The 3 Core Values That Built a Multi-Million Dollar Team with Chris Gurnee

Chris Yeah

Chris . So I would say the philosophy now is, are people aligned with the journey we're heading into? For me, the journey is are you willing to sacrifice time When I speak to people, and I'm not gonna tell, I just want you to tell me if you can sacrifice time. 'cause if you're willing to sacrifice time, I have a tried and true process.

Chris If you follow it, you'll be successful and sky's the limit for the money you're gonna make.

Suneet Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Reside Platform podcast. I am your incredible host today. Incredible. I did say that about myself, Suneet Aggarwal, and I'm joined by my buddy. Chris Gurney, a Seattle based real estate leader with one of the most respected, greatest teams in the state of Washington.

Suneet Chris, what's going on? Dude?

Chris Appreciate it. Appreciate it, a lot, man. It's super busy here. lots of rain. It's pouring nonstop

Suneet already.

Chris Probably not the [00:01:00] all, dude, monsoon, but,making it happen, keeping a smile and dialing constantly.

Suneet You've been in the business since 2004. And you've built a reputation.

Suneet I love this for market expertise negotiations. I just heard you talking as soon right before we started, so that's very true. And just high quality marketing and consistently setting the service, setting the standard in Seattle. let's dive in. You ready?

Chris I'm ready. Hit me.

Suneet Yeah. So you've been in real estate since 2004?

Chris Yeah. Yeah. That's started out at. Bro. Well, prior to that, I was at, Nordstrom for 11 years.

Suneet Oh, NORS All Norstrom. In Seattle.

Chris In Seattle, man. So it all started

Suneet og, the OG four story store, right?

Chris Yes. It all started from there. So the thought process of the customer's always right. Attention to detail, high level communication.

Chris That's where it started. And I was what, 20 years old when I started there.

Suneet [00:02:00] Where?

Chris And then

Suneet did you ever sell, suits at Nordis or what?

Chris I was shoe dog. Oh, so you sold

Suneet those shoes at Nordstrom's? Hell yeah.

Chris I sold shoes. I sold, I did suits too. I did jewelry. I sold anything I could. 'cause I got 10%.

Suneet Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

Suneet 'cause you guys got a commission there back then. Yes.

Chris Yes sir. And so, the. The customer service, that's where it came from. And dude, what? Good

Suneet training for customer service. I didn't know that about you. That's like the best training for customer service.

Chris I'm gonna tell you for customer service, using the phone, asking the right questions, upselling, the whole nine, that's where I got it from.

Chris And then I took everything I learned from there and then rolled it into real estate.

Suneet So what happened? You're all, well, I'm tired of working an authorities. I'm gonna go get my license.

Chris Well, ki kind of like that. I had a couple friends that were doing real estate and in my head I'm like, well, I'm a better salesperson than them.

Suneet Sure.

Chris Like, I'm, I like back then. I'm like, I'm better looking than them. Yeah. I can do that. But that's the, that's gone. That's, but that was the [00:03:00] thought process. you're 30 years old or 28, 27 and you're like, I can do that.

Suneet Totally.

Chris And then, so I did it. I quit a job of 11 years. Went into real estate, went to Windermere.

Chris Okay. And so my first three years was at Windermere.

Suneet Cool.

Chris not a lot of systems, not a lot of processes, but,

Suneet yeah. But nobody had a lot of 'em back then. Nobody had a lot of them back then. Right.

Chris Oh dude.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris Not a chance.

Suneet Yeah, not a chance. so looking back, what were some big challenges you had? In those first couple years leaving because look, 'cause we both run teams and we people joined who are still working the retail gig, are still working this gig and they gotta make the transition.

Suneet You said that you, I'll tell you fucking quit, right?

Chris yeah. I was, I did. And a hundred percent what I would say, what if I look back at it and what I didn't have is I didn't have a good CRM.

Suneet Totally.

Chris it was an Excel file. I didn't have a lead system and I didn't have a process, so [00:04:00] pretty much what I did is I just threw as much as I could against the wall and I hoped and prayed things would stick, and I worked a lot.

Chris I probably worked 16, 17 hour days because I didn't know what, I didn't know.

Suneet Totally. Andrew

Chris Young, and that was,

Suneet and you wanted to make money.

Chris Yeah, I wanted to crush it. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I did okay. I sold 12 houses my first year. Yeah.

Suneet Solid.

Chris and yeah, it was good. but that was the big thing that if, looking back on it, and I didn't have like a proper mentor or a coach to guide me, through the pitfalls or the anxieties of what real estate is.

Chris If you don't know

Suneet Totally.

Chris So I would say that was, those are some of my big things that, that I would probably say I wish I would've had. And what I love to offer to my team is everything I didn't have.

Suneet Yeah, that's such a good answer. So now, 20 some odd years later, right? is that right? Yeah. 20, almost 22 years.

Suneet It's 2022, dude. Next year.

Chris yeah.

Suneet What you think has made your [00:05:00] business and your team so effective in long lasting?

Chris I would say it's me constantly learning new ways to do things or reinventing the way that we move in the current market trend. So I'm constantly researching or people like, like, honestly, like for now it's you guys and what I've learned.

Chris What is you guys as

Suneet for the people that don't know what they're listening to?

Chris Reside, man, reside Surprise. Like it's you guys. I mean, I'll be the first to admit, I've never been coached by the way,

Suneet I remember when he told me that. Yeah,

Chris I've never been coached. I've talked to some people about, adding in processes, but this is the first time that I felt I was.

Chris I was ready to submit, 'cause alphas, we got big heads. You don't say it. I mean, it is what it is. and I'm okay with saying that. And I felt like I was ready to, submit to this. And it's not easy. It's hard, but it's super rewarding. [00:06:00] From the growth that you see from it.

Suneet Totally. What a good answer.

Suneet so now growing the team and growing the business over this last little while.

Chris Yeah.

Suneet What's been your philosophy on hiring and growing a team that actually lasts?

Chris Yeah, so I would say the philosophy now is are people aligned with the journey we're heading into?

Suneet Good answer.

Chris Right. And so the journey is the jour for me, the journey is, are you willing to sacrifice time?

Suneet Yeah.

Chris When I speak to people, and I just want you to tell me if you can sacrifice time. 'cause if you're willing to sacrifice time, I have a tried and true process. If you follow it, you'll be successful and sky's the limit for the money you're gonna make. I think that's the biggest thing for me.

Chris And then the other things are like the three core values that we all have to stay focused on, that when I was really crushing, I lost sight of it was faith, family, and work. [00:07:00] Faith, family, work, and whatever your faith is, there's no judgment on it. It's faith, family, work, and we have to be aligned with that.

Suneet Can my faith be in capitalism?

Chris Hey, brother. Yeah. I mean, but here's the, sorry to interrupt. You have no. But you're not wrong. I mean, I love it. We have to have a harmony with it.

Suneet Totally.

Chris Because there's no such thing as a work-life balance, and I think that's where we lose track of things.

Chris It's, there's a harmony. Sometimes you lack on the work, but if you have the other stuff, the family and the faith good, everything's good. it's all right. If you don't do, do too well one day 'cause the rest of it's aligned. Yeah. So that's the ideology for me now. Before it was like, just hammer, make a billion calls.

Chris We still make a ton. But

Suneet yeah, I mean that hasn't changed. Yeah.

Chris The focus is more, Hey, make sure everybody's right with their families. Make sure everybody's right with their faith if they have one. And we're right with work. And if we do that, things work out really well and people do, really good and they [00:08:00] excel.

Suneet So how do you do right with that when you're working with the agents and you're crew?

Suneet Because that was a really thoughtful answer, dude,

Chris I get really personal with my age, and so I really understand each and every one of them. I understand what their quirks are and, they mean a lot to me. They're like my family.

Suneet Yeah. Good

Chris answer. And so I treat it that way. And so I know if somebody's having a bad day, I gotta open door policy.

Chris I open up my, Hey, come in, what's going on? And I have a high level conversation what's going on and I walk 'em through it. 'cause I probably faced it already

Suneet totally

Chris in my life.

Suneet Totally.

Chris So that's how, that's what I do.

Suneet And then what if, what about people that don't fit the culture and people that don't communicate?

Chris I love that. I love that. I love that. question. here's an amazing thing with the team that's super aligned and is Roland, that if somebody does come in and maybe they slide past the goalie, which is me.

Suneet Sure.

Chris My team will eat that person a lot. And, but not in a bad way. Like here's the deal.

Chris [00:09:00] Like people that might not fit the culture, they're super negative. The team's super positive and we're always looking at the positive of any negative. That's what I coach and teach. You might have a crap day, there's a, there's a positive to the crap day.

Suneet Sure.

Chris You just gotta look at it and step back.

Chris So the negatives that get that come in, they come in, but the team eats 'em up. And if it's an island person, like it's an i Me, sorry. We do, we and us on this team. Yeah. And the rest of the agents aren't gonna be there for you, so, so you can punch your own clock, but you're gonna be over here and off the team.

Suneet totally. Yeah. So Seattle, like you sell in the city.

Chris kinda we do in city, but I've purposely made the team, so it covers the Pacific Northwest. We're border of Canada, down to Portland.

Suneet Okay. So big geography.

Chris Yeah, I have to do that. Remember, it's been 20 plus years. So markets for me, markets change constantly.

Suneet Uhhuh,

Chris so you'll [00:10:00] have one market that's super busy and then the next market it might be a little slow. So we generate business across the board.

Suneet Good. So, but like Bellevue and like all those places, right? Kirkland?

Chris Oh, yeah. Doesn't matter. Kirkland Bellevue. Tacoma.

Chris Tacoma, Puy.

Suneet Samish. Redmond. Hell yeah.

Suneet You selling Samish? Yeah. Where my uncle lives,

Chris wherever

Suneet it's where my uncle lives. Yeah. I go to that 24 Hour Fitness down the street from his house. He lives on that lake.

Chris Send me his address and I'll door knock and I'll try to sell him, this weekend.

Suneet Yeah. He owns a lot of property down there, a lot on the lake.

Suneet A lot. I

Chris love it.

Suneet So what gives your crew, you and your team. Such a edge in a competitive market like that.

Chris So I'll tell you, it's pretty simple. So the way we get an edge is when we, whoever we speak to, it's high level conversations. It's high level real estate conversations. So if it's on a listing side, we're speaking at a [00:11:00] high level of exactly what their clients are looking for and what they need.

Chris Do they have any offers? So we will know ahead of time before even showing the house. We'll pre-negotiate. Every single showing that we go on, we already know what the price is that we need to be at.

Suneet Yes,

Chris that's exactly it. on the buyer side, it's a high level conversation of needs and wants. I like to call it the come to Jesus conversation where if I find you A, B, C to Z, we're gonna write an offer that same day.

Chris Correct.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris And if at any, and if any given time, it deviates. I'm usually CC'd on an email of like, Hey, I wonder what happened here? What changed? Right? You said Yes. Now it's no.

Suneet Yeah,

Chris and then that's an opportunity for me if I need to coach my team, or if I need to step in, I can have a conversation.

Suneet Yeah. Good answer, dude. That's what it takes. So you've been recognized as a negotiator,

Chris little bit.

Suneet What do you think makes a great negotiator in [00:12:00] today's tough real estate climate?

Chris you gotta be a really good listener.

Suneet Tell me about that.

Chris Yeah. So you gotta ask the right questions and then you gotta let people talk.

Chris Right? So for instance, for like a listing agent, we all got egos, right? You don't say, so we all got egos. Yeah, baby. We all got egos, so, so my team's trained, stroke, the ego.

Suneet Oh,

Chris good answer. Wonderful house. Oh, the pictures are amazing. So you wanna stroke that ego right away. And that's how they're trained, number one.

Chris And number two, the follow up. You must follow up to death and you must follow up until they tell you to stop.

Suneet Yep.

Chris And I think that's a big, that's a big difference. A lot of people might follow up once or twice and then give up. And this team is tried and true to follow up. And that's what's, I mean, to a point where I might, they might think I'm annoying, I don't care.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris High level conversations. Pre-negotiate, [00:13:00] follow up to death.

Suneet Love it. so let's talk about like business and like marketing. How has your marketing strategy evolved over the years?

Chris I would say in the beginning I just did a lot of Backpage.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris I just posted nonstop. I owned it in Postlets.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris stuff like that. So yeah, you just had a, you just went back in time, you're like, no, you did not pay that. Yes, I did

Suneet that. You just read my mind. Yes. No, you

Chris did not. I'm the legit OG of like, marketing for sure from back in the day. So anything that's free, I did it. And even to this day, I still, I don't own Craigslist, but I pay a group eight hours.

Chris I don't wanna get out to like general, like eight hours a day, seven days a week. So we're on the first two pages.

Suneet Sure.

Chris Our listing.

Suneet So still posting on Craigslist every day.

Chris Yeah. Why? It's free. Hey, same. Well, it cost me two a month.

Suneet Same.

Chris Fuck yeah. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. And so I do that. I then do PPC ads where we're running the ads [00:14:00] for people that are looking to relocate here,

Suneet mark,

Chris because I don't want competition.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris Want them to come to me and they don't know anybody. And so we post heavily. We do that heavily. I would say the other evolvement is, Google, LSA

Chris we do really well on that. and then a thing called Google Maps, it's new, where they, if somebody goes to a map and searches for you, you show up.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris It doesn't matter where, And I think, back in the day it was more like Craigslist and I did,sign call. Like you'd have a toll free number where people call or text your sign number, get a recording. Yeah. Yeah. And now it's evolved from that to, they got a, they called a number and then they put in the house number and then it lets 'em know, hey, you can talk to an agent, press one, talk to a lender, press two.

Chris Hey, you wanna work for us? Press three. Then it flows through all the agents. and we weren't that organized before.

Suneet I love that.

Chris Not all calls me [00:15:00] anymore.

Suneet Yeah. Good. So, that's good dude. so being a leader in real estate for over 20 years, what systems are practices have allowed you to stay making money consistently.

Chris I mean, it's just gonna sound trivial, but the phone man.

Suneet Oh, what's that? what's the phone? It's

Chris bro, like I, you could look at my, you could look at my F numbers and I've probably made 60,000 calls. Something crazy. Or 50. A lot I use, I've always made my money on the phone, period. Everybody on my team must use the phone.

Chris We must use the phone. all my lenders, they dial for us. They use the phone, they prospect and they follow up using info. So, I mean, don't be scared. I use the phone. That's the biggest thing that I can tell anybody this, to simplify it.

Suneet Yes. So,

Chris and be curious,

Suneet what should I do if I'm scared of picking up the phone?

Suneet [00:16:00] Chris,

Chris I think what you do. You close. I'm gonna help you right now. Close your eyes. Ine.

Suneet Alright. My eyes

Chris are closed.

Suneet Alright.

Chris Okay, let's go baby. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help you see, brother. I want you to envision yourself at a little fancy restaurant wherever you like to eat with a special person you love to be with, okay?

Chris I want you to be there.

Suneet All right?

Chris I want, okay, I want you to have a special little drink. Don't say it yet, but I want you to see yourself with that. What are you eating right now?

Suneet and olive.

Chris Okay, and what are you drinking?

Suneet A martini.

Chris Open your eyes. How do you feel?

Suneet Good.

Chris Okay. You got a smile on your face?

Chris I see.

Suneet Fucking A now. Oops.

Chris Eric. Ken, you were with that special person, right?

Suneet Oh no. I was just by myself.

Chris Yeah, you sucks. I told you to be with a special person, but that's okay. I

Suneet am with a special person myself. Yeah.

Chris Okay, I love that. Now, listen. Here's the beauty of this. This is to trick your [00:17:00] anxiety. Now, write that down on a Post-it.

Chris I want you to write an olive martini and I want you to post it on your computer screen, and anytime you got anxiety, bring yourself back to that happy place. You were at that restaurant and you were with yourself, which is your special self. And now you got a smile on your face. Go dial now. Go dial and martini and green.

Chris All of every single person we talk to, let's go. Dude, that's really, that's how do good and it's money, dude. Trust me. You can,I take the most scaredy cat person who would never use the phone. He is like one of my top guys. I did the same thing with him.

Suneet Really,

Chris dude. But that's to get past that anxiety,

Suneet dude, that's some ninja shit right there, bro.

Chris Our Jedi

Suneet mind trick. That's Jedi mind trick stuff right there.

Chris Yes. Yes. but that's, see, that's the beauty of, sales. Once you're able to slow down, you can then think of things to help people get past the [00:18:00] anxiety. 'cause that's why they don't do it.

Suneet Oh,

Chris is because the anxiety is so high from things that happen that cause them from being successful.

Chris Right. And so it's our job as leaders to guide them through that so they can be successful and then teach others.

Suneet Super good, dude. Super good. So speaking of your team and helping them and training them and getting 'em the right mindset, how else do you help them adapt to market shifts like we've been experiencing the last couple years?

Chris my, my job as a leader is to make sure that we're ahead of every market shift. And so I've gotta surround myself with really good people that know more than I do, and share ideas and information. So I make sure that my circle's tight with the doers, my circle's tight with people that are in the business, getting after it.

Chris And then it's my job to make sure that I shift ahead of time. So I'll just [00:19:00] tell you, for instance, right now. I'm on a heavy recruitment stage 'cause I already know what's gonna happen next year. Rates are gonna drop, there's tons of property sitting, there's gonna be a bloodbath of buyers coming in and we're gonna get an opportunity to crush.

Chris And when these, when those rates do come down, it's gonna be madness.

Suneet Yes.

Chris And I gotta have all my lenders go. Yeah. All my lenders have to be ready to go 'cause we gotta get apps pulled within 48 hours. I need a pre-qual to go out. No less than 72 hours. Yes. And they're in the car the same day.

Suneet Yes.

Chris Love it.

Chris So it's very important as a leader to make sure that we are ahead of the curve, ahead of any shift that comes up. Really, really important. So it's, I mean, I don't wanna say I don't sleep, but I sleep, but I'm constantly checking. and asking people and getting information of what the market's doing.

Chris And then I can also track it from like the connectivity on my system.

Suneet Totally, yes.

Chris Like if my [00:20:00] dialers aren't getting any appointments and we go goose egg for a week straight. Houston, we got a problem.

Suneet Yeah. But that tells you, that tells you more what's happening in the market if they're talking to people.

Chris Yes, brother. And that's the other way that I track And my, ISA team must give me in the day reports every single day, every day. I see how many connections, how many appointments, how many live transfers. And that's another way that I use that to help me stay ahead, to protect my team. Yeah, that's my job.

Suneet Really good. what's one personal habit or mindset that you think has been most critical to your success?

Chris I would say the personal habit that I got back into and. Partially because of you guys is getting and writing things down and putting it on my fricking calendar. Yeah. If it's not on your calendar, bro, it's not gonna happen.

Chris You don't need to tell me that.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris It doesn't matter how big of a crusher you are. Like, listen, I used to sell 60, 70 homes myself when I owned my own [00:21:00] brokerage. And, I didn't write shit down. I now, and, which is crazy. I would've sold so many more homes. I now like clockwork write things down.

Chris That's so good. Constantly. And it's in my calendar. And it might sound trivial to some fricking Do it. Write it down.

Suneet Yes.

Chris You're gonna have so much more time. You're gonna get so much more done, it'll shock you.

Suneet Yes. Love that. what's a mistake you see other team leaders or brokers make that holds them back besides not putting shit in their calendar,

Chris not being involved?

Suneet Oh,

Chris and that's tough because here's the thing. When you have to produce consistently and always be on, it's hard to slow down and be involved with the team. and what I mean by that is,showing up to sales huddles three days a week at 8 45 in the morning, I'm there.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris And driving the team, [00:22:00] reminding people to do things that you think they should already just know to do.

Suneet Yes.

Chris That ain't, that's not real. I used to think that way.

Suneet Me too.

Chris But the minute I, and that's normal because we think everybody should be like us, but that's not reality.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris we're not, we're unicorns.

Suneet the job is not the CEO, it's the CRO Chief reminding Officer.

Chris Yes, sir. Brother. Yeah. and here's the thing. The more we can do that. The more we can show up, even if we think about it, it's only an hour or maybe 20 minutes to motivate and excite and then get involved. So make your calls with them.

Chris You will see things change at a pretty high level after about two weeks, but you're gonna have to keep on showing up. That's the hard part for any team leader, because we have so many shiny objects coming at us that can move us away from the path. Or open [00:23:00] up the blinders 'cause we're racehorses. And if we're like this, you're not gonna get anything done.

Chris Boom. The minute you come here, it is a wrap.

Suneet Yes. Love that. Love that. So for our listeners, other team leaders and agents who want to be like you, what's one piece of advice you have for them?

Chris I'm gonna tell you, don't wait as long as I did, but start getting coached heavily resides a place in my opinion.

Chris I, I've. I've researched a ton. Don't wait to get coached. Get coached by these guys. Get locked in and you have to be willing to be okay to be uncomfortable because the more uncomfortable you are, the quicker you're starting to learn and become a better leader and a person.

Suneet So do you think that you've been a great answer?

Suneet Number one. You think that you've had to learn how to be un uncomfortable this last time and reside last year,

Chris bro? Yeah. Yeah.

Suneet Yeah. You have.

Chris Yeah.

Suneet Yes,

Chris of course I have. and I wouldn't, here's the thing, [00:24:00] I wouldn't do it if I wasn't uncomfortable because I already know what I'm good at and I already know what I'm bad at.

Chris Totally. Or I need work on, and I'm at a point in my career where I wanna. I mean, I want, let to say it, I wanna take all the business here in Washington. I want take it for it. I, and I want you

Suneet to take it

Chris and, no, I'm going

Suneet You too, or what?

Chris no. Like, listen, I, we got, I got a team member out there, and so anybody wears that shield, I, it's not gonna happen.

Chris But if the shield goes away and somebody gives me the blessing,

Suneet yeah.

Chris I'm gonna ask for the blessing.

Suneet Totally.

Chris Sure. I mean, I'm gonna go where the money's at.

Suneet Totally.

Chris I'm gonna go where people wanna work and they wanna change their lives.

Suneet Yeah.

Chris And I wanna show 'em how to do it as simple as possible.

Suneet Love that.

Suneet Love that. So, dude, this was really good. You did so good.

Chris Yeah, that was fun. Yeah. Yeah.

Suneet So I know after people listening to you talk and spill so much great knowledge just now. Dude, that was so good. They're gonna [00:25:00] wanna reach out to you and send you all the referrals in the whole state of Washington and learn about joining your team.

Suneet If they're an agent out there, maybe just wanna learn more, how do they get ahold of you?

Chris I'm gonna actually, I'm gonna go on a limb and give my cell phone number.

Suneet Oh, do

Chris it? So it's two, it's 2 0 6 9 4 9 0 8 6 4. And, and it doesn't matter, like if you guys need help or if you have a question, just text me and,I'll reply to it.

Chris If it takes me a little bit, it's 'cause I'm on the phone. But I'll do my best to reply, to give you, any information I can that can help you. and then if I can get on a Zoom to be able to talk to you, I will,I'm here to give. Give on to others. Right. My, my job is to shepherd others the best I can and, keep you guys from, having the anxiety that maybe me or other people have gone through in this business.

Chris it's easy if you can follow a process.

Suneet Yes, dude. So good. Thanks for sharing your journey and your expertise and the strategies that have kept you. In business for the last 22 years and crushing it. So [00:26:00] for everyone listening, go connect with Chris. We'll also drop his website in the show notes in case you didn't hear his phone number.

Suneet I'm not gonna drop his phone number on YouTube. I just think, I mean, you probably wouldn't care 'cause your phone number's probably everywhere from science, but I'm not gonna do that. It's everywhere, dude. But,follow his work. Learn more about what his team is building in Washington. Everyone else, or everyone.

Suneet Period. Not everyone else, but everybody. Everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you got something out of this episode. If you did, click like, like subscribe with a friend, leave a comment and we'll see you in the next episode of the Reside Platform Podcast. Peace, peace.