Happy Friday ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another exciting S.L.T. meetup today It's gonna be with the international best-selling Alfor of the social agent Tony your dad really good friend and he's a real-state Expert he has been seen on CNBC in million-dollar listing on Bravo TV And he's gonna be here to talk about the latest trends in the real-state market in California as well as all the new tools that we are Experiencing to take this industry to the next level from cryptocurrency to NFTs It's gonna be a conversation full of interesting topics. So thank you all for being here and let's get him aboard All right. Oh Here he is Tony the man.
What's happening? I'm doing good. How are you? Good?
Good? Good? I see you calmer after the last time I saw you You what I see a little bit calm. Yeah, that was a good time.
Good to see you. Thank you for joining us Thank you for having me. I appreciate it as always and I already miss you being in LA You got it. You got to get up back on a plane and head back.
I wait. We'll have a call after this about to lose I'll tell you later, but I mean I was making a quick intro about yourself I mean you are the real-state guru expert You're based in California in Los Angeles and you've been seen on CNBC Million Dollar List in in Robert TV And you also are an international best-selling author with your book the social agent, which by the way, I'm loving it so far So very cool book and you're here today to talk about your story I find it so fascinating how you came all the way from starting in such a competitive industry to become one of the Ages to look into you know for inspiration. So tell us a little bit about you and your story Yeah, I'll try to give you the quick version of the story as fast as I can But for the most part, you know got into the business pretty young I was 20 years old and I was selling cell phones for AT&T and I walked into a mortgage company to sell them cell phones And the branch manager offered me a job and little did I know I'd be good at it And so I went from selling phones to selling loans and also you know going after the fire department got picked up with the fire department as well So on my days at the station I was just networking and then my days off from the fire department I was back in the office doing the firefighters loans my fellow my fellow brothers and sisters and it just took off You know after September 11th, which was the birth of the fake housing market the birth of the fake economy And if you look at history and you look at the historic lines You will see September 11th was the birth of that entire fake economy and fake housing market that came crashing down in 0809 So the the whole you know going from being semi successful to extremely successful because anybody could buy a house during 0203 0405 0506 it was impossible not to make over a million dollars a year in my 20s and you know by 2008 or 2007 I pretty much had everything one would want I had Bunch of properties. I have nice cars.
I have fine art. I have fine watches. I enjoy fine things Mary two kids and you know boats comers, you know, you name it I had it which was just stupid at the end of the day back then I was young and dumb and with and then at by that time I owned my own mortgage offices and I was part owner with three other partners and we were one of the top ranked mortgage companies in all of California and had offices in Southern California and I lose everything in less than 18 months in the 2008-2009 crash went through a massive divorce youngest sons diagnosed with autism I go from an 812 phycosorta 496, which I didn't even know you could have a 496 phycosort So I went to the extreme other way 19 foreclosures on my credit all my cars boats repossessed I had to sell fine art and fine watches for ten cents on the dollar because nobody was buying that crap and it really just You know, I was over leveraged on everything and I didn't come from wealth I didn't come from business savvy parents. I think you know dad was a landscaper mom's a bookkeeper So it was a big learning experience and finally after oh wait oh nine, you know, it was about summer of oh nine I just got so fed up with lending and you know, you couldn't get a jumbo loan for a client in oh nine Everything was crashing still so I decided to switch to the sales side of the business And I had my real estate license already So I just walked into one of the real estate offices and Beverly Hills and the Malibu sister office And I handed them my real estate license and I said I'm a real turn out, you know, how hard can it be?
Once I became an agent, you know now I had a very successful mortgage career And I did a lot of like pro athletes home loans and celebrities home loans I mean I did big loans so I learned the luxury aspect in in Developing clientele that were higher end and wealthier Which you know are amazing clientele to have if you can get into that that pocket But I didn't come from that so I had to learn it and there was one guy he still very good friends He took me under his wing and this was during the mortgage run It's not after the crash This is way before like oh two oh three oh four and I got into his circle and it was funny because I was doing loans that were You know five hundred thousand six hundred thousand seven hundred thousand dollar loans somebody was buying a million dollar house You know so it was somewhat high-end but not five million dollar loans on ten million dollar houses Yeah, and I got a chance to get this guy's business. He was referred to me and you know if are you a Seeing my wife your Wi-Fi is kind of freezing so I didn't know if it was me or you but yours is kind of No, I was listening to you. I saw your screen also No, I hear you I hear you really so okay perfect so You know so he kind of I get a chance to sit with this guy and there's a reason I'm sharing the story because it's all about you know Luxury right and it's and it's getting into that world or getting into that line of business and clientele to then take you to the next level So we're sitting there at lunch and I'm telling Mike to do this and I can do that just arrogant 23 year old thinking He's like the bomb and like there's nobody better than me and he goes well I'm looking at you know leverage out some of my houses here in Beverly Hills, you know So I'm looking at a million dollar loan a five million dollar loan and a two million dollar loan And I go what do you want to do a ten million dollar loan on my twenty million dollar house? And I was like oh my goodness.
I'm in it way over my head. I've never done a loan bigger than seven hundred thousand and this guy wants me to do a Oh my god, so of course I'm like yeah, I can do that blah blah blah and just use car salesmen Yeah, I'm like that don't worry. I got you. I got you and finally I love your confidence He goes so I'm gonna give you a shot at this and I said awesome And these are gonna be the biggest loans I've ever done and the largest client I've ever done and before he orders a bottle of champagne at lunch He says but before I give you a shot Can I ask you an honest question and he's got this very deep Russian accent?
He's like six six looks like he's right out of the Russian mob and He goes can I ask you an honest question? I said sure and he goes well you give me an honest answer and I was like Depends on the question right? I said yes, I'll give you an honest answer and he goes You've never done loans this large and have ever dealt with a client like me before have you and I said No Because yeah, that's that's what I thought said is that a problem and I said yeah, you're I love your confidence. He goes, but I just wanted to see how you answer that question I'm still gonna give you a shot because I like you and I said awesome And I said so any orders the bottle of champagne and rosé Dom Perion which you know at the time I don't even know what rosé Dom Perion is I know what Dom Perion is but it's like that's what my grandpa drinks So when he orders rosé Dom I'm looking at the bottom like not even crystal like you know in my head I know Chris all because you know Puff Daddy loves Chris all in 2002 and 3 so he orders it little do I know it's three times the cost of Chris all and the So as I'm sitting there I said so what what did what what gave it away?
Like what did I say wrong? And he goes you didn't say anything wrong because that's why I'm giving you a shot and I said then what what how did you know that I've never dealt with high-end clients like this before and he goes because there's no way you'd be wearing that watch oh And I go I like my watch because I like your watch too He goes but there's no way you would be dealing with high-end clients of my level and he's not being arrogant He's trying to teach me something and he goes There's no way you'd be dealing with clients like me consistently every month and still be what watch and I go Well, what if I don't like nice watches? What if I'm not into watches? He goes then you wouldn't know or watch today?
He goes so I just know that you don't deal with clients at my level and I go okay fair enough So what am I supposed to go buy a Rolex? He goes let me tell you something about the different levels of wealth he goes lower end wealth You know somebody who can say they're a millionaire He goes is loud he goes the first thing they want to do is go buy a Rolex because even an eight-year-old knows what a Rolex is And I said but Rolex is a really nice. He goes. Yes, he goes I have a Rolex but it's like they're a hundred thousand dollar Rolex and I go okay.
He goes so no I'm not telling you to go buy Rolex. I'm just telling you you got to load things like this and I said well What kind of watch are you wearing? That was not a right that was not the right question to ask So he takes off this massive watch this huge face on it He takes off this watch and he hands it to me and it literally weighs like the same as a brick I mean it is so heavy like I know it's real and I look at it This is 2003 and I look at and I go Richard Mill and he grabs the watch out of my hand He goes Richard Malay He goes also another reason I know you've never dealt with clients that are very high-end because you don't even know how to pronounce the brand of The watch and I go okay. He goes so I'm gonna teach you something and I go What's that he's I'm gonna teach you something called the Glance and I go the Glance he goes the Glance He goes you're gonna notice from this point on in your life You're gonna notice every time you're talking to somebody who's successful or or somewhat wealthy or or whatever at one point as you're talking to them You're gonna see them go like this He goes and what they're gonna do is they're gonna look at your wrist and they're gonna look at your shoes If you're a lady, they're gonna look at your wrist.
They're gonna look at your neck They're gonna look at your purse He goes but you're gonna see a glance when you go to pay for lunch because you're trying to impress someone who's successful You're gonna see them glance at the card you drop down He goes and it's not that people are trying to make fun. He goes wealthy people They put things together all the time and they're constantly BS by people He goes so when somebody's approaching someone when somebody's talking to them about business. They're looking to see if you're full of crap He goes so they glance and they look he doesn't you'll notice this and I go you're out of your mind I've never noticed anyone ever do that ever he goes just watch and sure is sure enough that day I'm checking into a restaurant. They don't have any seat available and when I come up I'm just trying to see if there's any way we could get a table today I see the hostess and the manager just bokeh and look at my watch like it was it was crazy I was like holding that I can't believe I paid for dinner that night and somebody who was at the dinner looked at the card That I was dropping like and I go oh my goodness So he was trying to teach me things like do you think a wealthy person is gonna believe that you're the best mortgage Person out there and you're the successful person He goes if you drop down a Mickey Mouse target Or a debit card he goes no because it's not that they're making fun of you once again He goes it's because now it doesn't make sense There's no way this person can be a wealthy business owner and pays with business lunches with a business debit card He goes that means he doesn't have an amex he doesn't have a financial accountant He doesn't know how to actually run a business and it was very interesting when he said that no long story short He taught me so much more beyond that about the love the world of luxury He taught me how to read the robin for he wanted me to learn the the names and brands of yachts fashion He would send me youtube links like he goes, you know, this is how the correct way to pronounce this This is the correct way to pronounce that and everything he taught me led to getting super high-end clients And we're still friends to this day and now when I'm on stage teaching my presentation called Sophisticated impression he's been in the audience and he says you're now teaching me because I didn't even know that he goes So I really took it to the next level Well, then I lose everything because the one thing I didn't do was save money I was too busy trying to keep up with the Joneses and you know It was just so idiotic that the crap that I would buy I owned properties all over the country that I didn't even rent out Like it was just owned it like there was no smart business decision-making because I didn't come from that So now fast forward I become an agent and the one thing that I did was I Knew that a website was gonna be extremely important and I knew that social media was gonna be important And this is October of oh nine So I started taking a completely different approach on social media that still 99 cents of real estate agents or business owners Don't even know how to do correctly There's a very small fraction of people who actually understand the true approach So I started doing this different approach and connecting and engaging people and building relationships and increasing my audience drawing traffic back to my Website website looked gorgeous even though I'd never sold a luxury house my first 30 days as an agent It looked like Tony was a hundred million dollar producer online Like this guy is a baller because perception is what?
reality reality So I looked equal to the big agents and I didn't want it didn't say sold it didn't say represented It didn't say was my listing you just went on my website and maybe saw a slideshow of gorgeous multi-million dollar Homes that I purchased the legal right to use from Shutterstock.com and you assume that their houses I sold I didn't say I sold them that's just a slideshow of gorgeous houses for 50 bucks each Perception is reality. Well that led to getting literally in my first 60 days as an agent I got my five a five million dollar listing in Manhattan Beach here in LA from a woman that I added as a friend on Facebook Just three weeks before that, but you know, we don't have enough time to get into that But there's techniques. There's there's these things I do to get in with the right people not just the adiram And they can find a new book exactly it's in that one. It's in the first one.
It's gonna be in the 3.0 that I'm writing right now They're gonna come with Yeah, I'll have the new 3.0 out soon. So go though So by the end of 2010 my rookie year I was rookie of the year nationally for the company I was with I'm not gonna name brand companies today because you know, I've moved around so there's no reason to do that But I but the company I was with was not an easy company to be rookie of the year They were they're a huge brand and I was rookie of the year then that led to them saying How are you doing this? Would you mind speaking at our annual conference? Then I started speaking then before I know it other other companies were asking me to speak now I'm on stage once a week selling real estate in LA writing the first book to social agent book becomes a best-seller in 2012 Then the rest is history I started just exploding and building businesses and then that led to answer your last question Even though I sell real estate in Los Angeles as an agent I also own an advertising firm that does different things I call it a global real estate servicing company because it's services that aren't considered brokerage or selling so it's not a team It's not a brokerage It's a it's an advertising firm marketing firm and that's called the opulent agency that is not me as an agent I'm just telling you to don't know as an agent But opulent agency does crypto management for crypto purchasing or crypto trading or people are trading their Bitcoin for real estate Asset or they're taking a loan out on their Bitcoin to buy real estate It's athlete relocation because I still had all those athletes So I always look for partner agents across the United States So I can send them athletes that mean to relocate or being traded and then the biggest thing that it does is it's an advertising firm for luxury real estate So let's say and you already know this but for the people listening You're an agent with any brand and you just got this gorgeous $10 million listening and you know how to do some marketing But you want mass marketing and you want viral video marketing and you want you want everything to just go crazy We actually you bring us on to co-market.
We're not on your listening We're just co-marketing and drawing all the traffic back to you and then we just get a piece when it sells But we're shooting the video we're getting the video tens and tens of thousands of views on YouTube Google Instagram We're running all the global campaigns Facebook marketing Instagram marketing and that just allows you to have that much more exposure We're running print ads Robert or it's amazing and we we do all the cops We're fronting all that money on your you're listening. So there's just different things and of course. Yes, I coach luxury I coach technology I coach sales prospecting time management and write books You do it all man. I know you have fun as well.
I mean come on who doesn't want to be like Tony Well, hey, and I don't want to come across like that because people who know me know that that's just not who I am But I do want to say is the reason I think I do so many different things is first I have an amazing staff that allows me to do so many different things. I couldn't do it alone second I when people ask me which is often what motivates you like what just fuels you every day I say people the more people that I'm in front of the more people that I know I'm helping even if it's one person out of that 20,000 strong audience that I'm on stage even at one person turns their life around or is able to implement a strategy or is motivated It just fuels me to do it again. So yes, I might do things But it's because I just I don't want to say no to anybody So when they say Tony you think you can help me co-market sure and then before I know what I own marketing agency Sure, I just don't say no Tony you think you should write a book sure. So hopefully somebody doesn't ask me something I don't want to do because I'm probably gonna go sure Amazing I'll think about some questions last No, but that's phenomenal honestly your whole trajectory is very inspiring and I know that you've been giving some amazing golden nuggets today For those that want to hear more and read more here is the amazing book of Tony the social agent now I know we don't have too much time, but definitely it's always a pleasure to hear you speak Where can people find more about you is your Instagram the best way to go?
I would say Instagram like this is my personal Instagram Tony Underswords your donno that you guys can follow For just knowing more about me. You also in my headline will see my other You know companies and the other things that I do so Opu in is there and I real estate is there my coaching companies there Then you can easily find those websites So, you know your donno.globle is Tony the speaker the author the opulent agency calm is the advertising firm rise mastery calm is the coaching Company, but just start with Instagram follow, you know You might see different things that I do and they might give you good ideas to do for yourself But I just again love people I love taking the time to answer people's questions it might take me a while But if you send me a question it will be answered eventually Don't don't worry about that It's just I get I get inundated with a lot of a lot of questions a lot of the time Yeah, and Tony I mean I was in the late with you. We had a great time You also drove me around to see some nice properties So for those that are listening, please make sure to follow him because he's full of knowledge full of value and besides that You're a great guy. I mean, it's really a pleasure hanging out as you I've loved them.
Oh, thank you. Yes Love my absolutely, you know love our friendship and and it's been it hasn't been a long friendship But it's it feels like it has like it feels like we've known each other for years after you know just for the last year so And more to come more to come so thank you so much I really enjoy the conversation We'll definitely have to do another one because there's so many things to go about that you can share with the audience But for now, please guys make sure to follow Tony all his different businesses. Where can they get this book Amazon? Amazon yeah, it just Amazon's probably the easiest it's on prime so it'll be delivered within the same day sometimes because it has The prime tag on it Look for the next book the next book is not a it doesn't mean that the the 2.0 isn't isn't work anymore It's just a new book that will give you the map So definitely pick up the 2.0 book that's still very still very relevant and by the way I'll be in Miami the first week of August Oh, I think the first week or the second week of August I'm speaking there now that things are back open and if you go to my You're right and you see seeking tour where nothing is in there right now Everything is actually getting loaded this week because now all the events are getting booked again So there's like 20 upcoming events that we haven't put in the calendar yet Just let everybody know there are just look back next week and you'll see everything there Amazing well, thank you so much Tony.
We're not pleasure having you here today. We see you a beautiful weekend and see you soon See you soon. Thank you for having me. Bye guys.
Thank you for tuning in And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it and remember embrace it beautiful success in life My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time