129 – The Voice of Integrity in the Real Estate Market: Tom interviews Cindy Bishop

Episode 129 – Cindy Bishop
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody Tom here with episode 129 of screw the commute podcast we got Cindy Bishop with us here today. She's the one who makes sure your real estate agent knows what they're doing and we'll bring her on in a moment. Your last episode is 128 Jeffrey Palmer. He created a simple and predictable system that generated the highest ever income in the history of a company. In the beginning of the worst economic recession of our lifetimes. So he has great tips on sales and marketing for you. Now I've got a big freebie to thank you for listening to this podcast. It's my twenty seven dollar e-book how to automate your business. And just one of the tips in this e-book has saved me over seven million keystrokes. And I just might have another little special gift for you over there at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and everything we talk about will be in the show notes in case you don't want to try to write these things down. Okay our podcast app is in the iTunes store. You can also go to screwthecommute.com/app where we have complete instructions to show you how to use all the fancy features so you can take us with you on the road and put it on your cell phone and tablet. All right. So here we go. The sponsor today is the distance learning school the internet marketing Training Center of Virginia. Now did you ever wonder how tens of thousands of people like me sit home earn legitimate money and don't have to listen to a boss or get up and fight traffic every day. Well it's because we have legitimate online businesses and the reason I emphasize the word legitimate is because there are tons of scams out there in the online world. That's why I started the only licensed and dedicated internet marketing distance learning school in the country. IMTCVA.org and you can have and here I go again. Legitimate lifestyle business then as little as six months. So check it out and we'll have the link to the shown us. And one other thing we're approved by the Department of Defense for their scholarship program for military spouses. So if you know any military spouses who want to work out of their home from wherever they're deployed please send them my way.

[00:02:50] All right let's get to the main event. Cindy Bishop is the managing director and founder of Cindy Bishop worldwide a real estate education and business development company. She provides continuing education to licensed agents as well as relevant business development training. Cindy Are you ready to screw. The commute.

[00:03:08] I am. I am just fine. How about you.

[00:03:15] I'm peachy. So tell everybody what you do now and then we'll take you back and see how you got to where you're at now.

[00:03:22] Well you did a very good job of explaining what I do I am the managing director and founder of my own company which is Cindy Bishop worldwide. And what we do is we provide relevant quality training to real estate agents to basically keep them out of trouble and to protect the consumer. So that is what we do. And continuing education but we do a lot of business development so we do have a coaching program that is both private. And then we also have a group coaching program that's a more affordable platform.

[00:03:56] Mm hmm. And so now is this something where people would come to you if they didn't have a license yet or they've already gotten their license.

[00:04:02] They've already gotten their license. So I take care of an agent and once they actually have a legal state license to the practice.

[00:04:12] Okay great. And. And so what kind of issues do you get into the real estate agents run into.

[00:04:19] Well they're they're really not well trained there. There really isn't any kind of formal business development program.

[00:04:27] Just having your license is not any what kind of deep training.

[00:04:30] Oh for heaven's sake's no. And and then maybe I'm a little cynical but I feel that the the the states across the country do not do a good job there collecting licensing fees and and and basically background check fees and after after the agent gets a license they have to get a certain amount of hours in continuing ed usually more so in their first year than any other time. But the quality of the education is really not monitored well enough. Yes you have to get it state approved but it is there's too many people that do not provide quality. Education. They're only interested in maybe getting more business from themselves maybe it's a title company or some other organization that just is trying to get in front of agents to get their business. I think independent schools need to do this simply because I think that's their focus which is educating agents keeping them out of trouble making sure they're professional and make sure that they're really taking care of who we're supposed to be taking care of which is the consumer.

[00:05:38] Right. Right. And so this is the state by state thing right.

[00:05:42] It is everybody's a little different but it's not it's really not state to state it's really not terribly different. But but it is actually.

[00:05:50] Ok. So you could know you can legitimately take customers in your school from the state of Virginia from anywhere.

[00:05:58] For me I have a state license school in Virginia. I can do business building anywhere country but. But the continuing ed the actual licensed real estate school I am just focused on Virginia.

[00:06:12] Right. But anybody around the country that wants to learn better on how to develop their business they could still come to you right.

[00:06:20] Absolutely.

[00:06:21] OK great. So. So did you ever have a job.

[00:06:26] Oh by golly I did. Yeah I remember that. Yeah. So take us back. OK. Well I was I actually had I. had a job a traditional job up until the time I was 27. And that was you know and basically you know it. Was that typical grind. You answer to somebody and then at that was. Well I worked as a what they called a logistician. I was I worked for a contractor for the government and I did that for a number of years. Before that I did I was retail manager and before that college. So basically that's that's what you know that's what I I did. I think I started working when I was probably baby sitting at twelve.

[00:07:15] Yeah. So you didn't get the silver spoon treatment right.

[00:07:18] No I did not. I had to earn my way bought my first car. Nobody helped me.

[00:07:22] All right so. So you said through your 20s you till you were 27 right.

[00:07:31] Then what happened then.

[00:07:33] I had my first child. I cried itself. You're not just kidding. But I had to work so I basically cried all the way to D.C. every day for the first month and I said you know what. I'm not doing this. I'm going to find something else to do. Where even though I don't want to be a stay at home mom I'm close by I can go to school activities. I know if the daycare is doing a good job or they're trying to kill my kid. So I decided to get my real estate license.

[00:08:03] So you're pregnant. Driving through a job crying all day.

[00:08:07] Well no. This is after I was I was pregnant drive to a job but when I gave birth and when I went back as you know you have that little bit of time that you can be at home and then you have to go back. You've got to put your child in daycare not knowing what's going on all day. They could be beating her over the head for all I know. So I finally said that's enough. And so after I was no longer pregnant and I had her in daycare I. I quit my job knowing that I had to make an income. Yes I had a husband but we didn't make enough. We didn't make enough money to just live without my income. So we basically I basically took a big chance. I jumped in both feet and I knew I had to make money right away. And I did.

[00:08:51] Okay so you. What's the process to get your real estate license.

[00:08:56] Well you've got to sit. Well usually it used to be a lot easier. Now it's a 60 hour course and then you sit for a state licensing exam in those days it was a little easier. That was the days before computers. Back in 1987 when you still used number two pencils to fill in your little bubble to take a test. Now they do it on the computer but that's what we did. That's what I did. And then got my license and then went to work with no other training. That's it. They they they give you a textbook theory. drop you in where everybody's talking about pizza parties and making cold calls from 7 to 9:00 at night.

[00:09:36] Well you did pretty good at it though right.

[00:09:38] I did. I did. I had to. I was but I had to figure it out. There was really. I did all the training that was available I paid for training I did training that was offered by the company. All of it was a bunch of foofoo it didn't make you a consistent income. OK. It was really never designed for that. And and they just didn't know any better. They just they just stick with this training that's just old and and doesn't work. And most people don't want to make cold calls. So I basically had to figure it out trial and error and I did and I ended up my very first year making enough money to justify it. And it wasn't soon after that that I never made less than six figures a year because I had to I had to I didn't have a choice to what were my other options. You know going back to that horrible nightmare I wasn't going to do it so I burnt my bridge I burnt my bridge I didn't have one foot on a banana peel and one foot moving ahead I went completely forward.

[00:10:47] Do you remember your first sale.

[00:10:50] You know I don't. I had a bunch of them together. I don't remember I remember trying to figure out what to do because you really didn't have a lot of help and I didn't like the lack of integrity in the business I was in either and I just had to isolate myself. I had to learn and I had to isolate because who I really loved were my clients the public. That's who I really wanted to be there for the rest of it. Real estate offices dealing with all that political mess was just not my cup of tea. So I said if I'm going to stay in this I'm gonna have to do it my way.

[00:11:27] So did you still sell at all or just education.

[00:11:32] I stopped when I know I stopped I stopped in 2010 when I opened my school and the reason I did that was because one problem that agents have today is they are brokers are typically competing with them. They're typically selling didn't used to be like that but companies have gotten tighter and tighter on the purse strings. So now the agents have not even somebody overseeing the office to help them. So I decided I wasn't going to be the same person. I wasn't going to compete with them I was either going to help them and again move forward and not have one foot on a banana peel as or as because I just don't think you can do that. I think you have if you have integrity it's black and white it's never gray and it was very gray in me to not be helping them with 100 percent of my effort. Instead of always relying on this other thing to bring in money has it been hard. Yes. What a transition it was. But I still believe in my mission and I believe in helping them because I just don't think they have. I really don't think they have people to help them with a whole heart.

[00:12:41] Would you recommend that people get in to real estate they see all these real estate seminars run by shysters. Pretty much both them right. Is this the. Would you still recommend people get it. No it has to feed your school you wouldn't have agents for your school but they're going to do it anyway. But what would you tell somebody thinking about getting a real estate license today.

[00:13:07] Well first I say they were crazy because I think it is a very hard business because of the lack of real control like for example there's doodles also part time agents. There's there's there's just not a lot of oversight pretty much as long as you can pass a test. You can get in. So what does that do. It doesn't make for better quality. So I this is what I would say to somebody if real estate if they talk to me first about I want to get into real estate to make money. I'm going to stop him right there. I'm going to say money is a byproduct of doing something you love. If you are getting into it for the money then you don't have. You don't understand the seriousness of protecting the consumer and DOPR which is our State Department of professional licensing basically you're a real estate real estate board. They don't have a sense of humor. So so basically they hold you to 100 percent competence and knowledge when you get here. Not until you learn it. So it's a very serious serious thing.

[00:14:22] So you could make a mistake and get yourself in trouble because you didn't know any better.

[00:14:24] Right. And who's who's really with you all the time exercising over oversight. Plus I think most agents have some level of ADD or ADHD which I think is common in sales. I think people in sales are attracted to that little bit less oversight because I think we get I'm ADHD we get brutalized by maybe not being able to pay as good of attention you learn skills over time. I have and I try to teach him do my coaching members but that's that's kind of it's it's it's can be challenging. But my my what I would say to them is first of all I'd analyze whether or not they were crazy or not and if I discovered that they were actually really dedicated to the idea. This is what I always ask them. Why. Why do you want to get in. And usually I'm fishing for something. And one thing I'm fishing for to see if they have a story did they have a really bad experience and now they want to make it better for other people do do they have a genuine. a genuine concern for the consumer and making somebody else's experience better than theirs. Then I'm going to say you have good motivation. Maybe they just need to feed their family and they they're maybe they're not. Maybe they they have to have a flexible schedule whatever it is. But if they ever say to me Oh I won't make a lot of money people are making a lot of money. Well there's a very very high percentage of people that don't. And I can look at everybody's income. So for example in Fairfax County which is one of the biggest counties here. If I pull up all of the agents and their income. maybe the top 10 percent on that list is making money and everybody else is not. So they they really. But let me tell you who makes it. The people that make it really do treat it like a business. They really are dedicated. They're not just in there well I'll do on I feel like it. Maybe I'll go out on a Saturday afternoon. Well forget it. You've got to be rock hard dedicated to run a business because you're running a business in order to really make it successful. And you also you're why. you're your unique selling proposition basically has to be pretty good in order for you to actually be able to compete in a very very highly competitive industry.

[00:16:46] And friends of mine were buying a house right now and the agent said Okay I'll meet you at noon and then just totally blew them off disappeared didn't say anything in a day and a half later said hey hey you still want to see that house.

[00:17:03] Yeah. I'd say go pound sand to see that. It's not it's not a good professional standard is it. So my next book. We have three published books now. My next book is going to be to consumers how to find your real estate agent. Because they're not educated themselves on what to demand. And they've got to stop focusing on the money they've got to start focusing on the service the quality of somebody and there they are out there they're out there I know them at least in Virginia a handful of people that I recommend all the time that are superior but there's more that are not.

[00:17:43] Now are you able to get a commission when you recommend.

[00:17:46] I generally don't because I feel it's a conflict and I think that if I can wholeheartedly recommend somebody and feel really good about that because I know that they're going to have a tremendous experience because I trust this person I usually do a personality match too. I I feel better about that. I just I don't feel real comfortable.

[00:18:08] Have you ever gotten screwed over on any of these deals.

[00:18:15] You know. Not really. I'm a really good communicator and in my business of real estate I was always the kind of person that would start a conversation off kind of like this if somebody was interviewing me. Whether it be buying a house or selling a house. I would tell them that I had no idea if we were gonna get along. I had no idea if they were going to think I was the scum of the earth or I was the most wonderful thing since sliced bread. But I told I always would tell them during this transaction if we are not a 10 on a one to 10 scale in this important relationship then I just want you to know that you're going to be honest with me I'm going to be honest with you I'm going to recommend at that point that I help you find an agent that serves your needs better and what I found was they didn't blame me. I didn't end up having bad experiences. I wouldn't do dual agency. Dual agency is basically where you. It's like being a divorce attorney representing the husband and the wife. See Virginia still allows that. a lot of states don't see it never works out. So right up front so agents do it because they're greedy. So right up front you know it is going to fail because somebody is going to feel slighted somebody is going to feel like they they weren't represented but they're not represented. Once you do dual agency you're basically a paper pusher for the transaction. And see that's not part of our duty. ever. So I feel very badly about that. So if I ever if I ever got screwed if you will. I think that it was in my early days when I didn't yet really understand the impact of a dual agency. Not that I ever got. I never had a complaint filed but because somebody had any question about who I was protecting even though I had explained it to me that's a failure because because that means somebody questioned whether or not they had a good experience. And that does not work for me.

[00:20:33] So what do you like best about work yourself. What's the worst part.

[00:20:36] Well I think that. The worst part is being alone. Not that I'm not good working alone. But it's what I mean by that is you really. You really have to be your own your own sunshine. You have to be your own leader. You have days where you want to go in the closet and scream. I have lots of those. I had one of my coaches have a breakdown the other day. Not literally but they really had a tough time and they basically used me as their sounding board. I thought somebody had just hit me in my stomach. I thought I was going to throw up. because it jeopardized what we're doing moving forward. And he then apologized to me but it's that kind of stuff where you can't overreact. You have to hold it together no matter whether you want to cry or beat your head on the drywall. You have to be that pillar. that foundation that's always holding up what you believe in. And that to me is the hardest part. It's it's a lonely existence being the rock of Gibraltar. Ok so that's that's how I see it. But as long as you feel strongly about what you're doing and some days I go to the agents even care. I basically given up a six figure income I basically given up you know doing 80 transactions a year and being perfectly happy on my lovely month long trips or whatever it is I was doing because I believe in this. But that's really what what what keeps me going. So that's probably the worst part. The best part is I don't have to compromise my integrity ever. I don't have to be politically correct. I can be absolutely myself with not having to worry about not getting a paycheck. And that is the that is by far the best thing for me and anybody that knows me knows I speak my mind. I'm not politically correct. One day maybe somebody will shoot me I don't know but I feel this industry needs a lot of work.

[00:22:45] Well I'll tell you what I learned something right there that from you that you beat your head on dry wall where I've been beating it on brick walls.

[00:22:55] It's much less painful being on drywall. Much less painful.

[00:23:01] So I know we talked about that somebody could is the real estate agent already and could learn from you and you go to your school I guess. But what if somebody was thinking about this. They're thinking about getting in to being an agent in another state. Do you do any coaching for people just to help them out before they get into it.

[00:23:25] Most agent most prospective agents truly are not going to pay for that. They're just going to do what they want to do anyway. I have I've had people ask me lots of questions about that and I call it the honeymoon phase. They they they haven't they haven't drank the reality kool aid yet. So in fact I won't even coach people until they're out of that honeymoon phase. So because they're just not realistic about anything and just can't move forward. But so I have parameters for that. But once they do it doesn't matter where somebody is in the country I can basically take with our private coaching I can take pretty much any. agent that's made at least fifty thousand a year typically it's usually my my my my minimum and I can I can literally double their income usually within six months. I mean I really know how to do this. And then our group coaching is new. I don't know how that's going to work out as far as accountability goes. In fact I did the craziest thing I had all these people sign up that we launch it on June 1st. And. I made all of them meet with me individually. so that I could give them a private coaching session initially so that they would do better.

[00:24:43] Well that makes sense because a lot of people just do group coaching because they're lazy. They don't care if anybody gets anything out of it.

[00:24:51] So I am a tough coach. I'm very accountable. But you know I know. See a lot of them can't afford private coaching. So I did the group coaching so that people would have some kind of a foundation of training that made sense for them because I mean I use all my own systems that I created over the years because I could never find anything that worked through any coach that was in real estate. I think real estate coaches are terrible. I call myself a business development. Yeah because I I can literally coach almost anybody in business and do just as well because it's just all kind of the same thing. Real estate I just happen to specialize in it.

[00:25:33] So how would they either get into your school or get a hold of you.

[00:25:37] Well the best way to get a hold of me is probably go to my business building site which is CindyBishoptraining.com at the bottom of every page is a contact form that's one way the other way is just just pick up the phone and call me. I still answer my own call.

[00:25:52] You're kidding, like me.

[00:25:54] You know why. What's the most important part of our job.

[00:25:57] The relationship.

[00:25:59] That's right. Answering the phone. Yes. I'll answer the phone it means I'm on the phone or I'm talking to you Tom and they can leave a message but they're going to get a call back. People are always shocked about that. Is this Cindy. Yes. Really. I mean what is more important than talking to these people. Nothing that I do. I can just about farm out everything except talking to them and then doing business building events that I need to teach them because I have such a unique system. So it's you know because nobody's ever duplicated what I've done because they don't know about it. I've kept it very quiet so that they can get a hold of me also on the phone which is 540-786-1432. That's my office phone. And then my as I mentioned before it's easy just to go to CindyBishoptraining.com that's my nationwide business building site and they got to the bottom of any page and just fill out the form and send it to me right.

[00:26:57] Yeah we'll have all that in the show notes. So we'll go take a brief break for our sponsor when we come back we're going to ask Cindy what's a typical day look like for her and how she stays motivated. We'll be right back.

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[00:27:40] Okay we're back with Cindy Bishop. She is a fantastic real estate coach and real estate school founder. Cindy what's a typical day look like for you. What time do you get up. What do you exercise. What do you do all day.

[00:27:56] Ok. This is what I do. First of all I'm very consistent. So if anybody wants to run a business they need to treat it like a business. If they don't have some kind of set schedule that works for them they're running a hobby. So I just want to say that because that's one of the things I coach on. You've got you've got to be working in your your business. OK. A lot of people don't have the discipline. So I get up at seven thirty in the morning. I'm not much of a 6:00 o'clock or 530 person that wakes up. So seven thirty in the morning give or take. And I work. I work in my office. If I'm if I'm going out then of course my day changes but my typical in office day and I have certain days that I do certain things like Mondays and admin day you know Tuesday I do coaching calls or is just there's different things on different days. So I usually start with my email because there's always all kinds of surprises on e-mail. So so ideal what I do with that and agents are inherently last minute on everything so. Oh my God I need to get my license and credit by the end of the month. Well I'm not going to throw classes into the system but I can tell them what I have that they can go to and they always try to go to our stuff first the people that are loyal to us they really are loyal and I really appreciate that they always tried because our core our education is so much better. I do basically then I I every day the first thing I do is I look to see what classes during the week what kind of registration numbers they have. So I might run more ads I might get my my event manager. So I do all that licensing training and business building events that are for that week and the week after I keep a watchful eye on how the numbers are looking during the day I usually have pre scheduled appointments for four coaching and I generally don't do one more than one of those a day because I put a lot of myself into it. So I get kind of tired. And so today we we do what we do that and sometimes I just have people that have questions so I always leave time to help my coaching members with whatever issues I don't want them to wait until next month. Because they have a problem now and the problem with that is they are not going to be doing anything between now and then if I don't address it. I do new training curriculum. One thing bad about continuing education is that is is that we have to get the same classes or even new classes. They only are good for three years. So I we update our curriculum for every single solitary training but officially we have to get it re approved with the new approval number at the state level every three years. So that takes a lot of time and I don't have anybody else do that because nobody knows the material like I do because I've been in the business so long. We do always. We're always doing new training so I do that. So all that stuff is in the morning. Generally I'm getting new whatever right now after lunch I'm I'm I'm really focused more on people are in now. You know they're not early birds. These real estate people mostly. So I do prospective training requests we get a lot of e-mails for training requests private trainings and I set up the regular hosting location events schedule. Generally in the afternoon I follow up an instructor's updating the curriculum for state submission as well as getting new instructors submitted and then I do I go back to doing a lot of my website product development and update my blog posts. I do a lot of that in the afternoon and then I return all calls even if I'm leaving a message by the end of the day.

[00:31:42] And that's like a week's worth of work in one day.

[00:31:45] Listen I get more done. I even though I'm ADHD I've taught myself such amazing skills over the years that I teach these to my coaching members as well that I can get what more normal most off by five and I literally take time off. Why do I do that. Because if you don't you're not fresh. Do I get on the computer sometimes at night because I didn't get that next blog in during the day I got I got sidetracked if I have something on my list to get done if I have to go back and sit at my computer at 9 p.m. to get it done I do it.

[00:32:24] Wow. You're a dynamo. That's all I can tell you. I was going to ask you how you stay motivated but it's like Oh my God you don't have time to be thinking about it.

[00:32:35] Well paying bills is a priority. Having a house over your head. But you know what really motivates me really motivates me is the promise. Of getting more quality reviews. If you look at Google we have a lot of really good solid reviews on there from people that really mean it. And you know agents can be a little ding a ling a last minute. You know I've got several people that signed up for a class this morning like five seconds before the class started. You know it's just the way they are. But you know it is important to me. Maybe it's ego. I don't know. but it's important to me that I'm getting both negative and positive feedback. We don't get negative feedback as far as the curriculum goes. But sometimes you'll have somebody that dominates a class and the instructor didn't maybe handle it as well as they should. So I have to help them learn how to handle that better because they may be great on content they may be the best in their field which is who I have but they may not. be able to handle some obnoxious person and then the event manager needs to know they have to step in. OK. That's what they. So I have to I have to help them a lot with this kind of stuff. Luckily most of the time it's never an issue because there's I've done a pretty good job of of helping them with that over the years and I most of my people have had for years. Nobody really leaves us unless I ask them to leave so they they are I'm very fortunate in that way. We keep really really really good people. I think I think what keeps me motivated too is the agents. Not everybody but a lot of them especially our followers. They know I care. Isn't that interesting. that most people don't know that you care because you don't care. You're just interested in assembly line money and that's it. But I really do care and I really do care that they're getting and I think that's what I think that's what keeps me motivated. I know I'm the only school that I know of in Virginia for continuing ed. that does what I do the way I do it. I know that. and that's why people it so it motivates me to keep getting better and keep doing better for them because if I'm not here what else is going to happen for them. They're gonna go back to getting terrible education. They now call me. I took this class at so-and-so place. It was terrible. I'm never going anyplace but your classes on the other hand school models are not profitable. You really better have passion for it. You better. And luckily we do business building but that's it's just a difficult overall it's a difficult thing. So you better be motivated and you better have passion because like any educational facility it's never going to be what real estate income was. But I know that. But I still love it tremendously because I really feel like I'm helping people.

[00:35:33] There you go. That's a great parting thoughts for all or we call screwballs out there. Well thanks so much Cindy for coming on. Appreciate you taking the time. It's been very inspiring. The passion that you have for your work and the integrity you bring to it in a field that's really not known for the truth. So thanks so much. Hey everybody so make sure you check out all the show notes and if you have any interest in this or you're an agent in Virginia or outside of Virginia if you want some business building on somebody that's been there done that. Check out Cindy's offerings and her contact information. You can even call her. How about that isn't that crazy. So check that out. Also check out IMTCVA.org. And if you want a lifestyle business in as little as six months that's legitimate. My school is da bomb. It's kind of like Cindy's it's da bomb but you can be anywhere in the world and take this as the distance learning. So check it out and let's see what's going on here. The next episode. I don't know what the next episode is I'll have to surprise you with it. How about that. So we'll catch y'all on the flip flop. see tya later.

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