EP 633 – Mike Miedler On The 121% Rule For Success

NCS 633 | Rules For Success

 

Real estate can be a challenging industry to explore and understand at first, but once you have a good grasp of it, it can be the most rewarding. In this episode of the Note Closers Show, Scott Carson talks with the President and CEO of Century 21 Realty, Mike Miedler. Mike shares his rules for success and why his 121% rule is key to finding success in today’s market. He also explains how Century 21 has evolved over the years and dealt with helping his realtors and client pivot in the 2020 real estate market, particularly amid the devastating pandemic.

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Mike Miedler On The 121% Rule For Success

I’m excited to be here with you on this episode. I’m even more jacked up because we’ve got somebody on here who you never know you’re one degree away from a lot of people these days. I got an email weeks ago from a buddy of mine. One of the first podcast I was ever on over a decade ago. That led to me speaking to the National Association of Realtors Conference in New Orleans years ago. We’ve stayed in touch with the guy and I get a phone call and an email from my buddy, Peter Mosca. He says, “I’m in New Jersey here. I was wanting to know if you’d like to have my buddy and boss come on your show.” I was like, “Who’s that?” He told me and I was like, “Let’s get this done.” We are honored to have the President and CEO, somebody who is in charge of 136,000-plus personalities across the country, Mike Miedler joins us. What’s going on, Mike? How are you doing?

Scott, I appreciate the invite. This is going to be fun. Congratulations to you on all the success. It’s all about focusing and dominating in a specific area and you’ve been so great over the years.

Thank you very much. Everybody loves it when you succeed. They don’t see the day-in, day-out grind. The episodes, the errors, mistakes and that learning curve. I know that’s always been a big pride in what you have done in your career because you’ve been with C21 for many years.

I started back in early 1998. I joke around people, Scott. I say, “I got started at the ground level in the mail room and have learned a whole bunch.” I have had the great fortune of meeting a lot of great people in this industry and asking a lot of questions.

What’s been the biggest surprise for you when you think back because you have grown, you’ve been there a long time. It may not be the biggest surprise you’ve been around with, but what’s been the biggest surprise becoming the President and CEO?

One of the cool things about real estate, and this is what I love about the industry so much, is that as much as it has changed, many different technology and different people are entering the space. You talk a little bit about some of the investors who have come into it, whether it be from a tech side or investing in residential real estate. As much as it has changed, a lot has stayed the same. This is the largest financial purchase most people are going to make in a lifetime. It’s so emotionally attached to them, their family, their most intimate moments and where they’re going to raise their kids.

People think that the real estate transaction is difficult. When you go through the experience, there’s a lot to navigate from the legal side, the financial side and all that stuff. What hasn’t changed is that people are still looking for that trusted advisor. Somebody who’s going to be there for them and create an experience through the process because there’s 180 steps in this process, depending on what country or state or city you’re in. You got to have a good expert on your side in order to navigate that. As much as changed, there’s a lot that’s stayed the same, which is interesting to me.

With most people, it is their biggest investment. When we talk with new investors coming into the market, “I’ve never bought an investment property.” You have. You bought your primary residence. You’ve been a real estate investor since you started that. A lot of people have a tendency to discount that. That’s the biggest learning curve, it’s when you are buying a house. It can be intimidating. It’s not all about paint and carpet and the landscaping. It is about curb appeal a lot of times, but it’s still getting through that process. We’re in such a weird place right now with historic interest rates being low and demand very high. I know it’s high where you’re at. You have very little inventory out there. Where do you see the biggest opportunity for your agents in this market? I know every state and city is a bit different. If you could think about an untapped aspect of your agents or in the real estate field from your agents, what would you say that it is?

The opportunity comes in making sure that you’re serving the client properly. If you look at what the best agents do, the ones who’ve been around this business forever, the ones who continue to get repeat and referral business, it’s because they are providing that experience throughout the process and they earn that business back. The opportunity to me is to be out there working. It’s such a weird time. I reflect on the last eight months and think about back in March when I was talking with our top agents and our top brokers, not just around the country, but the folks that we have. We got close to 4,000 offices, 30,000 professionals in China who was the first one into this.

When you talk to anybody around the globe, the opportunity is the same. You don’t know what’s going to happen from a business perspective, but you got to stay in touch with your clients. You got to stay in touch with your community. You got to continue to be out there working. I’m hearing from some of our top real estate professionals that they’re having the best year that they ever had because they never took their foot off the gas. They remained out there working in a safe and healthy manner. They had to figure out how to do things virtually. We as an industry pivoted quick. If you think about how fast we’ve moved forward as a real estate profession in the last nine months, even from a notary perspective, states pushing forward and allowing notarizations online versus in person. We’ve come a long way. The opportunity and the ones who seized it were the folks who were out there for their clients, out there for their community, educating people about what’s happening in the market and being there for them.

It’s caused a lot of people having to pivot and start thinking outside the box how to continue with that communication. Communication is key in any aspect of real estate, whether it’s buying a house, mortgage investing or whatever it might be. You’ve got to keep that communication factor up. People had to learn how to pivot. Who doesn’t wish they bought a lot of Zoom stock back in January? I heard on a previous episode as I was researching and getting some more stuff there that you guys have embraced Facebook Workplace to help with that communication. Is that correct?

It was a venture that we went into about 18 to 24 months ago. I’ll be honest with you, communication is key. No matter what aspect of your life. Whether it’s with your wife over where the kids have to go on the calendar or in a business setting. You always got to constantly be communicating. Facebook Workplace and Facebook in general, it’s the normal medium that everybody naturally gravitates to and everybody already knows. We decided from a business perspective, the best way to knit together our community. To be clear, we’re 85 countries. We’re pushed into Italy, so soon it will be 86. We are 147,000 sales professionals around the globe.

The best thing about our network is all of the expertise and all of the experience of all these folks across the globe. We figured what better way to knit them together, not only from a business perspective, but from a social perspective, a mastermind perspective, the coaching and training. They share a lot of deals and referrals across the board through Facebook. What more natural platform to weave your organization together when you’re that large than Facebook. We’ve done it and it’s been a hit. I can’t even tell you the amount of video that I’ve been posting now in the last nine months there to communicate with people.

NCS 633 | Rules For Success

Rules For Success: Even though you don’t know what will happen from a business perspective, you have to stay in touch with your clients.

 

I think video has been the way for a lot of that. You’ve got to embrace that in your marketing, in your communication, not only with your clients, but also in your outpost. The whole idea of one-on-one conversations. There’s nothing wrong with exchanging business cards, but that one conversation through the masses that leads to those valuable one-on-one phone calls, conversations and meetings with your potential clients or buyers and sellers.

Scott, I know you’ve been a pioneer on that front. You are probably way out ahead of a lot of people, podcasting and videoing for years. A lot of people in general, especially real estate professionals, they’re uncomfortable being on video. I’ve realized in the last few months that I don’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to be extremely well-scripted. I don’t have to look like my hair is perfect for Hollywood and all that other stuff. I can communicate to people how they want to be communicated with and be natural about it.

That’s getting beyond the fact that people aren’t there to see you. They’re there to see the house or see the property for the most part. I’ve had these conversations with realtors years ago. Austin’s a hot market. We were doing walkthrough videos with a business partner of mine who was a realtor. I’m not a realtor, but doing walkthrough videos from what I say Betty blue hairs, “Let’s do a walk-through video of it and we’ll market it.” We were getting buyers from California that’s coming into Austin off those videos that is embracing that aspect of the thing. I’ve seen a lot of agents who their market skyrockets because they’ve embraced that, the virtual showings, the virtual releases and all that stuff because it is such a fast-paced environment economy these days.

People were ahead of the game in that regard. There were a lot of agents who were able to adopt that technology in their business. There are a lot that had to pivot quickly in March. We as a Century 21 brand, we went out and taught a class on doing a tour from your couch. We put a virtual open house component on our website so that people could now consume their property the way that they wanted to in a safe manner. We all have to pivot. The folks who are out in front of that had a great head start over these last few months.

You talk about 121% philosophy. Can you explain that a bit more? Can you share a little about what that is?

At Century 21, we believe in defined mediocrity and delivering extraordinary experiences. We have a saying called the 121% rule. Whether you were a real estate sales professional or like my daughter who’s trying out for her tennis team or whatnot. No matter what aspect of your life, there are three basic components that will lead you to continue to have success and push yourself further. I call it the 121% rule. The first 50% is your mindset. For all of us, you got to wake up every single day, grateful, showing gratitude to the people around you and the folks that you work with or love or live with, and being mentally positive about the day. Looking at the glass as half-full versus half-empty.

There are some awesome ways to do that. We had our top agent event last week and we had these two awesome speakers and one of them was a doctor who hails out of Chicago. She’s been on The Today Show and all these things. There are simplistic ways to do that. One of them is spending some time for yourself and thinking about what you want to accomplish, whether that’s meditating or doing yoga or taking a walk around the house, if it’s exercise or whatever it is. You need to spend a little bit of time for yourself. The other thing is you got to hang around other people who are mentally positive and strong, are winners and trying to up their game. You can sit and turn on the news and get yourself depressed these days. Who has time for that? The truth of the matter is that if you have a great strong mindset, you’re starting out your day and you’re starting out your life in the right direction and you got to have a huge head start.

You’ve got to surround yourself with like-minded individuals. If you’re around stinking plinking, you got stinking plinking. That’s the thing. You never know. Any day that you wake up and you’re not 6 feet below ground, it’s a good day. I can sense a little bit of a Zig Ziglar or Michael Gerber. I know you’re a big fan of The E Myth as well. Are you still starting your days and everything going on with your normal run?

I do. I’m training for a very big personal goal with a few of my great Century 21 brokers and agents who dared me into it. I’ve been training hard. The one blessing from COVID is that I’ve had time. I’ve not been on a lot of airplanes and I’ve been able to put in more time on that front. Thanks for asking.

What’s that goal? You can’t tease us like that.

A couple of great brokers, agents and professionals, a gentleman named Greg Harrelson down in Myrtle Beach, and Adam Oberski and Nick Sloney up in Detroit. They saw the Iron Cowboy with me. We had him as a big speaker for us. He’s on Netflix. This is a guy who went out and did 50 Ironman in 50 days in 50 States. Nike and Under Armour told him “It’s physically impossible. You can’t do it. No human can.” He wound up accomplishing it. He did a phenomenal speech for us. After the event, these guys said, “We’re going to do an Ironman. You got to get in on it.” I was like, “I don’t think I could do that.” They were like, “Come on. That’s the difference between Varsity and JV.” I said, “I think I have to dig in and push myself outside of my comfort zone.” Florida Ironman is till on. I’ll be travelling down there to try to make it happen.

That’s awesome. Part of it is about the journey before you get to the finish line.

NCS 633 | Rules For Success

Rules For Success: If you have a great strong mindset, you’re starting your life in the right direction.

 

There’s so much learning in between. That leads me to the second part of the 121% rule. The second component, and I think you would agree with this whole heartedly, is all about continuing to increase your skills and your knowledge. No matter what business you’re in, what line of work or what you’re trying to accomplish, whether you’re a reader, listening to podcasts or you’re going to other people for mentorship and trying to figure out how to take that next step and get out of that comfort zone, you always got to be learning. Whether you’re trying out for the tennis team or you’re trying to be a better sales professional, you got to constantly educate yourself. Especially in this market, things have changed for real estate professionals. You have to learn about virtual tours. You had to learn Zoom.

There are a lot of things we had to learn over the last eight months. You got to continue to do that. I always say business isn’t rocket science. There’s nothing you can’t teach yourself in order to have success in real estate. That’s the second component. I know you agree because you’re trying to educate people every week, every day through your podcast. The last 21%, and probably the most important is going out there and working, doing the activities like getting up and creating a list for yourself, and going out and doing things that are going to put you into a position for you to achieve your personal goals and for you to achieve your why. Putting that plan into effect every single day, whatever the scheduling is that allows you to do it. You got to get up and do it.

It’s a lot of the same things over and over again. It’s those nuts and bolts that build the biggest companies. It all comes down to the individual pivots or the nuts and bolts and washers that build these skyscrapers. If you don’t have that, you can never build anything big. You guys have done an amazing job of pivoting, but what would you say to those naysayers that think realtors and brokers are going to go away, that technologies will take over and replace realtors out there?

We’re a 50-year-old brand. We’ve got a tremendous consumer awareness from hundreds and thousands of offices and agents who have been part of our system and come and gone over 50 years. There have been billions of dollars that had been poured into the real estate industry from a tech side. People always talk about AI or disruption or technology is going to disintermediate the real estate professional. It’s going to go the same way that travel is gone or whatever these other different industries. The truth of the matter is over the last few years, people are using agents more now than they ever have, even in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The reason being is because the business of completing a real estate purchase or sale is a difficult one.

There are a lot of different steps in the process. There are a lot of different nuances depending on what market you’re in. There are a lot of different people that you have to corral in the process. I always say, real estate professionals are not just market knowledge experts and great negotiators, they’re also contractors, psychiatrists, marriage counselors and movers. This is a great story. We had a gal down in Florida and this is probably a couple of weeks into the pandemic. She had to marry a couple at her office in order for them to qualify for the mortgage because they were planning on getting married. They couldn’t do it because of COVID.

She ended up marrying him at their office in order for them to close on their home that day. Where else do you hear those types of stories but the real estate industry? We don’t get enough credit for everything that we have to do in the process of delivering the dream of home ownership in this country. Quite candidly, how much incremental financial activity that happens around the real estate transaction, whether it’s title, mortgage, moving, home depot, Lowe’s, the local shops and restaurants or whatever it is. When people move to a marketplace, there’s a lot that goes on that spreads economic activity throughout the community.

It’s such a great barometer of where everything is going, but I’m going to pivot a little bit here because with what we’re doing in the distressed debt markets and looking back. I got some numbers that we pull on a quarterly basis as banks are filing their quarterly reports with the FDIC. The default numbers are up from $85 billion in over 90-day lates across the country to over $100 billion. We’re going to see the national default rate jump above 10% where it’s at 8.22% across the country. It’s higher in your neck of the woods than it is in other parts of the country.

When we’re looking back what we have in an hourglass and see the history of what happened in 2010, with fifteen million homeowners under water. Approaching that, what steps are you guys doing or looking at to help clients out that are facing foreclosures or going through the big D and we don’t mean Dallas, because of distress and job loss. What are some of the things that C21 is doing to try to help your agents prepare for that tsunami of deals or listings or foreclosures or short sales coming down the pipeline?

We have a tremendous amount of professionals who are versed and experienced in short sales and REO. They did a ton of work on it, hundreds and thousands of deals as you can imagine through 2008 and 2012. We have what I would call a small mastermind group that’s looking at where the market is headed. I’d rather see folks helping people through a short sale. We do have people who are doing that. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with all the moratoriums that the government’s put in place. Are they going to get extensions? Is that the right thing for the marketplace? I was reading how Invitation Homes and some of these other big investment companies are moving in and raising millions and billions of dollars.

It’ll be interesting. It’s a natural cyclical circle that unfortunately, we have to deal with as an economy, as a business and as a society. That doesn’t mean that I want to see people evicted or moved out of their homes or any of those things fall on hard times. As real estate professionals, we have to be out there educating consumers on what their options are. If people do have an issue in where they’re going to be getting their next payment on their mortgage from or that they are looking at potentially a foreclosure situation, speak to a real estate professional who’s versed in having these conversations because banks want to figure out a win-win for everybody.

We have a group out of LA who have done a tremendous amount of short sales throughout the country. They’re trying to help spread that education throughout the Century 21 network. Hopefully, we’ll be able to help and continue to keep people in their homes. The market is moving in the right direction and we have the highest home ownership rate than we have in 12 or 13 years since 2008. We’ll see what happens. It’s going to be a natural evolution in my mind.

The highest home ownership level and we also have the highest savings level, where people are socking money away. The most is 85%, usually people are one missed paycheck away from everything, now they’re socking money away not knowing what’s going on. There are lots of great opportunities out there to move money into real estate or investments or second homes or other things to do to bring in some cashflow.

That’s the good news and the scary part. Me personally, I’m not spending any more money on gas. I’m not spending any more money getting on flights, in hotels, at sporting events, all these things we used to do as a society, that’s going to cause a ripple effect for unemployment. I do think the economy is pivoting. There are certainly winners and losers in the space. People are re-imagining themselves and businesses are re-imagining themselves. I read a great article where folks said, “I used to be in this line of work. I don’t think that’s a future for the economy. I moved into something else and they’ve started a career there.” The unemployment numbers seem to be going in the right direction. We’ll have to continue to see what this virus does.

NCS 633 | Rules For Success

Rules For Success: No matter what business you’re in or what you’re trying to accomplish, you have to continue learning.

 

It’s interesting to see what will happen with the elections as well. Is that moratorium going to be extended if Trump wins or if he loses, what happens? Whoever goes into there. The biggest thing is a lot of people are going to wait until after the elections. Don’t wait, the best time to buy a house was 30 years ago and today, no matter what it is.

Mortgage rates are at a generational point, which would save you hundreds and thousands depending on the size of your property over a lifetime. Your purchase power could never be stronger. The other point here is that you’ve got 90 million Millennials who are out there starting families. Now, they’re not renting in New York City. They’re buying suburban homes out in New Jersey and Connecticut. There’s a real interesting tsunami on that front with sixteen million new household formations from 2015 until 2025, which is more than we’ve seen in four decades. It’s going to be interesting to see where we are going on that front.

In major areas where you’re living and where I’m at, the need for affordable housing has never been bigger. If you can find something in the outskirts. We had the same thing. People would rather drive an hour or sit an hour in traffic to buy a bigger house versus a small condo in downtown Austin. A lot of people want to get out of those populated areas so they’ve got a bit of space to breathe or for the elbow space.

I don’t know how long it lasts. Do people have to sit in that hour traffic every day now? Maybe some do. There are a lot of industries that do, but maybe some can do it two days a week versus five, and it makes them more bearable. That’s an interesting effect of all this.

Those extra basements and extra bedrooms or those garages that turn into, I know you’ve been working in your basement for a while, if I remember correct.

I joke with people, it’s my basement, it’s my home office, it’s my home gym. This is the table where I eat my lunch, it’s my cafeteria. At about 6:00 at night. It turns into one of my daughter’s dance studio. It’s a playroom, it’s the laundry room.

There are a lot of value in those extra rooms or living rooms or whatever you can find. Are you striving to become president and CEO? I know that it’s not exactly what you thought you would be. You were a big Fox Mulder fan growing up and thought you’d be that. Is that correct?

Before Netflix was popular, I have CDs from almost every season laying around here in the basement somewhere. I used to love X-Files.

Going to where you’re at now, has there been a mentor along the way? I’m a big believer that shit flows uphill, you shouldn’t let shit flow downhill. Is there somebody that you reach out to on a regular basis to talk to and to be mentored by. I’m sure you’d had met amazing mentors along the way because you wouldn’t be where you’re at without that I can tell. Who’s somebody you reach out to, listen to or talk to on a regular basis?

Thanks for saying that. I texted Alex Perriello who was the former CEO of the Realogy Franchise Group, which is Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, Sotheby’s, Better Homes and Gardens, etc. There are many people in my life that I’ve spoken and met many awesome entrepreneurs in this business from every corner of the globe. Depending on what topic it is, you’ve mentioned short sales before. I’ve got a guy in LA, a dear friend. His name is Eli, with Century 21 Peak, who’s a master of short sales. When I need to think about something along those lines, I reach out to him.

Depending on the topic is who I reach out to. What’s been even great is former CEOs of Century 21, Rick Davidson. I heard from Tom Koons. We were talking about something on the business front. I’m reaching out to anybody that I can get some knowledge from. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say Mike Ferry who is a big coach in the industry, who I’ve learned a lot from and pulled a lot of that 121% rule out of. There have been a lot of folks who’ve helped educate me and had been great in all of the inquisitive discussions that I’ve had with them. Thanks for asking. There’s been so many.

That is one common denominator I see from successful people is they listen and they’re coachable to other people that strive. I’ve always found those that are successful are often the most giving of their time. They want to help support those that are climbing that ladder or walking towards those goals.

The very best leaders in this industry and probably anywhere are so selfless. They get real joy and drive out of seeing other people succeed. That’s a common denominator for any great leader in this industry and for all the great brokers inside of Century 21. They get more out of pushing other people to do their very best and their best work than they do about their own.

NCS 633 | Rules For Success

Rules For Success: Business isn’t rocket science, and there’s nothing you can’t teach yourself to have success in real estate.

 

Brokers need a big shout out because not only are they dealing with business in a regular basis, but they’re also oftentimes psychologists, marriage counselors, business coaches, adult babysitters when they run different offices. One of the great things that we see a lot is investors coming out there. Anything specifically that you have done taking over C21 to embrace the investors that are doing a little bit more than just your retail buyers?

We should probably be more mature in that space, meaning looking towards investors. From a Realogy perspective, we have a whole business development group that looks at that arm and helps. As a Realogy company, we have 300,000 agents across the globe and many offices. We have more of a Realogy component that looks at that business and how we can help from a corporate perspective. We’re always out there trying to figure out how we can help anybody on a massive scale. From a local investor standpoint, that’s a whole different discussion because we’ve got agents in every nook and cranny of this great country helping serve what I would call more mom and pop investors.

They do a phenomenal job at counseling them, educating them on cap rates and all those other great things that go along with the process. To your point, there’s nothing like somebody who knows the local market and what’s happening. Be sure to be in touch with somebody who understands the intricacies of whether it’s the zip code or even more on a smaller micro market because they’ll be able to help you figure out what your investment strategy should be in a local place.

I love that you say that Mike because with us, buying distress debt and portfolios all across the country, that’s the number one that I tell people. You’ve got to develop those local relationships with people have their pulse on the market. You can jump on NAR, RPR and pull a real property report, which is about as good as Zillow. Before you close, you got to put eyes on the property. You have to have somebody local that understands, always have the person pulling the value for you, and be the person that’s looking at the property and knows what’s going on because there are many different intricacies going out there. I know that you guys have been working on a piece of software to match up with all the different MLS and due diligence and title aspect. How’s that going?

We equate it to the Domino’s pizza tracker. You laugh and people joke around. They’re like, “That’s interesting.” Domino’s has this awesome customer experience. I never eat Domino’s pizza. My kids would, but I wouldn’t. That said, the experience for the customer is phenomenal. They’ve crushed it. You order from your phone and you know exactly where it is in the process. “They’re putting the pepperoni on it now. It’s in the oven. It’s about to be boxed. It’s three streets away.” That same mindset, that same concept is what we want to try and bring clarity and transparency to the end consumer in a very easy to use app-based program that people can understand where they’re at. Let their agent and anybody else who’s involved in the process know through an emoji, a smiley face or a sad face like, “I’m either happy with this, or I’m not happy with this,” and be able to communicate. You said it earlier. Communication is the most important and most essential thing in any business relationship. This would hopefully help add some transparency in an otherwise digital world.

You’ve got a busy plate, not only training for an Ironman, but handling everything that’s going on, dealing with COVID and the craziness of this. Who would have thought we’re nine months into something that we thought would be 90 days? That’s what a lot of people thought. What are some big goals or something that you’ve got on the horizon for next year for you and for the company that you’re excited about?

Our number one goal is we continue to focus on growth. Whether that’s growth for our agents and bringing them more business through leads and platforms that we’re developing, or whether that’s taking our brokers and helping them leverage their scale and grow out to other marketplaces. I was on the phone with a company from Idaho who’s done a phenomenal job over a year or two. They’ve moved 63 spaces in our office rankings, talking about their growth and the trends in trajectory. Taking great entrepreneurs and giving them the platform and foundation to then go ahead and grow their businesses is what we ultimately aim at Century 21. The way you do that, the way you grow an agent’s business or a broker’s business is helping them deliver extraordinary experiences to the consumer. That’s what we’ve got our eye on. If we can continue to tap that message to consumers and to our sales professionals, we’ll be in a great spot.

I know that you’re a fan of rock and roll music. Are you a more of a big hair or a grunge fan? I think you’re a big fan of Pearl Jam and that thing.

I’m a huge Pearl Jam fan have been since high school back in the ‘90s. I’ve seen them live many different times. I’ve been in mosh pits. I’m a big grunge fan. I love all grunge music. It’s funny, it’s generally on my playlist when I’m out running or doing something in the car. My kids hate it like, “What are we listening to dad? This is horrible.”

What’s your favorite song?

I’d have to put either Black or Yellow Ledbetter up there. I also like the real hard stuff from the original Ten album, Deep and Garden. I love it all. I’ve had a lot of different experiences with that band over the years. It’s been fun.

They have evolved. Their sound has evolved in a variety of different fashions and always changing, not being stale. We can learn a lot from that because they still been around for a while. When I think of high school, I think of Alive. It’s what we were singing around the graduation bonfires and stuff like that.

NCS 633 | Rules For Success

Rules For Success: Real estate professionals must be out there, educating consumers on what their options are.

 

Are you a grunge guy too, Scott?

I like big hair and grunge. I graduated in ’95. I’m a big Guns N’ Roses, Motley Crue, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden. One of the things I loved was when they started doing the Soundgarden songs with Westworld in the background there for you.

You’ve got a great music scene in Austin. It’s where it’s at.

We love it here. It suffered, with all the bars and restaurants being shutting down. 6th Street is a ghost town these days when it comes down to it. It’s interesting to see a lot of the musicians going to Zoom and doing virtual conference. Metallica did a nationwide virtual conference at the Minor League Baseball park here.

You made a great point there. People have to continue to evolve, whether you’re a rock band, a musician or a real estate professional. No matter what, you’ve got to evolve, you’ve got to continue to teach yourself, learn new skills and push forward because the world’s changing constantly.

One final question. When is Axe going to have you on Billions? You bring on many great names around New York and New Jersey. They got to have you on at some point.

You’re well-studied. I got to tell you. My wife loves that show. I got her into it. I used to watch it on flights. I’m a couple of episodes behind her but what a great show. It’s another big interest of mine.

The biggest thing is a lot of us that are in that finance, we’d like the Billions, The Wolf of Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps and all that stuff there. For Halloween, I was asking if you’re going to dress up as Jordan Belfort because you look a little bit like Jordan.

I appreciate your time and being part of this, I know you’re a busy man and with your listenership and everything you’re trying to do to educate investors out there. It means a lot to them and it means a lot to the industry because it’s an important component of it. Thanks.

Mike, thank you so much for coming on and having fun. Sharing your journey, your message and what you’re pushing the C21 brand Realogy out there, and how you guys have pivoted and been an industry leader in being able to adapt and evolve with the ever-changing times that we’ve been affected by with COVID and being a brand leader you guys at C21.

I appreciate the conversation, Scott.

It’s the same here. Congratulations on completing Ironman and kicking butt and taking names. Be safe.

Thanks.

That’s going to wrap it up for this episode. Take what Mike said, take that 121% rule and apply it to your life, to your investments, to your day-in, day-out activity. I guarantee you’ll come out feeling a lot better and be able to deal with issues and problems in a much more productive way by being able to see the positive, by being able to surround yourself and then showing up in the day-in, day-out activities. I know sometimes it can be boring to show up and do the same things, but it builds the confidence. It builds the ability for you to succeed in an ever-changing world and showing up. Sometimes you got to get that momentum rocking and going whether it’s calling banks, reaching out and talking to investors or doing videos and sharing stuff. Go out, take some action, and we’ll see you at the top. Bye.

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About Mike Miedler

NCS 633 | Rules For SuccessPresident and Chief Executive Officer

Mike believes the emotional connection a buyer has with their home and the memories they make while living there is what makes homeownership so special. Appointed president and chief executive officer for Century 21 Real Estate LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY) in January 2019, Miedler leads the iconic C21® brand and the organization’s approximately 10,600 independently owned and operated offices and more than 139,000 independent sales professionals in 83 countries and territories worldwide

“Delivering an extraordinary experience is all about trying to set a positive tone and projecting the passion you have for the customer’s ultimate success early in the relationship. Success in real estate comes down to two factors: taking care of and valuing the customer.”

A 20-year plus veteran with the CENTURY 21 brand, Miedler is a leader in residential and commercial real estate franchising, brokerage, and management, and understands the important role the international markets play in expanding the brand and the System’s growth opportunities. Mike recognizes that buying and selling a house can be the most complex transaction a person ever makes, which is why he is so passionate about helping Century 21’s more than 129,000 independent sales professionals defy mediocrity every single day as they transform the homebuying process from just a transaction to an extraordinary experience for their clients.

Miedler previously served as global chief growth officer (CGO) of Century 21 Real Estate LLC. leading the Franchise Sales team with a focus was on capturing share in emerging and diverse markets as well as senior vice president overseeing brand development and market share strategy in the U.S

Before joining Century 21, Miedler was managing director for ONCOR International, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate networks where he facilitated commercial real estate transactions across the U.S. and around the globe.

Miedler has served as a volunteer to the Junior Achievement program in New Jersey, and as an executive sponsor of the Realogy NextGen employee resource group. A graduate of West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Mike prides himself on living an active lifestyle, which includes everything outdoors like swimming, running, snowboarding or just the park as long as it’s with his wife and four daughters.


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