Real Estate Sessions Rewind - Mary-Anne Gillespie, CEO Red Apple Coaching

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.

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 of 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 ninth 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 for 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.

Thank you so much.

I'm so happy to be here.

Bill.

What a great podcast to be on.

So very excited to represent.

Well, 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 1.

I know it's the.

It's the capital of Canada.

That's a big deal.

Yes.

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?

That's perfect.

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.

They are.

You can fill in the gaps and.

And share your favorite things about your hometown.

And then maybe the biggest misconception.

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 him or hate him, Vit 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 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 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 Gatsunos, which are 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.

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 8:00, though.

So we're a little boring.

So that is the truth.

We are a little boring.

I'm from Montre 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.

I grew up in San Diego and it 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.

Yep.

I love that.

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 to hoop it up, you just go over the border to Quebec, and they're open to like five in the morning.

So you.

So I'm assuming then you speak French fluently?

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 and born and raised, it doesn't matter how.

How long you don't live there.

You will always be from there.

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 look for a translation.

It's going to be cool for you.

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.

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.

That is something that.

That I did not know at a young age.

I was like, it is entirely different.

It is.

It is like.

It is literally like black and white.

They are two different languages.

So.

So believe it or not, we'll struggle just as much as you.

Well, totally.

But it'll be fun.

We'll pick up little pieces of it, right?

Yeah, that's true.

That's true.

The few, 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 gonna be for you?

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 realized that.

That I couldn't.

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 the compassionate aspect.

But being a vet was kind of where I always wanted to go.

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?

Eventually I did, so that was great.

Fought really hard to get out of the circumstances because sometimes 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 taught me.

She's like, get through university.

Put yourself through university.

So I had, and I would say, to be very honest with you, it did absolutely nothing for me.

I was never a very strong student.

I'm a very creative, energy, 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.

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?

So I ended up working in the call center 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, like, you know, digital display, hardcore phones.

And then when, when things evolve, we were also taught on the customer service lines how to.

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.

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 careers.

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.

It wasn't from another source.

This is something 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?

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 are very expensive phones.

And then it was like, okay.

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.

How old are you at this time?

Oh, I was just a kid.

I was like.

I think I was like, 17 at the time.

17, 18.

Yeah.

I was putting myself through school and university, and then I moved my way up.

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?

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, 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.

So I always loved that aspect of real estate.

And then throughout my, my young 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, as a desk job.

And I was like, look, I can 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, in the Ottawa Citizen.

At the time, I believe I was 22 years old.

And so I remember I was sitting there and I was at the top of my game.

I was getting accounts at Google, getting like youngest VP of 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, 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 Awok 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 need, 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.

I found out that the number one real 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.

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.

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.

Ah.

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

I mean, he's.

That's.

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.

Yeah.

So along the way here, you.

You probably started off at a.

You didn't start off at Keller Williams right away, did you?

No, I started off actually at ReMax when I was, when I was mentoring with this individual and then eventually moved to mentor with the owner of ReMax.

And then when I got licensed, I left ReMax and I started my career off with Coldwell and then moved over to Keller Williams.

And Keller Williams is where you get to start flexing some of those coaching and training muscles.

Right, let's talk about that.

Keller Williams was like, they approached me.

So my first year in the business, I did 80 transactions and I was like, that was, you know, coming from being a transplant, not originally from the city.

You know, 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.

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.

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.

Up a million dollars a year for 70,000 a year.

That's a little strange.

Anyway, so I was like, I'm not gonna do that.

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.

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, 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 that they produce.

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 in 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.

He's a good friend of mine still.

And I called Ross and I said, hey, my name is Marianne Gillespie.

I'm from Canada.

He's like, hey, you know, and he's Texas accent.

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 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.

And so we did three years.

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 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, man, 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.

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 we said it before, that's repeatable, that works, that helps, really keep you on track.

So is this a.

Is this like a big roadblock for some of your clients when you're.

You start working with them?

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 this stuff is from the ground up.

That brings in the money, but yet.

And 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 bills.

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 it 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.

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 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, 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 gross, 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.

Right?

I love that analogy.

That's great.

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, 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, but 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.

It's almost like only if there was a network platform like Uber or Match that would connect those C's and those D's together.

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.

It just doesn't stop.

Which is why I focus most of the time on saying give over those tasks and own the tasks that you know you're good at.

Our number one highest dollarly 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.

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?

Yeah.

Like, how would you frame that?

Well, I mean, the way I look at it is, you know, by being able to overcome.

Right.

Because I look at resiliency, being able to overcome all these situations that occur.

That's part of the world, especially in real estate.

Right.

Especially successful people.

People you're going to run into more issues.

You're going to have to really be.

Be able to handle market shifts.

You're going to be able to handle just changes in nar.

Whatever is happening, you 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?

Yes.

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?

That 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 Ironman world championship athlete.

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, there's an element of saying, look, you know, when you, when I buried my mom, you know, I think that was the moment that I was like, that was the worst moment of my life.

The resiliency that I offer to my clients is to say guys like, you know, so the hardest thing you're gonna do is have to negotiate your worth and 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.

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.

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.

Cause they wanted to know if they had to be in very, very good shape because they're, you know, African community.

Like, they're always on the go.

They're like, how in shape do they have to be?

I said, not at all.

There's no physical requirement 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 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 door knock, some will have contacts, some will have to phone, some will have to do that.

And they sat there and they said, well, what do they make per house?

I said, well, it depends.

Anywhere from 7,000 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.

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 generate.

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 gonna make seven to like $30,000.

They're like, they could sell as many houses as they want.

They're like, I would door knock eight hours a day to find clients.

And I said, you could barely get people to door knock one to two hours a day.

And they're like, they couldn't comprehend in their head how, you know, 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.

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 gonna fly in my world.

So it's like, that's never gonna 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.

They love that I compete in Ironman's.

They love that every single aspect of my life I have lived.

The real example of.

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 Ironman's.

I have pictures of me at £300.

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, 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.

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.

And that's where I come in.

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.

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?

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.

People is you want freedom, so you have to give yourself the freedom.

And the truth is, is like, do you have to, 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 gonna have to work 80 hours a week.

You're gonna use those two aspects are key in that phase of your career.

In your next phase of your career, you're gonna start to, you know, you' and you'll have to start working on systems and stuff, but you don't have to.

And the truth is, 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.

And the truth is, 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, you know, I'm just going to rephrase what he had said.

He said to me, this.

And this is so genius.

So he comes up.

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.

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 says.

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.

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.

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.

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 $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 $900.

An pulling 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.

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 $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 him in, drop him off on a Sunday, and he's good.

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 between that seven and nine hundred dollars 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.

That becomes your hourly wage.

And then every day, check your.

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.

Okay, so you have to ask yourself, what am I spending all my time doing and does it have a return?

Marianne, I want to close out kind of with this journey you went on to compete, literally.

Look, there are lots of Ironman events.

They're the mini ones, and they do one here in St.

Pete.

I live in St.

Pete, Florida.

It's really fun to watch him come out of the 1 mile swim and head off on the 40 mile bike ride.

That's so cute.

Yeah, it's all good.

So cute.

But you said, no, that's not me.

I'm just gonna do whatever it takes to go all in and let's see if I got it.

Is it like 3.1 miles in the water, 112 miles on a bike, and a 26.2 mile marathon?

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

Go ahead.

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.

Just look for a coping mechanism that works.

And mine was food.

And, you know, I'd 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.

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.

So I became £300.

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 lent 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 ago ago.

This is five years ago.

And I remember just going, that's not who I feel like I am.

And who is this person?

And I wasn't unhappy at 300 pounds.

This is what I always explained to people.

I'm like, I loved myself at £300.

The same way I love myself now at £150.

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 want 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 issue that runs through it.

So being £300 was a really stupid thing to do and be at that, you know, based on my family health history.

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 no book.

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.

I was like, done.

Let's do this.

So I went out and I said, based on my history, what am I going to 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.

So I pulled up a list of all the top Ironman coaches in the world.

And I reached out.

Most of them were American.

I reached out to all of them and I would say I found five that were like, that didn't think I was crazy.

I started off with, I'm £300.

Do not tell me I can't do this.

And 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, 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 the training.

Our pools were shut down.

So I was swimming in Canada in outdoor Pool 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 at my first ironman alone.

I had to go by myself because I didn't want to put anybody else at risk.

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 I'm by myself.

And I remember a lot of things went wrong in that race, but I was persevering.

There's no way I wasn't going to finish that race.

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.

I was like, I didn't come this far.

To come this far.

I remember just going, everybody back home is tracking me, and I'm going, I can do this.

And I pull out of my bag, I had a Canada shirt and I had a Canada flag.

And because it was rare to see anybody at the 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.

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.

The finish line.

It was the last, like, I'd say 700 meters.

And I remember just going like, what a great finish.

It was darkish out, 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 remember, something just took over me where I was like.

And they all started chanting.

All of Tulsa, all of Tulsa started going, canada, 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, I met him.

And the whole finish line was screaming, Canada, Canada, Canada.

And Mike Riley just got on there and he, on the red carpet, he says, marianne Gillespie, you lost £150.

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.

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.

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 B.C.

and I said I didn't tell anybody, I was going to try.

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 B.C.

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 outhouse and saying, okay.

And I found a girl who was running and I, and I said to her, I said, I'm gonna, I'm letting you pace me.

And, and 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 boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

The last five miles, I just followed her feet.

And I qualified and went to Finland last year.

And I just remember thinking to myself, you know what?

I'm like, anything and it's not going to stop.

You know what?

I got Patagon mad 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, 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.

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.

You 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.

What's the worst thing that's going to happen?

Right?

Wow.

Wow.

That is awesome.

Powerful way to end day, but this is awesome.

I love it.

I love hearing it.

I got to get you going.

Let's final question that I've asked every guest since Jay Thompson in 2015.

Fifteen is the same one.

What one piece of advice would you give a new agent Just getting started?

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 supports you cannot rely on anybody else to do it.

You need to invest in yourself right from the beginning.

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.

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 that income because that's all it needs.

Real estate is a tough business and once you have one person on your corner, you will get there.

You will absolutely get there.

And I think that's worth it to me.

That's my advice.

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

Do an ironman.

No, I'm kidding.

Tell you an iron man.

I would say the easiest platform to find me is at redapple underscore coaching on my Instagram account.

You can go to Red Apple redapplecoaching ca.

So make sure it's CA because I'm Canada or like I said, redapple underscore 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.

I knew this was going to be fun, but I had no idea it was going to be this much fun.

Maryanne, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your amazing story.

This was a blast.

Phil, 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.

Thank you for listening to the real estate sessions.

Please head over to ratethispodcast.com recessions to leave a review or a rating and subscribe to the real estate sessions podcast at your favorite podcast.

Listening.

Applause.