Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to another SLG meetup now It's been already a few days in this 2023 and so many exciting projects We've been talking to incredible individuals that are doing all kinds of exciting things for this year And one of them is our guest, Niall Landgren He is an international real estate broker at Serhan. He's currently based in New York He's a Bravo TV personality, Adjunct Professor, Pro-Duser and even co-host of his own podcast on iTunes What is the man to meet the legend? Ah get out of here, get out of here You're the man in the middle of the... Ah, I'm super excited to have you here today with us Because all the things that you've been doing and what a great way to start 2023 Then to have you here with us to tell us about your story about the project exciting things that are happening this year And to really bring the fire to this channel Absolutely, you know, look it's easy to bring fire to the channel when I got you on the other end So your energy is contagious, so I appreciate that I love that, well thank you and definitely as I said to you before Once it's again in a bit too cold in New York, you know you have your second home here in Miami Which you are very familiar with because you've been doing nothing but big successes here Absolutely, absolutely, I do business in New York and also in South Florida So, you know, recently, about a year ago, I sold a really big property down on Sunset Allen 4 for $34 million Was a huge, yeah, thank you It was a big success for me and the great thing about it was I sold it about 14 months earlier So I sold it twice, I sold it first for 18 and then I sold it for 34 million I think I made my client like $14 million in 14 months Which was a pretty big victory It's great to have something like that on your resume Because when people ask you questions about what do you know about real estate Well, I've done a couple things, here's one of them Yeah, I want to say about what it's ideal Exactly, that's amazing No, but listen, I'm so pretty real because as you said, what you've done throughout all these years Is what has led you to where you are today And your career, your project, everything that you've done is so interesting Because you didn't start as a TV star and as an international real estate broker Close in this type of deal You had a really unique story, so I wanted to back it up because as I mentioned You are currently at Sirhan, which is one of my favorite brands, Brokerchis, out there You guys have a very dynamic way of doing things You push a lot when you come to content, lifestyle media And we'll talk more about that, but tell us a little bit about yourself And how have you got to where you are here now?
Great question, thank you so much for having me on by the way I really appreciate you and everything that you're doing on the internet too, you crush it You know, my story is I've been in New York for about 15 years I moved here at the end of 2007 and didn't really have a plan But I knew I was gonna figure out a way to get on TV I always said I'm gonna go to New York and I'll figure out a way to get on TV So I was living with a friend in Bedside, Brooklyn Was not the most popular area back in 2007, 2008 It was kind of rough area I was living in a basement on an air mattress And my buddy bought this house And the house that he bought, he bought it from a real estate investor And the guy, when he met me, he was like, what are you doing? I don't know, I'm playing video games He's like, you should get into real estate And I said, alright, let's do that out You know, so I started working with him the next morning at 8am So I literally got into real estate by chance in 2008 Right when the economy was collapsed I couldn't say it, I wanted to time it I couldn't believe it, you know, and to be honest, I didn't really know that much I would say like, part of it was that I was just young And like, you know, the media was saying, why was it 22, 23 years old? Yeah, I was pretty young, I'm a little bit older than that now But I stuck with it and made some sales early on And then, you know, one thing led to another, I got a job in Manhattan And then I started selling commercial real estate I then started my home brokerage when I was 28 years old So all those things kind of like allowed me and had multiple stepping stones I'd say one of the most important things that I did was in college I played college football, so I'm an athlete And every, when YouTube just came out, every week I would make a video of myself And my teammates about the preparation for the game we would have on Saturdays Because we played football on Saturdays And every week I would make a vlog episode and put it on Facebook and YouTube And then you would, this was in 2007, it was talking about 15 people A long time ago, yeah, from this And I would be putting it on the internet and I would Facebook had the poke thing, you could poke people So Facebook would poke, so I would get the video And then I would put the video on and then I would poke the other team I was playing Like their quarterback or running back I'd end the video with them So it was kind of intimidation a little bit, a little bit of a mind game I had to edit quickly on the fly And do those kinds of things that were important from the editing standpoint I've always had a passion for content and media creation I was like the guy in college, when I was in college Walking around with a camera that was like this big, like taking stuff and videos of what was happening People were like, what are you doing with that thing? I'll tell you, I got a lot of dirt and a lot of people Oh man, yeah, I'm sure, right?
So, from there, when I had my own company, I leaned into getting into content And driving content on Instagram So I started the company about 2013, 2014 when Instagram came out And that was my main platform to connect with a lot of my friends and family And let them know what I was doing So I've been doing that for quite some time And then what happened was I joined Compass, I think in 2015 I was one of the first agents to join the firm And from there, they really had a big focus on Instagram And less on the formal side of Wernitai And I'm Wernitai now, that work with Ryan And that's what you need to do when you work with Ryan I don't wear a hoodie or anything anymore But I did that for a while and it was great And I built my business as an agent I had a team when I was at Compass and that was great But after I sold that $18 million property down in Miami Ryan called me and was like, yeah, we should talk I just started my own firm And I was like, well, it sounds like it's a good time I've always had Ryan on my radar, I've done deals with Ryan before in the past And for me, it was just the right timing I was early at Compass and I knew what the value was to be an early adopter I also know that I'm really good at video and content So with Ryan's platform that focuses on video and content With Surhand Studios, which is like the media arm of Surhand I thought it was a perfect opportunity to Take everything I've learned, whether it was being an agent Or being a commercial real estate broker Or being an owner of a brokerage And I had 35 people that I managed underneath me So I took all the skill sets and the content And I kind of put them all together when I got to Surhand And I knew it was going to happen It was just a matter of timing As soon as it happened, I just came over with one agent, Samir I wore all my goals down and I hit every single one of them Because I'm very good at not only the real estate side Or the content side, but I'm very organized And I have systems and processes for everything And they were monotonous when it was me and one other agent But I would always say to that other agent, Samir It's his name, I'd always say the reason why I'm doing this Is because at some point we're going to scale very quickly And we need to have this place to be able to deal with that And a lot of people would be like, this is too much Why do we have to have this system or process? We could just end here, why do we have to do this extra step? And I would be like, no, we have to do it this way And then what I started to see is as the business started to come in Because my visibility went up because of the content That I was producing through Surhand and on my own And all of a sudden I had the systems And then I just need to hire the right people, train them up And meet with training people, it's a little aggressive I challenge people, but at the end of the day They see results and people start to make real money And now they're like, holy shit, I know what to do now So that's where I'm at now, it's been a long road But it's been a tremendous blessing and I've learned a lot So how do you prepare yourself when it comes to content? I focus in the last couple of months only on the business And I said, I'm just going to take a break from the social I've done a lot, I've done really well I'm going to take a break from that It's also cleared my headspace up But it's also allowed me to focus on closing a lot of the business That I had outstanding, so that was something I was really focused on Now, coming into this year, now I have to have a little bit of a different strategy Right, because are you doing your own editing, by the way?
Or do you have such a outser set? We have a team, we have systems in place Ah, you know that, so you know that? So you know the deal, so I was doing everything myself And then, you know, when I went, I did 100 million in sales last year Okay, coming into meeting Brian Sirhan I did 100 million dollars in 13 years My entire career, I did this year, this last year What was that breakthrough? What was that?
Was there something specifically that you switched? It wasn't anything that I switched I knew this was going to happen, right? I focus, because there's one thing that when agents that work with me They might ask me a question, they might say like, Well, how are you doing deals at the super high end? Well, I was very, very specific about how I went about getting clients So, I could have easily done, you know, let's just say in 2017 or 2018 I could have done, I could have taken out a lot of business I could have taken out a $700,000, $1,000, $1,000, $1,000, $1,000 But I would say no, I'm gonna not do these lower end deals And I'm gonna suffer, I'm not gonna make much money Because I'm not taking business But what I was doing was I was investing my time in the super high end of the market What do you suggest others?
They can do to approach that high level, successfully individual The first thing I think what you said is the mindset Right, the first thing that you have to do is change the way you think Early on that I was destined to do that And that's because I believed it I also have faith, so in moments of uncertainty Where most people would give up I would say, okay, this is uncertain And I've been in uncertain situations before, that's okay Let me just keep going and eventually it'd be okay Do you have any routines that you do in the morning or something that gives that zen? I have a hot tub in my apartment So I generally wake up and go to the hot tub And spend a couple of minutes reviewing some emails, maybe having to call with someone on my team And then I take a shower, have a coffee And then usually don't stop working until super late at night It just literally just doesn't stop Why is it really the true definition of luxury to you? The true definition of luxury is being able to do what you want with your time The real value of luxury, in my opinion, is using tools as a mechanism To allow you to be doing what you want with your time And time is the most valuable commodity that we all have And the more time that you have to do what you're actually passionate about Whether it's travel or fly helicopters Or do whatever you do on your social because it's lit as well You have to have time for that And the biggest luxury in the world is making money, in my opinion So that you can buy more time for yourself and for your friends and loved ones Amen, I mean, I just connect so much with you just said So thank you so much for sharing that and remind all of us about the importance of time I just recently did on Sunday what is called the 12-hour walk challenge Which is 12 hours, yeah, 12 hours with no distractions as you walk in And one of the reflections and realizations that I got through the process is that Time is a limited resource So it doesn't matter how much money you're making in this world It's about how you invest your time And when you have that as a mindset, then of course you start looking at money differently You start looking at money as how can I use money To live my best life and maximize my time I love what you said brother and I really appreciate you I'm sure we're going to see each other very soon We'll continue this conversation Wishing you amazing and continuous success for this 2020 You said anything else that you would like to share before we wrap this up No, I mean, look, I love your accounts I think you'd kill it, I really appreciate you for having me on It means the world to me and hopefully this is the beginning of a long relationship So thank you I love the Nile, well, best of luck and thanks again, we'll see each other soon And thanks again for everybody tuning in today We hope you enjoyed it And remember, embrace it's beautiful success in life My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time