Episode Summary
The Industrial Advisors sit down with teammate Bob Santucci and discuss the life of a broker and break down some of their daily habits and routines.
Episode Transcript
Bill Condon: Welcome everybody to another podcast. You have your host, Bill Condon and Matt McGregor, and we have another teammate-guest here today, Bob Santucci. Bob, thanks for being here. Today we want to talk about the life of a broker and what brokers do every day. What I found, guys, is that brokers are highly competitive people.
Matt McGregor: For sure.
Bill Condon: Highly competitive.
Matt McGregor: In all ways.
Bill Condon: In everything. The top brokers are even more competitive, right?
Matt McGregor: Yes.
Bill Condon: Or in every aspect of their life. Matt, you're a two-time broker of the year and do great things in all aspects of your life. Talk to me about a day in the life of Matt McGregor, work and outside of work.
Matt McGregor: For sure. That's a big, long, complicated thought. I would say I really try to break my days up into three categories from a business strategy coaching session I learned a few years ago. I tried to break them up and organize my week on Fridays for the next week and it ties into long-term goals and things. I populate my schedule with what's important.
Matt McGregor: The workouts, which are huge. Feed the mind and energy. I get those on the schedule and then I do focus days, which is business development. Buffer days, which prepare me for business development focus days. Then free days. On free days I really, truly try. That's why when you guys email me on free days, you don't get a response. That's a free day. You're not getting a response.
Bill Condon: It's good to know why we don't [inaudible 00:01:41].
Bob Santucci: I always wondered why Matt just goes radio silent on me, but it makes sense.
Matt McGregor: Yeah, that's right. As you know, I like to get up early because I'm all about efficiencies. Literally, I think about it and I'm like, "Okay, if I workout in the morning... I know, Bill, you workout in the morning. Bob, I think you do too.
Bob Santucci: I workout in the morning, yes.
Matt McGregor: I workout in the evenings because I'm like, "I got my most energy in the mornings and I want to beat the traffic," because literally it's driveway-to-driveway to my work. If I leave at 5:30 in the morning, it's 17 minutes. If I workout and I leave at 6:45, it's an hour and 10 minutes. Then you got to include the line at Starbucks. There's no line at Starbucks at 5:30.
Matt McGregor: So you start calculating all this and all of a sudden you're picking up an extra hour, hour and a half because you're not dealing with this stuff. Then I get in there and nobody's there in the morning. I feel like that first hour or so I get more done than the rest of the day. So those are some of the mental things I go through.
Bill Condon: That's great. Bob, I know you workout, like I do in the morning, and that's a big part of your life. What's a typical day look like for you?
Bob Santucci: I'm also am about efficiency. My house is a little closer than Matt's. I'm a little quicker to the office leaving a bit later. I actually built a gym in my backyard, so I do... So I am about efficiency.
Matt McGregor: That's awesome. I didn't know that.
Bob Santucci: Yeah, I got a little shed gym.
Bill Condon: Your dad helped you build that. You didn't [crosstalk 00:03:06].
Bob Santucci: Yeah, I had some help.
Matt McGregor: I'm visualizing that show, American... No, what's the other one where they're jumping [crosstalk 00:03:14].
Bob Santucci: [crosstalk 00:03:16] Ninja Warrior?
Bill Condon: [crosstalk 00:00:03:16].
Matt McGregor: [crosstalk 00:03:17] I'm visualizing this.
Bob Santucci: It's sort of like that.
Matt McGregor: That's awesome.
Bob Santucci: Yeah, it's [crosstalk 00:03:21].
Bill Condon: [crosstalk 00:03:22].
Bob Santucci: It's pull up bar. That whole deal. So I get up early, workout and then head into the office. It is really important for me to get those workouts in. There's a lot of studies around physical workouts, mental clarity and things like that. For me, it is really important to get that workout in. It gets me recharged, ready to go and attack the day. I usually roll into the office 7:00, 7:30 every day. From there, like Matt, I like to set my day. I actually will often do it the evening before. I have a larger one the Sunday before, like Matt does. But then the evening before, I'll set what I want to accomplish that next day.
Bob Santucci: For me, at this point in my career, it's still really, really, heavy business development, so I'll usually have a list of prospects that I want to target that day. Oftentimes, given all the listings we're on, there's tours and things that I have to work around. I'll have my day pretty well lined out. If I have a tour, say, at 11:00, I'll try and set a meeting down in the Valley before that tour so I can be efficient that way. The days are... there's a lot of variants because we get pulled in so many different directions. I really enjoy the variants every day and having those anchor activities. Like blocking time schedules for cold calling and that type of thing is really, really important to me.
Bill Condon: Yeah. Like you guys, I'm a planner as well. For me, my only alone time, the whole day, is bright and early when I get up and go workout.
Matt McGregor: Yeah, you have 16 kids or something?
Bill Condon: Exactly, so... No, but, that mentally... Bob you made the point. When I get up early and go run, that helps me plan the day, visualize success, go through all that mental part of the day as well. Then you're ready to roll. So my big thing is just be all in with whatever you're doing. So when you're running, or whatever you're doing, working out, be all in with that. When you're at work, be all in with work. Then, of course, I do a lot of coaching and spend a lot of time with my family as well. Matt, you mentioned segmenting different things. I, just like you, try and be the best family person I can be, the best broker I can-
Matt McGregor: And you are.
Bill Condon: So I think that stuff's important and separating those things helps me.
Matt McGregor: For sure. Tell us about your morning. There's all these different rumors. What time do you actually get up?
Bill Condon: I get up around 4:15, 4:20-ish. I do knock out a few emails and then head out. Either, I'm going to the gym... I go to the gym one day a week. I run six days a week.
Matt McGregor: You run six days a week. What is the range of those runs?
Bill Condon: Typically, my long runs, 20 miles. Usually, I have a marathon on the books and so I'm doing a 20 every week and a half every two weeks. Then most of the other runs are around 10 to 15-ish miles. I just got into it and that's helpful.
Matt McGregor: You're out there running at 4:00 in the morning, so you've been attacked by an owl, I know. Anything else? Any [inaudible 00:06:29]? Any...
Bill Condon: At that time of the morning you can see some interesting things.
Matt McGregor: I'm sure.
Bill Condon: The owl thing was probably the best story. Getting attacked by the owl. It swooped down on me twice. I think the second time I actually yelled out, "I'm under attack."
Matt McGregor: [crosstalk 00:06:45] head.
Bob Santucci: [crosstalk 00:06:47].
Bill Condon: I was by myself and no one heard me. You see some things. It's pretty interesting. I saw a guy getting arrested the other day for breaking into a car.
Matt McGregor: Wow.
Bob Santucci: Bill, did the owl survive the attack?
Bill Condon: The owl survived.
Bob Santucci: Okay, that was my question.
Bill Condon: I'm scarred for life on that now. That's what time I get up and that helps me. Getting back to the work philosophy. Matt, you, and Bob... Bob's been in the business for about five or six years and continues to elevate every single year. Matt, you've done the same thing over your 15-year career and are at the top. Matt, let's start with you. How do you constantly elevate your business to go next level? Because you guys are both... do a great job of never being satisfied with where you're at. So talk a little bit about the mindset on that.
Matt McGregor: That's a great question. I know we all have different philosophies, but I think we share the same direction on it. To your note earlier, Bill, we're competitive so it doesn't matter what we did a couple of years ago or last year. You're competitive right now. Our whole team did really well last year, but we have the mindset of, "January 1st started, were tied for last place," right?
Bill Condon: That's right.
Matt McGregor: "So, we got to go." I start every day with a little positive reading every single day. Quite often, I'll read a quick scripture and then I'll read some industry quotes, something to better my knowledge of the industry. Then I'll read some motivational quotes or watch a quick YouTube video. As you guys know, I shot you out one this morning that kind of answers your question. The quote was, "Sailboats don't move by yesterday's wind."
Matt McGregor: What we did yesterday does not matter. It's what we're doing today and tomorrow that's going to push us forward. I am a big proponent of education, higher education, learning more and more tools of our trade that separate us from our competition, being around positive people and listening to positive things. Positive podcasts, like ours, and a lot of positive things to get your mindset out of that daily routine as much as possible.
Matt McGregor: I go to a lot of different conferences, a lot of different coaching things to just get out of that daily routine so you don't create that same rut. You see brokers that do that and all of a sudden, 15, 20 years later, they're doing the same thing they did when they were 26. I didn't want to be that guy. I always want to be an innovator. I'm always super competitive going... When I go into a pitcher or when I go and do a presentation, I want those guys to go, "Wow. How do they think of that?" I want to be that guy so I'm driven by that to be the best from that standpoint.
Bill Condon: That's a great answer. You mentioned one thing... Bob, I'll kick it over to you in a second. The whole positive energy thing to me is super, super important. We are really lucky as a team and at [Colliers 00:09:46] because we don't have negative people here, right?
Matt McGregor: That's right.
Bill Condon: When you surround yourself with a positive environment, positive people and people that believe that they can go do whatever they want to do, that elevates everybody. With our team, specifically, you never hear anybody negative. That, I think, elevates all of us.
Matt McGregor: That's right.
Bill Condon: Bob, talk to me a little bit about your mindset and how you've continued to progress, like you have, from being rookie of the year to having career years every year since.
Bob Santucci: Sure. The positivity is huge. Being on this team, being with you guys and learning from you and your experience has been massive for me. It's been a complete game changer. I've looked at friends or I've had friends in the industry that start to let that negativity creep in. You hear it and it's subtle at first. It's just blaming someone else when something doesn't go their way.
Bob Santucci: Being on such a positive team and always having that at the forefront, listening to a podcast and books that really instill that positive mindset, I pick up on it right away. It's funny, I have this intuition. I'll hear it or I in the past I've heard it with other young brokers and I go, "Gosh, they're not trending in the right direction." Then you'll see they're out of the business.
Bill Condon: That's right.
Matt McGregor: [crosstalk 00:11:00].
Bob Santucci: You guys, being 15-year industry veterans, have probably seen that even more-
Matt McGregor: For sure.
Bob Santucci: And, Bill, being on the management side as well you probably see that, not so much at Colliers, but you've seen it.
Bill Condon: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bob Santucci: So, for me, it's maintaining that positive mindset. I think our last podcast that I was on we talked about business development, cold calling came up a lot. It's amazing how different your day is when you step into it with that, "I'm going to go win," and have that mentality of, "I don't care about the nose, I'm going to go through it and I'm going to keep trying." Keeping that out at the forefront of my mind has been really important. I get that from you guys and then I also get a lot of it from podcasts, books I read.
Bob Santucci: I read a lot of sales books. We talked about the Dave Hibbard training. That was really valuable for me. I've been to a couple of his trainings now. He's fantastic. I can attribute a handful of deals directly to Dave Hibbard. He's been a fantastic influence for me. It's those kinds of things and really it's just the positive environment we've created on this team that, for me being a younger broker, has been invaluable and has led to my success.
Matt McGregor: That's awesome.
Bill Condon: Yeah, that's a great answer. You mentioned a couple of things there. I think how you show up and I don't mean just walking into the office. Are you really present? Are you really showing up everyday given 100%? When I interview somebody, when someone's trying to get into the business, do they come in with energy, do they come in with passion, or are they just going through the motions? Because you can't fake energy and passion. When you have it you can really be successful.
Bill Condon: The other part you mentioned was winning. I think that what I've noticed, the best brokers are focused on winning, not focused on money. The money will come, of course, with wins, but the best of the best are so focused on winning business and beating their competition in a good and the right way. But the winning part. Those that are driven by that and continue to be are at the top of their game.
Matt McGregor: That's right. And speaking on top of the game, you too, Bill. You're a phenomenal leader. You're a leader in the city. Tell us a little bit about your mindset with that. You're a busy guy, right?
Bill Condon: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Matt McGregor: You're a top broker, you're a team leader, you're leading Colliers, you're an industry leader, you're coaching several teams for youth sports, and suddenly you go and decide that you're going to go get a master's of science degree in supply chain. Why that? What feeds you? You're already successful. Why crowd your mind with that? What are you doing?
Bill Condon: Yeah, good question. Well, one, I think it's being surrounded by like-minded people like you guys and in our other teammates that are always trying to push it. Constantly, I'm trying to think about how can we go next level? What can we do to push our business to the next level? So getting a master's degree can help us with that. You don't want to go get a master's just so you can say you have a master's. You want to get it so you can help your clients and help your team grow, right?
Matt McGregor: That's right.
Bill Condon: That's exactly why we did that. I don't want to be plugging 10 to 12 hours a week into a master's program, but we're doing it because it makes us better, right?
Matt McGregor: For sure.
Bill Condon: You have to do those things. Otherwise, you're like, potentially, the people that you mentioned earlier where you're doing the same thing you did 15 years ago. Then with respect to the family, the coaching and everything else. When you're passionate about that stuff, it's easy, right?
Matt McGregor: Right.
Bill Condon: You love to do it, like you guys. So the coaching, being with the family, that's what drives me to do everything else. Being with your family, that's my big motivator and one that drives the work ethic as well.
Matt McGregor: That's awesome.
Bill Condon: We touched on a lot today, but I think one of big things that we want to leave with is the importance of positivity and surrounding yourself with the right people and so hopefully you found this podcast to be helpful. We're going to do plenty more and appreciate everybody listening in. We'll look forward to the next one.
Matt McGregor: Thank you very much.
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