Business
Nate Joens: Welcome everybody. We'll get warmed up a little bit slowly here because I can still see people coming in. My name is Nate Joens, I am the CEO and co-founder at Structurely. Structurely is an Artificial Intelligence inside sales agent, we help you qualify, nurture and respond to your leads. This is our interview with Top ISA. Today we have Holli from Donna and Team, New Bern Keller-Williams out of North Carolina as well as the usually Robby T. from Hatch Coaching and Hatch Realty.Robby T: The usual, that's what I am now. The usual. I love that.Nate Joens: But, yeah I'll let you guys kind of introduce yourselves, Robby how about we go ahead and start with you.Robby T: Yeah, good to see you all again. I'm glad that I made it in this time, and know that you can see my face and hear me. We, first off thanks to everyone for switching over to Zoom. We switched publishers, we were just having some other problems so glad we did that and this is a lot smoother, I think and I'm excited about it.Robby T: Robby T here, what do I do? I'm just a nerd. Total nerd who likes to geek out about lead conversion, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, throw it at me we can talk about it. But, you know I'm excited today because one of the first, you know when I got into coaching, one of the first teams that I actually helped out was Holli and Team New Bern. Holli, that was over two years ago? When was that?Holli Faulkner: 2017Robby T: 2017 so awhile back. And I have the privilege of going out there and meeting them, and they run a solid, solid crew up there. Donna's great, you guys have a fearless leader as you well know. I'm really excited for this episode because Holli's not just a rock star, but she's got some cool stories to share with us, and yeah, I'll turn it over to you Holli, tell us a little bit about you.Holli Faulkner: Okay, so I'm Holli I live in New Bern, North Carolina and I've been in ISA since August of 2017. I think Robby you came in maybe, 30 days after I had started, and I was brand new, I had no clue what I was doing. I was the only ISA not only on my team, but pretty much within like 200 miles of me, I mean, the only other team I think closest to me, was the Harlow Group in Greenville, South Carolina. So I really didn't have anybody to shadow or to really talk to. I didn't know all the things I know now, as far as like the Facebook groups and all the ways to talk to different people. So, I kind of figured this out on my own. And our team was kind of trying me out, as far as, "Do we need an ISA? What is an ISA? What does that look like in New Bern?" We're kind of the last to jump on any bandwagon in the whole world. You know, it feels like we're kind of going around an island sometimes. But, it was pretty cool to become that person and kind of pave the way, in my own way.Holli Faulkner: So, that was the way I got started. I came from time share sales, actually. I sold time share for four years prior to that, and I think that's really what gave me the grit that I have to be the ISA. Because if you can sell time shares, as far as I'm concerned you can sell anything.Robby T: Truth.Holli Faulkner: That is a tough business. When you're 24 you don't really care, you're just like whatever. Give me the role and I'll do it.Robby T: I love it.Holli Faulkner: That's where I started and now, almost two years later, I've moved into director of legend position for my team, recently in January. And we have just hired our other ISA so now I'm coaching a little bit and helping him work through that and so, I'm slowly building my own team, within my team.Nate Joens: Sure. Awesome. So tell us a little bit about the team in general. How many buyer/seller agents? Is it just the one ISA right now? And kind of just a little bit about your STAT's when you were practicing it as a ISA as well.Holli Faulkner: Okay, so we are a team of 19. We have two buyer agents currently, we are looking for a few more of those. We have four listing agents, we have two ISA's. One of those being new starting in April, and then me has a hybrid. We have one director of sales, we also have one listing manager and she has an assistant. We have three admin, and then we have three field care, who run our signs and do all the day to day, kind of you know that stuff there. Those people are so important. They save us so much time.Holli Faulkner: And then we have a director of sales as well. So, we have our Rainmaker, so we're a pretty large team for our area for sure. We're the largest team in the area.Nate Joens: Awesome.Holli Faulkner: I would say that when I was, let's say last year, as the full-time, that was my role, that's exactly what I did every single day, I had 108 closings. So I count my first three months as a ISA kind of like in 2017, I don't really count those. I roll all of that into 2018, when I was really digging in. And so, I had 108 closings, don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, or if I was hitting the mark or not. I was just happy with it, just to have a closing.Holli Faulkner: So that was me. To date, from January to now I've about 8,000 dials and I have about 3,000 contacts [inaudible 00:05:58] 150 [inaudible 00:05:59] so far. That's just being kind of hybrid and part-time, and I've had 42 closings year to date.Robby T: Cool.Holli Faulkner: So, pretty proud.Robby T: Absolutely. So, what's the total number of deals that your team is roughly going to do, give or take, this year Holli? What's your team looking at?Holli Faulkner: 500 is our goal.Robby T: 500 is goal. You guys treading pretty close to that, you think?Holli Faulkner: Yes, definitely. We had 418 closings last year. Closing families that we helped, and I think we're going to exceed our goal. Our fourth quarter is our strongest, and so I think that we are definitely going to exceed our goals this year.Robby T: I love it. And how many people are in the New Bern area? How many, what's the total population, just so we can get perspective here.Holli Faulkner: Our population for all of Craven County is roughly about, I'd say 102,000.Robby T: 102,000. I think that's one of the biggest things I hope people take away when we're talking with you is, if you're in New Bern, like your team is the, you guys have built a cornerstone in real estate. Is that fair to say?Holli Faulkner: Yes.Robby T: Do you know, like your market share percentage roughly, by chance?Holli Faulkner: We're on either side of the transaction or both sides of the transaction of about one out of, I believe, it's one out of two now. So, we're about 40%, 50% we're up there.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: Keller-Williams as a whole is most of the market share, then of course we've got our boutique shops and whatnot, but Keller-Williams is probably the largest in Craven County, along with our surrounding counties as well.Robby T: I love it. Nate you're up, I asked two questions, your turn.Nate Joens: Yeah, no that's pretty incredible, and I hope that kind of sets the stage for why we have you on as a TOP ISA. So, can you tell us just a little bit about when you got started, which wasn't too long ago, what was that like for you? What was, you know, what was difficult for a new ISA just getting thrown in the fire? Just kind of set the stage for what you might have done differently, you know now looking back, that you could potentially teach to the new ISA that you're training, and that other people in similar role as you or a team leader could learn from when they're bringing on a new ISA.Holli Faulkner: I want to take it back to 2017, I actually was recruited for about four months, before I actually decided to take the risk. And I call it a risk because I had no real data on what this position even was. I had no clue what it was. I couldn't really Google it, there was like, it was so new no one really knew what it was and what it meant for New Bern or real estate in general. Even though I was licensed as an agent, I had never practiced real estate. And at time, I had actually not even bought a house yet. So, I had no real base line on what real estate even meant. And in my brain, I was thinking, the typical, well, I don't want to sell houses. And I don't want to do that. That doesn't sound promising. And so, I had a really good friend on this team, Meredith who recruited me and was just relentless. I can't tell you how many interviews she set up for me, that were like blind-sided interviews. I had no clue they were even happening. She was relentless and she still is. She's a recruiting queen.Holli Faulkner: And then I finally made the jump, it was right after my daughter's birthday, and I was sitting in, I remember, I was sitting in my time share office and we were doing our daily check-in's and I, it's just one those things where you just knew like, you were not in the right spot, for some reason. And prior to time share, I was actually a bar tender and so I went from bar tending to time share and that was my first "real job". And I was scared to leave it because I was like, this is where I, I don't know I've been here for four years this is what I'm used to. I was scared of new. I didn't want any changes, I hate change. And so, that was not me. But, I was sitting there and I was like, this was, something's not right, I don't know what it is, and I literally just quit my job. I said, "I'm done." And then I joined Team New Bern that following Monday.Holli Faulkner: I had no clue what was going on really, just walked in and I was like, "Here I am, I don't know what to do, but here I am." And, so I took a very big risk and we had actually closed on our house like two weeks prior. So, not only did I take on a mortgage, but I took on this risky job that no one could give me information on, but I knew I was going to make it work. Because I believed in what they were telling me, I knew it could happen. I just didn't know how, and I didn't know when it was going to happen.Holli Faulkner: I actually remember meeting with you Robby, and I was like 30 days in and I was like, when am I going to get a closing, when can I expect all this stuff? When's it going to rain money? And I remember you telling me to be patient and it would take maybe six months or so to get ramped up. And I remember saying, "Not going to happen. Not happening, I need a closing." And I remember closing my first one in October. So, I made it 60 days, because I mean, I had a daughter, I had a mortgage, I had family to take care of, and so that wasn't happening for me.Holli Faulkner: But, what was really neat, and we laugh about this all of time on my team, because no one knew who I was or what I was doing, or why I was there, and I didn't either. I remember coming into work and I had this corner in the back of the office, literally, it was like just this little box in the back of the office and it had my computer and a phone. And, I was just like, I don't know what to do, or who to talk to. Or what but I know I made, I knew how to find leads and I knew how to get something. And all I knew at that moment was, I need to find a body and I need to put it in front of an agent. And that's all I knew what to do. So I said, "Well, here I come." And luckily Donna has a database that was massive. It was a big hairy database that wasn't quite maintained, it was just leads. All these leads, just coming in and I didn't understand them at that time. So, I just kind of started at square one calling.Holli Faulkner: Because in time share I learned, we learned how to cold call. And we cold called all over the world. So, I had dealings with people who were being ugly, or they were very nice. And time share, no one wants to own it, but everyone owns it. So, you know trying to call those guys, and that really set the stage for me. And I didn't care about a no, it didn't bother me. That really, that job paved all that for me. So, at least I was past that, I wasn't scared of the phone. So, I think that my biggest success was not being scared of the phone. Even if I didn't know what the conversation was going to be, didn't know what the end result was going to be, didn't even know why I was calling them. All I needed was for them to say, "Hello." Just pick it up.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: And then I'd figure it out from there. My biggest mistake, I was two weeks into this and I got a call from a co-broke and "You're not allowed to call listings here, if they're listed." I didn't know that quite fully. I kind of knew it, but I didn't understand it. And so I was just calling anybody and everybody, I was just like, "I'm here to sell your house." Well, this ladies house was already on the market. And that shot me down, I had backed into a corner, and I kind of didn't want to call anybody for a week. I was mainly embarrassed, my ego was hurt. I was like, because she wasn't nice to me at all either, so I was like, I don't want to call another person, I'm scared now. I went really shy, but I got over it really quickly, I mean because I had bills to pay and mouths to feed. So, it was rebound right?Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: But that was my biggest, I'd say struggle at first was not knowing the rules and how to play the game.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: Just kind of going in too quickly, I guess. So, I'd say for future hires and things like that, if they're new in the real estate world, make sure that they know the rules, and like really know them. Because we tend to talk in like, "This is how we do it, and this is why we do it." But, it's not black and white. It never will be, not in real estate anyways. And there's loop holes for everything, and so I think as long as those lines are laid out, then any agent or ISA coming into this role can prospect and call and do everything as long as they don't run into that. Because that can get you in, real estate jail. You can get in trouble.Robby T: Real estate jail. Holli, I've written down like four points of yours. First off, "Time shares, no one wants it, but everyone owns it." Made me die. I got to ask this, obviously you said the time share experience laid the foundation for you getting into this role, let's say hypothetically you would've went from being bartender to going straight into this role. Do you think you would've had the success, do you think you'd still be in the role you're currently in, if you would've done that? Or do you think that, getting kicked in the face, I'm assuming in the time share world, really toughened you up, or? Give me some insight there, how would that have changed things, if that foundation wouldn't have been laid?Holli Faulkner: I would say, bartending helped me with the social peice, it did not help me with the introverted side of me.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: Or the grit to pick up the phone.Robby T: Yeah.Holli Faulkner: Because I, believe it or not, bartenders, most of them don't want to talk to people, it's so weird. It's the strangest things, because you know I don't really like face to face interaction too much, lately.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: And bartending that's where you are. But, the cool thing about bartending is the hustle bustle. I was in a busy bar, so I didn't really have to talk, I just kind of, watched body language and I knew what you needed based off of what beer you were holding in the air. You know, that type of thing. So, then to move into time share, I think that the time share piece really laid the actual foundation of what's needed for this position.Robby T: Yeah.Holli Faulkner: As far as the grit to stay on the phone.Robby T: Yeah.Holli Faulkner: To realize that the no's aren't about me.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: It's about them. It really, it just means not right now. Doesn't mean not forever. Because we all know they're going to do something at some point, eventually. Whether it be now, or 100 years from now they're doing something. And so once I got past that, that really helped, and time share I think really helped me with that. Because you hear, "No, no, no" all day long, and I actually figured out the art of, or I call it the "art", the art of, I don't want to call it schmoozing, or whatnot, but the art of getting what you want without directly asking for it.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: I learned that in time share. Because I've never, I don't know if y'all have ever been to a time share resort where they ask you to go to the seminars and the fun stuff and all that, we didn't quite roll like that where I worked. However, you did need to come to a meeting, and so I figured out a way, I like, I basically investigated how other people did it, and I just didn't do it like that.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: I did it differently. And so I learned what not to do, based off of people's stories they were telling me. And that's kind of how I do it here, too as well. Because I already know how every other agents doing it, you know they're just calling, "Hey, how can I help you find your house?" And so when you call as a person whose actually interested and trying to figure them out and really caring about what they're doing and why they're doing it, that's really where the game changed. And so I think that's where time share really laid it out, and I needed a real estate license to sell time share so I would've never gotten that as a bartender.Robby T: Cool.Holli Faulkner: Because I never had an interest in it actually.Robby T: Yeah.Holli Faulkner: So, yeah, I think that's why it paved the way for me.Robby T: So really the grit was that, one of the biggest pieces and having a license really helped with that foundation.Holli Faulkner: Yeah.Robby T: Is there anyway, because I think you're getting into a couple things that are super key here that, you know you've gotten successful because you can tell that you were hungry, right? You've mentioned numerous times you had bills to pay, mouths to feed, and that grit pushes you through it. People that are listening to this, a lot of them are Rainmakers that are thinking about building an ISA department. Some are ISA's that are in the game. The biggest thing, and I agree with you, is you got to have grit in this role because you're going to get told no all the dang time. Is there anyway Holli, that you would say, these are things you can go and do to, maybe strengthen that resolve, build that grit a little bit? Because not everyone's going to be fortunate enough to work in time share, or unfortunate, depending on how you're looking at it. How do you, you know, if you were kind of to give some advice on how you can maybe become a little more gritty, how would you do that?Nate Joens: Can I tack a question on there too? Where did you source your new ISA as well? [inaudible 00:20:24] come from, and how are you building that grit into him, or did he come with that?Holli Faulkner: So, our new ISA actually went to law school, and that was his track.Nate Joens: Oh really?Holli Faulkner: And yeah, and then he moved back to the area, he's from New Bern, or from the county over and a listing agent on our team actually knew his father and she said, "Hey, I think you should come in." We weren't interviewing for an ISA at all actually, until we found out that I was going to be having a baby in September so I was kind of like, okay, it's either now or never, we need to build a team for sure now. He has drive. He's hungry, humble and smart. And so, he has a big why, that's big enough that makes him show up every single day and pick up the phone and, he actually in his past did census calling. Which, sounds horrible.Robby T: Yeah.Holli Faulkner: I think I've gotten those in the mail like five times, and I just trash them. That's probably like the worst citizen thing to do but, whatever. That's what he did, he actually door-knocked, and it was a piece, I saw a piece to that when I found out that he liked to door-knock. I was like, I hate that, that's not me, I don't want to do that at all.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: "You're the missing piece to my puzzle, and I need you." He's hungry, and he's humble and he's smart. And those, I think are the three things that you have to have, not only in the ISA role, but any, any role. You got to find out why are they showing up to work, because, I mean let's be honest, we could go to work anywhere, right? Like we could just go wherever we want, but why do you come to this office. Why do you do this position. And if you don't find somebody who is passionate to find a passion, then it's hard to put that, otherwise you're going find that person who just show's up. Because you have to, not because they want to, and so with him, we were lucky and fortunate enough to find that he has some passion. And he has a life, that was pretty important, you got to have those things.Holli Faulkner: But, I'd say if you find somebody who has one of those pieces...Robby T: Yeah.Holli Faulkner: To build it, you've got to figure out why are they doing what they're doing. Maybe take the position out of it. I know one of the first things that my director of operations did with me that I thought was really strange, but looking back at it now, I'm like that was actually really cool why she did this, she sat me down and she did career visioning with me. She took the job out of it, completely out of our conversation and she did four different categories and she was like, "You know, where do you see yourself in one year? Five years? What's important to you? Why do you need the money that you want to make to do this?" Because really, I mean you think about it, most people just say, "Well, I need money so I can live and eat and pay my bills." Right? But, we all know want to live a bigger life than that. And so she really dug into the whole like, fantasy Holli. Like the things that you think about, but you kind of put them on the back burner, because you've got the light bill due, or you know, whatever.Holli Faulkner: She really dug into those things and if she saw me slacking at any point, or if she saw that I was down, she would kind of bring those things back up.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: And say you know, "Hey Holli, I thought you really wanted Zoey to go to a private school." Or "I thought you wanted to pay for her college so she didn't have to work in college like you did." And she really hit those pain points, and you're like, why would she say that? So, it's important to find out those things, and that will drive them.Robby T: Were there some times where she brought those up to you that maybe it kind of irked you a little bit Holli? Were you like you knew if I'm a little bit short, and now she's bringing that back up and it's granted, your ideas and things that motivate you, were you kind of frustrated at all about that? Give us some insight there.Holli Faulkner: Yeah, I'd be, I'd feel a little sassy about that.Robby T: 100%Holli Faulkner: I would just kind of be like, how dare you bring that up? You know? But, entirely knowing like, it's just a feeling like, oh, she's right. And I don't want her to say something else in front of anybody else. So, let me get back into what I'm supposed to be doing. Or she'd say things like, "You know, I'm going to hit my goals to do what I want to do, and to make my dreams happen. Are you?" And I'd be like, I can not believe you. And it was kind of a joke that we do around here, we kind of say those things to each other just to kind of help build you, you know build people up, when you're squirreling. Because let's be honest, I mean in this role as an ISA, God it's so easy to squirrel. You want to go down a rabbit hole sometimes so fast and not come back until tomorrow, you know? And I think it's those days, where that's important, to have that accountability piece.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: And it just, you got to set the stage you know, from the beginning she, from the beginning told me, "I will bring these things up to you if that's okay." And naturally you're like, okay, like you don't really know what to expect. As long as you have that agreement piece in place, then it's kind of free game to remind your people of why they're doing what they're doing. Because they may forget, I forget all the time sometimes. You know of, why I show up. But, with that little piece, I get reminded.Robby T: Are you thankful now, upon reflection of it, are you glad that she took that approach to remind you of what's important, although it kind of brought a little bit of sassy Holli out once in a while.Holli Faulkner: 100%. I still like it. She does it to me still, all the time. I think, it really helps. And it proves that she cares, I mean honestly, because it'd be so easy for her to just focus on her own goals. Like, why does she care so much about mine? And, I think that's one really cool piece about this team, is we care so much about each other, and it's just kind of built into our culture and our nature. That we're constantly doing that to each other and it's expected and it's respected too. So, I really like it.Robby T: I love that.Nate Joens: Could you share some of the specifics on like, when you know you're squirreling. You know, when do you get those messages from your team leader, what, I think, we talk about this with a lot of the ISA's, what are your standards? For appointment sets, contacts made, do you have those? How does your team leader know when to, you know kind of try to motivate you?Holli Faulkner: Yeah, so we have a sales meeting every Thursday and our ISA's sit in with our listing agents and our buyer agents. And we have our CGI boards and each agent goes around and they say, "I've gone on this amount of appointments, I've had this many closings, this many agreements, and these are my goals." And they also share their profit, which is kind of uncomfortable, no one wants to really put that out there sometimes. And, I think it's important that we do that.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: But, and our ISA team sits in there so that way we can see, okay who needs what, and maybe why are they not hitting their goals. Maybe did they take a vacation, or maybe did they not show up to LeadGen, or you know those types of things so that way we can work through it as a team, and individually and one on one's. But our standards for my ISA team, we are still building this, but we are working towards being 75% of the team goal. Since now there is two of us. With one, I did, I think I was 25% of all the closings last year. So, I figured if we add another one, there's no reason why we can't at least be 50%, but let's push it and let's be 75% because, we like to be extra. So, we'll just be extra. So, we have an agreement that the ISA team will bring in 23 listings a month, and or, 33 listings a month and 23 buyers a month. We've just initiated this too, so we haven't really gotten any statistics on it yet.Holli Faulkner: But yeah, so we're here to support the agents and how we get there is by going in those one on one's on Thursday's, and the team meeting on Thursday to figure out who's where and why.Nate Joens: That's awesome. I was just posting that in there. That's really cool, it's a little bit different than kind of what we've heard from other ISA's. Is you kind of let your agents set the goals, and then kind of work with them to achieve them, I think that's are really interesting way to do it.Holli Faulkner: Well, we do that because we have our team goal, but we get our team goal by looking at our agent goals. Because they're the soldiers, they're the boots on the ground, right? And if our goals don't line up with their goals, then no one's ever going to hit their goals. And we're going to constantly feel like we're struggling or we're not doing something right, or maybe chasing something that's not achievable. So, I think it's really important to plug and play, you got to find out what your agents goals are to see if that even supports the team goal. Because if it doesn't, then if you try to push the agents too much, they hit a goal that they're not interested in reaching, you're not going to have success like that. You can't, you know you can't influence them unless you find out what they're influenced by. And if they're not influenced by their goals then you can't teach them, or want them to reach a goal that they don't want to reach.Holli Faulkner: And so, that allows you also to see who you need to hire. Do you need to plug into something else? Do you need to find a position, more agents? So, I think it's important to hit the agent goal, and then plug into that.Nate Joens: Yeah, I think that's awesome. What do you think, what does an ISA need to do every day to meet those goals, to be successful? Is it a certain number of dials, is it you know, prospecting? Is it just updating the CRM, what is success look like on the daily?Holli Faulkner: I'd say it's all. All of that. All of the above. A little piece of each. And with my ISA and I, we have our favorites and we have our not favorites. He's more of the, we call it kind of hunting and gathering. We're both hunters. I prefer to cold call. I don't really like to talk to people that I know, which is very different, I don't know why I'm like that. But, I love to get a list of people I don't know, and just power through it. So I'll cold call, circle prospect that's my favorite thing to do. So, I think it's important to do what you love. And if you have success in that, then do that. We have a database of over 18,000 people, we use Boom Town and so we're constantly answering messages and calling and doing that kind of thing. So we kind of have to structure our day to where we're supporting all things, but we do our favorite things when we're our best.Holli Faulkner: He's better in the morning, I'm a better person in the afternoon. So we kind of flip-flop it and we plug into our own strengths. We're doing some activities throughout the whole day, just at different times. So, I think that it's important to do all those things and then we update at the end of the day. I don't focus as much on updating, just because that's not a dollar productive activity to me. The tracking and all of that stuff, we get it done. However, if you're prospecting and you're having great success and it's 5:30 and you need to, and it's time to go, we'll update it tomorrow. But, I do think it's important to track it and update it and stuff like that.Holli Faulkner: But, plug into your things that are your strengths.Robby T: I love that, I think that's some of the biggest things we need to re-emphasize, and you said it, "Do what you love, and lean into that." We run a master mind and Jay with Wise Hire, who I think is one of the most brilliant people in the hiring game, talks about how he did a study among, what was it, Nate do you remember, 150,000 employees or some crazy number, a lot of people, and there was two things that led to employee's being productive. And one was self-awareness, and knowing what you're good at, what you love is so key. And another one was inauthenticity, Nate? Is that the one? Inauthenticity, so not just knowing who you are, but finding what you love and doing more of that. And really, what that means is if you really dislike something, do less of it. Which is really funny because I think my parents were raised on the whole dogma of, fix your weakness, fix your weakness and when I was seeing all the social research strength [inaudible 00:34:04] 2.0, saying, no, no, no, no do your best to lean into what you love, because it gets you more energy, and manage around what you dislike, and what you don't want to do.Robby T: So, a lot of stuff that, you brought that up and it was just kind of a mental trigger and connected to what Jay was saying and that's so key.Nate Joens: Yeah, no I think that's awesome. I don't want to just completely switch gears here, but I really want to try to dive into the story you were telling us beforehand.Robby T: Yes.Nate Joens: I don't really know how to ask how to get into it, can you just, can you retell the listener's kind of about your experience with the hurricane?Holli Faulkner: Okay. So we had our Hurricane Florence, it hit us directly. I believe it was September 12th. All of New Bern, Craven County, I mean our surrounding area's were completely, you know, gone or not gone, but under water. I mean it was panicky, it was bad. And some left and some stayed. I, for the first time in 30 years of my entire life, was scared of a hurricane and I left. I went to Georgia, [inaudible 00:35:28] Georgia, which is a long ways away, on top of a mountain in nowhere. I remember half of my family stayed back, and I remember thinking, literally thinking, we had a meeting that morning at our office, of maybe a day or so prior, we were taping up windows, moving desks, I was preparing for like, total disaster. I didn't really know what I was preparing for, it was kind of one of those moments where you kind of grab everything and you don't know why you're grabbing it and you just kind of do it anyways.Holli Faulkner: I remember packing up my house and packing up really, it was just packing a suitcase, like clothes, right? I remember thinking, what about this, like what about that? Do I need a U-haul truck? Is this going to be here when I get back. And I have a, she was five at the time, and this was her first hurricane. And so trying to be a Mom and remain calm, but also wanting to pack everything including the kitchen sink, you're like, you know you're spinning and you don't know what to do you just spin. And so, we packed up and we left. We went to LJ some friends and I and our whole house, all of our kids, seven kids by the way, under the age of five. That was a nightmare.Holli Faulkner: But, we were fine, we were dry, we had two big dogs with us, it was fine. And we were gone for I think, five days. We were gone for a while. It felt like a while. But, while I was there, and this is what's really cool and I want everyone to understand about New Bern, and Craven County as a whole. And just our general area, because I know CNN and I know the weather channel and all these other places, they projected that we were completely tsunami'd off the map, and that there was nothing left, and you know that there was this crisis. Which there was, but it wasn't like that, the way that they portrayed it. The way that we bounced back, I've never seen before. So, while I was in Georgia, Facebook works during a hurricane in case no one knew that, don't know why it does, but it does. Everything else can go South, but Facebook worked.Robby T: Thank you Mark.Holli Faulkner: Yes, thank you Mark for that. I don't know why it works, but it's great. I remember sitting on, and if you've never sat somewhere else and watched your hometown just be, I mean it was, I can't even explain what that feeling feels like.Robby T: Right.Holli Faulkner: You can't help, you just sit there, and you're just waiting. And you don't know if your family is alive, not alive, you don't know what's happening, you don't know. But, I remember sitting there and Facebook, I was on Facebook and all these people, we have all of these yard sale sites and things like that, all these people kept posting help, or "I'm at this address, the water's filling up to the roof, I'm in the attic." And by the way, if you're ever in that situation the attic is the worst place to go because there's no way out, if water is flooding. You'll drown, unless you get out. I mean, so I remember that and people were saying, "We're on the roof, we're outside, we're on the roof." Posting how many people they have, how many kids, dogs, whatever. Whatever the case was, and I remember seeing a post from the Cajun Army from New Orleans. And they travel to these different locations to help people out, and they bring their Jon boats and their big trucks and their stuff that they need to work through these situations. And, they posted phone numbers and I remember sitting there thinking, if I can't help anybody physically, then I can do something.Holli Faulkner: So, I remember sitting there calling and tried to coordinate with these people and getting people rescued. And that was just like the craziest thing, so I guess my natural ISA took over. It was like, you know what, I know how to connect, and so I can be triage for anybody. So what can I do? So that was really cool to do that, and even when we came back, it was really difficult to get back. Because roads were closed, waters were still everywhere. Roads were messed up and whatever. So we used Waze, which thank you Waze, Wazay or whatever it's called, they got us back.Holli Faulkner: I remember I went to a Walmart, I think it was in Greenville, like 45 to an hour away from us, and I just got stuff for strangers. People I didn't even know. You know, because there's no water, no gas, no food, there's nothing and we're about a week out at this point. Or maybe a few days, I don't remember.Holli Faulkner: But, it was really cool to be able to use that scenario to still help and connect people to what they needed. So, when we got back, Keller-Williams actually, this was like my first year with the company right, so I didn't know any of these things and, I come home and there's these huge trucks, like Mack trucks full of paper towels and shovels and all these things. And literally, our entire company of like 270 agents are there with their boots on, and their own houses are flooded, their own stuff is messed up, and we're out in the community, snakes and all, we didn't care dirt, mud. I mean, the river was gross at the bottom, if you've never seen it, it's gross. It was muddy and it is nasty and when it goes in a house, there's no mopping that. Like, you need more than a Swiffer for that. You need more than a pressure washer for that, it's bad.Holli Faulkner: The whole community just came together, we mucked out houses, we knocked out dry-wall, I became an electrician, you know whatever, I was like a construction girl. You just do it. You have to just get through it, and I think that was the most important piece for us and for our community.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: I don't know if it's a Southern thing, or if it's a way that we are just built here, or what it is but when things like that happen, or bad things happen to people, regardless of what could happen or what's going to happen next, you kind of have to deal with what's already happened, and you move on. And you pull your pants up, and you get to work. And you just do your best to make it what it is. And so, I think that's kind of what helped us. Three months after that, after we've mucked out houses and people are still displaced and whatnot, Christmas hit and that was very tough for many families, of course. You know, naturally they're, people are out of jobs, their houses are a mess. You've got families who have young kids who don't understand and they're just feeling, not only are they feeling the loss of their stuff, but now they're feeling the pressure of trying to make it as normal as they can for their little ones or their families.Holli Faulkner: Our town has this really cool thing that they do every December and they put the Santa hats downtown in the middle, and they light up the streets and it really looks like the little village people that you put, like your Grandma has on the thing with all the fake snow. It looks identical to that. And they did that this year, this past year. And, that was the coolest thing because it was normal. That was, everybody was trying to find their new normal right, and to have that happen, that was the one consistent that happens every single year, that was kind of like the breathing moment of you know what, we're fine. Everything's fine. We're on our way. That was pretty much all of that. I could talk for hours about it.Robby T: Well, I love it because you hit on a lot of things first off. But, this is one of my favorite things about KW is the whole KW Cares stuff that they do, and to give KW some major credit. You saw, not just in community like yours, but also after Houston KW stepped up really big. And the funny thing, I think what this shows is, you brought it up, that in these type of opportunities, things happen. Because, they do. All around the country, the world and especially here in the United States. The media is there to show them the destruction, and you see it. And what they don't go back and show is, two-three months later when y'all have stepped up to rebuild. And nobody's seeing that, and I think that's, you know, maybe something that is, you know it stinks that it has to happen but, when you see stuff like this happen, you see human resilience come out. And, you're a testament of that, you see people doing things you never thought was possible. Holli became an electrician and frankly, you were saving lives. As an ISA between the people on Facebook and the Cajun Army, you were literally connecting dots.Robby T: And, I think what these types of things show is, we think because the media is showing the worlds coming to and end, like utter destruction. And I asked Holli a question, when did things hit normal, and I think you had said it took about three months and then things started to get normal again. What's cool about it is, when these things happen, and no doubt there's damage and it's not fun. But, human beings bounce back. And I know that happened, that just happened here twice in the last few years, in the North Dakota area where two towns were decimated by floods to the rivers through, over land flooding when there is so much snow melts and it's crazy to see the communities bounce back and rebuild.Robby T: It's one of the coolest things in [inaudible 00:45:40] itself, and you're a testament to that and I appreciate you sharing that.Holli Faulkner: Yeah.Nate Joens: Yeah absolutely. [inaudible 00:45:47] if you want to wrap up with the favorite part of Robby's, the [inaudible 00:45:54] so I, I'll let Robby ask his question first.Holli Faulkner: Okay.Robby T: Oh Nate. Yeah, a lot of it. So, I always like to end, and you don't have to tell them the [inaudible 00:46:06] but I always end Holli would you prefer Star Wars or Game of Thrones or to those that aren't nerdy, fill in for one of those something else. So you know, what is your nerdy thing you like Star Wars, Game of Thrones or something else?Holli Faulkner: Well, I have to be honest, I've never watched Game of Thrones. I've never...Robby T: What's up with you people? Why?Holli Faulkner: I tell you, I don't want to do anything that everyone else is doing. I think that's why.Robby T: I can't debate that actually, that's valid. Good call.Holli Faulkner: So, honestly it's because I also have a five year old still, and she'll be six in August but...Robby T: Don't watch Game of Thrones around her. Don't do that.Holli Faulkner: Yeah, no. By the time I'm done, you know with all that stuff, the last thing I can do is focus on something else. And so, but when I do like to geek out or whatnot, I did watch the entire season of Weeds.Robby T: Nancy Botwin right, or Nancy...Holli Faulkner: Love her.Robby T: Yep, yep.Holli Faulkner: Nancy Botwin. And Scandal. I don't know why they didn't bring another season, I'm addicted to Scandal. That is my jam right there.Robby T: Nancy Botwin and Olivia Park baby.Holli Faulkner: Yes, they, I will be those two people at some point in my life. I don't know why I like those things. I think it's the, I've always been interested in the kind of like, mind game shows. Not the scary ones, like the, what's the little guy on the bicycle with the circles. Yeah, so like none of that, no. Not those kind of games, I like that Olivia Park games where she kind of, her conversation's like, you know get what you want without directly asking for it. Those are fun. That's why I like those. I mix it up with some Disney movies, and some JoJo Siwa and.Robby T: That's a good answer.Nate Joens: My question is do you have any book recommendations?Holli Faulkner: Well, so when I do read books, that sounds so bad but, I don't read them a lot at all. I listen, sometimes I listen to them. Right now, I'm listening to Rachel, I don't remember her last name right now.Robby T: Hollis?Holli Faulkner: Rachel Hollis, yes. I'm listening to Girl, Stop Apologizing. And I liked Girl, Wash Your Face. I like to listen to Chelsey Handler, she's just like my trash podcast that I get in every now and then.Robby T: Sure.Holli Faulkner: I like those a lot. But, I think that when I read The One Thing, that one was a really, more internal kind of book.Nate Joens: Great book.Holli Faulkner: But, I really like to read books that are more like Rachel Hollis where they're just kind of like, you know what, move on, who cares? Because, we all need that reminder sometimes. Especially as an ISA, you hear no like 50 times a day. And it's just when you read those type, the kind of books that those are, they really just tell you, move on. It's not about you, who cares, keep going and call them back tomorrow because they might say yes. You know? Like, they probably changed their mind, you never know. But, yeah I do like those types of books. The Seven Habits, I've actually, I'm looking at this thing by Hannah, I started that one. That one's good so far, I think I'm on page like 13. So, I'm still new at that one.Nate Joens: I love it.Holli Faulkner: Yeah, so all of those kinds of books.Nate Joens: They're great. It's cool to see Hannah posting in there too, so those are great too. I appreciate it, Robby did you have anything else to add?Robby T: I wanted to do a little pitch for a book I recently read and the, I'm telling you, the label of this book is the most misleading thing and it sounds like a snooze fest, but it is the best book I've probably read this year. And it's called Measure What Matters by John Doer. Basically, just remember Jon's worth seven billion dollars, he is the guy who helped guide investments into name a big company, he was in it. Again, Measure What Matters, it sounds like a snooze fest but long story short, he talks all about how Google and Intel have found ways to measure what matters. But, what's really great is he tells it, you know a principle and then go with a stories of real life applications. And we're not talking about people with you know, small companies doing five million a year, the people that were excerpts for this were Bill Gates, on of the people like Google. So, some of the biggest names, that have had some of the biggest success in the world. This is a killer book, so get out there and read it. Measure What Matters by Jon Doer, Doer, that guy.Nate Joens: Measure What Matters.Robby T: Measure What Matters, I'm telling you. It's good. It's really good.Nate Joens: Awesome. Well, I appreciate both you guys time. Robby, the usual, that's what you're known as now. Holli, I appreciate hearing all your stories, it was [inaudible 00:51:48]Holli Faulkner: Anytime.Nate Joens: This Izzy, I don't know if it's going to go out, new platform so we're still learning. You're going to get a copy of this webinar shortly, it'll be available on our YouTube page just find Structurely. We'll likely be sending it out to you via email as well. As, putting it on to our podcasts, if you're not subscribed TheISARadio.com, if you want to catch the episode on the go, the podcasts that's the place to do it.Nate Joens: With that, I will let everyone go, and have a productive rest of the week.Holli Faulkner: All right.Robby T: Thank you Holli, appreciate it so much. See you.Holli Faulkner: Yes, thank you. See you soon Robby.