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
Intentionality in Real Estate and Life | Ralph Ciancio
What does it take to balance a thriving real estate business, family life, and personal growth without losing focus?
Ken McLachlan sits down with powerhouse realtor Ralph Ciancio, whose career is built on intention, service, and relentless adaptability.
Ralph shares how his purpose-driven approach—shaped by early life challenges, lessons from his teens, and a clear commitment to family—guides his success.
From gym sessions with his son to navigating a changing real estate landscape shaped by AI and shifting markets, Ralph offers candid insights, practical strategies, and a refreshing perspective on thriving in business and life.
Listen For
05:09 A life-changing story before birth
09:49 Lessons learned at age 13
16:04 Compartmentalizing challenges in tough times
23:01 The future of real estate in 10 years
25:50 Driverless cars, AI, and human connection
Guest: Ralph Ciancio
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Ken can be reached at:
Ralph Ciancio (00:00):
I was put on this earth against, I mean, we're all put on this earth against all odds. And for myself, I take that very personally. I said I was put here for a reason. I believe the reason is to serve others in one way or another. And so if I'm feeling tired or lazy at home, I said, you're lucky to be feeling tired or lazy. Get up and get some shit done.
McLachlan (00:28):
Welcome to my podcast today. It's Realty Life. And boy, this has been a while trying to get this guy that we have here. Ralph Ciancio. Correct? Right.
Ralph Ciancio (00:38):
You got it. Yeah. Yeah. Ciancio. You got it
McLachlan (00:40):
On my podcast because he's busy. He's a busy guy. He's out there doing real estate. He has not only is real estate a big part of his life, he has three kids, a beautiful family, and he's in the community and he's doing a lot of traveling with the kids. He looks after his kids, he does things with his kids. But Ralph, welcome to the podcast. It's so great to have
Ralph Ciancio (00:56):
You. Thank you so much. It's great to be here. I'm excited to just hang out with
McLachlan (01:00):
You. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, it's good too. Let's try, what's your typical day? Not just the summer, but really what's your life? What do you do?
Ralph Ciancio (01:10):
Yeah, well, I mean I have kind of a dynamic life. I think like a lot of people, a lot on the go. The core of it is always boils down to family first.
(01:22):
I've got three beautiful kids at home and a wonderful wife that helps keep everything together. And so real estate is my passion and this is what I do professionally is help people. A typical day I would say, I don't think there is such a thing as a typical day, but I would say an ideal day that I target for the goal is generally I'll get up early, spend a bit of time in my own head, clearing some thoughts, hopefully at the gym for six o'clock. Between 6, 6 15. I've been working out lately with my son Julian, who's 14, the best personal trainer I've ever had. Because if you ever want to not give up workout next to your son, I'm like, I cannot be a loser to this
McLachlan (02:11):
Kid. That makes so much sense to me. I've never thought of it. That's brilliant.
Ralph Ciancio (02:15):
And it doesn't help that he's like a phenom. This guy's just a monster at the gym for a 14-year-old. So I try not to look like a loser.
McLachlan (02:23):
Is that every day, Ralph, you do that with him or?
Ralph Ciancio (02:26):
We try for every day. It works out to be generally four days a week, three to four days a week, we're at good life working out. And then from there, come home, get showered, get ready for the day and eat breakfast with the family and then head into the office, get my team set up. And the first part of the morning, our coach, Richard Robbins, always set appointments with yourself first and appointments with others second, because if you do appointments with others first you'll never get to. So
McLachlan (02:56):
Explain what that means. What do you mean by that?
Ralph Ciancio (02:59):
So he says that critical things in business are generally quiet. They're important, but quiet. And if you don't schedule 'em, if you don't put them first in the day, you'll get steamrolled with the unimportant loud stuff and a client calling because I don't know, they have questions about the staging layout or a cooperating agent calling about some paperwork challenge that's going to get your attention and it'll pull you away from what you're doing. So that's why if you do the appointments with self first,
McLachlan (03:37):
So that's the reaction stuff. So you try to stay away from reacting and try to be more proactive in building stuff and being in control of your time and energy on that. So that's brilliant.
Ralph Ciancio (03:47):
Proactive is one way. I think of it as purposeful, intentional, and I think if we're working intentionally, if we do anything with intention, I mean generally it works out good. It's one we're just, like you said, reaction or stuff that just you are the byproduct of the situation. You're not in control. That's when you come back at the end of the day and say, I've done nothing today.
McLachlan (04:10):
So what inspires you? Are you fixed to anything that's really inspirational that really grounds you? I know it does, but what is it that really keeps you central in your life
Ralph Ciancio (04:23):
That changes from time to time? And as you grow older, your inspiration, your focus changes? I've shared the story before, but growing before I was born, my parents found out that the, not contamination, but the composition of their blood work had a very, very high likelihood that I would be born with if at all. Born, born with extreme complications. And my mom didn't find out until the second trimester or midway through. So it was past the point of no return for my mom. And my grandmother told me, my parents never told me this. My grandmother told me that my mom cried basically the entire pregnancy thinking, what am I doing life? How
McLachlan (05:09):
Will I move forward? Yeah.
Ralph Ciancio (05:11):
So whenever I'm feeling stressed or worried or uninspired, I always think I'm like, I was put on this earth against, I mean we're all put on this earth against all odds. And for myself, I take that very personally. I said I was put here for a reason. I believe the reason is to serve others in one way or another. And so if I'm feeling tired or lazy at home, I said, you're lucky to be feeling tired or lazy. Get up and get some shit done.
McLachlan (05:35):
Get it done. What did you do before real estate?
Ralph Ciancio (05:38):
So before that I used to work at Madame Homes. I was a young buck graduating university and with a degree in economics and real estate. And I said, I want to buy, build and sell homes. So I knocked on the door at Madame Homes, I said, I'm here to apply for a job. And they said, great, which job? And I said, I don't know. And they said, well, which posting are you here for? And I said, I never saw a posting here. They're like, well, what are you doing here? I said, well, I'd like to work here. I said, I'll do anything from sweep the basements to vice president of the company. I said, I can't be president. I need guidance. I'm still new. And so I started off in their head office in marketing and client care, which was an excellent experience in real estate on the phone with a lot of different people. And anyone that's listening to this, the podcast and looking for kind of what should I do first, if you're looking to get some experience in real estate, I would say build the repetitions, build the reps. And if anything you can do, where you're talking to a lot of people is a great bootcamp for real estate. Even if it's not real estate specific. If it is, it's better.
McLachlan (06:51):
But
Ralph Ciancio (06:53):
Young people ask me all the time, I want to get into real estate, what should I do? And I said, go work at home sense or go work at Home Depot. Talk to a hundred people an hour.
McLachlan (07:02):
Great, excellent advice.
Ralph Ciancio (07:03):
And at least something about houses, work in the lumber department, be the queen of decks. And then when you're going to sell houses in the future, you're going to know pressure treated brown versus pressure treated green versus cedar. You'll know something. I graduated, I went to work at Madame. I built over 2000 houses in their machine as a site super, which was great. I was achieving my goal of building homes, understanding how they're built. And then I realized that the values of the company had become disaligned with my own core values. And I said, I need to be the captain of this ship. And I quit and registered my license and I was 25 years old, never looked back.
McLachlan (07:49):
What was it about real estate, Mme. Lee homes? It could have been insurance, it could have been anything. But what was it that drew you to the real estate sector? Was there something that, was there a purpose to it or was it just
Ralph Ciancio (08:00):
Yeah, I realized it was very intentional. It was very intentional that being involved in the real estate industry and helping people out, I want to help people ultimately. And I thought, what's the most significant thing you can do to help people?
McLachlan (08:12):
For
Ralph Ciancio (08:12):
The most part, it's your health. That's the first thing. I'm not smart enough to be a doctor, so I had to take that one off the shelf. And from there, the next one would be taking care of people of kids. And that was becoming a teacher, someone in daycare, someone in. And I think it's a very noble and important career. And then also where you live is something extremely important in people's lives. So I thought if I can help people in one of the most significant things in their life, like their most significant assets of their
McLachlan (08:49):
Identity, Ralph, did you find that you, that's very rare in that sense that you actually thought that out. But most people would Often, I've found that most people kind of stumble into different things, and I don't mean that they're aimless and everything else, but they just kind of see things in front of them and they have opportunities and they grab it. But you were very purposeful in what you wanted to do, helping people even at that young age. So I often ask people that are our guests on my podcast, and I want them to go back to when they were 13.
Ralph Ciancio (09:24):
You took the words from my mouth.
McLachlan (09:27):
So I want you to go back to when you were 13. And my premise is here is that things happened to us. There's something that happened to us or occurred for us at that age that really impacted our entire life, the decisions we make, the experiences we've had. And moving forward on that, what was your life like around that age? 13, 14?
Ralph Ciancio (09:49):
Well, you nailed it. I mean, when I was that age, I was working with my dad in his ceramic tile company. I was a laborer on site, and I remember going to work at six in the morning to mix cement manually. It's literally mixing sand and cement a truck full of sand with a shovel, like two, three tons of sand that I was moving with a shovel only four times in a day that kind of sink in at 14 years old. That's
McLachlan (10:17):
A lot of work.
Ralph Ciancio (10:18):
All my friends were at Canada's Wonderland. My brother and I were sweating it out. And I remember looking at the builder that showed up midway through the day and thinking, man, that's the guy I want to be. I don't want to be the labor guy my whole life. I want to be the builder. And it's funny, I think you're bang on Ken. I mean, you took that concept right from my insides, which is that age is the formulative age of inspiration, of ambition, of vision. And when I was 15 years old, I went out to a leadership conference. I was selected for my school and then selected to represent Canada at a world leadership conference, which was just crazy luck and crazy chance. And
(11:03):
We spent three days and it was a big rah rah, kind of like a Tony Robbins conference, but for 15 year olds. And we had to do a vision exercise where you had to imagine yourself in the future and we had to write it all out. And I wrote out that by the time I'm 30 years old, I will buy, build, and sell my own homes. And that was a singular focus. That was the GPS mark that bring me here. And that was at 15 years old. And listen, I was just a kid. I mean my family, at some points, they struggled very hard financially. My dad was a creative business person. My mom was very helpful, very supportive, but there was no clear path. It was not like I had a golden ticket.
McLachlan (11:46):
So was there inspiration to this? Did your dad sit you down, your mother sit you down, or what was
Ralph Ciancio (11:51):
That? No, we were at work. The king of the jungle was the home builder. And so that was the most successful person that I would see in my life driving the nice car, the one that's always in control, the one that seemed to be smiling the most, and I
McLachlan (12:08):
Get it.
Ralph Ciancio (12:09):
So that was the alpha, and I thought if I can buy, build and sell homes. So from that point forward, everything I did was intentional to bring me a few steps closer.
McLachlan (12:18):
Yeah. So let's talk about, without talking about him, but the inspirations of your 14-year-old son today.
Ralph Ciancio (12:27):
Yeah.
McLachlan (12:28):
That bring yourself back to when you were that age and you seeing that salesperson or that builder come in to you when you're doing the shoveling the sand, what is your son, and I certainly don't want you to speak for him, but I want you to give me your impressions of what his world is. What is he
Ralph Ciancio (12:45):
You think? My son now, Julia?
McLachlan (12:47):
Yeah.
Ralph Ciancio (12:48):
Yeah. Isabella is 16 and Julian's 14. And Adam
McLachlan (12:51):
12. Yeah, the 14. So the impact, the influence that's happening at that age. For him,
Ralph Ciancio (12:55):
When
McLachlan (12:56):
We get to talk to him
Ralph Ciancio (12:57):
In 20 years, they want to be you. You're the alpha of the real estate world.
McLachlan (13:03):
That's very kind. But I think of my kids and my grandkids as well as what the influences we have over them right now and the opportunities that we help place them in that they can see things that they can come to the realization that they have, which is brilliant for you.
Ralph Ciancio (13:22):
I think as parents, we need to allow our kids to see our world
McLachlan (13:28):
And
Ralph Ciancio (13:28):
See our struggles, see what we're working towards, see our successes.
McLachlan (13:32):
And
Ralph Ciancio (13:33):
I think in real estate, I mean we're in an industry that is, so look at me, look at me. Here's the award. Here's my sold. This is great. New car, check out my watch. But really I think that that's like a coconut, that's like a really hard shell. But the inside is so soft and mushy and a lot of realtors I know and myself as well, I mean have deep levels of insecurity. I mean, you're just living a life where you're literally unemployed every single day and you have to go and find opportunity. And that's one thing that I try to instill to my kids is just find opportunity. I always say, if you have nothing to do, pick up a shovel. You got to find something. Never just wait for someone to tell you what to do. You got to look for the work
McLachlan (14:19):
You
Ralph Ciancio (14:19):
Do. And one of my greatest joys now as a parent and even professionally is my daughter's 16. She's just amazing at organizing and preparing. I bring her into open houses and she's just the queen of getting everything ready. My 14-year-old Julian's a chatterbox, he comes with me to open houses and chats up to customers. My young guy Adam, is 12 and he's kind of watching from the sidelines, but he's a little bit more strategic. So my daughter will, I'll bring all three of them to open house with me.
McLachlan (14:50):
Wow,
Ralph Ciancio (14:50):
That's
McLachlan (14:51):
Brilliant.
Ralph Ciancio (14:51):
And we have a blast. I see it as school for them. And my daughter will come back with a point of view of generally when I'm hosting open houses now, I'll have another licensed agent with me. And then we have unlicensed assistance at the property as well. And my daughter will give me some insights as to who was doing what, who did something really well. My middle son will tell me what the clients were thinking, what were they saying, what questions he asked. And my youngest guy will tell me, dad, have you thought about changing the time of open house so that you're the only open house? And I said, well, that's a creative idea, but may not be that great.
McLachlan (15:30):
So the insights are different and they're all different personalities on that, which is very, very interesting. And the memories you're making, the opportunities you're helping to create for them is brilliant right now, that experience and plus the benefit of being their dad and watching these kids grow is like, wow, it's all that I want to ask you, Ralph, I think it's really important to know is that how do you deal with really difficult times? We have them in our business. We have 'em in our personal life. And how do you actually deal with them? We get them.
Ralph Ciancio (16:04):
Yeah. Yeah, certainly. And you know what? This past, I would say, six to eight months professionally have been really challenging. And it's not just about selling houses, the market's down, prices are down. So it was just a lot of things in my micro chasm of work. And the first thing that I do is, again, Tony's preaching, Tony Robbins, he says, see the problem as it is, but not worse than it is. And the other thing I started doing was compartmentalizing aspects of my life. So I look at my life in terms of relationships, like intimate relationship with my wife, relationships with family and friends, physical fitness, finance, professional spirituality, kind of like the wheel of life.
(16:54):
And when something's going really wrong, I just think to myself, which bucket does this belong to? And that first part of breaking it up helps me understand that my whole life is not a mess. 10 out of 10 assistant, she ran operations for us for four years. Amazing. She sits me down one day early this year, says, Ralph, I'm decided we're going to be moving two and a half hours north. I love this company, I love it here, but my life is pulling me there. And I went home that night and thought, my life is a mess. What am I going to do? She does so much. Carly was just a really important part of our client's journey.
McLachlan (17:33):
Yeah, she was.
Ralph Ciancio (17:35):
And then I sat down and said, wait a minute, that's just one bucket. It didn't affect my health. It didn't affect my wife, it didn't affect my kids, it didn't affect my relationship with God. It's just one section. So the first thing I would recommend if anyone's listening, something's going wrong or just not great, just break it up and put it in its category and then start thinking of what are the things that I can do to fix this one specific
McLachlan (17:59):
Problem?
Ralph Ciancio (18:00):
I think when you see something as a tsunami of challenge, you just don't know how to, I lack the ability,
McLachlan (18:07):
Well, you get overwhelmed as well, and what you're doing is breaking it down and making sure that this isn't the overwhelming problem that you might think it is on that. But that's great advice on all that, what to do. How do you, Ralph, how do you, and I see this a lot and I'm guilty, have been guilty of it, not as much now, but creating time balance in your life where I'm not always getting the phone. I'm not always, if I have family time, I'm with family time. We're always chasing, typically in this business that we're in, it's the next deal is the next deal type of thing. And we're getting up from the dining room table and answering the phone or going on your holiday, obviously having not obviously, but often having the phone with you and doing that. So do you have a strict way of doing this or do you pattern it or
Ralph Ciancio (19:04):
No, not great. I think being present is a challenge that I know I struggle with. I always want to be 100% present at whatever I'm doing, but there are times that I need to pull away and grab the phone. There are times that you need to leave a family party. And those moments, sometimes that's probably the biggest loss, the biggest, my kids would say the L. If I take the L, I look back at the end of the day and say, ah, I was in a meaningful conversation and I stepped away to deal with something not that important. And one thing that I try my best to tell the people around me is when my phone rings, there's one lens which somebody may think, oh, he's greedy. He thinks it's a new customer. He wants to make more money, he wants to close another deal. And I said, that happens. And that's a small percentage of those phone calls,
McLachlan (19:56):
But
Ralph Ciancio (19:56):
A larger percentage of those phone calls are going to be someone who has given me a key to their house. I'm responsible for it. I can't just not answer the phone. There could be a flood in their house, A house could be on fire. The key could be gone. Understanding the level of importance that of the responsibility I hold for that family, it really pushes me in a balancing act. Yeah.
McLachlan (20:23):
So you just want to monitor it. You're very careful in what you do, and actually you're forgiving in the sense, what I hear you say is there are going to be times that you're going to have to answer the phone, and that's important times and you're not going to get too worked up about it, really. You just do what you have to do and be present as much as you can be. You see a lot of realtors out there. You see a lot of people in this business that are very different and very maybe not as committed or not to be derogatory towards other realtors, but what would you say to people that are in this business fairly new into it, that want to develop this sense of career? What kind of advice do you have for them?
Ralph Ciancio (21:08):
That's a great question. And I think that when we look at working in the business and working on the business, there are two different things. The old adage of Abraham Lincoln cutting, chopping down, I dunno if it's Abraham Lincoln, but two guys chopp in a tree and the one guy spends four hours sharpening his blade. And I think skill development and understanding the process is so, so
McLachlan (21:32):
Important.
Ralph Ciancio (21:33):
And I help and I train a lot of new agents. The first thing I say, I said, what are you trying to do? They said, well, I want to meet a customer. I said, oh, great. So you want to meet a customer? Okay, here's a customer. Now what?
McLachlan (21:46):
They're
Ralph Ciancio (21:47):
Like, well, I'm going to sell them a house. I said, okay, now how will you sell them a house? What is the next step? What will you say? And if they say this, what will you say? And if this happens, what will you do? And if you don't know, you cannot be the pilot of the ship or the captain of the ship. So understanding and mastering the process of helping somebody go from curious about real estate to actually turning the key on closing date and getting really, really good at that.
McLachlan (22:19):
So having clarity is really important to you. And I think it's important to a lot of people, and I think that really speaks a lot to how you run your business, is really being clear what's going on, not overreacting, doing the work that's important on it. I often hear from agents today, seldom. I mean a lot. I do hear a lot from agents saying that they're worried about our industry, what's going to happen to our industry going forward. Ai, the competition, there's too many realtors, name whatever you want to name, but does that keep you awake at night worrying about your industry, what your job
Ralph Ciancio (23:01):
Is? Oh, it doesn't keep me awake worrying, but it is something I'm thinking about for sure. It is definitely on my radar. And when we talk about using this, I say real estate in its current professional level, using what I do right now, I'm trying to use every aspect of my opportunity, which is provide for my family, serve others, teach my kids, create. In some sense, generational wealth is the goal, but ultimately I think we're foolish to think that we're in a silo and we're untouchable from progress and technology. If you would've told me, Ken, 10 years that Amir would pick me up this morning in an Uber in front of my house, and I said, I'm just going to go in Amir's car unmarked, and he's going to just, are you crazy? That's a murderer. And if you would've said that, Jen is going to pick up my McDonald's and drive a bag of McDonald's to my house and I'm going to eat it,
McLachlan (24:08):
I
Ralph Ciancio (24:08):
Get it unfathomable. And this past week I was in Los Angeles and I got to see a 3.0 of technology. We've seen cars, we've seen taxis, and then we've seen Ubers, and we saw how that has changed the world. And then on the weekend in Los Angeles, I got to drive in a Waymo, which is a driverless autonomous car. So I literally pushed the button and a Jaguar F type pulled up, nobody in the car. My son and I jumped in the back and like a horror movie. I just sat there petrified watching this thing drive me.
McLachlan (24:51):
I had the same thing I was in San Francisco. I did the same thing and it was quite, the thought was the same kind of thing. What the hell is happening? When I was growing up, we barely had color TV when I first and watching this, and I always tell people that care to listen. I don't think my grandkids will ever drive a car. I don't think they're going to have to. I mean, it's going to be invented so they don't track or whatever.
Ralph Ciancio (25:21):
I think we're just going to have subscription based. You'll have so many credits, like your cell phone, when we used to have minutes that you paid for,
McLachlan (25:27):
There'll
Ralph Ciancio (25:27):
Be so many kilometers per month that you pay Tesla 500 kilometers in a month and then it'll pick you up and drop you off. But I'll tell you a little, if there was a silver lining, a glimmer of hope, as I'm sitting in this car immediately, I think what is going on with the world is traveling so fast. And I thought, what does this mean for my industry? I go, I got to think of plan B or version 2.0 of
McLachlan (25:50):
Ralph
Ralph Ciancio (25:51):
Quickly because real estate can be disrupted really quickly.
(25:55):
I'm trying to get to the Cheesecake Factory before they close, and I'm feeling this pressure because the guy's like, if you make it by nine 30, I can seat you if you make it past that. I'm sorry. So my son wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory. We were rushing there. Map says we get there at 9 28. I said, okay, great. So I'm on the phone with the guy at Cheesecake Factory and he says, well, listen, when you show up to the Galleria Mall, make sure that you show up at the entrance near the whatever business sacks on Fifth Avenue. And I said, oh, okay, perfect. I hang up and I look at nobody driving the car, and I'm like, how the hell am I going to tell this nothing to bring me to sacks? And I realized there is a human element that we still need. And I thought, you know what? I was eating dessert with my son, and I thought maybe my industry has a little bit more longevity than I
McLachlan (26:46):
Had
Ralph Ciancio (26:46):
A few minutes ago.
McLachlan (26:47):
Yeah, there is that, and I always think about this for my business is that it's always consciously part of who I am and part of what the business is. How am I evolving? How am I embracing what is happening and plus being part of it and plus perhaps causing something to happen within it. Because this thing is always changing. I mean, your business isn't the same as it was three years ago. Mine isn't the same as it was three years ago either. So that's kind of the cool thing about it that's always going to change. And it doesn't really scare me. It makes it really interesting. Listen, this is an opportunity to do something different, to grab onto something and make it happen for us like that. So that's good. That driverless car was kind of neat though, wasn't it?
Ralph Ciancio (27:32):
It's really cool. And it makes me think because this, it's going to change a lot of the way that we do things. I think it'll still move forward and there'll be opportunity for people to work and contribute, but we're going to be contributing differently. Let me ask, I mean, I feel like you're asking some great questions here. Ken. Let me ask, what do you think of our industry, of our profession and say, let's go 10 years. I'm not going to give it to you easy and say three or five years. Give me 10 years from now, where is the real estate industry, 2035, what are we doing?
McLachlan (28:05):
I think what's going to happen, Ralph, is that the specializing in certain aspects of it will be more important. I think that we will become the people that are really doing well in this business will keep evolving and do much, much better. I concern myself a bit about with people that the lower 80%, lower 80% of us, the people that are not doing much business, they'll be left behind a lot. So I think there'll be a purging of a lot of different companies, a lot of different people that can't keep up. And there should be, I think that that's what the industry does on that. But I think there will be a period that the Ralphs of the world, the cans of the world, will have to specialize a lot more in what we're doing and be much better at certain aspects of the business and certain specialists of the business.
(29:04):
And listen, I don't pretend to know anything about being a doctor, but doctors are, you can get your GP to get your real estate license or get your doctor's license to be a gp, which is a fine noble profession, but really where the people that are doing it are the people, the surgeons, the brain surgeons, the psychiatrists and things like that. So I think our industry will tend to have that specialization of what's going forward on that. And I think that's important to know. I think that I always tell people that what to me is important is to layer my life every year, put more capabilities what I'm doing. So being more specific and being more, quit being a generalist of what this business is. And I think that that will be more and more as we future go forward with it. But I think there's always going to be a need for people to help people, like you said, answer that call or B, analyze the information that they get, that I can figure out certain things online now about stocks and things like that. But I'm useless in trying to figure out, I need somebody to tell me what does that actually mean. So I think that's what it is. So I think specializing will be much more important going forward on that. So Ben, being somebody that is really good with investors, being somebody that's really good with communities and all that kind of thing, what do you think?
Ralph Ciancio (30:28):
Yeah, I tend to agree with what you're saying. I think that this is going to be an element. So as we evolve, what does that mean?
McLachlan (30:36):
And
Ralph Ciancio (30:36):
Evolve into what, and I believe that there's going to be some shifts in our industry in the ways that we provide value. I think that there's also going to be some shifts in terms of the way that we're compensated as well. I think that that's going to catch up with our industry. So anyone that's listening in, and maybe they're a inspiring agent, a new agent or someone that's hoping to, whatever financial goal, I think it'll still be, and even if someone's listening to this 10 years from
McLachlan (31:06):
Now,
Ralph Ciancio (31:08):
That person that's listening 10 years from now, whatever you want to achieve 10 years from now, financially can still be done, but it may require a different set of skills and a different quantity of work. Yeah,
McLachlan (31:18):
I agree. I agree.
Ralph Ciancio (31:19):
I think the idea of selling one property at $4 million and you say, okay, well that's enough to live this. I don't think that's the case. I think you have to sell 10, 4 million properties.
McLachlan (31:31):
Yeah, I think you're right. I think you have to do that. I think that that's a natural evolution of what we're going to do, this business going forward with it. But I also think that, I'm talking on both sides of my face right now, but I'm talking about being in our industry to be really, really good at it. I think in the future, you to specialize in different things, but I also believe that for who I am as a person, I have to develop different lanes in my life. So different specialty. I'm not only a fantastic, I hope real estate broker owner, business person like that, but I also want to be what's, I want to learn about different things as well. Different lanes and different investments and different generational wealth ideas and how I can help other people develop their business and grow their business, not just one dimensional, but three or four dimensions on it like that. So I think we're talking about the same stuff, you and I, but one other thing I want to ask you about is your involvement with Rich Robbins, who I love, as you know, he's a lot of respect for him and his team. How long have you been with him?
Ralph Ciancio (32:35):
Well, I've been a student for Rich for many, many years. I mean, I was in coaching for eight years. I just recently took a pause from coaching just in a way to let other aspects of my life balance out, but I'm still very involved with the organization, still a huge fan. Attend all the events.
McLachlan (32:53):
You speak a lot Elizabeth, don't
Ralph Ciancio (32:55):
You? Yeah, I've had a great opportunity to speak on some stages with Rich. He set me up nicely. And I always say to Rich, I said, I'm so grateful for the lessons that I've learned that I would pay a residual. I feel like you have intellectual property, and I feel like I just got to pay him a portion of everything that I do just because the idea is they started there and they grew and they flourished, and some of them died off and other ones were replanted.
McLachlan (33:24):
That's being grateful for what you have.
Ralph Ciancio (33:26):
Yeah. Yeah. Certainly. When I was selecting a guide, picking a coach many years ago,
(33:34):
I was in a very different state in my business, and I was looking for a mentor and someone's a thought leader, and I studied most of the common or the bigger names in real estate coaching. And one thing that attracted me to Rich, I love the fact that he was local. I mean, in my case, I live in Markham. I could literally walk to Rich's house and I thought he understands what I'm talking about. At the time, they were implementing HST on commissions, and I said, some guy in California doesn't even know what we're talking about. But then I looked at Rich's whole life and I thought, this is a guy that's got it together, and between fitness and family and friends, finances, I said, I want an inspiring person to lead me that has all the buckets full. And I'll tell you, in full transparency, Ken, you're part of the reason, a big part of why I'm at
McLachlan (34:29):
Hallmark.
Ralph Ciancio (34:30):
When I made the transfer from a previous brokerage, I looked at a leadership team
(34:34):
And I was like, man, they got it together. Do you know what I mean? And I'm not trying to put down anybody. If they were, for example, if they weighed 400 pounds and they're trying to teach me about business, I said, well, if I grow my business, am I going to be 400 pounds? Do you know what I mean? It's just an easy thing to think tangibly. But whatever the pros in life is, you get look at what did it cost them to get what they have? If I want what they have, am I willing to pay that cost? And some things are,
McLachlan (35:06):
Yeah, I mean, thank you for those kind words. Rich to me is the real deal. He's the guy. He lives his life. He lives who he is is how he lives, basically. And you're the same way, Ralph. I really have a lot of respect for you. Your knowledge, your way of being, your influence you have over yourself, your family, your friends, your community is really important. You're making a tremendous difference and keep shining out there because it matters. So tell everybody how they can get ahold of you.
Ralph Ciancio (35:35):
I mean, if they want to send a quick text, I know it's kind of crazy to put your phone number on the internet, but text is fast. And that's my cell number's 4 1 6 8 3 9 9 2 5 3. And I know some people shake their heads saying, why would you give it your phone number? I'm like, we're real estate agents. My phone number's everywhere. Anyways. I mean, you could find us on socials at Ralph Cnco homes. That's C-I-A-N-C-I-O, or just Google Ralph Real Estate, Ralph Max. You'll find me. Yeah,
McLachlan (36:05):
You're out there, buddy. I love it. I love that you've done this. I love that you've taken the time, and I love that you've been so forthcoming and everything. It's made a big difference. It made a big difference to me listening to you, and I know people listening to this will make a big difference in their life. So thank you, my friend, and we'll talk again soon.
Ralph Ciancio (36:24):
I appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity and for anyone that's listening, keep listening. Ken, he speaks softly. He thinks quickly, but he's in another dimension. And believe me when I tell you that, and if you ever get the chance to meet him in person, I don't know what it is, but there's literally something, and you could say vibrational, but there's is energy that he omits, omits. Omits.
McLachlan (36:50):
Yeah. Omi.
Ralph Ciancio (36:51):
Omit means you give. Omit means you don't have either way. He has this really subtle energy that you'll feel it, and it's onto some great things. And the last thing I'll say about Richard Robbins as a coaching company, one of
McLachlan (37:03):
The
Ralph Ciancio (37:04):
Things that was really powerful that I didn't realize was the community and the sense of community. And then as I joined Hallmark, I was thinking about the brokerage as a brokerage function. If you do this and I send this paper and I have access to this training, and you see all this check mark type stuff, you would have an Excel spreadsheet. But something that's intangible, and to me by far is the most valuable thing we have at Hallmark is the
McLachlan (37:33):
Community
Ralph Ciancio (37:35):
And the culture of agents. If I pick up the phone, and I mean there's a 2000 agents, there's a lot of Hallmark agents. If I pick up the phone and there's another Hallmark agent on the other end, I'm like, oh, thank God, it's you.
McLachlan (37:47):
Yeah,
Ralph Ciancio (37:48):
You're connected. It's kind of like you're traveling in China and you see a Canadian, you're like, oh, Canadian. I'm like, oh, hallmark. This is going to be fun. This is going to work. Well,
McLachlan (37:58):
Yeah, my friend. Thank you. I appreciate you so much. Have a great day and make a difference as you always do.
Ralph Ciancio (38:04):
Thanks guys.
McLachlan (38:04):
Thank you, sir.
Ralph Ciancio (38:05):
Thank you.
McLachlan (38:17):
Here are the top three takeaways I got from Ralph in this episode. Remember, one, the importance of intentionality and discipline in real estate. Ralph, stressed and stresses, scheduling appointments with yourself. First to focus on purposeful, quiet, but critical work before reacting to cause or distractions. Number two L. Longevity in the industry comes from evolving skills, specialization and being able to adapt. He acknowledges technology, ai, and market changes as inevitable disruptors, but points out the enduring need for human connection and nuanced guidance and real estate transactions. Number three, values, relationships, and resilience drives sustainable success. He shared personal strategies for handling challenges by breaking down problems and staying grounded in family and purpose, and underscore the importance of trust, relationships, and service as the core of his career.
