[blockquote cite=”JP Phaneuf” align=”left” reverse=”off”]“[NAEA was] talking about spreadsheets and analytics and knowing the sales cycle and when the business is going to come and when it’s not going to come and predicting, and all this kind of stuff. I thought, “Wow, that’s what I’m looking for.””[/blockquote]
NAEA:
If you could, just so there are no mistakes made, could you say and spell your first and last name?
PHANEUF:
Sure. JP Phaneuf. JP is my nickname and my last name is Phaneuf.
NAEA:
We are going to be talking about the journey. The journey you took to get to speaking to me in the present moment right now on making a decision to join NAEA. Because it is, as you know, not for everybody. It takes a special type of agent with a special type of mindset with a special vision that they have, or looking to gain in their life of business. You would agree with that, right? That is what we are trying to put out there so hopefully that is resonating.
PHANEUF:
Yes.
NAEA:
If you could tell me a little bit about how long you have been in the business. Take me back to those early days.
PHANEUF:
Sure. It is not that far back, I’m a pretty new agent. I got my license in October 2014 – so just eight months ago.
NAEA:
Okay.
PHANEUF:
I turned to real estate because I am an ex-military veteran, a paramedic. The shorter end of the version is that two years ago I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and could no longer work in the government fields that I had trained all my life for. I hit rock bottom and this was a turning point for me because I was no longer defined by what I did. I stumbled upon real estate and it truly saved my life. Becoming a realtor actually saved my life. I started in October 2014. I hit the ground running. If you know any other soldiers or veterans – give us a mission and tell us where to go and we go do it. I hit the ground running and I have been very successful for my area up until this point. I just finished 11 transactions and I’ve got 3 more listings under my belt. For my market the average agent sells 3-4 homes a year. I’m well ahead of that. The problem was I had no standing orders, I had no orders. I didn’t have a list of what I have to do. Being that kind of military guy – that kind of follow up framework kind of person – I was struggling. I paid thousands of dollars for this software and this coaching program and it was just garbage. It didn’t resonate with me. I connected with another Canadian who is an NAEA client and he said, “You have to connect with these people.”
NAEA:
How did you know this guy? How did you guys connect?
PHANEUF:
Social media. He is in Royal LePage, which is the same brokerage I am in. We are literally on opposite sides of the country. He is on the far eastern side and I am on the far western side.
NAEA:
Wow.
PHANEUF:
I had seen his name and we connected. He was helping me with a couple of things. I started with Commissions, Inc. I turned on the tap and all of these leads are coming in and I have no clue what I am doing. The only people that I’ve ever dealt with are the people that I have in my sphere who would refer me or would send me business or help me with whatever was going on. I knew the people that I was doing business with. What is insane is right now our market has just exploded, but I started staying stagnant. All of the deals I had done, it was like I hit a wall. I needed to make a change. I reached out to NAEA and the rest is history. It has been a week, or two weeks, I think and I have my first coaching call this afternoon. I am just working on doing the quad tracker and the analytics. What I love about it is that it looks like there is a sequence of events and it is all written out. It is all designed. It is all created, so it’s not like your recreating the wheel. It is basically, “Follow this and you will be successful.” That’s the type of personality that I am. The last part of it – the thing that I really liked is watching Jay and Mike talk and speak and all that is – it seems to me that they are trying to do is elevate the profession to be more a part of the lawyers, accountants, bankers – the people that people look up to and respect in the business world. Rather than, you’re like a vacuum salesman kind of person. That really resonated with me. That’s my goal. The last little personal part is because of my disability, there are times with my depression and mental health, it’s really important for me to build a team because there are going to be times where I need to back off and take some down time. I have to recognize that about myself. I can build an infrastructure where the team can be successful and help them be successful then I can take more of a back seat and I don’t have to do it all myself.
NAEA:
I have to say you have an accelerated mind because most people get into real estate and years go by, if not decades, before they realize a lot of the stuff you’ve caught up on in months. The need to build a team, the need to be the lead of the people. I’m sure you’re military training has helped you see the value in all of that. I would like to go back to a little bit earlier in the conversation and talk about where you are in your business numerically right now. Again, because NAEA is not for everybody. Money is just an expression of the ability to create processes around delivering value. I’d like to highlight the structure of your business as it is right now. So someone else who listens to this or gets a transcript or article related to your story can say, “That’s like me, too. That’s what I need to do.” Can you describe the number of transactions? The number of leads. The volume of business that you are doing right now or that you have done since you started in October.
PHANEUF:
Since October I’ve closed on 11 transactions, which is in my area. Since starting in October, 11 transactions are complete. I have 3 listings that are still on the books. Those 11 deals are just shy of $3.5 million in volume and the GCI – gross commission on that is $72, 000. Canadian dollars, not American, unfortunately.
NAEA:
Is the U.S. dollar stronger than the Canadian dollar right now? I know it goes back and forth.
PHANEUF:
Yes, yours is stronger right now.
NAEA:
Okay.
PHANEUF:
Of those 11 deals, 4 of them were my making, 7 of them were buyers. Right now I am sitting at about 80 leads coming in a month using Commissions, Inc. Probably 30-40 a month coming in through my social media. I use Facebook marketing.
NAEA:
Is that Commissions, Inc. or a different service?
PHANEUF:
The Facebook stuff I do on my own. Commission deals with my pay per click through Google.
NAEA:
So to encapsulate where you are in your business right now and to summarize – agree with me, disagree with me, add, subtract, multiple, divide, bring down, whatever. It sounds like you got into real estate out of a need.
PHANEUF:
Yes.
NAEA:
It offered you the opportunity to build a team and build a business. You were looking for someone who had a methodical approach to elevating the status of real estate to, where you come from, as a profession. There is a level of dignity and respect in the area that you come from in your past profession. You would like to have that same feeling wrapped around that.
PHANEUF:
Yes.
NAEA:
You have had success up to this point – hitting the ground running. You are doing double, if not triple the amount of business – you sold 11 deals in 6 months while most agents sell 2 or 3 in a year. You’ve proven yourself. You feel like you’ve got the momentum underneath you right now to make a decision to join NAEA. Because like I said before it is not for everybody.
PHANEUF:
Yes.
NAEA:
The principle driving force and decision making element that had you to decide to join was signing up for Commissions, Inc. ahead of time. You were doing —
PHANEUF:
You cut out for about 30 seconds there. The last part I heard was, you sold 3 or 4 more times the normal person and then NAEA not being for everyone and then you cut out.
NAEA:
I was saying NAEA is not for everyone and I wanted to come back to the moment of awareness that you said you recognized, “Okay, I have an awareness over a challenge that needs to be solved.” You went into seeking mode. I want to talk about the awareness, and trying to get clarification of what the awareness of the issue was. The challenge was that you had success, you had momentum, but then you have literally too many leads coming in. You don’t have any other orders coming in, but you have lots of leads coming in. You don’t have a process. You saw that you could follow and help manage the flow of the day-to-day interactions. Does that sound like the issues?
PHANEUF:
Yes.
NAEA:
“I’ve got success and I feel like my wheels are spinning, but how do I gain traction? What are the right steps in the right order?” So you were looking for something to help solve that equation.
PHANEUF:
Yes, I really felt that one – I had beginner’s luck because I just couldn’t get over the success. Two – There are pages of learning that I learned years ago in the military: unconscious, incompetent, unconscious incompetent, conscious competent, unconscious incompetent – have you ever heard of those 4 things?
NAEA:
Yes, we actually have talked about them. I heard Brian Moses mention those before.
PHANEUF:
I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was running around, “Oh, this is great.” I would take people to lunch. I hang out. I spend money. I use all of these different softwares that aren’t really doing anything. I listened to some of the NAEA stuff and you are talking about KPIs and indicators and metrics and all of those kinds of stuff. I thought that sounds like a real business person talking. I was realizing that I wasn’t in a business. I was just basically taking money off of some activity but there was no structure, there was no planning. I didn’t know where the money was going. I didn’t know where the money was coming. I knew nothing about where all of this $3.5 million of real estate was sold and I don’t really know where any of the money has gone. That’s where I became conscious that I was incompetent. I now knew that I was done – I needed to do something different.
NAEA:
That is a huge, huge insight for me and I think, obviously for yourself – is that the transition from unconscious incompetent – meaning you had beginners luck, you were going out there pounding the pavement and all of the sudden you had transactions, you had deals, you had leads, you were buying things. Some things were working, some things weren’t. And there was a moment that you recognized “Where is the money going and where am I going?”
PHANEUF:
Yes. I had no road map.
NAEA:
You had no road map and part of the transition from unconscious incompetent to conscious – what is the next —
PHANEUF:
The next one is conscious incompetent. Meaning, I now knew that I didn’t know anything.
NAEA:
Now you knew you were incompetent. Before you didn’t even know.
PHANEUF:
Exactly.
NAEA:
And this dives into my next question – when did you first hear Mike or Jay speak and was it – what was the first point of contact between you and NAEA in relation to the transition to conscious incompetent?
PHANEUF:
The first point of contact was from a referral from Nevin. He basically mentioned the EGS Summit and so I went onto that. To be honest the EGS website turned me off at first because it looked like it was all a bunch of hype. There was nothing tangible from it. I messaged him back and I mentioned something about needing to find a coach to learn scripts or – everyone keeps talking about scripts. I mentioned this to Nevin and he said, “You need to connect with the NAEA guys”. I said who’s that and he said it’s the same thing, EGS is their summit. So then I landed on the NAEA site and started doing some research. I had a conversation – a Google Hangouts, it was like an hour long, or something. That was Mike and Jay talking – and there might have been a third person – they were talking about building a business. It wasn’t about “buy 20 ice scrapers and put a little tag on it and pop by and visit all these people”. It wasn’t fluff. They were talking about spreadsheets and analytics and knowing the sales cycle and when the business is going to come and when it’s not going to come and predicting, and all this kinds of stuff. I thought, “Wow, that’s what I’m looking for.”
NAEA:
In that moment that’s when you went from unconscious incompetent to conscious incompetent?
PHANEUF:
Yes, I became aware that there is a solution out there and I wasn’t doing it.
NAEA:
Was your next step to go to EGS?
PHANEUF:
I haven’t been.
NAEA:
Okay. How did you make the decision? Can you take me to the moment in time where you actually said now it’s the time to join the elite? Because people do go to EGS and that is its own event in and of itself and within that people do find they’re conscious incompetent and they make the transition there to join the elites. So for you, where was that – so you found the conscious incompetent and you went into more of a seeking mode. There is an actual psychology to people making decisions. One – they have to have an awareness, you’ve given me the language now to understand further within that there is conscious incompetence – you can’t have awareness – awareness is the transition from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence. The next level is seeking. You then starting gaining the – you attended that webinar and knew what you were looking for then, boom, the light bulb went on. Now you started seeking solutions to this issue. Mike and Jay put that on the radar for you.
PHANEUF:
Yes.
NAEA:
What were the next couple of steps you did over what period of time? Who did you look at? Where else did you search? What other coaches or solutions became options you considered along the way before you made a decision?
PHANEUF:
Actually, just back up slightly – before I reached out to them I stumbled upon a fellow who I actually really liked and I almost, almost went to this guy. And it turns he is an NAEA member. Lars Hedenborg. I was watching one of his seminars and he was talking about the spreadsheet and I said, “That’s what I need, that’s what I need.” When I ended up stumbling upon NAEA and the EGS, and then I saw that Lars was a member and was linked to them, at one point, so obviously he learned from these guys.
NAEA:
Yes.
PHANEUF:
So I thought, “Why would I go to one person when I could go to the team who helped build that one person.” That was the deciding moment for me. As far as other coaches I looked at others like —
NAEA:
Was it a Facebook ad that Lars had run?
PHANEUF:
Yes. He does a lot of stuff with viral marketing and Google Hangouts online. Everyone was talking about it. One woman said, “Yes, I took my business from this to that..” To me that is just fluff. I need someone that will tell me this is what you need to do. This and then this and then this. Not so much in how to talk to people. That’s my background, I can talk to people. I just need to know how to structure a business around that. That was the part I felt most agents, and anyone for that matter, don’t have a clue. We are not taught that.
NAEA:
Structuring a business?
PHANEUF:
It needs to be a business. Otherwise it is just a hobby. I’ve lost my careers because of serving. I can no longer do those things. I need to replace that income and make sure that my family is taking care of. I can’t do it with a hobby. I’m doing it by doing a business. I need to go to people who can structure a business. And teach me – what was the one thing they called it – cash flow –
NAEA:
Cash flow snow ball?
PHANEUF:
No, P and L – profits and losses. I had no clue what a P and L was. I literally had to hire an accountant to help put everything into an accounting program and help me with my taxes. All of this stuff that I just didn’t know. I was just running around, money was just flowing in and I was, “Oh this is great.” You hit a point where it just kind of stops and then – now what?
NAEA:
I’m curious – just to digress back a couple of moments ago – what was that spreadsheet you were kind of ogling over, oh I need that? What was presented to you that you said, “I need it, I need it”?
PHANEUF:
He was talking about – Lars did a video – it was just explaining how he is systems driven. He pulled up a spreadsheet – I think it was very similar to the quad tracker that NAEA has. It basically showed his cash flow of his team and he has a 90 day forecast. He can tell how much money is coming in and how much money is going out in 90 day increments. Just the fact that he could sit at his computer as a team lead and know how much money is coming in and how much is going out and what the forecast is. To me that is no different as in the military. That is a leader He has his intelligence and his dashboard and he is able to make decisions based on actual, factual information. So it implemented that I need to systematize the business, the numbers. How much is coming in on the buy side. How much is coming in the list side – because when they say how much is your business? Is it 50-50? Is it 60-40? And I said 60-40 what? They said, “Buy versus list”. I said, “I don’t know.” “I’ve done 11 deals.” “Well, what is the breakdown?” “I don’t know.” It seems like I just kept saying, “I don’t know.” I completely forgot about seeing Lars.
NAEA:
They key decision was you were searching and seeking. You saw an ad by Lars. There was something about a profit and loss statement. And you said, “That’s it. The heads-up dashboard makes me a leader over my own business.” You can start to fill your vision that you are trying to create for yourself and your family – the security. You now know that you are moving from unconscious incompetent to conscious incompetent. So you can now move past that and be consciously competent – that is the next step?
PHANEUF:
Yes.
NAEA:
This is the way to provide the systems and processes. You then search around a little more on Google and you saw that Lars was a previous member of NAEA. You then said, “Well, why go to a derivative when I can go to the source and have the whole team, which he was a part of?”
PHANEUF:
Yes.
NAEA:
What was the next step? Did you watch a video? Did you dial in?
PHANEUF:
All of the above. I pulled the trigger fast. I started watching the videos that I could find on-line. I found that there were not many public video sources that I could find about NAEA. Then I stumbled upon some things from Jay and Mike. The irony is, looking back – a lot of the videos were promo videos of AGS – those I didn’t find those interesting. I wanted meat and potatoes.
NAEA:
Right.
PHANEUF:
I wanted the hour of – I watch Steve Woodward for an hour and fifteen minutes on how to use quad tracker and spreadsheets. I jokingly said on Facebook that it is Entrepreneurial Porn. I told Jay that we need a new hash tag – #eporn. It’s true. By seeing all of that and starting to try to implement those it made me feel like a business owner, rather than someone who is just in a business of real estate.
NAEA:
Great distinction.
PHANEUF:
I saw a few more of those videos. I spoke with Nevin again. And then I signed up online and called the next day. I was given the option do I want to do a cheaper, slower kind of group setting or do I want to do more. I have wasted a lot of money doing more stupid things, so just go full bore. The way I looked at it – it is an investment into my business. To me it is like having an MBA business manager right at my fingertips. Hopefully it will help structure my business quickly so that I can start bringing on team members. If they are going to join my team I am going to want to show the systems that are in place. They can say, “Wow, I don’t have any of that”. I want to be able to say, “You don’t need to. Join my team, we take care of it.”
NAEA:
So it sounds like you are about to have your first call today with your coach. I can’t ask you to answer questions that you have not been asked yet. But I am going to get a feeling from you on this – your coach is going to give you the answer to this, but going into your first coaching call – what are your expectations or hopes of what your first steps are going to be?
PHANEUF:
That at the end of the call there is an actual structured plan. First step is, getting the information into the quad tracker. Where has the business come from? How much money – all of the different things. Step 2, I want to learn about some of the designations they offer. Not that I feel the designations mean much, but what I love is the marketing material that they have. Certified home buyer expert – with the placemat – I’ve got them up here. Learning how to use those and starting to leverage them. Basically what are the steps for the next 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and go from there.
NAEA:
From a financial perspective, from a goal, tangible, empirical perspective – what are some of the numbers in your head that your expectations of having both your personal needs met, based on some of the things we’ve talked about so far as well as the value you are expecting this to generate for you – in addition to the intrinsic business building practices. What is the financial outcome that your mind is wrapped around?
PHANEUF:
My first year goal when I started was to do 18 transactions. Where I came up with that number, I have no clue. I was thinking around $120K-$150K gross commission. Now, based on some of the information I am seeing from NAEA, I want to have a goal of $250K gross commission for the first year – starting from now in a year’s time. That is now the new goal. Being able to break it down. One of the aha moments was in the spreadsheet it asked me to go in and add all of the sales for the last 3 years. Steve said everyone’s market is going to have the same kind of curves – where May through August is busy and it slows down on the other side. I plugged that in and it spits my goals out. When the market is lower I have a goal of 2 versus when the market is hot, my goal is 4. I said that is brilliant. You are setting goals that are realistic based on what the actual market is doing. I just thought that was brilliant. That is my financial goal to start and within 365 days of starting NAEA.
NAEA:
What does that money mean to you? What does that translate into what does your life in business look like?
PHANEUF:
Relief and less stress of how I am going to provide for my family.
NAEA:
Why not just stay at the goal that you are at? Was the original goal that you were at 18 homes being sold? Didn’t that number satisfy taking the stress off in providing for your family? Why work harder? Why do more?
PHANEUF:
I never said I was going to work harder. I said the team is going to work harder. Because, the first goal was me doing 18 deals. Now I’m starting to learn that if I can leverage my time and leverage other team members – that I don’t have yet, but plan on having – than I can do more volume. But I don’t have to personally do all of the volume.
NAEA:
Are we talking about quality of life and time management? What kind of impact does that have on your quality of life? What do you get to do at that point in time that you can’t do now?
PHANEUF:
The biggest thing that I struggle with – and this is the issue with post-traumatic stress – there are days where it is a struggle to get into the office. If I have had a bad night of nightmares – right now what is happening is that I am at home and I am stressing because if I am not hitting the pavement then nobody else is doing it for me. The goal is that once the team grows, those days that I don’t have the urge or the desire to make it into the office to do the sell I can still work on all of the business aspects. I can work on the systems and behind the scenes and lead generation, and I don’t have to be out in public, out hitting the pavement. For me it will be a bit of a relief. Right now on the days that I don’t really feel up to going in there is no other option. I have to and that causes its own stress and its own issue.
NAEA:
This is about creating options and the flexibility to be able to be productive and constructive in the ways and times which you have the capability to be productive and constructive in those moments.
PHANEUF:
It’s being aware of my weaknesses and managing those weaknesses so that they don’t impact the business.
NAEA:
That’s beautiful. Really. Truly. I feel that from an internal perspective for the sake of the team here at NAEA to be able to hear the difference that the structure and process systems that we helped create and are able to deliver to you – hearing your story is the reason that people show up to work here at NAEA every day and they do what they do. The difference that we can make in your life. The difference that you can make in the lives of the people that you don’t have on your team yet. The difference that it is going to make in your life to bring it all together.
PHANEUF:
I am pretty passionate about it. I do a lot of public speaking because of the mental health side being ex-military. Recently I was in federal corrections in law enforcement. They did a video for the Canadian Mental Health Association. They shot the video here at the brokerage.
NAEA:
Wow.
PHANEUF:
Yes, I have a service dog as well that helps me with some of the public stuff. My message wasn’t “Look at me, I have been injured”. The message is despite that you can still be successful. You just have to redefine what success is. So for me it is very powerful to be able to empower other people that are going through whatever their struggles are. To be able to tell them that it is not impossible. If I’ve done it, anyone can do it. I use that video in some of the public speaking that I do. Everyone says, “Oh, you’re a realtor now. That’s quite a jump.” I say becoming a realtor saved my life.
NAEA:
Wow.
PHANEUF:
I had no purpose. That’s what people say, “I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say that.” Failure is not an option.
NAEA:
True, very true. In a couple of months we would like to hear you say becoming an Expert Advisor helped you get the life that you always wanted. Becoming an expert advisor helped you get the life you are dreaming of.
PHANEUF:
Exactly, that’s the goal. Then I’ll get up on the podium with Jay and Mike.
NAEA:
Anything is possible. That’s how those people got up on the podium then. They were where you were. Taking the action that you are.
PHANEUF:
Yes. Having the courage to take the action is generally the issue.
NAEA:
Every moment along the way today I’ve learned something new about what NAEA does. I’ve learned about you and your story and how we’re able to make a difference in your life. I’m really excited for the challenges that are ahead of you because regardless of whether you’re in the military, you are still a soldier, it sounds like and you are going to get that mission complete.
PHANEUF:
Yes. And it is only going to be completed with the highest degree of success because of NAEA. I can tell you what was happening without NAEA. It was a great start but it started to fizzle and I didn’t really know where to look or where to turn or what to do and now I do.
NAEA:
Just for my edification, who is your coach?
PHANEUF:
Wally.
NAEA:
Wally is good. Wally is going to take you to the next level. He really will.
PHANEUF:
Good.
NAEA:
JP, I appreciate the time. I appreciate the candidness. I appreciate the honesty. I appreciate getting to know you as a new member, and of course as a person. Would you like me to send you a copy of this call? It’s yours to use however you want.
PHANEUF:
No, I’m good.
NAEA:
Okay.
PHANEUF:
I love seeing the articles. I have a personal Facebook page for my public speaking and my story page. That’s where the video is posted. Sometimes I’ll post things like that.
NAEA:
It has been a pleasure getting to know you and talk to you. I do hope I get the chance to catch up with you a couple of months down the road and hear how things have gone.
PHANEUF:
Most likely you will. I’m planning on booking EGS here soon. Maybe I’ll see you there.
NAEA:
Great. Most definitely. Have a great rest of the day and I’m looking forward to that future point in time.
PHANEUF:
We’ll talk soon.
