Welcome to the Unstoppable REI Wealth podcast, where we dive deep into the world of real estate investing and uncover the secrets to unstoppable success. In our upcoming episode, we tackle a topic that is essential for anyone looking to thrive in the competitive real estate industry: the importance of personal growth and continuous learning. Join me, your host Billy Alvaro, as I sit down with the remarkable Doug Hopkins, a real estate investor extraordinaire who is shaking up the markets of Southern California and Arizona with a staggering 850 deals a year. Together, we explore the strategies and mindset that have propelled Doug to such incredible heights. One of the key takeaways from this episode is the significance of surrounding yourself with great people. Doug stresses the value of having trustworthy partners who are dedicated to your shared success. He also emphasizes the importance of integrity and representing oneself well in the industry, a lesson he has learned through his own experiences over two decades in the business. Furthermore, we delve into the nitty-gritty of Doug's thriving real estate empire. From his sales department, which relies on inbound leads from commercials and radio ads, to his team of experts handling phone calls and web submissions, Doug shares the secrets behind his success. We also touch on the importance of speed in responding to leads, with Doug revealing how his company achieves an astounding average response time of just two minutes and 33 seconds. This level of efficiency is a result of implementing streamlined processes and ensuring staff availability round the clock. Credibility and personalized knowledge are also key factors in closing deals, as Doug shares his insights on how his commercial appearances and understanding of his own financial capacity give him the edge. We'll also explore the significant investment Doug makes in marketing, providing a glimpse into the level of competition and the advantage of being able to afford such advertising expenses. But that's not all! We'll delve into Doug's advertising strategies, his experiences with different platforms, and his plans for expanding his marketing efforts. From television to local stations, Doug has explored various avenues to reach his target audience effectively. The episode wouldn't be complete without a discussion on how Doug successfully manages a thriving real estate business with a lean team. By leveraging transaction coordinators and involving his own family members, Doug achieves high revenue per employee, thanks to a commission-based compensation structure. And finally, we uncover Doug's personal journey, where he discovered his purpose in life and found fulfillment through helping others and creating a positive company culture. His story will inspire you to reflect on your own purpose and find the joy in what you do. So mark your calendars and get ready for a power-packed episode filled with insights and strategies for personal growth and continuous learning in the real estate industry. Join us on the Unstoppable REI Wealth podcast, where success knows no bounds. - Importance of scaling and growing a real estate investing business - Surrounding oneself with great people for success - Having skilled individuals on the phone for handling calls - Importance of speed in responding to leads - Credibility and personalized knowledge in closing deals - Advertising strategies and platforms used - Running a successful business with a low number of employees - Building rapport with clients and solving their problems - Finding purpose and fulfillment in work - Transitioning from working for someone else to running own business - Importance of continuous learning and embracing change KEY POINTS [0:1:11] With a remarkable 850 real estate deals in challenging markets such as Southern California and Arizona each year, Hopkins has become a highly successful real estate investor. [0:5:36] Despite having the opportunity to take a step back, my passion for the industry meant I simply couldn't stay away from closing deals - keeping me actively engaged and connected to what I truly love. [0:7:46] Doug's Arizona-based business is experiencing an incredible 20 leads per day, with an abundance of potential customers coming from both phone calls and web inquiries. [0:9:19] Phone calls are twice as powerful as web leads, converting to deals at an astonishing rate of two-to-one. [0:16:27] With a lean team and a results-driven compensation structure, Hopkins' business achieves an impressive $X in revenue per employee. [0:16:27] With a focus on cost-efficiency, Doug Hopkins has successfully leveraged an array of networks and local stations to generate maximum exposure at minimal cost. [0:18:15] Hopkins is crushing the competition by investing an astonishing $300,000+ every month in persuasive marketing strategies, showcasing his unstoppable ambition. [0:22:54] By cultivating a culture of collaboration and enthusiasm, companies can unlock the potential for long-term success and satisfaction among their teams - a key factor for achieving true greatness. [0:28:18] Transform your real estate business and unlock your full potential with the power of embracing change and continuously striving for improvement. Invest in yourself and your business to stay ahead of the ever-evolving market! Connect with Doug at https://www.doughopkins.com/ And after that head on over to... https://easysell411.com https://billyalvaro.com https://billyssecrets.com Who knows maybe you will be our next partner? To get some neat (and FREE) Tools | Tips | Tricks to help you in REI!
Welcome to the Unstoppable REI Wealth podcast, where we dive deep into the world of real estate investing and uncover the secrets to unstoppable success. In our upcoming episode, we tackle a topic that is essential for anyone looking to thrive in the competitive real estate industry: the importance of personal growth and continuous learning.
Join me, your host Billy Alvaro, as I sit down with the remarkable Doug Hopkins, a real estate investor extraordinaire who is shaking up the markets of Southern California and Arizona with a staggering 850 deals a year. Together, we explore the strategies and mindset that have propelled Doug to such incredible heights.
One of the key takeaways from this episode is the significance of surrounding yourself with great people. Doug stresses the value of having trustworthy partners who are dedicated to your shared success. He also emphasizes the importance of integrity and representing oneself well in the industry, a lesson he has learned through his own experiences over two decades in the business.
Furthermore, we delve into the nitty-gritty of Doug's thriving real estate empire. From his sales department, which relies on inbound leads from commercials and radio ads, to his team of experts handling phone calls and web submissions, Doug shares the secrets behind his success.
We also touch on the importance of speed in responding to leads, with Doug revealing how his company achieves an astounding average response time of just two minutes and 33 seconds. This level of efficiency is a result of implementing streamlined processes and ensuring staff availability round the clock.
Credibility and personalized knowledge are also key factors in closing deals, as Doug shares his insights on how his commercial appearances and understanding of his own financial capacity give him the edge. We'll also explore the significant investment Doug makes in marketing, providing a glimpse into the level of competition and the advantage of being able to afford such advertising expenses.
But that's not all! We'll delve into Doug's advertising strategies, his experiences with different platforms, and his plans for expanding his marketing efforts. From television to local stations, Doug has explored various avenues to reach his target audience effectively.
The episode wouldn't be complete without a discussion on how Doug successfully manages a thriving real estate business with a lean team. By leveraging transaction coordinators and involving his own family members, Doug achieves high revenue per employee, thanks to a commission-based compensation structure.
And finally, we uncover Doug's personal journey, where he discovered his purpose in life and found fulfillment through helping others and creating a positive company culture. His story will inspire you to reflect on your own purpose and find the joy in what you do.
So mark your calendars and get ready for a power-packed episode filled with insights and strategies for personal growth and continuous learning in the real estate industry. Join us on the Unstoppable REI Wealth podcast, where success knows no bounds.
- Importance of scaling and growing a real estate investing business
- Surrounding oneself with great people for success
- Having skilled individuals on the phone for handling calls
- Importance of speed in responding to leads
- Credibility and personalized knowledge in closing deals
- Advertising strategies and platforms used
- Running a successful business with a low number of employees
- Building rapport with clients and solving their problems
- Finding purpose and fulfillment in work
- Transitioning from working for someone else to running own business
- Importance of continuous learning and embracing change
KEY POINTS
[0:1:11] With a remarkable 850 real estate deals in challenging markets such as Southern California and Arizona each year, Hopkins has become a highly successful real estate investor.
[0:5:36] Despite having the opportunity to take a step back, my passion for the industry meant I simply couldn't stay away from closing deals - keeping me actively engaged and connected to what I truly love.
[0:7:46] Doug's Arizona-based business is experiencing an incredible 20 leads per day, with an abundance of potential customers coming from both phone calls and web inquiries.
[0:9:19] Phone calls are twice as powerful as web leads, converting to deals at an astonishing rate of two-to-one.
[0:16:27] With a lean team and a results-driven compensation structure, Hopkins' business achieves an impressive $X in revenue per employee.
[0:16:27] With a focus on cost-efficiency, Doug Hopkins has successfully leveraged an array of networks and local stations to generate maximum exposure at minimal cost.
[0:18:15] Hopkins is crushing the competition by investing an astonishing $300,000+ every month in persuasive marketing strategies, showcasing his unstoppable ambition.
[0:22:54] By cultivating a culture of collaboration and enthusiasm, companies can unlock the potential for long-term success and satisfaction among their teams - a key factor for achieving true greatness.
[0:28:18] Transform your real estate business and unlock your full potential with the power of embracing change and continuously striving for improvement. Invest in yourself and your business to stay ahead of the ever-evolving market!
Connect with Doug at https://www.doughopkins.com/
And after that head on over to...
Who knows maybe you will be our next partner?
To get some neat (and FREE) Tools | Tips | Tricks to help you in REI!
Billy Alvaro 00:00:20 Welcome to Unstoppable real estate investing wealth. My name is Billy Alvaro, aka the Unstoppable BA former billion dollar mortgage banker gone bankrupt, turn professional real estate investor. For each week, you'll learn the tools, strategies, systems, and secrets myself and other highly successful real estate investing entrepreneurs use to start, grow and scale their businesses, creating massive profits and how you can, too. And we'll teach you how to put those profits to work so you no longer have to get ready to finally experience financial freedom and generational wealth. Now let's get started. What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode. Unstoppable rei wealth. Super excited to have this guy on here today from the Midwest, Mr. Doug Hopkins. Doug has been investing in real estate for years. This dude is doing, like, 850 deals a year combined in two of the absolute hardest markets out there southern California and Arizona. Doug, welcome to the show, bro.
Doug Hopkins 00:01:25 Really? Thank you for having me, man. I appreciate it.
Billy Alvaro 00:01:27 Love seeing it. It's been a long time since I've seen you face to face, man. It's been a while.
Doug Hopkins 00:01:30 It has. We go to those collective genius mastermind groups, and, I'd only do the West Coast ones, and now you're only doing the East Coast one, so it's a little hard to see each other. But, good to see on here, man.
Billy Alvaro 00:01:41 Yeah, you as well. So, Doug, listen, you saw the intro. This business, this podcast about starting, growing and scaling. I really want to focus on the scale portion with you because you're crushing it, bro. You are really doing some amazing things. Not only are you doing units, you're doing serious gross volume, net revenue. Just give us an idea right now of what your organization looks like at this level, where you're at doing 850 units a year into extremely tough markets. What does it look like as far as ops and marketing and salespeople and acquisitions? Just take us through that.
Doug Hopkins 00:02:14 Got you. Yeah, it's a pretty big operation. I was a one man gang for a long, long time. And, I realized to do the numbers I was doing, I needed to get some help. And that was tough for me, just because I'm kind of a control freak, and, to give some of the responsibilities away to other people, it was out of my comfort zone. but as I did that, I was able to figure out that, hey, we can really grow and scale here. It's what led me to pick up a partner of mine, Damon Lyons, and, he moved his family out to Southern California. We opened up there in 2010.
Billy Alvaro 00:02:53 He's a great guy, by the way.
Doug Hopkins 00:02:56 It's tough, as you know, to have partners, and he's as good as they come. I never have to worry about anyone stealing a dollar, or not doing the right thing. He's a workforce. He does all the great things that's what you really have to do is you have to surround yourself with great people, because if you don't, you're only as good as your people and your name. And you have to have good people that are representing you in the way that you need to be represented in this business, it's all about integrity. And, I've been doing this since 19, 99 I was licensed in 1994 as an agent. And then 99 I started fixing and flipping houses. So it's been 20, 23, 24 years now. you have to excuse me too. my office is under construction right now. Ah, we got a house too, under construction. But, we got, some people working out here. you're good, bro. So sorry about that.
Billy Alvaro 00:03:56 Yeah, you're all good. You're all good, Doug. I know. Look, you and I are on the same page. This whole business is about quality people. Inside your organization, you could have the best process, you could have the best systems. But if you don't have the best people that's running your organization, you're going to fall flat in your face, right? So on your people side of your business, let's focus on that for a second. Tell us what it looks like to be at your level, at the scale you're at in two very difficult markets. What is your operations? Let's start your sales right? Because that's what the driving force of the business. Sales and marketing. What does your sales flow look like? How many guys do you have? How many people do you have in your sales department?
Doug Hopkins 00:04:33 Got you. So, it used to be just one. And I work a little bit differently than most. So we do a ton of, commercials, television commercials, and radio. So all of our leads are inbound we're not cold calling or text messaging or doing any of that. So all the leads are inbound. It's a really high quality, lead that comes in. So our first, communication, we have, four people in Arizona. I'll just talk about Arizona for now because I've run Arizona. We have four people, that answer the phones, from eight to eight, Monday through Sunday. So, we need to always have we had an answering service for after hours or during the day. And we only had one person working in. You're too big to do that. Answering services, you never know where they're going to be from. We're in Mesa, Arizona. You listen to the calls and it's like you're, from Masa. it was just obvious that we weren't local and, had no idea how to have a conversation or just basically message takers. So call this person back. So what I really wanted to do is focus on, getting some really good people on the phones, that can have a conversation and then see who's going to go. Not all of the 500 deals we do in Arizona a year. They're not all, fix and flips. Some of them are, regular real estate transactions. I have my intake department kind of figure out whether the people are looking for every last dollar on the house and try to get market, cost for it. and if that's the case, they send out one of our realtors that represents my company, which is Doughopkins.com. if not, either myself or four, other guys go out. So we have four people on the intake, we have four people buying homes, and we have, another three people that do just listings. and then we have a manager that kind of manages it all and there's a lot to manage. but most of the people that I have working for me have been here for years and years and years are really good or came from other organizations. and it really makes a difference. But I'll tell you what, one of the best guys I have, never was in the business before, and he came on, and he's our number one earner.
Billy Alvaro 00:06:59 He's crushing it.
Doug Hopkins 00:07:00 Yeah. Absolutely crushing it.
Billy Alvaro 00:07:03 You give your people the pi like most of us do.
Doug Hopkins 00:07:06 I used to, we haven't really had to hire anybody in a while, but, yeah, I can say that we did do that. I can't remember the last person I've hired other than, an extra agent because we just had too much overflow.
Billy Alvaro 00:07:22 Good stuff, man. So you have four people on the phone and four acquisition managers, and you're doing that much volume in Arizona, 500 transactions?
Doug Hopkins 00:07:30 Yes, exactly. So our top guy gets about 30 a month. 30 deals between 25 and 30 all by himself?
Billy Alvaro 00:07:40 That's insane, dude.
Doug Hopkins 00:07:42 It's like 300 transactions himself.
Billy Alvaro 00:07:46 Break it down for me, Doug. how many leads are you driving in a month into your organization, specifically in Arizona?
Doug Hopkins 00:07:54 Yeah, we average about 20 a day.
Billy Alvaro 00:07:56 20 leads a day. That's 20 total calls a day, regardless of it's a net lead or it's a phone call. Contact coming in.
Doug Hopkins 00:08:02 Yeah, it's either a phone call or we have a web lead. we put out there. You can go to Doughopkins.com, fill out a web lead. It'll go to us immediately. People literally press send and they're getting a phone call back within 30 seconds. sometimes it'll be a little bit longer, but we try to average under three minutes. So when I first started at CG, to give you an idea, we were averaging about a day to get back to people god. And didn't realize how important speed the lead was. CG helped me put a lot of those processes in place. And so we average, I think it's two minutes, 33 seconds. And that's because when a commercial plays, sometimes we'll get three or four leads. And we only have usually only have two people on call at any given moment. So we have four guys, but they're always eight to eight, Monday through Sunday. we always have two people on duty, and then the other two people are off at, at those times.
Billy Alvaro 00:09:00 M the overflow, you get into commercial and you get like six or seven phone calls at one time. What happens with the overflow?
Doug Hopkins 00:09:07 With that? Yeah. So if people call, most of our leads that come in are web driven, so we answer, I think, 90, I think it was 98.3% of the phone calls that come in between eight and eight. So we don't miss too many phone calls that come in, because actually, phone calls are two to one. You're more likely, by about 50%, actually, more likely to get, that deal than a regular web lead phone call. One, hundred percent. Yes. And a lot of people, they'll be talking on the phone and the phone will ring and they'll say, hey, listen, I'll have to call you right back. We have another, customer calling in. We'll call you right back. Give me two minutes. Because that call is way more important than the one, or maybe way more important two to one, whether that they're going to sell.
Billy Alvaro 00:09:57 I love that. You know your stats, man. You know your numbers like, you're spitting out 98% within 30 seconds, and within two minutes and 38 seconds is the max. This is what it takes, ladies. And if you want to scale your.
Doug Hopkins 00:10:10 Business, if you're listening to this, you.
Billy Alvaro 00:10:12 Have to know your numbers. You have to know them like the back of your hand. I mean, Doug, you're running a big operation. You're not deferring it over to your operations guy. Like, let me get the stats from him. You know your numbers, man.
Doug Hopkins 00:10:22 We have to and, I have, like, a scoreboard on my CRM on salesforce that shows me how many leads came in for the day, how many, appointments that we have set, what our appointment conversion rates are per each, of our intake, what my percentage is for closing. I still go to a lot of appointments on the East Side. I live in, East Mesa, which is in Maricopa County, just outside of Phoenix area in Arizona. And, I still go on all the East Valley appointments. and I close at a much higher percentage than most people because I got instant credibility. I'm on the commercials. And also, it's my money. I know what number I can pay and what I can play with. If I have to push things to get the deal done, I'll do that as well, which not everybody can do.
Billy Alvaro 00:11:15 It's amazing, man. Tell me about, your marketing department. What does that look like? How many people in it running on your marketing side?
Doug Hopkins 00:11:22 Yeah. we have another guy that's in CG Bullseye branding. Who's? Ah. Darren Damie. Who I went to high school with, he's actually, in charge of all the commercials. We have stats on everything. You talk about, knowing your numbers. The guy's amazing at knowing his numbers. every single commercial that comes in, we track when the commercial plays and when the leads come in, and we can actually see, exactly what commercial, what times are working. And we're able to buy spots based on historical, data, which improves our numbers. Once we took it over ourselves from going to just a regular, media buyer, our stats went up over 20%.
Billy Alvaro 00:12:11 That's insane.
Doug Hopkins 00:12:12 That's insane.
Billy Alvaro 00:12:13 If you don't mind me asking, you willing to discuss how much money you're putting out a month in marketing?
Doug Hopkins 00:12:18 I think just in television last month was 240,000, I think. We did um, another PPC. we did another about 50 grand and another 25 grand in radio. So somewhere a little over $300,000 mark. I think it's 325,000, something like that.
Billy Alvaro 00:12:40 It's a sick return, man. And again, you're in one of the hottest markets. You have a lot of competition out there, where you're at tons.
Doug Hopkins 00:12:46 It seems like Arizona is ground zero for every new company coming out. it was Zillow, one of Zillow's first market when they started buying. Opendoor offer pad. All the big Ibuyers, all the institutional, buyers are here. They started buying again. Yeah, there's a ton of competition out here. a lot of them copy my exact commercial. It's kind of weird, some of my competitors. But the nice thing about TV, the nice and the hard thing about it is it's a lot of money. So to spend that kind of money every month, it makes it so that not everybody can do it. And there's still a lot of people that are doing really good business. They're just doing it a different way. Whether it's door knocking, sending, out mailers, doing, the text message thing, the cold calling thing, everybody's different. We, just chose to focus on television. The barrier to entry is a lot larger than most.
Billy Alvaro 00:13:47 Let's focus on that for a second. So on the TV side, you're in a big metro area there. Are you going on the local cableized stations or are you mainly broadcasting out on the networks?
Doug Hopkins 00:13:58 Got it. We are on the networks. we spend a ton of money on Fox, we're on all the networks. the local station as well. There's a channel three here that's not one of the networks, but it's a local station here that has news all day long. And the news channels, we're on cable TV a ton. ESPN, I watch that. That's the only time I get to see myself. That or Fox, news every once in a while. But we try to stay. The news stations were good and we try to, stay away from, a lot of the high end stuff. You'll very rarely see us on a football game. Football, game. You cost $25,000 for 130 2nd commercial. So, there's a lot of commercials out there that we are on that charge $100.50, dollars, spots. $10 spots. It depends on where you get and we've seen the return on those 50 and $100 spots way more than we do on a $25,000 spot. For instance, I went and it was a Cardinals game and they were away playing Seattle. And I'm like, oh man, this is going to be great. This, is going to be my first football game I was expecting. I'm like, everyone be ready. All hands on deck. We're sitting it. My commercial comes on crickets. Nobody wanted to do it. They're right watching the game. Right. Real estate.
Billy Alvaro 00:15:26 They're trying to drag their sorrows with the beer, man. They don't want to be hanging out. Exactly.
Doug Hopkins 00:15:30 Especially because I'm a Cardinals fan, so yes, exactly that. And a jets fan, by the way, Bill. I'm from New York.
Billy Alvaro 00:15:37 you're a New York, ah guy.
Doug Hopkins 00:15:38 Yeah, I went to, Fox, Lane High School. I lived in Bedford Hills, New York, just, north of the city, about 40 minutes. I was born in White Plains.
Billy Alvaro 00:15:48 Yeah, man, that's a solid area up there. We're going to start in that area. We're going to start marketing. We've been doing, all of Long Island, the boroughs, new Jersey. We're just heading into South Jersey. We're going to start heading into, northern New York. That's like right outside Manhattan. 45 minutes up, about an hour and a half.
Doug Hopkins 00:16:04 Got you. Perfect. Yeah. Beautiful area. Yeah. Bever Hills is awesome. I, ah, used to say the only reason anyone knows or heard about Beverly Hills is because they had the women correctional facility there that, oh gosh, what's Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart went to yeah.
Billy Alvaro 00:16:23 it was like a Primadonna place up there.
Doug Hopkins 00:16:26 So funny.
Billy Alvaro 00:16:27 So your business operational wise, you have a lot of transaction coordinators inside your business that are handling this. What does it look like on the operation side?
Doug Hopkins 00:16:36 Yeah, we have two, transaction, coordinators here in Arizona. And I believe Damon only has one out there. but it's Damon's sister. And she's a workhorse. She's awesome.
Billy Alvaro 00:16:51 She's winning the Damon man. Damon, exactly.
Doug Hopkins 00:16:54 That's family. And Damon's brother works for us too. He's a workhorse and son now. And he's the number one guy there, too. I got the whole lines family working here.
Billy Alvaro 00:17:07 This is crazy, man. So, it's eye opening to me on how much volume you're doing, but how you really don't have a lot of bodies inside your organization. Your revenue per employee. To me, I haven't calculated, but it seems like it's through the roof.
Doug Hopkins 00:17:27 It is. And most of them, they get a piece of everything. They get they're not salaried. Now, I do have a couple of transaction coordinators are salaried, but they get a piece. Their salary gets made up with the, commissions as well. Not a piece of every deal. but all of my guys, all my realtors, all my sales guys is just, eat what you kill.
Billy Alvaro 00:17:50 I love it. You're looking at the way you're running your business. I'm just, like I just said it, your employee costs are very low. What do you contribute in the market that you're in to the success you're having? I know you have your marketing dialed in. I mean, your marketing damon, you said it, he's got it dialed in. We've taken it. We've saved, we've increased our revenue by 20%, decreased our cost. What do you contribute in the market that you're in with the people that you have? And I know it's people, but what kind of training are you giving these people to literally cut everybody else competition out to be doing 500 deals in that market? Hats off to you, bro. That's one of the toughest markets in the United States.
Doug Hopkins 00:18:31 Yeah, no, it is. And a lot of the guys that I got, I've known for years and years and years. Like, Josh is my main guy on the West Side. He's the one that's doing anywhere between 20 and 30 deals a month we met at the courthouse steps 15 years ago, bidding against each other. and then we started, partnering up on deals. And next, you know, he's, he's working with me. and he does a tremendous amount of business, and he gets, ah, a big chunk of what we get that he gets on the West Side. so he's as good as I am at being able to figure out, what price to pay for a home. I think what really helped us, because we're the main guys that are going out and buying the houses and the main guys in the living rooms of these people. that's another thing, too. Being belly to belly, is way better than trying to close on the phone. I know a lot of people do operations where they're remote, and doing it cross country or whatever it may be, and that's just not me. I can't do that. I'm I'm a guy that needs to be face to face, and, get a feel for the people. And really, it's about building rapport and solving problems. And I think I'm really good at that. same thing with Josh. but also knowing your numbers. As far as I rehabbed thousands of homes, I can walk in and know, this is a $40,000 remodel, this is a $75,000 remodel, this is $150,000 remodel. And I know it pretty instantly, just by walking around the house. I don't have to do a whole full inspection to know that, hey, this one's going to need a whole cosmetic, what do you call it? rehab. I can base it off of price per square foot. There's all sorts of different ways to do it. But honestly, it's just walking around looking, seeing if it needs a roof, if it needs an air conditioning unit, whatever it may be. And then just coming up with a number and taking that off of the top and then leaving some room in it, for a little bit of a profit. You know what?
Billy Alvaro 00:20:44 I'm amazed? I'm amazed at the size of your business. You're still out there closing deals. Tell me about that. Why are you still in the field closing deals?
Doug Hopkins 00:20:51 Yeah. So, Billy, it's a funny story. And, I'll tell you the truth. I wouldn't, anyway, but about, three, four years ago, i, decided to, you know what? Hey, I don't need to work anymore. I, got an operation. I got really great people underneath me. I'm just going to sit back and, be the CEO and let everybody else, work. And I'll just oversee everything, make sure everything's going smooth. So about week three, I was bored out of my skull. And I walk in, it's 03:00 in the afternoon, and I walk into a little local pub. And I sat down. My commercial came on and on the TV. And, the guy next to me goes, man. He goes, I just saw your commercial play. I'm like, yeah, I saw that too. Out of the corner of my eye. He's like, man, it's nice to know you're just a regular guy, just like us. You're here all the time. I see you every day now, sitting in here at 03:00 in the afternoon. You're just one of us. And I'm like, yeah, huh. No way. I took one more sip of the beer. I pushed it back. I ordered the check. I said, thank you. I haven't been back since.
Billy Alvaro 00:22:08 No shit.
Doug Hopkins 00:22:09 Went back in the office and, said, that's it. I had a guy named Adam take over for him. Like adam, you're out. I'm back in. There's no way. I'm not doing this anymore, Doug.
Billy Alvaro 00:22:21 I mean, listen, you love what you do. It's obvious.
Doug Hopkins 00:22:23 It's all over your face. Yeah, it's my calling. It's my passion. It's funny because at the same time, I was frustrated with man, I've built a really good business and I've made a lot of money and I'm set for life. But I felt like I had no purpose really bothering me. And I went to the last CG out in Ocean City. Ah, oceanside. And I was, talking to some people. And I'm like, I'm really lost. I don't have a purpose. someone told me, hey, go inside. And just I had a room overlooking the ocean and everything and said, go inside and just concentrate on it. And that's what I did. I spent the whole night, just sitting by myself on the patio, looking at the ocean and, reading stuff on purpose. And what I found was I was already living my purpose. My purpose is to go out and helping people problem solve. Build a company where people are really proud to work there. That we create a culture, that is unmatched in anywhere that I know of. the people that work for me work for me for years and years and years and years and years. They don't leave because they love what they do. They love being around the culture that we've created. and I say we not I because, everybody contributes to the culture that we have. and I love going out and doing deals. And so I was living my purpose without knowing it, but just defining that. It was almost like a weight coming off of me, that last CG. So I never know what I'm going to get when I go to a Mastermind event. I never know what kind of nugget of truth or knowledge that I'm going to gain. That was one of the bigger ones for me, for sure.
Billy Alvaro 00:24:14 That's huge. When you could really understand what your purpose is, and in your case, you're actually living it, that says a lot about how you design your life. That's kudos to you, bro. That's a great way to live.
Doug Hopkins 00:24:25 Yeah, I love it because I remember the days of working for somebody else and looking at the clock and dreading having to go in at 09:00 or whatever it is, and then being at work and looking at the clock and can't wait till 05:00 rolls around. And, man, I haven't had one of those days in forever. and it's awesome. I don't wake up with an alarm clock. I wake up just normal. No alarm clock unless I have to catch a flight somewhere to do it. But for the most part, I don't use alarm clock. And every day I don't feel like I'm going to work. I feel like, I'm having a blast. And that's why I'm putting all this money into my office, because I spend a lot of time in the office. And I want this to be, um, the place to work in all the East Valley. for anyone who wants to work doing real estate, it's going to be 7500.
Billy Alvaro 00:25:22 Awesomeness. Doug, with you being out in the field and you being one of the top sales guys in your business, do you have somebody running your company, an operator who's inside running the day to day?
Doug Hopkins 00:25:33 I do, yes. His name is Dylan Martin, and he's been helping me out tremendously. It was Darren, but Darren had a he's got, like, three other businesses, just buying all the commercials for Damon and myself and then another 40 other companies around the country. he got too busy for it. So Dylan's has stepped in and basically become my COO. And dealing with all the problems with CRM problems or issues, with the phones or something like that. Any sort of issues that come up, or problems, or trends just going over numbers, seeing what, hey, we're increasing, we're decreasing, the amount of leads that are coming in. Our cost per lead is going down or up, or all those numbers going over those, every other day, just to make sure we're on top of it. And we could see if something is a trend or if something is just, ah, an aberration.
Billy Alvaro 00:26:30 This is great, bro. Honestly, I could spend 6 hours talking to you about what you're doing and how you grow your business, man. It's impressive. Doug, you're an impressive guy. You're down to earth. You're a real person. You're a caring person. You're a giving person. I really appreciate you coming on the show today, bro. Is there anything you want to leave the audience that's listening? Like, any final thoughts, final words, maybe about mindset or about overcoming? Or just any last knowledge you might want to share?
Doug Hopkins 00:26:55 Yeah, it goes back to every morning I walk four and a half miles. And what, I do on those four and a half miles, I wouldn't trade for anything. And that's just, listening to podcasts like this, trying to always get better. It's Tony Robbins, i, think quoted that if you're not growing, you're dying. I think about that all the time. I think about all the people that I pass by on my way up. all the people, that were in the business that are no longer in the business anymore. And that drives me because I don't want to be that guy that gets passed by. I always want to get better. I always want to learn more. but I remember, feeling the whole reason I joined CG was because I got called an OG on stage. I didn't know what an OG meant. I had no idea. I'm like, what did you just call me? I had absolutely no idea what that meant. and I was like, wow, maybe I am getting passed by. I'm one of those guys that's getting passed by. And so, that's one of the things that drives me. I never want to be that guy getting passed by. I want to be because I decided to retire. And that's it.
Billy Alvaro 00:28:09 Yeah. Ah, man, that's where bro dog keep on growing.
Doug Hopkins 00:28:13 That's what I'm saying. And know that the only constant in real estate is change. And so you just got to keep on top of things and try new things and invest in your business, invest in yourself. Do not spend all the money and make because there's going to become times that and we've seen that over last year. The first part of last year was great. The second half horrible. So things change. And you got to be On Top Of it and always, u be learning.
Billy Alvaro 00:28:43 Always Be getting better. Embrace the Change, bro, because change Is inevitable. It's going to happen. It's always happening. And a lot of people who get into this business or in life, they can't handle when change happens. But it's all part of the process.
Doug Hopkins 00:28:55 All part of the game.
Billy Alvaro 00:28:57 Absolutely. Doug, thanks for your time, bro. I really appreciate you.
Doug Hopkins 00:29:00 Thanks, my man. I appreciate it. Thank you. I enjoyed it.
Billy Alvaro 00:29:03 Thank you, Bud.
Doug Hopkins 00:29:03 All right.