Episode 06: Skyler Bauer

This week on the show, we welcome Skyler Bauer, a high-achieving agent with a contagious passion for the industry. Tune in as Skyler shares his personal journey, from his early days navigating the market to the impressive accomplishments that have earned him recognition. Join our hosts, Adam and Koby, as they share their experiences working with Skyler.  Don't miss this inspiring and entertaining episode, packed with insights and a glimpse into the future of a real estate powerhouse!

Transcript

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the time from here's the opportunity. And like, pulling the trigger. It was it's like almost seconds. Like, I thought they banned automatic weapons. And then I come across Adam, say he's pulling the trigger on every What you generally do. You become friends with your clients. I've a lot of my friends are past clients and I met them through real estate. a few. Colby sway here. I'm with Adam Bradley, like always. And we have Skyler Bauer with us, actually as a guest. And, today we're going to talk about a little history. Why you joined our team, how I got involved. Why is he sitting here? And, we're going to jump around and just have a little bit of fun today. How does that sound? Sounds good. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Not a not a bad filming spot. so why don't you walk us through, like, a little bit of your history or background or. How did you get into real estate? Yeah. Kind of fell backwards into real estate. Probably like a lot of people. but I was in college, graduated on the job I was doing there. Did not, wasn't for me. I loved the people I was working with, but ultimately it was stuck behind a desk staring out the window. I'm more of an active person. I went to there, did a whole 180, went to trades where I traveled and did everything from welding, Hvac work, travel, the country, doing that stuff. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was traveling that. Yeah. Yeah. So. you know, It's it's crazy because I, I feel like you joined before Covid. So it was during Covid and times July Covid. And then Skyler was one of the first people I always get so off on my years. Dang. it's like fuzzy with the Covid yeah, it was that was fuzzy. Yeah. Yeah. But I it. Oh, yeah. was very tight. yeah. Those first couple months were definitely, a test. It was, you know, I got licensed. Well, let's backtrack. I got Yeah, Yeah, but But know let me That's that's. What I think it was. Yeah. We did. We create a job. I know her, but I, I the reason I was like, turned on to the idea was because, like, you were pretty aggressive with it, like, I mean you I mean what I remember was like I mean the fact that you reached out the way you did and were you're like, hey, I want to do this. Like, I don't know what I can do right now to earn some money, but I know I want to do this. And, you know, I know you talked to a couple other people or were like looking at other entities within our organization. And yeah, just I think it was your aggressiveness. And I was like, yeah, I think this is this could be a good. kept bringing it up. You kept bringing it up. And it was like, man, is this guy, like, aggressive? Is he desperate? Is excited? Is he hungry? Does he not know Yeah. Yeah. Which I still don't know. My LinkedIn password reset, I don't know. Yeah. It's like I don't know if anybody does like the So it was destiny. It was just it was so weird. But it it literally was like, yeah, the stars aligned or something. remember that? I, I got on well, I actually reached out to Berkshire Hathaway, Yeah. because Scott was not from Omaha. Just so you know. Yeah. Check on my own, dude. Yeah. Certain brokerage? Yeah. one got back to me but Adam Riley, which Aka oh, that. Led for back then And so what was the growth size. Yeah. data. I'm sitting. that. There in two and a half time, that would have been entertaining if he had some tall boys. And them do. so it's just like, it's funny because it happens a lot in real estate where, you know, someone goes on vacation or people get busy, or I get the top real estate brokerages and teams are busy, right? So therefore they're not getting back to future realtors or potential realtors. Right. And that's suddenly what happens is where you bump into somebody or you fall into it or I don't know, like I said, it's just that's usually kind of how it always works Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yes. His fate. It was It was like it, it feels like a lot of things. You had to get the past right. The time I had to reach out. And then you guys had to be, I guess hiring as Yeah, that was like. The start of the expansion. Now, it was because I. We first talked, we were like, let's not to bring anybody on because we don't want to ruffle feathers and change too much. Yeah. tip. Oh was it okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then it all kind of yeah it went from there. I remember would have been about then. Yeah. And That was funny. No that was when we were just doing our jobs. I think you Yep. Oh, remember Yeah, I was I was just going to ask them, like, what do we even have you do? I can't remember. It. Anthony go or Skyler. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Gosh, I remember that. Hey. him though. Wasn't free labor, just to be clear. Yeah. He Yep. I was just doing, Oh yeah. Your. Yeah. What can I do? I'll just be a team player. Yeah. Yeah. Going to go have some way. You're you're all in from day one. Yeah. Yeah. It was just I license that crown. Yeah. Yeah. It's Yeah. If can I show, you know, or like, You you you were though. I know you were. Yeah. Which I, I personally like it like you're either one or the other. Right. And I've Steve and I both have always operated like on the side of fear side of stress. But for us, like, it motivates us like like I. Yeah. It doesn't shut us down. now there's times where it's like, oh my gosh, like this. This is heavyweight, right? but we're first going through it in that point in your life, like it's, that's a very scary moment. Like, but you know, like with Staci over the seven or. Nah, we've been married for. I've been doing real estate for, what, 17, 18 years? But I've been in those stressful moments many times. Every time it gets easier and easier. Well, the problem is too, is that numbers get bigger and bigger. You know, the debt load, the the money going in and out gets bigger and bigger. But yeah, well, you're but in that moment it's I feel like for me personally what you're right there too. And I feel like a lot of successful people are is it literally will slingshot you and and and then plus it always just gets easier and easier as you go in those moments again. But now there are some folks who are just shut them down and like you made the comment like you were all in like, that's really what it takes. Like burn the boats, right? It's like it's this is my only option. And there are agents that were on our team that definitely you could tell they were not all in. And it always would show. They always having money problems. They were always like stressed out and it's because they weren't committed. They weren't fully into it and giving it their all. And you can generally always tell from that too. So And I mean it is hard to go all in on this, on this career because one there there's really not necessarily a game plan on how to operate it. And then it's just you're banking on the unknown. Yeah. Because you can do all the right things and still if the market's not where it needs to be like it just. Or the clients don't show up or. Yeah. You can't control the market. You can control your actions. But you know the problem is, is you might have to do what worked a year ago doesn't necessarily work today. As far as the amount of work that you're putting into have the same amount of business. yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. I mean, we're doing that mentorship program, yeah. Yeah. Either Yeah Yeah I think a lot of real estate agents, if I were to look at this successful ones, I would say there's a good chunk of them that live a little bit beyond their means. It's like it's their motivation to constantly be going out there and making the next thing up. And because the reality is you do get to a point where it's like having X amount of your bank account just doesn't become exciting anymore. It's not like a driving factor. Like, yeah, who doesn't want one year's worth of bills, you know, in your bank account or expenses in your bank account. But there is like so live a little bit on the on the edge. mouth and make you this and at least You just don't have a you don't have that push. Now some people do operate better on the with having that nice cushion. Like I know Amanda operates better when she knows she has that clarity. Right. but I think there's probably more that live on the edge. More than not, if you're talking to successful salespeople. So maybe it's that A.D.D. or ADHD or whatever and everyone to I don't know that, but I know. Right. mean it's well, it's just it's something to think about is like, you know, you should have a plan, you should have savings. You'd have all this. But like the scholars point on the part time dip in your foot. And that's like what most people here in real estate is, you know, get into real estate part time work, a full time job, and then as soon as you have enough business, you can jump in, which makes absolutely zero sense when you start a business, because that's what you're doing. You're starting your own company and you have to work there. You have to do the work. You have to make the calls, set the plan up. You're doing everything. So when you're not working on your business, nobody's working on it. Yeah. Yeah. And Almost four coming up. Him And Skyler, you had pretty quick success. I mean, really, if you look at the average agent you had, you had fairly quick success. I mean, you had your ups and downs, like, just like we all do still to this day. But you had pretty quick. Success Well, I remember when he started, I did a one on one with Skyler and I was like, how many millions do you want to sell? He's like, I haven't sold a million. Remember that? That was like the first conversation that we had was like, January. I was like, hey, how much you want to sell this year? And you're like, I haven't sold. I bought k, like thousands. you know, I mean, it's hard it's hard to cast goals if you Yeah. like exactly like the lethal. I want to pay a bill. Can I pay a bill? Yeah. but, is there anything you would change, though, now that you're sitting here? Right. Like. And you can talk about your success and some of your sales if you want, but is it anything you go back and change maybe like sitting back. You wish you would have done different. Yeah. well, I wish I would a I think everybody, you know, clarity when you look back. Right. I wish I would have started sooner. I wish Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know Yeah. Like. Sure. That. Was Yeah, I. Yeah. And, no thinking this Yeah Yeah, Yeah Yeah, yeah. That's a good point. And that's where most people struggle is the action. Yeah. And that's it's funny you say that too because you are a little bit of a perfectionist, you know. Right. And like but that's your marketing background. Like that's you went to school for that too. So you the fact that you are recognized and that's awesome because I you know, I think all of us would recognize like, yeah, action will always outperform perfection. Well that's what I've learned about working with Adam and Stacey is like at AT&T. My background, I would plan the hell out of everything we plan, everything we did right, and then we just didn't either take action or we over planned it. We overanalyze it. And then I met with Adam and Stacey and it was almost like not do they don't have a plan because they do. But it's almost like, let's not plan a bunch. Let's just kind of fail our way through this and then pivot and pivot and pivot, Yeah, constantly pivoting. As long as I mean, the big thing for us is like as long as it's ethically, morally sound, which I truly believe, like how we operate. Is that like, that's above everything. I mean, as long as you're not messing up a client's transaction, which we're really good at that, like as far as keeping it good and smooth and, keeping the client first, like, everything else can get messed up along the way and just fix that. We fix our holes in the ship along the way, or plug, or how, you know. Whatever we can try to do. I Yeah. Yeah, I'm Oh best. I'm not very smart, so I don't know anything else other than nothing. Yeah, but you know, I can say this, like, Rachel Walker is very similar. She she will run through a brick wall, Yeah. all day long. Like we'll run through a brick wall, we'll run into hurdle. She'll run through that brick wall, you know, and she'll get through it. She comes out on the other side for sure. Yeah. And that's a that's a weird that's a a lot of people can't even fathom operating from that standpoint. One it's it could be financially Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which, I mean, that's so hard to do. Not not think about all the details. You know, it's like someone building the business plan. It's a well, here's the plan. Start the business. I know that's what I'm saying. It's like I remember we interviewed with Zillow and they sent us this 14 pages, 14 pages. Remember that? And I had nothing to do with that. it. Every section that my. about that. but I remember on that zoom interview with, we, I, you know, I remember saying, like, listen, I feel like it was some along the lines of like, yeah, we it won't be perfect, but we will perform and and that's what's happened and that's what's happened. No. You know, Yeah. I'm probably causing a lot to like, yeah. like, stop talking stopped. I but anyway, I just it's, it's just funny because like I said, it's, at the end of the day, everything happens for a certain reason. And, that's one thing that I've taken away from Adam is he's just massive action taker. So for you, Skyler, like, pulling the trigger quicker is, my getting into it sooner. Like, what about, like, your tactical things? Is there anything different like you would do today differently? Like things you know, today? Would you have done it differently back then? Oh, yeah, I think there's I mean, I think we can keep going back on fear, but just calling the client, right. I now I only call because text. There's too many Yeah. He's Yeah. it's comfortable. yeah, Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. your. Yeah. You weren't processing. What were. They're saying. You're thinking about your next question. Not. Yeah. Not being present. Yeah have one. The contact is named answer or die. Right. So that Yeah. yeah. lot of rejection. And, and you're You're like, what was your name? Adam. Brian, I gotta go. Yeah. Last know. Because you're just shy of $30 million. It might be over$30 million since you started. Right. I think I'm in like 48 now. I've heard Clevver talking about opinions and stuff Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which would take 10 or 15 years at least for a traditional rule. Or at least. Yeah. It's Yeah, when you're younger, you're. Yeah. When you're when you're younger, you deal with that a lot too. Like that. There's a lot of ego in this business. So they like to let you know, hey I've been doing this for a long time. just find random ways to throw it in the. Oh yeah. I'll send over the seller's property condition disclosure. And I've been doing this for 15 a few. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That. Yeah. It's like their way of saying like, don't B.S. me and don't mess with me. Okay. Yeah, they. I'll going to say it looks like you sell one house a year. Okay? Yeah. well, I did all that in one month. Yeah, yeah. That's funny. that's not true to that, too. Yeah, Yeah. It's it's definitely interesting, that's for sure. but I'm always kind of, like, curious as to like is what, like what stage? How do you keep motivated in this game? Getting yelled at, getting screamed at all the chaos, all the craziness? Like, what keeps you in The rejection is you're talking about like dealing with the response because you always get rejected in this business. Yeah. And the stress it brings. Yeah, Yeah, I think I, I think I said it from maybe the the day one was like, you know, it's treating this like a muscle and yet to train it. And you know, the yeah Yeah. totally Yeah, I'd Yeah. And Well if it happen. It generally happens. And like I mean I even got lost out on probably five less scenes in the last like 40 days. And it's it's still a gut punch for sure, because you get so competitive, you're like. Oh gosh, I wanted that. So bad, right? But now that you lose that. But then you pick up the phone, you're dialing other Oh, it's you I have. It's literally FTF fuel the fire and I it's that's my I'll literally sometimes write out all the deals I've lost out on recently so I can visually see it. And then I use that as fuel to sell it. And generally I'll go do 2 to 3 times amount of business because it slingshot me. Oh yeah I, buy where maybe you and I are kind of sick though. Like that. Or lights. Yeah, be because most people aren't like that. Most people would rather have all the positive thing, you know what I Yeah, the energy, What? Wait, what did you ask? So just so we can go back to that, what did you ask that started? Oh yeah. Okay. because it is such a high stress? I know because, you know, with my wife. But it's just there's days where I'm sure you think, why do I do this job, right? Like we all do it. But I'm just saying, like, what makes you stay in it? Yeah. I think what makes me stay in it a lot of times is that this is by far the best thing I've done as far as work goes. Like, we have the freedom, which is also the double edged sword that can also Yeah, yeah, that's all. Yeah. Yeah. sure Yeah, jump in. Yeah. it real estate. There's no like, you know, promotion if you will. You kind of wake you wake up every day jobless right. What is your normal day look like. Yeah, man. All day I wake up, you guys start there. You know, I But and. So when. Yeah. You got to put your foot. Yeah, Yes. Yeah, Sure. Yeah, Well Darren Hardy will always say it too. He wrote The Compound Effect, which is an amazing book. you're he's written a lot of stuff out there, but, generally like 90 minutes is like past 90 minutes. Your focus starts going away too. So, like, having that uninterrupted 90 minutes power 90, you know, whatever you want to call it, 90 minutes. Of it's got to be disciplined. Some people say it's 90 minutes and it's 30 minutes. It calls and then 60 minutes of scrolling or something. Yeah, yeah. yeah. So that's what you mean like your focus in for like two hours max and then you and then you jump, go do something else for a little bit, and then you're coming back to a similar activity. it's similar activity where I'm back in and a lot of it's put out whatever. you know pinning deal fires and questions that they Yeah. Have you, have you like. So there was times where you were hitting some pretty low points as far as like, sales go. I mean, can you credit that to like 90 days prior to that, like where you were your schedule wasn't being consistent like it is right now? Yeah I'd say I mean as you know it's Like, you know, why you had the lows. Yeah, or roller coaster. Yeah. See? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I feel like Amanda is the same way. Yep Yep. well, you. Got you get married and you have, you know, you move into a house Yeah. You had a lot of it was that last. Year Two years ago. Yeah. Okay. And some showed up eat to that one, you know? yeah. Yeah. That was fun. Yeah. That was a good time. Tell us, You bought investment is funny. You bought investments properties before you bought your own house. Yes. Well. Most people buy their own house first and then they get jump in investors. So they it's it's cool that you did the investments because you saw the opportunity there. Right. And and you you pulled the. Trigger it was, it made more sense because like the primary resident for someone that's commission yet the way two yeah yeah yeah. I left home Yeah. yeah. yeah yeah, an investment. So you pay a little bit higher rate anyway. But it's like who cares because it's an investment. And if you plan on flipping it or wholesaling or whatever, it's yeah, it doesn't, doesn't matter as much on the rate. Yeah. I was like, backwards is so backwards. But I like I, you know, we got into this house and now experiencing like homeownership from that standpoint too. that's eye opening. It allows me to relate better to my clients and prep them a little bit better. Yeah. yeah. Yeah. but yeah, a lot, a lot has changed. What what do you think? What will be your focus now for the rest of the year? Yeah. And let's stamp it real quick. We're in the middle of April. Right? Yeah. Middle of April. Yeah. That's awesome. it's all going to be Absolutely. She supported you along your path. Right. So Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. she, she was that rock the whole time. So I definitely want to she deserves it so much. So have probably a little mini vacation in there. Just a we'll make sure Andy clips that. So you can send that part. And then I had had only thing that yeah. Some brownie points for sure. No. But you've always talked highly of your wife of like how she. Yeah. How she's like, supported you too. So Well, yeah. I mean, you said it best to I mean, you. Yeah. You have the your spouse. You're running mate, Yes. yeah, I because I feel like she does challenge you, doesn't she? I mean, from things you told me, like, she definitely like what? She'll call out your shit when it needs to be called out. And rightfully so. Yeah. Yeah. At of you're like. Yeah, that's a really good. Yeah. You don't want to hear it in the moment but. Yeah I okay. Yeah. Because I was dumb. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we we got to leverage that. And, actually survive. So Yeah. So go go on the trip. That's that's awesome. What it like any any business things that you're like okay, I'm definitely I want to like implement this or I want to try to focus on this. Like I think there is a lot of like, there's a huge value in keeping things as simple as you can and not chasing too many shiny objects. Right. But I think when you have a marketing degree, that can be a little bit challenging because your mind's always like, okay, we can get this better, this better, this better, this better, which you I mean, someone like you that I thought was going to be an issue for you, full disclosure. But you you definitely have reined it in and you obviously proven and shown that you're like, okay, I can you can simplify things and just keep it like the things that, you know, we all know that work. But like you've got to have something rolled around in your head, like, okay, I definitely want to work on this. Like, this is this one thing I want to try to implement in the next year. Is there anything that's rolling around your head? well, besides obviously more deals and definitely more investment. Is investment investments the top of my list? Because you're looking for one. Today. Yeah. Going on today. Yeah. That is like. I. I need it, I need, I need those I think those are, It's like you're, it's like you're next. It's like a drug almost. It's like your next thing that you're chasing For sure. And I think that that's the next catapult to get to the next level. Yeah Yeah, you know. Besides you and those ten clients, but nobody else in the city Why? I think also there's a happy medium of like sharing your successes in real estate because it's like it's like a humble brag, right? which I think everyone has to be careful on that. Like, as. Yeah, as you guys know, like, I never post on social media. Like, not like I always had a goal of it, but I think I just come to the realization, okay, this is at me. But to to also what you're saying too is like with the NAS stuff, like it is going to go back to the agents that are providing value to the market, like whether it's neighborhood community videos, it's it's just like, okay, ran into this situation. This is what we learn from this, or just providing good knowledge that the the public can see, like, oh yeah, that's a good point. Or like, things that improve value to a house, right? Like, you know, one thing that I've been doing personally is like, I'm helping people, like, maximize their value. They have they have no idea where to start on what to do. and a lot of times it's as simple as, like, painting. Well, then they're like, well, who do we use for a painter? Well, we got all that in house, right? Like, not it's not. They're not employees of ours. But we have these awesome connections. Like I think going those type of things I think would be a big thing too. So Yeah, that's exactly what I want to get that's what. Yeah, that's what I thought. So that's why I jumped ahead and just kind of started saying it. So sorry I'm actually I think that number is Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, yeah, it's a good point. Oh, I know it's crazy Yeah. Because people do want to work with agents that are busy because they know how they've ran into a lot of different scenarios. You can walk them through, like all the hurdles that are going to like, you'll be the guy that can navigate through most hurdles that are thrown your way because you see, like in your short four years, like you've already seen a lot, like you seen more, hurdles or transactions than the 15 year agent. A lot of time, statistically speaking. Yeah. And and. That's, that's such a blessing to even Yeah, Yeah. This was, it was a pre occupancy. Yeah. Yeah you know, Because it's a reflection on you, right? Everything is a reflection on you. And so we get in. So, house, they get a pre occupancy, which turn out to be the blessing because we get it. There's water in the basement. Undisclosed watering issues. I call, you know, the, waterproofing companies. They have a track line history of it And that was never disclosed. Yeah. And he's over here shaking his head like, oh my gosh, I. the scenes. And if you think of it, the reason why we're missing delay, it was that the seller was going through some sort of, let's say bankruptcy or whatever. sure because your folks were relocating here so they had nowhere to live. Nowhere to live. oh, Yeah. totally. Yeah. you know. yeah. Yeah. oh wow. But see, I asked that question earlier about stress. See the stress that a realtor, a real estate agent, takes on? Yeah. Yeah. Rock roll over. Yeah, better spot. So yeah. The whole, where in your clients stress is, is a real thing. to definitely obviously we won't be able to go through all that today, but like, that is a real thing that agents deal with. also like the the rejection tool that Stacy and I were just talking about, that we're actually in bed like two nights ago. We were or last week she was like. It was like, you know, when I had all this rejection, I'm like, because, again, you're competitive, right? And so what? She's just like, I don't know how the heck you guys do it. Like constantly dealing with like rejection after rejection after rejection. Like that's a whole nother topic. Like how you get through that. And I just think eventually gets it gets easier. But I don't I don't know if it's gotten easier for me. I don't see like it's like it's like that saying things don't get easier. You just get either what is it? You get better at it or you get more accepting of it. Right? You almost develop like and this is also a bad thing. I don't look at this as a blessing, but you almost develop a hard shell. where you. I'm not going to say bitter. There's you. You just you do you develop like this hardened shell around you where, again, it makes it easier to deal with, you know, because you do a lot of I still this day, like, I still wear my clients motion stresses on me, too, you know, or so I get what you're saying there. But it helps you and Skyler go perform at another Oh, yeah. Totally. Yeah. So What you generally do. You become friends with your clients. I've a lot of my friends are past clients and I met them through real estate. So yeah, I mean. I have clients, I think I've helped their entire family. Well, at least half of it I keep. I just got a call. Another one from a distant cousin like, hey, you, you have my cousin and that. And I'm like, oh my gosh, how big is this Bobbing and weaving. yeah, yeah, yeah. Is there any like, indie notes that you think you shouldn't bring up? Talk about. Well, I don't know if we have time for, but, Yeah. No, I just want to thank you guys for, you know, We don't talk. We don't have time for what we're going to say we're going to bring out. This is in general, you can talk all you get. You talk them. Come back on. Yeah, totally. I like the hard and shell emotions on where in the emotions because I do think that's like a real thing that a lot of people deal with. So I think providing content and, tools for agents to listen to I think would be very helpful to them in the future, because that that is a real thing that never really goes away. It's it's always there for sure. So, well, anything else? Skyler, you want to close us with? I think that was good. again, thank you for allowing to be one on the team three, four years ago. And then now invite me in here to help share a little story, maybe help out an agent here or Yes. I love it. Yeah, I love it. Appreciate everybody tuning in. And like always, we'll talk to you soon.