Episode 413 - Bill Risser's Personal Updates: Life Beyond Real Estate

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 in my 10th year and over 400 episodes of the podcast. And now I hope you enjoy the next journey. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 413 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast.As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend.And you probably realize when I don't have a cold open, which is where I kind of preview a segment of my guest's conversation, that it's just me today. There is no guest. So I hope that's okay. I think, I think I had just a couple of things to talk about.Just kind of catch up a little bit on a couple of different things that are happening in my life and thought and that they might be interesting for people to hear. So looking at the calendar and seeing that today's March 24th, it just always reminds me that March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.And as Cindy and I and her friend Natalie.My friend Natalie as well, Kevin and Sarah all decided to join me on the Colorectal Cancer awareness walk over at Gadsden park, right next to MacDill Air Force Base. It was a lot of fun.It's called Walk Loud and it's all about really raising our voices and making sure people understand the power of getting screened.And yes, this is me talking about the power of getting screened and how important it is, especially if you meet certain parameters, like there's a history in your family or your doctor thinks you should get tested early. I'm telling you, the colonoscopy is not that big a deal.We actually had a doctor speak to us before we walked who said, I know there's a lot of people that are using things like cologuard, but ultimately the only thing that's going to detect 100% for sure is actually getting a colonoscopy, having polyps removed and having those that that tissue tested. So please schedule your colonoscopies. If you're 45 and you haven't had one, it's time.And so I just wanted to always just alert people to that message whenever I have the chance to talk about it. The second thing I want to talk about is it's just a very exciting time of the year. Do you know that this.Well, Thursday and Friday is going to be opening day for baseball season. I can't wait.I'll be celebrating opening day in San Diego as I'm there to visit some friends and conduct the auction for our rotisserie league baseball league, the San Diego Smokey Joe League, which is in its 37th season. The league is a lot of fun. It's also a lot of work.I'm getting in a day early to get in a round of golf with some friends of mine that we played golf together at this course 35 years ago. And so that's going to be pretty cool to get the four of us back on the course.Hopefully take a picture from number three on Canyon where we took that first picture so many years ago. So, Jeffrey, TK and Tom. It's going to be a lot of fun. Another thing about opening day here in St. Pete means we are not going to have any baseball.Roughly a 10 minute walk from where Cindy and I live. Yeah, the Trop is still topless. There's a bunch of metal framing up there still, but no roof.And the Rays are going to be playing their entire season at George Steinbrenner Field. Yes, the former owner of the Yankees and where the Yankees have their spring training seating. Roughly 11,000 people. Maybe a few more than that.They can throw in for standing room. But that is going to be the raised home this entire year. An outdoor facility in the heat and humidity and rain and.But at least they're staying in the area. But I gotta tell you, for me, I don't know if I'll ever make it over to a game over there.It's gonna be relatively expensive when you only have 11,000 each. You need to charge a little bit more per ticket in order to generate some revenue.And I, you know, driving across the bridge and then having to drive home. Now I understand what all those Hillsboro people were talking about when they wouldn't come to a game in St. Pete because it was too far away.And who wants to cross the bay and fight traffic and all that good stuff? So now the table's turned on me and I'll get really comfortable watching the Rays on television or listening on the radio when I.When I can't get in front of a tv. So they've got a great team this year. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Pitching is back.McClanahan had a little bit of a bump with a tricep nerve situation last Saturday, but still, I think the Rays have a good shot. They're in a great. They're in a very tough division, but boy, they've been playing well in it ever since Cindy and I got here. So we're very excited.I'm also taking advantage of my trip back to the west coast to make another stop in Phoenix to visit John Biorly. Many of you who listen know that John is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.He already conducted his John Bjorlie Die Happy Tour in 2024, part of 2023, actually, and almost all the way through 2024. But he's at a different place now. His doctors tell him that he's in the final stages. I was out there a few weeks ago.I played golf with his son and his friend Vernon. And John was there with us in the cart riding along on the Aguilar course, which is one that John and I played many, many, many times.And I think we're going to play the same course on the 30th of March. So I'm excited about that. I just love seeing John.I love seeing him up and about and moving around and maybe, who knows, he was told he only had about a year, over a year and a half ago. And so let's see if he can't beat the odds once again.And then finally this week, I'm going down to the Royal Palm coast association in down in Fort Myers and Lee county, and I get to visit, first of all, a few of our branches down there in the Fidelity world and the sales reps down there as well. But I'm really looking forward to the TechCon 2025.I'm also excited for a few of the speakers that are going to be there because four of them have been guests on this show. I've got Craig Gr Grant, you've got Sheena Reagan, who's going to be the mc. You've got Megan Farrell Nelson from the Palm coast.And then there's Diana Zaya coming in from Chicago, who's founder and president of Maverick Systems. And I interviewed her just a couple of weeks ago. So it's going to be a lot of fun. I just love hearing what these people have to say about technology.Something hopefully that we can bring back to our sales team so they can share it with their agents. All right, well, that's it for me today. Thank you so much for tuning in again. And next week we'll be back with another live guest.Thank you so much for all of your support. Cheers.