WELCOME LISTENERS

[00:00:00] Paul Neal: Welcome today, entrepreneurial agent listeners. Today I have this, the distinct honor and privilege of inviting and listening to as a guest today, Kelly Liedtke from the the Crush Real Estate team in Virginia, Newport News, Virginia, the leader, the owner, and the, the fearless leader of that great team focusing in the peninsula area of Virginia.

[00:00:21] And Kelly, welcome to the show today. 

[00:00:23] Kelly Liedtke: Thanks for having me, Paul much. Appreciated it. 

[00:00:27] Paul Neal: Yeah, absolutely. This is gonna be great. So let’s just kind of start off if we can, and just tell me a little about how you got in real estate. You said, you told me before, you’ve been around nine years. I know you’re a top producer in a team, but how, how did you get there?

[00:00:40] Kelly Liedtke: Well, I am a Heidi personality and that just means I think I can do it better than everyone else. So my husband and I were buying our first house actually, and we were buying in Maryland. He’s active duty military. Funny enough, we were stationed here at Langley at the time, and the agent called us at nine o’clock one night and told us we [00:01:00] had to be a home inspection at eight o’clock the next morning.

[00:01:02] It was a four hour drive. So I was kinda like, oh, that’s unfortunate, right? So we went and, yeah, made arrangements went and then like after we were into the house or after we were already stationed and living in a hotel, he finally comes to us and he was like, Hey guys, I know you’re paying outta pocket for this hotel, but I could get you into the house for free and you can just, you know, rent it from the sellers until closing again.

[00:01:27] I was just kinda like, That would’ve been nice to know before I spent the $800 in the hotel. Right? So , it was just a big mis of events and I had a girlfriend down here at the time that was in real estate and she was doing really well at it. And I was just like, you know, if this guy can sell houses and my girlfriend can sell houses and she’s doing amazing, let me go try it.

[00:01:49] And that’s just kind of how it happened From there, . 

[00:01:53] Paul Neal: That is so funny. And you know, that reminds me a little of my story. When I, I first got in the finance business, we bought our [00:02:00] first home back in 1998. We were living down in Raleigh, North Carolina. And I, I was always pretty good at math and science.

[00:02:06] I studied engineering and all that, and I went through the home loan process and I was like, man, this is kind of backwards, you know? And, and we had all kinds of surprises. We went to the closing table. We were young, we didn’t have a lot of, , we didn’t know we had to have certified funds or wired funds in, and so we brought the checkbook, which is a no-go, and it cost us thousands of dollars more at the closing table than we thought, than our guy had led us to believe.

[00:02:33] And I was like, man, this is a terrible experience. I mean, we were able to grind it out, but I was like, wow. I’ve gotta, I, I think I could do better. And, and it seemed like it would be interesting and, and fun. And so it’s just funny how you get involved in these things, isn’t it ? 

[00:02:47] Kelly Liedtke: It’s, you know, I’m glad for the experience though, because I definitely make, make it aware that our, all of our military clients know that they don’t actually have to be here to buy a house.

[00:02:57] Paul Neal: Right, right. Yeah, because you [00:03:00] were, you said you were in Maryland at the time, right? 

[00:03:02] Kelly Liedtke: Yeah, we were in Maryland at the time, so we were fortunate enough to get stationed back here. That’s how we ended backing up in Newport News. But yeah, it was, I, I’ve definitely taken this to heart and it’s become a passion of mine just helping military clients.

[00:03:14] Now I love helping the ones that are stationed in Japan and they don’t actually get to see the house until after they sign all the paperwork . 

[00:03:21] Paul Neal: Wow. Wow. Do you, do you get a lot of clients like that? I mean, that’s your area of focus. 

[00:03:25] Kelly Liedtke: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. 90% of our buying business is nothing but VA is military VA loans.

[00:03:32] Paul Neal: Mm-hmm. and you say Japan or is that a lot of Air Force or It doesn’t really matter which branch 

[00:03:37] Kelly Liedtke: it is. It is a lot of air. It’s a lot of Air Force. And so with them, they actually usually come back to Langley. Cause Langley is one of the largest Air Force base, mm-hmm. . So we do deal with a lot of Air Force and you know, we help Army look where we live.

[00:03:52] Right. We live somewhere where we are fortunate enough to have all the branches. Yeah. But our branch better is that Air Force and Army. 

[00:03:59] Paul Neal: Well, [00:04:00] I’m, I’m, I have a leaning towards the Air Force. My daughter is in she’s an RO OTC right now in college for Air Force. So you know, go, go Air Force . Yeah.

[00:04:08] But I’m surrounded by Navy people down here too. . So yeah, definitely pro-military. And thanks for your service to your husband and to the service that you provide to all the military people as a real estate agent, because, I mean, I’ve never had to do, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to, to be in Japan.

[00:04:26] And I’m, I’m being relocated back to the states and I’m gonna buy a house, but I’ve never even seen the house. I mean, what, tell me, how does that go? How do you handle that? 

[00:04:35] Kelly Liedtke: Well, I’m a very blunt person and unfortunately what you see on my face is usually exactly what I’m thinking at all times. So while I’m on video with ’em, like if I walk into the house and it smells like cat, I am saying it smells like cat.

[00:04:48] Right? And so it’s just really a matter of trusting and I know what they’re going through. As a military spouse, I understand. Having a group of kids and find a place to live and find the better school [00:05:00] districts and all those things, I can just relate with them and relating with them and being honest is absolutely goes along the waves with our military 

[00:05:07] Paul Neal: folks.

[00:05:08] Yeah. Yeah. So that’s, that’s really good. I mean, being blatant and being just direct, I could see how that would be a huge. . I mean, not only a like a competitive edge, but just really absolutely required if somebody, they’re putting all their trust in you because you gotta live with it, right? When they show up at closing, or maybe after they’ve closed at a distance, they show up and they move in, you’re like, Absolutely.

[00:05:32] You tell us it smelled like cats. Come on, Kelly . 

[00:05:35] Kelly Liedtke: Right. And you know I’ve had unfortunate at one point that a client came back from Japan and we let the sellers live there for, you know, a little bit after closing. And unfortunately, it looked like she never let her dogs outside after the closing. Oh. So imagine making that phone call to them when it was like four o’clock in the morning to Japan.

[00:05:53] They were getting ready of flying back to the states. I know the clients were still really good friends to this day because it was just [00:06:00] like, Hey, this is what we have to do. We need to fix it. Like, lemme get the contractors in here. And it was just more of a go, go, go. But mm-hmm. , we kind of joke in the military world, we talk in bullet points and not paragraph.

[00:06:11] And that’s just because we won’t, we just need it now. Right? Give me the details. Rip off the bandaid. Let’s keep it moving. , 

[00:06:19] Paul Neal: stay on mission, right? We’re gonna take the hill, whatever it takes. 

[00:06:22] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely. . You know, I would say go ahead. Oh, I was just saying we believe in what we’re doing so much that we actually have a love it or leave it guarantee to all of our buyers.

[00:06:33] So if they don’t love their house when they get here in the first 12 months, we’ll turn around and sell it for free. 

[00:06:38] Paul Neal: Oh wow, that’s pretty cool. So they have, they have some recourse if it just turns out like, you know, just not what they thought it was gonna be or whatever. Absolutely. That’s great.

[00:06:49] That’s great. It’s funny you mentioned like bullet points. I think of the military as like acronyms. Everything’s an acronym, you know, it’s, it’s a whole different length. Right? Acronyms would end within your bullet points, right? Absolutely. [00:07:00] So, alright, well that’s cool. So tell me you’ve been in this business for nine years.

[00:07:05] You’ve got a, a successful brokerage company, you’ve got employees and staff and all. Like any good entrepreneur, you’re building a business, right? Not just building yourself a, a job, right? So what are you seeing as the, as the business owner, the leader of that team and your experience in real estate?

[00:07:22] You know, the market’s obviously changed a little bit here, but what, what, where are we now and, and where do you think we’re gonna be going in the next 3, 6, 12 months? 

[00:07:31] Kelly Liedtke: You know, I think we’re gonna go back to the market we had pre covid. I think we’re gonna be back to an even. I hate to use the word bubble, but it’s, the best way to des to describe it is where we live and we have government, we have military.

[00:07:43] Most people move here because somebody told ’em they had to. Mm-hmm. not cause they actually, you know, wanted to move here, right? Mm-hmm. . So with all the government money that we have, I think we’re gonna go back to a more even market so that, you know, our VA clients are being able to get closing costs again.

[00:07:59] And [00:08:00] so I really think the market’s gonna go back to pre covid, like pre, you know, 2016, 2017. We’re just dealing with a little bit higher interest rates, which that’s okay because either you’re gonna pay a hundred percent interest rate in renting, or you’re gonna pay a 7% interest rate in buying. Now you gotta pick your battles.

[00:08:16] Paul Neal: That’s good. I haven’t heard anyone say it like that. A hundred percent interest rate in renting, because you’re building no equity, right? You’re just putting someone else kids through college, right? Absolutely. Well, yeah, and 7%, I mean, you know, I have a little more water over the dam than you and when I started in 98, you know, you look at the interest rates, you know, you say seven, we’re actually back down to around six now.

[00:08:40] The market is easing on the interest rate. Mm-hmm. , it’s gonna keep coming down to around five, probably by the end of the first quarter, but that notwithstanding, you know, it’s still 5, 6, 7 is still a great rate in the grand scheme of things compared to the history of where interest rates have been. Right?

[00:08:55] Yeah, absolutely. This two and a half, if you look at that history, this was just, [00:09:00] yeah. Yeah. Besides, these people can always refinance if the rates improve anyway. Right? 

[00:09:05] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely. Yeah. Nothing says that you can’t, and you know, again, without dealing with the military and the VAs, you can refinance with no money out of pocket.

[00:09:13] Right. So, yeah, you know, it’s a great way to be able to do that. 

[00:09:17] Paul Neal: VA has got the absolute best alone program benefit that of anybody. I mean, bar none without even coming close. It’s just absolutely the best. So if the, if like military people aren’t taking advantage of that, they’re really, really missing, you know, a, a huge opportunity I think.

[00:09:34] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely. They really are. And you know, after they get outta the military, if they’re, you know, if they’re broken in any way, is what we call it broken. They have a disability rating in more than 10%, you know? Mm. They even have it even better because that funding fee is weighed. Right. So it’s, you know, you’re talking tens of right.

[00:09:51] $10,000, give or take, depending on purchase price that they don’t even have to pay for because of their sacrifices and the injuries that they received along the [00:10:00] way. 

[00:10:00] Paul Neal: Yeah. Yeah. No, I, it’s, it’s absolutely right. I, I see that a lot and that’s it’s just an amazing benefit for sure. So, so going back to pre covid time, the market, more of a balance market where your buyers can get some closing costs.

[00:10:16] It’s kind of a, maybe you don’t have 18 people competing for the same property and like bidding it up over the value of the property and that sort of, 

[00:10:24] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely. Yeah. You know, you actually have more than one property. You go show your client. I used to explain the market like Black Friday when the latest and Grace Electronic just came out.

[00:10:33] Best Buy, right? It’s completely wrapped around the building. There’s a wait line to get into the house. Those markets weren’t fun for anyone. They weren’t fun for the seller. No. They couldn’t stay in their house. They had to leave. It wasn’t fun for the buyer cause they’re having to go. So we’re actually gonna get back to a time that we can have a little bit more negotiations and be able to show a client more than one house at a time.

[00:10:54] Paul Neal: Yeah, you, you can actually get there and it’s not already under contract. Right. . Right. . [00:11:00] That’s good. No, I’m with you. I think it’s a win. It’s definitely a win for everybody. And I think, I think, I mean, sometimes sellers, I think probably sellers have had to adjust their mentality a little bit too. Right?

[00:11:09] Thinking, you know, they could just name the moon for the price and people would pay over that. It’s like, You made 40% in equity in the last two years. So what are you complaining about? , right? 

[00:11:20] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely. It’s like you got your money, now it’s time to move on. , 

[00:11:24] Paul Neal: you got, you got your money, but that’s another reason why you wanna get in the game, right?

[00:11:27] Because if you’re not in the game, you, you miss those opportunities. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. , do you have many of your clients use their VA loan to like buy the home when they come in the area and then maybe move to a different area and keep that home as an investment and then buy other properties? Yes. 

[00:11:45] Kelly Liedtke: I.

[00:11:46] Absolutely. We have tons of clients that do that. They collect houses at every military station. Mm-hmm. They live at, yeah, absolutely. 

[00:11:52] Paul Neal: Yeah. , it’s a great way to build wealth and a lot of times you can keep using that VA benefit. There’s a lot of ways that you can do that. And if you [00:12:00] refinance the first one, cuz you have equity in it now, and then you just reuse your va.

[00:12:04] It’s just what an amazing tool. Right. 

[00:12:06] Kelly Liedtke: and it’s a great retirement tool for ’em too. Right? 20 years in the military now you built houses up along the way. Mm-hmm. , you might not even have to go back to work if you played your card. Right. 

[00:12:16] Paul Neal: Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. I have a friend Uhno, another realtor over here in Norfolk, and that’s what she really focuses on is, is helping her veterans use that VA to build wealth, you know, in the long term and just mm-hmm.

[00:12:28] let’s look at, hey, you’ve got your military career, you’re gonna have a retirement there. Let’s get a, a real estate career basically, cuz you have to live somewhere anyway. Right. And you got a retirement from that. That’s awesome. 

[00:12:38] Kelly Liedtke: And I, you know, that’s one reason we opened the property management. So we just recently opened Stripes Property Management, Okay.

[00:12:44] Different company. I own both of them, but you know, our military were coming to us going, Hey, like we, we really want you to manage our property. And we were having to refer it out and, you know, I really felt like. Other people wouldn’t do a service like I did because it’s there [00:13:00] dear to my heart, right? I live this life, so I wanna make sure that you know, their property’s being taken care of.

[00:13:05] So that’s the reason we just recently opened that is to make sure that these are military focus is still being able to help them when they’re moved onto their next duty station. 

[00:13:14] Paul Neal: Yeah. Yeah, that makes total sense because you’ve already got a client, you’ve got, you’ve got a trusting relationship, and you’re gonna help, you’re gonna help manage that when they move on and get the next property.

[00:13:25] I mean, just a natural fit. So that’s a, again, that’s another entrepreneurial thing, right? You’re thinking about how do I, how do I turn lead into gold, right? How do I make modern alchemy and create some value, right? Yes. Because you, there, there are, There are some horror stories with management companies and things, and so if you’ve already established the relationship, then it’s an easy, I’m very comfortable now, Hey, just manage this thing.

[00:13:48] I’m the kind of guy that I don’t wanna do any of that stuff, right? I’ve got some investment properties and things. I just wanna find a good person to take care of everything and just, you know. Leave me alone basically. Right. 

[00:13:59] Kelly Liedtke: [00:14:00] call me if there’s a big issue. But other than that, right? Yes. I have clients like that too.

[00:14:04] They’re just like, you know, we keep a, we keep a buffer in their accounts just in case for those small things, right? But anything over a certain dollar amount, our agreement says that I have to call you and get your permission to do it. But it was a minor thing, you know, let me just go fix it. You got bigger things to worry about.

[00:14:21] This is why we keep the buffer, the reserves in the. 

[00:14:24] Paul Neal: No, that’s great. That’s a beautiful approach. So shifting gears a little bit, tell me this, with your experience in recruiting agents and training and leading agents and whatnot, what makes a great real estate agent today? 

[00:14:35] Kelly Liedtke: Just hustle. If you have someone’s hustle and drive and willing to learn, they make the best agents.

[00:14:41] I have an agent right now who, and her, she got licensed on October 28th of this year, and she currently has four under contract with two closing this week. You know, and 

[00:14:52] Paul Neal: Right. Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Time out. Say that again. Say that again. When did she get 

[00:14:57] Kelly Liedtke: licensed? October 28th this [00:15:00] year, which is about four, 

[00:15:02] Paul Neal: five weeks ago.

[00:15:04] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely four under contract. Okay, well technically two now because two already closed this week.

[00:15:10] Paul Neal: So hustle. Huh? Drive. And a willingness, hustle to learn. And obviously, obviously she’s got a lot to learn, let’s be honest, in five weeks, right? But she’s getting, yes, she’s getting it going. 

[00:15:20] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely just being a sponge. That’s what we tell all of our brand new agents come in this office and be a sponge.

[00:15:28] Mm-hmm. ask me questions. I know if you’re asking questions that you want to learn. And so that’s all she’s did. She, like, if I’m making phone calls, she’s making phone calls right beside me. If I was doing a training, she was here and that’s all she did and that’s how she came up to her clients. So that’s what makes a great agent right now, just being a sponge and doing what other others want.

[00:15:49] Paul Neal: Well, do you think it’s an advantage for her in a sense that she came into a market on the other side of the mess from, from the last two years? Because I mean, last two years were crazy. You actually have to work [00:16:00] last now, right. To go get 

[00:16:01] Kelly Liedtke: deals. Yes. They, they created bad habits the last few years, right?

[00:16:05] Like you could mm-hmm. , I would say like you could, like you were, people were sneezing, catching covid. Right? I was saying the same thing about the real estate market. You could sneeze and pick up a buyer. It wasn’t hard, right? Or you could sneeze and pick up a seller cuz Sellers knew they were gonna get more for their property.

[00:16:20] The last two years created bad habits and I’m actually a national real estate coach as well. And that’s why we’ve been preaching to our agents, to our coaching clients is. You’ve gotta get back to the basics. If you don’t get back to the basics, you’re not going to survive in this market. And, you know, what does that look like?

[00:16:37] That means outlining your prospecting time you know, at least two hours a day, Monday through Friday, dedicated to that phone to do your prospecting, to do your follow up. Because if you’re not dedicated, those couple of things you’re really just not gonna survive in this market. 

[00:16:52] Paul Neal: So that would be what I call one of the essentials to success, right?

[00:16:57] So mm-hmm. and, and [00:17:00] entrepreneurs and, and even an agent that’s a starter agent, they’re self-employed, so they’re a, they’re an entrepreneur, whether they realize it or not, right? . But you, you, what would you call it? Daily non-negotiables, daily success habits. It’s like you gotta. If you don’t take control of that time and do that, the one thing that only you can do that brings the dollars in and makes the things happen, then, then you could, you could chase, you could move papers around your desk all day long.

[00:17:24] Right? And at the end of the day, I was really busy. But were you productive? 

[00:17:28] Kelly Liedtke: Yes. We call it busy work. Right, 

[00:17:32] Paul Neal: right, right. Because it’s comfortable, it’s easy. Yes. Well, that is amazing. So hustle, drive, and willingness to learn. So literally in five weeks she’s come in, she’s got four deals she’s gonna close.

[00:17:43] So takes away a lot of excuses from people out there that are saying, oh, well my buyers disappeared, and what’s the market gonna do? And waiting for the phone to ring and blah, blah, blah. All right, . So so what motivates you personally? 

[00:17:58] Kelly Liedtke: My kids. That’s [00:18:00] a lot of, I know I have three teenagers and so , you know, I, I had three kids by the time I was 21.

[00:18:07] Okay. So I never want to have my life choices. And affect my kids. So my kids are a big reason I do what I do so that they are not having to live a life of what the stats say that we should be living. Right. But also mm-hmm. , I get a lot of joy in watching these baby agents, and when I say baby agents, I mean brand new agents.

[00:18:28] Right. Completely out. Just pass their test. I get a lot of joy in just watching them grow. Mm-hmm. , I, I know some of them won’t be on my team forever. After a few that already walked off and went and did their own thing and maybe starting their own team at this point, but just watching someone else’s seed in this business, that’s where I get a lot of joy from.

[00:18:47] Paul Neal: That’s awesome. So you said, you said you’re a coach as well, so do you coach, you coach agents from all over? Is that, is that kind of part of your I do business. 

[00:18:55] Kelly Liedtke: Yep, I do. I’m actually a club Wealth with Michael [00:19:00] Heon is a big reason why I grew so fast. So I’m actually a real estate coach through his or his organization.

[00:19:07] Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . 

[00:19:09] Paul Neal: Do you find that as a coach, you, you even learn yourself more in terms of, cuz now you’re teaching it and you’re listening and you’re pulling people out and you’re like, oh yeah, I need to really do this stuff. I’m teaching them to do . 

[00:19:23] Kelly Liedtke: Yes. Absolutely. Or they’re teaching me things. I’m like, oh, what?

[00:19:28] I am not the techiest person in the room ever. My agents will tell you, y’all bear with me, right? Like, let me figure out the Zoom thing and they’ll laugh. But you know, I’m not the techiest person in the room, but they’ll, they’re teaching me things about Facebook and LinkedIn all these techy things.

[00:19:45] I’m going, oh wow. Like, Thank you, . I’m supposed to be coaching you, but in return I’m getting 

[00:19:51] something . 

[00:19:53] Paul Neal: Yeah, yeah. It’s true. It’s true. Well, a good coach is gonna listen and learn is listen a lot more than probably talk, right? [00:20:00] Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Yeah. So what about any, have you had any failures along the way that you’ve had to bounce back from?

[00:20:07] Kelly Liedtke: Lots. I think that’s how we succeed the most, right? Is learning from our mistakes. You know, my husband’s military, right? So we started in Maryland, mm-hmm. . The big thing is that I kick myself in the butt tour all the time, is closing down shop in Maryland and moving here. , I should have just kept the team going and went here and did that.

[00:20:26] I’ve had what we call a practice team you know, where we start this team and we think we’re gonna do all these amazing things and I actually doesn’t work out the way we thought it would. And so I learned from it. I learned from how I approach people cuz I am very direct, so I know now I. Kind of put on some cake gloves every once in a while but there’s been lots of things that I have learned from over the years and I, I learn every day. And that’s what kinda makes the top 1%. The top 1% is just learning from those mistakes. 

[00:20:55] Paul Neal: Right. Right. And I would say that’s awesome. And then not just learning [00:21:00] from them, but not being afraid to make ’em Right.

[00:21:02] Yes. Because I mean, if you don’t, you know, so many people are, are paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake or looking bad, or what are people gonna think or what are they gonna say? And, you know, it kind of took me a long time to get over my own life. It’s like, well at the end of the day, most people don’t think much about me anyway.

[00:21:21] They’re not, they’re thinking about themselves, so who cares. Right. at the end of the day, 

[00:21:27] Kelly Liedtke: yes. You know, go dance in the ring. Go be silly. It’s okay. I mean, Just being you. Right? And if you learn from it along the way, that’s great. I’ve a growing person and a person who’s learning from their own 

[00:21:39] Paul Neal: mistakes.

[00:21:40] Yeah. No, that’s awesome. So you mentioned your husband a couple of times and he’s, he’s in the military. Is he involved at all in your real estate company too? Or is he just so busy doing his thing? He is, 

[00:21:50] Kelly Liedtke: mm-hmm. He’s getting ready to retire next year or in 2024. I’m staying here. My twins graduate has.

[00:21:56] Goal. So it’s super exciting for our family that there’s a lot going on. But [00:22:00] yeah, he’s definitely involved. I am the people person. I am giving the deal. Let me train do not sit me behind a computer, inspect me to do paperwork that is not my personality. And so he actually does all of our bookkeeping, all of our accounting, all of our techs.

[00:22:14] So yes, sweet. We’re very much involved in the. 

[00:22:17] Paul Neal: Oh, that’s great. That’s great. My wife has been involved in several different businesses with me over the years, and it’s, it’s it’s been a lot of fun and you know, we definitely compliment each other. So when you can do that and, you know, your strengths and weaknesses, it’s, it’s, that’s an awesome thing for sure.

[00:22:30] That’s one employee you don’t have to worry about, that’s for sure. , 

[00:22:33] Kelly Liedtke: right? Absolutely. You know, I married my complete opposite, so everything that I’m good at, he hates everything that he’s good at. I absolutely hate. So it works out 

[00:22:42] Paul Neal: perfect for us. , man. That’s, that’s, that’s beautiful. So what do you guys do for fun?

[00:22:47] Kelly Liedtke: You know, we like to go on vacation. That’s usually our big thing is we try to take, you know, two or three vacations a year just to kinda either go to the mountains. And when I say vacations, it’s usually weekend trips. We [00:23:00] enjoy going to like the local restaurants and breweries around here. We do enjoy hiking and working out, so that’s usually kind of where we’re, what we’re doing on the weekends.

[00:23:09] If we don’t have anything else going on, Try and be, you know, working out or being product. 

[00:23:14] Paul Neal: Sounds like you’re very active. That’s cool that, that gives you that energy probably right to work when you’re working out all the time. , yes, 

[00:23:22] Kelly Liedtke: yes. It’s got ADHD in me. I can’t stop . 

[00:23:25] Paul Neal: Well, that’s good. There are, there are worse, worse problems to have.

[00:23:29] I think so. Just kind of winding down, tell me a little, is there any particular book that you’re, that you’re reading or that you’ve read? Cuz you seem like someone who really likes to go deep and, and improve, improve. That’s, that’s made an impact on you in your career. 

[00:23:42] Kelly Liedtke: Yeah. So there’s been n Numerical Morning by Hal El Elrod.

[00:23:48] Mm-hmm. , that one has really made an impact on my morning routine. I used to be the person that didn’t get up until nine o’clock mm-hmm. , and now I’m lucky if I sleep in until four, you know? So that’s been a good one. I [00:24:00] am rereading Eat That Frog and I think that’s a really good one that everyone needs to read.

[00:24:05] I’ve read it two or three times at this point, but it’s still like, it just reminds you to just do what you need to do and, you know, don’t do the busy work. Do the work that actually is productive. . 

[00:24:16] Paul Neal: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Start there. I have a friend that says he’s a, he’s a really successful entrepreneur and he, he has a, an amazing lifestyle and income, and I learned a lot from him.

[00:24:27] And he said, he talks about Eat the frog, which is actually right. He says, but I like to take it one step further. I like to, to find people that will eat the frog for me. as he builds his team and his business, right? 

[00:24:39] Kelly Liedtke: He does. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m getting there. Yeah. Oh, no, we’re all. Yeah, 

[00:24:45] Paul Neal: we’re all sort of inspired now.

[00:24:47] Go ahead, 

[00:24:48] Kelly Liedtke: I’m sorry. So my team and I took the book and I was reading over it and like when I run, I listened to the book mm-hmm. . So I was listening to it this past week at the gym and it was talking about sad year goals. [00:25:00] Right. So we actually took that one step further with the team and I had them layout.

[00:25:04] gave ’em the four different categories and I told them to write out like top three goals they wanted do each category. Mm-hmm. Which they did, and they were really good at it. And then they needed to decide out of those goals, what quarter they wanted hit, which step in. So we took that one step further and actually had them write a letter to themselves as if they’ve already accomplished that goal for the quarter.

[00:25:26] Mm-hmm. . And so we’re actually gonna be mailing those. In 2023 to see kind of where they are at and just kinda speaking into existence, right. To figure out those goals. Because if you don’t know your goal, you’re never going to accomplish it. 

[00:25:39] Paul Neal: Oh, it’s so well said. That’s right. That’s right. You, you can’t hit a target that you haven’t defined, and it sounds so easy, but everyone needs somebody like you to kind of kick ’em in the butt to do it, right?

[00:25:51] Mm-hmm. . Everyone knows to set goals, so nobody does it . 

[00:25:55] Kelly Liedtke: Yep. It’s just like, I need someone to kick me in the butt. Right? Yeah. I, I have a, I have my [00:26:00] own real estate coach. I do my own masterminds. You know, I, I always need someone to remind me, even when I start being like you know, there’s no use in doing this cuz we all go through those days.

[00:26:10] You have someone there to kind of lift you up and give you a swift kick and say, you know, you’re doing this for a reason. Let’s keep moving 

[00:26:16] Paul Neal: forward. That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. I’m a, I’m a huge advocate for coaching. I’ve had coaches on and off over the years, and everyone needs somebody to keep ’em on track and on target and ask the hard questions.

[00:26:27] Right. The questions that we ignore, and we just don’t want to deal with . Oh. Well, Kelly, this has been great. We’re, we’re kind of winding down now. Tell, tell everyone that’s listening, how can they get in contact with you if they wanna do some real estate, particularly in the va, military and that world?

[00:26:45] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely. So we cover anywhere from Williamsburg to Virginia Beach. You can find us on Google at Crush Real Estate team. You can also find us on Facebook. And then our office phone number is (757) [00:27:00] 210-3551. 

[00:27:01] Paul Neal: Awesome. That’s fantastic, Kelly. I’m gonna get that in. We’ll get that in the show notes so it’ll all be in there so people listening will get it and they’ll be able to click on it and call you and all that jazz.

[00:27:11] So I really appreciate your time today and you coming on. 

[00:27:14] Kelly Liedtke: Absolutely. It’s nice to meet you, Paul. And if we are not on social media or Facebook together, definitely find me. I’d love to follow you some more. 

[00:27:21] Paul Neal: Yeah. Awesome. 

[00:27:23] This has been, this is great.