Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Welcome to real estate Makes us drink. Brian Quinlan here from Daniels Real Estate.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Brad Nickham from Nest Mortgage Group.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: I gotta ask. Did you. Did you give me the shorty person seat?
[00:00:12] Speaker B: No.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: You're never taller than.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: No, what I've noticed is I've grown in stature and you have.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: Where you have shrunk around the waist. You have grown. I've grown taller in height. All right.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Is that true, you think?
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Well, we're going to find out because I'm going to start running and.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Start running.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: I think you already started now. Yeah, we'll get to that.
But. So I'm six foot now. By the time we get to the marathon, can I expect to be like 6, 2?
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Either that or it'll hurt you so bad you'll be like five, nine.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Probably more like it. Well, folks, we have yet another guest today. Sir, tell the folks who you are.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Yeah, well, thanks for having me on. So my name is Steve Rupp, and I am the owner of Steve Rupp Coaching.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: That's a very creative name.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: I worked long and hard to figure it out.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Were there different iterations of the name.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Of the business by Steve Rupp? Steve Coaching Rupp.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Should I go with Steven?
[00:01:08] Speaker C: My parents call me that. No, no, Steven. Too far.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: I tried to get creative, so I came from the real estate industry and I intentionally chose not to use my name.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:22] Speaker C: Because I wanted to be able to sell my business and not be the one tied to it that everyone was asking for. Hey, I want to talk to Steve or, you know, whatever. So I. I chose to get away from that. I came up with. With the name called Zulu Group. It was fun, different, whatever, little 0z for my. My logo, which is fun. And I decided to. When I. When I got out of that realm, I decided to just make things really simple and just go off of my name because I. I have a name within the industry and I'm like, well, might as well just play to my strengths and.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Not get too cutesy and. And go with that and see how that works.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: That kind of plays into the tequila I have today.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Well, before you get to that, sir, cheers and welcome to the show.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Cheers. Welcome.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: Cheers. Thanks for having me.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Cheers.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: All right, Brad, let's hear about the tequila.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Well, they didn't come up with a super creative name in this tequila brand.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Actually, they did by not being super creative. It's very creative.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: So not a celebrity tequila for those of you.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Well, actually, I'll put it up here on the screen so people can See, that's the actual name of it.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Celebrity Tequila.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: So, you know, in celebrity tequilas, there's a lot. Most of them are garbage. I did say most of them. That leaves. Some of them may be okay, but Andy Bushby, who started this company, Andrew Bush Bay, started this company, wanted to bring a great tequila to market that, that it was approachable, easy to drink, additive free, made in a really traditional way. And he thought, let's just call it not a Celebrity Tequila.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: I think that's great.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: It's a great name.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: It seems like so many celebrities nowadays are coming out with their own tequila.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: They are.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: They're unique by not being celebrity.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: So.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: And it's really good. It's real approachable, easy to drink. It's. It's a nice tequila and the name says it all. It's not a celebrity Tequila.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: All right. And with. Now, Steve, you're drinking a Paloma. Paloma. Okay.
[00:03:19] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: What was that made with?
[00:03:21] Speaker B: I made that with the Lalo Hyper.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Oh, that's good stuff.
[00:03:24] Speaker C: That's good.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: I don't really care if it's appearing, but too. Lalo's good.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: Yeah, Lalo's good. Tequila.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: All right.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Not a celebrity tequila is good. Tequila.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Excellent.
Shout out to my man, Kevin Smolar from Sun King. I was walking through the aisle as I often do there at Total Wine.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Were you wearing your like Hulk Hogan.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Outfit by any chance? I was not. But this totally grabbed my attention because on this can is a chicken wrestling with a waffle. And this was a one off release for WWE Royal Rumble that was recently here in Indianapolis. And this is supposed to be kind of maple flavored.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: And it's supposed to be enjoyed with fried chicken because it's supposed to be like chicken and waffles.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: And is it.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: It? It is. It is definitely maple flavored.
So.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: And. And it's called Spandex.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: It is called Spandex Super Slam.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: And as far as I know, you, you are. You really do enjoy wearing your spandex, bro.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: I. Wait till we hit the marathon.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I was hoping you'd wear one of those outfits where we can't even see your face.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Huh.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: So tell everybody what happened.
[00:04:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: All right.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Well, thanks to the generosity of a multitude of people, we did hit the $1,000 donation goal for the food pantry. We actually exceeded that. And Brad and I are officially signed up for the Disney Marathon January 11, 2026.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, just because we hit the goal doesn't mean.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Nope.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Oh, thank goodness. I don't have to donate because the money is going to go to a local food pantry. So it's not like you're donating for us to buy spandex. You're donating to feed people on the south side of Indianapolis.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: The need is always there.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: So please still reach into your wallet and do what you can. But we did have. We. We are, like, 13. We ended up, like, 1300 bucks.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Yeah, we did. Can I tell the story of how that all ended?
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Okay. So Brad and Tony generously invited us to the suite for supercross. First ever adventure at Supercross, which was cool. A lot of people in the suite. We met a gentleman named John and I. John Marco. John Marco. Thank you.
And I'll just say, super generous guy, very friendly, Talking to everybody in the suite. Well, the night goes on, and I'm down in the seats watching the races, and I get a text from Brad. He goes, hey, come up here for a minute. I was like, all right, so get out of my seat, go back up into the suite. And I pass by your son Blake. And Blake goes, you're not going to like this. I said, I'm probably not. And I walk up, and John hands me $600 cash. He goes, that should get you over the top. I was like, well, that it does. And then some. And Brad says, you're running a marathon, dude.
So I'm running a marathon, dude, yeah.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: And I was pretty amazing.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And we're going to hopefully figure out a way we can get him on the show because he's a very interesting character.
[00:06:24] Speaker C: So that was generous.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: It really was.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: It was super generous.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And so that put us up to about 1300 bucks. And Brad has offered $2000 donation on top of that. Is that accurate?
[00:06:35] Speaker B: So we're at 2300 so far.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: 2300.
[00:06:37] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: My wife works for Perry Township schools on the south side, and part of her job is she runs a food pantry out of their office once a week. So they help out, oh, anywhere from about 130 to 150, 160 families on a weekly basis. And so that's where all the money's going.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: Good cause. Have you run a marathon?
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I ran the Honolulu this in December, so I'm ready to do another one. But he hasn't.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: I've never, like, run any long distance in my life, except, like, in high school when you had to run a mile for gym class.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: A mile is not long distance.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Well, in. In high school, if you're not on the cross country team, it is a Long distance.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: If you can run it inside the building.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: No, it was out on the track.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: I was going to say you just did four laps.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Actually, we. We probably ran more than that training for basketball. But still, it doesn't matter. I've never run significant long distance, so training started this week. Ran a mile on Monday, ran a mile yesterday. So I'm going to slowly start building that up.
Going be all right. As long as my knee doesn't blow up.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: You're going to be fine. It's going to be fun.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Have you ever run, Steve?
[00:07:44] Speaker C: I have. I. I have not run a marathon.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: Okay. But I used to marathon, 10k, 5k, anything like that.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: 5K.
My knees do not allow me to do that anymore, so I do cross training, so that's my. That's my jam.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure I'm rocking a partially torn meniscus right now, so. You know what could go wrong?
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Better be running with that brace on there.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: It always has.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Only 1% of the population has completed a marathon.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: Sweet.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I don't know what it is for two. I'll have to Google that.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: It would seem to be less.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Although people that do them probably are more the people that do them.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's probably true.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it is pretty awesome to do. I told you. That's why you're doing it. Oh, so. So.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Well, we get to run through Disney World, which.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: Yeah, that sounds pretty cool. That's fine. You have all the pacers you get to follow with too.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I read it.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: And he'll be running with me, so.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: You know, we don't have to do a. We don't have to do a mountain two times.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: Like I. Are you gonna dress up as princesses and.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: No, no, no.
[00:08:46] Speaker C: We.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: We have discussed the possibility of maybe some custom made shirts.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Where we're gonna have the Mickey Mouse ears on the shirt and each circle on the ears is going to be the real estate makes us drink logo.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: Yeah. I love it.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: I thought that was pretty solid.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, we could get sponsors like Steve rep coaching could go on.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: All right, there we go.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Or you get lots of customers while we ran through Disney.
[00:09:08] Speaker C: I'm sure I have to shut it down. Go to a wait list.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we need to get Alex from CM Print.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Hey, Arturo from Lost Lore.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Maybe Christiana from Velour. You know, maybe some fortune's fool on there.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Oh, hey, we know that person.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I think we could probably raise another $2,000 if we did this right.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: There you go, maybe Sean Daniels will throw his logo on there.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: That'd be awesome. Yeah, that'd be. We'd be at four grand then. Real estate costs more.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: It is for Sean.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: All right.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: Premium.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: He actually, because he was at Supercross with us, he goes, dude, I guess I'm coming down to Disney to watch you guys run. He has no idea it starts at 5 in the morning.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Oh yeah, he's not.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: I highly doubt he will be there.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: But maybe so many realtors that are up at 5 in the morning.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Actually, Sean sometimes is, but only because he can't sleep. And then sometimes he'll go work out.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Like I, I'll. I'll message realtors at 9 and then at 10, I hear him do that groggy voice where they try to hide it. Man, I got your message.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: I hear that.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Sounds right.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Sounds about right.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: All right. Well, speaking of real estate, Steve, we're going to get to the coaching thing. I kind of maybe start with the background. So you were a realtor?
[00:10:21] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:10:22] Speaker A: Were you something before that?
[00:10:25] Speaker C: I was.
Well, you got to go back just a little bit. So. I grew up in real estate. My dad. My dad was in it when I was born, actually, funny enough. And, and I, I told myself, I see how hard that dude works and I don't want to do that. I'm not going to go into real estate. So. So I went into.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: That was back in the day when he had to find houses with a map.
[00:10:48] Speaker C: With a map, yes.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: They go directions other real estate companies to look in the book.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: You did. Yeah. He had a whole library full of. Full of the MLS books he had to go through all the clients come in to look through the pictures, see which houses they wanted to. To buy and then. Or, or to see. And then of course, the keys. There's no such thing as lock boxes. You had multiple keys made and each. The listing agent had multiple keys at the office. You had to drive the office, pick up the key, go meet your client.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: And they got in the car with you.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: They sure did.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: And, and you never wrote in the description, put it in your gps?
[00:11:28] Speaker A: No, no. Directions were not GPS friendly.
[00:11:31] Speaker C: GPS friendly exactly around then. So yeah, it was. That was. Those are interesting times. So I ended up going to. To college for. With entrepreneurial studies degree. And then I did what every entrepreneurial studies major does and I worked at a bank. Yeah, that sounds about right.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: That's what they do.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: That's what I did.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: How about that?
[00:11:53] Speaker C: I. So, so, so seriously, Though that was, it was hard to get a job with a bank because obviously I had the exact opposite measure that they were looking for. I, you know, my mentality. And clearly I was all kinds of screwed up with this, but was, you got to sleep with the devil before you choose to work with them.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: So I wanted to see how banks lent money. I want to see how they worked and if I needed a, a loan for, for my business, whatever it was that I was going to start, I had no idea. Then I wanted to know how the banks worked, and I figured that that was a logical strategy. So that lasted for a couple, about three years or so and do like cash management and branch manager and all that good stuff. And then I got into.
With a, with a buddy of mine, was working with him as a sales rep for commercial grade kitchen equipment contract furniture. Hated it. Lasted like five months.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: So you were a furniture salesman?
[00:12:48] Speaker C: I, I help people design furniture for restaurants and bars and that kind of thing.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: You were IKEA before ikea?
[00:12:55] Speaker C: I was IKEA before ikea. Looking through the books, man. Went Zoll Brothers downtown. That was my, that was my playground, I guess.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: All right.
[00:13:04] Speaker C: But anyway, so I hated that. Then I got into, I got into promotional products. So all the, all, all of the, the logos and trinkets and trash, as people call that industry. Right.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: But Brian had me buy shirts for my company. Brian wanted me to get shirts. They're all underneath those plants over there so it doesn't scratch my floor.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: I can see how valuable they were for you. Great. So that was the trash.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: That was you? Yeah. That was your idea. You wanted him for a bowling league or something.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: It was a bowling event. That was a Stacy idea, not me.
Sorry, continue.
[00:13:40] Speaker C: Well, that lasted a year because you had to sell a whole crapload of stuff and to make any money whatsoever. And I was like, this is not working smart. This is, this is just too hard. So my dad at the time, being the wise guy that he was, said, you know what, since you're out of.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: A job, why don't you get in real estate?
[00:14:00] Speaker C: Are you ready to try real estate? I've been asking it for years. And I'm like, well, sure, let's, let's try it. He said, I'll pay for your license, you know, to get your license and everything and try it for a year. If you don't like it, leave and go do something else. If you do like it, you can stay in it, take over the business. So that's kind of how I got my start into real Estate and did that for 25 years.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Oh, okay. 1998 for him, 1997 for me.
[00:14:25] Speaker C: Yeah, 20.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: 20.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Oh, and by the way, the. The box of shirts is holding up the computer.
[00:14:32] Speaker C: I'd say that.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Be sure to grab one of those way out.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: I sold those to grab one.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Before you leave, you might have a plant to put them on your floor.
[00:14:41] Speaker C: I got some furniture I need to move.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: Yeah, just throw them in there, push them around.
Great for dust inside. Great idea.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Okay, so real estate for 25 years. How do you go from that into being a coach?
[00:14:55] Speaker C: Coach. You get burned out.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Did you get really.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Did you really get burned out in real estate?
[00:15:01] Speaker C: I was. I was smoked.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: No kidding.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: About three years before I. Before I got out of the business. Yeah. I was. I was done. And, you know, and this is. This is true with anybody in any business. You know, you just.
We don't love it anymore. Everything, every day becomes a chore.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: That is why I got out of teaching. For about the last two or three years of teaching, I was like, I really don't want to get up and go do this anymore.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: So that's why I sold my first mortgage company.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: What'd you teach?
[00:15:29] Speaker A: I was a teacher in center Grove for 20 years. First eight was elementary school, so second grade, then third grade, then fourth grade, and then the last 12 were sixth grade math.
[00:15:40] Speaker C: God bless you. No wonder you got burned out.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And I never really described it as burned out, but probably does fit into that category. But what you just said, where you just kind of wake up every day and you really don't feel like doing that, that's totally where I was.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: It was a chore. I mean, it's a. And it sucks getting up. And the. The. The reality is, unfortunately, that so many people are doing that today.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: People live in rut.
[00:16:07] Speaker C: No, they're in a grind. They're in a rut. They're in the daily grind, and they just keep doing the same thing because they've always done it, and they're too afraid to get out of the rut in order to take a risk to try something new. And that's one of my. My little soapboxes. I get it. Get up on. Is that I believe every single person has a superpower. You were born with a superpower. Everybody was. The sad part about it is that most people aren't living in their superpower.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Well, nobody pays. Nobody pays me to drink in Google crap, but that's a good.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: You had no idea one of your superpowers was talking about tequila on the interwebs and googling.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: I can Google Good.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Ah. And interview people. Look. Look at all the superpowers. We're.
[00:16:54] Speaker C: Now you need your game to chat.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: GPT already using for everything.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, okay, so how long have you been doing the coaching gig?
[00:17:04] Speaker C: So just about a year now. So April 1, believe it or not. So April Fool's Day. That was going to either be a fun joke or a really bad choice.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Joy.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Or a really bad joke.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: Bad joke. Good joke, whatever. Yeah.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Well, I remember running into you at the Remy Awards one year.
[00:17:25] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: And your team was just, like, getting every award, like you guys are killing it. It was. Every time I turned around, it was your group winning another.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: We've had Remington on the show as well.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah, we just had Remington.
[00:17:36] Speaker C: He's a great guy.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So I was like, man, I really got to. I really got to get in this guy's business. He's killing in. And I've known you for years in the business. And then he tells me the heartbreaking story. Oh, I've had a mortgage guy for 20 years, and he's really good, and I like him. And so I know I touch base every once. Say, hey, has your guy quit yet?
[00:17:57] Speaker C: It's always hard to get in with people have been in the business for so long. If you have a relationship, you know, your. Your clients are. Are that way with you, and. And you hope they are. And. And that's the. That's the kind of the moat that. That you hope that your agents have around them is that is the relationship. And. And that's. That's important. And so there's a lot of agents who. Who don't have that. And, you know, I think that's kind of sad. And, you know, it provides an opportunity for mortgage lenders. But I'll tell you, I mean, that's. That is probably the hardest and highest fruit on the tree to get, is the veteran agent has been in the business for so long, and they already have established relationships. Just trying to get in there to get that foot in the door. He's like, hey, give me a chance is the hardest thing. The newer agents don't have any business. Are the easiest ones to get.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: Right. But you don't have any business.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: And you're. And you're hoping that that one out of 10 of them will make it and that they'll. They'll stick with you for it for a time. So anyway, I feel your pain. Yeah. So we've known each other for. Yeah. For a Long time.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:02] Speaker C: And our team. Yeah, we, we accomplish a lot, which was great. And we, we had some really, really great team members. And I think when I, when I felt officially sold my business on April 1st, we were number 40 in the city out of 10,000 agents. So.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Nice. We did.
[00:19:17] Speaker C: We, we did. We did pretty well. And even though we did well, I still didn't like what I, what I was doing anymore. And it was just one of those things where.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: What point did that switch for you? Because I mean, I know you've been passionate for, about real estate for ever since you said you were never going.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: To be until he was right.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Until you were. And then was.
[00:19:37] Speaker C: Until I was.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Where was your tipping point of going, okay, this is it, I'm done? I'm really tired of this? Because, because I went through 1 in 06 when I sold Mortgage Express and then I started other businesses that I realized I hated. And now I, I love being a loan officer. Like, I guess I wasn't the first time I was managing people, but being a loan officer, I, I feel like I don't think I could get to a tipping point. But obviously you, you love this industry for this long too. What, what, what caused that tipping point? And when did you see that change starting to happen?
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Good question.
[00:20:11] Speaker C: That's a great question. And I, I think it's, it's, it's the, it's. It's the phrase, you know, slowly, then suddenly.
And when you look back, you, you see the signs. Yeah, I hated it back then that you're ignoring. Right? Yeah, it happens all the time. And so it was, it was slowly, then suddenly it was. I was seeing how it was more of a choreograph and I wasn't. What really did it for me, Brad, was I had an opportunity for a million plus dollar listing. Most agents would be all kinds of excited about that.
For me, I wasn't. It was like, I gotta go and meet with this guy.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: And Daggonette, they called me, am I busy today?
[00:20:59] Speaker C: So yeah, that's exactly what happened where I was like, and I still remember it and like, this is not the way this is supp to be. I should be excited about this. And I'm not. I'm, I'm really not looking forward to going to this. And I, I hope I get the listing I did. And even, you know, then I wasn't excited. And I said, you know, I, I got to make a change. And so it didn't happen immediately. And I was actually, here's, here's kind of a cool, fun story. And, and then I'll tell you the actual moment where, where it hit me. And that's a fun story too. So I was in a class with our office and we had a national trainer who was in there. And it was a seven week class and we were to a part where we were talking about leads and the instructor got up and said, who in this class? And There were about 60 agents in the class. Who in this class has a system for generating referrals?
Nobody raised their hand.
And after about 10 seconds I was.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Like, I do, I got one.
[00:22:11] Speaker C: I think I might have something. And so Scott, our instructor was like, Mr. Rupp, what you got? Lay it on me. And so I told him about this referral program that I have. And he was like, honestly, I've taught all over the country, thousands of real estate agents. That is probably the best answer to that question I've ever had. I need to, I want to see you after class.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: There was always a paddle waiting when I got those words every time St.
[00:22:43] Speaker C: Thomas, like I was a paddle machine.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Oh, is that a machine?
[00:22:45] Speaker C: Oh yeah, well, that was the rumor of course. No one of the kids broke the paddle machine because he was in there so much.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: Say, Brad would have known that for sure.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: I got, I got paddled by what became my step grandpa.
That was always fun at Thanksgiving.
[00:23:01] Speaker C: Yeah, fun story. So, so anyway, I, I go, you know, I talked to him after class and he said, Steve, you got something with this, this program, I think you need to teach it.
And I was like, no, you know, Scott, I, I appreciate that, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm still selling, I want to focus on that. And he said, well, you change your mind, you know where to find me. And it took me about a year and that was where slowly and suddenly was, was happening, that the seed got planted right there. That's right. And so I, I ended up going back to him about a year later and said, Scott, I, I, do you remember me? He said, yeah, of course I do. He said, you got that?
[00:23:41] Speaker B: I stole your idea.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: We're trying to, it's now killer wine.
[00:23:47] Speaker C: That's what I was worried about. And he said, no, I, I, I've actually told people other classes about your, your system. He said, but don't worry, I haven't told him very much about it. Just I planted the seed a little bit. And so anyway, he said, but yeah, I think he has something. He said, by the way, I'm going to run this up, up the chain to the vice president of education for our company, because I want to see if there's anything else like this that she knows of. And she did. And he did. And he got back to me, and he said, steve, no one else in the country teaches what you. What you told me. And he said, I think you need to teach it. And they wanted me to teach it to our company. And I was like, which is Keller.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: Williams, by the way.
[00:24:22] Speaker C: Kind of a big company, Kind of a big deal. Yeah. So I was. I was like, you know, I don't know if I want to have somebody dictate how I sell this and how much I charge and who I teach it to, and I don't want to keep it. Just KW and all the rest. So anyway, I. I kind of planted the seed. And later that year, it was in October, December 13th of 23, I was laying in bed with my wife, and I rolled over and I said, I think I'm done.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Oh, I'm out of here.
[00:24:57] Speaker C: And she was like, done with what?
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Haven't even started.
I just woke up.
[00:25:05] Speaker C: Well, that's where this is going. All right, you guys are dirty.
We are.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: Real estate makes us drink.
[00:25:14] Speaker C: And we're all drinking. That's good. So I was like, no, I think I'm done with the real estate. And so then she says, you have to know my wife to fully appreciate this comment. Then she says, oh, so you're going to get a real job now?
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: That's crazy. Who thought realtors did. Who thought realtors didn't have real jobs? That's mean.
[00:25:34] Speaker C: Mean and true. A lot of the time I didn't say anything. In a way some real estate agents treat their jobs, which is kind of why I'm in the job.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: But anyway, so. So I was like, I think I'm done with coaching or done with. Done with. With real estate. And she was like, you need to get a real job. I'm like, sweetie, I have worked for myself for 25 years. I can't work for the man not unemployable. No kidding. Like, what would I do?
[00:25:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:59] Speaker C: I have no employable skills.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: I don't need an estate agent. Yeah.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: Come here.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Let me shine.
[00:26:07] Speaker C: Check out this kitchen.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: That's not true, but I know what you're saying.
[00:26:11] Speaker C: So. So anyway, she said, what do you like to do? And I said, well, I like to teach. I think I'm. I think I'm fairly good at it. And I teach him. I teach in our office. And agents like it. They say it's one of their favorite trainings that they come to. And she said, well, why don't you do that? And so one of the things you don't know about me is my whole family is teachers. So my mom, my. My sister, all my best friends, a lot of my. My cousins are all teachers. So I kind of come by and honestly. And the best real estate agent is a teacher.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: Number one profession, that where you come from.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: Because what we do is teach.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Yeah, we do.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: Right. We teach and educate clients.
And so. So anyway, that. Then I got back to what I was talking about with Scott. What about my program? And she said, why don't you teach that? You've got a program.
Scott's already said, there is anything else like it? You like to teach, you know, real estate. You've done it for a long time at a high level. You have credibility.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Why don't you do that?
[00:27:15] Speaker C: I was like, you know what?
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Your wife is really smart. That early in the morning? Yeah.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:27:22] Speaker C: About 11:30 at night. So she's smart then, too.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:25] Speaker C: Impressive, honey. You're smart all the time.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: That's good tinking brownie points.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Trying to help.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: So then what he said was he sold the whole program to century 21, and that's where he does that.
[00:27:39] Speaker C: And I'm now retired.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: There you go. So did you wind up essentially partnering with KW and making this kwa?
[00:27:47] Speaker C: I did not. Oh, so. So that was. That was. The interesting thing is that I decided so before that, when I made that decision, I called up one of my very good friends who works with me at KW, known him for 22 years, and I said, hey, I think we need to go out for a drink. Are you open to that? Sure. Because he's always open for a drink.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Because real estate makes us drink.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: Real estate does make us drink.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: Every time he's in, I drink a drink.
[00:28:17] Speaker C: Every time we say that.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: No, no. But every time we say, I'm going to Mexico, O'Brien's a teacher there. Then we're supposed to drink.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: That's the drinking game at home.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: That's the drinking.
[00:28:27] Speaker C: There it is. All right, I need to figure out how this works.
So. So we got for a drink, and I'm like, hey, I'm retiring.
And of course, he had the deer in the headlights look, said, I'm retiring, and I want you to buy my business.
Really?
What are you talking about? I'm like, I'm retiring. I want you to buy my business.
And he said, let me think about that.
So got back to me the next day and he said, all right, I'm in. Tell me what the details are. So ended up selling my business to him. So we've got. If you've ever heard of the book, the. The. Nick Crowder wrote a book called the Golden Handoff and now there's a 2.0 book. And it teaches real estate agents how to sell their business.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: And I believe real estate agents should read that.
[00:29:21] Speaker C: I 100% agree. Because I feel that, you know, we all have businesses. Some of them are worth buying and some of them are not. When I got in the business, what I was taught was that you never get into business without an exit strategy. And so when I got in the business, I was thinking about an exit strategy before I even started.
I didn't realize that that was really rare. And so that was one of the reasons why I created the Zulu group because I thought I was going to have someone buy it, take over the name and they could be the Zulu group. Then didn't happen. And that's okay because it was a good thought.
Execution was not quite the same. No, it's fine. So my buddy bought the business. He is buying it over three years. I'm still on the team, but really focused with coaching and teaching. So I started my coaching business and so I coach one on one. And then I teach this program. It's called Premier Connect. And I teach agents how to generate a predictable stream of referrals from their vendor partner relationships. Something that no one has ever really taught or done on a regular basis. And that's my thing that I teach.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: All right, we're going to pause there for a sec.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Is it shot time? It is time to do it.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: More about that here in a moment. We're going to pause for shots.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: We'll be right back.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: I'm Brian, your Indianapolis Realtor. If you are looking to buy or sell a house in the Indy area, I'm your guy. If you're coming from out of state, want to make a move to the Indy area, I'm your guy. Check out the show notes for a link. We can get in touch and get you started. Thanks for watching. Now back to the show. Right.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: By the magic of television and editing and Brian's amazing skills.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Thank you, Cap. Cut.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: So this time we're going to bring out some yayo.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: Yayo, yeah.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: John and Leon Leron. This is a great tequila. Sergio Cruz. We already know Sergio Cruz.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: A little more yellow than others.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: This has been aged in peach cast. This is. I like Phenomenal tequila right here. This is their Day of the Dead from last year.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: All right. No casket for this one.
[00:31:35] Speaker B: Wrong brand.
I would. I would tell you the nose on it and the flavor and everything, but that is delicious. There's an allergy season kicked up today here. I'm telling you what. I can't smell anything right now.
I asked my wife, I said, I think I'm getting a cold. And she's like, well, it sounds like your allergies. I'm like, I hope it's not a cold. But she's right. It's all just allergies, so I can't.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: It's got kind of a fruity finish to it.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: Well, it's been aged in peach cat.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Well, I appreciate that.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: And it's a highlands agave, so you. You always get those citrus notes and a lot more sugar. You know, they got a graystone oven there. 1440.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Not home with me.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: No, you're not.
They have amazing. This great roller mill.
[00:32:17] Speaker C: Quick right, twice.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Distilled by the map.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: You'll never know.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: Sergio Cruz.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: Hola, Sergio. Hola, Sergio.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: I will see you in April.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: Sergio does watch the shows occasionally, though he speaks no English, and so we often will shout him out and say hello, and he, on occasion, will comment back.
[00:32:37] Speaker C: So I love that.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: Hola, mi amigo. Mikasa. Su casa. Ah.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: When's he coming to be on the show?
[00:32:44] Speaker B: No, no, I'm going to. I'm going back to see him in April.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: Oh, and that's. That's.
[00:32:47] Speaker C: You gonna record a special segment there.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: You won't understand anything he says.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: Full segments.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. All right.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah, some. For some reason.
So tequila does have a superpower.
One of them is the fact that it's the healthiest alcohol that you can drink. But remember, it's alcohol, so it's not like you're drinking something healthy. But it's the healthiest to follow once a drink.
[00:33:07] Speaker C: And you drink vodka.
[00:33:08] Speaker B: Vodka is not healthy at all. No. It's made with chemicals.
So this is made with agave water and yeast. That's it. And the agave plant is a very healthy plant.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Tasty.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: So Sergio knows how to make the best of the best. And I lost track of what I.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Was going to say. I don't know where.
[00:33:29] Speaker C: Superpower.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: Super power. Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember. Oh, that's it. That's the superpower. It turns off your record button and you don't remember anything.
[00:33:38] Speaker A: Excellent.
[00:33:39] Speaker B: So when I hang out with me.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: Look down and make sure we are actually recording.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: We are When I'm with Sergio, usually about two hours in, I'm FaceTiming people that I don't remember talking to.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: Would you agree with that, Brian? His last Mexico trip, he was out with the guys from. Well, with Sergio Cruz, Siempre and those guys. And suddenly I get a FaceTime call from Brad.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: I don't recall.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: And it's loud. They're in a restaurant.
His buddy Alex from Siempre gets on there. He speaks English. Hello, Alex. And they talked to me for several minutes. Alex was almost volunteering to run the marathon with us. And Brad called me. It was either the next day or the day after. I said, do you even remember FaceTiming me other day? He goes, oh, no, I have no idea. They were. How many hours were you there?
[00:34:31] Speaker C: Just drinking tequila.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: We got to the distillery at 11, and Sergio brought out a plastic bottle. See that plastic bottle up there?
[00:34:39] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: That's a profile of tequila at 55% alcohol, 110 proof. And we tasted through profiles and gave him our recommendations, and we could do that at that point in time. It was after that that we couldn't. And then we ended up at Jaime's, this great restaurant that I don't recall eating anything.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: That's the thing.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: What's funny is, I woke up the next morning, I looked at Tony, and I said, I remember being at a restaurant, but I don't think I ate any food. And she's like, Honey, you FaceTimed me and showed me all the food you had because she's doing a Spanish class. So she went back to the room to do a Spanish class. And. Yeah, so my friend. I have a content creator friend of mine called the Tequila Cop, and he is a police officer in a major metropolitan city. And I asked him if I could borrow the next time I go to Mexico, his body cam. And I'm going to call it Tequila Cam.
Did tequila steal your memories from last night? Where? The Tequila Cam. That way you can remember what you did, said, and know what happened.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: Where the tequila were you last night?
[00:35:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's fantastic.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: That's outstanding.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Did you like that tequila?
[00:35:48] Speaker A: I did, yeah.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: That's a hard way to like. I'm telling you, even if that's plugged up, it's good.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: There you go. All right, Steve, so getting back to your coaching biz, do you specifically only work with realtors?
[00:35:59] Speaker C: I do.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: Okay. And without giving away maybe too much about your system, what do you coach realtors to do?
[00:36:09] Speaker C: Great question.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:36:11] Speaker C: There are tons of coaches out there, and one of the Things that makes me different than a lot of the other coaches is that, number one, I have my premier connect system that I teach that nobody else has. But I also, I love systems and models and tactics.
Something that most real estate agents don't have.
[00:36:34] Speaker B: Some real estate agents have models.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: Different definitions.
[00:36:40] Speaker B: Okay, sorry, models.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:36:41] Speaker C: You mean for all those nice models as you're walking through the house that they are filming with you?
[00:36:46] Speaker B: No, I meant their beautiful trophy wives.
[00:36:49] Speaker C: Those two.
Those are not the models that I'm.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Okay. Those are completely different.
[00:36:55] Speaker C: Might not be as fun.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:57] Speaker C: But you can make them a lot more money.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: Yeah, this is true. Yeah. The other models will cost you money that they do.
[00:37:03] Speaker C: A lot of it.
So. Yeah, so, so I. My coaching is based on systems and models that are predictable and teachable and scalable, such that agents can increase their lifestyle to a way to, to a level that they haven't seen before. And it's all something where. You know the old joke, if you can't do, teach.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: I've always been offended by that.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: You've never liked that.
[00:37:33] Speaker A: I've never liked that.
[00:37:34] Speaker B: He's like, I can do, I can do 6th grade math.
[00:37:39] Speaker C: Not new math. Come on, let's go. I can't do grade.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: Dude, that's what you got.
[00:37:45] Speaker C: I don't know how any of that.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: Stuff get a decalator.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: It's true.
[00:37:49] Speaker C: Or chat GBT it.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Yep, all of it. Glad I got out before any of that came around, bro.
[00:37:55] Speaker C: So, so no, it's, it's, it, it's all based off of. Of things that most real estate agents don't want to do and don't do. And that is basing their business off of systems and models that are predictable and that you know, you're going to get predictable results. And let's face it, we all know this. Sales is a numbers game, right? That's all it is, is math. And if you, if your math adds up, great, you're going to be successful. If it doesn't add up, you won't be successful. And it's just as simple and as hard as that. And so I teach you how to do the math the right way and then I hold you accountable for it.
[00:38:29] Speaker B: Where can they find you?
[00:38:31] Speaker C: Best place to find me is at Steve Rupp Coaching. If you want to find me on the socials, on the interwebs, or you can go to my website, steverup Coaching. Com. That is also right here. The interwebs.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: Right here.
[00:38:44] Speaker C: I see it, I see it.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Amazing.
[00:38:46] Speaker C: Steverup coaching.com and you can learn more about what I coach, how I coach, as well as a little bit more about the Premier Connect program and what it's all about.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: So sorry, in vague terms, knowing a little bit about your coaching that I do, you offer one on one coaching, you offer small group coaching.
Again, don't want to give too much away. I want people to go check it out. But yeah, how does the coaching work?
[00:39:11] Speaker C: One on one, small group. And then I do some trainings as well. So I train offices like yours. I went to do a training for, for your office. I do that. But mostly the what I do is the one on one coaching, which is the. It's usually 30 minutes, just one on one. And those are all customized to what each agent is wanting and needing at that particular time. Start with a blank sheet of paper and we go from there. And then the group coaching, I do those and I'll teach different topics and then I also teach my premier connect small group program for agents. So we'll get about 10 agents or so in a group and I'll take them through the program at last 10 weeks and then by the time they're finished with the 10 weeks, they should have a system that's producing 27 referrals a year every single year.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: I had a question for you. What was your age when you started your first year in the real estate business?
[00:40:05] Speaker C: I was 20. 26 years old.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: 26 years old. So if you could go back and give one paragraph of advice to 26 year old you, as, as successful as your business has been and all the things that you've done, what would you go back and tell 26 year old you that you would love to have.
[00:40:30] Speaker C: Known then don't overthink things.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: Oh damn, that's such a good one.
[00:40:39] Speaker C: And is, I mean that's true for anything. Sure. I mean we all overcomplicate, overthink things we get in our own way, we're our own worst enemy. Because if you're a perfectionist like I am, it's ready, ready, ready, aim, ready, ready, ready, aim.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: You've tripped over yourself 20 times and you never shoot.
[00:40:57] Speaker C: And that's the problem. Whereas if you just said I'm just going to shoot and do it, then you'll figure things out as you go. And at the end of the day, here's the one thing that, that I'm still grappling with and trying to figure out how to master this. But people aren't thinking about you as much as you think they are.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: Oh, I say that all the time.
[00:41:23] Speaker C: People feel crap about you and is you. You get in your own head and you think people are thinking about you so much more than they actually are. They forget about you as soon as your name or face or whatever it is that you wrote is off the screen.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:41:38] Speaker C: And now they're on to the next.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: Thing I'll say, this is going to feed into the drinking game. So back when I would teach.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: Oh, drink, drink, drink.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: As a math teacher, there weren't a lot of presentations my kids would do in class. But being on a team, they had a language arts teacher, social studies, science that they would go to. And oftentimes I knew when, like, presentation day was coming for their other classes because they're sitting in my classroom, they're kind of going through their presentation with their friends, practicing, whatever. And, you know, we'd often get on the topic of whether or not they were nervous. And I would often say, don't worry about it, because I promise you, no one is even listening to you.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: They are so focused on the presentation they're about to do or the presentation they've already given, and thank God I'm done with it, that they do not care what you're saying. The teacher's the only one actually listening.
[00:42:25] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: Yeah. People spend more time thinking about what other people think of them than thinking about what they should do or thinking about what other people did than they're so concerned about what other people think they did. They don't.
[00:42:36] Speaker C: Wow, that was.
[00:42:37] Speaker A: Rewind that follow up.
[00:42:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I have to rewatch that.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: We've been drinking, but it'll make sense. It's coherent.
Well, Steve, I want to say thanks for coming out tonight.
[00:42:47] Speaker C: Thanks.
[00:42:48] Speaker B: I know you're busy and it's been awesome having you and it's been fun watching your success in the real estate business. And if you decide that you need to start working with a loan officer other than your guy, I'm here.
[00:42:59] Speaker C: I'm out, man. I'm out.
[00:43:02] Speaker B: Well, good. Now you can refer him to me and it not be any big deal.
[00:43:05] Speaker A: Even better.
[00:43:06] Speaker C: Yeah, brother.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: All right. Well, again, Steve, thanks for being on the show.
[00:43:10] Speaker C: Thanks for the invite. This is the most fun podcast that I've ever been on. I can say that without a reservation.
[00:43:16] Speaker A: Have you been on another podcast?
[00:43:17] Speaker C: I have.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Awesome. Cheers. Thanks for watching, everybody.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: We'll be back on Real Est. Real estate makes us drink. Cheers.
