Did you know that your brain is most likely in survival mode? And, if it is in survival mode, there are only 3 ways you respond?
Our guest today is Dr. Eugene Choi, shares with us some neuroscience about How do you keep a premium service, premium, when you are a global company? How do you do it as a global franchise company with international franchisees? Our guest today is Jason Waugh, who shares with us insights on global franchising, the real estate market, and keeping the quality high with a premium global franchise brand.
TODAY’S WIN-WIN:
“Don’t ever let anyone deter you from pursuing something you have a passion for.”
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- Schedule your free franchise consultation with Big Sky Franchise Team: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
- You can visit our guest’s website at:
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- Connect with our guest on social:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonjwaugh/
- https://www.instagram.com/mrjasonwaugh
- https://www.facebook.com/jason.waugh.31
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Jason Waugh serves as president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. In this role, Waugh oversees the brand’s marketing, franchise sales and operations teams who support a network of almost 100,000 affiliated sales professionals in more than 2,700 offices across 47 countries and territories.
Waugh previously served as CEO and president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Real Estate Professionals. Prior to his roles at Berkshire Hathaway, Waugh was partner at Synergy Sports Management in Greenville, South Carolina. Waugh brings a deep understanding of the industry in any market. He also possesses a keen understanding of franchise culture and is passionate about equipping brokers with best-in-class technology, marketing and services to deliver an unparalleled experience to consumers.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] Tom DuFore: Welcome to the Multiply Your Success Podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. As we open today, I’m wondering how you keep a premium service premium when you’re a global company, and how do you do it as a global franchise company with international franchisees and team members all over the world? Our guest today is Jason Waugh, and he shares with us his insights on global franchising, the real estate market, and keeping the quality high with a premium global franchise brand. Now, Jason serves as the president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates for Coldwell Banker Real Estate. In this role, he oversees the brand’s marketing, franchise sales, and operations teams who support a network of almost 100,000 affiliated sales professionals in more than 2,700 offices across 47 countries and territories.
Now he previously served as the CEO and president of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Northwest Real Estate and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Real Estate Professionals. He also possesses a keen understanding of franchise culture and is passionate about equipping brokers with best-in-class technology, marketing, and services to deliver an unparalleled experience to consumers. You’re going to love this interview, so let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
[00:01:33] Jason Waugh: I appreciate the opportunity, Tom. Jason Waugh, I am president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates.
[00:01:39] Tom: Thank you so much for being here. You have quite a system that you are responsible for spanning around the globe. One of the things that is interesting, that I think is worth maybe as a starting point, is just to talk a little bit about this idea of delivering, especially in a franchise sense, this idea of delivering superior customer service across a global brand. How are you able to do that or keep up with something like that?
[00:02:10] Jason: Coldwell Banker has been in existence almost 120 years. There’s a lot of lessons learned over that period of time. I’m super proud of the team that I’ve been able to join and work with. It’s been almost two years since I’ve been at Coldwell Banker, and it’s been a real joy, inherited a phenomenal team. Again, with that history and legacy, and I would contend Coldwell Banker is the most iconic brand in real estate, there’s a lot of lessons learned over time in navigating different markets and different economies. I think at the core of everything, you have to have clarity around who you are and what you want to be to your customer.
Then two, partner with the right people. You alluded to this. We’re in almost 50 countries and territories globally, about 600 or so franchisees domestically, and then a very large corporate-owned side of the business as well. The footprint is pretty expansive, but I think it starts with clarity around purpose, clarity of who you are, and then partner with the right people. We’re not going to be the best fit for everyone, and that’s okay. We just want to partner with everybody that’s looking for what we have to offer, and we want everybody that wants a high-value proposition.
[00:03:31] Tom: I’ve been in franchising my whole career, over 20 years at this point. A common thing that I’ve heard over the years is people having concerns about franchising applied to a premium service or a premium product, where there’s really a fear of this high quality deteriorating as you expand. Here you are doing it on a global scale with lots of people all around the world, different cultures, different languages, and yet you’re still able to do it. I’d love for you just to hear your thought on how you help keep that premium quality or this excellence.
[00:04:11] Jason: I think it starts with talent. You have talent that’s committed to that. We have the best talent at our parent company, which is Anywhere Real Estate, down through Coldwell Banker. It begins there and just a laser focus on creating an exceptional experience for your customer. We do have one thing I’ve really been fixated and it’s, for lack of a better term, it’s a rallying cry since I joined Coldwell Banker is how do you make a large network feel smaller and more interconnected? I think every large enterprise struggles with that, or at least it’s an opportunity to improve in that area, whether you’re in financial services, insurance, whatever industry you’re in.
The larger you get, you can lose that connectivity. We talk an awful lot about, is this activity or is this resource in alignment with making this network feel smaller and more interconnected. We place a premium on relationships and learning what our customers need, because not everybody needs or wants the exact same thing. We certainly have to scale, but also be flexible and nimble enough to help folks achieve what they want to. If you take, for example, we’re running our third national campaign with Thursday Night Football and Amazon Prime.
We create these national campaigns, but for our local affiliates, they can take that national campaign and customize it for their local feel, their local market conditions, whatever messaging that they want or the brand that they want locally. For us, begins with talent, clarity on who you are, and then, really focus on the relationships and delivering the experience for the customer, whether they’re domestic or international.
[00:06:09] Tom: I’d love for you just to maybe talk on these two different parts. One is recruiting franchisee talent, and then the second is supporting those franchisees and how they recruit their own local representatives and their local talent in their own market. I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.
[00:06:26] Jason: Yes. I think anytime somebody’s talking with us or they’re searching some network to potentially invest in and partner with, they’re doing so because they’ve identified a gap in their business or an opportunity or some area that they need to address. Our perspective is knowing that, do we provide the best solution for whatever that issue is that you’re trying to address? Really understanding the needs and wants of our customers and being honest and self-aware enough to say, “We have the best solution for that, or maybe we don’t.”
I think from a profile perspective of building out our franchise network, that’s really where it begins. People are engaging us because they recognize an opportunity that maybe isn’t available going at it alone or on your own or as an independent. For us, it’s really understanding what is that need, what is that opportunity, what is that gap, what is that issue, and do we have the best solution available to them to solve that? I think it’s really that simple in terms of building out our network, and folks deciding whether to franchise with Coldwell Banker is the best solution for them.
With respect to organic growth of helping our franchisees then grow and attract talent, that really gets back to that interconnected partnership. How can we deliver and equip resources that they can cascade down and make available to their agents? We place a premium on professional development. We have an extensive and exhaustive professional development program. We’ve certainly got a war chest of tech tools and resources. I think the challenge in any franchise network is the franchisee also has to lean in and take advantage of the resources at their disposal.
Sometimes we’re victims of we have so many tools and resources, where do you start and where do you pick from? I think that you can get through that and navigate that process just with our business consultants, start here, perfect that, add this, and then add that. I think at the end of the day, it really is a partnership between franchisor and franchisee in terms of attracting talent and retaining talent.
[00:09:08] Tom: You mentioned having lots of tools to choose from, and for an organization of your size, you have the ability to likely pursue any tools that would be of interest. Are there a few of these kinds of tools or strategies that you help implement or that your field coaches or business coaches, franchisee coaches would use and seen a big return in their support?
[00:09:29] Jason: It’s interesting. People ask me what business I’m in, and I’ll pose that question when I’m talking to agents and our affiliates. Oftentimes, we’re in the real estate business, we’re in the people business, we’re in the relationship business, and all of that is true. I prefer the use of acronyms, just easier for me to remember. I believe we’re in the CAR business and not auto industry, but CAR stands for client acquisition and retention. When we’re looking at either growing or building internally resources and tools, or partnering with third parties, it has to answer that question: is this resource, is this tool going to help our folks attract clients and retain clients?
Because if it doesn’t do that, then it doesn’t need our time and attention, and investment. We’ve got an exhaustive set of tools that address that, whether it’s programs like Wealth Engine, where people can do research and find information if they want to really either break into that luxury space, or they’re already in that luxury space, they can use that resource to find folks that fit that profile to continue to build relationships in their network. I alluded to our relationship with Thursday Night Football. We created a product called the Move Meter, which analyzes certain components of a particular location.
People can match. If I want to see what it’s like to live in Atlanta, which I believe you’re in the Atlanta area, or I want to compare that to Seattle, this Move Meter matches those cities up and generates some key data points to whether it’s cost of living, income, those sort of things. Then certainly we have tools and resources that, once you just hit the go button, it just automatically stays in touch with customers and people in your sphere of influence, which is like saying we have color copiers in our offices.
Of course, you have those resources. If there are automated programs of high value to help inform consumers, then you’re really missing the boat on resources. Everything we look at, everything that we evaluate, it’s got to answer that question: is this going to help our folks attract clients and retain clients? If it does that, it’s likely we’re going to make that investment.
[00:11:54] Tom: Oh, very, very well put. The Move Meter is fantastic. I was not familiar with that. I actually have a good friend that, as soon as we end, I will be messaging him and say, “You have to check this out.” He’s debating between two cities right now, or two very different areas across the country. I’m going to be presenting this to him to help him in his decision.
[00:12:15] Jason: I appreciate that. It’s exclusive to Coldwell Banker, so the Coldwell Banker Move Meter. I appreciate that, Tom.
[00:12:21] Tom: Yes, absolutely. We’ve been talking about global presence, and yet the beauty with franchising is you have local ownership in many of these markets. How have you found to help blend this idea of your brand consistency nationally, regionally, internationally, and then also providing the franchisee that flexibility? My favorite things of franchising as a lifer in franchising is that local owner that can make rapid decisions for that local area. I’d love to understand or hear a little bit about how you all do that.
[00:12:55] Jason: We have this saying internally: freedom within a framework. Certainly, we want brand consistency in terms of our marks and look. The people that we partner with, they want to be a premium provider and have a premium brand offering. We don’t get a lot of inconsistency there. I think that’s because we’ve got a profile of the entrepreneur that we want to partner with. You bring up an excellent point. We understand and acknowledge this is their business, and we want them to own their business. We’re in partnership with them.
Our objective is how can we partner with you to help you achieve your goals and help you achieve your agents’ goals. We focus on growth through those years, but we also want to bring that relationship and business partnership full circle and focus on succession planning and focus on succession planning early, just to prepare for the what-if event, not just retirement. We want to create, hopefully, a financial event at the end of their career, but also create continuity for the business asset, continuity for the agents, continuity for the employees, smooth transition from predecessor to successor in leadership.
We look at these relationships and these partnerships holistically from beginning to end. It’s not just “Sign up. Hey, we’ll help you grow.” We certainly do that, want to continue to do that, but we also have the end game in mind because we want continuity for everybody, but also hopefully create a good financial event at the end for the owner. I think, for us, it’s just, I place a premium on self-awareness.
If I’m ever going to write a book, it’s going to be on self-awareness. We’re self-aware enough to know that we’re in partnership with business owners that want the freedom and flexibility to grow their companies in the way they want to locally for themselves. We’ve got, again, this freedom within a framework-type of strategy.
[00:15:04] Tom: The freedom within a framework. Great, great explanation. One thing that I was thinking about in your brand, especially as a premium provider, we were talking about this negative side of things, or concern that oftentimes, or fears that I have heard over the years that some people have in expanding a premium brand. One thing I was curious about is how you manage or work with franchisees that maybe are not meeting the standard that you’re expecting. Certainly, you do the best you can to screen and bring in the best franchisees, and they try to bring in the best staff and team into their office. How do you help manage that sometimes delicate situation?
[00:15:44] Jason: Certainly, you could look at the real estate industry the last three full years coming out of the prior decade, which was the greatest decade in the history of real estate. Really, the last two years of that decade, I would describe as unicorn years, years we’ll probably never see in the industry again, to a pretty significant pivot to where we are today, that we’ve been navigating the last 36 months. We’ve had to recognize the realities of the business and transaction count. It is near where they were 30 years ago. Now, albeit if you navigated 2009, ’10, and ’11, which was units and prices collapse, this last 36 months really just been isolated to units.
Prices have continued to appreciate, or home values continue to appreciate. A little bit different. You still have to acknowledge the impact on a local business and operator, and still, folks, how fluid it is getting in the business versus getting out of the business. I think that just boils down to a partnership. It’s having transparent, very vulnerable conversations between our senior growth consultants and their customer, which would be the franchise owner. It’s really about how do we partner together to weather any sort of market cycle. We had, again, as an industry, a historic decade.
The trade-off, it’s been three years that have been pretty complex and fluid and volatile. You partner with them and make sure that there’s open lines of communication. Again, to your point, have those challenging, difficult conversations. I believe every challenge poses an opportunity. I like to say I’m an optimist, but my optimism is rooted in reality, which is the data in our business. I just defer to data and often refer to it as it’s our most valuable currency, so what’s that telling us?
The market that we’re in today, two years ago, if somebody asked me what was a real estate market like, I could sit down, draft a narrative, and then I can travel any market in America, say the same words, and it would be applicable. It’s returned back to a more normal real estate climate and environment, where its hyper-local conditions. What’s happening in the Northeast is dramatically different than, say, Florida and Texas, which is different than the Pacific Northwest, which is where I am, which is different than Southern California. You’ve got these macro perspectives, but it really is you’ve got to be very, very hyper-local in today’s market conditions.
Again, with 600 or so entrepreneurs and owners of a Coldwell Banker franchise, you just have to stay in constant contact and make sure that there is a solution that’s a win-win for everybody. Sometimes it’s just time to move on. Nothing wrong with that. We hate to see it, but if there is legitimate business reasons, and sometimes it’s not just the market or the economy, it’s just time, or maybe there’s no successor for the business. It boils down to simple communication, being vulnerable, being candid, being very transparent with the good and the bad.
[00:19:27] Tom: How you see things changing, maybe from a real estate standpoint, generally from a national basis in the US market, or what you see occurring in the franchise real estate market, or just anything that you’re seeing down the road here.
[00:19:41] Jason: Here’s what I know. I’ll start with what I know. If you look at history, most market contractions, and when I say contractions, either decline in units and prices, or one or the other, primarily units, or flat conditions. That’s really the market that we’ve been in. There was a contraction, and then it’s just been flat. If you look at history, those market environments last. Those cycles are three to four years long. If you look at 1980 to 1982, 1989 to 1991, 2008 to 2011, each of those were three to four years. We’re three full years into this current cycle.
If history repeats itself, we have another 6, 12, 18, 24 months of the current cycle before transitioning to a new cycle, which would be an appreciating cycle. I trust that history will repeat itself. Certainly, the data would suggest that we’re still in the short term going to continue to navigate some fluid and volatile, and uncertain times. You look at the most recent jobs report. May and June were far worse than was originally reported. You got a three-month cycle of what’s going on in the labor sector. Mortgage interest rates have fallen for four consecutive weeks, so that’s a good thing.
Under six and a half seems to be the rate where more buyers enter the market than maybe have voluntarily been on the sidelines. We’re right there. The average 30-year fixed last week was 6.58. You look at 2024, when the market accelerated, it was September-ish when rates were at 6.5 and below. We’re right there. You look at new construction and builder sentiment starts, and I focus on permits and starts, as far as those are the leading indicators to lag results. I believe that one, history will repeat itself, and most of these type of market conditions last three to four years before the next cycle.
We all know real estate’s cyclical. I believe that we’ve got another year, certainly the balance of 2025 and probably into 2026, where similar market conditions today, and 2027 is probably the year where we see a noticeable change in market movement.
[00:22:28] Tom: Very good. Very good. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. One question I always like to ask franchisors in particular is, as you think about franchising and managing your brand, what advice might you give to an emerging franchisor?
[00:22:43] Jason: I alluded to it in my opening comments. One, have clarity around who you are, what your business model is. We’re a high-value business model. I think in real estate, there’s really two camps. There’s no real new genius business model to our industry, even though there’s been talk about that. I’m not accepting of that. I think you’re high-value or low-cost limited service. It’s just a business model. I think as a potential franchisee or as a potential franchisor, it’s clarity around your business model, who you are, who you want to be to your customer. What’s the experience that you want to create and deliver?
I think it starts there. Then number two, and I was just having this conversation with a newer franchisee last week, be really disciplined to the profile of your customer. It is okay to subscribe to the belief that you’re not the right fit for everybody. You just need to attract everybody that wants what you have to offer, so clarity around purpose, clarity around your value proposition, your offerings and deliverables, and be disciplined to the profile that aligns with that model. Just stay the course.
What I have seen and experienced when you start to become overly flexible and you start convincing yourself that it’s okay to detour here or make this exception, sometimes it works out. More times than not, you’ve created more challenges. I think at the end of the day, being mindful of the most important thing is delivering and creating an exceptional experience for the customer. Anytime you deviate off your original intent and your focus, sometimes you can compromise that experience, and that will not end well.
[00:24:55] Tom: Jason, how can someone get in contact with you, learn more about what you’re doing, check out what Coldwell Banker is up to?
[00:25:02] Jason: Great. I appreciate that question. Certainly, Coldwell Banker is all over the internet. Go to coldwellbanker.com. If there’s interest in franchising, go down to the bottom and learn more. You’ve got my email address. My cell number is 503-314-6015. Call me personally. It’s interesting. I always offer in every talk that I get, big or small, I offer my cell number. People write it out, and people are astonished at somebody at my position with just the size and scale of our network. The reality of it is most people won’t use it. 503-314-6015 is my cell number. Call me, text me, email me ja*********@****me.com, or go to coldwellbanker.com.
[00:25:51] Tom: Perfect. Jason, this is a great time in the show, and we make a transition. We ask every guest the same four questions before they go. The first question we ask is, have you had a miss or two on your journey, and something you learned from it?
[00:26:04] Jason: 19 years old– If I could be doing anything differently, and I’m blessed. I have a career that I’m really fortunate to have, got a great family, all of those things. I’m very, very fortunate. If I could be doing anything different, I would be a college basketball coach. I went to college in law school at Pepperdine University in Southern California. I take a concepts of coaching class my sophomore year. It’s a Tuesday, Thursday night class. The professor is a highly decorated coach in his respective sport, both as a player, as a coach, national championships, Olympic team, very, very highly decorated.
A great, great gentleman, class act. Walk up to him after class one Tuesday night, and I say to him, “I want to be a college basketball coach. What do I have to do to get there?” He says to me as politely and as nice as he could, “Jason, you’re not playing college basketball. It’s probably not going to work out for you. I would pursue something else.” At 19, I wasn’t confident enough to say to this highly decorated coach, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Fine.” I pursued business. I went to law school, and again, it’s all worked out.
That experience, not as a regret, but it’s really served– With my wife and I, we’ve got five daughters. Our oldest is leaving for college next week. I’ve shared that story multiple times. The takeaway from that is don’t ever let anyone deter you from pursuing what you have a passion for. Get people that are supportive and behind you, stay close to them. Those that don’t believe it’s possible, just respectfully ignore them. Don’t let anybody deter you from pursuing your passion. That was not a regret, but it has served such a great life example for me that hopefully my kids have listened.
They’re teenagers, so they’ve heard it. I don’t know if they actually understand it yet, but hopefully they do later in life. That would be one example that just has always, when I’ve been asked that question or a variation of that question, that story and example, I just always think of because it has served me so well. Interestingly enough, we’ve got a Coldwell Banker agent that lives and works in Malibu and has a relationship with this coach. November of last year, so November 2024– What is that? That would have been ’93. I would have had that class, ’93, ’94. We’re talking 30 years later.
I get a video of the two of them. Our Coldwell Banker agent, I had shared this story with him at some past event, and he happened to record this video with this coach 30 years later. He’s like, “Listen, Jason Waugh is the president of Coldwell Banker now, and he was sharing a story how you just crushed his dreams 30 years earlier.” Then the coach gets on there, “Jason. I’m so sorry, but I’m so proud of all the things you’ve accomplished.” It was pretty cool when I woke up to that video via text. Again, just follow your passion. Don’t let anybody stand in the way or deter you from pursuing whatever it is you want to pursue.
[00:29:39] Tom: What a full circle story. That’s truly amazing. What a blessing to receive that video. Let’s talk about a make or a highlight that you’d like to share.
[00:29:48] Jason: That’s actually harder because there’s so many of them both personally and professionally. What I love about this business, and you’ve said the word multiple times, entrepreneurs, and I just have such a deep respect for entrepreneurs. There’s a lot of risk that comes with that, but there’s great reward too. To partner with folks that have taken on intentionally that risk and succeeded, there’s just nothing like it to be a bystander or be in the co-pilot seat, if you will, of that experience. There’s a gentleman in my former company, and we had these career nights.
He comes in, and he grew up as a farmer, as a dairy farmer, and multiple generations. He comes into this event dirty, like he just came from the farm, got in his truck, and came to this event. I always took the position, I’m going to try to convince people from pursuing real estate sales, because if they push back, that’s the person I want. If they actually just were like, “Now that you put it that way, yes, maybe I’ll go pursue something else.” Great. I saved them a lot of time. I saved us a lot of time. I remember having a conversation with him.
Not only was his presentation and appearance was just not representative of our business and the asset class that we work in, there was pretty poor eye contact and not great communication. I respectfully said, “Thank you for coming tonight and learning more. Respectfully, I just don’t believe that this is the right industry for you, and wish you well.” Three weeks later, I get a call. I don’t recognize the name. Schedule the interview. It’s the same gentleman, comes in from three weeks earlier, but in a clean polo shirt, slacks, firm handshake, great eye contact. A totally different person.
I changed my mind. I hired him. That would have been– It’s 2025. He’s still at that firm, which I left two years ago. That would have been 2023. He’s been there at least 18 years and totally changed his life, his financial status, everything. It’s those experiences that I just– I’ve got more than I can share of those experiences. That’s what this industry has afforded me is those opportunities to collaborate and partner and help folks achieve levels of success that they never envisioned for themselves. That’s just been phenomenal. My father said, and I always think about this, because the gentleman that brought him into the business used the same statement on him, and he used it on me.
He said, “If you want to impact lives, you can impact more lives running this company or in leadership than you can one transaction at a time.” For me, that really was what made me pursue leadership over production in this business was the impact on lives. It’s just afforded me so many wins and so many returns, and continues today. That’s why I love the franchise business, because it’s the best of all worlds. You’ve got these franchise owners that are taking on this risk and embracing this entrepreneurial spirit. Then they’re also hiring all these other entrepreneurs that are agents for their company. It’s just awesome. I got more wins than I know what to share.
[00:33:43] Tom: Oh, wonderful. What a great story. Thanks for sharing that. Let’s talk about a multiplier that you’ve used to help multiply yourself as you’ve grown personally, professionally, organizations you’ve run.
[00:33:56] Jason: There was an experience in 2013. I attended a John Maxwell leadership event in Orlando, Florida, a week long. That was life-changing for me. Every speaker was dynamic. I remember every single night returning to my hotel room, jotting down notes, and I would recap and summarize my day in email to my leadership team back in Portland in Seattle, just all about the life lessons and things that were applicable, whether it’s personally or professionally, but also the commitments that I was making as a leader based on this event.
That’s 12 years later. I can’t get enough of John Maxwell’s content, but I’m always reminded of certain lessons learned there. One of the key takeaways from that, for whatever reason, I was included in a much smaller group at a pre-event with John. We talked about work-life balance. I remember that because we talk a lot about that, at least in real estate, how you balance, and it was really interesting his take on that. That’s not achievable. It’s more about there’s just seasons of life, and every season has a beginning, middle, and end. If you approach it that way, so in work, this is a season.
There’s a beginning, middle, and end to that season. You really got to just be really disciplined to your routine, to your time management, to your priority management. This notion of this perfect work-life balance, there’s a compromise and a trade-off in all of that. Whereas if you approach it, that this is just the season of life, it is so busy at work, and the market has these opportunities, whether it’s an emerger and acquisition opportunity or maybe it’s a sale or whatever that specific situation is, there’s a beginning, middle, and end to that. Right now, I’ve got to focus and commit my time there.
It’s just going to eat up a lot of our time. You know what? My wife and I did this. We just booked a week in Cabo in October because I’ve got this event that we’re preparing for our national conference in September. It’s getting a lot of time and attention because it needs to and it deserves it. At the same time, it’s going to end. We’ve booked a week in Cabo in October. That was from a multiplier. I always reflect back on that week-long experience, the lessons learned from that, and try to just be mindful of those lessons learned. Then a second big takeaway of that was leadership is about modeling the right behaviors.
Am I modeling the right behavior? If you do that, things just tend to multiply because they cascade down, and then your team models a certain behavior for their team. It just has this cascading effect. That event in 2013 was life-changing for me, continues to be lessons that I reflect on and be mindful of. Every morning, my team, the first thing that they hear from me every morning is an email titled Morning Mindset. It’s intended to be an inspirational quote. Just get in the right mindset from the get-go to set yourself up for success each day. That’s Monday through Friday. I give them a break from Jason on Saturdays and Sundays.
One of my favorite quotes is by Dennis Mannering: Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching? I think about modeling the right behavior, and is my attitude– It’s contagious. Is the attitude that I’m projecting right now worth catching? I’m just mindful of those two things day in and day out, all day long. Just try to live by that. Listen, we all have our moments, we all have our times. Best thing you can do is unplug and separate yourself and regroup, and then re-engage in those moments. Modeling the right behavior, attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching? Two principles that I just really try to subscribe to, live by. If you can execute that more times than not, good things tend to happen.
[00:38:17] Tom: The final question we ask every guest, Jason, is what does success mean to you?
[00:38:21] Jason: There’s two lenses. You have the selfless lens, and you have the selfish lens. Selfishly, it’s creating a lifestyle and creating opportunity for your families and your children. My wife and I have 5 daughters, 18 to 12. Our oldest will be 19 at the end of next week and leaves for college on Wednesday. I wrote a college tuition check last week. Just the ability to create opportunities for our children and live a certain lifestyle, if I can provide that, to me, that is success selfishly. Selflessly, it is about participating in some way that our folks are successful.
There’s so many, but I think about this one girl that grew up pretty modest means, very blue-collared family, and she was working at a local family-friend brokerage, the first five years out of college. She did a deal with one of my very experienced brokers, and my experienced broker came back and said, “This girl’s a winner. You’ve got to go recruit her.” I start the process. She made me work 10 full months until she joined my office and company. Either I’m not very good at it, or she just needed some time.
I look at her business today and what she’s achieved and the financial freedom and independence from where she came, and knowing that she’s reached goals and heights that she never even had for herself, those are– I’m just surrounded by so many of those experiences and opportunities. That’s what drives me every single day. It’s those successes. It’s really the success that others have achieving whatever goals that they have.
I remember challenging a gentleman that I’m still very good friends with today, who was with our foreign company still, my former company is going on 35 years there, but he used to tell me when I first started working with him, “Jason, I want to make seven figures. I want an airplane. I want all this and that.” I challenged that. I said, “I don’t believe that’s what you want.” He’s like, “How dare you? Of course, it’s exactly what I want.” I said, “I don’t believe that.” He’s like, “Why would you not believe that?”
I said, “Because you show up, you’re the first person every single day in the office, you hit the ground running, you make your calls, but at twelve o’clock, you’re on your way to the golf course every single day. You show up in the office ready to go golfing. You do the work. What you really want is you want to make enough money to then also have a Mercedes, but play golf every day. That’s a great life. All you’re doing is setting yourself up for disappointment that you didn’t hit that seven figures. You don’t own an airplane. Your behaviors aren’t really in alignment with those goals. Be honest about what you want. What you want is you want to make $500,000 and play golf every single day. That’s a great life.”
That’s the life he’s living. Again, success for me, looking through a selfish lens, is about family and creating an opportunity. A selfless lens, it’s about all the wins and successes and participating in a way that you have these folks achieve levels of success that they didn’t even have for themselves. They did all the work. I don’t want to ever take credit for that. Being a co-pilot in that journey and process is what makes this business so rewarding. That’s success to me. When you can put your head down on the pillow at night and know that people you’ve partnered with have achieved levels of success that they didn’t ever even have for themselves or envisioned for themselves, that’s pretty rewarding.
[00:42:24] Tom: Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. As we bring this to a close, Jason, is there anything you were hoping to share or get across that you haven’t had a chance to yet?
[00:42:31] Jason: You ask such great, compelling questions. I think we fleshed everything out. I will say being a real estate either agent or owner of a franchise, if you want a high-value business partner and a network of professionals that are committed to your success and subscribe to a belief that freedom within a framework, because you’re the boss, you’re the owner, you’re the operator, it’s your brand in your local market, Coldwell Banker is the company to partner with if you want a high-value business model. Give me a call.
[00:43:10] Tom: Jason, thank you so much for a fantastic interview. Let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. Takeaway number one is when he talked about franchising and having a premium brand. He said for him, they’re focused on creating a great customer experience. They do that by having their focus on an acronym he described as CAR. For them, it’s client acquisition and retention. I liked how he also shared for an emerging franchise brand, he said you need to have that clarity on the purpose. Having that clarity allows you to maintain the brand quality that you’re going for. I think that’s a great, great takeaway for keeping that brand premium.
Takeaway number two is when he talked about keeping brand consistent locally and globally. I loved that description he used of franchising, and he said it is freedom within a framework. Freedom within a framework. For those of you in the franchise world, I think that’s a great way to describe this to potential franchisees and also to your current franchisees to remind them that franchising is freedom within a framework.
Takeaway number three is when he described success. I love that he broke it down into defining success through two different lenses or categories. He said the first one is selfish, and what he wants to create, something that’s personal for him. The second is selfless. The selfish lens and the selfless lens, and looking at it through both of those vantage points, and what success is defined in both of those areas, not just one or the other.
Now it’s time for today’s win-win. Today’s win-win comes from when he talked about the miss when he was in college, and he was 19 and had a coach or a teacher talk to him, and deterred him from pursuing something that he sought and that he wanted to accomplish and become. He said for him, that lesson learned has served as a reminder for him, which is don’t ever let anyone deter you from pursuing something you have a passion for. I loved when he said that.
Don’t ever let anyone deter you from pursuing something you have a passion for. I would share that with each of you and folks tuning in here, whether you’re thinking about franchising your business or buying a franchise or taking that next step in your career or for some personal goal that you have. I thought that was just a great win-win because don’t let someone else’s ideas deter you from something you have a passion for.
That’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to our podcast and give us a review, and we would greatly appreciate a five-star rating as well. Remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com to schedule your free, no obligation consultation. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.
