Jon Holsten: From TV Reporter To Law Enforcement To 47 Units His First Year In Real Estate
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE ON:
When you get into real estate, you have many great transferable skills from other industries you've been in. For Jon, he was a TV news reporter and in law enforcement before jumping into real estate. He had built many great relationships with people that allowed him to close 47 deals and make over $250,000 in gross commission his first year in real estate. Since then he has launched the Holsten Team based out of Northern Colorado and continues to grow his business. In addition, he wants to help people, similar to him, who came from other industries find success in real estate, which led him to launch TopNotch Agents. He's also featured in Larry Kendall's book "Ninja Selling".
In this episode with Mike Swenson, we discussed:
- How Jon's expertise in his past experience in TV Reporting and Law Enforcement has been helpful to his real estate career
- Relational versus Sales-Minded Person
- The most organic way to grow an amazing business
- What are the 5 pillars that helped Jon succeed
- How was Jon able to close 47 deals in his first year
- The importance of compiling a physical contact list to launch your real estate business
- How Jon is more focused on the relationship side of how people are doing
- Real estate is what you do. It's not who you are as a person. Don't try to be something you're not.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro To Jon's Career
1:56 - How He Did Get Into Real Estate
6:48 - Applying Expertise From One Field to Another
12:38 - 5 Pillars Of Jon's Success
19:09 - Real Estate Realistic Expectation
21:09 - The Beauty of Being In Real Estate
21:56 - Repeat Clients and Referrals
33:43 - How To Find Jon
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Full transcript here:
Mike Swenson
Welcome to The REL Freedom Podcast where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some real freedom together.
Mike Swenson
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of The REL Freedom Podcast where we talk about building wealth, gaining time and financial freedom through various opportunities in real estate. And so today's guest, I'm really excited to share because he's got experience in a few different areas before getting into real estate and has seen success and has a heart for helping others. And so we're so excited to have Jon Holsten here, grew up in northern Colorado, graduated from Colorado State and actually started out as a TV news photographer in Georgia, and then moved to becoming a news reporter and anchor in Fort Collins, Colorado, got into law enforcement and then really is as many people have had a challenge with just law enforcement in general.
Mike Swenson
And we've seen a lot of people go from law enforcement into real estate, the past guests so you got in real estate sales, close 47 deals your first year, and took home $250,000 in income and now consistently doing you know, 6065 deals a year. And really taking your learnings now you're looking to help others through top notch agents and we'll dip into that a little bit just about lessons. You've learned how you want to help agents grow and build their business. You've also contributed a book Larry kendal's Ninja selling, as well as guest appearances or being on Good Morning America and being in the Wall Street Journal. And then you run your team in northern Colorado. So welcome, Jon. We're so excited
Jon Holsten
Good to be here. Thank you.
Mike Swenson
Why don't you just share a little bit about your background? I mean, a few different industries diverse experience, walk us through that journey and kind of how you landed into real estate and, and why you got into real estate?
Jon Holsten
That's a just a loaded question. Really. I asked myself a lot of times, how did I get into real estate because I, I never I never really thought about getting into real estate through the years. But here I am. Basically, yeah, I got out a went to college in Colorado, jumped into journalism for a few years, realised that starting having a young family in journalism isn't a real good fit financially, you get paid like nothing. When starting off the media, jumped into law enforcement, because I had been as a reporter, I covered crime in courts. So I was kind of a kind of a cool fit, jumped over to that really enjoyed it had a great career in law enforcement for 17 years.
Jon Holsten
Everything from patrol officer to detective to Sergeant. It was a great a great run. But I would say I really started to question what I was doing. And I didn't really want to push a police car as we call it till, you know, I'm 65. And I was 42 at the time and decided, you know, I want to build something for myself. I want to stop trading hours for dollars and start investing in my own career investing in my own business. I asked some friends, I was like, you know, what do you think I'd be good at? I kind of I went to them and said, you know, you've known me for a long time. I call it my council of 12. Mike, I said in there might have been 13. There might have been 11? I don't know, but council of 12. Sounds good. So I sat down with 12 people. And I said here's my my thought and thinking about going into real estate. What do you think? And 10 of them after I showed them my fancy business plan on a on a big chief notepad scratched out.
Jon Holsten
They said, you know, 10 of them were like, I think you should do this. I think you have a real shot here. once said, I don't know. And the 12 said, You are crazy for leaving the job you're in. But I took the jump based on their counsel and their their thoughts and it's been great. It's been really good. Ron had a quick, quick launch in real estate. I think looking back I have identified things that really helped with that. Before I jumped in full time. And I did jump right into full time. I mean, I never did a day of work between the police work, you know, I never did a day of police work in real estate work at same time. I totally jumped cold turkey into real estate. Looking back it was kind of not smart, but it turned out pretty well.
Jon Holsten
Yeah, so here I am. 11 years later, I do run a small team in northern Colorado. Yeah, it's been great. So real estate's been a really good thing for me financially, life wise. I'd like to say that it freed up a lot of time. You know, I say one of the reasons I got into real estate was for flexibility in my schedule joke was on me on that, you know, but I'm getting to a point where where I can definitely control things a little bit more. So that's kind of in a nutshell, my story.
Mike Swenson
You know, it's interesting, I mentioned how we've had a lot of guests on or even just clients that I've worked with that invest in real estate too, that have come from, from law enforcement. And, you know, you think about the things that challenge agents starting a business is putting processes and procedures into place, following systems. And then to that, that lead Wait, that's the phone picking up the phone and having conversations with people, you had a lot of hard conversations being in law enforcement.
Mike Swenson
So picking up the phone, talking to people talking about things like buying and selling houses is a lot different than conversations you've had in the past. So I'm sure some of those emotional things that are maybe challenging for people getting into real estate was not a big deal for you. And that's what helped you make a smooth transition?
Jon Holsten
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I, one of my lieutenants, who actually went into real estate before me, and he told me, he's a Jon, you are done dealing with emergencies, you're going to have a lot of urgencies to deal with. But the chances of someone dying because of Real Estate Wealth is pretty, you know, pretty slim. So it was a change in perspective, for sure. But I was kind of one of my specialties was interviewing interrogation. And I use that when it comes to my clients, I shouldn't I don't
Mike Swenson
put a light on him into the real brass tacks.
Jon Holsten
I don't do that. But I think understanding and listening to what's below the surface, because, you know, you've heard you hear that the same buyers are liars, right? I mean, it's like what they say they want really skills below that there's a surface below that, and maybe below that surface, so getting to really what they want and what they need. So I think, yeah, my my interview and interrogation was really helpful in that. Paying attention as a detective. You know, I was very detail oriented, had to look at all the minutiae. And that's what we are with real estate. Right. So what we are in contracts, I don't understand the law, and how it applies to situations that understand the contract and how to.
Jon Holsten
So there were a lot of things I think that carried over for sure. into into real estate from law enforcement is, and yeah, you're right, talking to people. I mean, I don't have a problem talking to people. And I don't, you know, I don't have a problem telling people like it is I do it in a diplomatic way. But truth is truth, right? So being able to communicate with people in an effective way is super important. So yeah, brought a lot over with me.
Mike Swenson
And I think that's a good good advice for people that are considering real estate or just getting into real estate is understanding the background that you have the skills, the transferable skills you have, because everybody has skills that will work well in real estate. You know, oftentimes, I feel like, whatever industry you've been in the past, you can be successful in real estate, it's just kind of learning how to take the best of your background, to be able to apply it into your your career here to be able to have success.
Jon Holsten
That is exactly right. And that's one of the things I focus on in my in my coaching and training is telling people be humbly teachable, be humbly teachable, because you're bringing a lot of stuff into real estate. Now, a lot of skill, a lot of ability. But there's a lot of stuff you just don't know right now. So be humble, plug into the learning a lot of things, but make sure in your humility to understand that you are good at stuff, that's the whole reason that you are going to be successful in real estate is because you're bringing a lot of skill with you. So yeah, that's a really good point, Mike is don't forget where you're coming from, and applying your expertise from one field to another.
Mike Swenson
And I came from a nonprofit for 10 years working on the operations and admin side, and had always been interested in real estate, I'd actually done some investing in flipping kind of on the side while I was working for a nonprofit. And when I didn't, part of what scared me getting into real estate was I didn't want to be the 24/7 agent, like I didn't want to be and I didn't really want to be an agent because I'm naturally an introverted person. And so I wanted to be on the admin side. And you know, once I got into real estate, I realised like there's there was so many transferable skills, leading a team of admin, like I, you know, hiring people training people putting systems into place problem solving, I didn't necessarily know how to put a listing live or how to put it in the MLS yet, but at the same time, I could learn that or building systems to help hold a hold agents accountable or even training.
Mike Swenson
I wrote a lot of the training materials for our team without having been an agent because I could know and understand what it takes to be successful. Obviously, I had great people that had already been successful that can kind of help me build those systems, but it was all transferable, taking a system and you know, scaling it and figuring out how to do that. So yeah, everybody has good sensibilities of where they come from. And that can be what helps you to be successful.
Jon Holsten
And I think you said something really key is the whole idea of you want it to be in the admin side of things, because you saw it working to your string. But I bet you've been really good at sales, haven't you?
Mike Swenson
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's tricky in the sense of, I'm not naturally an outgoing person. I love one on one conversations I love. You know, when I talk on the phone to people, or even in the podcast, people are surprised to know that, yeah, if we were at a party, and there were 20 people, I'd be the one like, you know, hanging close to the person I knew best. Because I just don't naturally go out. That doesn't mean I don't like people. I just don't like to be out there. But I love connecting with people.
Jon Holsten
But that's the beauty of real estate. Because a lot of people you know, I mean, I said, I bet you're getting sales. But the reality is, yes, real estate is sales. But what business are we really in? We're in the relationship business, or ask for it. So I asked people a lot, what business are we in? And that's our first while we help you know, people buy sell homes. No, we, we are in the relationship business. Then it next question is What What's your product? What is your product and people go well, homes, we buy and sell homes?
Jon Holsten
No, your product is the experience people have when they work with you. And so you don't have to be some big sales minded person, what you need to be as relational connect on a level that makes them feel comfortable and bring. So there is room like you said, there's room for everybody in real estate, as and when it comes to skills and abilities. It's just learning that finding where you where you fit well, and then playing to your strengths, for sure.
Mike Swenson
So let's talk about your success as an agent and building your small team. And then we can talk more about you know, helping other folks as well. But in terms of for you, so somebody comes in 47 deals, what did you have to do to find that success right out of the gate? Like what what do you think was impactful for you are helpful to hit 47 deals your first year? Because a lot of people don't do that. And so you're you're certainly unique in that sense. But But yeah, we'd love to hear more about it.
Jon Holsten
Yeah. And I think that I had to reverse engineer that, because I was like, Why? Why is it? I mean, 87% of agents don't make it five years. 13 out of 100 people make it in this business five years. Why? What why is that? So I kind of reversed, you know, reverse engineered it. So what happened, like what did I have in place that others might not have in place, and I came up with five things. Number one, I clearly knew my why I knew why I wanted to do real estate. And yes, I wanted to make good money. Yes, I wanted to have more freedom in my life. Yes, you know, I wanted to be successful in whatever I was doing. But it boiled down to people. I love relationship, I love connecting with people and helping them in a meaningful way.
Jon Holsten
That was really my why and what I focused on because money comes and goes deals come and go. People are always there relationship is always there in your knowing your why is super important. Because when times get tough, you've got to be able to go back to that why to keep yourself motivated. In my way, number two, I had money, money is a super important piece to growing your business. I'm not seeing a tonne of money. And when I say I had money, I did not have a whole lot of money in the bank, but I had retirement. So I cashed in one of my retirement funds. That gave me six months of living expenses. And it gave me about $5,000 to build my business and launch it correctly.
Jon Holsten
Everything from marketing, to technology needs to all this different stuff. What are the biggest things people do is they jump into real estate full time or they try to and they don't have a runway, so then they have no money two or three months down the road when they haven't sold anything, which is totally normal. And then they've got to look for a side gig, you know, to support their life, all the while ignoring their real estate business because they can't they've got to eat, you know, so go into this business with six months, at least the living expenses, which I did, and having some extra money to build and launch correctly. So that number to have money. Number three was to have an existing sphere of influence. And this is something that's super important because yes, you can cold call, you can buy leads, you can do all those things and hope they work out. But the most organic way to grow an amazing business is to know a lot of people.
Jon Holsten
So when I have young, you know, young kids right out of college or kids, but you know what I mean? Right out of college and they say well, I'm gonna go into real estate and say well, how many Meet people do you know, you know, how many people do you feel like you can work as a sphere? They go, I probably know, like 10 or 15 people? Okay, well, we have a bit of a problem, because you're gonna have to grow that sphere to work with. So I usually tell people listen, if you went into the grocery store, and you ran into somebody you knew and you would have a conversation with them about their family, or just catch up on like, how many of those people would there be.
Jon Holsten
And I usually encourage people have about 100 people minimum, before you jump into the business full time, because we know statistically, in my market, this is a huge number to know, is that contact list the number of households on there, for every household, you should make $1,500 per year gross commission, per household on that list, if you're working that list correctly, so you think about that 100 people, it's 150,000, gross Commission, we make about a third of what we made, after all of our fees, and all that good stuff. So that's 50,000 to live on, you know, so I just say you got to have something in place. So I did that I had a good group, I had a good sphere of influence, I had around 400 People 350 to 400 people that I knew from being in my company for 30 years, so had longevity, and I had an existing sphere of influence that I could work with.
Jon Holsten
Number four, I ended up in the right brokerage, and a brokerage that provided support coaching, mentoring, continuing education, education for new agents, I mean, they were very, very involved. And that was huge. So number four, end up in the right brokerage. Number five, Be teachable, Be humble, Be teachable. There's a lot of people have gone before us. Super Successful in Real Estate, we do not need to recreate the wheel, copy what the best do. And when you copy what the best do, you will do find number one, know your why. Number two have money. Number three, have an existing sphere of influence. Number four, land in the right brokerage, and number five, Be teachable. And those are the five things I look back. And I said, I think, you know, I wasn't I didn't have my head around that. But those are things that I had in place, when I came into the business that helped me succeed. And I think I call them the five pillars.
Jon Holsten
And if you got all five of those pillars, you're pretty, you're in pretty good shape, you start taking them away doesn't mean that you can't do the job. But oftentimes, that means it's a timing thing. Save your money, meet people, you know, do what you need to to be teachable, learn to be teachable. So hopefully I answered your question, but I think you'll look back and, and for me, that's what it was. And I think for most people, that can be kind of helped chart a course of success.
Mike Swenson
One of the other things that I think about with agencies, you have to have a long term view of of your business, you're starting a business that's going to grow. And so what I see so many times is people take a short sighted approach where, hey, I made $50,000 a year as a copier salesman, and this year, I made $45,000 in real estate. So I'm gonna go back because I can make more money there. Well remember, that was maybe year five or seven of being a copier salesman, compared to year one of real estate. So as you build relationships, your business should be growing year after year. Or what you can do is you can cherry pick, you know, you have the nice thing is you have flexibility of how you want to run your business. So it might be I just want to make the same amount of money and maybe do it in less time.
Mike Swenson
Well, you could pick higher end listings, higher end buyers, and you could refer other stuff out to people, you could build out an admin team. And so you get to control what you want to control. But remember, you're one in real estate isn't going to equal year five or 10 in your past sales business, and therefore I should go back and do that because I'm an advocate. I mean, obviously we talked about, you know, my podcasts building wealth through real estate, like there's investing opportunities, future things as well, you got to let your career grow. And so that's going to take a few years to start to see that trajectory. Don't be short sighted and just say, I tried at one year, I didn't make as much in my other job. So I'm gonna go back.
Jon Holsten
Yeah, that's really good. And you're right. I mean, most agents, their first year do less than five deals. Right? The idea is that you double that the next year, and then you double that the next year, right and you just keep moving up. You need time to build your business. It's definitely the long game. Definitely the long game. And if you get short sighted, you're you're gonna run into trouble because you just yeah, this is a business. It's not a hobby either. You can, people can treat it as a hobby. There's no bad reason to get into real estate really, if someone wants to do it part time. Great. Be a referring agent, great. Full time great, but know what you want to do and go in that direction.
Jon Holsten
You know, and just but have have realistic expectation what that looks like and you're absolutely right. Your first year is not going to be an indication of what the rest of it is. If you tweak and learn over time, I just said, tweak, if you tweak, like on math or something like that you will not do well. But when you tweak it, meaning that how you do things, you're good.
Mike Swenson
Yes. So many times people just don't think things through and it does go back to your your number one pillar, knowing your why like, if you've got a strong why there, you're going to be in this for the long haul, it's not going to be, I'm going to dip my toe in the water into real estate. And if I don't like it, I mean, some people might try that if you have a job, and you're trying real estate on the side. But But realising you can start a business that you're in complete control of, and it might change over time. I mean, my business was residential. And now we shifted to working with investors, because I felt like it fit more with what I wanted to do. And it aligned more with my schedule going.
Mike Swenson
And for our estate investors, I do showings by myself, I don't have anybody come with me, I just take my phone, take some video, throw it in Google Drive, send it to him, and we have a conversation. So if I see up a property that comes on the market that looks interesting, I can go look at it in 30 minutes, I don't even have to call them you know, like, depends on what if it's a property I think I'll have many investors interested in, I can do that. So for me, my choice to work with investors fit my lifestyle a little bit more. But yeah, there's there's benefits of, you know, however you get to run your business, you get to decide, and that's the cool part of real estate.
Jon Holsten
That's fantastic. And like you said, yeah, it can morph over time. So one thing, whatever your Y is now can change and let it, let it because that's the beauty of being self employed. The beauty of being in real estate as you can tailor it to where you're at in life right now.
Mike Swenson
So some of the nuts and bolts, you know, I'm assuming of your transactions when you first got started, most of them were probably sphere, working your sphere referrals from your sphere, but just share a couple of lessons that you learned building and scaling your business and setting it up to repeat and consistently have good years.
Jon Holsten
Right? And yeah, down the road now, right? 11 years down the road, I still the vast majority 60 to 70% of my business comes from repeat clients and referrals. Right. So that's a super important thing to work. So right off the bat, though, what I did is I compiled I tell people, you've got to compile a physical contact list. So I did that right off the bat. And I just started working with those people. Now what does it mean to work with those people? So what I did is I call them
Mike Swenson
every day gonna buy a house today. Good.
Jon Holsten
Today, drive people off, right? Yeah, yeah, every day. You know, the vast majority of my contact with people has nothing to do with real estate. These are people who I know and are friends or I have good acquaintances with and so a lot of mine, this is this is counter to what a lot of people do, like, but I I am more served on the relationship side of how people are doing, what's going on in their life, how can I help you? I mean, I want to be a friend of them. And so a lot of times, but you know, I will send texts, Hey, how's it going, I'll send a note what's going on, you know, thinking, have you heard this happen, whatever. Phone calls, just checking in on people. And I probably do five to 10 coffee meetings a week with people.
Jon Holsten
And these are not I typically do not bring up business, I let them because they will every single time, they will bring something up about business, it opens the door, but I wasn't the one to do it. Not afraid to I'm not afraid to bring up business. And if there's a reason to, I will. But the main thing is, you know, they know what I do. They don't necessarily have to be told every time what I do. But I just harvest these relationships that I have with people. When I started my contact list, like I said it was three, three to probably around 350, something like that. Now it's closer to 500. But I keep it very people who I know. And I just work that list and just stay in touch with them. We know the average person knows 10.2 realtors. So why do they choose one particular person? Is it because they know and like them and trust them? Sure, but there's a lot of people they know like and trust her Realtors the number one reason statistically that a person chooses a realtor last person they heard from, I'm gonna be the last person they heard from.
Jon Holsten
That's what I want to do. Doesn't have to be over business. It's just I just want them to think of me. So that comes contact constant interaction with people. I have bus benches they drive by, I have radio ads they hear, you know, things like that just to saturate around them. And let them make that decision based on who they heard from last. So that's what I say when they have that contact list is just a lot. One of the fundamentals one of the things I tell people just stay in the flow with people stay in the flow with your sphere of influence. If you don't have a sphere of influence, you don't have that many people you know, get it. You got to build it. network with people I'm worth open houses. cold call sure I'm not a cold caller. I don't like that. I've never, I've never made a single phone call in my life. I've not a single cold call. Yeah. Because I just, I don't feel comfortable with that. It's not me.
Jon Holsten
There's a lot of people who love it. And that's awesome. I haven't knocked on doors, because I have a sphere of influence that I could work with. But if you don't have that sphere, you got to do different things to get it regrow that sphere, and then connect them consistently. Three to four times a month, if you can, people like what in the world do I contact people three to four times a month, I'm sending a mailer, once a month, I'm sending an email once a month, I'm making phone calls, I'm texting radio ads, bus benches, do something to be in the sphere with you know to be in that sphere. And that's a, that's a super important one. And then so that in then the other one, I would say just invest in your business, invest in marketing stuff, that's important. You know. And that goes back into staying in touch with people.
Jon Holsten
And then just be yourself. Be authentic, be who you are, don't try to be somebody else. You don't fool anybody, when you try to be someone you're not. So let your natural strengths and abilities just like you've done with with using you know your strengths and abilities when it comes to your admin or connecting with one on one with people. That's where you that's your that's your wheelhouse, and you stay in your wheelhouse. And you do the stuff you enjoy doing. And when we do what we do well, and we try to delegate the rest, you will do well financially and enjoy life more. Yeah.
Mike Swenson
And that's the thing. I mean, a lot of times people get upset when you're comparing yourself to everybody else, right? You're seeing this agent has so many transactions, this agent has so many Instagram followers, and you feel like you have to do what they want to do. And I actually I heard this I have a mindset coach and we were talking they had shared the other day that think about like a decathlete. Right, a decathlete. They're doing 10 events. To be the best decathlete in the world, you don't have to be the best at every single event, you only have to be good enough at each of those events that you kind of shine through. Now you're going to have events you're at better than others, but I don't have to be the best thrower or the best runner or the best jumper.
Mike Swenson
But I have to be consistently good. But the problem is is what we tend to do is we compare ourselves with the best at every single thing. So if I was a decathlete, I would compare myself to the best runner to the best hurdler to the best jumper. Well, we compare ourselves to the best person in social media, for marketing their business in real estate, or the best person that has billboards everywhere the best person that has radio ads everywhere. And we sometimes think we have to do every single thing to be the best and just realise, no, I just have to be me. And what's going to attract people to me as being myself. Because everybody has a different vibe. You know, there's people, there's clients that you just connect with better. And some people you don't, and you don't have to beat yourself up, when somebody chooses somebody else, just go focus on getting the next one, you don't have to change who you are.
Jon Holsten
That's a great point. And usually what I say is if someone in your sphere goes with somebody else, it just means that you probably did a better job staying in touch with them. Or they does not necessarily a, you know, a statement on who you are. That's the other thing is remember that real estate is what you do. It's not who you are as a person. So be who you are as a person, and let that shine through to your real estate. Don't try to be something you're not, you know, so I think that's really good. So please, yeah,
Mike Swenson
and sometimes people just don't want to do business with their friends, because they don't want it to ruin the relationship. And that's okay, that's their decision. So I don't have to be mad at them for not choosing me because the average person knows 10.2 realtors, you know, how many insurance agents do we know and I don't choose all of them, I choose one for my insurance needs. Does that mean all the rest of them are going to be bitter at me when we I still enjoy them as a person, I just didn't choose them. So let's put the shoe on the other foot in their shoes. There's nine other realtors they know that they didn't choose. That doesn't mean they don't like you. It just means that wasn't the decision for them. You can still get the next piece of business or like I said maybe they just decided we don't like we don't want to we don't want to risk that relationship with something souring, you know, having a bad transaction and that's okay.
Jon Holsten
Then it stings. I mean, it stinks for all of us. But you know, you just just buckle up and take it for what it is. And you know, I heard his saying we spend 85% of our lives worrying about things we have no control over. It's like I think that's true. And so we can't control. You know, we can't control the choices people make. And that's why when people have goals, especially the beginning of the year, I'm going to close 30 deals. I'm going to make 400,000 Gross commission. You don't control that what you control is what you do your actions. You know, you control how many phone calls you make.
Jon Holsten
You control how many handwritten notes you might write, or emails or direct mail, texts you make. I mean, those are things you control, do those things, focus on them and the business will come. But make make your goals based on activities you can do, right and then just let the rest go. Because we just there's a lot we do not control. And you need to be okay with that control, we can let the rest go.
Mike Swenson
Real estate agents are you tired of letting the busyness of your real estate business get in the way of your real estate investing goals in your financial future, I'm excited to announce that we've created the real freedom investor agent tribe to help you we've got a tonne of content educational tools to help accelerate your learning curve and get you on the right path to hit your investing goals. We also have a mastermind tribe of people just like you agents that want to grow their own portfolio, and encourage you and cheer you on along the way. As well as some private one on one coaching. So go to real freedom.com Click on the store, you'll see the options there.
Mike Swenson
We're so excited to be able to help you I've priced at super low, so price can't get in the way. But did want to have some skin in the game for you to help with that accountability. So go check it out real freedom.com Click on the store, we're excited to connect with you and excited for you to connect with your tribe of real estate agents investing trying to build their financial freedom. So for people that want to know more, well, we let's just chat about top notch agents for a second. You want to help other people in real estate as well. Share your experience share your path to help those struggling looking to get a footing. So talk about that for a little bit.
Jon Holsten
Yeah, well, I would say that my passion, we talked about our why, over time, my passion has changed a bit from the ins and outs or the day in day out sales and connecting with people on buying and selling homes more to my passion for just helping others kill it in their business in just form, you know, forming their career in such a way that it's it's to help them jumpstart, I guess, is the best way to say it. Top notch agents, I created it primarily for people who are transitioning from one career into real estate because that's my story. That's what I did. thing that that I want to do is help struggling agents and those who are lonely in their market and they just don't know what to do, or how to get started, we want to help them. And we want to you know, a lot of coaching is kind of rah rah high level stuff, you can do this, you know, hang in there, I think I think that motivation is crap unless you can really do something with it.
Jon Holsten
So what we do a top notch is we have something called the 60 day accelerator. And the that's eight weeks, 60 days of curriculum that they follow, they log in, they get five to seven things to do every day for you know, for those 60 days, five days a week. And it's just like, man, do these things exactly what we're encouraging you to do, and you will be fine. So I encourage people to check out the site, see if we can help them out. It's for some people, not for some people, but I think we've we've got a formula that's super helpful. We actually have on the website, we have a free assessment that agents can take to kind of identify why they might be struggling. And in some specific ways they can turn that around, it's free, we're not going to harass you, you know, but just get a chance to identify some things. And then we also focus on messaging, you know, how are you marketing your business partnered with a company South Mountain messaging that helps us in doing that.
Jon Holsten
So we just want to be a full package for people help you understand how to grow your business, we meet once a week, on Monday mornings, and we just meet for an hour and talk to that weeks curriculum and some different things we can do to grow in our business. And then we want to provide support after that 60 days. So it's just kind of a it's it's a really great group. And so top notch agents.com just encourage people to check it out. We can help you, you know, we'd love to. And if not, you know, then then we certainly want to help other ways that we can I'm always available to connect with people.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, it's clear to see that you earnestly want to help people, you know, a lot of agents are they're in it for the money, they're in it for the success. You genuinely want to help people. And so that's the beauty of that. And that tickles the right muscle, you know, for you have seen success. So that's exciting.
Jon Holsten
I've made a lot of money in real estate. And I've made a lot of money in one year in real estate and been a millionaire in a year in real estate. But it doesn't to me over time. Money's great. We needed to live but we need to pursue our passions and for me that's helping other people do that. You know, and so, yeah, that's where I am.
Mike Swenson
Well, thank you so much, Jon, for coming on. I appreciate you sharing your heart are in your secrets for success. And yeah, for anybody that's interested in learning more reach out to Jon. But thank you so much for coming on the show and thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate it.
Jon Holsten
Thanks for having me.
