neoprene, heart rate monitors on. I was so determined to go to Tulsa. Like, you would have no idea. You were not going to stop me. Covid was not going to stop me. So then I competed in my first Ironman alone. I had to go by myself because I didn't want to put anybody else at risk.

00:39:07 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

So I went by myself. I competed in it. It was the best experience of my entire life. And then I remember there was a lot of stories that go on between that Ironman. I remember when I was in Tulsa, I remember the last transition period, I went into my transition bag, which is usually at the side of the road, and so. And I'm by myself. And I remember a lot of things went wrong in that race, but I was persevering like you would. There's no way I wasn't going to finish that race. And I had had an accident in transition, so I had an injury that prevented me from actually running, and they didn't want me to finish.

00:39:41 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And I was like, I'm not. I didn't come this far. To come this far. And I remember just going, everybody back home is tracking me, and I'm going, I can do this. And I pulled out of my back, I had a Canada shirt and I had a Canada flag. And because it was rare to see anybody at during COVID from a different country, I remember I was going down the strip, and it's this bar strip that they have in Tulsa to the finish line.

00:40:03 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And it had to be like, I don't know, like, 14 rows deep on both sides of people just partying and screaming at the Ironman athletes as they're running towards the finish line. It was the last, like, I'd say 700. And I remember just going, like, what a great finish. It was darkish out.

00:40:19 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Like, whatever. I'm, like, doing it. And I remember just, like, being. You could tell I was injured, but I was like, I was still doing really good time because I got injured right before the run. And I remember I was just going. And all I heard was, oh, my gosh, is that a Canadian? Because they could see the gear and the flag and they're like, that's a Canadian. There's a Canadian. Everybody look at the Canadian. Like, it was like, what? What? And then people were like, maple syrup putin. And I was like. And I remember laughing. And then I remember. Remember something just took over me where I was like.

00:40:49 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And they were. They all started chanting. All of Tulsa. All of Tulsa started going, Canada. Canada. And I remember just tearing up in my face going, this is why I coach. And I get emotional even talking about it because I was like, this is why I coach. This is why I do what I do. And the whole entire Tulsa. And Mike Riley was at the finish line and he had my number marked from a story I shared with him earlier when I at him.

00:41:15 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And the whole finish line was screaming, Mike, Canada, Canada, Canada. And Mike Riley just got on there and he went on the red carpet. He says, marianne Gillespie, you lost 150 pounds. You persevered through Covid, you did this. He's like, you are an Ironman. And I remember, Bill, I crossed the finish line and it was a visual of seeing a butterfly that became from a caterpillar. I left the 300 pound person left. At that moment, that person shed and the new person crossed the finish line.

00:41:48 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I remember saying to myself, I will never ever. I know now, not just in business, but I know in life that you can do anything, that it's not easy. I know that this would inspire people. So many of my clients, three of them right now, are signed up for their first ironmans. I got like 25 of them that did them. Over the years, we've changed so many things. And then after that, I said, I'm not stopping.

00:42:12 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I'm going to get my butt to worlds and I'm going to get my butt to worlds and I'm going to become a world championship ironman athlete and I'm going to do it. And only 1% of the 1% get there. And I snuck into a competition last year in BC, and I said I didn't tell anybody I was going to try.

00:42:27 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I worked hard all winter. I didn't stop. I worked so hard all winter and I said, this is it. And I went out there and I competed in BC, and I had a moment where my nutrition wasn't going great. And I remember going into the outhouse because that's really the only place that you have privacy in an Ironman race. I went into the outhouse and I remember just crying and I just teared up and I said, I wanted this so bad. And I like, and I remember just saying, stop it. Every client you have, this is why you're doing it. You're doing it to show them that anything is possible, that you can do anything. And I remember getting out of the house and saying, okay. And I found a girl who was running and I said to her, I said, I'm going to, I'm letting you pace me.

00:43:08 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

And she, she says, do whatever you want. Follow me. And I remember following her, and I just zoned everything else out, and I just followed her feet. I just went, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. The last 5 miles, I just followed her feet, and I qualified and went to Finland last year, and. And I just remember thinking to myself, you know what? I'm like anything, and it's not going to stop.

00:43:28 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

You know what? I got Patagon, man, at the end of the year, and it's like you just. You don't know how far you can go until you go there, until you dig deep inside of yourself and say, what am I truly capable of doing? And, you know, one of the biggest lessons that I've always learned is this, is that you know what? I'm grateful for having had a family as long as I had a family, because some people don't even have families.

00:43:50 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

But what I can tell you is that I've experienced so much loss in my life that it's like, don't wait for it to be too late. Do not wait for it to be too late. You know, you. You have to take those chances, and you have to do it, because there will be a time where, and we don't know when it is, but there'll be a time where you're like, you can can't, and you're going to regret it, so you might as well do everything you can to just. Whatever's in your head. Just do it, man. Just do it.

00:44:16 - Bill Risser

Wow. Wow. That is awesome. But. But this is awesome.

00:44:26 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I love it. I love hearing it.

00:44:28 - Bill Risser

I got to get you going. Let's. Let's.

00:44:30 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Yes.

00:44:31 - Bill Risser

Final question that I've asked every guest since Jay Thompson in 2015 is the same one. What one piece of advice would you give a new agent? Just getting started.

00:44:41 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

I would say the best advice I would give any new agent getting started is like, I know it's going to sound pitchy. You have to get a coach. You have to get a coach. You know, if it's your last bit of money that you have, it's the last thing. Find a coach that. That will push you so hard on those days where you feel like nobody's supporting you, you cannot rely on anybody else to do it. You need to invest in yourself right from the beginning, because it. Because I can say, if you listen to what I just told you today, I had a coach and mentor before I even got licensed. I've always had five coaches when I wanted to do the Ironman. I knew that I would get in my own way. So I found the best of the best I invested. So I would say, you know, don't rely on learning from YouTube or anything like that. You need to have on those moments in your first year in the business. You can fast forward it. A really good coach will get you the income and get you there. But never doubt that you can do it. Do not doubt that you can do it. But invest. Do not go in and pay for leads or something like that and invest in the wrong area. Invest in a person who is tough enough to say when you're feeling like garbage, it's not going to fly. You got to go to the next level and they'll push you there and they'll get you there and you'll see the income because that's all it needs. Real estate is a tough business, and once you have one person on your core corner, you will. You will get there. You will absolutely get there. And I think that's worth it to me. That's. That's my advice.

00:46:10 - Bill Risser

Marianne, if somebody wants to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

00:46:15 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Do an Ironman. No, I'm kidding. Tell me you're an iron man. I would say the easiest platform to find me is redapple coaching. On my Instagram account you can go to Red Apple Redapple coaching Cadd. So make sure it's cause I'm Canada. Or like I said, redapple coaching. I'm always on my Instagram account. That's my main account that I'm always on. And my website has tons of stuff. We have great programs to get you started, especially, you know, if you're a newer agent. We have one coming in the fall that's perfect for a lot of new agents as well.

00:46:50 - Bill Risser

I knew this was going to be fun, but I had no idea it was going to be this much fun. Marianne, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your amazing story. This was a blast.

00:47:01 - Mary-Anne Gillespie

Bill, it is my pleasure. And I cannot wait to promote this to everybody I know because you've been an absolute pleasure and thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

00:47:09 - Bill Risser

Thank you for listening to the real estate sessions. Please head over to ratethispodcast.com resessions to leave a review or a rating and subscribe to the Real Estate Sessions podcast at your favorite podcast listening app.