Building Your Business Ep. 38: Rod Santomassimo, The Commercial Broker’s Mindset

Rob (00:00)
Thank you, Rod, for spending some time with us today. The building your business is is strictly that. And and once again, I’m welcoming Rod here. He’s with the Massimo group. You founded it. tell us a little bit about yourself, Rod, and where you come from up to the point here of what we’re gonna talk about with coaching.

Rod (00:30)
Sure. And thank you so much, Rob, for having me on your your show. So I’m a New Yorker through and through, born and raised in New York, upset that the Knicks lost last night. But I currently living in North Carolina for the last 30 years now. but yeah, you know, growing up in New York, I I dabble in everything about commercial real estate. My father was an advisor for commercial real estate firms before it was official, what the advisor consultant was. and so all my all my summer jobs were something crazy in commercial real estate.

property management, gopher, surveying for tenants, all that stuff. So after that I I went off to grad school, after college, then grad school. And then I told my dad I’ll I’ll never be in commercial real estate again. I said I’m just I’m not I did that. I want to do something else. Go to New York and be a big big wig. That’s what I thought. But I realized I hated large organizations. Can’t stand them. I’m not good at them. I’m not a I’m not a good employee. I’m not. So a couple of stints in in the

I was a CFO for a law firm, COO for a telecom firm, patent inventor, and in between brokerage, commercial real estate brokerage. And so in 2008, I was an executive VP for an international brokerage firm. We all know what happened in 2008. I found myself sidelined to say the least. And I looked at my wife one day and said, I think based on my business acronym, I can coach commercial real estate practitioners.

And so we built the Mossmo group now over eighteen years old, almost eighteen years old, and thousands of clients, thirty something coaches, coach my stuff and or our stuff. And yeah, blessed to do what we do and helping brokers build businesses and lives they’ve always desired.

Rob (02:14)
I have to laugh ’cause you said you didn’t want to work in a big outfit, you didn’t want to do this, but yet thirty thirty coaches on staff plus probably support staff, that’s a big outfit.

Rod (02:30)
We’ve kept it below 50 purposely, but yeah, we’re fortunate and blessed. And most of those people are independent contractors, so the overhead’s only, you know, very variable if our fixed costs are low. But yeah, we’ve you know, we we want to help as many people as possible.

Rob (02:45)
I have to laugh because I I don’t know that I can remember fifty names. yeah, it’s

Rod (02:49)
Ha ha ha ha.

Rob (02:51)
it’s somebody’ll yeah, we’ll have somebody call up and do you know this person? Sure. probably, maybe,

Rod (02:59)
Sure.

Rob (03:00)
don’t remember the name, but so so really you you know, you’ve built your entire career around coaching and and the brokerage. So that was really your genesis, the two thousand eight

Yeah, you can’t sell stuff because there’s not stuff to be sold. The the music stopped. The chairs are already full of people. So you’re sitting there going, What do I do? How does one start coaching?

Rod (03:26)
Yeah, well, let’s face it. Let’s say it, Rob. In two thousand and eight, not too many people had money to pay for coaching. So

Rob (03:32)
Yeah.

Rod (03:33)
the first two and a half, three years were lean, really lean.

Rob (03:36)
Yeah.

Rod (03:37)
But you reach out to people you know. That’s just like getting business. No matter what profession you’re in. You’re you’re a commercial inspector, you’re an appraiser, you’re whatever you are, you reach out to people you know, you share with them what you’re doing, you see if there’s if they know someone or they they have a need, and lo and behold, some of the brokers I I knew in my prior

Entity said, you know what, Rod, we do need some help right now during the recession to find more opportunities and and survive this wave. And and so, you know, we got a few clients early on, but I was working 16, sometimes 18 hours a day, you know, for the first two years. And then the market corrected, and before knew, we had enough money to pay our bills. So that’s how you start.

Rob (04:18)
Have you always focused on the CIE or did you did you deal with residential as well?

Rod (04:23)
No, as soon as I start the company, I made it a such a niche company that I don’t know anything about residential real estate besides buying and selling a house. I don’t I don’t know it. And so stick to what you know. has it held us back? No, the niches and the riches. They are. so you know, we’ve been able to just focus on commercial and now we also help commercial real estate mortgage brokers, but we’ll never do residential. Plus, Rob, there are so many.

Residential coaching organizations. I don’t want to compete with that.

Rob (04:52)
Yeah.

Yeah. I have to that was one of my my my big points. I tr I transitioned from residential to commercial in the

Rod (05:02)
Right. All that.

Rob (05:03)
in i in fifteen. And and I did it largely because of that. It was a it was a different market, it was a different clientele. And probably my favorite part, Rod, was I’m dealing with a different type of broker.

They’re el there, you know, and and not to say anything bad because I will never say anything bad about a residential broker, but on the residential side, it’s much more transactional. It’s one

Rod (05:31)
Yes.

Rob (05:31)
client, one house, we’re done, we never see you again, maybe five, seven years, you’ll buy something else. But the CRE

Rod (05:37)
Yeah.

Rob (05:38)
is so relationship driven and and and it and there’s not as much passion.

on the property, ’cause it’s a business acquisition, that it just became better for me. what was your biggest surprise that you on you you discovered when you started doing coaching?

Rod (06:02)
Yeah, I wanna tell you, you know, about three or three or four years in, I wrote my first book. And then a gentleman in that book named Bob Knackle, Bob Knackle has sold more buildings than anyone else in the United States. As of today, I think it’s two thousand four hundred and six. I believe that’s the number. he’s from New York. But one day he called me and said, Hey Rod, come on up.

Rob (06:23)
And which I’m sorry,

which book was that? Was that the brokers who dominate or selling buildings?

Rod (06:27)
First one was brokers who dominate. But then then Bob and I, Bob and I together wrote selling buildings last year.

Rob (06:32)
Thank you.

Rod (06:34)
so this is this is 15 years ago. so Bob called me up and said, Rod, what do you do? I I’m a coach. He laughed. What the hell is a coach? You’re in real estate. I said, Yeah. So he said, Come on up and see, see what if you can help me. Now you understand, I’m I’m three years in the business. We’re trying to find anyone we can. Then this this broker out of New York who’s making six million dollars a year says, Come help me.

So I get in the plane, you know, and and back then I’m flying the in the last row. I’m trying to save my money.

Rob (07:02)
Mm-hmm.

Rod (07:04)
and I’m thinking to myself, I took my wife before I left. How can I help this guy? He’s he’s the he’s the best of the best. He’s making six million dollars. I’m gonna make a horse’s ass out of myself. So, Rob, I go up there, I sit in a corner, I don’t say I say I said, Mike, I said, Bob, just just work for two days. Let me see what you do. And so the biggest surprise was, Rob, everyone

Is leaving money on the table. Everyone has a has a has something we can tweak or turn or address to help them do things better, faster, stronger, and make more money. So after two days, I said to Bob, I said, Look, Bob, I think we can help. Let’s just just try this thing for a little bit. And every week for almost a 15-year run, we we work together. So and and Rob, in the first, in the first

Two years, his income went from 6 million to 12 million. And just short of four years, it went from 12 million to 18.5 million. Now, yes, the market absolutely had a major impact. It

Rob (08:08)
Yeah.

Rod (08:08)
did. It wasn’t overcoaching. But that was my biggest surprise. And that’s that’s left me an impression on me that there’s no one we can’t help. There’s no one so good, so great. Now, most broke, a lot, not most, many brokers think they’re so good, so great, and I don’t need any help.

That is absolutely true. That arrogance persists. But that was my biggest surprise.

Rob (08:30)
But those who would look for help and will receive help will gain from it. And those who can’t won’t.

Rod (08:37)
Yeah, well

those who those who do what we ask will absolutely have a positive experience. I know that, Rob, because I do believe everyone should do this. We guarantee our work. Everyone should guarantee their work. We guarantee our work. We say, look, if you do what we ask, and if you’re not in a better position to make more money, if you don’t feel that way, just feel that way after a year, we’ll coach you for free. And Rob, out of forty two hundred plus clients, one.

Only one has ever taken us up on that guarantee. So what that tells me is this a lot of people don’t do the work, number one, right? They they don’t commit to the process. And those that do, it works, right? And the one case out of forty two hundred where that percentage is, right? Point whatever it is, it didn’t work. And two months later he said, I’m out of brokerage, I don’t want to do this anymore. And that’s okay.

Rob (09:30)
Yeah. It’s I’ve talked to other coaches from other industries and they all echo about the exact same thing. There’s nobody that wouldn’t benefit with a little this or a little that or you know, it’s like it’s like seasoning on a good in a good recipe. You need a little dash of this and a little dash of that every once in a while to beef it up. I I think about you know

i in what I’ve read and and and and we’ve just met an hour or a minutes ago is you you you’re I’ve read that you know in and everything that you’re known as this expert motivator and and in and motivating somebody is just the sustainability of it is is tough. Yeah, what’s your philosophy in in turning the short term motivation into this long term discipline?

Rod (10:27)
Well, I there was a football coach named Bill Parcells back in the day, back the the pre-Cowboys. Yeah, big tuna, before

Rob (10:33)
The big toother

Rod (10:36)
he was the Cowboys coach and everything else. But when he was a giant coach, they asked him, you know, how do you motivate your players? And I agree with his his his exact reply was, I don’t I don’t recruit unmotivated people. Cause if I gotta motivate you, you we got a problem. It’s not it’s not gonna work. I don’t motivate any of our clients. I I don’t.

What what we do at Mosmo is we show them a future that’s much bigger than the one they’re in. And if they can see it, they can believe it. If they can believe it, they can apply it. So we have to show the future. And and many, many of our clients, what holds them back is they just don’t think big enough. In fact, it was Jeff Bezos of Amazon who who asked who answered the question: what’s the entrepreneur’s

biggest mistake. And he says straight out, you simply don’t think big enough. You know? He in fact thinks huge. So yeah, think bigger.

Rob (11:34)
Pretty darn huge. Yeah. I

I I find that inter you know, that’s that’s interesting you don’t think big enough, you don’t think grand enough. Yeah, and and that translates into the commercial inspection industry because we’re just in the infancy of this industry. Yeah, we’re we’re we’re we’re we’re akin to and tangent to that that that property condition assessment, but we’re

We’re we’re we’re running parallel stream because our clients aren’t those portfolio clients. Our clients are the people that are buying the the the five bay garage over on the corner or the

Rod (12:16)
Yeah.

Rob (12:16)
the the the Dairy Queen restaurant or the the the th the dry cleaners and they’re they’re a different clientele and and many of our members are do are not doing exactly what you’re saying.

They’re not thinking large enough. They’re they’re afraid. They’re

Rod (12:36)
No.

Rob (12:38)
afraid that I can’t do that half a million square foot building. Yeah, you can. It’s a box.

Rod (12:43)
But say

look, mechanical systems are bigger, electrical systems are bigger. Now at AI, definitely more tech is is is bigger, no doubt about it. But it’s this it’s the same basic principles. It is.

Rob (12:59)
Yeah. Yeah. It’s you walk around, you take notes, you take pictures, you eat pe you could eat that elephant one bite at a time, whether it takes you one day or five days, you’ll figure it you’ll figure it out. You know, I I’m thinking because of the infancy and we had talked earlier that that you’re not actively brokering properties, but yet you know, enhancing it brokerages all over the world probably.

in in being better and and in achieving their dreams. Where what do you think is the biggest I don’t want to say stop gap, but in the knowledge break that a commercial broker might have in i i i in advising their clients about the properties like condition.

Rod (13:50)
So what do well, first of all is right, like everything else, there’s risk and reward. The liability factor scares up, but Jesus, that had a lot of brokers. No doubt about it.

Rob (14:00)
Got it.

Rod (14:00)
They they they don’t want to be the one that gives them the wrong advice, right? When they can’t

Rob (14:06)
Mm-hmm.

Rod (14:06)
they depend on you and your associates

Rob (14:08)
Yeah.

Rod (14:08)
for that. So I think that’s the number one issue. They and and the the smart ones obviously hire or retain or refer your your members of you and your association to

Do that type of work. But the stop gap is purely liability. I’m not you need we need to get someone in the house. Just like many brokers are caught with their pants down, right? In theory, whatever it is,

Rob (14:32)
Yeah.

Rod (14:32)
when they start negotiating lease terms and contracts, that’s not their job either. That’s why that’s

Rob (14:38)
No.

Rod (14:38)
why we have attorney. I don’t care what AI bot you have. And yeah, could I take a picture of a building and walk it around and put it in my AI bot and say, okay, act as an expert commercial inspector and help me understand.

You’re gonna get I can’t use this word. You’re gonna get in trouble. You’re gonna get in big trouble if you do that.

Rob (14:54)
Yeah.

Yeah. It’s the y you’re you’re gonna depending on on which bot you scrubbed, which biased information you’re gonna get. I think of but yet you say that and I can think of back when I was practicing, I I I got to leave the field and retire and and do this a few years ago. But I think of the the best

Broker that I worked with, with that I got the most consistent referrals, she, and I say this with the most love and respect, was a beast in the building. She could walk around that building in in whatever attire she was wearing, from the most professional to the most casual, going and and our our our services coming in here, and we’ve got five package units over here, and we’ve got

Five thousand amps of power coming in here going across this bus field with this with this thirty ton gantry create and I’m just like, man, you understand the process. You’re not saying anything right or wrong, but you knew intimately that property you’re selling, no wonder you’re successful. And and and and I’m sure that’s all part

Rod (16:12)
Yeah, yeah, and that’s the that’s the authority.

Rob (16:15)
of your coaching.

Rod (16:16)
Well, look, we coach th everyone mo well by definition, most brokers, most inspectors, right? Most most of anything are commodities. They are. That that’s the definition of a commodity. Most. But to be an authority, like your your broker you alluded to, like you and in your association, to be an authority, you you have to have that higher degree of understanding and articulation of anyone’s issues. Yes, that’s what we try to coach with all our clients. We don’t believe in commodities.

Rob (16:46)
No, no. And frankly, I think no, yeah, I could be wrong, but I think selling s commercial real estate, being a CRE broker, is infinitely more difficult than residential for that authority reason. Is you’re selling a business to another, you know, like a business, it’s a business to business, B2B. And

And most of those people smell sales and they can sniff garbage from a half a block away. And so if you’re not gonna be there as the authority, I would think you you know your your success rates are gonna be much lower because people can smell crap.

Rod (17:35)
Well, first of all, in a in a residential paradigm, ninety-nine percent of the time those conversations are, like you said earlier, purely transaction-based. I’m hiring you to list my property. I’m hiring you to represent me as a buyer. So there’s there’s ninety-nine percent of the time there is a a transaction pending. And commercial real estate is so important that the brokers recognize some of the best advice I can ever give is don’t transact.

Don’t buy that building. Don’t refinance that property. Don’t don’t sell now. So it’s purely now the transactions relate are always, hopefully, but it’s always relationship based first and foremost. It ha it has to be.

Rob (18:19)
So if you think about the CRE world where the you know those site just to that point that don’t buy, hold, don’t lease now, or lease now, buy later, or that relationship has to cultivate for years before that client pulls the trigger. with those cycles being so long and the deals getting lost like that, how do you coach brokers to manage the

The low lows and the high highs.

Rod (18:50)
Yeah, look, it’s a long, it’s a long term game. It it is. You know, w we had some of our mo our our clients had some of their most active as far as actual transaction activity during 2021, 22, you know, during the pandemic and post pandemic years, because it all becomes you’re no longer calling up someone asking them, Do you want to sell? It’s here’s here’s PPE.

Here’s this thing. You become the advisor of non-real estate issues. We believe highly that real life is greater than real estate. It just is. If your pure focus is on real estate all the time, you’re a commodity. If you focus on real life issues and what’s going on and how the tariffs are impacting your clients who have industrial assets or and their businesses and those tenants, that’s what you got to focus on. And that’s what’s going to get you the referrals, the transactions, the testimonials, and help you grow.

Rob (19:48)
W when when I I know on my side as as a commercial broker you know and and f forgive my ignorance on on the full coaching world, do do you counsel or help them cultivate new work?

Rod (20:07)
course. It’s it’s most it’s a bulk of what we do. Finding new business.

Rob (20:10)
And and and where

do you where is where where are those brokers sourcing the new work? Is it cold calling? Is it social media? Is it building relationships? Is it all of that? What what tend what tends to be like the the the high hit ratio?

Rod (20:26)
Yeah, we we track everything and we have for 17 years thousands of clients. So the number one source of business,

Rob (20:31)
Yep.

Rod (20:32)
and this is most likely true for inspectors as well. The number one source of business is your is the business development prospecting call efforts, right? And that’s it’s not just a call anymore. It’s a campaign of phone, text, vlogs, videos, DMs on social. It’s a campaign, right? The number two source of income for commercial real estate brokers.

Is the inactive client going back to people they did deals with previously, right? Not as not as fluid in velocity and residential. It’s just not, right? But that is the number two source of income. After that, sources three, four, and five are so far down the totem pole. They really are, that if we focus on the prospecting campaigns, a new business, going back to our clients, getting testimonials, referrals, everything we need to leverage for our marketing, we can build a really nice practice. We really can.

Rob (21:26)
Yeah, I I I when I when I’m talking to new inspectors and and I t I that’s exact I tell them I said have you ever done in especially with the transitioning between residential commercial you ever done an inspection for somebody that works? Do they own a business? Do they have a friend that owns a business? Do they work at a business? Every one of those people are gonna buy a

building someday and they they’re gonna want somebody they can trust. So you gotta you gotta go into this loud and I think you’re doing the same thing. You gotta be loud in this business to let people know that you’re the best and you know what you’re doing.

Rod (22:05)
Yeah, yeah. I mean I I don’t I’m sure there’s inspectors out there that do the right thing. Maybe they’re maybe they’re showing maybe they’re walking a commercial property and and in every video they’re pointing at one thing that people need to understand, right? And I’ll tell you, Rob, this one thing that I took me a while to learn. It did, but today in our YouTube channel, we share everything because I I wrote a book called No knowing Isn’t Doing. I don’t care what you know, I care what you do. And that’s what coaching comes involved. So most most people, inspectors, brokers, everyone.

doesn’t share what they should share, just sh just share it all. I would tell that. Just share everything. Get seen as the expert, the authority, and more people will come to you.

Rob (22:45)
Yeah, that that that makes sense. I think you know w when I think about the inspection process, who should you who should be driving that process? Should it be the broker, should it be the client, the the the attorney? If if if you were to give advice to the to the incoming inspector, who should they be prospecting?

Rod (23:10)
They the inspectors should be prospecting the brokers all day long. All

Rob (23:13)
The bankers?

Rod (23:14)
day long. It’s just that’s their lead jump. That’s one of their channels. Yes, property owners, yes, investors, yeah, yes, sure, absolutely. But if you’re not prospecting brokers and creating relationships and taking them to lunch and showing them value videos and teaching them, hey, when you tour a building, look for this, this, and this. Imagine if you created a course just for commercial real estate brokers and those videos all laid out.

These the ten things you need to look at when touring a property with your tenants, your buyers, your sellers, whatever. They’re gonna come to you and say, Hey, who should I use? Hey, this guy, Rob Claus is the best, right? That’s what’s gonna happen.

Rob (23:48)
Yep. Yep.

We just did that for the state of Michigan, our association. We we we did an entire course just for Michigan commercial brokers on the value that they can get by referring a commercial property inspector. And

Rod (24:07)
Yeah.

Rob (24:07)
it’s it’s being met with huge success.

Rod (24:11)
Absolutely.

Rob (24:12)
have you ever have you ever I’m sure this is this is kind of a rhetorical question. Ben yeah, had a had a kinship or knowledge base that that a commercial property inspector has saved a client you know from from a mistake or or gat gathered some bit of lesson that the broker can take from that situation and move forward with something new.

Rod (24:38)
Yeah, I I I think it happens all the time. If the the the you know the role of look, the role of a broker is to be an advisor, right? Give the best advice. Transact happens, great. The property inspector, you’re not telling someone not to buy a building or to buy a building. That’s not your role. It’s to share with them. Here are the issues, here are the potential I know. You tell me, Rob. Rob, do you get do you share

They if I ask you, hey Rob, how much is that gonna cost me? What do you do?

Rob (25:11)
I I I actually we have a product that’s called Costa Remedy. If they wanted us to give them a price, I would absolutely be able to cat gather a price. Will I be accurate? No. I won’t

Rod (25:24)
Yeah.

Rob (25:24)
be within twenty percent because I’m not the contractor. I’m not doing a spec sheet, but I’ll tell you what, I’ll get you I’ll get you in the ballpark and

Rod (25:33)
Yeah.

Rob (25:33)
and I’ll give you an expectation, but that’s all I can do.

Rod (25:38)
Yeah. I mean I I have definitely

Rob (25:39)
Yeah.

Rod (25:40)
seen where situations of selling buildings where an inspector finds something, right? Absolutely, and I’m not gonna mention clients’ names that kill a deal. It just and but guess what? That’s your job. It is.

Rob (25:55)
Yeah. We didn’t we didn’t

go there yesterday to break something to talk about it today. It is there. I it’s funny, Rod. I I I did it I did an inspection half a decade or so ago on five buildings on the south side of Chicago that were on a triple net lease for almost twenty years. And the lease or was going after the leasee because they didn’t maintain the building in twenty years.

the buildings all five buildings and i mean i came up with about seven million dollars worth of issues and somebody’s gonna buy it they’re gonna go okay seven million dollars I’m just gonna put that in my equation does the the does the the does does this equate do I make money then I make money because there’s not that I don’t sleep in the building philosophy that I’m passionate about it’s money and and

Rod (26:51)
Yeah.

Rob (26:51)
so

Yeah, to to your point, it just becomes it is what it is, and if I say that there’s a big purple gorilla, you know then and if you don’t like purple gorillas, then you’re not gonna buy the building. But if you like purple gorillas, you’re gonna buy the building.

Rod (27:05)
Can you imagine if if the value a broker would bring to a client? Okay, this is something I think that you’ll see more and more of Rob. It will. So I have a client in New York. I won’t mention his name. But he’s he’s he’s orchestrated what he calls a SWAT team. Okay. He has an inspector on his team. He has an architect. He has an engineer, all on his team, right? And so

It’s not the broker looking at the property. It’s the team. Look at look at the value they bring to the client for such a broker who brings themselves, right? So it’s a much different value proposition. So I would say, Rob, you and your associates not only get referrals from brokers, but become part of their teams, right? Say, look,

Rob (27:52)
Exactly.

Rod (27:52)
this is how we can structure it. And you know, it’s a referral. The compensation can’t come from the commission because that’d be illegal in most states.

But we can figure out a c a compensation equation where, and look, this is your your associates may not like this, but imagine a scenario where your associates they align with the brokerage community, certain brokers, certainly the most active brokers, right? And they they’re willing to do their work on the risk of a transaction happening or not. Not suggesting I’m saying that’s an that’s an option.

And that then becomes, wow, you are a partner in this deal versus a vendor, therefore more trusted. Therefore, yeah, we we could help you out. That that’s there’s so many ways that your associates can work with the brokerage community. That’s a win-win for everyone, including the including the clients.

Rob (28:45)
The the the toughest thing that’s and I think that’s brilliant. yeah, if if I was still practicing the I I’ve I I have a notebook here of things to do if I was still practicing.

Rod (28:56)
Ha ha ha ha.

Rob (28:59)
that that that who knows one day I might I might have to I might have to put a a a kid to work. that I I I’m standing back going, the toughest thing we have.

is the breaking down the door. You know, getting that little slit to get our foot in there so that we can actually have the conversation. Because unlike well, good commercial brokers are never in their office. Good commercial brokers out making relationships every day and they’re not sitting behind a desk waiting for, you know, they’re not doing floor calls and they’re not doing those things. And so as

a as as an inspector owner of a of an inspection firm trying to get in the door, that’s probably our toughest. And I’ve relied on secondary places to find my referrals. associations

Rod (29:55)
So such

as such as

Rob (29:58)
like I was a huge member in Chicago of the Association of Industrial Real Estate Agents. And

Rod (30:03)
There you go. Great.

Rob (30:05)
and I would show up to their meetings as the only civilian in the room. And so I’d have a hundred brokers in me. And so it was a very low-hanging fruit for me to make friends. you know, every month of the meeting. I’d I I you know that was that was one. Boma is another. you know, for I I could go to

go to the in the to the local real estate boards. Those are where I can find my brokers. But but cold calling or going into an office is you know, you don’t you don’t drop candy bars off at commercial brokers offices. they’re just it that’s

Rod (30:39)
No, but you could but hold

on, hold on, hold on. But you could offer, because brokers will do this. You could offer a lunch and learn. Get we’ll buy you a lunch. We’ll change

Rob (30:46)
I do that all the time.

Rod (30:48)
right. Lunch and learn so what you can do and give out your cards

Rob (30:50)
Yep. Yep.

Rod (30:52)
and and share what you do and give them the playbook and let them say, you know, re refer me when you get a chance. multifamily owner associations and local communities, a great source of leads and

Rob (31:03)
Yes.

Rod (31:03)
and doing lunch and learns. The more you educate your your influencers, your affiliates.

And yes, your prospects, more likely you’re going to be retained for your services. Just what it is.

Rob (31:14)
I I think that’s gonna be the takeaway of our entire conversation, Rod, is is is it’s gotta be symbiotic. It’s we

Rod (31:23)
Yes.

Rob (31:24)
need to offer something to the to the CRE community that is knowledge and and prosperous so that they can provide us with inspections and our prosperity.

Rod (31:40)
I agree. I agree. That’s that’s become the expert, become the authority, share your knowledge, share your knowledge. And people go, Man, I need Rob, I need Joe, I need Betty to help me in my next transaction.

Rob (31:52)
Yeah. Yep.

How do you think you know let me let me put a loaded question on here towards the end of this conversation is is with all this AI stuff, you you mentioned AI bots and everything else, you know, how do you think that’s going to play in the next five years in the CI world of reshaping how commercial real estate is transacted? do you think it’s going to i i I you know

get in the way or do you think it’s gonna enhance how the prospects are being handled?

Rod (32:26)
I think it’s an enhancement. Absolutely. if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. It’s here to stay and and AI today is the worst it’s ever going to be. And that’s a scary proposition because right now AI is scary good. I just wrote a post about this on Lincoln yesterday. again, everyone says it’s not gonna replace people, just those that don’t adapt. I I get all that. But you know, we’ve always been in the in in in real estate and even in in in inspections, we’ve always been in the information business.

We have the information that you need to make more educated decisions. That has always been the definition of who I’m gonna work with. Who has the information to put me in position to make a more educated decision? Well, now AI is supplementing a lot of that. Now consumers can go into the internet and chat and claude and everything else, perplexity, and ask them okay, help me understand this.

So we’ve gone from an information business, relationship business, to more of a trust business. Relationships, yes, but trust. Can I trust you are the one that’s gonna do what you say, which is so hard to find today? It is. Do what you say and perform as I need. If you can build that, AI doesn’t matter. It doesn’t. It just doesn’t. Now, should you use AI to go out and build your content and build your messaging and help?

work in your voice? Heck yeah. Absolutely, yes. we we gave we give a presentation a day to the biggest firm in the world, hour and a half on on why they should use AI and no one left. And she usually everyone’s like, tell me more, right? So we understand what’s going on. So yeah, you gotta, you’ve got to get look, it’s easy. People know me as an as an expert, which I’m not, but an expert in AI. Rob, I’m 63 years old. But

In November of 2022, when a young kid who had now since hired called me up and said, watch this and show me Chat GPT. I have not, this is for your entire audience, you understand this. I’ve never gotten a day without spending an hour on YouTube learning AI. And right now I’m learning Claude Cowork Claude Code because it’s here to stay. I would tell you, audience, if anything, don’t forget ESPN, although you should cheer on the Knicks, forget ESPN, forget all this stuff.

Spend an hour, half an hour every day seeing what’s possible. And then and then you can’t break it and then test it. And before you know it, your inspection business is not just you working your butt off. It’s you and some AI agents, you know, getting deals and moving forward. That’s what AI is.

Rob (35:10)
I love that. I I I I I don’t spend as much time doing it. I need to do it. I was blown away. went to a I went I was up speaking at a conference in Canada earlier this year. They had an AI expert who who stood in front of the camera, read these fifty words, and then AI is able to translate his whatever he wrote with him sitting there.

To every language. Just somebody give me a language. Okay. And it and it produced the video. Somebody do this. And it produced the video. And I’m just standing back going, those days that I had to translate an inspection to another language that I couldn’t even tell if it was right or wrong are gone, first of all. So there’s no language barrier left in the world. And then now it it

Rod (36:02)
Rob, yesterday, hold

on. Yesterday there was a major presentation in Southern California on this AI kickoff, and my avatar gave the presentation. I didn’t give it. My avatar gave the presentation. So I was

Rob (36:18)
Gosh.

Rod (36:18)
out doing something else. So this this and they knew it was the avatar, it was a reason for it. so it

Rob (36:25)
Well, you’re able to go for it.

Rod (36:29)
was part of the package.

Rob (36:31)
yeah,

Rod (36:34)
So can you imagine this is what can

you imagine your avatar giving inspection advice to an audience in any language? That’s where we are.

Rob (36:44)
And that’s what this present this presenter was was showing. And now I’m working with with companies that are that are you take a picture of of this room and let’s maybe you take a matterport picture of this room and and it’s able to produce an inspection report that all you have to do is QA and make sure make sure things are accurate and the findings are presentable, which is just mind boggling to me. but I am gonna

Rod (37:11)
It is. It’s crazy.

Rob (37:12)
take your advice, Rob.

I am going to spend more time. I don’t yeah, I I’m I’m I’m sixty and and it scares the devil out of me and I don’t spend as much time with it. My wife, she spends a lot of time with it every day. And I should probably just let her tell me. I’d be much I’d be a much smarter man if I just let her tell me everything at at dinner that she learned that day in AI. but I mean I appreciate this, Rod, ’cause cause you know, for w

As an emerging industry, it’s it’s difficult to break in. It is and and I I’m breaking it we’re breaking in as an association into a a space that has been populated largely by the the large portfolio engineering firms doing that scope of inspection when our scope’s a little different. you know, it’s the same same output. We’re gonna learn about the building, but it’s

It’s it’s been it’s it’s been a ceiling that we’re we’re we’re starting to chip away at. And so he hearing from you on on on on the perspective i has been has been fabulous. Thank you.

Rod (38:27)
my pleasure then my pleasure being here and thank you for having me.

Rob (38:30)
Yeah, that’s we we’ve we’ve been bantering this around in the in the schedule for a while. is there anything we missed? is you know, you talked about I I know we had I I know we have brokers who dominate and then you read another book called Selling Buildings. Is there anything else you’d like to to talk about that maybe maybe an inspector would could read and learn a little bit more?

Rod (38:51)
Well, I think, look, all but one of my books has been about commercial real estate brokerage. I did write one book called Knowing Isn’t Doing. It became the number one sales book in the country when I launched it. it is a playbook for anyone to build their business. So if you’re an inspector and you want to learn about some of the Mossimo methodology to building your business, very simple. Read the book. It’s now in paperback. I think it’s only $9.99. We just put it out to everybody.

So knowing isn’t doing is a playbook to build your business.

Rob (39:25)
No one isn’t doing it is that available at the normal places you buy books?

Rod (39:30)
Nine ninety nine Amazon dot com.

Rob (39:33)
Perfect. Thank you again, Rod, and and and I I I I look forward to having this out there for all of our members to see. Thank you for taking time and being with us and building your business.

Rod (39:43)
Rob, thank you very much. Have a great day.