YouSaid · the spoken record

Gary Keller

lines on the record: 118
first: 2019-12-12
most recent: 2019-12-12
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It was. It was. And in fact, the policy had to do with what happens when people leave, which I thought was really interesting. Anyway, so I had built this highly successful business with literally no new people. These were all really seasoned vets, great people, and they weren't going to take this. So they left. And literally it destroyed. What he did destroy the office. And so I went to him and said, okay, I quit. I'll go back and put it back the way it was. But when I get it there, I'm out of here. And that's when he said, well, will it take to keep you? And I wrote a number down. And he said, okay, I'm going to put you in charge of VP in charge of expanding the company. And your first job is to go back and rebuild that business. So I went back and rebuilt it. And then I got sent to another location in Austin down south. And about, I would say maybe a month and a half.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so what happened was he had a policy and guideline manual. And the policy and guideline manual for all of his offices in three cities had a clause in it that said that if the company changes a policy, you have 48 hours to give notice that you don't agree with policy. Otherwise, you're now under the policy. And so on Christmas Eve, he went to all those offices and changed a policy about how people got paid.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's real simple. And this is all leading up to your question, how do we start Keller Williams? Yeah, I'm in no row.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I went to quit. I'd gone into quit. I didn't know, and this is all back to what was the starting of Keller Williams. I had no plans, Tim. I just, you know, I'm not going to be talked to that way. I'm not going to be treated this way. I'm not going to build something. And then you, because you're the boss, that you can just tear it down and do that. And so I was leaving. No, I just wrote a big six-figure number that I knew he wouldn't pay or thought he wouldn't pay. And then, of course, he paid, right? So I went out and launched that business for him.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Launch that office. And he just had to eat the lease for three years before he could get out of it. Me, on the other hand, went up to Round Rock Georgetown and built a business that's still there today. Hugely successful. But he then did something that created a problem in my office. So I went in one morning at like 6.30 and said, I quit. I said, I'm going to go back. I'm going to build it back after you tore it down. Then I'm out of here. Now the table's reversed, though, Tim, and this owner says, well, what would it take to keep you? And I just thought that was wow, full circle, if you will, right? No one likes you and I'm not hiring you to what will it take to keep you. So I wrote a number on a sheet of paper and it was the largest sum that he'd ever guaranteed anybody. And he agreed. He said, okay.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Read or browsed almost every book on these shelves regarding real estate. So I thought I could just help you. And she said, Well, I'm thinking about getting in real estate. And so that was one of the things on my list I had to go accomplish, right? So check that off the box. And it's really cool when we later started our firm. She was one of the first 20 agents to come join us. So that was it. So what essentially I then did that for about a year and a half to two years. Well, it was easily two years now that I think about it. And the company did something that I didn't like and I went in to resign because the owner had promised me when he hired me, he sent me to the goat pastures outside of Austin. They call it round rock now, but it was goat pasture. And he didn't give me where all the growth was going because he'd already hired a manager for that, he said. Well, turns out that he hired three managers and none of them could have ever”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it was things like go recruit people to the firm, right? But here I am a salesperson with no training in that, right? And then the other one was teach, and we'll see what your ratings will be like. It was just a series of hurdles that I was told to go do. And I did. My first recruit was actually out of a bookstore. I was in the Beedalton bookstore, and I saw a woman looking at the real estate section. And I went over and said, can I help you? And she goes, no. And I was taken back, right? I said, I'm so sorry. And I walked away. And a little while later, she came over to me and she said, hey, I want to apologize. I thought you were trying to pick me up or something. And I said, well, because I'm a smart Alec, Tim. I said, well, the thought crossed my mind. But I said, no, I said, actually, I have a degree in real estate. I sell real estate. And I love learning. And I've literally...”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I come into the office and the receptionist is doing Renails, and I have clients coming in. And silly me, I thought the environment was supposed to support my goals. So I asked her to put it away. And she gets mad at me. And then I go around the corner. And I don't think anyone ever talked to this multi millionaire businessman. So he actually got a sheet of paper out. He wrote down the things that I need to accomplish, handed it to me, and said, go do it. And I had no training in what he'd asked me to do. And I had no support, right? I wasn't getting paid for it. I was just entrepreneurially going to go out and achieve this list to get a job. Well, I think he blew me off and forgot about it. I don't know.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Meaning that I was over there helping people, and I've been in the business a year and year and a half, I'm helping people. And I think I just came by that naturally, Tim. So long story short, I ended up applying for a management position in the largest firm in the city at the time. And the owner said, I am not going to hire you. Once again, I'm getting rejected, right? He said no one liked me. And the truth is that's probably correct. But here's what I said doing, and I remember it as clear as day. I said, I understand that”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. That's exactly what I did. So I outlined all of that, created a plan for myself, and then just executed on the plan. And things went well. The funny thing is, is at the end of my, I guess it was the end of the 11th month of my first full year, calendar year, my manager came in and said, You're going to be the rookie of the year. You're 22 years old, or yeah, not 23. This is amazing. It's awesome. And I went, no, I'm out of here. And she goes, what do you mean? I'm saying, well, I hit on my goals. I made the amount of money that I wanted to make, bought a condo, got a dog, got a new car, got some servo in Vega Tower speakers that were like four feet tall. And, you know, and so I'm done. I'm going to go take a month off. So I left. Anyway, came back and I discovered that I was really kind of a closet trainer.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You might want to study what they know before you go out and start doing your thing. And that makes a lot of sense to me, right? So I studied while I was still in college, I was reading the books and studying how to be a successful realtor. So when I hit the ground in a city that I knew, maybe two people in, I just did everything by the book. Sold six houses, closed five of them, got my picture in the paper. Woohoo. What do you buy?”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, that was in 83. So when I got out of, when I got to college and interviewed two firms, I chose the one in Austin, Texas, and had been here, I think maybe once or twice before with my family. But I drove here and interviewed with the firm, liked them, agreed to go to work there, and literally launched my career, if you will, through, I guess that would be after the end of the summer. So did that. I sold six houses my first 30 days in a city that I'd only been in a couple of times before because I kind of believe in business by the book a little bit. One of the things that, and I don't know where this came from, Tim, but I had a, well, I had a professor make a profound statement once and he said, Mr. Keller, he says, people have lived a book.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So mad about that that I chose real estate. I was furious. I mean, you know, I have a degree, right? I have a degree in real estate insurance. I go to interview for my job and they tell me I'm not, I don't have the job match requirements. It's almost like you got a degree in law or whatever. And then when you got out, the law firms all told you, you're really not a good match to be a lawyer. It was kind of a, you know, freaked me out a little bit, right? I tend to respond pretty strong to that kind of stuff. So I got really mad and I just interviewed real estate companies.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that was in college. My senior year, my degree plan was in the marketing department, and it was real estate and insurance. So the college, they don't teach you much of anything about leaving the college other than teaching you how to interview. So one of the guys that came on campus was with New York Live. And I didn't realize, I later discovered that that guy, I thought I was interviewing with New York Life, the corporation, but I actually was interviewing with the top New York Life salesperson in the area. And so anyway, so I went to the interview and they gave me a behavioral profile assessment. And I got what felt like a form letter a couple of weeks later that said, I didn't match the profile of their successful salespeople. And so I would not be made an offer to join them. And the funny thing is I was.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Feeling environment. All those sound reasons why you should choose a profession, right? But anyway, that appealed to me. Got back to college thinking real estate, what that guy did was something that was very appealing to me. And Baylor University had just announced they were launching that semester of my junior year, first semester, a real estate degree program. And it was in real estate and insurance. So that's kind of, so I signed up and the rest kind of history. So I got my degree in real estate and came out, interviewed a couple of places and landed in Austin.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really, where? And they said Baylor University. I went, cool. I'd been there once because I had an older sister who had just started going there. And so that was kind of it. So that's how I got to college. And at the end of my sophomore year, beginning of my junior year, that summer, my dad, he said, you probably should get a major. And I went, okay, I hadn't given any thought. And I love to tell the story to the kids when I teach because I said, maybe you can relate to the fact that I was clueless about everything. And so dad said, well, why don't I set you up to spend some time with some guys? So it was an accountant, a banker, a lawyer, and a realtor. And I liked the realtor, Tim, and I liked it. I liked it because it was entrepreneurial. It was very people-oriented. He didn't have a tie-on. He wasn't in a stuffy corporate.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I thought actually in high school, I thought it was going to be a rock musician. And I gave no thought to college whatsoever. In the summer after I graduated from high school, I came home one night after our band had performed. And my mother and dad, who were both educators, were waiting up for me. A little spooky, right? I had to turn lights on and they were my parents into dark, sitting there in the den. But I just plopped down onto the couch, Tim. And I said, you know, I don't think it's going to work out. I'm not that good and I'm not motivated to practice enough to overcome.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, lawyer. Yeah, no, you said it right. I count it and a lawyer and a banker and a realtor. Got it. There were four of them, four of them.”
2019-12-12 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #401: Gary Keller — How to Focus on the One Important Thing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT