Tyler James Ross is joining us in this episode of Spark & Ignite Your Marketing. He is an accomplished entrepreneur who seamlessly navigates real estate and martial arts. With a degree in economics and a robust background in business, Tyler founded Ross Real Estate in 2012 and has since grown it into a thriving brokerage. Alongside his real estate ventures, Tyler also launched The Forge Jiujitsu, a community-focused martial arts academy.
Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting, Tyler’s story is a testament to the power of perseverance, community engagement, and continuous self-improvement. Tune in to gain actionable insights, hear about Tyler’s community-centric marketing strategies, and find inspiration in his journey of balancing professional success with personal fulfillment.
Key Topics:
- Balancing Multiple Ventures: Tyler discussed how he juggles his responsibilities as the founder of Ross Real Estate and The Forge Jiujitsu. His approach to balancing personal and professional life offers valuable lessons for entrepreneurs looking to manage multiple ventures effectively.
- Innovative Marketing Strategies: Tyler emphasized the importance of community-centric marketing. From leveraging local partnerships to engaging in meaningful social media campaigns, he highlighted how small businesses can thrive by focusing on their local communities.
- Resilience and Personal Growth: Drawing parallels between martial arts and business, Tyler shared how facing and overcoming challenges is crucial for growth. His philosophy of learning from failures and continuously improving resonates with the entrepreneurial spirit.
Get Tyler’s Book:
Tyler’s Favorite Book:
Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill
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Watch on YouTube
Transcript:
Beverly:
Did you know that over 90 percent of homebuyers search for properties online before they even contact a real estate agent? This highlights the importance of innovative marketing strategies in the real estate industry. Welcome to another inspiring episode of the Sparking Night Year Marketing Podcast. Today we’re joined by Tyler Ross, an accomplished entrepreneur with a diverse background in real estate and martial arts. Tyler holds a degree in economics from Rollins College and has been a licensed real estate agent since. 2005. He founded Ross Real Estate in 2012, which now boasts two staff members and 19 agents emphasizing small business in local community themes in its marketing. Tyler is also the founder of The Forge. Jiujitsu. A new venture that builds community through martial arts. While he’s not working, Tyler enjoys hiking, grappling and spending time with his kids. Sometimes probably overlapping with that. And recording podcasts with fellow business entrepreneurs. Tyler, it’s a pleasure to have you here today. Welcome.
Tyler:
Yeah, thank you so much. And what a wonderful read. I appreciate all of that very much. I’m excited to talk to you, Beverly. I’m already vibing with you.
Beverly:
Thank you so much for spending the time. Us podcasters have to stick together. It’s always nice to have another podcaster on the show. So I always start with the beginning of the journey. How did you go from working to owning a business? And what was there like a aha moment, a kitchen table, brainstorming session, maybe an idea and a napkin. Like how did it all start for you?
Tyler:
That’s a fun question. In elementary school, my, my folks divorced. And when every time I’d wake up at my dad’s house, we’d go over and look at the paper, my, all my, every one of my family is a small business owner. My dad’s an attorney. My mom owns an organic grocery store. My sister’s a chef and does other various things. I got other sisters also that are out there doing it, but at the breakfast table, my dad would open the classifieds and he would quiz me on. How much is this car worth? A 1994 Maximo with 180, 000 miles on it. And I say, is it leather? Is it, what color is it? And we, we try to figure out how things were evaluated. And that was my introduction into the world of business, understanding, buying something for less and selling it for more. And just following him. So I’ve. The only time I’ve ever been an employee was in middle school, high school and college. And as soon as I left college, actually, technically I worked for my father briefly. But I immediately started my own business in my early mid twenties and knew that’s what I wanted to do. In fact, in high school. I wrote myself a letter, and 10th grade, you write your future self, a letter of everything that you want to do, and it spells out all those things and, 20 plus years later. I’ve been tracking. So it’s felt predestined in a lot of ways.
Beverly:
You saw into your future.
Tyler:
It created it. Maybe, I don’t know.
Beverly:
You can live with intention, right? That’s totally a part of it. I think if you, I am an unplanned entrepreneur. I have no entrepreneurs in my family, so I didn’t have what a wonderful role model to to play the price is right. I
Tyler:
think that’s part of being an entrepreneur though is just unplanned and being open to that because a lot of folks can’t pivot or see the opportunity that comes from an unexpected event. And just your ability to do that kind of makes you entrepreneurial in a sense.
Beverly:
I went kicking and screaming though, Tyler. I knew how much work it was going to be. I’d worked for a startup just before I started my business. And I was like, there’s no way you could ever pay me enough to do my own business. Like they dealt with a lot of stuff. And so I was not disillusioned when I started my own business about what that was going to look like. I think you’re right. There’s people who have that entrepreneurial spirit and there’s people who are very fearful and won’t make that leap of faith and say I’ll figure it out. I might mess it up royally in the process, but I’ll figure it
Tyler:
out. And it gets increasingly difficult as you get older and you have more responsibilities like mortgages and kids, like taking, narrowing that risk gap
Beverly:
as
Tyler:
an entrepreneur is difficult to do, but when you’re younger, like who cares, you got 2, 000 in your bank account, push it all up on the table and see what happens. So the earlier you get going, the less. Risk there is associated with it. And
Beverly:
there’s some truth in that. And I think the naivete helps you too. You don’t realize exactly what you’re going to be up against. Yes.
Tyler:
A little too much energy. You can just go and plow forward and, if you get those Hard school knocks by getting pushed into the pool. And I don’t think there’s a better way to learn than screwing up over and over. And that’s something I like about jujitsu is the best way to learn is to get just smashed by somebody bigger and better or smaller and better than you.
Beverly:
My son does Taekwondo. So like when somebody who’s smaller that gets them, he really gets in his goat, like he, but he has grit. So he has no problem getting back on that mat and showing who’s who. So there’s something about that. You can’t teach that. I feel like that is an innate inside of you. And he certainly, that’s not, he might sniff a couple of times before it happens, but he’s going to go and do it. Yeah, I
Tyler:
think you’ve got to put yourself under pressure in order to grow. And that comes from business, martial arts, familially, like all that stuff you requires pain to, even if you’re a bodybuilder, you got to break your muscles down so that they build back up. And I think that stretches across almost everything.
Beverly:
What does it take to make a diamond, right? The amount of pressure that it takes to make a diamond. So yes, you’re right. Like I think to get to the really good stuff, you have to take some pressure and a few kicks and things like that to get there. It’s a lot of wisdom in, in all of that, that you learn about the world and yourself As well. So was there like an unexpected plot twist on your journey that kind of happened that wasn’t on the list that you made in 10th grade?
Tyler:
I’m not so sure that anything was so traumatic that it pops up into my mind. Of course, nothing ever goes the way you lay it out perfectly, but none of the bumps were so big. I couldn’t manage it. You just do what you gotta do to try to get next step, whether it’s living in the unfinished portion of your friend’s basement so that you can spend all your money investing it into yourself or, having a surprise kid and, feeling, managing family and business at the same time. So I think, I can’t think of anything highly unique, but I can sympathize with a lot of people that have hit. These obstacles, checkpoints to go, Oh, wow, I didn’t see that coming. So time to go around or go through. But nothing in particular pops out in my mind is like a plot twist necessarily.
Beverly:
Tell me a little bit about your business and who your customers are and what problems you solve for them.
Tyler:
So the main business is a real estate brokerage and we focus very highly on our local network. We are Our local area, our Piedmont region, we as agents are licensed in the state, but I think it’s frustrates the hell out of me that agents do that. Yeah, I live three hours away, but it’s the same state. I can still do that work. But the problem we solve is really the transaction, which typically tends to be the largest financial transaction anybody in their life makes, which is the purchase or sale of a house and project managing that entire experience. And It as much of a business transaction as it is. It’s really a personal transaction with a lot of emotions involved. So the problems we solve are, making a good investment making sure that you’re selling your investment in a wise way, protecting everyone legally from all of the traps within a contract and making sure that people feel good through the process because you’d hate to, be excited about buying a house and then have a horrible experience doing it. It’s just trying to serve people at the highest level and in a competent, professional way.
Beverly:
I am knee deep in this process right now.
Tyler:
Are you buying a house or selling a house?
Beverly:
I just sold a house and I closed on it July 3rd and I just bought a house, but I sold a house in Pennsylvania and bought a house in North Carolina. So I’m also like across the half, across the East coast. But yes, they actually, it’s army move. My husband’s military. So it’s an army move. And the part that really gets my goat is we don’t want to move. That’s not something that you typically, some people like to move in the army. They want that experience. But we’re pretty happy where we are. But we are losing our interest rates from three years ago. And that is the part that I’m really upset about that. The army should, a veteran, part of the veteran deal should be able to keep a new rate that you’ve earned as opposed to this new interest rate. But It is very stressful to move your whole life and to pack up everything and put everything. So the army does pack for us for the most part. I would say 90 percent of what we move, they pack and then they come and they put it in a semi and take it away. And a week later they deliver it for us. But Coordination of that logistics of that is a lot. And yeah, it’s a pretty stressful scenario for most people. And I will be so grateful when it’s over. I almost canceled that new Tyler. Cause I was like, I got so much to do, but I was like, I really need this conversation. Like I needed to have a I needed to not think about the house.
Tyler:
So
Beverly:
now I’m going to twitch a little bit and
Tyler:
it’ll be over before you know it. Yeah. This last little bit is the gap that you got to jump over and close and it’ll all end up being fine no matter what.
Beverly:
We’ve said we’ve had our goodbye party. We’ve done all that. Now I’m ready. I just need to get to that it’s a big process. And like you said, it’s the largest investment you’re probably ever going to make, right? And it’s a big decision all the way around financially, emotionally, mentally. I think it needs to be the right fit for everyone accordingly. Having somebody that’s there cheering you on, also protecting you. Talk about how you were since you were so young when you first started a business. I’m curious to hear how your decision making business strategy thought process has evolved the most from the beginning to now. Like how have, how has, cause even when we were talking before the podcast went to live, I talked about how, like where I’m in my business, I’m not working in the business as I’m working on the business in a different way. So how have things changed for your business over the last several years?
Tyler:
That’s a fun question, Beverly. I initially started like focusing on the brokerage business anyway. I initially started thinking it would just be me as a sole proprietor doing a hundred percent of everything, maybe one staff person to support me and what I’m doing. But I had a real estate agent come to me and ask if they could join my company. And I had just had the most Wonderful heartwarming experience with her as a human being and in a transaction. And I was fairly new at the time and I just adore and love her to death. And I was like, this is not part of my plan, but let’s go, let’s do it. And that was like six or seven years ago. And we’ve went from me to me plus 19 agents and two staff people. So that. It was unexpected and but just being open to it has really flourished and it’s been a beautiful thing. And my approach has changed in that it’s not just me. I’m managing. I’m technically, I’ve got a stable of unicorns of just a group of people that are awesome at what they do. So I don’t have to really manage them that much, but rather than. Doing what I was doing as an agent, a hundred percent all the time. In addition to that, I do continue to sell homes. I don’t buy them anymore, but I sell them. And. Now I’ve got 19 agents that are technically under my management, but the reality of it is they inform me because they’re also smart. They bring things to the table that I don’t. So they’ve made me a better listing agent and they challenged me because they’re all so competent. Me being the broker, they have to bring their problems to me and their problems are all highly unique because they’re so capable of solving, run of the mill problems. My perspective is that I thought I was going to do one thing, but I’m doing a better thing now, and it’s made me better professionally as a real estate agent, better as somebody that runs a business and honestly better as a human being interacting on a human level with people.
Beverly:
I love the idea that you have a stable of unicorns. I love the visual. I love unicorns. Actually. A lot of my coloring and branding is based on mermaids and unicorns, from a very intentional perspective and the idea of a unicorn, there’s a unicorn business, obviously that makes very big money very quickly but the idea that you have some kind of magic and something special, a little extra special.
Tyler:
There’s 600 realtors that do business in our little four County footprint. I would venture to say that since our last staff hire we went from 14 to 19 over the last six months in terms of agents and they’re just the best. We made a huge splash. Like you’ve talked about staff, like surrounding yourself with the best people. There’s no. There’s no replacing, you can’t take three people that are half okay and replace one amazing person. And I’ve got 19 amazing people and two amazing staff.
Beverly:
I feel like most of my clients struggle the most with staffing. What has been the secret to having A stable of unicorns?
Tyler:
Culture and support. I run my brokerage business in a way that varies highly from your typical brokerage model. So that is one thing, but with respect to retention and hiring good staff I made the mistake of hiring staff that wasn’t good. And so learning through that, hire slow, fire fast. I hired fast and fired slow and hadn’t, but that’s tuition. That’s going to the school of hard knocks. I paid my tuition. I’ve messed that up. And then as soon as I found a good person, two good people. Now I grabbed them and I treat them as well as I possibly can. I am as flexible as I possibly can be. And stay open to the idea that they are individual human beings, that one needs to be part of a group of other human beings, but as individuals that have their own needs. So to the degree that I can meet every single need, not less so from a professional level, but more so from a personal level, like your family’s in town, take the week off. You haven’t ridden your horse in a while stop working, go ride your horse because you need to have your mind right to have your attitude right to have a good experience with the other people in the office because one thing touches everything else. So I would say the culture is the most important thing that everybody gets along and that you design the work around the capacity of the staff. I think a lot of people make the mistake of, I need someone to do X, Y, Z. This person can do X and Y, but not Z, but they’re freaking amazing. Instead of Z, I’m going to have them do W and make it work because I got to have this person
Beverly:
from good to great. Find it, put them in the right seat in the bus, right? That’s one of those concepts. But so let me ask this. I feel like the same thing. And I actually have structured my marketing agency very much like a brokerage. Like people who work for me are subcontractors, but they work under my umbrella because I wanted to give them the piece of the pie because they work hard, they deserve that. And I want to build up their business too. Cause they’re all have their own business essentially under you. So there’s something very empowering about, and teaching that and mentoring that and being a part of something like that. So it has definitely changed the way my team works is just giving them some skin in the game and helping them grow and mentor. Today we had a team meeting and we talked all about Their eulogy at the end of the day, like what they want their eulogy to say, and to work backwards from that and being intentional, having that list of the things that you want to make sure you are. And what do you need to start doing? Stop doing, continue doing. And what are your obstacles? Are you getting in your own way? What is the things that’s holding you back from that dream? And what does that look like for you? I think those are the trainings that matter. I can teach social media all day long, but that’s the kind of stuff that I think we’re all human. We’re all trying to get to some place. And acknowledging that and feeding that I think is really powerful.
Tyler:
I love the concept of reverse engineering and within those eulogies, I guarantee you not a single person said, I want to clock more hours in the office. They died wishing they had worked more. So that’s part of the culture thing where it’s let’s figure out what everybody really wants. And if they want joy, they want happiness, they want time with their family, they want a healthy body. They want good habits. You can build something off of people that want all of those things.
Beverly:
Yes, if they’re intentional, they’ll make that time. I used the example of not work more, but I said, I can guarantee on my death, but I’m not going to say I wish I was on Instagram more I can promise you the doom scrolling is not going to benefit the eulogy. So while social media is essential for our business, it doesn’t mean you have to do it all the time. You can make those choices of where you spend your time and where you spend your energy and be like you said, intentional and reverse engineer. And even what do you need to do differently to be that person? There might be something that is needed you differently to become the person you want to become. And that might be a health choice, or that might be an educational element, or that might be a romantic element. Who knows what that looks like for that person, but. To support them in that journey and every quarterly review for us. Yes, we talk about rocks and goals and things like that, that were important, but we also talk about their personal plan and how has the role fit into their personal plan. Like you said, they’re people and humans first and we don’t live to work. We work so we can live and do the other things. And acknowledging that and really supporting them in that is remarkable. For most people,
Tyler:
couldn’t agree more. And helping people establish some level of self awareness to the degree that they can make a good choice over a bad choice. Every single one of us wants ice cream every time we walk by and in that moment, we want to grab it. But if you’re self aware enough to acknowledge, sugar late in the day. I’m not going to sleep. It’s not good for me. The dairy makes my tummy hurt and gives me sinus infection. And so cultivating self awareness within your team so that they know what they actually want puts you in a position to provide as many opportunities for them to get it, when you’ve got everyone pulling on that same rope, it’s not like we’re all trying to do the same thing practically, but we’re all trying to do the same thing in the sense of living a fulfilling life.
Beverly:
Many of the episodes we talk about, the two finite things are time. And money in this world and how you spend your time and how you spend, you make money or spend your money or things that kind of dictate so much of what we think about and live and exist in. And yes, having some control in that situation is huge.
Tyler:
To quote I forget which episode which movie it is. Maybe it’s infinity wars where a iron man meets his dad and he says, no amount of money ever bought a second of time. And having that sense of urgency with time, is crucial. And money can buy a lot of things and it can rent happiness, but time spent wisely is a better way to go about it.
Beverly:
I watched a TED talk this week and I’ve changed my vocabulary around this based on this TED talk essentially it was about. Life is not about happiness. It’s about finding meaning. And that if you’re seeking happiness, you need to find meaning before you can find happiness. And I was like, yes, like you have to have something that’s meaningful, whether it’s a life of service or whatever the meaning is, that’s what brings you the happiness. It’s not the search for the happiness thing. So it was revelatory for me that, Now it’s now it’s about finding meaning. I love that.
Tyler:
To wrap on meaning, it’s funny. I reread or re listened to a man’s search for meaning not long ago. And that’s a circumstance that I can’t even think about trying to find a meaning in, but a more conventional meaning to me. And it’s said other ways, it’s like picking up responsibilities. I think if you burden yourself with a high level of responsibilities, somewhere in there you’ll find a glimmer of meaning, and then you can start digging at that little X and continue to find gold there.
Beverly:
Yeah. So many good nuggets. I struggled for that. Like finding happiness. When will I ever be happy? When is enough? Like even for my business, when is it enough? Like I have goals. Like when it, when do I think I’m actually successful? Like I run a legit business now. I’m successful, but I don’t take enough time to sit in that. I’m always looking at the next thing. So when I retire, what am I going to do? Because I’m always looking for the next thing. Like that, where do I find the fulfillment and meaning in all of that?
Tyler:
Happiness isn’t a perpetual state. Like you have to have the contrast to appreciate the happiness. And then I think you hit the nail on the head with respect to like entrepreneurs, like moving the goalposts on themselves constantly. And not being present, but thinking about that next thing all the time. And then you take a beat just for a minute and look back and go, look how far I’ve come. But it’s hard to do when you constantly looking forward and going. So that’s a. Entrepreneurs out there listening. You’re not alone
Beverly:
Today. We even like it’s half year, right? We’re already half year end of third and second quarter, we’re doing like a half year. Look back at our wins. And I always want to focus on that. Look how many things you’ve accomplished over the last six months personally, professionally, what does that look like and how much closer you are to the next thing you want to accomplish? Those are all steps towards the next accomplishment, whatever that looks like, baby steps.
Tyler:
One of my favorite quotes is one of my favorite not similes, metaphors is a car or a boat, a car. The windshield is huge because you’re looking forward and going and the rear view mirror is very small. So just take a look at it every now and again, but keep your eyes forward and keep moving. I
Beverly:
used a car analogy today on the training. I said, your destination. But sometimes you can only see at night, where the lights, headlights are going, but you know where you’re going, so you need to make sure you know where the plan is. And there’s going to be moments where you only can see right in front of you. But as long as you’re going the right direction and moving forward, even if it’s a mile, An hour, whatever that looks like for that, for you, you’re moving in the right direction and that is key on finding success in this world. I used a car analogy to this morning, which was funny, but I come from Detroit, so like car analogies are my thing, I feel like, but all of these things are very good bits of wisdom for entrepreneurs. Just human beings in general, we all struggle and do and when I move forward in our lives and whatever way that looks like. So one of my favorite questions that I ask entrepreneurs, Tyler, is what really frustrates you about your industry and how would you fix it or how do you fix it? Maybe in your business you have fixed it.
Tyler:
It’s the scale of it. There’s so many people that are not good at it, that the entire industry has been blanketed with a reputation that has garnered the attention of the department of justice and by the national association of realtors is getting a spanking right now. Well deserved spanking because it’s too easy for people to do it. And too many people are doing it. So the lack. Of professionalism and the averaging down of the competency and capacity of real estate agents frustrates me. And the perception that’s created in the public is that, stay at home parent can do one or two deals a year and pay for their boat. And they just do a kind of curse. He just did a horrible job. And that’s what frustrates me about my industry. And oh. I love marketing, Beverly. I know you love marketing. I love marketing. It’s one of my favorite things to do within my business, but there’s 600 real estate agents in my footprint doing business and 150 listings. Make that make sense. So there’s 450 people marketing their tails off trying to get business because 600 people marketing. So you almost have to be better at the dog and pony show, the marketing, at the lead generation, at the brand awareness, then you actually have to be at your job.
Beverly:
The
Tyler:
best real estate agent on the planet is probably unknown because they’re too busy doing their work to market and put their face on billboards and grocery carts and magazines and wrapped cars. That’s what frustrates me. You
Beverly:
talked about the Department of Justice. Are you referring to how they’re trying to change the commission structure? Is that what you’re referring to?
Tyler:
I don’t know what they’re ultimately doing. Attempting to do. But yes, there’s some incentives in place that I have an idea of what I think they’re trying to do. I’m not sure why, but the practical difference as a result of these changes is that rather than showing a buyer’s agent compensation through the multiple listing service. You can’t do that anymore. I can tell you, I can put it on my website, but the multiple listing service does not share what the selling agent is offering the buyer’s agent for in compensation, but that’s really the only practical. Difference. Everything else is pretty much the same. That’s a, that would be confusing to anyone that’s been listening to the news.
Beverly:
I’ve been listening. I thought it was just a matter of they didn’t want, and again, like I’m not in the industry, so forgive my ignorance in this, but I thought they just essentially wanted to cut it like from 3 percent to, 10%. Like 1 percent or something like it was too much for doing that. And I think the reasons why I was thinking was because housing and pricing has gotten so expensive. They were just trying to find ways to pass it down to the end user versus yeah. So I don’t, I wasn’t sure exactly what the motivation was behind it.
Tyler:
The National Association of Realtors was accused of behaving in a cartel like fashion with price fixing. The association never dictated what a real estate agent is to charge. The argument that a listing agent would do in a listing presentation is this is industry standard. That doesn’t mean it’s not negotiable. It’s just Realtors were, Heavy handed in their negotiation tactics to say, I’m not doing it for less than this. So that’s what the market set, but what they’re trying to do now is prevent discount brokerages or agents that will discount their fee from whatever a quote unquote industry standard is from siphoning through listings to send to their buyers based on what their buyers agent will get paid. If I’m representing you to buy a house in North Carolina, And I put in the parameter of search fields, only listings that are offering 3%. I’m doing you a disservice NARs made it too easy to get a real estate license. The states made it too easy to get a real estate license. Of course, you get a big enough group of enough people, you’re going to find some jerks, whether it’s pet owners or vegans or. Whatever marketers, evil
Beverly:
marketers.
Tyler:
That frustrates me also.
Beverly:
Okay. Talk about a little bit about a scenario or a story or a testimonial that captures the essence of how you do business.
Tyler:
I’ve got one favorite story that just happened two months ago with respect to marketing and the way that we run business. As real estate agents, we can buy leads. We can go to us, HUD home store. We can go to realtor. com, Zillow. We can buy the traffic that they get. And then my money in Virginia goes to some California based company that gets nothing. And it doesn’t really service any of my clients because we’re not doing anything locally here. So my goal as the son of small business owners, as a small business myself. Is to elevate other small businesses. I got a handful of stories I could share, and local causes. So the thing that we did most recently was self interested, but I leveraged other people to benefit other places. My daughter’s a Girl Scout. I bought$250 worth of Girl Scout cookies from her, which ended up being like 50 boxes, whatever, the math. And I did a$40 Facebook ad. So I sent$40 to California
Beverly:
to Meta
Tyler:
Yeah, exactly. You’re welcome. Shareholders Did a video that said, featured our local SPCA, the where sheltered pets go. Yeah. And I said, watch this video. Buy something from the Amazon wishlist to benefit the SPCA and you could win these 50 Girl Scout cookies. So I donated effectively$250 to a local Girl Scout troop. We raised$2,000 worth of goods for the local SPCA. And we got 10, 000 views on the video in our local market.
Beverly:
I love it.
Tyler:
So we collaborated with the SBCA and our business to make it work. Another thing we did was we went around and bought a hundred dollar gift certificates from local businesses and we did a thousand dollar giveaway. We did 10,$100 gift certificates, share this post, tag the business We do the drawings. So we get to the initial video and then the winter video, both of those got thousands and thousands of views and it beats the crap out of sending a thousand dollars to to meta. In fact, some of the businesses even donated the a hundred dollar gift certificate because of the free advertising they were getting as a result of including them in the giveaway. We did 10 giveaway videos. So that kind of business where you can support your own business and the people that work within it. You can support another local business or multiple businesses, and you are only advertising to the sphere within which you want to work, which is your local, in my case, my local community. So the things that can hold up everybody at the same time and stick it to the man in the same breath. I adore those approaches.
Beverly:
I think finding synergy with partners that makes sense is one of the most powerful ways you can. Partner and connect in your community. And I agree with you. One of the reasons why I started my business was when we help a small business, the ripple effects of that in the community and how we’re supporting families and supporting causes that matter. And that’s the meaning behind helping a business grow is for exactly that. Doing things that support the causes, support the businesses and. The icing on the cake is, by the way, it’s my business. It’s helping do this. That is like awesome choices of that. But I wonder like where’s for me, is there a story of a homeowner or a customer? That has had an amazing experience with you. And what does that look like for them? Like how has working with Tyler and your group of real estate agents, since there are a stable of unicorns, I want to know what the unicorn experience is like,
Tyler:
where’s
Beverly:
the magic, Tyler, tell me the magic.
Tyler:
We have one agent in here. Who’s one of the top in the country with making donations to homes for heroes, which is a service. Provided to veterans. And so I’m super proud of her and then personally, my experiences with me that I would refer to are all technical, like managing someone usually boundary line adjustment as they’re under a burden of potential foreclosure and navigating personalities and I hate that person and that person hates the other person, but I’m in the middle. So I can. Keep everybody calm to get to where they need to go. But as far as some moment that I feel like moved everything, there hasn’t been one, which is maybe one of the parts of my life that I’d like to round out a little bit more, which is why I do the podcast to fill that cup because at the end of the day, the trail that I leave behind me is a positive experience that a couple of years from now, if I don’t stay in touch with them, that client is probably going to forget my name and otherwise it’s just a bunch of PDFs on a computer. And that in and of itself is not super fulfilling. But when there’s a, a genuine problem to solve and genuinely moving someone from fear into not fear, anything better than fear from fear to confidence, from anxiety to relief, Like those little victories stack up and start to make you feel pretty good.
Beverly:
Kind of the reasons why we do all the things we do. The stack of PDFs because you’re just trying to get through all the documents and read it and all the legalese and it isn’t just that it isn’t just a transaction. and making it more than that. Yeah. The fear, the anxiety to like the calm, the woosah moments. I’m like, okay, it’s all taken care of. Tyler’s got this. That is a good place to be for sure. So you have 19 people working for you now. You have a podcast. You’re working on a book too, right? I think I read something about that.
Tyler:
Yeah. I’ve written two kids books that I self published Donkey and the Farm Team and Donkey and the Farm Team Obstacle Course. I’m going to, I’m going to do a third one that’s around jujitsu. First one was baseball, second obstacle course. Third one will be martial
Beverly:
arts. I love it. So you’ve done all these things. What’s the vision what’s on the 10th grade piece of paper that’s next. What’s the vision for the business and how do you plan to continue to evolve and adapt?
Tyler:
Yeah, I should go grab it. There’s so there’s so many things to do in this world and, I want to get a piece of so much of it. We can’t do everything, but we can do anything and real estate. I enjoy it because you can speculatively build houses. You can do land development. You can do conservation easements. I’ve done a nutrient banking where you plant trees and reduce the runoff into the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and then those are saleable transferable credits and things like that. But writing the book, I’d love for the podcast to one restarting it in the coming weeks, which by the time this is out, we’ll have gone already. But that’s the one I think I’m most excited about because I feel like that’s one of those things where I’m sure you feel it, Beverly, where you go. This changed everything for me. This one piece of advice that you extracted from the person you’re interviewing, or that one little nugget that you shared completely flipped my perspective and enhanced and allowed me on my own to enhance my life to some degree that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. So real estate, I can impact my local market. I can impact. Couple of people a year and make that transaction as positive as possible. But the podcast I’m excited about really diving into because I can scale potentially on a really high level. The things that I think are important podcast is interviewing entrepreneurs about being a dad, being a mom, being a parent who runs a company and balancing that life. And it’s forced me. To do that self assessment of going, I’m not balancing my life very well. I need to spend more time with my kids selfishly for me and for them. And if I can reach, one person who decides that as a result of something that’s said, spends more time with their kids in that kid’s life changes for the better, because they’re with, they’re loved that much more or feel it that much more. That will be one of the things I think about on my death, but not one of the. Houses that was sold or land that was developed or like the book reading another book, I had the girl that illustrated my book had to give, she chose to give up twins for adoption when she was like 16 or 17 or something. And they’re out in California now she’s in Virginia. And the book is about a donkey who is not very good at baseball. He’s terrible at baseball and everybody teases him about it. And then he finds this mentor that, encourages him, shows him that if he practices and he works hard and that he can overcome all of these things and get better and be good at it even. And she sent this book to her kids who were playing tee ball at nine years old now, and they wanted to quit. And the book arrived the day they told their parents, their adopted parents, they wanted to quit. And they read the book and they couldn’t wait to go to practice the next day. That made me cry the day that she told me this. So that’s, those are the things that I’m interested in pursuing.
Beverly:
A lot of meaning in those things, Tyler.
Tyler:
Yeah. So I’ve taken care of me, I’ve taken care of my kids and wife, and I’m taking care of other people around me, but if I can scale those little messages that other people have shared with me. In one form or another, then I would like to play that role. That’s what I’m chasing. Sharing some
Beverly:
of that I feel like is much more vulnerable and harder than a real estate transaction. Like I feel it’s much more complex, much richer, way better, way scarier way, all the ways I recently. I am adopted. My mother’s adopted and I have adopted. Adoption’s huge in my family. And I recently did an interview on a podcast where I talked all about my adoption story. And there’s a lot of weirdness about that. There’s a lot of like coincidences. It’s pretty epic. Tyler, the story. It was the first time I’ve actually said it out loud in such a way. Like really say it and I shared it this morning with my friend group and also on LinkedIn and said this is a pretty vulnerable moment to share, but I feel like there’s so many things to learn in this story for myself. When I talk about it and share it, like I, the insights I give myself my mother was taken by the government. I was chosen by my stepfather and my son was given. To me. So the three different ways that adoption really affected all of us is so different. And there’s so much more meaning, but also like vulnerability and a little bit of it’s just harder. I don’t know. It’s like scarier to put myself out there that way. Marketing. I got that down. That’s fine. Like I’m good at that. I got a system. I got a process. I have a good mindset, all the things, but when you start talking to things that really matter and have that meaning, now it becomes a little bit scarier, but the rewards are so much greater. That’s the part that I think is the power is in that. If you can somehow find those moments and do that
Tyler:
that reminds me of something else that’s satisfying about my business is these 19 people, a couple of them have confided in me on personal things that I never would expect another person to share with me. And to have the type of relationship with, they’re not employees, they’re independent contractors, they have their own business. But to be vulnerable in that way, to have that kind of relationship and culture they make me feel like they’re family and like that, I’ll think about on my deathbed, I won’t think about the house that we sold together or, the files we went through, but. The
Beverly:
moment shared. Yeah. The vulnerable
Tyler:
exposure. And they teach me so much doing that.
Beverly:
You’ve talked about the marketing that you did with kind of the community building and how that just helps. It’s a win, win all the way around. But talk about one of the marketing mistakes you made and what have you learned from it?
Tyler:
Yeah. It’s, the mistake is. I don’t couch it as mistakes. It’s easy to, I got to look at it as tuition and just learning lessons that cost money. I tried to open a second location when it was just me to create the perception that there was a bigger office than it actually was. And that was money poorly spent and hiring incorrect people. And I haven’t really had any marketing fall too flat on its face. Other than being self oriented, maybe rather than promoting the service or promoting the brand or promoting the other people I was self promoting. And I had done some acting in college and that’s what we had to do. Self promotion here, pictures of me, here’s all this information about me. I can do that. I’m the best person all the time for everything. And I took that approach out of the chute real estate wise. I even wish I had renamed my company instead of Ross real estate. I would have made it. Something different. But at the time I was able to lean into the the good reputation that my dad had that when he moved here in 1981, I was born in 83 and he had helped tons of people sell houses as a real estate attorney. So it’s foolish not for me to leverage my name at the time. But now I, maybe I’d approach it differently, but mercifully, The marketing gods haven’t been horrible to me.
Beverly:
I feel like the same thing. When I first started as a freelancer, I was Beverly Cornell consulting. And after I started having a team, I was like, this is so horrible. Like I hate this name because it wasn’t about what I was doing. It was about what we were doing and also the value we were creating. And that didn’t speak to that at all. So I had a similar thing. I changed it to BC because it’s still my initials and I’m still part of it. Okay. But and associates marketing, but the ampersand actually has a lot of really cool meaning. Yeah. It’s synergistic. It’s, and there’s a lot, there’s an action. I actually currently like where it went, the evolution that came to But it was like, I would sign my name, Beverly at Beverly Cornell consulting. And I was like, this is obnoxious. Like I can’t even stand it. It’s my name. So it was, became very clear to me. That wasn’t where we wanted to go or be or anything like that. And while I am the face of the business, it doesn’t mean that it’s, I am the business by any stretch of the imagination, quite the opposite. But I agree with you. There is something when you choose a name, you’re going to stuck with it for a while. And what do you do with that? Choose wisely.
Tyler:
Yeah. Yeah. When you look at Hewlett Packard, Long and Foster, I there’s no shortage of names that were named after the founders and they got big enough that you forget.
Beverly:
So I have the section of the podcast where I call the lightning round, ask you a few questions and you just like gut answer. I probably not gonna do a lot of chit chat back and forth with you, but If something really piques my interest, I might ask more for more details. Okay. I feel like with real estate, you have to be fairly well connected right in your community. So how have you created and then also maintained lasting connections?
Tyler:
Maintaining a positive relationship with people around you. I would say it’s generally through kindness. You go through the. Practicality of things where it’s are you touching your sphere seven times in three different ways this many times a year and you sending your drip emails and all these things I’m not particularly good at, but I have staff that helps me with that, but maintaining the network in the sphere and the people is generally through showing your face, being kind to people and staying out of the controversial things, which I would love to jump in and get political and be loud and try to shape the community in a positive way, in a way that I think is right. Same with presidents. Like one of my favorite things is I bet nine out of 10 people that know who I am. Have no idea who I’m going to vote for. And I love that, but also I want to be outspoken about it. So it’s, I’ve chosen my path right now and it’s to maintain neutrality because my service is not in that way now. My service is being a good real estate agent, good community member and holding people up. That was my lightning answer, wasn’t it?
Beverly:
If your business had a voice, what word or emotion would you would resonate from its core or with its core.
Tyler:
I would say it is a kind, relaxing voice with a sense of humor. Trying to think of a person that has that. You take like a Morgan Freeman type, he, he can be silly and fun. He knows how to get down to business.
Beverly:
He’s the voice of God, Tyler. He’s
Tyler:
the voice of God. That’s my business. He’s the voice of God. God’s voice. It’s a fun question.
Beverly:
So dive into the library of business wisdom. Like you’ve got years, right? And you’re, you’ve been raised by entrepreneurs. You have all kinds of experience from that as well. Which book, podcast or entrepreneur has left that indelible mark? Like you hear their words, they whisper in your ear on your journey.
Tyler:
Napoleon Hill, Thinking with a Positive Mental Attitude, that book was great. Jesse Itzler had a huge impact on me with respect to my relationship with time and how I view that.
Beverly:
Specifically, how has it changed your workflow or how you do business?
Tyler:
Jujitsu getting beat up on a regular basis, checks my ego, reminds me that I’m not all that in a bag of chips that I need to humble myself, and approach things with humility. And knowing that if I’m on the other side of a negotiation with a real estate agent who’s giving me a hard time. I can act calm, cool, and collected because I know I can kill them.
Beverly:
There’s the power in knowing that, with great power comes great responsibility, Tyler.
Tyler:
Absolutely. It’s the truth. And try to embrace it.
Beverly:
Yes. That’s what I told my son all the time. Cause he’s a strong kid, big kid. And I’m like, with power comes a great responsibility. He loves Spider Man. So that really resonates with him. And he’s yeah, mom, I know. It’s the control that makes you more powerful. That’s great.
Tyler:
Yeah. You don’t know your own strength. Can be a bad thing and a
Beverly:
good thing. How do you keep your entrepreneurial spirit alive? Cause it’s, being an entrepreneur can be really lonely and isolating, like owning your own business. And sometimes like even our spouses don’t understand what we do exactly. So how do you feed that and keep that fresh?
Tyler:
Talking to people, I think other entrepreneurs, because, you and I immediately connect on that level and can relate so much having that group of people, not every, there’s not one person that checks every single box for your personal needs. So finding that network of close people that you can be vulnerable with and share your problems with. In professional context around professional topics, that’s how
Beverly:
it feeds my fire to, I love that. So being an entrepreneur is often. My day can, I can have a plan, right? About how my day is going to go, but then the world has other plans. Life has other plans. How do you stay grounded and maintain your sense of purpose and even clarity amidst the chaos and uncertainty of the economy or your customers or your team or your family needs. I’m imagining jujitsu probably helps you with that too, but is there other ways, other things that helps you?
Tyler:
When I am exercising regularly, jujitsu included, when I’m eating well, I can tell a difference in my own sense of motivation. I think taking care of my body through food, exercise. And sleep and then mentally making sure that I have some sort of quality interaction with a friend or my kids or my wife. If I can set that foundation for the day, like everything else is easy because those are the hard things. The easy thing is, being inspired to go do more work because it’s, I don’t know, I guess they’re easy and hard, but those are my baseline needs. If I eat well, exercise and have a positive interaction with somebody I love, then I can stay inspired with.
Beverly:
I need sleep
Tyler:
if
Beverly:
I don’t sleep.
Tyler:
And indulging curiosity. You get that moment where something pops in your head and hold that thought. I’m coming right back. I got to go Google this or write it down or
Beverly:
Yeah, my notes app on my phone gets a lot of work for that exact reason. Okay, here’s another fun question. If your business prowled the animal kingdom, which creature would it embody and why?
Tyler:
I would like to take 10 minutes to think about this and Google search different animals that resonate with me most. We have dogs and cats. I love both. I find cats so interesting because big cats, particularly because they can run in herds and they can work on their own, depending on the breed, they are capable of so much, they’re so strong, they’re nimble, they’re just like sexy when they move, they just move with such grace, but they can be incredibly powerful. But also just sit in your lap and purr and be the most adorable thing ever. I find them to be incredibly versatile in what they’re capable of. And I like to think of my company as being versatile inside the real estate industry and being a part of the community. I want nothing more than to hold a baby cheetah in my hands like this. But I think a leopard is probably one of my favorite animals.
Beverly:
So in Richmond, in Virginia, there is a zoo that breeds cheetahs and they have a cheetah experience.
Tyler:
I’m going right now. I have to leave. Bye. Okay.
Beverly:
See you later. Bye. They’re just
Tyler:
the cutest freaking things ever. They’re my
Beverly:
18 year old’s favorite animals. So I know a lot about cheetahs. We can talk cheetah for a while. Yes. The things you learn as a parent because your child has an interest.
Tyler:
I might go this weekend, like seriously, that’s going to be a bucket list checkerbox for me. Thank you for that resource. This has all been worth it. The
Beverly:
Richmond Zoo. That’s the nugget.
Tyler:
Wow. That’s the best thing I’ve taken from this. Thank you. So one of the
Beverly:
coolest things. So one of the stories that they have is there is a cheetah there that was born without a mom and siblings saved somehow on its own, and they don’t really function well on their own. They need a herd. They’re not as singular as maybe some other cats might be, but they paired it with a puppy from the SPCA or whatever, and they’ve grown up together and I swear the cheetah thinks it’s a dog and the dog thinks it’s a cheetah and they, I have an enclosure together and the dog will sit in the tree and the cat will sit in the dog house. They’re one of the top breeding cheetah programs in the country from what I understand. So lots of opportunity there possibly for you.
Tyler:
Love that. It’s a small little
Beverly:
zoo, but it’s a very cool zoo. You can feed the giraffes. I used to live right there. We would go there. I, we had membership there. It’s a very cool zoo. So my son, like I said, cheetah fan. So it was like
Tyler:
experience. So did you get to hold and touch cheetahs?
Beverly:
We never did it. It was pretty pricey, at the time. And he was a little bit younger and I didn’t think it was appropriate at the time. I was like, I don’t know. But now that he’s 18, I would do it with him for sure. Like I feel like he’s the, he’s an adult enough to be able to handle the experience, but yeah, very cool. Again, don’t quote me on this, but I feel like there’s an experience there that you can pay for this specifically. I don’t know if you hold it, but it’s specifically with the Cheetah program. Yeah,
Tyler:
cool. I’m Googling that as soon as we’re done.
Beverly:
So the next part of the podcast really goes into a reflective and also very actionable part of entrepreneurship. If you were to look back on the journey you’ve had so far What pivotal piece of advice do you wish you had received earlier? I know you call it tuition and some of that, like when you learn from your mistakes, but what is something you could have learned earlier that would have saved you valuable time, resources, or headaches that would have been really nice to know before you started out or earlier in your career?
Tyler:
Go, just go do it. But that’s you can get, you can analyze yourself to paralysis and you talk to 100 people, you get 100 different opinions, half of them will think it’s a great idea, half of them will think it’s a bad idea. Listen to your intuition, cultivate your intuition, cultivate your sense of self awareness if you want to do it, go do the dang thing.
Beverly:
Nike had it right. Just do it. What practical, very usable, very tangible piece of advice would you offer to a small business entrepreneur or even like a, like somebody who’s just starting out to jumpstart their journey? And Really to help them seize their unique opportunity. What would you tell them to do?
Tyler:
I think get buy in through collaboration go where people are, share the thing that you’re doing and see how you can help them do the thing that they’re doing. Go to your favorite coffee shop that just opened up and shoot an Instagram video that goes, Hey, I’m starting this
Beverly:
going to different places is really powerful to me because I’m about to move into a new market and I need to figure out my space there, how I fit there. And I am a little bit I’m extremely camera shy, but I do a lot of camera work. And I’m a little bit of an introvert, especially, I’m an only child. And I like my own company. I’m really okay with being by myself. But that would get me out of the house and make me do some things that might be a little bit out of my comfort zone, which is great. I love that the go concept of just go and do it, but also fun. Like just meeting people, being out there doing that kind of fun. I like the idea. It resonates with me. Maybe there’s my golden nugget, Tyler. That’s mine.
Tyler:
It’s back to the pressure thing. You talk about pressure, making diamonds. Pressure is just another word for being uncomfortable. Yeah.
Beverly:
It’s supposed to
Tyler:
be uncomfortable. That’s where the growth comes from.
Beverly:
I’m not afraid to be uncomfortable. That’s not like something that I’m afraid of, but you do need to like prep yourself for it, be prepared, in some way for it, brace yourself. There you go. That’s the best way to say it. Brace yourself for, to be uncomfortable and that’s normal. And it’s going to feel better after you do it. My husband has a tattoo that says endure. I need a brace yourself tattoo. Brace yourself.
Tyler:
I love it.
Beverly:
As we end the episode, this is always so fun for me, but also sad when we live, when we leave the conversations. I really have enjoyed spending time with you today, Tyler. I want to thank you for taking the time and sharing some of this Knowledge and expertise in real estate and also community building with us. Where can people find you and find out about your projects and the books you’ve written and the podcast you have going to be relaunching?
Tyler:
Yeah. So we’re rebuilding the podcast website. It’s TylerJamesRoss. com. Instagram is the catch all for everything. Tyler James Ross, VA, like Virginia Tyler James Ross, VA. That’s my Instagram. So I pay a lot of money in marketing. So if you Google me, you should be able to find me.
Beverly:
Oh, the marketing.
Tyler:
Learning to dad with Tyler Ross is the podcast.
Beverly:
So your insights have certainly illuminated my path. I hope also our listeners paths offering invaluable tips and strategies to enhance their business and their digital marketing efforts. And to our listeners, I really hope you found this episode as fun as I did. Remember to implement any of these Tips, insights, into your small business. And don’t hesitate to reach out to myself or to Tyler with any further questions that you have, or if you need assistance with real estate or marketing, stay tuned for more inspiring conversations, actionable tips to ignite your marketing journey on future episodes of the Spark Ignite Your Marketing podcast. And until next time, keep sparking and keep learning. igniting.
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