All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another SLD Meetup, your host, Alvar Thank you for having me, great to finally connect, I've been following you for years, and just happy to be here my friend. Absolutely, and I love the background, love the hair all the way back and keep it stylish. So the question to just get started is more about the transition of your identity. I mean, you've built something massive of her all these years.
So how do you keep on adjusting your identity to now becoming a person. I'm so happy to be here all these years. So how do you keep on adjusting your identity to now becoming a founder on this incredible tech app and then everything that you've done prior to that. It's a great question.
You know, I always look at life. The second I'm comfortable. I like to make myself uncomfortable. And unless I'm uncomfortable, I feel like I'm not growing.
And so every stage in my life, since I left school at 15, I always feel like I've been shaking up my life, my career, whether it was even starting a family or moving into agency or starting a team or now building breezy. And I feel like I'm really all as though I'm growing and with growth comes uncomfortability. So I'm always shaking it up and really looking at how to evolve with time. I love that the evolution, right?
Because a lot of us look at evolution in many different ways. So your definition, it's tied to discomfort. It's about doing the things that you're uncomfortable with. And that's amazing because we have so many choices in front of us.
And if you choose what you're uncomfortable, that's what's going to lead to growth. And look at you now. So what would you say has been the hardest transition? Was it from broker to building a brand or from building a brand to now this tech company?
I'd say it was being a married man to becoming a father. I would say that as we evolve as adults and life gets more serious, yes, becoming a father is without a doubt the most challenging because it brings so much of the unknown. But I've been from an agent to running a team to now building breezy. You know, it's all progress, not perfection, right?
You don't have to do anything perfectly. You just have to do your best and you cannot be afraid to fail. Because if I look at every stage of my life, anytime I've failed, it's got me to where I'm at today, right? And so I never look at failure as failure.
I look at it as a learning curve. And so that for me has always been very helpful throughout my career. I love that. And it's so important because you've stayed consistent throughout the game.
I mean, I see you doing this over and over, but especially you've been evolving and adjusting, right? Just I see so many people that get into real estate and then a few years later when failure really hits hard, then they stop and they transition to something else. And you've been staying put and you've been, as you say, going through this learning curve and adjust. And now you're getting into AI, which I want to go deep into it in a little bit.
Because I see that real estate has evolved in the way that it's sold and promoted over the years. So what would you say are we at the moment experiencing real estate? Is it more important, the brand on how you promote and sell real estate? Or is the brokerage skill or is it now technology or is it a combination of all?
It's such a good question, man. I think it's a combination of all, right? I think if we look at the 10,000 foot view down, the world is changing. Tech is changing the world and it's changing fast.
I think brand is equally as important as it's always been. You are as good as your brand. You have to put out what you want to get back. And look, I think the brokerage model is very much changing.
If you look at Compass, for example, they now have complete market share, 340,000 agents across 120 countries. And what they've done is nothing short of genius. But you shouldn't have to be at any one specific brokerage just so that you can adopt their tech, right? But I do look at our world, real estate and think, OK, 85% of agents believe that AI now can double their production.
Yeah, agents think of themselves as people that don't use AI. Yet we're using it all day, every day to write descriptions or listening photos or whatever it may be. But the main problem in real estate today is that as agents, we've got 15 different apps doing 15 different things poorly. And so it's a bunch of copy and paste.
So what we wanted to build was a single point solution, a platform, an operating system for agents so that they could just run and organize their business more efficiently and position them. And position them as experts in their field. And that's exactly what we've done. And Bill.
So it's interesting, right? Because you come from a position of bringing attention. I always say that attention is one of the strongest currencies, right? And you've been in national TV and building your social media platform.
You've captivated. You've become the magnet of all these eyeballs to look into the properties that you have for sale, which has helped you a lot. Like here in Miami, we use the helicopter house stories and we do all sorts of experiential activities and things in their houses to really bring on more activations and make those properties famous. But now you're taking it farther because attention now is so saturated.
There's so much out there. And anybody can have any sort of video and go viral. So how do you leverage that with technology? So I want us to, if you can break it down into the three most fundamental things that Breezy is about.
Yeah, absolutely. So you're absolutely right. The world of attention is saturated. Everybody can get on social media.
And by the way, everybody should be on social media. I would say this. The key to success with anything you do in your business is consistency, right? You can't do something once and expect it to work.
You've got to do it over and over and over again. With Breezy, I was always looking at, okay, so you've got to get it. Okay, so you got AI. Your consumers are using AI all day, every day.
Your consumer expects you to be fully prepared and three steps ahead, not five steps behind. And so one of the features that I'm most excited about with Breezy is underbuilt, which is proprietary data sets that we've built for our agents. So we now cover 83% of the population of America where an agent will be able to download Breezy, type in and address. And within seconds, we're looking through setbacks, basement requirements, hype restrictions, bonuses, city code, and we can take any lot in America.
And tell that agent how underbuilt that lot is. What is the build potential of that lot? So now we're starting to create value for the agent that the consumer cannot get themselves. It doesn't exist on chat GPT.
The consumer would have to either understand city code and navigate through three or four different websites, or the consumer would quite literally have to hire a surveyor. It would take several weeks and cost five to $7,000 to get this type of data. We have it in seconds. So we can actually identify and spot hidden development potential on lots across the United States of America.
So I would say underbuilt is something I'm extremely excited about for people to use. Second is our comp system. We've built a data engine room of over 800 million records across America where an agent will be able to type in and address. And in under 60 seconds, that agent will be able to put together a listing presentation for their client that is beautiful, branded, customized, has personal touches and elements.
It no longer needs to be a two hour process on the MLS. We can deliver that to the agent in literally under 30 seconds. And then finally, and one other thing I'm very excited about is our pipeline tool. I've talked about this for years.
Agents have a thousand plates spinning at once. They're trying to manage their book of business and people are buying leads. But my question is, what do you do once you have a lead? How are you managing your business?
And so I built a fully robust pipeline tool designed for the agent to manage and oversee their entire business from the top down, manage their buyers, their sellers, their escrow, their tasks and everything. So their entire business is in one centralized location. So the idea is the agent can run and oversee their entire business directly from Breezy. Sounds like I'm not excited, man.
I mean, it's exciting. And I've poured my heart and soul into solving a problem that I see in our business after being in it for 25 years. So I'm excited for the world to see it and get to use it. No, that's amazing.
Congratulations. First of all, and it comes from hands down experience, right? Because you've been in the industry for so long. So just seeing the over and over complicated tasks that take so much time on a day basis is how can we reduce it.
And I think that you're just hitting right there on the most important things that agents need to do that takes so much time and now it can be reduced into just simple clicks, simple search. Now my question to you because I also see the other side of a lot of people worrying about the industry itself changing so rapidly that there's going to be a lot of the areas that are going to be removed completely like you are no longer going to be needed. So what's your thoughts on how in the next five years AI is going to evolve and what that's going to look like for the agent? Such a good question.
Look, the business is changing. It's being disrupted. We're watching it happen right now without AI through big conglomerate companies. However, as tech continues to evolve, our industry will continue to get disrupted.
It just, well, whether we like it or we don't. Now, the underlying question you're asking me is, will a robot replace us, right? That's that's... You know, in other words, yeah, when somebody is like, no longer needed, you can just say AI will do it for you.
This is the big question, right? So how am I as an agent providing value? How am I continuing to keep that personal touch? How am I continuing to provide insights and data to my clients that they cannot get without that human touch?
I think that's where agents become irreplaceable, right? There is that human touch. There is that personal element. Do I know where our business will be in five years?
Absolutely not. Am I confident tech and AI will continue to evolve? Absolutely, yes. So I think this more than ever is such an important time for agents to be masters at their craft, to be full of information, full of data, property insights that their clients can't get.
And as long as you are bringing value to your client, you become irreplaceable. And so I think, look, the barrier for entry to this business is so low, that's why 70% of agents didn't close a deal last year. So you have to be all in on this business if you want your business to be a business. You cannot treat this like a part-time career.
And who knows where the future heads for our industry, but right now I'm living in the present and in the current, and my suggestion is stay current with what's out there in the tech world because it's only going to continue to evolve quick. I love that. So for somebody that is starting into it or is leaning towards it, I understand the whole concept of going all in. But there's three things that you've mastered.
And if you got to choose if you will start again, will it be relationships, media, tech, or all of the above? All of the above. But at the core of our business, it comes down to relationships. And it comes down to being in the right place at the right time.
It comes down to your lifestyle choices. It comes down to the people you hang around with that you surround yourself with. Yes, you have to stay current with tech. I don't think it's a must.
You have to stay current with tech today. And of course we touched on it earlier. Your brand, your identity, who you are, what you want people to see when you're putting yourself out there, when you are nurturing those relationships, what people see, what they learn, what they understand about you. You want to be the absolute master in your market, hands down, where even if someone doesn't want to work with you, they need to work with you.
Let me ask you this, yes, because this is very interesting, right? Because I love to talk about mindset. Somebody that has done a lot of things that people consider humanly possible. I've always seen that the only difference is the limiting belief, right?
Everything happens to us, there's been your mind and reality. And when applied into real estate, I would love to ask you, because I see you now at the top of the game, what separates a $5 million agent from a $50 million agent psychologically? Yeah, great. I mean, look, I'm a like, I'm a pure mindset guy.
That's my whole life. Mindset is determined by the individual, right? Do they see a glass half full or half empty, right? And the biggest thing that stands in a real estate agent's way is fear.
Yeah, an agent is very comfortable doing a million dollar deal. In fact, they're a great agent in their market in that million dollar bracket. But the second they think about $5 million, $10 million, $20 million fear gets in the way. And I look at fear as false evidence appearing real.
And the agent allows that fear to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger to the point that it becomes so big, they can't step in front of it. They can't overcome it. But if the same agent realizes that they can take that fear and they can shrink it so small and diminish it into something that is non-existent and throw it behind them and step in front of that fear straight away the second it comes into their brain, then you start to realize that actually you can do anything, right? You can over you can over achieve.
You can move into new markets, new price points. And once the agent understands, Hey, this is false evidence appearing real and I choose to live on the side of faith, not fear and the two can't coexist. Now you can start to do anything in this business and anything in your life. And the truth of the matter is the difference between doing a $1 million deal and a $20 million deal is next and zero, except the paycheck is 20 times larger.
And so you've just got to shake yourself and get yourself uncomfortable so that you can move forward in your business in your career, in your life. And once you start to learn that, amazing things will happen in your life. Oh, I love it. No, that's amazing.
And I could see that passion in your voice because you definitely are somebody that has go through that process. Oh, you've know, like it's a lot of people that see you today and they're like, Oh, yeah, it's easy for you to say, well, you were never that guy when you started. You know, we all said, let me tell you, I was thrown out of nine schools. I had ADHD as a child.
I was always the kid that was less than the other children. I struggled beyond imagination, but I just, I never felt sorry for myself, right? And I think often people today with this world of social media and we can get so caught up in the negative. And we stop thinking about the positive.
And I think we all want to control the future or change the past instead of living in the now. And I think between these things, if you just stay focused and, and, and focus on the present, you'll be blown away if you change your mindset. And that glass is half full. You'll be amazed what you as a human being can do.
And I'm telling you, people need to really stay in the now and focus on what they can control today and make themselves uncomfortable. And the rest is history, ma'am. I love that. I love that.
Well, this is exciting. And I've been learning so much and I'm sure everybody that is going to be tuning into this will also love it. I just have like a quick rapid fire question, something that comes in fast. So most stressful deal ever.
Most stressful deal. I mean, I would say none of them are easy. Most stressful deal took me about 18 months to close. Nearly fell through 20 times.
Was pretty contentious at moments, but we stuck with it and got it closed and it was close to a hundred million dollar transaction. Amazing. Okay. Most underrated luxury market.
Most luxury underrated market. I'll tell you what it is. And people speak so badly around it. San Francisco is thriving.
It is booming. AI and tech is rebuilding that city that policies are changing. And I think there is huge opportunity in San Francisco right now. I love that.
One trade young brokers underestimate the power of door knocking and sitting open houses, the power of what you can do to boost your business without spending a dollar, but giving your time to do it consistently over and over and over and go back to basics. I love that. Yeah. Everybody wants the instant gratification, instant results.
And sometimes you got to go back to the hustle to the basics. I love that. One belief you had a 30 that you no longer believe. I mean, I think when I was 30, I didn't truly understand the meaning of you can't buy back time.
People would say that to me as a father. And I would think I got time. I got time. And today what I've truly realized is you cannot buy back time.
Be present with your family. Figure out having a healthy balance in your life. And I answered that question in the reverse. But I think that's for me, the one that stuck out the most is cherish every minute and every second that you can with your loved ones.
I love it so important. It's so easy to fall into this rat race where you're just like faster willing yourself doing that over and over and you forget about everything else. Okay. Last one, which I think I know the answer, but AI tool, every serious agents should use 1000% every single agent should be leaning into AI today.
And by the way, we are not available, but you can join the waitlist today at breezy.com. We are going to close it shortly before we launch. So any agent out there should go and join the waitlist right now at breezy.com. Well, definitely that's an important call to action for everybody.
You know, this is super luxury group, I wouldn't be closing this if I didn't ask you the question that I asked all our guests, which is what is luxury to you. Well, luxury to me isn't defined by a price point. Luxury to me is lifestyle. It's how you carry yourself, how you behave, how you show up in rooms, how you dress, how you present yourself and how you carry yourself every single day.
I love that. That's a great answer. Very, very to the point. Fantastic.
Anything else that you would like to share to close this up? Just to say, keep crushing it. Your content is superb. I love chatting with you today.
And I hope all of your listeners got something out of it that helped better their day today. James, I appreciate you. I know that you're going to be coming visit us still here in Miami. So we'll be welcoming you with open arms.
Thank you again for such a wonderful conversation. And for everybody, please follow James. Check out breezy sign up into that waitlist and best of luck with everything you're doing, brother. Thank you so much, my friend.
Appreciate you greatly. 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.