SHOW TRANSCRIPT

 

[00:00:05] Speaker 1 Hey, this is John Jorgenson and 2022 has been another crazy year with its fair share of ups and downs. But today we’re going to have some fun and look back at some of the best moments from the past year. On the Go With John Show. Episode 40 Bill Orrance. Our first clip is from Bill Orrance, a project manager at Stanley Martin Custom Homes. Take a listen. And you will hear the personal care and high level of attention to detail the project managers have at Stanley Martin Custom Homes. You just genuinely enjoy working with the homeowner and making their dream become a reality.

 

[00:00:46] Speaker 2 For me, this has always been a dream job. You know, I can’t believe I get paid to do this. Yeah, I absolutely love it. I love construction. And people always say, Well, why don’t you just work your way up the ladder or go, You know, I’ve had offers of been building inspectors from the counties. And I said, No, no, I really like what I do now. Yeah. And always have. And I’ll do it as long as I possibly can. Yeah, it’s confusion. It makes a big difference.

 

[00:01:10] Speaker 1 Yeah. Confucius said, find something you love to do and you never work another day in your life.

 

[00:01:15] Speaker 2 Well, that’s true. That’s correct. That’s exactly what it is. So, yeah, I absolutely love it. And, you know, I think it shows I think it shows in the work and it shows with the homeowners. And I really like this new aspect now, going to customers, having that interaction with the homeowners. Right. And it has kind of sad toward the end where you don’t get to see them every week. I’ve had homeowners cry when we, you know, say farewell at the end of the project. You know, it’s kind of hard to cut those aprons, ring string sometimes. But I think one of the best compliments I had from one of the homeowners when we finished it, we were looking out the window and said, well, you know, this is this is it. We’re we’re done. No more, no more weekly meetings, nothing else. He says, Bill, I wish I could hit the lottery. We could build another one right across the street. Said, You know, I really like that. When you hit it, let me know. Yeah, yeah, let’s do it. That’s all. But I have built multiple homes for for for our customers. Our customers. Right, right. So it is, it.

 

[00:02:16] Speaker 1 Is amazing how many people do build a home with us and then they come back a few years later and build another one. Oh, it is amazing. Doing a lot of repeat business in our in our company.

 

[00:02:27] Speaker 2 It is. It is. Just because it’s so efficient and it works so well, right?

 

[00:02:32] Speaker 1 Yeah, I agree. So so what are, what are some of the your favorite things to do in the in the project. I know you enjoy the weekly meetings with the customers, but what else is there that kind of like what would get you out of bed every day? What do you excited about when you are coming into the office? Give us some examples.

 

[00:02:53] Speaker 2 Well, I really like just making sure one of the subcontractor shows up and does what they’re going to do for the day and make sure it’s done correctly. But when it’s interacting with the homeowners, I just love teaching them, right? I love teaching them and showing them how the system works, how the the foundation drain tile system works. Yeah, what we’re looking for, as is the framing and how all the components of the house come together. And it all makes sense, right? And the homeowner just does love it. You know, I’ll teach you as much as you want to know about the house, Right. But yeah, it just I just love it.

 

[00:03:28] Speaker 1 Episode 41 Patrick Bane. The next clip is from Patrick Bane, president of Property Services Group at Long and Foster. This clip highlights something we’ve also heard from other highly successful guests and great advice to anyone who wants to shoot for the top. What advice would you have or what things have you learned along the way? So you’re you’re.

 

[00:03:54] Speaker 2 You’re.

 

[00:03:54] Speaker 1 Clearly very successful guy. What got you here, do you think?

 

[00:04:02] Speaker 2 I characterize it like this, I don’t I never think I’m the smartest guy in the room, but I’m pretty sure nobody’s willing to outwork me. So I just get after it and prioritize and make sure I surround myself with, you know, great people, great leaders. And, you know, when I look at the people that surround me outside of my team, it’s our leadership team and our senior leadership team. Our CEO, Jeff Detwiler, is incredibly supportive, a great friend and also a great boss. And he pushes on the things that are important and keeps us all focused on the prize. And the prize is maintaining our position in the market and supporting our agents every day in the best way that we know how. And our management team across every business that we’re in is. It’s humbling at times, but it’s also I’m proud every day to come to work and. I’ve been afforded many of the great opportunities here to be involved in building long and foster and continuing to build long and foster companies into the player that it is in the market.

 

[00:05:16] Speaker 1 Episode 44 Jerry Barry. Now for something completely different. This is Gerry Barry, executive vice president of First Heritage Mortgage, telling his horror story, which could also be a horror story from his days of living on the farm with his family. Gerry’s been on the show a few times and we love hearing his stories as well as his advice on construction loans. The real reason you’re here today.

 

[00:05:44] Speaker 3 I know. I know. My mom’s going to hate me.

 

[00:05:46] Speaker 1 Yeah, We got to talk about the horror story.

 

[00:05:49] Speaker 3 Yeah, I have a horror story for you. Let’s hear it.

 

[00:05:50] Speaker 1 Yeah, we’re talking about a horror. It’s not a horror.

 

[00:05:52] Speaker 3 It’s not a horse. It’s a horse. So I’ve been on this show before, and you know that I grew up in the Midwest, a little town outside of Springfield, Missouri, a little little dairy community. And so we had a gentleman farm. We always had a couple of pigs. We had a cow. We always had a couple of calves on the cow. And and we also had a couple of horses that we didn’t really ride a lot. Yeah. So our hog name was Sally at the time. She she on occasion would get out and she’d get in the horse pasture. Right. Mm hmm. So. So my my dad was at the bowling alley. Mama’s home and salad got out, and she was running around the past, and the horses were chasing the pig, and the horse could trample a pig. They probably wouldn’t, but they could, right? And they could kill a pig. But they probably wouldn’t. Right. So Mom calls Dad, and. And dad says, well, go get the pig and put it back away. Yeah. Fix the fence. Tomorrow a man goes out and walks out there quarter of a mile, right? Gets a pig, puts the pig back in the bin right back in the house. 30 minutes later, the pigs back out. So. So mom calls. Mom calls Carl. Gene said, Carl, Gene, Damn pigs out again. What am I supposed to do? Right? And he says, Well, go get the pig back in and put a piece of wood there. I’m not going to do that. You come home. I can’t come home. I’m running the bowling alley. What am I going to do? He says, Well, go get the shotgun. All right. And. And it’s got birdshot in it. Shoot that horse in the butt because Mom grew up on a farm. Shoot that horse in the butt. He’ll run up and he won’t come back down the rest of the day and off and the pig will be fine. You let the pig roam around. Right. So, so. So, Mom, you know, all we had was a big old double barrel brake action shotgun. Right. And it was my grandpa’s grandpa. The thing was, it was old, but it was in it. It wasn’t fun to shoot, and it didn’t have a pad, and it hurt. So mom says, Well, I shoot that that horse with them, with the shotgun. And we used to. Oh, no. Okay. So. So she gets our little toy door out and she shoots that horse. Yeah. And of course, is my sister’s horses. About the only one I could ride thing. Thing was me. His name was right when he was me. So? So. So she shoots out, She sees that horse. She calls her audiences a girl. Gene shot the horse. About that time, Tammy. Janice came home and. And she’s all up and her mom shot the horse and. And she’s calling the vet. So the vet came out. The vet came out and. And you could feel the bullet. Mom just barely hit the horse ability bullet down his bellybutton, basically. And you could feel the bullet there. And the vet said, Ask her anything, but I’ll give the I’ll give the horse a shot. So the doc the doc gives a horse shot and gives him like 20 ccs a streptomycin, the horse has a heart attack and dies. Oh, we get up the next morning, the horse is laying over. Oh, Dad had a heart. And what? The bullet. The bullet. Your rifle. You could see the bullet, but the. The veterinarian didn’t quite know what to give the horse. We always give my mother a hard time. She shot a horse and killed it.

 

[00:09:00] Speaker 1 Oh, my goodness. So it is a horror story.

 

[00:09:03] Speaker 3 It’s a horse story. Yeah. Yeah.

 

[00:09:05] Speaker 1 Oh, my God. What year was that? Was a long time ago.

 

[00:09:09] Speaker 3 I’m going to go with 72. Yeah, 72, 73, 72, 73. Yeah.

 

[00:09:16] Speaker 1 And that story has survived all these decades.

 

[00:09:19] Speaker 3 Mom finds I told that story. So you’ll be mad at me?

 

[00:09:22] Speaker 1 Yeah.

 

[00:09:23] Speaker 3 I’m not gonna tell her. I’m not going to tell her.

 

[00:09:26] Speaker 1 She’ll have to find it. She’s probably not listening to this anyway.

 

[00:09:28] Speaker 3 I don’t think so. More or less, do I? Just don’t let Mom hang around your horses. Yeah, no problem. You have a hard time.

 

[00:09:36] Speaker 1 Episode 46 Ray Green Street. One thing about the Go with John Show is we have a great variety of guests on the show, everything from real estate to gardening and everything in between. This is Ray Green Street, owner of Green Street Growers and Green Street Gardens. Not only was he a great guest that has vast knowledge of gardening and running a successful nursery. Green Street Gardens was also one of our first sponsors of the Go With John Show. We truly appreciate Ray and his team for believing in the show. And here’s a clip from his episode. So talk a little bit. I know one of the things that you’re passionate about is gardening and health. So what do you what do you say to folks? Because we live in such a busy world right now where a lot of folks outsource their gardening to a to a to to a neighborhood kid or to a landscaping company. How important do you think it is for folks to get out and spend a little time outside in the yard? It’s it’s it’s great.

 

[00:10:41] Speaker 2 It’s great exercise. You know, I’m trying to lose weight right now. You know, I put my weight already. It’s got me on a diet, you know. But, you know, getting out and just touching the earth and and we have a farm near us that she’s doing a lot of the detox work with with people, with what they eat and farm to table and all those types of things. But really.

 

[00:11:03] Speaker 1 Just getting your hands dirty.

 

[00:11:04] Speaker 2 And.

 

[00:11:05] Speaker 1 You know, be happy. I’ll say, oh, it’s, you know, so much work.

 

[00:11:08] Speaker 2 Don’t take on too much. Write a.

 

[00:11:10] Speaker 1 Small raise bed in your backyard.

 

[00:11:12] Speaker 2 Or produce, you know, put a couple tomato plants and some squash and you know, it’ll, it’ll produce a lot.

 

[00:11:20] Speaker 1 Episode 48 Chris Bryon and Christopher Gebhardt. This episode was a lot of fun. Christopher Gebhardt and his two sons, Chris and Brian from Promo Ink and Superior Sprinkler Systems, not only came in to talk about the Family Lawn mowing company, but also what it’s like to work with family. I asked them, what is it like to work with their dad? And their dad’s response is priceless. So. So what kind of lessons have you learned from your dad?

 

[00:11:52] Speaker 2 Or to be interrupted.

 

[00:11:58] Speaker 1 You need to put both of.

 

[00:11:59] Speaker 4 Them on the spot. Oh, I’m coming to.

 

[00:12:01] Speaker 1 The coming back over to Brian in a second. Yeah. Craig Christopher’s is he’s got to get some mike time here.

 

[00:12:06] Speaker 4 Yeah, I’ve learned. You know, I think I guess one of the words that come to mind, I think, is like patience.

 

[00:12:11] Speaker 1 Yeah.

 

[00:12:12] Speaker 4 Having patience.

 

[00:12:13] Speaker 1 With your dad or having patience.

 

[00:12:15] Speaker 4 Overall. Yeah. Yeah, overall. You know, and that could kind of tie into, you know, how you react to something, whether it’s business or in life, if maybe it doesn’t go as planned. Right. You know, maybe eliminating the if something you do, it doesn’t go the way you expected it, eliminating the time, fretting over it, upset, you know, just moving on to the next thing, trying to to get better. So, you know, communication is a big thing. I think ever since I’ve been young and it’s, you know, been tied to work and just outside of work. But I think he’s been fantastic at just building and maintaining relationships. Right. You know, which even before we started recording, you were talking about the, you know, importance of having connections, having relationships. Right. A lot of people, whether it’s business or in life, they can spark relationships. But how how long does it last? Right. So seeing him from when I was younger, having conversation on the phone or in person with people, and now, you know, whether it’s five, ten, 15, 20 years down the road, still having conversation with the same people and more, I think I’ve learned a lot of lessons of, you know, the importance of and and what keeps us relationships is being a good friend, being honest. Right. Working to make the relationship healthy. And I think that it can apply to a ton of things.

 

[00:13:41] Speaker 1 Yeah.

 

[00:13:41] Speaker 4 Business and outside of it.

 

[00:13:43] Speaker 1 So, Brian, what about you? I know you’ve had time to think for a minute. Yeah.

 

[00:13:47] Speaker 4 I mean that, you know, my relationship with my dad and things that I’ve learned, you know, I’ve been. I’ve been working for him for ten years, right? And when I started working, you know, he just he really sold it to me. You know, you can take it as far as you want. Right. So really, the the big thing that, you know, thinking about my dad, what I learned from him is that, you know, it’s hard. Life is hard. You know, running a business is hard, you know? And a lot of times, you know, the the work’s never done. You know, you can always improve and always, you know, get better and do it better, you know? And he always stayed himself, you know. So that’s something that I really you know, I’ve been fortunate to, you know, sort of see from him, you know, because we’ve grown we’ve go through ups and downs, you know, But he’s he’s sort of doing it his way and he’s stayed, you know, himself. So it’s it’s been it’s helped me, you know, because I you know, I’m going through a lot of the things that he went through with the business and, you know, just sort of just believing in myself and staying true to myself. And, you know, just always remember that, hey, if you know, no one else is going to do it, you know, it’s going to be you, you know, So put in that time and you know, it it’s it’s necessary. It has to be there. You know, you can’t just roll through, you know, being in a family business. You can’t just assume that you’re you know, you’re safe for the business safe. So you need to you need to really put in the time.

 

[00:15:33] Speaker 1 Episode 49. John Esposito It’s always interesting to hear the different responses to the question What makes you get up in the morning? John Esposito, owner of Personal Touch Jewelers and founder of Bikes and Breakfasts, tells us what keeps him going.

 

[00:15:50] Speaker 5 I’ve got to I’ve got to tell you this. 1999. I met a gentleman. To back up, we wrote. If you know what a Yamaha R1 is, it’s an incredible. Back in the day it was the fastest bike. It was incredible. And I met this gentleman that made a a it’s called an Undertale enclosure. So you took away that plastic black fender and you put this under was made in France, You took this and it was painted and it really finished off the back of the bike. Long story. He and I became very good friends to the point where I went to Europe with him. And he the motorcycle show in Europe is unbelievable. But to shorten this. He expressed to me. Because he was making a lot of money, he expressed to me. I wake up to make money. Yeah. And I’m John. I am not kidding you. I pondered this for three and a half days. Mm hmm. Why? Why wake up? What? You know. And I actually came up with that. I wake up to make people happy. Yeah. When I make people happy, I’m happy, right? You know, so it’s. It’s not. It’s not that I’m so generous. I need it. Yeah, I need. I need it for my personal life. I need it for my business life. And of course, in my business life, I make people happy. I make a living. Yes, You know. Yeah, I. There are so many jewelers around that make so much more money than I do. Mm hmm. I. If I. Envious? Yes, lightly. But I’m not. I’m not willing to work that hard. You know, I need I put my heart and soul and everything I make. I could never do $4 million a year that I hear. You know, most of that is I’m going to guess is is manufactured. You know, when I worked for a manufacturer, gosh, I’d have an envelope. I was telling you about Diamond Hearts. I’d have 20 of those diamond hearts. When I open the loose diamonds I might trade would be like a mountain of diamonds. Yeah. You know, where did they all go? They went to all the different stores in the country, you know, Whereas, sure, they have a salesperson. They sell that item over and over and over. Whereas for me. I may make an item and I may not make it again.

 

[00:18:26] Speaker 1 Yeah, And that’s why you call your store.

 

[00:18:28] Speaker 5 Personal touch.

 

[00:18:29] Speaker 1 There you go. John the Jeweler. Episode 52 Soraya to Modern. How we organize and design our homes makes a huge impact on how we live our everyday lives. In this clip, Soraya to modern owner of Design and Staging group, tells us an interesting story about her most difficult client, an eight year old boy named Jack.

 

[00:18:54] Speaker 6 In my career, only one person has made me real nervous in interior design. And it’s this idea of Jack. I was nervous to do his room. Right. So one day when he went to school, we did the installation right. He comes back. I wanted to see his reaction. He says nothing, and he goes around his room, touches different surfaces and looks at things. And he was very quiet, so. I went home. And then tomorrow morning, his mom called me and she said, Soraya, for the first time in his life, Jack made his bed, put everything back, how you had it. So he enjoys the organized room. And for me, that was a fantastic achievement because I feel like I changed this boy’s life right when it comes to order and how he has to keep his room. He was so impressed and he was so comfortable in his room that he want to keep it the same way. So that was one of the great things. And that’s a story I tell my clients how order and a good design can affect people in the house, right? It affects your mood. It affects how you relax in the house and ultimately, really, ultimately, it. Affects your relationships in the house. When you’re proud of your home, you invite people more. So it changes your social life, so it should not be taken lightly.

 

[00:20:44] Speaker 1 Episode 53 Rob Moore Here is a story that’s both funny and heartwarming. Rob Moore, vice president of operations at Beltway Pools, tells us the story of summer days at the pool and how he met his future wife.

 

[00:21:01] Speaker 2 I’ll give you a two for one special here, so I’ll let you know a funny pool story and also let you know how I met my wife at the same time. Fantastic. Yeah. So I worked commercial pools for ten years. Okay, So. And with commercial pools, you are you are getting a lot of companies are getting lifeguards from Eastern Europe primarily. Right. That come over and work on a J-1 work and travel visa through the State Department. Sure. That’s depleted a lot in the last couple of years, which just made commercial pools struggle a lot as well. But anyways, so back in 2009, I met what would be my wife. She’s from Ukraine, right? And she came over and worked. She worked at this pool in Alexandria for about three years. She eventually became the pool manager there. Mm hmm. So I was her supervisor. So, you know, we met on very unprofessional circumstances. But anyway, I got a phone call one day from a kid that was probably 1415. He was a patron of the pool. Right. And he said, Hey, you’re your lifeguard called me a douchebag. And and there was two guards at this pool side, a 5050 chance he was the girl I was dating. So I was like, okay. I said, What did she look like? He described exactly. My wife and I was like, Great. So I’m going to be stuck between the company I’m working with and the girl I’m dating. So not a good position to be in. So I gave her a call and I said, you know, first I was kind of impressed, you know, like she’s still learning English. You know, that’s a pretty advanced words, right? I ended up calling her on the phone and I said, Hey, I just got a call here. Yeah. Did you call the kid a douchebag? He goes, I absolutely did. He was being one. Yeah. And I said, You can’t do that. She goes, Why not? It was the truth. I was like, That’s not how it works there. I said, Oh, so what was he doing? She said he was she was taking all the kids toys in the pool and, and the parents were complaining. So I said, Hey, douche bag, get out of my pool, You know, you’re done. I took his pool pass and he’s not coming back. And I was like, You know, you’re going to create a big problem for me here. You know, their parents are going to call. He’s a minor. This is going to get out of hand. Yeah. So anyway, about a day later, I get a phone call from a random number and I answer it, and it’s the father of this kid, right? And I’m just slapping myself in the forehead going, Oh, here we go. Yeah. And he said, Hey, my child came home and said that your lifeguard called my son a douchebag. And I was like, Ah. I was like, Yeah, I heard about it. I said, I am very sorry, sir. I said, I apologize. You know, they are from Eastern Europe. The culture is different. They’re learning stuff here. That’s part of the program. I’ve handled it. And he goes, No, he said, I don’t want you to apologize. And he said, My kid’s always a douche bag. And he said, I wanted to go over there and commend her for doing that because he needs to learn a lesson. Right. And, you know, I was like, man, there’s still parents around that are teaching their kids discipline, right? So, yeah, it will end up working out in the end. But it is, you know, very nervous situation at the time. So. Yeah, yeah.

 

[00:24:18] Speaker 1 Fantastic. So, so that is, that is great. So how long you’ve been married?

 

[00:24:23] Speaker 2 Oh, it’ll be 12 years this September.

 

[00:24:26] Speaker 1 Oh congratulations.

 

[00:24:27] Speaker 2 Yeah. Thank you very much.

 

[00:24:28] Speaker 1 Tastic. That’s fantastic. Episode 56 Sam Wahlberg. Ever wonder why the chicken crossed the road? Sam Holbert, president and CEO of the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, has the answer for you. And it’s not what you expect. What kind of things may you come across in your in your daily rounds?

 

[00:24:53] Speaker 4 Yes. So the animal control team is always in the community. And part of being in the community in Arlington County is that you see a lot of interesting things. One example was this past January, you’ve heard kind of the story of why did the chicken cross the road? Well, in this incident, the chicken crossed the road to get to the Pentagon. We were called in by Pentagon officials because there is a chicken winding around their security checkpoint. We don’t know how it got there. You know, what is a chicken doing running around the Pentagon? We never found that out, but we were able to to go in and assist. We brought the chicken back to the shelter and hung out with us. No one came to kind of claim it, so it became our chicken and wound up being adopted by one of our one of the animal control officers that was originally on the scene. But in the meantime, we put something out on social media, and you never know how these stories are going to play out. But this one just blew up. It got picked up by news not only across the country but around the world as far as England and India and even went so far to be featured on the Jimmy Fallon show. You wrote a song about this, The Chicken Crossing the Road to get to the Pentagon. So it’s stories like that that just on a given day, you never know what you’re going to come. Right.

 

[00:26:15] Speaker 1 Well, then that makes life fun. Episode 57. Lillian Jorgensen It’s always a treat to have my mom, Lily and Jorgenson on the show this year. My mom came on the show a few times to chat about the real estate process, as well as her view of the real estate industry at large. We also get to catch up a little, which is a great added bonus. In this clip, Lillian chats about our family trip this past year to Denmark, where she was born to celebrate a momentous occasion. So let’s talk about something really exciting.

 

[00:26:54] Speaker 6 Well, that would be our trip to Denmark.

 

[00:26:56] Speaker 1 Yes. So you just went back to Denmark and we were lucky enough to be able to go with you. And you got remarried for your 60th wedding anniversary.

 

[00:27:08] Speaker 6 And everyone should have their children and grandchildren at their wedding. Right.

 

[00:27:13] Speaker 1 At their at their first wedding. I’m not.

 

[00:27:16] Speaker 4 Sure.

 

[00:27:17] Speaker 1 That would be something to talk about.

 

[00:27:19] Speaker 6 But it was a little omen. Yes. Yeah. So for years, my husband had been saying, well, when we get to 60 years, we should go back to Denmark and get married again. We were married in Denmark in March of 1962. And in my little hometown of Colling. And of course, I was saying, Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you go on with your daily lives. Well, well, here it is this year and 2022. And we reached our 60 years in March. And so we did in fact decide to go back to Denmark. And we were lucky enough to be able to make an appointment with the priest who baptized my 15 year old grandson, who unfortunately couldn’t make it. My daughter could not make it. And it and also my brother and sister in law were married in that same charming little church in Copenhagen. So we did go back and we had a wonderful ten days in Denmark. And John and his family went. And I think we all had a really fun.

 

[00:28:32] Speaker 1 It was it was a lot of fun. Yes. Not a.

 

[00:28:34] Speaker 6 Fun.

 

[00:28:36] Speaker 1 Episode 62 Maurizio Trigo To go with John Show offers some truly excellent opportunities for people to share their story. And there’s no better example than Maurizio Trigo, CEO of Infiniti Limo Car Service. From Legal Immigrant to CEO. This is an inspiring story for anyone and everyone. So, Maurizio. So tell me, where in Bolivia did you come from?

 

[00:29:03] Speaker 4 I came from a town called Cochabamba.

 

[00:29:07] Speaker 1 Cochabamba. And then when you came to the U.S., you came to Washington, D.C., and you are living the American dream.

 

[00:29:15] Speaker 4 I am. I’m different. I think that I experience everything of the American dream, which is, you know, work very hard for for your dreams and achieve them, you know, succeed, but also fail. Yes. And able to build my company again from from from zero back to back to what we have now.

 

[00:29:36] Speaker 1 And I think, really, you you beat me to the punch and I didn’t want to interrupt your story. But, you know, when you were speaking about leaving your company to go start your own company and the the manager asked you to continue to drive for him, that was because you had integrity and you were honest. He would not have wanted you to continue to service his clients with you as a competitor if you didn’t have honesty and integrity as part of your your core values. So and I think it’s the same with the last story you just told about the the the the government official that has made a lot of introductions for you. He could sense that you were an honest person and he trusted you. I don’t know if it was a he or she. I’m making an assumption. But, you know, the the you know, the stories that you’ve told. I mean, you went to school, you learned how to speak English, you went to work, you learned how to wash the cars, you learned how to process the credit card statements. You worked in the industry. You learned everything about the industry inside and out and upside down. You had a mentor in your first company that you worked for that was willing to let you drive a car so you could learn how to start driving around. And you had a very intelligent mentor who said, Hey, learn how to drive from the airport to here and here to the airport. And it’s it’s you know, you were in the right place. You had the right people around you, but you did the work. And, you know, the hardest thing that you had to do. And and, you know, it’s funny, our team, we just had a meeting on Monday, You know, I had to survive, you know, in business, the aftermath of 911. And, you know, we’re going through challenges right now in the real estate industry. And you went through some really difficult challenges when COVID hit. But it makes you stronger. It makes you better. And you’re here and probably many of your competitors went out of business, you know, So when you had the fortitude and the wherewithal to fight your way through it and to go out and dig ditches and get up on roofs and put solar panels on to pay your bills to keep your business alive, it paid off.

 

[00:31:42] Speaker 4 Yes. Yeah, I believe I believe it did. And, you know, we’ve been very blessed that that we we were able to come back from from all this because it was it was a really tough time. Yeah, but with perseverance, hard work, it, you know, it paid off now and now we it’s not like we don’t have challenges. And I think we were talking off Mike before about the challenges of finding a workforce, right? So. Right, right, right. Absolutely. And this is something that we still is is still working on working on. And right now it’s incredible because when we for when we interviewed, you know, someone for for a position, we will kind of listen to the person and and see if he’s fit for the company. Right. But now he’s kind of the opposite. We need to show the person that that that our company fits their needs. So it’s changed a lot. Yeah. And it’s it’s another challenge that we have. And as we grow and we acquire more, more, more vehicles, we also need to find the right people to work with us. So, you know, it’s going to be a challenge and it’s going to. But we know that we’re going to see that in episode 63.

 

[00:32:54] Speaker 1 Nancy Wilson This year we got the chance to sit down with some very successful realtors in the industry to chat about everything. Real estate, something all realtors talk about is work life balance. And Nancy Wilson has a story I love having to do just with that. So I remember one time I called you and you were driving in the car and tell me. Tell me what? Because because that is one of the most memorable interactions I’ve ever had with you. And for some reason, it just it just stuck with me. So I called you. We’re talking and what have you called me?

 

[00:33:29] Speaker 6 And I always say, don’t answer phone calls in my car when I have passengers. But I knew it was you. And I was like, okay, can’t be too private of a conversation, right? So I think I was driving my kids to school, preschool, and I answered the phone and you were asking me something, and I think the kid in the backseat started crying. And I was like, John, just a second. And I thought, I muted you right over me. But clearly I didn’t mute it. And I just I said to the kid, Listen, listen, I know you’re sad. I know you’re crying, I know you’re upset. But please, can you just cry quietly? Yes. I can finish this call and then I’ll drop you off at school.

 

[00:34:02] Speaker 1 Oh, it was amazing. It’s was like, I know you need to cry, but you need to cry quite quietly.

 

[00:34:09] Speaker 6 Which is now why I can’t take calls with people in the car. I’ve tried to do it. Yeah. And then I get a kid sniffling or I get somebody coughing. I’m like, Oh, I can’t know what to do.

 

[00:34:18] Speaker 1 And you know what? People don’t realize. So when you’re having a conversation about real estate with the client, your brain is all in. Like, you don’t need that distraction. And in fact, sometimes distractions happen and you don’t even realize they’re happening because you’re so focused on the on the conversation.

 

[00:34:34] Speaker 4 Yeah. Yeah.

 

[00:34:37] Speaker 1 All right. Like I said at the beginning of the episode, this has been a year of ups and downs for everyone. I hope and imagine these best of episodes are an opportunity to look back on some of the impactful, interesting or just plain funny moments that happen every year. This year on the Go with John Show. We talk to a lot of great people and appreciate everyone who’s come on the show. I’ve also recorded a few solo episodes, including an episode chatting about my experience living in an RV during the pandemic. Whatever next year brings. Thank you from everyone on the Go with John Show team for listening, sharing and being a part of this journey with us. I’m John Jorgenson and I hope you can get out there and build something extraordinary.