A successful career in real estate requires a mix of people skills and salesmanship, which can be a challenging combination for introverts. However, introverts can learn to use their strengths to their advantage in the field of real estate.

By seeking out guidance and advice, introverts can learn how to navigate the industry and make the most of their strengths. With hard work and dedication, introverts can succeed in real estate and build a rewarding career.

Join our guest, Ashley Harwood, CEO at Move Over Extroverts and Director of Agent Growth - Keller Williams Boston Metrowest, as she talks about helping introverts build successful careers in real estate.


Top Takeaways:
02:59 Can introversion be fixed?
04:54 What helps Ashley speak in public comfortably
06:24 Alternatives to cold-calling that introverted agents can try
09:53 What the Quiet Success workshop is all about
13:37 What made Ashley decide to help people overcome the challenges of being an introvert
16:48 The advantage introverts have over extroverts
19:00 Ashley’s big grandiose plans
21:27 Is it difficult for introverts to be on social media?
22:49 Ashley’s favorite part of being on a stage
23:44 Strategy to connect with people


To get in touch with Ashley Harwood, go to:
Website: https://www.moveoverextroverts.com/

About the guest:

Ashley Harwood has been in the real estate industry for nine years.  She spent the first six years in production and the past three years on the training and coaching side of things.

In 2018, she founded Move Over Extroverts with the goal of helping introverted real estate agents avoid burnout, enjoy their lives, and build authentic businesses.

Today, Ashley serves as Director of Agent Growth for three Keller Williams offices: KW Boston Metro, KW Chestnut Hill, and KW Boston Metrowest. She is also the CEO of Move Over Extroverts where she offers one-on-one coaching, teaches workshops, and speaks on the topic of introversion in real estate.

Ashley was named as one of the top real estate coaches by The Close, was featured at INMAN News, and is a speaker at INMAN Connect 2022.

Staffing is one of the most important aspects of growing a business but can also be one of the most challenging.

Not only do employers need to find suitable candidates, but they also need to make sure that those candidates are a good fit for the company culture and will be able to hit the ground running.

That's where recruiters come in. A good recruiter will have a vast network of stellar candidates to choose from, and they will also have the expertise necessary to evaluate each candidate's skills, experience, and personality. As a result, working with a recruiter is often the best way for business owners to find the high-quality employees they need to take their business to the next level.

Join our guest, Jordan Franklin, CEO at Stratice LLC, as she shares an in-depth look at the role of recruiters in helping companies attract top talent and her secrets on how she grew her company by 103% in just three years.


Top Takeaways:
00:50 What Stratice is doing on the lead generation side to bring on clients
07:21 What an org structure looks like in a staffing agency
09:24 The avatar of the ideal recruiter
11:27 What a day in the life of a recruiter looks like
13:36 The cost of hiring a recruiter
17:42 How Jordan found their niche working with the I.T./Automation Engineering Industry
19:28 The greatest secret to snapping talent from your competitors
20:40 What you need to do to prevent your team from being stolen away
21:50 Is it an excellent strategy to create social media profiles on behalf of your employees?
24:37 Creative things companies are doing to attract people to work for them
27:47 How business owners can overcome challenges with minimum requirements for 401k and insurance
32:48 How bootstrapped tech companies should deal with recruiting
34:31 A big engine to Stratice’s growth (besides networking)


To get in touch with Jordan Franklin, go to:

Website: https://mystratice.com/ and https://my-gumption.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mystratice/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mystratice/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mystratice


About the guest:

In her youth, Jordan Franklin dreamed of becoming a doctor because she believed that it would be the only way to help people. She got her degree in Chemistry but somehow ended up working for a staffing agency.  She then realized that there was another way to help people without spending a lot of money to get a doctorate.

Jordan likes to sit next to people she doesn’t know, strike up a conversation with them, and ask them what they do. She believes that building your network is how you build your net worth. And since she’s in the staffing industry, this “party trick” has worked for her.

Today, Jordan Franklin is the CEO at Stratice, LLC, a women-owned talent management firm.  They offer specialized plans with the goal of connecting employers with exceptional talents that are the right fit for their organization.

Episode Transcript:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fQA_N9TH8FXuc_yVXi4GPUDwkdGFkj2Z3vJRPj8C0-Y/edit?usp=sharing

For many businesses, patents protect more than just an idea or a concept. It also safeguards true business assets that are critical to a company’s existence in the long term.

Aside from the protection it provides, patents can also be used as leverage to give companies a competitive advantage. It can also drive revenues and profitability, which in some cases, could turn into 9 to 10-figure monetization events.

That is why every growing company, regardless if they choose to pursue a patent or not, should have an Intellectual Property (IP) strategy to help them develop, grow, leverage, and monetize their portfolio of IP assets such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.

However, with technological innovations happening rapidly and a new “shiny” object being invented almost every day, what seems logical to get patented now could become obsolete tomorrow.  In this case, would a patent still be worth it?  Or will it be just another piece of very expensive paper?

We are pleased to hear from Keegan Caldwell, Managing Partner at Caldwell Intellectual Property Law, as he shares his insights on patent-related matters and his unique journey from struggling with narcotics addiction, to having a Ph.D. in chemistry, to building the #1 fastest-growing law firm in the country.


Top Takeaways:

05:48 One of the sad things about law firms
06:27 How Keegan got his first client
11:01 How Keegan grew his business
16:13 What most successful people have in common
19:11 The value of morale in building a unicorn company
21:30 How to define if something is or isn’t patentable
25:51 How to determine a patent’s value
28:59 The potential dangers of not having your innovations patented
34:21 How much does it cost to get something patented
40:44 Why every company needs an IP strategy
43:47 What the patent system was initially created for
51:19 Keegan’s advice for someone who is planning to become an attorney
54.35 The most exciting invention from Keegan’s current clients


To get in touch with Keegan Caldwell, go to
Website: https://caldwellip.com/


About the guest:

After finishing high school, Keegan Caldwell joined the Marines and worked as an engineer. He got into the construction business for a couple of years when he got out. Unfortunately, this was also when he had some substance abuse issues and got into legal trouble.

Eventually, he was able to turn his life around and got the help he needed. With his grandmother’s advice, he went to college to take up biomedical science and earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry.

While doing his Ph.D., he worked as an intern in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He discovered he could become a patent lawyer without going to law school. Upon graduating with his Ph.D., he decided to take the Patent Bar and pass.

But Keegan didn't want to be limited to Patent Law. Certain states in the US allow one to take the state bar without going to law school. So he took the state bar and is now a full-pledged lawyer.

Today, Keegan Caldwell is a Managing Partner at Caldwell Intellectual Property Law. They provide technical expertise and post-grant experience to help organizations convert innovation into defensible intellectual property.

Andrew Horn didn’t know what he wanted to do next coming out of college. While his friends were excited to head off to their first jobs, he didn’t have a sense of purpose in his life and felt that he’d hit rock bottom. So when one of his friends pointed out that sitting there sulking about his situation wouldn’t change anything, he knew he had to do something.

He realized that he had a desire to be of service to other people deep down.  And the times he volunteered to help disabled youth to go into adaptive sports were one of the few experiences that he was proud of. This led him to start a children's nonprofit, which would grow to become one of the premier adaptive athletic providers in the DC metro area.

Finding his purpose gave Andrew that sustainable energy source to be better than what he thought he could be and to keep pushing forward. This is the same energy that encouraged him to successfully launch his business and help propel its growth by 1,734% over the past three years.

Let us hear from Andrew Horn, CEO at Tribute, as he shares his journey from being a delinquent frat boy to finding his true purpose and building a business that uses technology to foster meaningful connections in the world.

Top Takeaways:
06:07 The lowest point in Andrew’s life that prompted him to turn things around
07:46 One of the benefits of hitting rock bottom
10:14 The reason behind Andrew’s success
11:16 What science says about meaningful relationships
16:31 How Andrew built his network
19:09 The importance of purposeful work
23:34 How the idea for Tribute came about
31:29 How Tribute deals with acquiring new customers
35:19 What Junto is all about
39:25 Andrew's thoughts on psychedelics and their healing properties

Book recommendations:

• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

To get in touch with Andrew Horn, go to

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhorn/

Website: https://www.tribute.co/

About the guest:

Andrew Horn started a children's nonprofit organization called Dreams for Kids DC when he was 21 years old. It is now one of the premier adaptive athletic providers in the DC metro area.

He also leads Junto, a community for men.  It is a practical curriculum that helps men come together in a candid and vulnerable setting to talk about things, get more clarity about their own sense of masculinity, and connect their identity to their values to have a more profound understanding of purpose.

Today, Andrew Horn is an Austin-based social entrepreneur and the CEO of Tribute.co. This platform allows users to celebrate the people they care about through a video montage. He is also a writer and communication coach. Forbes Magazine named him "Dale Carnegie for the Digital Age."

Lung cancer is by far the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world. If not detected early, 80% of patients do not make it after five years. Dr. Aki Al-Zubaidi, an interventional pulmonologist, knew that the best way to beat the statistics is early detection.  He wanted to identify all the patients in his own clinic who had a specific abnormality, or a spot on the lungs that could become a cancer.

Yet, flagging all these patients and trying to keep up with all of them became too overwhelming.  He tried to look for a solution out there but found none. Thus, the idea of using a software to help with the early detection of lung cancer was born.

With the help of Christine Spraker, a serial entrepreneur, they developed a software that is focused on gathering, curating, and sharing healthcare information to make sure that the right data reaches the right people at the right time so that lives can be saved.

Let us hear from Dr. Aki Al-Zubaidi and Christine Spraker, Co-CEOs of Eon, as they share how Eon’s journey began, and how they continue to become the market leader in improving patient care and lowering healthcare costs all over the country.

Top Takeaways:
01:37 How Aki and Christine got connected
04:16 How did they get their first clients on board
05:33 How can incidental findings increase EBITDA?
06:35 What is Eon?
13:37 How cold-calling billionaires (and non-billionaires) paid off
14:58 What made them decide to inject more capital into their business
16:00 Aki & Christine’s big AHA’s in raising money for the business.
17:16 Why you should never leverage your mission or your core beliefs
25:12 Eon’s core mission
26:35 Why Eon is aiming for total market domination
28:39 Eon’s biggest advantage over their competitors

To get in touch with Dr. Aki Al-Zubaidi and Christine Spraker, go to their website https://eonhealth.com/


About the guests:

Dr. Akrum (Aki) Al-Zubaidi, Founder and Co-CEO

Aki is an Interventional Pulmonologist who has dedicated his career to pulmonary nodule management. His background in human genetics and oncology research made him realize that the way to have disruptive change is to combine innovation and action.  Today, he is on a mission to close the gap between technological ability and healthcare implementation.

Christine Spraker, Co-CEO

Christine has more than 16 years of experience in the industry. As a domain expert, and having been touched by lung cancer loss herself, she continuously seeks improved outcomes for nodule and lung cancer patients. She has made it her mission to impact patient lives, and the providers who serve them, with improved technology and tools.

They say the path to success is never a straight line.  The road to get there has many ups and downs and is riddled with challenges along the way.  And for those who were born with a disadvantage, the journey becomes even more difficult.

John Fish grew up with dyslexia and struggled with reading and writing.  In spite of having a learning disability, his football coach saw his potential and took him under his wing. This helped John realize that being dyslexic is not necessarily a barrier to success and that he can actually use it to his advantage.

Today, John Fish is chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction, one of the most successful privately-owned construction management companies in the United States.   He is also a philanthropist whose mission is to give back to those who can’t help themselves.

Let us hear from John, as he shares how having dyslexia led him to discover his characteristics that catapulted him to a high level of success, how his company is using data and technology to disrupt the construction industry, and why he thinks supporting the underprivileged is extremely important.

Top Takeaways
14:38 Hacks for people with dyslexia to help absorb things they’re reading
16:33 Why running a company is like playing in a football game
21:20 The most essential thing about any business
25:56 The biggest accelerator of Suffolk’s growth
31:35 What Vision 2025 is all about
36:15 How to find the most productive workers
36:58 The best way to get ahead in life
40:10 The downside of having equity partners
41:11 Why John believes in giving back
41:50 What are the uses of A.I. and tech in the construction management world?
45:40 What is the ultimate goal in the construction industry?
47:14 What does “winning is not normal” mean?


Contact John Fish
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnffish/
www.suffolk.com

About the guest
John Fish was born and raised in a fourth generation construction family.  When he was young, he always struggled in school and realized he was dyslexic. His condition worsened as he went through high school and he only learned to read while he was in ninth grade.

When John went to prep school, he met a coach who took him under his wing.  He introduced John to a tutor that taught him how to read and write.  This allowed John to confront his weaknesses and use them to his advantage.

John knew that he wouldn’t achieve the level of success that he had if not for the people who helped him. John realized that it’s now his turn to give back, so when he turned 28,  he started getting involved in boards in different nonprofits.

In 1982, John’s father lent him some money to start Suffolk.  The company began to grow pretty quickly as an organization. They eventually worked in the northeast part of the country, grew to the southeast, and then the southwest. And before the year 2000, Suffolk became almost a 2.5 billion dollar business.

By 2017, Suffolk had grown to be one of the country’s top construction companies, responsible for several high-profile projects such as Boston's Millennium Tower, Encore Boston Harbor, and The Guitar Hotel in Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.

John’s awards include, Boston magazine’s #1 most powerful person in Boston in 2012 and 2015, and was #8 on that list in 2020. In addition, he was named the 6th most influential person in Boston philanthropy in 2013. The Boston Globe named him Bostonian of the Year in 2015 and 2018. And Boston Business Journal's also included him in the  "POWER 50" list.

For any business, growth is absolutely essential - most especially now that we are in the digital age. And while more and more people are using their smartphones and devices to purchase their needs, many businesses are now considering having their own web and mobile apps as a means to connect with their customers.

Web and mobile apps can be an extremely useful tool for most companies, but developing one can consume a lot of time and money.  And if your systems are outdated or you lack the technical know-how when it comes to developing web and mobile technology solutions, your efforts will only be wasted.

Which is why having the right people that you can rely on to help grow your business by providing the right tools and can partner with you to build the product from concept to completion, is crucially important.

Let us hear from Andrew Amman, CEO of NineTwoThree Digital Ventures, as he shares his journey from working as a nuclear submarine engineer, to becoming an intrapreneur, then eventually as an entrepreneur with a business that achieved a 1,344% 3-Year Growth and have landed a spot in the top 10% of 2021 INC 5000 list.

Top Takeaways:
00:59 What NineTwoThree Digital Ventures is all about
05:01 Hiring an agency vs. freelance developers
08:05 Is it important to find an agency that has worked in a specific industry
08:19 What separates NineTwoThree Digital Ventures from their competitors
09:59 How Andrew got into the business
11:58 What has been their biggest financial windfall
14:35 A mobile app that real estate brokerages can use to provide lock box access to their consumers
28:25 The difference between hiring a US based agency from going directly to an agency in Kiev, Ukraine
31:59 What is their main lead source?
40:40 The 3 factors that they are looking for in a client

To get in touch with Andrew Amann
Twitter = https://twitter.com/andrewamann
Linkedin = https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewamann/
Blog = https://www.ninetwothree.co/author/andrew-amann
Website = https://www.ninetwothree.co/

About the guest:

Andrew Amann graduated with a degree in B.S. Mechanical Engineering.  He worked as a nuclear submarine engineer where he created designs on the side that showed the company different ways they could do their operations.

He practiced the method of asking companies to “productize” some of his ideas. Eventually, he ended up getting a patent in Bluetooth tracking for manufacturing facilities. And through that repeatable process of working for a company and selling them a product idea, Andrew realized that I had the confidence to go off and do it as an entrepreneur.

In 2012, Andrew met Pavel Kirillov, an Intel Engineer from Israel.  They shared the same passion so they came together to create their first mobile app.  They were building the product from 9PM to 3AM and that’s where the name NineTwoThree Digital Studio came from.

Today, Andrew Amann is the CEO and Co-Founder of NineTwoThree Digital Studio. They invent, design, launch and grow digital ventures.  He currently focuses on helping businesses grow with innovative web and mobile technology solutions and built over 50 applications supporting millions of end users.

When Brenden Marquardt acquired his first furniture brand, he thought that all he had to do was put it up on the internet and then people would start buying it.  As it turned out it was a lot more complicated than that.

Convincing people to come to your website and convert them into customers is a difficult process.  Yet everything about your site - from the design, to how you answer your customer’s questions - should have that process in mind at all times.  That’s where Conversion Rate Optimization comes in.

Let us hear from Brenden Marquardt, Co-Founder of Homestead Brand, as he shares his journey from working in the finance world to starting his own e-commerce business selling furniture, and how focusing on Conversion Rate Optimization helped them achieve a 3,916% growth rate over the past three years.

Top Takeaways:
02:53 How the book, The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris changed his mentality
04:59 How he got into selling furniture
08:15 The first thing you should focus on if you’re having trouble making sales
09:27 One of the key things about being a CEO
12:08 What’s a good rate to pay for a Conversion Rate Optimization expert?
14:21 How they structured their first acquisition
20:38 Why they’re not using influencers to push their product on social media
21:15 How Homestead Brand deals with their “cheaper” competition
26:23 What was his company’s hockey stick moment?
30:35 One of the most exciting things about being a business owner
31:16 Brenden’s philosophy about work

To get in touch with Brenden Marquardt, visit www.homestead-brands.com

About the guest:

Brenden Marquardt worked as an investment analyst for Merrill-Lynch and Rice University’s $6B endowment fund.  He’s also worked as a Business Development Manager for Kinder Morgan.

In 2014, He and his brother Kyle, met a lady who had a very cool design for a Murphy bed.  It was affordable and can be assembled easily, but the lady was having a hard time with production, and she really wanted more time for herself.  That’s when they decided to acquire the business from her.

From there, they studied how to scale the business, and worked on putting the right structures in place to ensure its growth.

Today, Brenden is the Co-Founder of Homestead Brands.  They acquire, invest, and grow multi-functional furniture brands and include them into their growing family of e-commerce businesses.

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to CEO Secrets. Our guest today was ranked number 363 on the Inc500 list of the fastest privately held companies in America. He was also on this list in 2020 and ranked number 169. That's no small feat to be a part of the list two years in a row. Let's welcome to the show, the President of Astrawatt Solar, Keith Murphy.

Keith began his career as a salesperson but saw an opportunity to do things better. After working in the industry for four years, he started his own company in January 2016, living in his sister's garage and with only $65 in his bank account. They ranked third fastest growing solar company in 2020 and eighth fastest-growing energy company in 2021. The company has 60 employees in four major U.S. cities and has made the Inc500 list.

Astrawatt Solar is extremely focused on providing value and educating homeowners. Keith advises not to look at what your competition is doing. Instead, look for what your customers want. He further stresses finding innovative ways to create efficiencies in the company, which will help save money and create a better workplace for your employees. He and his team believe that big things will happen if you dedicate yourself to small, incremental improvements.

Let us hear from Keith why he believes that the best, the easiest, the most efficient way to get new business is by creating happy customers and why you need to be very picky about where you spend your marketing dollars.

Top Takeaways:

01:20 The marketing strategy that led Astrawatt Solar land a spot in Inc500
05:22 How the solar industry is one of the fastest-growing industries
07:16 The importance of building an avatar of different buyer personas
10:34 Why educating people about the business should be one of the goals
11:36 How to find a good copywriter
13:55 Biggest differentiator for Keith's company versus competitors
14:41 How did Keith start his business
18:55 How franchisees can save more money, be more efficient and sell more
26:24 What is Net Metering?  
35:00 How to achieve a high growth rate in business?
36:35 The key to having an efficient and effective organization
37:20 The Law of Differentiation in marketing
37:45 The necessity of customer and employee feedback

To get a hold of Keith Murphy, visit https://www.astrawatt.solar/franchise

Episode Transcript:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mJFB11YqKb4eD2ELBxJzdC09Z8gl5m1ONftOOZ4CRCc/edit?usp=sharing

Hello, and welcome back to CEO Secrets. Today’s guest is an accomplished business consultant with almost three decades of professional accounting experience. Her company ranked 376th in 2021’s  Inc Top 500 list of fastest-growing privately owned businesses in the US. Let’s welcome to the show, the Owner & CEO of Raincatcher, Marla DiCarlo.

Marla initially wanted to become a social worker but it was her love of numbers and math that made her go into accounting. Eventually, she branched off with a business owner that she was working with into mergers and acquisitions. That's when she fell in love with small businesses and started her own fractional CFO company.

Today, Marla is the Owner and CEO of Raincatcher, a national business brokerage that specializes in small and mid-market businesses. Their mission is to help transform small to medium-sized businesses into companies that are built to sell, and also help buyers find remarkable enterprises in which to create their own legacy.

Let us hear from Marla as she shares her journey and her insights on how small and medium-sized enterprises can have the ultimate edge in the marketplace and get top dollar for their business when they sell it.

Top Takeaways:
01:54 How Marla got into helping people learn how to get ready to sell
04:06 Marla’s #1 CEO Secret
07:56 Where to find the 8 factors that contribute to building a premium business
13:15 What happens when your company gets $10 million+ in revenue?
15:09 Why having the right partners involved in the business is so important
17:57 What are the different types of buyers
19:32 The value of “taking the blinders off”
21:09 Is there a way to acquire businesses through seller financing?
25:21 How to market a business for sale
29:00 One of the things that set Raincatcher apart from the competition
32:44 The red flags to look out for buying a business

To get a hold of Marla DiCarlo, visit www.raincatcher.com

Hello everyone and welcome back to CEO Secrets. Our guest for today has over three decades of experience in marketing sales and management, specifically in the field of incentive and loyalty marketing. Achieving a 5,485% 3-year growth, his company ranked 69th in 2021’s  Inc Top 500 list of fastest-growing privately owned businesses in the US. Let’s welcome to the show, the Co-Founder & CEO of springbig Inc., Jeffrey Harris.

In 1998, Jeff started a loyalty marketing agency that catered mainly to servicing retailers, financial services companies, and insurance companies.  After 25 years, he handed over the active management side of his business to his team, who was doing a better job than him, and decided to focus on a new opportunity.

He created a platform that would give small businesses the ability to create and manage their customer loyalty program. In 2016, two cannabis retailers joined the platform.  Jeff and his team realized that the cannabis industry was still in its infancy but it has great potential to grow tremendously fast.  A year later, they decided to focus entirely on the retailers, brands, and wholesalers that are servicing the cannabis industry.

Today, Jeff is the Co-Founder and CEO of springbig, a provider of customer-loyalty software to cannabis retailers across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.  Recently, his company announced that they’re going public through a merger with Tuatara Capital Acquisition Corp., a SPAC or a blank check company.

Let us hear from Jeff as he shares how he found success working in the cannabis industry and his insights on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs).

Top Takeaways:
04:20  How loyalty programs allow business owners to have a really good view into what's happening in the industry.
04:34 Is there a blanket incentive to the consumer that will drive them back to the retail shop?
04:53 A misnomer on opening up a cannabis retail shop
06:59 Is there an industry-agnostic plan you can implement to increase repeat and referrals?
07:26 What loyalty is all about
08:21 Is it advisable to implement a loyalty program for a real estate business?
09:49 What made them decide to merge with a SPAC
20:31 The greatest Aha’s Jeff had hit that kind of revenue growth?
21:56 Why Jeff prefers his salespeople to “report the news” than to just sell.
22:39 Why providing great service is a real differentiator among tech companies in the industry.
23:40 How to get technology partners to become ambassadors for your software.

To get a hold of Jeff Harris, email him at [email protected] or visit www.springbig.com

Episode Transcript:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10pBvkgoGt2uGt_AkwSo6VzTP6QkZXylmkTRRPeNk7qs/edit?usp=sharing