Realty Life
Veteran realtor and industry leader Ken McLachlan talks with real people about their passions, their accomplishments and the moments that changed their lives. Realty Life is an inspirational and powerful look at how life turns and the journeys that follow.
Realty Life
Pivot and Prosper: Thriving in Real Estate Through Change
Why do some people thrive while others get stuck?
In this episode, Ken chats with Randy Collins, a real estate agent and entrepreneur, about the pivotal role of mindset in achieving success.
Randy shares his journey from construction to multi-level marketing, and eventually to real estate, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, continuous learning, and adapting to change.
His insights on personal growth, dealing with challenges, and maintaining a positive outlook are both inspiring and practical for anyone looking to elevate their life and career.
Listen For:
06:16 - The MLM Experience
11:34 - The Seeds of Greatness: Why Some People Succeed
26:04 - The Dream Board: Visualizing Success
32:24 - The Power of Presence: Staying Grounded
Guest: Randy Collins
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Ken can be reached at:
ken@remaxhallmark.com
Randy Collins (00:01):
If you don't know yourself, then it's hard to work with others. And I think I realized, okay, if I can work with people, because you have to admit in the MLM business, it's like herding cats. Everybody's going every different direction. Everybody feels they're right, and that's their context, and they have the right to that.
Ken McLachlan (00:46):
Hello everybody, it's Ken McLachlan, and welcome to my podcast, Realty Life. And I've realized that in the last several podcasts, maybe four or five, I've focused on mindset and how we deal with things that happen in our lives and the struggles we all have and things that really what's between our ears on that. Because I really believe that we are the biggest obstacle that stops us from getting the success we want in life. And if we can deal with that better, if we can have techniques to help us get through this stuff, everything's going to be better for us as long as we do the work on that. So I am going to continue along with that theme today, I've invited a guest along. His name is Randy Collins. He's a real estate agent with RE/MAX Hallmark Eastern in a place called Peterborough, Ontario. Kawartha this area, it's about an hour, an hour and a bit northeast of Toronto. It's a beautiful part of our country or province. And Randy is, I think you're going to find out, is an exceptional person. The time I spent with Randy prior to this podcast has always left me inspired, lightened up low off my back, that I can go through life better. The journey that he is had, the attitude that he has toward life is so inspiring. And so I'm really, really excited for us to hear what he has to say and him to share his life with us. So welcome, Randy.
Randy Collins (02:23):
Thank you very much for having me on.
Ken McLachlan (02:24):
I'm Really excited to have you here, Randy. This is a real thrill for me. As I said in the intro, my work lately has been in the podcast scheme of things anyway, has been around mindset and how we deal with things and all the stuff that comes that way. So to have you here and to have a conversation with you means a lot for me. So thank you for being here, number one. Oh, you're very welcome. And you're home now. You're in the cor, right?
Randy Collins (02:51):
I am home. I'm at my home in Peterborough.
Ken McLachlan (02:54):
Wow. And everybody doesn't know where Peterborough is for people that aren't familiar with it. It's about an hour or so east north of Toronto in a beautiful area called the Kawarthas, which has tons of lakes, mainly Rice Lake, and it's a really beautiful part of the country, and it's really inexpensive. If you want a cottage, this is the place you go to. It's really, you can get a really fantastic car. Anyway, that's Randy. We can set you up with Randy later on. He can help you do that. Yeah, absolutely. Randy happens to be in real estate, which is, but you weren't always in real estate. Tell us a bit about your journey and how you came to being who you are today. I mean, I'll dig into this stuff for you later on. Tell us about the journey of the whole thing.
Randy Collins (03:37):
Well, I think, yeah, it's been a long journey, want to reflect upon it. But yeah, I think I started out doing the kind of traditional recipe for success that soon found out it was a recipe for disaster for me, which go to school, get a good education, get a good job, and retire from that. It was very short lived. I kind of worked for somebody else for about just under a year and discovered that wasn't really for me, so I wanted to tackle something else. So I had studied in civil engineering technician program here in Peterborough, and I decided I'd go into the construction industry. I liked that I was hands-on, so it was kind of fun for me, but soon got tired of that. I think it was about nine years into the construction doing a lot of work in the downtown Ottawa Corps.
(04:18):
So I left Peterborough, went east, really ott and yeah, a family member out there. So I decided I'd go that direction. And it was interesting. I looked for a lot of big contractors in the area and working for the government and doing a lot of work in the downtown area. As I'd mentioned, we would take buildings and bring them down to base buildings and prepare them for others to retrofit them. And as soon discovered, after having a lot of staff on, it was sometimes my superintendents would make more money than I did in a week. And they thought, of course we're wealthy, we own that business. But it was kind of a game of cheeks.
Ken McLachlan (04:53):
That's a real technician job, isn't it? Oh, very much. I mean, the engineering background gives you that analytical site.
Randy Collins (04:57):
Absolutely. And
Ken McLachlan (04:59):
The technician part of it. And how long did you do that?
Randy Collins (05:03):
I did that for just under 10 years, I think. And I think the final ending to that was I just got tired for chasing money. The bigger the people
Ken McLachlan (05:12):
Did work for, what's that mean? That
Randy Collins (05:14):
Well would happen is you'd have money on your books and they'd call it thirty, sixty, ninety doubtful money. So the banks didn't really care after 90 days that it wasn't in your account. It was like you didn't have money coming in. So that was quite a challenge, and I thought, I don't want my life to be this all the way along, just chasing it. So I kind of got a little frustrated with that. And after that,
Ken McLachlan (05:34):
You would describe yourself today as an entrepreneur,
Randy Collins (05:38):
Correct? Right, yeah, definitely.
Ken McLachlan (05:40):
So that beginning you had as the technician, the engineer, the work you described in Otto was very structured and very precise in how you do it. Is would you think that's, it's like a one 90 degree shift from what you were doing at that time?
Randy Collins (05:59):
Yes, absolutely. And it was shortly thereafter, I was introduced to a multilevel marketing business model. I really liked what I saw there. It was quite interesting. Spent actually 18 years of my life in that following the construction. So this was different. That
Ken McLachlan (06:14):
Was That's amazing. That's a tough gig, man.
Randy Collins (06:16):
Yeah, that was a tough gig to get into. But one thing I appreciated about it, I remember the first conference I'd gone to and there was like 70,000 people showed up in Atlanta, Georgia, and I remember walking into the Georgia Dome thinking, my goodness gracious, there's something happening here. They're very good at tricking people into this business model.
Ken McLachlan (06:34):
So
Randy Collins (06:35):
I soon sold out to it. And the best thing I think from that business model itself, like I say, I went full-time in that very shortly thereafter, I tried to do the construction and the MLM business, but soon found out, one gentleman from stage had mentioned that a man with one watch could tell time. A man with two watches was always confused. So I dropped the construction, love that, love that. And I took on the multi-level marketing business, and I realized with systems in place, the one thing I could do was learn it. And I think that was very helpful for me. They had good training programs, which I love and respect that we have in Max Hallmark as well. We'll touch on that following. But I think when I got involved in it, I figured, okay, I could learn this business model in which I did, we were quite successful in. It had many independent business owners below us in that organization. It had its challenges obviously too, because it wasn't the same as the engineering side. It was all of a sudden
Ken McLachlan (07:34):
Incredibly different, incredibly different, dealing with the people. I imagine. I can only imagine this, the personalities you had to deal with the ups and downs of people that you were trying to help to be engaged in things. So how did you learn to deal with that? Where did that come from?
Randy Collins (07:52):
Well, I think what happened was there were systems in place and I thought, okay, I'm willing to learn, as I'd mentioned. So I started plugging into different training programs. And one in particular, I remember hearing a gentleman from stage say that you want to know thyself before mastering this industry? And I thought, okay, what does that mean? He said, learn about yourself. There's different books that you could read that would help out with yourself. As you mentioned, personalities, major part in business, because as we know in most businesses, the one gentleman that stood on the stage that was actually my mentor, he mentioned that 85% of success was people skills and 15% was technical ability. I thought, okay, maybe I could learn this people side. I was normally task oriented, so that was going to be a challenge. But I dug into it and I learned a lot about personality profiling through the DISC system, DISC through Robert Rome still to today. I reread that book numerous times over
Ken McLachlan (08:47):
Big part of our life and our business, our leadership, and absolutely we have the Kolby system. Anthony Bins has it Kby. Yeah, a lot of people, but it's really people that don't know about it. It's a way of actually helping you understand how people deal with life and how they deal with situations. If they're more prone to be this way or it's a really good indication, sometimes it isn't absolutely defined that it has to be that way, but it gives you a good beginning, a picture into what people are like and very, very valuable.
Randy Collins (09:17):
Oh, extremely. Because if you don't know yourself, then it's hard to work with others. And I think that's what carried through the program, through the MLM that I brought into the real estate. I realized, okay, if I can work with people, you have to admit in the MLM business, it's like herding cats. Everybody's going every different direction. Everybody feels they're right, and that's their context. And they have the right to that to think, okay, the world evolves around me. So every time I would frustrate it, I'd start to learn that it was my own personal frustration. So I would look at somebody if something bothered me, it was really Randy's problem. So I had adjusted to understand them, not that I had to agree with everything, but at least if I got an understanding, I thought that would be very advantageous. And that the DISC program and Kathy Kolby, the Kolby Index helped a lot, not only knowing personalities, but also mode of operandi. And then I realized I was a fact find through and I thought, okay, so I'm going to dig up information and that's just my profile and I'm going to follow through and finish it. That was always my life. And do the job. Yeah, do the job. And same within the disc, I realized there was DISC and I was a DIC and called a dick many times prior. Just realized
Ken McLachlan (10:27):
In, I think I'm a DI think, whatever. I don't know.
Randy Collins (10:32):
I know that. Oh, that makes sense.
Ken McLachlan (10:33):
Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, very. Sometimes they call me the same thing, but that's a different story. You really dug, like you said, you dug into the system and then you implemented them based on who you are.
Randy Collins (10:49):
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Ken McLachlan (10:51):
So let me back up for a minute. So I always think this, I don't know the answer to this, but I'm curious about what you think. Often when I see an unfortunate person on the street or in life or struggling, I try to think of why is it that I have the ability, some reason or some understanding to see that there's a different opportunity if I do X, Y, Z? And why doesn't this person who is not in an unfortunate situation, why isn't he or she not seeing that? Why me? When do I get it And other people struggle with it? Do you know what I mean? Well,
Randy Collins (11:34):
I know exactly what you mean. I've watched that through every industry I've ever worked in and wondered why are they not getting it? And I don't think they choose to fail. Nobody chooses to fail. Agreed. I think the seeds of greatness in every one of us, we all deserve to win. And life's built for us to win if we choose to do it. I think that's the biggest thing is you got to find somebody that may believe in you also, and thank you for that as well because I didn't expect to be even on the podcast. But someone that believes or sees something and you may not have seen in yourself, and hence that gives you the ability and internals to think, now maybe I could could listen or learn something different to change the outcome. It was interesting. A very wise man hit the stage one time when I was down in Atlanta, Georgia, and he said something, he says, you don't know what you don't know, therefore you don't have. He said, if you knew what you knew you would have, and to know one not to do is not to know it all. And I thought, whoa, that was heavy. It took me years to remember, but
Ken McLachlan (12:30):
Yeah, I figured that out for me.
Randy Collins (12:32):
No, you don't know what you don't know. It's true, right? We don't dunno what we don't know.
Ken McLachlan (12:36):
I have no idea,
Randy Collins (12:37):
Therefore we don't have sometimes. But to know what not to do is not to know at all. It's like there's a lot of people, well-educated that don't apply it.
Ken McLachlan (12:45):
So having what you mean by that is having, even though I have all this gift to the ability, everything else, I'm just not taking advantage of it. I'm not doing the work that's involved with it. And I see that a lot how people deal with obstacles that come our way. Some people get stalled by it. Some people, well, there's a wall there. I'm not going to go through it. I'm going to stay in my cocoon, whatever, whatever. And other people go around it. Other people devise plans on how to deal with this stuff and how we deal with stress. And I'm curious to hear how you deal with obstacles, how you deal with fluctuations in your life. We all have a situations that there's a shitty market, there's real personal stuff and whatever. And I find sometimes that people get, and I was at this one stage of my life, overwhelmed by it for a period as well. Where did you learn or what do you do in your life? Well, I think
Randy Collins (13:46):
One of the big things is constantly doing the same thing. So we're not in control of our results so much as we're in control of our activities. So hence I set a program up that puts me into an activity mode where you do certain things that allow you to move forward in life. And I think it all boils down to that, protect yourself from yourself. Because whether it's an up or down market, I think we could all make it. I look at this market, I put my head down and push forward. I've got leadership in my office, cheers me forward and just says, what are you doing differently? Nothing. I'm just doing the right things and keep doing it and don't stop. Because one thing I've learned is crap can't stick to moving target. So stay in motion, grab on, move forward, make things happen. It will not stick to you. So often I go to the office, but sometimes you don't want to go to the office. It depends on how people feel in the coffee room. And they're not positive. I don't really want to get it on me either. I'm like, no, thanks. I love you, but I'm out of here. I've
Ken McLachlan (14:42):
Got a routine. It drives me nuts to listen to people that are bitching about. I mean, there's things that happen. Well being,
Randy Collins (14:48):
Laws of attraction. We know this happens. Yeah, I
Ken McLachlan (14:49):
Think that's really, you know what? There's another choice you have in life to actually do what you just talked about. Absolutely. Get down, get dirty, get to work. We have a thing too, but there's a lot of people, I believe my experience is this anyway, is that when people are confronted with this wall, this negativity, the market is bad, nothing works, and all this stuff we call it, and they disappear and we call it cocooning, and they get, we could say they get under the covers. And what happens, Randy, is that my experience is that it's like my visual. They tend to go to bed, pull the covers up where it's safe and warm and nobody can get them. And I understand that because I've been there and that's a way of dealing with it. And so we did this in Covid. We understood that our unique ability at that time was to make sure that we showed people a way that they didn't cocoon because if they cocooned, we believed that they wouldn't provide for their families and their mental health and everything else. So our whole thing was really making sure that people didn't cocoon. So what I like to do now is to make sure that I don't cocoon that I'm fully engaged and you deal with it by just having that action going on all the time, right?
Randy Collins (16:16):
I think what it is is interesting because sometimes we forget that we grow, we well-doing and we forget the basics that have actually got us where we are. And it's funny, even this morning I was mentioning to my assistant, I said, you know what? I look at my career and how things have advanced forward, and I read a book this morning, actually, I listened to it. It was audible, but it's called Who Moved My Cheese. What a wonderful book on change. If someone wants to take one hour and read it, it's a wonderful read or just listen to it. If we're lazy readers, just listen to it to the audible. But it's amazing on talking about change today. And so often we think that we back away or we hide or we cut everything back. These are the times you lean into the situation. You lean forward.
(16:58):
When you look at fighter pilots and helicopter fighter pilots, when they're about to crash and they're in the military, that plane's going down, that helicopter's dropping your instincts to pull back, pull back, get under the covers, hide this isn't happening, or push forward and the plane regains itself and lifts again. See, you wouldn't feel like you should do that, but these are the times we do exactly that. These are the times we push forward, pull the blankets back off ourselves, take the opportunity to dust ourselves off, become a better you. Work on you incorporating what will happen. This will come again, but this shall pass. So this is what we're going through. It's going to happen again. Life cycles in everything we do, whether it's real estate, MLMs, construction, whatever that is, it will cycle. So hence, if you prepare yourself now for that cycle, just get in the game, prepare yourself.
(17:51):
I suggest everybody, listen, read and associate three things. Listen to some good audibles, some things that make you feel good about where you are and what you're doing. Personal professional development. There's thousands of them out there. You can download them for a dollar or two. There's nothing too much with this, but start feeling better about you. Grab a book, grab a good book in self-help. Like I think every time I read a book, I discover new things inside that binding. I've read books 5, 6, 7, 10 times and I've got a library around me now and in my office here and at the cottage that I always grab a book. I'll sit back and I'll take time. 20 minutes a day, you'll read a book a month, 20 minutes a day, you'll read 12 books a year. You realize the average person doesn't read one book a year. And what are we sharing with other people if we don't have any wisdom at all?
Ken McLachlan (18:39):
Randy, where did this come from? I mean, how did you become this person that has this understanding? I mean, was your family this way, your parents or
Randy Collins (18:48):
No, tell me. Actually, it was all learned. It's all been learned. So here's the great part. No one was born a success, right? We all know this. You're a baby. You come out. You don't know these different things that are necessary and you're not always going to have it just happen. But you can be learned all this going through these cycles. Whether they're good, bad or ugly, they will repeat themselves. So if you prepare yourself and arm yourself, set yourself up to go through these times the next time it comes. When good times come, we never learn anything. We're just in victory. When bad times come, it's called bootcamp. These bootcamps is where we learn everything. You pick up the most wisdom in the times you're getting hit because it
Ken McLachlan (19:25):
Sinks you thinking my language, man, I get straight up. I always tell people that how I am in a crisis or how you are in a crisis is really who you are. And
Randy Collins (19:35):
Absolutely
Ken McLachlan (19:36):
Anybody can walk by or say to you that, Randy, if you jumped in that water and you were drowning, I would jump in and get you. Everybody will say that, but actually in that circumstance, what will you do is who you really are. And so to me, that's the judgment I have on myself is lack of a better word, is that I need to know who I am when there's a crisis going on, who I am, when the market is bad, how do I appear to be? What am I doing? What's my
Randy Collins (20:05):
Work? And the laws of attraction work in your favor. So we've all felt this way. I've been through the dolls too. I just don't stay down there very long. It's like, no, we're all entitled to go there. Just get the hell out of there as quick as you can because it's a nasty neighborhood. You don't want to be there.
Ken McLachlan (20:20):
I was listening to a podcast the other day on Shameless, I don't know if you've listened to that, but it's a great podcast. And they had the guy, Michael Keaton was on, the guy Batman and all that stuff, and he said he, they were asking him these questions, and one of the things he said, if I get it right, I'll hopefully repeat it. That they said to him, well, you go through all these additions and do you get depressed? Do you get down and you fail? He says, no, never. I'll tell why. He says, when I go to an addition, and I had to do it when I first started, this business is the movie acting business. I had to do it. But I looked at that as my job, and I knew that for that 15 to 20 minutes that I was there, I had to do the very best as my job. And whenever I did, the outcome would be what it is as long as I put the best work into it. So it wasn't that I was failing, I was working, and that was part of the job I had. So my light bulb went off. I think, wow, that's really, that's true. When I go on a listing appointment, when I'm doing prospecting, when I'm doing all this other stuff, it's my job. It's what I do for a living to push things forward anyway. Yeah,
Randy Collins (21:27):
You're never losing. You're either winning or you're learning. So if you hit a down cycle, you're into the learn mode. And I remember hearing a gentleman speak at one of the leaderships, don't quote me, but it was one of the recent leaderships, and the gentleman said, he went through a tough time about eight, 10 years ago, and you said to him, he came to you for discussion, and you said to him, would you hire yourself? I thought, whoa, there
Ken McLachlan (21:47):
You
Randy Collins (21:48):
Go. Bang. Would you hire yourself? See, so many of us in this industry, we make a lot of money in this industry or have the potential to make a lot of money. So why wouldn't we treat it the same as a JOB? If we ever did, you'd make a whole lot more money if you put the time in that was necessary to continually prospect, to continually farm an area, to pick up your database and actually pick the phone up and call somebody every day to nurture them. When you realize how valuable those people are you already have in your business, isn't it a lot easier to turn over one of them to get a buyer or a seller or a neighbor or a friend or a coworker that's looking to buy or sell through somebody you've already marketed to who already believes you?
Ken McLachlan (22:34):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Right. Ready? Tell us, what's a day look like for you? What do you do
Randy Collins (22:39):
Typically? It's interesting, and I have to add in, I got smart just a few years back. I discovered it was very challenging all on my own to do everything. So I thought, I'm going to hire my weaknesses. So I brought in an assistant, oh, the world changed. I love what I do. I love what I do. So it made it a big difference. But she can take on and does not only she's my partner as well. And so it's a beautiful thing we discovered through Covid. Kelly said, I'm going to come in and help you out with some things. Well, my goodness gracious, I could just hold the door now. She loves the people, the how to do things. She picked up on social media for me. So if you're out there and you're challenged in certain areas, it may be a suggestion. Maybe you can't do that right now, but maybe you can find a way to get somebody to pick up your weaknesses.
Ken McLachlan (23:28):
We want help you out people to focus on the unique ability. What do you do really well and get other people to do the stuff you don't do well,
Randy Collins (23:35):
Absolutely. There's books on that. I went to a course on that on unique abilities, and it's amazing what you can do because the seeds of greatness, like I say, are in every one of us. So I think you just have to have somebody come along, believe in you, lead you in the right direction, plug you into a system, have a routine, which I'll explain to you what I do on a daily routine. So basically it's first thing in the morning, Kelly and I get up, we take a look. We either go to a hot tub, we love water. So we go to the hot tub or the lake house, sit out front, have our coffee, and we talk about the things we're grateful for. We're grateful for everything. But it's what a beautiful way to start your day. You look at each other and realize, I'm grateful for you.
(24:13):
I'm grateful for the business I have. I work with the best people on the planet. All of my clients are amazing. We love to work with our clients. They're beautiful people. So we do our gratitude. Then I'm a list maker. I'm still an old timer that way. I'll do stickum and stick 'em in my Audi dashboard, but I still have Stickum, and I'll use my digital form. So I use the phone and stickers, but I'd like to see what I'm going to do for the day. I don't want to miss anything. So I look at my job board and go, okay, here's what we need to do today. Here's who needs service. This is what needs done next. This industry can get overwhelming if you let it. So be careful that you're the dog wagging the tail, not the tail wagging the dog. So list it out. I always dust off our why. You'll hear people talk about vision boards or dream boards or whatever you want to think. And at first I thought that was hokey pokey, but after years being on this planet, I've looked back at dream boards and realized, oh my gosh, I actually achieved those things and more.
Ken McLachlan (25:10):
Okay, so let's stop there for a second because we're going to go back to this thing. But tell me about a dream board for you if you want to share that. Tell us the components of it. Why is it important to you and how do you think it works? Well,
Randy Collins (25:24):
I think, oh, I know it works for sure. It's one of those items that you put up in front. And if the dream's big enough, the facts don't count. You say it's a tough market, I don't think it is. If you want something bad enough, you'll overlook the obstacles on the way to get it right. So you have to have something powerful in front of you, bigger than you. What's bigger than you? We can all get a car, we can do certain things, that's great. But start with something. There's a lot of books can be read. You could read on this dream board aspect or vision boards, whatever, but post things that you'd like to see. What's your life supposed to turn out? And I don't care if it is travel. That was a big thing for me. Big thing for my partner loves to travel.
(26:04):
So in fact, just prior to this, we were booking our holidays for next year. Inclusive is a trip to Florida to go to meet Naples there. First week of December, that's going to be a holiday too, but we booked some others. But those boards have to have things on them that you want to have in your life, and you can be selfish with it. You don't have to display it to everybody, put it in your bedroom, put it where you want to see it. But when things get tough one day, go back to the dream board and take a look at it and go, you know what? It's not that bad. It's just a day. It's just another day. And in our industry, we're paid in accordance to the number of people we help. It's just the number of people we help. That's how we're paid.
Ken McLachlan (26:47):
How often do you revisit it? How often do you change it? Do you take it away, add to it? How does it look for you?
Randy Collins (26:53):
I think it's interesting. Sometimes we'll do dream boards and we'll put them aside and we'll not visit them as frequently as we should. I think my son realized that, and he ordered me the Rob report. He said, dad, you love stuff. And I love to see people have stuff because I love success and I love to see other people successful because I know what price they paid. And I think, my gosh, I love it. So he ordered me that last year. So I'm like, oh my God, thank you. My son, both my sons, by the way, are plugged into the systems that I have available. They've read the books, no surprise. They've done extremely well. I used to pay them $5 a book they would read as children, $5 a book. You read it, daddy asked you a couple of questions, we're going to move on. I thought, I want to give you something I never had.
Ken McLachlan (27:35):
I
Randy Collins (27:35):
Love it. My dad was a machinist. I love my dad. He loved us. My mom and dad, she worked in the retail. He worked as a machinist. We didn't have much money, but a lot of love. And so I came from that and realized, okay, and I think my dad allowed me my first dream, if you want to know the truth. I went fishing with him, and we went up to this little place called Buckhorn. I know on this podcast, on the Buckhorn, beautiful boats go through there. Yeah, I used to go up there with my dad in a little tin fishing boat. It had tar on the bottom. We couldn't afford to fix the rivets, so we tarred it. Thing weighed a ton, took a nine nine to push that thing one mile an hour down the lake. But anyway, we still loved it. We would go fishing and he'd bring a little lunch bucket and inside that would be a cola, not a Coca-Cola. A cola and a sandwich or a pop shop
Ken McLachlan (28:20):
Pop. Yeah, I got you.
Randy Collins (28:22):
But I would walk along the blue line and I'd see all these beautiful boats, and I'd walk up to them and I'd see these guys. They were done nice. They were all classily, dressed up and spoke really well and nice tans. I knew they didn't get it on the weekend. It was a 10 that I'd come for a long time. But I used to walk along there and I'd see the boats and think, what do you do for a living? And I remember one guy walked over and handed me a can of Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola. Whoa. I hadn't had one of those. So I was seven or eight years old, and I thought, this is what my life should turn out. I want to be what these people are somehow some way. And he invited me on the boat and I took a look at it and I thought, wow, this is what the other people live like.
(29:00):
And I used to think it was the other half. No, no, no, not at all. It's just the other few that chose to be them. But I liked that. I went, man, this is amazing. So the rest of my life, possibility, that direction. Yeah, possibility thinking. I didn't even know it. My dad didn't know he did that to me. In fact, I probably frustrated him while I moved on in my life, and he didn't understand the industry as I got involved in it. He used to think, did you get paid to go to a conference? Did they pay you for that? I'd laugh at think,
Ken McLachlan (29:27):
Heard that so many times. I've heard this so many times. I interrupted your story. So you got the vision board. The rest of your day, you're sitting there, you review. So you're fueling yourself prior to actually doing the
Randy Collins (29:41):
Starting my day. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we want to be in tune with ourselves because if your insides will reflect on your outsides, people don't like that. But it's the truth. Whatever you're feeling internally will reflect outside if your business is problematic right now, a lot of times we have to stop in front of the mirror. And I know that's a tough one, but my mentor told me that. He said, just stop and take a couple seconds and look hard into that mirror. There's the problem. Sorry, the world's going to be the world. It will do what it's going to do. How do you do the world? How do you do the world yourself? And I thought, oh, that's a tough kicker, but I could handle it. I went, I don't care. So back to me being in control again. So I wanted to attract people into my life that thought and felt the way we felt.
(30:25):
See in these times when they so-called, get tough out here, or whatever you want to call it. I don't call it anything, but whatever. It's if you feel good about you, you'll continue to attract business. Our year's been a wonderful year. I have no problems with this year whatsoever. In fact, it's been great. I'm taking advantage of the bootcamp experience. I don't care. I'm going to learn my way into it. I'm going to enjoy my way out of it. It's going to happen. Anyway. This 2024 will happen. Here's a word that we learned to build into our vocabulary. Pivot, pivot, pivot. 23, 24, pivot. Oh, here it comes. Pivot. I think I'm going to get this listing. Pivot. It just went down the dream flushed. Oh, that guy got a discount broker. Pivot,
Ken McLachlan (31:04):
Pivot. Whatever happens, happens. Keep moving. Just keep moving though. Keep moving all the
Randy Collins (31:09):
Time. And the last thing we try to incorporate into our daily lives or every other day, or often as you can do it, is meditation. What I had to learn with meditation was you didn't have to be this guy that could sit funky with your legs, crossed your arms, crossed your knees, your fingers crossed, and all this weird stuff. And you don't have to completely clear your head. I started listening to this gal called Emily Fletcher, and I felt great because I thought, okay, she taught me how to meditate in a manner which I could still have thoughts. Thoughts weren't bad. Thoughts can still enter your mind, but she can still help you. Walk through that. And I went, wow, 15 minutes later, you feel cleansed. It's like getting two or three hours sleep extra on your day. So your health's important. So doing the meditation and building in it as well, it brings you back to the now.
(31:54):
Is that a daily if you're in the present? Oh, if we can do it daily. If I can remember it, I'm guilty too of not doing it daily, but I would try to do it as often as possible. Daily is a beautiful thing for 15 minutes do. It brings you back to the present. If we're in the present, you don't have a problem, right? Grab your pant leg and feel your material on your pant leg, right? You're in the present now. It's only the pant leg. You're feeling nothing else. There's no problems, no anything. Your whole system settles down. So it's like I'm in the present. This is
Ken McLachlan (32:21):
Awesome. I
Randy Collins (32:22):
Feel great.
Ken McLachlan (32:24):
I'm rejuvenated. I do the meditation. I also do journaling. Journaling to me is, and you I'd like to do it every day. I don't do it every day. I miss out. And when I get into the rhythm of doing it, my life is so much better. It's complete. It helps me to absolutely. I stand up straighter. I'm more in tuned to what's going on. Problems aren't as big as I've created them for in my head on that. So that's good. Meditation is really good. I'm going to look up Emily Fletcher.
Randy Collins (32:55):
Emily Fletcher, yeah. She was one because I could never meditate before I felt like I was a failure. And I thought, okay, if I hit the failures zone, I back up. I go, I don't really want that one. I can lean into it, but I didn't like it. And it was like, it's got to be another option. But I needed it. I still needed the meditation. So I thought, okay, I'm a big boy. I can do this. I'll find another alternative. It's like our market today. You were either going to lean into it, just like the buffalo does when there's a storm coming, they run into the action. The helicopter pilot leans into it, lean into this. What's happening right now? It's okay. It'll come to pass as well. Whatever it is, it is. Lean into it. Just create routine. Something you do on a daily basis basis. And I guess the biggest thing is, you know what? It's the six inches between here. We're our own worst enemy.
Ken McLachlan (33:41):
We get in the way. I think we get in the way. Yeah, we in the way
Randy Collins (33:44):
A lot. Yeah, we do. We absolutely get in the way. Sometimes. My mentor used to say it's fear, and he had the acronym, FER, false evidence appearing real. He says, you create this thing that's going to happen that isn't going to happen. So why are you spending all the time thinking about that?
Ken McLachlan (34:00):
Why don't you think about other things? I always tell people, we're going to be dead one day. We're going to be this. Why are we worrying about things that really don't matter? I just confounds me that we, and you know what? I've learned like you to be work through this stuff and to have this attitude towards life. And I create the obstacles myself. I put these things in my way and it's my mindset and everything else. So how do I get out of it? I can work my way through it and do this. So Randy, what would you tell a young person getting into this business that we're in? What would you advise 'em to do? I mean to be,
Randy Collins (34:37):
Yeah, that's a good question. I think if I was brand new, getting into this industry, there's a couple things I want to do. First thing is take the Robert Rome and the Kby test just for your own personal, knowing you a little bit. Secondly, there's a ton of things to do in our industry, but if you're brand new, here's what I was told. I had a mother-in-Law. It's an ex-mother-in-law now, but a mother-in-Law that actually had been in the industry. She was hit in about a hundred, 125 deals a year constantly. She was one of the chairmans for estate 25 years solid in re max at that office I'm at. And I thought, sign up a gun.
(35:13):
What was she doing different? And she said one thing to me, and I listened. She said, when you're new, do open houses. And I thought, open, I don't know if I'm into that. And she says, you don't have to be. Just do them. And here's why. She said, get the ones that are less expensive. Here's why. Nobody has an agent that goes to the less expensive ones or very few. So guess what? I picked up a ton of them. I did open houses till they're coming out the wazoo all the way through my beginnings in this industry. I thought, I'm going to do open houses. And I did. And I gathered that thing called the database from it. They didn't leave that when they came into an open house. My specific intent was, I'm taking one of you for a coffee following, this one's coming with me, and you're going to be become my best friend.
(35:55):
And I did that. I would peg it. I'd go, okay, you're working with somebody else. I'm not afraid to ask. I was just asking. And if they were, I'd leave them alone. Let them do their thing, of course. But I wanted to narrow it out. I'm a new guy. What do I got to offer? Not a whole lot, but I better be nice, be nice. So I thought, okay. I picked them up and then I started adding to the database. And today my database is everything. It's solid as a rock. I can throw a dynamite in that thing and it sticks. I know what I make. I know the level of I'm going to hit year after year, but now we're moving on further of course. But those things, they're predictable.
Ken McLachlan (36:27):
You get out there and meet people, work and have for sure. How often do you connect with your database?
Randy Collins (36:34):
Database is vitally important. We have systems set up, and then my assistant is very vital in this area for me too. And it's funny, this morning, just before this call, I get a thank you from one of my clients. Thank you for thinking of me on my birthday. It's so greatly appreciated. The gift that you sent me, is it much? No. But whatever, $10 gift card, send it off every birthday, anniversaries, whatever you have, communicate, touch base with them, pick the phone up and call them. If you've seen them somewhere out there and you didn't get a chance to talk to them, pick the phone up and call them. But that database, especially in today's times, if it's tougher out here, many of them, you just want them to know you're there and that you
Ken McLachlan (37:10):
Care. Have a conversation.
Randy Collins (37:12):
Yeah, exactly. I think everyone has this. I remember my mentor used to always say to me, this one thing, he says, Randy, everybody has a plaque on their forehead and it says, please make me feel important. That was it. He says, please make me feel important. He says, when you finish talking with somebody, make sure they understand how much you feel for them and you appreciate them because the last thing they feel is what they'll remember you by for the next week, month, year, whatever. I thought, well, I think I'm going to work on that.
Ken McLachlan (37:41):
Yeah, you absolutely love what you do, don't you?
Randy Collins (37:44):
Oh, I love what I do. Yeah, I get to do, I don't have to do this. I don't have to sell houses. We get to sell houses.
Ken McLachlan (37:50):
I love it. It's a privilege to be do this and do this work we're doing and to be involved with it and have the opportunity to do things and just to live this life we're living. How blast are we? And I don't want to be too simplistic about it. I know people are going through tough times. I know people have struggles and they do things and they have different things that are happening in their life. However, there is a way to work through this stuff. And what we've talked about in the last 30 minutes or so, Randy, is really the mindset and help to help people develop programs to help systems and the understanding of how to be better engaged in their life to make a difference in their life. And if you make a difference in your life, you're make a difference in other people's lives on
Randy Collins (38:37):
There. Bingo. That's the main thing right there. And I think Max Hallmark, I'm extremely grateful for, I know we got bought up a year ago, and here we sit, we're part of this company, but one, well, there's many things I really love about the company, but the one main thing was you provide the arenas for us to win in. You've got the training systems in place, you have the right people in the right seats on the bus from good to Great. It's lined up perfectly. I'm so grateful for each, every individual. There's yourself and Deborah, Steve Azita, Janet, our office. Constantine, who's my life jacket, he's probably tired of hearing from me. He sit and he listens to me. He's a great man. Yeah,
Ken McLachlan (39:15):
He, he's a wonderful guy.
Randy Collins (39:16):
He really is. He doesn't realize how much he does for us,
Ken McLachlan (39:20):
But he's amazing. I agree with you. I don't think he realizes the difference.
Randy Collins (39:23):
He doesn't realize how good he's, he's amazing. And it's just his wisdom of years. He, he's had so many years and experience and heard so many problems in situations in this real estate industry that just to have his perspective, I heard one man say, experience is the best teacher. And I thought, Hmm, there's one more line to that. Someone else's experience is the best teacher, isn't it? It's expensive when it's your own. Everything's your own. But if you have someone else you can listen to that's already done it or heard it, it's like, oh, thank you for that one. You kept me out of the dooo. And Khan does that. And then now we have Sandra, who's new to the team, wonderful guy. And Jen, of course, Jen's the big heart of our,
Ken McLachlan (40:01):
Yeah, there's a lot of great people and we're a lot of great people. We're blessed to be, I always tell people who you've Hank, the five people you hang out with are really who you, that's a reflection of who you are in life. Bingo. Yeah. Take a look at that and see, am I hanging out with negative people? Guess what I'm going to be right.
Randy Collins (40:20):
I remember a gentleman said something to me exactly to that. He says, who are your five best friends, Randy? He said, I'll tell you what your income is. I went, I'm looking laughing, thinking I got to get different friends. This was way
Ken McLachlan (40:31):
Back, Randy. I can't tell you how great this has been for me, and I know our listeners are going to love this. I'm just excited about people listening to this and the aspect of who you are and how you journey and what you do. Your contribution to them, and this talk will be immense for them, I'm sure. Randy, if people wanted to get ahold of you, how do they reach you?
Randy Collins (40:55):
Actually, you can get me on Facebook, Instagram, r Collins 62 or randy collins.re max, randy.ca. And I'd be more than happy to help anybody out in any area. And obviously, like you say, I know all the lakes within an hour and a half of Peterborough, and I've probably fished many of them. So I can probably help you out.
Ken McLachlan (41:12):
You are the best buddy. Thank you. And Jeff,
Randy Collins (41:14):
I had a wonderful time. Absolutely wonderful. And you know what, even knowing that I was going to get to talk to you, I was so excited because I have the utmost respect for you. Ken, when I first met you and you touched the stage, I thought there's a man of authentic person that I wanted to be part of.
Ken McLachlan (41:29):
So thank you. You're amazing. Thank you, sir. And it's privilege to have you here, and let's talk soon. I'll see you in Peterborough next week or the week after.
Randy Collins (41:37):
Sounds awesome. Look forward to seeing you again, Ken. You well, thanks. Have a nice long
Ken McLachlan (41:40):
Weekend. You too. Bye bye-Bye now. Bye.
