Real Estate Sessions Rewind - Ron Shuffield - CEO/President - BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOME SERVICES EWM REALTY

Ron Shuffield is a respected figure in the business industry, recognized for his contributions as the founder of the Beacon Council and his leadership roles at the Chamber of Commerce and the Coral Gables Community Foundation. He views his career journey as a continuous learning experience, underlining the importance of mentorship, aligning with individuals of integrity, and the transformative power of personal growth within the industry. Shuffield's perspective has been shaped by his commitment to ethical business practices, such as trust, integrity, and longevity, and his belief in engaging in community roles. His guiding principle revolves around having respect and maintaining grounded values, ensuring that his team supports the company's core principles. Consequently, his approach highlights the importance of continuous learning, ethical conduct, and community involvement in building a long-lasting and successful career.Transcript00:00:00 - Bill RisserHi, everybody. Welcome to another real estate sessions rewind episode as I continue my spring break. This break is nearly finished, and we will soon be back.00:00:08 - Ron ShuffieldI don't know if I ever asked for business. It just comes to us because our associates are very active in whatever they're doing in the community, too. When people come to work for us, I say, you know, get involved in something you like doing, something that benefits the community.00:00:26 - Bill RisserYou'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 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 354 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend, as I always say. And today we're going to have a lot of fun. I am talking to Ron Sheffield. Ron is the CEO and president of the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services EWM Realty operation in Miami. We'll say South Florida. I met Ron with our CEO when Michael Davey was out here traveling through Florida, just kind of getting a sense of the Florida market for an australian. It was unique to be able to experience that. Ron was kind enough to have lunch with us, and, boy, I could tell just how during that conversation, he was somebody I had to talk to. It's somebody's story I had to get. So I'm really excited to get this thing started. Ron, welcome to the podcast.00:01:36 - Ron ShuffieldYeah, thank you, Bill. It's good to be here. Yeah.00:01:38 - Bill RisserYou know, you and I met about a month ago or so, maybe a little longer down in your neck of the woods, Coral Gables area. We had a really nice lunch with Nina Fabri from the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services company. Right?00:01:50 - Ron ShuffieldYes, absolutely. Absolutely. Fun day with you guys.00:01:52 - Bill RisserIt was really fun to talk to you and learn about, really, the unique space that the Miami real estate market is. And we're going to talk more about that. But first, I always start the podcast with where everything started for Ron. Now, I'm pretty sure, uh, and most people probably could tell that that accent's probably not a south Florida native, right? So far, so good. Yeah.00:02:16 - Ron ShuffieldI grew up in New York City.00:02:19 - Bill RisserSo let's go with where you grew up and and how long. How long before you made the move down here?00:02:25 - Ron ShuffieldSure. Well, I grew up in Tennessee and still the fifth largest city in the state, Jackson, Tennessee, which is near Memphis, but certainly not a huge place, 50,000 people. So you got to know a lot of your family, knew everybody in town, sort of thing.00:02:40 - Bill RisserYeah.00:02:40 - Ron ShuffieldSo I had a great growing up experience and high school experience, and then, like a lot of guys and kids from that area, we went over to Knoxville, which is 300 miles away, to go to school at the University of Tennessee. So I spent four years at the University of Tennessee and had a wonderful experience there and met, of course, people that are still friends of mine today that I've known for decades now. So it's a lot of fond memories looking back on that. But after college, you kind of want to not maybe go right back home. And so I moved to Florida, and I thought I'd stay for a few years, probably end up back in the south someplace. And so here I am all these years later, and, you know, met my wife down here and, you know, three kids and five grandkids later.00:03:28 - Bill RisserI'm not going anywhere, you know, Ron, I moved to Florida in 2017, knowing I was coming to the south. I was coming to SEC country, kinda. It's just north of us, up in Gainesville. But, man, it's a whole different world from growing up in San Diego and then moving to Phoenix, where college sports are just whatever. Boy, if I hear another SEC person tell me it just means more or it just matters more, there's a word. There's something that the SEC people love to say, but, um. But so you're. You're a volunteer through and through. Rocky top, the whole thing. It's nailin Stadium, right? It's just unbelievable, right? What's going on up there? But I've got some buddies who went to Florida, and they really don't like Tennessee. What happened there?00:04:12 - Ron ShuffieldWell, you know, there's been a competition there for a long, long time, you know, and when I was in school, it was obviously, you know, very competitive at that point, too. I think we probably were a little friendlier toward each other when I was in college, you know, 40 years ago. But I tell you one memory I have, because we have a. We actually have a gator in my house, which is. That was a hard to. Hard thing to accept in the beginning. But our oldest daughter is a Florida graduate, and she had a great experience in Florida. But I remember going, this is probably her senior year, junior, senior year. We're up there for a ball game when Tennessee was playing in the swamp. And of course, you know, I was the only people, we were the only people there that any orange on where we were sitting because our daughter had gotten us the tickets. And so we're like, over in the middle of, I don't know, the alumni for Florida, I guess. And so our son at the time was probably, I don't know, he was maybe 15 or so, or even younger. He's by 13, and he's. He was all about Tennessee. So he had all this Tennessee wear on, and it was a cool day. So, fortunately, we had to have some jackets on. So I said, well, you know what? Until we see where we're sitting, let's just kind of, like, keep this jacket zipped up because these people can get kind of rough. And so we're, we're winning the game. We ended up winning that game that day. And so as, as it became clear that even though we had our arms all covered up with a jacket, we weren't shouting with any enthusiasm when Florida did anything right. And so this older lady behind us screamed out, she didn't understand why these people talking about us were ashamed of their colors. And so I told my son then, I said, okay, now after this next play, we're just going to quietly walk on down the aisle. We only had about two minutes left, and, of course, it was clear we were going to win. So, anyway, yes, there's a real competitive spirit between these two schools.00:06:12 - Bill RisserI love that. Well, look, eleven and two last year, I think, right? The balls are back. I know they went through a little rough patch, so you got to be excited. It's looking forward. I mean, your quarterback decided to go into the draft, right?00:06:26 - Ron ShuffieldWe've got going to have some new players there. But you know what? The coach. Coach seems great. You know, I don't know him. I knew some of those previous coaches, but he's great and everybody loves him up there.00:06:37 - Bill RisserI always wonder, was there someone in the real estate world as you were growing up that maybe kind of tilted you that way? Or was it something that came from another source?00:06:49 - Ron ShuffieldWell, you know, my dad was in a retail business, and we transfer. He transferred. You know, every time he'd get transferred, every time he'd get promoted, we'd move to a new city. So. But most of them were in the south. So, you know, when I was really young, I mean, we were living in Texas, and then we lived in Kentucky, Louisiana. And anyway, I ended up in Tennessee. I say I'm from Tennessee, but I lived in some other places before that, but I moved there in middle school, and so, you know, that was certainly, you know, my early years. And so that's what I remember is really, you know, where I'm from and, you know, people I keep up with from high school are all obviously from that area. But when I graduated, my older brother had just started his law practice in Florida. He went to University of Miami law school. And so when I would come down for spring break or just vacations during college, those four years, I mean, I'd stay with my brother and his wife. And I thought, well, this really is a nice place down here. And so he said, man, you ought to come down here and just live here. So I thought, well, what would I do? And so one of his clients was a real estate developer. So I started out in the development side of things, and it wasn't