Mastering Real Estate with Steve Rupp: Unlocking Success without Cold Calling

Rick Ripma (00:00.046)
Well, you are fortunate if you watch or listen to this program, this is Steve Rupp, this today, Steve Rupp with Steve Rupp coaching. Steve has 25 years as a real estate agent, phenomenal agent, did huge volume, and he's going to teach his system. And his system really eliminates a lot the cold calling. He didn't like cold calling, so he came up with a system that brings in clients. It's a system on how you get more clients, how you get referrals.

It is unbelievable. Along with that, Steve and I are going to have a webinar on June 12th, 2024 at 1 p and we're going to talk about how to do a buyer's presentation. We're going to talk about it from his point of view, explaining everything you would need to know about a buyer's presentation, what you need, and I'm going to talk about the financial portion, how you can, under these new laws or regulations that look like they're coming out, how you can present and make...

Make sure that you help your buyers understand how they're going to buy a home and how much they still need you as a buyer's representative. Please join us. Listen to the show. I think you'll really enjoy it. I think it'll be very beneficial. Have a great day. Welcome to Indy's Real Estate Gurus, your ultimate guide to the dynamic world of real estate in Indiana.

And I'm Rick Ripma, your hardworking mortgage guy, and I've been in real estate and mortgages for over 24 years. And I'm Ian Arnold, a loan officer on Rick's Hardworking Mortgage Team, and we are both with Advisors Mortgage Group. Together, we'll empower you with expert advice, market trends, and successful stories from guru realtors and local experts. Whether you're a homeowner, investor, or pro, join us as we navigate the thriving indie real estate market. Now get ready to unlock the doors of success.

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Rick Ripma (01:56.974)
Steve Rupp. Steve Rupp, it is actually, it's amazing to me. You and I, you were on the show before, but before that, I don't know how long ago it was that we met, but it had to be 25 years ago or somewhere in that neighborhood, I'm guessing, since we've both been in the business for that long or more. It's kind of scary, right? It is scary to think we lasted this long, right? For 25 years, you're one of the top real estate agents in Indiana. Right? Right?

Big volume, people love you, doing a phenomenal job, and now you're becoming a real estate coach. You're not becoming, you are a real estate coach. I guess that's really kind of a misnomer because you've probably always been a coach. As long as you got what you had the experience, you've probably been a coach the whole time. So now you're just officially a coach, right? That's right, yeah. I think that's awesome. So,

Before we get into the coaching, which I obviously have some questions on, just real briefly your background. Just give a real quick background. Yep. So my background is I grew up in real estate. As I tell people, I was literally born the year that my dad got into real estate, which I still don't know why he did that, but he did. You think it was going to be expensive. He did, for sure.

And so the path was kind of clear during that time for me to see what real estate was like. And the funny thing is that I told myself I never wanted to get into real estate because I saw what he did and how he had to do it, the sacrifices he made. And after doing a few things after college, I joined forces with my dad and ended up taking over the business after a few years of working together and then building a team. And yeah, it was...

been working on my own or for my team for the past 20 years and then in the business for 25 years. Cause my dad and I worked together for about five. So it was a great opportunity for me to have a mentor in the business, someone that I really respected and trusted and he had and still has an outstanding reputation in our city. And for any of the OG agents out there, they remember Jack Rupp and who he is and what he did to the industry. So he's,

Rick Ripma (04:18.637)
He's done a lot and I'm very grateful for that. So literally I have grown up in real estate. That's all that I've ever known really. And so it's been an interesting ride over the past 51 years. Yeah, 51 years is a long time. 51 years is a long time. 51 years. So your dad was in real estate 51 years ago is when he started. Right, yeah, 1972. That is incredible. That is incredible. You know, I'm still trying to learn how to run this thing.

I'm not any good at it though, I'll tell you that. All right, let's put my name up there. There you go. Now you got my name. So let's talk about, you know, what inspired you to get in to, to coaching, to, to, I know you have a teacher's heart, so I'm sure that's part of it, but what is it that inspired you? And then how did you make this, this transition? Cause that's a big, that's a big deal. It is a big deal. And yeah, thanks for asking that. It's.

You know, it's a story that I hope helps other people too because, you know, to be very frank with you, this is the hardest business decision that I've ever made in my entire life. You know, it's just like anything, if you've been doing something for so long, you start to get comfortable or have a sense of comfortableness with it. Sales, doing anything is hard. You start over at zero every day. And that's the hard part.

The easier part is the actual mechanics of doing what you do every day. And, you know, real estate, just like everything changes and it keeps accelerating, the changes accelerate every single day, every single year. But at some point you develop that expert level mastery of your craft and you're just looking at incremental increases every time to improve yourself. But so at some point you develop that comfortableness. And...

What I realized was that after 25 years or so, you know, it started, I was looking for a new challenge. Again, not that real estate is not challenging. It always has been, it always will be. It's just, I wanted something different. And, you know, I tell people it's a God thing, whatever you want to call it or whatever. I just felt that there was just something that was calling me to do something different. And I didn't know what it was. And,

Rick Ripma (06:37.454)
I started having different people pop up in my life and giving me some inspiration and some ideas of what that next path may look like. And I had a couple of coaches that I worked with and still do who had said, hey, you make a great coach. Have you ever thought about doing that? Nah, real estate sales. That's my jam. That's what I want to do. Okay, well, if you ever change your mind, you know, that might be something, again, a little whisper.

And then, you know, then I ended up having a, an opportunity for, an idea that I had, that I had, for generating referrals and, and a coach for a training class that I was taking, said, Hey Steve, you know, you got something with this, you need to teach it. And this doesn't exist anywhere else and, you would be really good at teaching it. And then we ended up taking up to the, the VP of education for our company internationally and said,

it doesn't exist anywhere. You need to teach this." And that was kind of the screaming a little bit more. And so, you know, I kept finding it and fighting it and fighting it. And, and my, my team, it all had somewhere else to go that they could do that they, other dreams that they wanted to pursue as well. Timing ended up working out great. And I was like, you know what? I was laying in bed one night talking to my wife and I said, I think I need to make a change. And,

Her next question was, so you're gonna get a real job. So I think if you've been in real estate for a while, you can certainly understand that and maybe empathize with a little bit with our W -2 spouses or significant others don't quite understand everything that we do every day. And that could be not necessarily for real estate, it could be for any 1099 job, any entrepreneurial job.

And people who don't have entrepreneurial drive in them or just have that fire in them just don't get it. Why would you want to go out on your own and just do something and risk everything for no guaranteed payout? You're not guaranteed a paycheck. And it's just, you think differently than...

Rick Ripma (08:56.078)
people who do the W -2. Don't get me wrong, I love my wife and the benefits and the salary that she has and anybody who has that could probably empathize with that as well. But it started as just a little bit of a whisper and then it went into something more of, you know what, you need to do something else. And I love real estate, which is why I'm not getting out of the industry. But I come from, as you had mentioned, a teacher's heart. My whole family is teachers.

And it's, this is not something that I would have expected that I was going to be in. But when I look back at it, it really, what I enjoy doing the most when I was kind of contemplating making the change out of real estate sales. And I look back and say, what did I really enjoy doing the most? And that was teaching and training, teaching and training my team, teaching and training agents in my office, teaching and training agents in our, in our city through other venues.

That's what I absolutely loved. That's what gave me energy. That's what gave me joy. And that the timing was right. So I look back and anybody who has been on this earth for several decades, you come to a point, I didn't understand what midlife crisis was, but you get to a point where you realize you probably have more years behind you than in front of you. And you take advantage of things. At least that's what I hope people would do. And so.

You know, being in this business as long as I have, I figured that it was a great opportunity to share some of the wonderful knowledge and information that others have been so generous and grateful to share with me and to be able to pass it along a little bit and hopefully be helpful in someone else's journey that they're going on. You know, I think that it's one of those things that you said several things in there that I really want to hit on, but it's interesting that you

we're thinking about what am I going to do, and this is how life seems to work. Things just crop up, right? Things just show up, and it's like, wow, I guess that's kind of pushing me the direction I should be going. And I just think that that's so interesting that that happens. But beyond that, you really piqued my interest, and you said, and I know you can't share everything, right? But you said, you're the owner of...

Rick Ripma (11:21.07)
your company, international company, said there's nothing like this out there, you need to do this. So give us a little hint of what that is. So, right, so anybody who knows me, if you're from our market, knows that my business is built entirely on repeat and referral. I have never cold called day of my life, I've never door knocked, I've never called Fizzbo's expired.

just not my jam and nothing wrong with that for people who want to do it. The great thing about this business is there's all kinds of different ways to do it and there is no one right way and you can succeed doing any kinds of things. I was lucky that I came into a database that my dad had and I was able to grow it and leverage it into the business that, that, that I had to this day. but I did that through love and honor clients. And so I created a system where it leverages relationships.

to create a predictable and systematic stream of referrals to produce six -figure income for agents. And so it worked for me. I beta tested it for three years. So I have proof of concept. And that's when this coach in this program was saying, Steve, I've never heard of anything like this before. This is genius. So why don't you teach it? Teach it to other people who could use it. And...

That's really where the interest took me about a year to kind of figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. But the program works and it's something where one of the biggest challenges that I've seen agents have is call reluctance. I mean, heck, you don't even use that for agents. Salespeople is call reluctance. Almost all people have call resistance. Absolutely. And...

Why? There's all kinds of reasons why. But two of the biggest is, number one, you do not know what to say, and number two, you're afraid of rejection. That's it. There's others, but those are the two biggies. And so that little cell phone that is so easy to pick up every day and to scroll on your socials and connect with everybody suddenly becomes a 10 ,000 pound weight when it's time for you to make your prospecting calls. Same phone, but now something changes.

Rick Ripma (13:43.022)
And so what I found was that, you know, if you had a reason to call and if you had an offer that the person on the other end of that phone could not refuse, would it make the call easier to make? Absolutely. And could you then recruit those people in a way that they are not only wanting to, but they're begging to come part, to be part of your unpaid sales force to create?

referrals for you you they get business you get business your clients get better a better client experience Which then in turn produces more referrals? So as I was looking at it though the way that if someone is really maximizing this program they could they could easily make 250 thousand dollars a year additional gross commission income by following this program and You don't have to make one cold call

That's the beauty of the program. And you have a lot more fun doing it. Yeah. But you have to actually follow the program. You have to follow the program. OK. You do have to do some work. You have to do some work. Yeah. But once you get it up and going, it can be on autopilot. And it really does a great job. So anyway, it's addressing the thing that I had problems with. And that was the thing that I did it for me first.

Solve your own problem. Right, I did it for me and then I wanted to see if it's something that would have applicability for other agents and what I found was it does. And when I did a beta test in our office there were 54 agents that came in and took the course and every single one of them walked out with new ideas and concepts and systems and models that they could follow to increase their business. Not one person walked out of that room feeling that they could make less than six figures by implementing that.

And that's, that's doing it at a, at a fairly low level. You could do quite a bit more than that if you do it at a high level. But anyway, so that was, that was kind of the impetus for getting into the program. So, so teaching the program to other people, teaching it to offices at the end of the day, I want people, I want real estate agents to number one, be, be successful. I want them to be happy. And I want the clients that they're helping to feel like they got a great experience because that helps our industry, which unfortunately, according to NAR,

Rick Ripma (16:06.894)
our industry is at a low point right now for the level of professionalism that agents feel exists within our own industry right now. This is polling agents. It's at the lowest ever. I did not know. And we all have known that when you look at polls, public polls, that real estate agents rank very low as far as trust and respect. And so,

one of the things that I wanted to do if I could have just a teeny tiny little ripple caused in a pond to help to address those things, then I want to do that and I want to be part of that. So this is a very small part of it, but it's something that I feel could help other people and...

And if I can help do that and be part of them staying in the business and doing more business and helping more people in a higher level, then this is where I need to be. Yeah, it's I think it's remarkable. And I think if there's anybody listening and they're real estate agent, they want to make more money. Now you have to actually implement what Steve teaches. OK, but if they want to make more money, they want to learn your program. What is the best way to get a hold of you so that they can?

that can do that. So the best way to to learn more about the program or learn about me or see if this is a good fit for you or your office is to give me a call or shoot me a text. 317 -339 -7698 is my number. Or Steve at SteveRuppCoaching .com. Either one of those will get to me and I would be happy to give more information about the program and see if it would be a good fit for you or your

office. Another thing, just real briefly, I'll put a little more information in later, but we're actually going to do a webinar for real estate agents. And our first webinar is going to be addressing the buyer presentation, which I feel is vitally important a lot because of what's going on in this market.

Rick Ripma (18:25.166)
I think that our market is, with the NAR changes and all of that, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of not knowing exactly what to do. So I have some possibilities with financing, although we still don't know what the DOJ is going to say and all that. So it could change everything. But at least we're trying to help the industry get an understanding.

And I can't, I couldn't think of anybody better than a 25 year veteran who's now a coach of real estate to be part of it and to teach actually, because a buyer's presentation is vital, correct? Absolutely. Now more than ever. Yeah. So we're going to do this on April 12th at one, one o 'clock. if anybody's interested, just get, get ahold of us. You can get ahold of me. my number four, six, three, two, two, three.

I've got to remember this number. You can text or call that number. I switched this because I was always given a phone number you couldn't text. So you can text or call 463 -223 -9592 or you can go to hardworkingmortgageguy .com or you can ask Steve at steve at steverupcoaching .com. And we'll get you the information so that you can sign up to come to that webinar. We think it's of great value. There's no cost to it.

We really think it'll help the industry. We think that it'll help those people. And I can't, again, I can't imagine somebody better teaching the buyer presentation than you. There's so much challenge in today's market for real estate agents. And it sounds like your program addresses those challenges. Is that correct? And how does it address those challenges? Right, yeah, I think so. I think that, you know, some people...

There are a few weird people out there that love making cold calls. And God bless them. I am not one of them. And what I found is that probably 99 % of real estate agents don't enjoy that either. So we all know that any time you're in sales, it's a numbers game. You gotta get in front of people. And if you are scared to pick up the phone, whether that be to make a phone call, whether that be to send a text, an email, a DM.

Rick Ripma (20:38.19)
you're not going to make the contacts that you need in order to stay in the business because first and foremost, a real estate agent's job is lead generation, period. The rest of it doesn't matter unless you have a client to help. So you could be the best real estate agent in the world, but if you don't have any clients to help, doesn't do any good. So this program helps to provide the leads so that you have more people to help. They're warm leads.

So warm leads are generally converted according to NAR at an 85 to 87 % rate. So most of the people that you're gonna be getting are going to be teed up and ready to go and want your help. So for me, the hard part is out of the way, getting the people in. Then it allows the real estate agent to work their magic and do what they do best. And that is help them through the transaction by guiding, leading and protecting them through all the way to closing. Yeah, so.

guiding, leading, and protecting. See, those are your, sounds like the core. Absolutely, those are my core values. Core values, core principles, and you teach them how to do that. Correct. Because knowing the core values doesn't, you need to know how to do it, right? And you've perfected that. So I think that, I just think it's extremely interesting, and in my mind I'm going, so maybe this would work for mortgage people too. You know, maybe they're, because the reality,

is that there's not a huge difference in the basics. Now, there is in the actual business, but in the basics of lead generation between a real estate agent and a mortgage person. And we have a group, real estate agents is one of the ways we can develop business, right? But there's a lot of other ways we develop business. Real estate agents, I'm sure they have...

people they go after, right? There's certain groups that have the best, you know, lead generation. And so it just seems like we're in very similar. So you might think about doing it for mortgage people too. You know, I could be a test guinea pig for you. But I, you know, I'm not one who loves doing cold calls, but I have learned to just suck it up at times and do what I got to do. And the weird part for me is,

Rick Ripma (23:05.838)
when it's all done, I feel good about it. But for me, I guess I never really actually do cold calls. I find some way to make them warm. I find some way to make it, kind of what you said, give them something that they aren't just gonna yell at you and hang up. And the reality is, I was listening to a...

It was a podcast or what it was. But one of the things the guy said, he said in three generations, three generations, everybody you know will be gone from the earth. Everybody. So those people who you're worried about, they're all going to be gone in three generations. So you can't worry about it. That's sobering. Yeah, it is sobering. Especially when you're, you know, I'm 64 years old, almost 65. But just what you said, as you get older, you realize,

I mean, if I have 20 years, I'm 84 years old. Don't say yes, that's terrible. You're still around, that's good, that's a win. Yeah, it's a win. And you know that's the key, you wanna still be around, but I don't know, it's just one of those things, for me, I love working, so I wanna work. I don't maybe not work as hard, but I love to do what I do, so I don't see myself ever retiring. My wife doesn't want me to retire, because she knows I drive her crazy, because I always have to do something. But it sounds like you're...

you're kind of the same way, you're changing careers. That's a big deal. And yet, I think what you're doing is genius. If you have a system, you've developed a system, it's taking you years, right? Three years to develop your system. And you've tested it on yourself plus how many other people? 54 agents in our office, right. And it works. It does work. It works. But there's a caveat.

I know I'm beating this one because I've seen too many people who get great information and don't do anything with it. The caveat is you actually have to use the information to do what you're taught, right? That's right. That's right. So, you know, and that's a great segue because the way that the delivery of this course has been engineered is to baby step people through the course so that they are doing the work in small sections. So.

Rick Ripma (25:33.646)
I can come in and teach a super accelerated course. It's 10 modules. It's an hour per module. And I can teach it to a real estate office in two days, back to back. That is not the ideal setting. The ideal setting is doing it over 10 weeks where I babysit the agents through the whole process and they have homework after each one so that by the time that they're finished, the program is completely set up and it's already rolling in a motion. And you probably already have referrals as a result of this.

program. In fact, you should have referrals as a result of this program. I did not want to create a program much like ones that I have attended in the past where I paid a lot of money for it and I walked away and I was energized and had all these great intentions and had all this great material. And then on my way home, I got a phone call and all of that goes out the window. And now I'm focused on the next deal and not working on my business.

I'm working in my business and that's the biggest issue that I've seen a lot of agents fall into is that they never work on their business. They're always working in their business and that's why you have the roller coaster because if you're working on your business, you're helping to smooth that roller coaster out a bit. So the program was developed by a real estate agent for real estate agents who understands real estate agents and wants to make sure that they don't fall into the same trap that we've all fallen into over.

decades of information that we've gotten in seminars and which are great. But the problem is, if you take that book or that material and put it on your bookshelf, never look at it again, was it really worth the time away from your family and your business to attend that? Maybe it was to get your mindset in the right place for a little bit, but that's going to change too. And you're going to be right back in the rut where you were.

And so the program was originally set up and the, and that the crux of the program is to be taught over 10 weeks. So I baby step you and kind of trick you into actually doing the work such that you actually have a full program and it's intense. It is, this is an intense program, lots of information, lots of details, but basically it is a, you open up the box and I open up for you. Everything that you need is in the box.

Rick Ripma (27:54.99)
and I will help you plug and play it over those 10 weeks. That's the beauty of it. And that's the difference between that and seminars that you would typically go to. Yeah. And you know, one of the things that I know about you is you're extremely detailed. So I have no doubt that everything is exactly as you say, it's all written out because that's the type of person you are. Not only do you care about people and you want to give good value, but you are a detail.

Right? Your attention to detail is just in your personality. It's just how you are. And so I think it's a phenomenal thing. I think that if anybody's out there listening, they're real estate agents, and they have any interest, again, what would be the best way for them to get ahold of you and to be able to contact you for coaching? Give me either, shoot me an email at steve at steverepcoaching .com or

Shoot me a text or give me a phone call. I like old school. So call me, I'd love to hear your voice and talk to you. That number is 317 -339 -7698. And you know, at the end of the day, Rick, really what I wanted to get across is I want agents to be successful. I want them to love what they do and I want them to do it very well at a high level. What we know is that statistically, real estate agents are entrepreneurs, like entrepreneurs, 90%.

of entrepreneurs will fail at their business within five years of starting it. 90 % real estate agents are the same way. 90 % are out of this business. If I can get to agents and teach them something that will provide them with a predictable income stream and referral source and do it in a way that's fun and professional, I'm hoping to take that number down just a little bit and provide a higher professionalism in our industry.

and have more agents stick around while doing it and providing an income to their family, put food on the table and providing a higher level of service to their clients. That's really what I want more than anything. And so does this work for both a brand new agent and a 25 year veteran? That's a great question. Yes. And absolutely 100 % it does. So your veteran agents, this is great.

Rick Ripma (30:19.054)
because what I encourage veteran agents to do is if they have a team, bring their admin on the, to the training, whether it's in person or it's our, our small group cohort training over the 10 weeks, because I want not only the agent who is going to be responsible for the program overall, but I also want the person who's going to be implementing it for that, that agent. And I teach them how to do that. However, if you are a solo agent,

which we know a lot of times the biggest issues with solo agents is they don't have a database. Especially if you're a brand new agent, you don't have a database except for your phone. That's your database. Call everybody. What brokers and trainers tell you is go through your phone and let everybody know you're in real estate. Okay, great. That phone still weighs 10 ,000 pounds and you're doing that. But what you can do is you can utilize this and this is also perfect for people moving to a new area. So if you're a real estate agent relocating to a new area,

and you are worried about starting over and building your database over again, which you would have to do. But this program helps significantly with getting you kickstarted right away. So same thing with a brand new agent. You come in, you implement the program, it immediately starts producing referrals for you by following the program.

We have an agent who was case in point an agent who was one of the 54 in our class that that I beta tested this on in our office and her husband is in the military and she is going to she has a change of duty station that she'll be following her husband to and so she had said Steve I'm going to be taking this program and I'm going to be executing it in my new state where I ain't where I know absolutely nobody.

and she's already started calling people and she's already gotten referrals as a result of this. So the program works, 100 % it works. Great for veteran agents, great for newer agents, great for people who are relocating and need to add to their database. But bottom line, even if you do 10 % of what I teach as a new agent and the rest of it is just overwhelming and you just don't have the time or the bandwidth to do it or the people to do it, fine.

Rick Ripma (32:29.23)
start with the basics and that's part of what I walk people through in the program is tell you what the basics are that you should be doing as a new agent. Forget the other stuff. I'll give the tools to you so that when you're ready to open the toolbox back up and add some more tools to your tool belt, you can do that, but you don't have to do it right away. You can be wildly successful and only implement 10 to 15 % of the program. Yeah, I just, to me, okay, so I'm a brand new agent. I'm guessing that the first thing they're going to think is,

You know, how can I afford this? And my feeling is, how can you not? If it's gonna, if you follow the procedure, and what you just said is as accurate a statement as I hear, I believe 100%, I've seen it my whole life. I'm one who tries to implement everything at the same time. It doesn't work that way. You can't do it, you can't keep up, you get,

Fatigued and it becomes overwhelming. So you do implement things slowly, but surely It's why it totally makes sense to me that you want to do it over ten weeks You want to train it over ten weeks because if you do it over a week I would say the vast majority of those people will never get as much out of it as the person who goes goes through it on a ten -week period Absolutely. It's there as an option and to be very frank with you. I love teaching live classes

But it's in if that's something that a brokerage wants to have me in to do to teach a two day class, I'm happy to do it. But at the same time, because of the amount of detail that's in this and the amount of tools that I teach, it's best taught over a longer period of time, which is why I offer that. And I restrict it to 10 people at a time. I'll have multiple cohorts going at the same time, but I want it to be a small group session such that there's interaction.

And the people can ask questions, they can share their successes, they can share their challenges. So we all learn from each other. And as I went through the class, I learned a lot from how other agents were looking to implement it. And there were things that I've made changes to the program already, and I'm looking to make more changes to the program as we go through and see more people and what the challenges that they've had through it and the successes that they've had and how we can leverage those to become even better and have a better chance of success with each of the agents. So.

Rick Ripma (34:50.286)
Absolutely 100 % you have to start small and you have to pick one thing and it's just like the book the one thing you got to start with one thing and focus on that and then when you've executed that and mastered that then you move on to the next and That's really where the magic is in the program There's a lot of one things in the program But you got to pick your one and start and and make sure that you Execute at a high level then you can move on to the next and I'm guessing that one thing can be different for every single person and so I

It's just one of those things that people have to – they get into it and they'll figure out, okay, this is the one thing for me. But you know, it's funny, I've read that book, The One Thing, and I'm a part of their group on Facebook and things like that. And it is amazing because I am not very good at the one thing. What would you call it? Naturally, okay? It's a struggle for me because I want to do it.

do all this stuff. And one of the problems in our industry and mortgages, and I'm pretty sure it's in real estate, for real estate agents too, is there are all these shiny objects, everybody, especially in this market trying to sell us and trying to get us, and everybody, they act like they have a golden bullet, right? A bullet that's gonna just fix everything. Just do this one thing and now you're gonna be successful. And you're saying, nope, that's not the way it is. What you have to actually do is you have...

You go through this program, it's a 10 week program, you gotta learn all this stuff. You implement one thing at a time and it takes time, but you immediately have a fact, right? It sounds like immediately you can see it working, which that helps motivate somebody to continue on with the program and keep working on it. And then as you do more and more of it, as everything, it evolves, right? So it's a, just to me, it's like why wouldn't an agent...

who has any need to improve their business, not wanna do your program? That's a great question, I don't know. I work very hard to make sure that there was tons of value in the program, a lot more than what you would pay. So what I found was, and you had asked earlier about the cost, obviously cost is always an issue for people when they initially think about doing anything.

Rick Ripma (37:14.19)
But what I found was that you get one referral out of this program, you get a 4X ROI on it immediately. Now you should be doing 25 to 27 referrals a year, every year from this program. That's it. And the beautiful thing about this is most of those referrals are gonna be listings. And we know now more than ever before listings aren't just a gold mine. Most people say listings are gold.

I agree, but I also think now today with everything that's happening in our industry right now, listings aren't just gold, they're platinum. And this program is a platinum mine and I am teaching you how to mine it such that it never runs out of platinum. It consistently produces it for you day in and day out, year in and year out to add to your business. There are some people who could make a business just following the program. Other people want to use it to add to their existing business.

and they could feasibly double or triple their business in the course of a year by following the program. It works, but you gotta work it. Just like everything, anything worth doing is going to have some difficulty with it, and it's gonna take some effort from the person doing it. But, as you had mentioned earlier, this has been a three -year science project for me, so to speak, and it works. I've tried it, and I've had other people in our office who have tried it as well.

And it works, it 100 % works. And so my goal is to share it with as many people as possible. I would certainly hope that people would give it a try and see if it will work for them. And it will. As long as you're willing to put in the effort, it will return the results. So what is the best way for somebody to get ahold of you if they want to learn more about your coaching? SteveRuppCoaching .com.

Shoot me an email at steve at steve rep coaching .com or you can call or text me. I love old school at three one seven three three nine seven six nine eight and you know the program it's it's it's it's that's one part of what I do and then I also do the one -on -one coaching so if if there's someone out there who just needs some motivation needs some accountability if they're just not hitting their goals that they have for this year if they're not unsure why or maybe they they know why but they're just not able to hit it.

Rick Ripma (39:31.438)
I would love to talk with them as well to see what I could do to help maybe motivate them a little bit, give them a fresh direction, fresh perspective on what we might be able to do to move them neat a little bit so that they can maximize their potential. Yeah. So let's, let's talk about that one -on -one coaching a little bit because that's, I've been in one -on -one coaching. It took me years to decide to do coaching. Okay. I mainly because.

truth be known, I just didn't feel like I would listen to the coach. Okay? And because in my mind, coaches were like the coaches I had in school, which really they weren't very nice. Okay? I mean, they probably were nice people, but the way they were taught to coach was to...

scream and yell and holler and make you do things you hated to do and all that. And I found out that's not the way it is at all. I also know you're not that type of person, so I wouldn't worry about that at all if I'm somebody looking at it. But it seems to me like somebody should go through your program and then hire you as the coach to help them implement the program. That's part of the beauty of the program is that we get to know each other.

And if you feel there's a connection and I could help you through your journey with implementing the program as well as other parts, I would be happy to do that. And it gives it gives the person kind of a trial run a little bit. Hey, do we there? There is no there is not one coach for every person. There is a coach for every person, but there is not one person who's going to be right for everyone. And.

You know, I've had a coach my whole life. That's 25 years I've had and hired a coach. And there's a reason for that because that coach coaches is I've had multiple coaches who have helped get me where I am. And I know what it can do for people. And there's in fact, I had a coaching call this morning with it with a guy who was a former college athlete. He played D1 basketball.

Rick Ripma (41:43.534)
and was a captain of his basketball team. And he told me, just like what you had said, coach yelled at him, he was really hard on him, he was a little scary and so forth. And you know, that is one way to coach, but it's not the only way to coach. Some people will respond to that, but not everybody. That's not my style. And so if you're looking for the yelling and screaming, that's not it. However, I do believe in accountability and...

And I think that that's one of the main benefits that a coach provides is accountability. And I think like just going into the gym, does, does everybody, I mean, you have a trainer, do you need a trainer? Do you know what to do? You probably do by now, but what is the main thing that that, that trainer does for you? Yeah. For me, I, I, I don't feel like I know what to do. He knows what to do, but he also, he, it also, and it's, it's why I have a trainer.

If he, I know I have to be there. I have to be there and do the work because he's gonna be there. And when I originally started working out without a trainer, I went and found somebody to go work out with me so that I knew I was meeting them and it forces me to go. It held me accountable and that's what a coach does. But a coach is much better than just meeting somebody because they actually know what to do. You actually know what to do in real estate and can help them get on the path.

As long as I've been in sales, I can tell you, I would say I probably know exactly what to do, but I don't always remember exactly what to do. And I don't always do exactly what I'm supposed to do. And sometimes you just get lazy. But if you know you got to, if I know my coach is going to be Rick, you know, did you do this? You got to do it because you don't want to say, no, I didn't do it. I didn't feel like it. And that's the beauty about coaching is coaches meet you where you are.

and take you to where you want to go. And there is, as we mentioned, accountability is probably the biggest thing because you don't want to let the coach down. And to be very frank with you, you're paying for them. So you feel like you wasted money if you're not doing what the coach is telling you to do and what you committed to doing. At the end of the day, coaches, their job, our job is not to tell people what to do.

Rick Ripma (44:04.238)
But it's just like a parent -child relationship is our job is to help the the coaching client or the child self discover where they where they want to go. And that's that's hard because the longer you've been in the business and I don't care what it is you've you've done. You've been in the business for a long time with with real estate or mortgages or engineering or whatever. You know what to do. You know the answers. It's very easy to give somebody who isn't as knowledgeable as you are just tell them the answer.

or think of it as for people who have kids, it's a whole lot easier to tell your kids exactly what to do and just say, go do this. And versus coming up with questions so that they self discover and they own the answer and what does that lead to? Much more likelihood of them following through and them feeling more accomplishment instead of being berated or being told what to do or how to do. Nobody likes to be told what to do. So,

That's the big thing about coaching is having the self discovery and having the accountability with that coach to help you through wherever it is that you are to wherever it is that you need to be. And let's face it, at the end of the day, you're changing. And just because that coach works for you at this particular time doesn't mean that coach is going to be the right fit for you forever. And a really good coach is going to be one who is going to help their coaching client understand that and say, listen,

You know, I've, I've enjoyed our time together, but I don't know if I'm really the right person for you right now because you've evolved. And for whatever reason, I feel that you'd be better served by a different coach who might have a different skill set, kind of like the CEO of a company. They don't typically last for super long time because the board hires them to solve a certain set of problems for which they have the skill set. Same thing with a coach. You hire a coach for a certain set of skill sets that they have.

for problem to address your problems or issues or challenges. Once you've gotten through that, if you've then taken away from the skillset that that coach has, maybe it's time to find a different coach with a different skillset. And that's just being responsible as a coach because our responsibility has to be to the coaching client and leading them wherever their path leads, whether we're on that path with them at that point down the road or not. Yeah, you know, it's, it's.

Rick Ripma (46:27.694)
That's a lot of wisdom there. And the thing that impressed me with my coaches is they all did that. Right? They're all, it's not like, you know, cause you get bonded with your coach, right? And like I'm bonded with my personal trainer and to change just seems ridiculous, right? But if I was younger and working out and doing, you know, I probably would have to change.

in this case, he's way up, way, I'll never get to where he is. So I don't need it. But I, but a coach, you do, you learn what you need to learn. And then it's like, okay, let's move on. You know what, let's go, you want to learn more about the Facebook marketing, social media marketing, but this coach is going to be better for you at that. And they, and they, and they get you with the right people. And if they don't, you can go find the right people. But it's amazing. I happen to be in a group of coaches that I could, I can just switch and none of them take it personally. It's really, it's a great,

great thing. So I think everybody, if they're a real estate agent and they're listening, they should talk to you. They should want to hear your, especially, and maybe if they have a ton of experience and life is going perfect, they have the right work -life balance, their business is going great, maybe it's their team that needs to come talk with you, needs to come and be on. Maybe they do. But anybody who's out there listening and even thinking about it at all.

What is the best way for them to get ahold of you? Send me an email to steve at steverepcoaching .com and rep is spelled R -U -P -P as in Peter. And you could text or call me at 317 -339 -7698. And I'll bet you most of the people listening already know who you are. If you're on the North Side, you probably have heard of our name. Yeah. You've probably heard of you. But beyond that, you and I are doing a webinar. Yes. Super excited.

And our first webinar is going to be on buyer presentation. Yes. Which, you know, you talked about the listing presentation and we're going to do that one also. Yes. Right now we're doing the buyer and that's because of the changes. And we think, and we thought that would be, well, I thought that would be the one that would be most important to do first. So I may have been wrong. I don't know, but we're doing that June 12th. Yes. 1pm. If anybody is looking.

Rick Ripma (48:55.694)
you know, wants to get more about it. They want an invitation. They don't receive one. Most people will receive one, but please feel free to give me a call. 463 -223 -9592. They can call or text that number. Again, that's 463 -223 -9592. They can email me or they can go online. It's probably the easiest. It's hardworkingmortgageguy .com. That's hardworkingmortgageguy .com. And we'll make sure you get an invitation. We'd love to have you at the webinars. No cost to it.

It's just there, we're trying to help the industry. Absolutely, and I am super excited about this. There are so many changes that are happening in the industry right now. Nobody has all the answers. I'm certainly not professing to have all the answers. I know you're not, but we do have some ideas that we would like to share with people. And if you just pick up a nugget or two out of this, it'll be totally worth your time. And hopefully you can use it to leverage the changes that are coming. Pivot a little bit, that's a word that's been used a lot lately.

but pivot a little bit to leverage what's happening such that you can see the success that you're looking for and instead harness the fear that I've seen so many agents have right now, but harness that fear and confidence and change that you can use to level up your business. And that's really the whole point for this. So come, maybe you'll hear something completely revolutionary, maybe you'll just pick up a nugget or two, but bottom line, it's worth it now to have your time to sit and listen.

and invest and see if you can improve your business and learn something that maybe you haven't heard before, maybe you just needed to hear it again. Yeah, and like for me, I'm looking at it, I'm thinking, you know, you've got 25 years in the business, you do phenomenal business, you've done it for years, you know exactly what to do, anybody should come to listen for that. I'm coming at it from a finance point of view, which is different than most agents are used to thinking or seeing, just like I don't think like you do, they, you know, they don't think like I do. So...

I think that there's a lot of value that we're going to be able to give and I'm really looking forward to it. Steve, thanks so much for joining me today. I appreciate it. Looking forward to our webinar on the 12th. Again, just thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. It's been a lot of fun, Rick. Appreciate you. I think you've done, I think you've just really done a real benefit to the industry. They'll just listen and then hopefully some people will come and work with you because I think that there's going to be huge benefit if they do that. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Rick Ripma (51:20.974)
Branch NMLS number 33041. Rick Ripma's NMLS number 664589. Ian Arnold's NMLS number is 1995469. Equal housing opportunity. Some restrictions apply.