Hometown: Denver, Colorado, USA.
Juan Munoz, Local Real Estate Agent & Expert in Denver, Colorado, recently wrote an international best selling book, Referral Secrets, to teach agents how to grow their business through relationships and referrals in their community.
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Best quote from his story: “Everybody should be treated the same regardless of their ethnicity or diversity. This helped propel me into real estate further as I knew I could do better than that!”
Juan’s business philosophy: “The heart of my business is being of service and providing value at every opportunity. I need my clients to trust me as they are investing in one of the largest investments of their lifetime.”
Testimonials
We cannot say enough good things about Juan. He literally went the extra 20 miles for us during the entire home-selling process. He truly was a full-service realtor and went above and beyond to make it as minimally intrusive in our lives and get us the highest profits we didn’t even think were possible. I would recommend Juan to anyone looking for a home – in any financial situation – with any preferences – because he will work hard to help you find your dream home and advise you throughout the process as if you were family. If you are looking to buy or sell, choose Juan – and let his hard work ethic, loyalty, and ingenuity work for you and your home sale. ~ Allison T.
When I say that Juan was a Godsend for our family, this is not an exaggeration. Our family was looking for a new home for nearly 6 months and continued to lose homes (primarily in Midtown), despite making aggressive offers. We knew that Juan was a reputable realtor and a well-connected, Midtown expert. So we reached out to Juan hoping that he might know of some more homes coming up that met our needs. Juan very quickly connected us with multiple sellers, and we ultimately went under contract on one of them. We could not be happier with our home (our favorite of any we had seen in Midtown) or more thankful to have had Juan’s help. If you want to buy or sell, Juan is who you should contact! ~ Steph T.
We really enjoyed working with Juan. He’s very dedicated to his clients and works hard to make the selling process as simple as possible. Our home sold quickly at our asking price, we were thrilled! Definitely recommend! ~ Kali O.
More about Juan
Juan is someone who brings a smile and positive energy to any situation. His passion is to help others chase their dreams, whether it is personally, in business, or in fulfilling their dreams of home ownership.
Juan loves the whole process of real estate and has a genuine interest in hearing people out to figure out their needs to better customize his service to them. He is well-grounded and has a service mentality which you will see by the way he takes care of his clients. His professionalism, responsiveness, attention to detail, and listening skills are unparalleled. Real estate isn’t about him, it is about you and your needs. This all comes from his heart and daily dedication to continual learning and studying the real estate market. He openly says he is addicted to coffee and real estate and his PASSION shows!
Outside of real estate, Juan was previously a NASA engineer who once spoke to an Astronaut on the cell phone while still in orbit. Juan loves sports, spending time with his family hiking, snowboarding, going on road trips, having dance parties with his daughter, running around with his son, and spending time with his lovely wife. You will also find Juan involved in his community and volunteering his time.
Interview with Juan Munoz
Grant Findlay-Shirras (GFS): What’s up everyone? Welcome to another episode of Become a Local Leader.
On today’s show, we have Juan Munoz, one of the authors of the new international bestselling real estate book “Referral Secrets,” a book that features the stories of 23 top-producing agents, who through their story share their strategies and their advice on how to grow a real estate business and be a successful business owner. Because that is what you are if you’re a realtor: you’re more than just a realtor, you’re a business owner.
And one of the themes that you’ll notice in the book is that all these agents work super hard. They spend time mastering their craft and they focus on giving value to people before they talk about business. And Juan has an amazing story that if you’re an immigrant watching or listening to this, I’m positive you’ll get some golden nuggets so that you can be successful in your career.
So thank you Juan for being on this show and contributing to the book.
Juan has a really cool background. I’ve never seen this before. He was once a NASA engineer who once spoke to an astronaut on a cellphone while they were in orbit, and he’s got a really inspirational story for how he became a really successful real estate agent, who really had to figure it out and do it all himself.
GFS: So why don’t you give people a story kind of about your background, who you are, how’d you get into real estate and why did you get into real estate?
JM: Yeah. Before I get into that, people are probably like ‘hey, what’s the story with talking to an astronaut on the ground?’ That’s more entertaining to captivate the audience. We’re doing a milestone celebration at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, that’s where I’m originally from. The mission evaluation room manager was there, her name was Kirsten.
And we’re just there eating, talking and she said ‘hey Juan.’ I said ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ She said: ‘want to talk to an astronaut?’ I’m like ‘OK.’ She said ‘yeah, he’s in orbit right now.’ I was like ‘What? He’s in space right now and he’s on the phone?’ And she was like ‘yeah, want to talk to him?’ And I was like ‘yeah!’
So I was like ‘you’re in space right now?’ and he was like ‘yeah, could you tell me a bit about you? Thank you for all that you do down there and the mission evaluation and keeping us safe up here.’
And I was like ‘you’re welcome?’ Yeah and he’s said ‘we appreciate what you guys are doing down there.’ I was an electrical engineer is what I did, checking out the power and making sure all our hardware was in working order.
So he said ‘We appreciate your hard work down there.’
‘No problem yeah. So you’re in space…right now?’
GFS: What’s your view?
JM: So I said ‘yeah you’re welcome,’ and I give it back to Kirsten and she was kind of laughing. And I was like ‘oh man.’ And then in the back of my mind, I was like ‘I wonder what the rates are and for data usage?’ But anyway, you know, that’s the story with that.
GFS: That’s cool. I mean to be a part of NASA. That’s a really cool part of your story. So please, yeah, tell us…
JM: A quick background of me. Like you were saying: so I’m the firstborn of my siblings. And of course, I always had that role of being like the role model and such. Anyway. I ended up going and studying electrical engineering. I went to Texas A&M for my undergrad, with a business minor.
Then I went to work for Boeing on the 787 Dreamliner. I did that for three and a half years. But while I was there I got my master’s at Washington State and after that, going from three and a half years there where I actually met my wife…We had a one-year long-distance relationship because she didn’t want to come to Houston where I got a job on the NASA International Space Station. That’s where the transition went to.
She didn’t come for a year. We had a long-distance relationship. Then she got a job, she’s an engineer too by the way. I met her on the softball field at Boeing. So if anybody wants to find their future wife, go to intramural softball.
GFS: That’s why you’ve got to join those softball leagues!
JM: Yeah softball leagues, golf. Whatever you want to do. Get out there.
Anyway, so…After six and a half years working on the NASA International Space Station, I then got a job with Sierra Nevada Corporations in Centennial, Colorado. You know, all the secret clearance stuff and bonuses and all that. And then I was actually introduced to real estate because in Houston our friend was doing roofing and construction and renovations as a general contractor.
And I got into, like, the investment side of things. After reading books about who’s successful the common theme was that they had real estate in their portfolio. So I was like ‘well, I need to have what that common theme was.’
So I looked into the wholesaling thing, and real estate in general, and I ended up getting my license while in Colorado. And because I wanted to save when I did a Fix and Flip, I [would] sell it myself and just learn the ins and outs as an engineer brain. I wanted the ins and outs of everything. Then more and more people came to me. It was from referrals and helping them buy and sell. They saw me being active in flipping and the investing side and they wanted to pick my brain on that. But then they came into the buy-and-sell side of things.
And it ended up where I got so busy doing this part-time that I basically did a lot better than most full-time agents. It made sense to quit engineering and go full-time as a realtor and it’s been high velocity ever since. Most of my business is referrals and of course from online people who see my reviews and such.
It’s been great and it’s a rollercoaster as you people know out there in real estate. But you got to ride that momentum when you have it, so…
GFS: There are a lot of cool things you said there that happened. The first one is the theme to be wealthy. And real estate is a theme that you see over and over and over again. There are themes of how to be successful. And it sometimes boggles my mind that people don’t really look for or notice those themes, and then rip off and duplicate and copy those themes. And then they’re wondering why they’re not successful.
What would you say are some of those themes you learned that this is what other people are doing to be successful so this is why I do these things?
JM: Yeah. So I do a lot of self-development and motivational stuff and books. I will show you my whole thing, but I can’t with the camera over here. But I have all these books that I have: of course, a lot of them are real-estate related. But a lot of them are like self-discipline, motivational type things.
So some of those themes, to answer your question, are getting up at five in the morning, five-thirty in the morning, and going to the gym as your first thing. I do it before my kids wake up at 7. So I get there and ideally I wake up say 5:05. I’m at the gym working out say 5:30 and I work out 5:30 to 6:50 and then leave to be home at 7 and then, you know, wake up the kids. Get them ready and the whole routine. I do one part, and my wife does another part.
And she leaves at 7:30 to take our son to daycare and then I take my daughter at 7:45 to school that is in my neighborhood. That’s the ideal setup. But that sets you up for the whole day, waking up and getting all that stuff. And not making excuses.
Because I think the foundation – one of the foundations – is being healthy, feeling good about yourself and the endorphins kick in. And getting all that stuff done before 9 a.m. Because it still gives me time from 7:45 to 9, to make calls that are urgent or answer emails or whatever I need to do before most people even start their day.
So I think that right there is a theme that has really helped me with my business or overall being. And still being part of a family helping my wife, being a team, and still seeing my kids. As a realtor, some people say that the ones who are really busy – like right now I have four listings and two parties under contract – and even this is like the ‘downtime,’ like November 2022 and interest [rates] are up. But I’m still busy and I’m grateful for that. And I still want to ride the momentum. You never know what could happen.
GFS: Now you started off part-time. That’s the other thing I wanted to talk about. Now a lot of agents start off part-time because it’s not a consistent paycheck and there’s unsure and they have a consistent job. They kind of want to get into real estate for various reasons. But then a lot of people struggle to be successful part-time. They aren’t able to go full-time. You made that switch and there are two things I find are important for someone to be able to make that switch. One is doing certain things when you’re part-time to be able to start making enough money to feel confident in going full-time.
Then, when you get to that point, your brain starts playing tricks on you with the fears and the doubts and the worries start stepping in. And you’ve got to overcome those to actually, now, make that shift. So you do the work first not even thinking about full time saying ‘let me just be successful part-time.’ And then you’re like ‘hm, I’m getting close,’ and then the stuff comes in. So can you speak to part-time agents out there who want to be successful and want to go full-time? How do they do that?
JM: Of course, to each their own. If you’re OK with doing three to ten transactions a year because you love your full-time job, I mean great. Stay with that. But if you know that – if you’re like me – when you realize that wheeling and dealing and every day is a different day? For me, that’s what I actually like about real estate. That was my passion and that was what I needed and what I was good at.
I did like profiles, the Myers-Briggs assessments, and all those things. And basically in summary they all alluded to the fact that I’m good at sales and people, communicating, and all of that.
But to answer your question, my wife was actually against it. You know ‘well, why can’t you just do both? It’s a steady thing and you’ve done engineering for so long. Why quit?’
In my head, I was like ‘well, I have to convince her.’ So first I had to like show her the results of all the sales and money and what have you. But also that the systems are going to be consistent. So there’s a certain system that you have to implement, whether the lead generation, the follow-up, the scripts, and always investing in yourself and furthering your knowledge. And never be complacent. I’ve always been big to continue to get better, continue to learn, and be humble. You have to realize that you don’t know what you don’t know. So you always have to, like you say, rip off and replicate from other people that are being successful and implement those things.
Not just look at webinars and conferences: actual implementation.
So and also I had to save up a good amount of money for emergency expenses so my wife is not worried if something were to happen with the real estate career. That’s there. So saving up enough money for nine to 12 months. Having the systems in place so you can get replicated and know the results you’re going to get from being able to do transactions. And just always invest in yourself and continue to develop.
What’s big for me and what’s really worked for me is building relationships with people and having genuine care about them. Learning more about them and what’s important for them. Whether it’s real estate, whether it’s family, whether it’s their career. And just kind of adding value where I can.
And just building the relationships that have been the key thing for me and adding value. Because I’ve worked so hard on my craft, the skills that I find out ‘oh well, I didn’t know that.’ This is a trend, this is happening. So because I’m still an engineer in my background I still like to add the numbers, the analytics, and everything on top of the human touch, of course, and genuine connection with people.
GFS: This is really good and I’ll get to some of that. Especially about how to give value, and how to genuinely connect. You know, it’s one thing to talk about – we’ll get into ways that you do it, things that you think about to do it when you’re in that moment – but first there are certain things I got to do. Hopefully, I like doing it. But I might not like doing it and I find it’s the dislike that holds the agent back. Because they either don’t do them or they don’t get over that feeling around it. And I find, I imagine just, the person you are and in the fact you read lots of books on self-development, you’ve learned to love more parts of real estate. And you’ve learned to figure out how to do the things that you need to do to get the result you want to get and remove some feelings sometimes.
Is there a system for doing that? Is there self-talk for doing? How does one do it? Because that is, I think, holding people back.
JM: No, so I wanted to say that maybe the most common thing people have struggled with is making phone calls, right, and having a follow-up. They say I guess, ‘success is in the follow-up,’ or ‘fortune is in the follow-up,’ is the saying. And they say to follow up at least five to seven times before you really connect.
Anyways, to answer your question: a lot of people of course are not the favorite thing to do to keep calling and reaching out and everything. But the mindset trick to try to trick myself or tell myself is ‘I need to get in front of them because I am the best at what I do. Because it would be a disservice to them that I allow them to use somebody else, when I know I can do the best job and I really do care and I am the best agent for them, who really listens to them and gets them the best deals. Really.’
And that’s how you’ve got to think about it. You’ve just got to flip it. Like, you almost have like a moral human obligation to be there for them even though nobody wants to be ‘sold.’ So you’ve got to approach it as like ‘hey, I genuinely care and I am the best person to help you.’
And some people don’t want to give you the chance, but that’s why you have to follow up because you know in your heart and your mind and your soul, your spirit, whatever, that you are the best person in the job and you will go above and beyond. That’s the big thing with me. I’ve done a lot of above-and-beyond stuff. They’re like ‘oh wow, you do that?’ Yeah, I’m doing it and my other fellow agents are like ‘why would you do that?’ Well, it just had to be done. That’s how I gain my five-star reviews and my referrals and everything, right?
GFS: I love that answer. It’s like why am I able to sell my product or service better than anyone else, well because I believe in it, I have a strong conviction around it, and I think we are the best solution out there to help. Now the business I’m in we help agents with their business, but before that, I was in fitness, and before that, I was in events.
And I want to hear it from you. What were the things you did or a moment where that belief or conviction kicked in? Was it subsequent activities or results that led you to have that conviction or belief ‘I know I’m so great and so that’s why I’ve got to talk to those people because I believe in what I can offer them?’ How did you get there?
JM: Along the road, you hear stories of other people and what their agents did. Some really bad, some are not so bad, and some are OK, but I would have done this differently. And of course, I don’t ever bash someone else and I just kind of say ‘well, I would’ve done it this way and I think this way.’ You’ve got to be politically correct, right, because the thing is you don’t want to bash people. This industry is so big yet it’s so little.
They say 20% of the agents do 80% of the work or get a lot of those transactions.
Like you were saying earlier, most people fail. I think people say different numbers, but say 87 to 90% of people fail their first year or second year, or third year. They don’t make it. So really you have to believe in yourself to develop, but also like you were saying you have to believe that you’re the best person.
And when I hear all these stories from before of, like…I am not like that and this is more of a reason why I do what I do because the house buying or selling is, if not the biggest one of the biggest transactions in their lives. And I have a huge role in them getting equity, selling for net profit, and really transforming their lives, possibly. So I take that very seriously.
And so when I hear about lazy agents or realtors and things to just get the deal done. I just feel ‘yuck.’ I need to get in front of them because I could have done this much differently, right, so…
GFS: What I hear from you and what I’ve experienced is; one, it takes time. You know you can’t expect crazy belief and conviction in yourself on day one because you haven’t done the self-development, you haven’t done any deals yet and you haven’t even studied the market that much. And the more you study the market, the more you study how to be successful, the more you do things for other people, do things for your clients, and get results for your clients, that belief and conviction will grow. And it will grow faster if you study more and do more. And that’s what I kind of want to get into, right –
JM: Implement it –
GFS: Yeah, not just think about it and study, but implement it and do it. So it sounds like what I want people to hear are what are the things you do for people that you find other agents aren’t doing? And maybe even before they hire you, what are the things you do for people to build that relationship so that they refer and hire you? What are the things you do for your clients that other agents don’t seem to do that you think help you get more referrals and help you create that flywheel and growth in your business?
JM: Yeah, so I’ll always try to become a person of value to add value. Even though I know they’re not selling for, whatever, two years, five years, ten years. Maybe they just bought and they’re super happy where they’re at. Maybe they just asked something online whether it’s your neighborhood group or their personal page about ‘oh how I’m having trouble finding a contractor, they don’t return my calls.’ It’s like ‘oh I have a couple of contractors who give me preference because I gave them so much work.’ Then they’re there the next day or week and they’re already starting to work. And then I’m their hero because I made that happen. So something of value: that’s an example.
Another thing was, like, before going under contract on anything prepping their house I was like their general contractor almost in facilitating all these different things, and even one example I had was like me painting their front fence and that was curb appeal. They didn’t want to do that and were like ‘that’s fine.’ And I said ‘no we have to do that.’ And I was out there painting their front fence.
And he actually posted that: ‘does your realtor do that? Mine does.’ And a lot of people said different things, right? Then I’m going down into the crawl space and there was a leak and it was really nasty and I even got a little bit of a rash from it and everything.
But also just engaging with people and helping them out in any way possible. Preparing for the kid’s birthday and what are the good ideas for a play place, and then I direct message them ‘oh this is what I think are the rates,’ and I even look it up for myself if I don’t know. They say ‘oh that was awesome, how did you know about this place? I thought it would be really expensive.’ I just say ‘well, great, happy birthday!’ Do you know? Things that make you memorable, I would say.
And you just have a genuine care that you’re doing this and they remember you because you’re still posting online or under contract, or just sold this and you know, yes you want to still do those things so they know that you’re actually producing, being busy and showing results and trying to get reviews always from people. Because people always look at that online. Even though Joe Blow says to Sally Johnson ‘you should use Juan, he was great for me.’ Sally Johnson is still going to look online and see what you’re all about.
GFS: I think that’s one of the things I’ve talked to agents about. Because everyone says they want referrals. It’s the best kind of business. They want referrals. So how do I get more referrals? And I say ‘give referrals.’ And you kind of touched on that. And I wonder if maybe there’s a specific story where you can share where it’s like ‘hey, I referred this person to products they needed, services they needed, people they needed to something that helped improve their life and then lo and behold they became my client and referred me business after.
Do you have a specific story that you can share that exemplifies the idea of being a referral-giver in order to start actually receiving?
JM: Yeah, I mean for me most of the stories would be contracting-type work. Because it seems like there are contractors that will never return your calls and never show up, or act like they’ll take the quote but they never come. I’ve had personal relationships with contractors. I’m bilingual, so of course, I jive with them and talk with them in Spanish. I actually hang out with my contractors, you know? Like, for me I’m from a blue-collar family. My dad was a pipefitter, which he still does and my mom cleaned houses. I actually even helped her clean houses, right? So that grit, that type of hard work always stayed with me to where, now, for me even though I’ve done really well, I know where I come from, my roots. And I treat everybody the same.
You know, I recently had a $1.3 million home but then three weeks later I have a $225,000 one-bedroom condo. And that lady told me that other agents she worked with gave up on her and never returned her calls because there wasn’t much out there. And on my second day taking her out – maybe it was luck, I don’t know – we made this awesome deal under contract. We actually closed on Tuesday the next week.
So it’s just, for me, when you can and in the example, I told you, but that’s been kind of the trend on referrals but also say I had a friend that has a bakery and I refer my friend that does baking and she ended up using me to get a record sale price in the neighborhood then she referred me to other people. And I keep on referring her for all her baked goods and everything. And she’s a big socialite and everything so that’s been really great for me as well. But we also have a great genuine connection and friendship, so.
GFS: I think it’s super important, especially now in today’s economy, when people work with ParkBench it’s about, like, connecting with the community and connecting with small business owners and connecting with contractors. Not only because they’re a person, they have a house, they could become a client, they could refer a business. But then, you might need them. And if you have a relationship with them, or if you are interested in building a relationship with them, then you can count on them to help your clients should they need it, because if you don’t maybe your client is now without a contractor because they’re not showing up, because they’re not caring. Right? These relationships matter for your service as well as for your business.
And you seem to, I’ve read in your story, getting involved in the community…Involved in your neighborhood. What are some ideas from what you’ve done and what you’ve seen has really worked that you can share with agents out there? If you want to get involved in your community more, here are some ways to do it.
JM: There are a lot of different things. I actually have a golf cart in my garage and I just golf cart around the neighborhood. And I see people on the patio and I stop and say hello or say ‘oh you’re open, invite me for a happy hour haha.’ And some people say ‘oh sure, have a drink,’ you know. But the other events that I’ve actually done, where I’ll meet and greet new neighbors. So yeah, they just bought it. They’re not going to buy or sell with you, but you’re facilitating them feeling part of the community, feeling good to meet other neighbors. You know a bunch of the neighbors and you learn a bunch of the common interests of the person that’s new. Like ‘oh actually she needs…’ ‘You know, Bob over here, he also likes pickleball. And he’s actually in a league. You should join his league!’ ‘Oh wow, OK I didn’t know there was a league near here.’ ‘Yeah, hey, Bob…’ You know?
I’m a huge facilitator of people with common interests. And as you say, people are sitting at their own at a table and I say ‘hey, come over here.’ And they’ll sit down and be so glad. And these are the same people that just bought or they’ve been there a long time. But they remember that. And even though they’re not buying or selling, they’re going to refer you out to other people, or remember you.
And then also other events? I’m part of the social committee in the neighborhood. I do my events as a relative but also as the social committee for the neighborhood. We did like a chili cookoff event. We did a Halloween costume contest and I was one of the three judges for the kid’s costume contests in different categories. We’ve done a movie night. We’ve done where we donate clothes or things we can and I join up with the neighborhood brewery they get you a dollar off your beer if you bring in a canned good. July 4th bike parade. I lead the bike parade with my golf cart and I lead a big pack of kids that do a little loop around the neighborhood and end up at the neighborhood park. Or the ice cream truck shows up and there’s also like, maybe, dogs and burgers being cooked under the canopies.
Or another time where it’s a volleyball tournament and they set up the volleyball tournament and everybody signs up to do that.
GFS: One of the things that agents fear is that they take on too much or they think to themselves ‘I’m so busy with my family, my business, I got all these things I’ve got to do.’ And I wonder why the reason why they don’t get involved enough, don’t volunteer enough, is because many of them haven’t thought how to choose where to volunteer, where to get involved, what to say yes to, what to say no to. Do you have a decision-making framework for ‘I will say yes to these things, here’s how I know that I should do it and I want to do it? I will say yes to these volunteering or community involvements and I’ll say no to these things because it doesn’t meet these criteria.’ Do you have a framework for how you decide?
JM: Well first, I want to be able to enjoy myself, right? And that’s one of the criteria, I guess. I’m not going to do it just because I want to do business potentially. No. You actually have to enjoy it, and have a common interest with whatever that event is, with other people. Because the thing is you want to work with people who are your ideal avatars you could say.
If someone is super anti-social and rude you probably don’t want them as a client. I have the luxury of saying no. I’ve said no to people. When I met them they just felt entitled or disrespectful or something. And not listening to my advice. So I’m like ‘hey, I’m not a great fit, but I can set you up with someone that might be a better fit.’ So really, what values you have, if that’s important to you, you stick to them.
So for me, for these community events, I do what I think I can and I do events that are maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday ideally. Because Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are when you’re showing homes and open houses or whatnot. So I tend to do these on Tuesday or Wednesday because I’m more prone to be open. When people, after work, say after 5 o’clock on Tuesday or Wednesday, I do a certain event.
And then for some reason, something collides? I already have something set up like a colleague: ‘hey can you take these people out? I’ll pay you whatever amount because I already had this setup.’ So the criteria is to enjoy it, to be exposed to more people, and to get involved. You don’t want to do the same exact thing for the same exact people all the time unless you really, really enjoy it and you don’t mind and it’s your passion.
But yeah the criteria is having fun, meeting a lot more people, and be sure that you’re not going to cancel last minute.
GFS: All this sounds like hard work, you know? Being successful is hard work and I have found a lot of the newer, maybe younger, agents, think they’re working hard but they’re not actually. And I wonder if you’ve noticed that and if you were able to be an objective coach or mentor and be like ‘OK, here’s the sign that you’re not – that you can work harder, that you have another gear, you have another level, therefore you can have more success. That you shouldn’t be saying ‘oh my God I’m so busy and I’m working so hard, why am I not making money and being successful?’ Because there’s another level that they’re just not seeing or missing out on. Have you ever noticed that in other agents?
JM: I think, you know, the Law of Attraction and manifest positivity, your aura? I’m big on good energy and for me, I’m always smiling and happy-go-lucky. I’m fun and all of that, and so … for me, I think all the foundational stuff of eating right, working out, doing all that, that affects your aura and good energy and other things.
Yes, I work a lot of hours. I work seven days a week. I almost thought about hiring a part-time assistant for all this contract work I’ve got. But in the end, I was like ‘no,’ because there were all these rules and stuff. And I ended up making things work.
But for me, yes, sometimes you think that you’re working hard and you like the idea of success and if money’s a big driver, great. But, you don’t want to actually do what’s necessary to get to where you envision yourself to be. Because yeah, it can be hard at times.
For me, even, there’s been times that I’ve been stressed out or, you know, not as motivated at times and all that. But no, I say there are always ups and downs. As long as you’re doing the right thing whether someone’s looking or not. Doing the right thing, genuinely, not just because you want a commission. People sense that.
So if you’re just doing the right thing and you’re doing something you enjoy and you see other people enjoy, things will fall into place. Whether it’s right now or not, because you haven’t had a sale in thirty days, but also something compounds the next thirty days and now you have four sales all of a sudden. Because you’re still building those connections and reaching out to other people. But you continue to build those relationships.
You can’t just ‘oh I met this person, this person, they’re going to for sure use me because I met ‘em once. No, it’s over time and making connections, really getting to know them, and just having fun and doing things that you also enjoy doing. And eventually, things will happen. Don’t do it with the target of ‘oh I want to get this.’
No, you’re doing stuff because you like it anyway.
GFS: What are the best investments you’ve ever made in your business? Like when you think about investments of your time or money? So, like I’ve put my time over here and I’m so happy I did. I put in my money and was so happy I did. What have been some of those?
JM: I guess I would say from the money perspective, the money I invested in coaching. As agents, we get bombarded with coaching modules and all this. And I’ve spent a good amount of money on looking at different things and trying different things.
But I think it’s a process of you having to go through that. But you get golden nuggets. One or two or three things that are key that just click through and you can use that to implement in your business.
And then you go to another one, and maybe a different coach that you end up liking what their approach is and you do that all the way. Don’t just do half. Do it all the way if you’re going to do it. And actually implement, because those people maybe are successful because they’ve done something that worked for them that may not work for you.
So from the money side, I would say some type of training or modules or professional one-on-one coaching is good from that side. And also when I’m working out I have these big earphones and I go work out in them. So I’m multitasking. Whether it’s self-motivation, self-discipline or real estate books or market updates, and such. I do that while working out: to multitask.
So for me, I’m always thinking about what can I do to get this done that I need to do anyway while I’m doing something else. It’s all about efficiency for me. Sometimes you don’t want to do anything. You want to relax in a giant sauna and just have five minutes to clear your head. That’s good too, so don’t get me wrong. I’m not just a machine, right? Sometimes I put my phone down.
But from the time investment, I would say I don’t do too much imitation but sometimes I do some breathing exercises, some stretching, and working out is a big thing for me, just working out getting those endorphins and sweat going. That really helps get the day rolling for me. That’s key for me.
So people like getting chiropractic adjustments with monthly massages, manicures, and pedicures. I rarely do that, but I am overdue for one now [laughs]. So let’s see.
JM: You know, I have other businesses that are passive, and if you want to do something else that helps you gain money or have passive money so you’re not as ‘stressed’ with your real estate or have to do commission prep. Then do that.
Let’s say you’re good at day trading or e-commerce, or doing Lyft, because then you won’t be as stressed for your next transaction. Whatever works for you, what’s important to you. Everybody has different stresses in their family, don’t have family, what have you.
GFS: What are your go-to sources for real estate and market knowledge? To be a smart agent and know the market what are your go-to sources?
JM: I have followed this one mortgage lady and this one title lady and they do weekly market updates. They have in-depth reports with graphs and videos and all that. That’s one. So everybody has their own people that they find good.
And then I also look at my MLS articles out of Colorado and the articles they put out every day. And then do the training that they offer through the MLS.
And then through my Denver metro station realtors, they get a lot of articles and videos. I do those.
And then I look at different coaching modules that I’ve bought over time and just try to do some of their modules. Some other people they’re on YouTube. I have a YouTube channel but I haven’t done it in a long time, but I need to get back on it.
Instagram stuff, actually I have a virtual assistant out of the Philippines that I get to do Canva social media graphics and such and cold calling for me for people to sell or buy and certain scripts that I’ve trained her with and all that.
GFS: I could ask you a bunch more questions. This has been an extremely valuable [interview]. There are lots of notes. You can look at the transcription and the blog later. You can watch it again, hopefully. Hopefully, everyone listening and watching took notes.
The book’s got a lot of cool stories, and a lot of cool strategies from a whole bunch of other people. You know, when you think about the book and you think about yourself when you first got started in real estate – because there’s a lot of content out there – and an agent’s got to figure out why I should, you know, buy this book or listen to this person. What are the things you think are the most valuable reasons why people should pick up this book?
JM: I would say everybody’s different. So reading all the different stories they can pull what’s key to them and what’s more relatable to them. And I think that would be the key thing about this book because it’s not just Juan. It’s not just Diane Restless. It’s not just Glenda. Anyway, you get the point. You tend to relate to some other people more than others, right? Hopefully, you can relate to me out there.
I would say that’s the key. What works for one person may not work for the other person. There are some common themes that you alluded to before that you may end up putting the patterns together when you read all the stories of everybody. So that’s kind of where the value is in learning what other people are doing.
And then implementing whatever you think will work best in your market or for your personality. So implement it and see how that goes. But don’t just tiptoe into it, right? Learn about it and educate yourself while doing it the right way, whatever that strategy or thing is. And then doing it all in as opposed to ‘oh I did it for a couple of days or a couple of weeks and it didn’t work.’ It takes six to 12 months every month consistently before you get a return on your investment.
Other strategies may take less time than that or more than that, so.
GFS: It’s one of the reasons why we’ve done this book and twice now, is one having worked with thousands and thousands of agents over the years, there are different types of agents, and archetypes, different values that people have. So the people out there who are the coaches, influences, gurus, I mean they’re one voice, one perspective. And having so many different types of perspectives of different people of different values makes it more likely that we’re going to get value from a book.
The second reason is that everyone’s markets are different, so reading stories from people in different markets can help people grow their business.
But number three, different time. So this book, we all wrote post-COVID whereas the other book was written pre-COVID. And the world’s different. The world changes, and the market is different.
And so this is book is made for everyone trying to grow their business in 2022 and 2023. So I really appreciate you being in the book, contributing, and being a leader to show people a better way of doing real estate. I mean there are ways of making money, but then you wonder if that’s good for the image of a realtor as an industry and also if it’s good for the profitability and sanity of a business owner. It seems you are having a ton of fun with your business and growing it, and I think that’s super important that people grow the business they want to grow but also have fun and feel good doing it.
If people do connect and they do resonate with you and they want to either join your team, build a relationship with you for referrals because agent name referrals are a big thing, how can they get in touch with you?
JM: So I have my Instagram it’s @JuanMunozRealEstate. Or my wife’s website is www.homesindenvernow.com also just Google me, Juan Munoz, or Denver realtor Juan Munoz you’ll see me. And you might actually see my Yahoo Business or Bloomberg Business article and the tagline is “rocket scientist turned realtor.” I have other articles too but those are my two most popular ones. And of course now this Amazon bestseller, so that’s great. If I never became a real estate agent or did realty I wouldn’t be an Amazon bestseller or be on Bloomberg business or Yahoo business or sitting here talking, so.
GFS: I’m excited to hear more success from you and just thank you again and everyone watching. I encourage you to be more than just a realtor, be a leader for your community. Not only is it a ton of fun and very fulfilling but it will help you with your business and your career. Take care.
How to contact Juan
http://instagram.com/juanmunozrealestate