Have you ever wondered why some real estate agents make success look so easy? It's just like they were born to do this. Everything just goes crystal super smooth, every single transaction, and nothing ever seems to go wrong.  And then on the other hand, you've got a huge group of agents that make the business seem really extremely difficult. Now, you get in the business and you think it's going to be great, and then you run into all kinds of... You think it's... You think it's brick walls, but it's really just road bumps. It's really just road bumps. So that's what I'm going to talk about today, right?  So I want to talk about these six lies that real estate agents believe, especially when they get into the business and even throughout their entire career, because we're programmed to believe these things. We're programmed to believe that the business is this way. And as we come into the business, we're very influenced in the very beginning, right? What we learned in that first few months, the first six months, the first year, even two years, it really molds the way we perceive the business.  And that's what this video is about. I want to clear up a couple of these things and maybe give you just a little different perspective on a few of these things so that you can go out there and understand that, OK, there's not just one way to do this. There's actually several different ways to do this and one of the other ways may even be better than what I've been learning the entire time. So hopefully this video will help you maybe spark the beginnings of you unlearning some bad perspectives that we have on the business. That's the goal, so let's dive right into it. So the first lie, right, as a real estate agent that we believe, OK, and this goes, you know, for new agents and experienced agents. But the first lie is that for a new agent, you hear so much that a new agent, when they come in, they need to join a team. They need to join a team. And this is not going to be a dig on teams. OK, a lot of people are like, Ricky, you're so against teams.  And yeah, I was a single agent for a long time. I sold 100 properties a year for eight years in a row. Single agent, one assistant. I tried to build a team twice. And, you know, could I go build a team now? Yes. But I understand how to do it correctly now and I understand how much work. I understand how much work building a team is. And that's not where I am in my career. There are much easier paths to produce more and less time for me at this point rather than going and starting from scratch, building a team, because when you go build a team, you're literally starting over at zero, all right? Because a lot of people think I'm an agent. I'm succeeding. Now, the next step is to build a team. And in reality, they have a full-time job being an agent. And now they don't realize it.  So now they're giving themselves two full-time jobs. And they're trying to juggle two full-time jobs. And most people who do this fall right on their face. Because they don't realize what's all involved in actually building a team. Now, going back to new agents, let's just talk about that for just a second. Because here's where the problem is for me with this entire thing, OK? And this is why I believe this is a lie that we believe, especially in the beginning of our career. So we come in and we're like, oh, we want to learn the business. We're a new agent. We don't know anything. Let's join one of these big, high-producing teams and we'll learn the business, OK? So the new agent or maybe somebody that's struggling, you're one, two years in. You're struggling. You're like, OK, I tried this single agent thing.  Give up some of my commission and maybe learn something. And maybe that's an even exchange. Most teams, this isn't every team, OK? But teams that operate like this is what I'm talking about. And this is most teams. Most teams, the new agent comes in their entire goal, their entire goals to come in, learn as much as they can from the team and then go out and be their own agent. That's their goal. Their goal is to eventually do it on their own. Their goal is not to stay on the team forever. So their goal is to learn and then move on. Once they've learned what they need to learn to go do it on their own, their intentions are to move on, OK? The team's goal is the exact opposite. The team's goal is to retain that agent forever. So you see the goal of the agent and the goal of the team do not match up. And this builds a lot of resentment over time because the team, you know, advertised coming in and come on over here, would teach all kinds of stuff. You're going to make a lot of money. Everything's going to be awesome. Come to find out they don't learn what they need to learn to go be their own agent. Because, OK, because of the model that the team has, the team is set up to take care of the legion, the admin, and the marketing. The team does that for the agent. Why? So the agent could just be the machine showing the properties, making the calls, following up, doing whatever the role is that the team needs them in. So they learn that role, but they don't learn these other roles of a real estate business that they're going to need in order to go be their own agent. So they don't learn legion. They don't learn marketing. And they don't learn admin. They've got somebody handling the paperwork for them. They've got somebody handling marketing. They've got somebody just sending them leads. They don't know where the leads came from. The team members are just like, OK, I got leads. I'm going to go call them. My job is to call these leads and make these deals. And that's great because you're developing the skill that you need to go out there and communicate with people, figure out what they need, what they want, showing the properties, listing appointments, whatever it is that you're doing. And those skills are needed 100%. But you're not getting the full 100% of the knowledge you needed to go do this on your own. So over time, you realize, I can't even leave the team because I'm dependent on the team for legion, admin, and marketing. And so now we're kind of like, we have learned some things, but now when we leave the team a year or two later, we're right back to square one on those activities. We didn't really learn legion. We didn't really learn admin. We didn't really learn marketing. What I would love to see is a team that is more of an incubator. So what happens is, is the future top producers come in. The future top producers that are ground zero, they haven't sold anything. They're struggling, whatever. The ones that are ambitious enough to go do the things they need to do to become a top producer, a top 10 agent in their MLS, those future top 10 agents, they come in, they learn everything from the team, and they leave. They learn what they need. OK, I've learned all I can learn here. They move on. So the team becomes a stepping stone for the future top producers, all right? And then the ambitious agent comes in, the future top producer, they learn everything. They go on, and the team leaders sitting here like, I got them started. I helped them. I got them to a certain point, you know, but the team member went on and did their own thing, and the team leader really didn't get any credit for everything they did in the very beginning stages for that agent. Then on the flip side, you've got the, let's just call them non, I don't want to say non-ambitious. They're comfortable, right? They're comfortable being on the team, giving a big split, letting the team handle all the legion admin and marketing forever. They're comfortable in that spot. That's fine. But what you become is, as a team leader in that traditional model, is a stepping stone for the future top producers and basically a team full of comfortable agents, comfortable agents. You know, I don't know about you, but like I got to be around the highest level people. So if I'm around people who are just comfortable all the time, that's going to bring me down to where I'm going to start to feel comfortable. Like, yeah, I'm not going to feel comfortable.  It's kind of what happened to me a couple of times. Nevertheless, this is the first lie that I think that we start to believe is, A, we got to join a team so that we can learn the business. Yeah, you learn some of the business, but you don't learn what you think you're going to learn, and the team's going to make you dependent on certain things, hoping you stay forever. And then on the team leader side, you've got the future top producers coming and leaving, coming and leaving, coming and leaving. Back in the 90s, I think, is when teams kind of started. And then as it grown over the decades, it turned into, oh, you got to go build a team so you can kind of create that passive income to where you can go out and have this sellable asset. You can sell the team later. There's been people that have achieved these goals with massive amounts of work. You know, I was a single agent, and just my market in particular, because I was so efficient, right? I was working 20 hours a week selling 100 properties a year. A lot of people don't believe that, but that's what was happening. I was working 20 hours a week. How did I do that? I built a powerful brand. They're making so many calls and doing so many weekly emails and never missed brand. So there's your million dollar tip for the day right there. But outside of that, people don't believe that I worked 20 hours a week. I was literally living the life that team leaders want to live in terms of selling all these properties, but only work in half a week. And I wasn't sleeping the other half. I was building other businesses, like the business I'm working on right now, building my brand, building my coaching business, et cetera. But nevertheless, I was living the life that most team leaders want to live as they switch from being single agents to team. They're like, I'm going to go build this thing. I'm going to have passive income on other agents and all this. I was living that life as a single agent. So there's another lie is that you have to go out and build a team to create this thing so that you have passive income. You don't have to work so hard. You have to work twice as hard because you have two full-time jobs now. And it takes many, many, many years of being a team leader to get it to the point. You have to go through a lot of different employees and agents to find those special people that can really make this thing work. It's a lot of work and you're dependent on a lot of people. I didn't like any of that. I'd rather work less, keep all the money and outsell every team. I outsold every team in my market, every team. There were teams with 20 agents. I was outselling them by myself, not even breaking a sweat because I am efficient. Efficiency is the key. Leverage is the key. Understanding what moves the needle, going all in on the few activities that really are the highest producing activities. 20% of your activities produce 80% of your results. 80% of your activities are garbage. They're not moving the needle, right? 80% of your activities produce 20% of your results, right? If you can squeeze that down to where you're only doing, say, 10% of the 80% that doesn't move the needle and go more all in on the 20% that is, that's where I was living. That's where I was living as an agent. I was all in on the 20% that moved the needle. And I'd worry about anything else. So I could go on and on about this. Again, I'm not digging on teams. Glory to the teams. That's like, you know, kudos to the teams. Congratulations to the teams. I know a team that sold 8,000 transactions a couple years ago. Expansion team in a lot of different states. They've got like crazy amount, hundreds and hundreds of agents. Awesome. That's awesome. You created a company within a company. Might as well go do your own brokerage, right? Anyway, it's not digging on teams. It's just like, can I open your mind up to a different perspective? And like realize that what we, what we see and what it is is really not the same and that there are many different ways to skin a cat and nothing's right or wrong. That's what I say. Like go build a team. I'm not telling you it's wrong. I'm just saying, think about what I'm saying, right? And hopefully this will help you if you are thinking about building a team or even being a single agent to understand and maybe tweak your business model a little bit. Be an incubating team. Be a team that does teach agents everything and say, listen, when you come in hey, if you want to stay here forever, great. I'm going to teach you everything you need to know to where you can go out and be your own agent because I know that's what you want to do. If you end up staying here forever, awesome. If you ever want to decide to leave, awesome. That's what I'm here for. I'm here to help you grow and how to help you support you and whatever you think is best for you. That's what I would love to see a team do. All right. Onto the second lie here. Buying leads. Buying leads. So in 2021, 200 million leads were sold to agents. 200 million. There were 6 million transactions in 2021. Okay. So think about that. And you know that the 6 million transactions, that's 2% of the total leads that were sold. And you know that the total leads that were sold didn't buy houses that year. So the amount of people, right? Let's just say 1%, right? 1% would be, what, 2 million? I don't know. I think that's on the high end. 1% of the leads that were sold, 200 million, bought something. And you bought 200 million and you're spending a lot of money on it. Okay. And if you really look at it, the price of leads have went up and the qualities went down. Case in point, 200 million leads and 6 million deals. The quality of leads have went down and the prices went up. And now a lot of these companies are charging a referral fee. You know, they're charging 35%.  You know, they're charging you a percentage on the back end. You know, it's getting worse. It's not getting better. And when you think about leads, leads are humans in the market. They're everywhere. The leads that you're paying so much money for are, and think about 200 million. There's 350 million people in the US.  Did they sell you every single person's information in the country? In 2021, I think they did. They literally like took everybody's information and just divvied it up and said, we're going to sell all this and pretend like it's leads. I guess. Think about that. 350 million people in the US, 200 million of those were sold to us as agents. And we bought them when we could just get their information for a penny on RedX or we could look them up on whitepages.com or we could DM them on Instagram. We could doorknock them for free. We could call them as a for sale. We can meet them at Walmart. We can meet them at a networking event, Facebook friends, sphere of influence. We have more free leads than we do paid leads. And they're the same quality, same quality, right? And it's mind boggling. It's mind boggling. So why do we buy leads? We buy leads because we're scared to call people because we have an anxiety over rejection. So we try to get around calling people cold calling. Let's call it cold calling people. So we spent a lot of money on leads because we're scared of people are going to get mad at us and reject us. So we spent a lot of money on leads just to have those leads. We pay for reject us or mean to us because that does happen. You pay for leads and then the people are mean to you reject you happens all the time. So you can't get around this. It's mind boggling the people, the agents to try to get around calls spending thousands of dollars on leads just to turn right around and call them. It's wild. And so they end up calling them. And at the end of the day, the reason why I built my business so fast, the reason why I outpaced the growth of my business outpaced every agent in my market. And the reason being is because I understood that it was about conversations. How many conversations I'm having with the quality of those conversations? Can I make this people feel comfortable with me enough to do business with me now or later whenever they decide it's time to do so? I understood that. And the more people I have conversations with and take them through that process, the bigger my business would be. And it all starts with the conversation. And so for me, I was like, well, just give me a list of everybody in my market that own the type of property I want to sell. I'm going to go ahead and have those conversations right now today. And everybody else was buying leads, waiting on the leads to come in to trickle in, trickle just here and there, lead here and there, for a month, five a month, 10 a month, 30 a month, whatever. And they were literally getting like, whatever, let's just call it 500 leads a year. They're paying for 500 leads a year, something like that. Let's say 50 leads a month from some source just using round numbers here. They were getting 50 leads a month from somewhere. I'm sorry, a year, 50 a month, 500 in a year and paying God awful amount for these leads and having those conversations and having, you know, they're selling 10, 15, 20, 30 properties, whatever, right? But they're getting 500 near and I'm calling 500 in a week. So, so think about it. I was doing a year worth of their work because I measure work and I was a real estate agent. How many conversations you're having with possible prospects? How many conversations you're having with possible prospects? And I was having as many conversations as they were having in a year in a week. So every week that went by was me doing a year worth of everybody else's work because for me, it wasn't about like how many hours I'm grinding. It was about how many conversations I'm having. And if I can have those conversations now, it's like success and failure. The quickest way to fail is to do what's easy now. And the quickest way to succeed is to do what's hard now. And the reason I was working 20 hours a week is because I put all that hard work in for 5, 6, 7 years, grinding, grinding, grinding, making those calls until I built the brand through the weekly email in the back end that I didn't make any calls anymore. These people called me and I was flooded with people who wanted to buy and sell and I was selling 100 properties a year, literally just servicing, right? Just answer my phone, OK, write it off or negotiate, go to a closing over here, show one or two properties over here. I wasn't working hard at all, but I was selling 100 properties a year. But that was because I did what's hard in the beginning, what people don't want to do. So that's what I'm trying to tell you. Like for Red X, for example, I'll put a link in the description, you can get a discount, right? For $3.99, you can get their bundle where they give you everything, right? And you can get different, if you just want to branch it off and get different products, get different products. But like with GeoLeads Plus, pick a neighborhood, you get 7500 property owners of your choice in the market. If you buy it by itself, it's like $130, $150, something like that. 7500 property owners of your choice, you pick it. You can pick a listing and with Red X, you can find, it's a four-bedroom. You can pick, you can find all the property owners around it. They have three bedrooms and call them all and say, hey, I see you've got a three-bedroom. Would you like a four? And I'll get into that in just a second, a little further on the next thing here. But I want to kind of talk, finish this buying leads part out so that you understand. You buying leads as you trying to cop out on conversations or what's hard, when you're going to have to do it anyway and all you're doing is trickling your way to hopefully getting successful and really just being an average agent. I know there's a lot of teams, they'll spend a million bucks a year, a million bucks a year on leads. And they sell hundreds of properties. They sell so many properties. But when you're operating on that level, you're paying out half to the agents, you're buying all the zillily, what are you left with? You know? I'd rather just handle my clients, make a million bucks, keep it all, invest in real estate, do other things. I can even take that to 2 million. The thing is, is when I made a million bucks, I was closing 40 million a year. And this is back in 2017-18. Prices are up like, I don't know, 80% since then? Okay, something like that. So just the sheer fact of price increases, if I were still doing the 100 deals, I'd be making close to 2 million a year. Doing the same amount of work, 2 million a year. So a million back then in the 40 million, yeah, that was a million in commissions. But in today's market, with the word prices have went since I stepped out of the business, I would be doing 2 million a year.  It's not like you can't take this to a 2 million dollar a year business depending on your market. And if prices do crash, hey, how many people do you have right now in your database who are waiting on prices to come down? You know how much of a flurry it would be if prices come down? We have more pent-up demand than we've ever seen in history. Pents up demand from trade-up sellers who are dying to move but can't. And that number is growing every day. Leaps and bounds. You've got first-time home buyers more than we've had since the Baby Boomers. Like 30 years ago, it's insane the amount of pent-up demand, the demographic of people who want to own homes over the next 10 years. And it's going to be glorious over the next decade when you guys see how the market rebounds from here. This is the bottom. It's time to go all in to expand your influence in the market, period. That's what I did in 2008, and that's what got me to 100 deals. I went all in in 2008. If you're not all in right now, not worried about the market, because average agents say, oh, nobody's doing anything, so what's the point in making calls, doing letters, posting videos, or trying to prospect at all? No point. Nobody's doing anything. That's because you're focused on now. I'm focused on my career. I'm trying to get to a million dollars as soon as possible, and I'm going to take advantage of the market resurging. We're going to hit 7 million transactions, existing home sales within the next decade. There's going to be a year. I'm going to say that's impossible. No, back in 2005, it happened. If it happened in 2005, a lot of people don't realize that. We had 6 million in 2021, and people think that was the top. That was the boom. That's the record. No, it wasn't. 2005 was the record. 7 million. If we did it again, if we did it then, we can do it again, and we have way more demographics and data and analytics on our side that it will happen, and the pent-up demand that's brewing right now is unlike anything you've ever seen. It's all in right now to talk to as many people as you can to build your influence in the market.  It's going to be a perfect storm between interest rates, prices, inventory, and demand all coming together. Right now, inventory is low. Interest rates are up. Prices are up. Demand is pent up, but when it all releases, it's going to be a perfect storm and it's going to be glorious, and you're going to wish you were listening to me when I'm talking about expanding influence in your market, making your calls, doing your weekly email, doing the things that you need to do before I get to the next slide. I just want to say, it's zero-to-diamond.com, my coaching program. I do a weekly call every Monday for everybody. It's $100 a month, but we're doing a seven-day free trial right now. You can get in there and see what it's all about and come to one of the Monday calls for free. For free, go to zero-to-diamond.com right now. Start your free trial. Get in there. There's the course. There's the scripts, the email templates. All my weekly email templates are there. Get in there. Dive in. Immerse yourself in that. There's agents making hundreds of extra thousands and even—there's people that have made millions extra off of what they've learned in this course, and it will change your life. Zero-to-diamond.com. The next lie is that to get listings, okay, this is what we've been programmed to think. To get listings, all right, the only way to get listings, right, is either you know them and they call your referral, et cetera, but the only way to go out and actually stack listings is to call sellers and ask them if they consider selling or tell them that you have a buyer, whether they consider selling their property, have they ever thought about selling, the market's really good, would you sell if I could get you this price, all that stuff. And this is what we've been programmed to think and this is why a lot of people don't do it because you don't feel comfortable asking somebody for something because basically what you're doing when you do that is you're saying, hey, Mr. Seller, call me out of the blue. All right, you don't know me. I don't know you. Okay, we don't even know each other. All right, but let me ask you something. Just right off the bat here, would you sell your house so I can make some money? Because that's what I'm doing here. I'm trying to make some money. I'm here for me, not here for you. I'm here for me. I'm gonna make some money. This is the impression that we give when we do this. This is the impression that we give when we call sellers we don't know and ask them if they consider selling, if they would sell. Now, I understand there are certain situations where you have a buyer that's just like got money burning a hole in their pocket and you have to go out there and say, listen, this is a serious inquiry.  I have a buyer who has money burning a hole in their pocket and they want to be in your neighborhood. I understand that there are situations where you do that. I'm not against it at all. I've done it a lot in my career, made a lot of money doing it. But what I'm saying is that's not the only way and thinking that this is the only way programs us, especially if we're not the type of people who want to get into confrontational situations or that you have an anxiety about rejection, et cetera, it makes you veer away from doing this activity and literally this activity is the pinnacle of getting you worried. In my opinion, everything works. I mean, listen, go cold deal people on Instagram. Go do handwritten letters. I'm a big component of handwritten letters, made millions, handwritten letters. There's so many different ways to do this, but it all comes back to conversation. Even when you do the DMs on Instagram, even when you buy the Zilla leads, even when you do the handwritten letters, you have to talk. The next step is to talk to them, have a real conversation. So you can't get around that part. So that's what we have to kind of step back, reverse engineer ourselves into the situation and put ourselves in a position and give ourselves a perspective that will allow us to feel good about taking the action necessary to really ramp things up. Because remember, I want to do in a year, I want to do in a week the amount of work that every other agent in my market is doing in an entire year. That's how I became the number one agent in my market and that's how you have to think if you want to become the number one agent in your market. So it all comes back to conversation. So when I realized that, I was like, okay, boom, there's the missing piece. There's the magic bullet. There's the shiny penny. Have conversations with people and they're like, if I'm going to take it that far, let me go ahead and have conversations with the number one prospects out there, the people that own the properties that I want to sell. So this is where things got very interesting. So now I look back and I realize I was programmed to believe that the only way to get listings is to call sellers and ask them if they consider selling. And now I realize that's not the only way. It's actually the, not the worst way. I'm not going to say it's the worst way, but there are much better ways to do it. Now, let me take you through this process because I already mentioned this earlier. When we do it that way, we're calling them to get them to do something. We're calling them to give them something. We're calling to see if we can get them to give them to take something from them, which is what? A listing. This is what's on our mind, a listing. And so we're calling them to see if they'll give us a listing. If we can get them to give it to us, get them to do something. And there's really no upfront value happening or any reason for them to really connect with us. They're nice people, most of them.   But where I'm going with this is kind of what I mentioned earlier. If instead I'm not calling to see if they'll do anything or see if they'll give me something. If instead I'm calling to offer them something of real value, okay, then next thing you know, all of a sudden, they open up to me and they tell me everything that they do want to do. Now, let me give an example because I mentioned it earlier. I have a, let's say I have a four bedroom, all right, in a subdivision. I can look up on RedX and filter out all the three bedrooms and lower and have it literally like that. Snap of a finger, whole subdivision or even outside a whole mile radius, whatever. You get all the homes that are in the area and I could say, boop, three bedrooms are lower, bam, filters out all the four bedrooms and now I have this list and I can hit dial. Boom, I can start dialing them one at a time or multiple lines and I can call these people and I can say, hey, how you doing?  Here's who I am. Here's what company I'm with. Here's where I am. How you doing today? Cool me to. I'm enjoying the days and the gorgeous. Listen, I don't want to take too much of your time, okay, but I see you have a three bedroom here over here on this road or subdivision or whatever. And do you need a four bedroom? Because I got a really nice one right down the road. I'd really love to show you. Now, now what happens? What happens is, is that now I'm not calling to see if they'll sell their house. Now I'm calling to offer them a better life. Ooh, I'm offering them a better quality of life, a nicer house, a newer house, a bigger house, a better view on the water, whatever it is. Let's say I have a house on the water, call all the houses off the water and say, I see you have a house that's not on the water. I've got a really nice one on the water. Have you ever thought about living on the water? See what they say. Just see what they say. And now where the mister or misses make your life better. We're not, we're not the mister or misses here to get a listing guy here to get a listing agent. We're here as mister. I want to make your life better. Do you need a bigger house? Did you have a baby in the last year? Are you pregnant? Did you lose a job? Get a job? Did your mother-in-law move in? Do you need a house with a mother-in-law suite? What do you need? Do you need anything? I'm here to help you, right? This is what I do. I'm here to make your life better. And so I hope, I hope you're catching what I'm putting down here because you don't have to call from a what can you do for me perspective, but you can call with a what can I do for you perspective when you do. Listen, chances that they want the house you're calling about are pretty slim, but the chances they might want to do something, probably not that bad. It might not be a complete 50-50, but it's probably a pretty good chance. And listen, the probability they want to do something at some point in the future, really high. Really, really high. And when you think about this, I'll go a little further. If you're in this business and you plan on being in this business for 20 years, 15 years, 30 years, 10 years, whatever it is, five years, doesn't matter. You look at how long you're planning on being in this business.  How many deals are they going to personally do? How many referrals are they going to give out? And how many of those referrals are going to do multiple deals and refer more people out?  This is a breakthrough because you start to realize that every single prospect, whether they want to buy or sell a house today or not, could be worth anywhere from 10 to 20 to 30 to 50 to 100 deals to you over the life of your career. I'm just giving you a different perspective. I'm just helping you realize that there are different ways to think about this. And if you think about things in the right way, it takes a lot of the hustle and grind out of this. When you start to realize that what moves the needle and what needs to happen, because let's take it into the perspective of you're calling just to get listings or you're calling just to do deals or you're just calling to try to handle objections and get them to sign paperwork or set the appointments or whatever. And it turns them off. Wait a minute. This person is going to be possibly responsible for 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 deals to you through repeat business referrals and referrals of referrals of referrals of referrals. They could be worth 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 deals to you over the life of your career and you're turning them off because you're trying to do a deal today. You're going to trade 100 deals for one today that you don't even get. It doesn't make any sense. It took me a long time to understand this as well. It took me a long time to understand this, but when I got it, oh, my life completely changed. The way I communicated with people, my perspective on what the objective actually was behind the conversations, what I was doing to nurture these relationships, the time I put into the weekly email to make sure they knew that I cared about them through it and just the way that I talked to people. When I came back in the business, because when I lost everything in the crash, it was literally because I lived the way I'm telling you not to live. It's literally because I was chasing deals and when you chase deals in the market crashes, you crash.  When the market crashes, you flourish. And it took me having to lose everything to realize this. So when I came back, I started communicating with prospects second time around. The conversations are totally different. I could tell they cared about me. I could tell that I cared about them. It was more of a family, extended family type vibe. And I was just stacking deals and I was making so much money back then. It was just like heaven's sense. Anyway, good stuff. Let me know in the comments. Is this video helping you? Let's see what I got. I still got three more lives here and I don't want to take too much longer on these. So I kind of breezed through these. I've already laid down a lot of stuff today, but let's kind of dive into these last three and I'll let you guys get out of here. The success of your business has anything to do with the market. This is big. A lot of agents feel like if the market is down, their business is down. And the only reason it is is because they slow down with the market. It's the only reason that their business suffers because they slow down. Again, they come back, they retreat back to, well, if nobody's doing anything, what's the point? What's the purpose? Why would I go out here and make calls or make videos or knock on doors or even try to talk to anybody because nobody's doing anything? Well, the first problem with that is you're stereotyping everybody in your market.  The first thing you have to realize is that closings are happening every single day. So when you look in your MLS, you can go back to 2008. You can go back during the pandemic. You can go back any time you want to, any time. There's not a day in history that there weren't closings happening every single day. There wasn't. It didn't happen. And so when you realize that, you have to believe that closings are going to happen every day for the rest of your life, regardless of market conditions.  Yes, are we down? Does it fluctuate? Are some years better than others in terms of transactions and prices, etc.? Sure. Never goes to zero. And there's always plenty, plenty for you to do. People think there's a scarcity of business out there. And I think about it as an Apple, and I learned this from Myron, one of my mentors. He said an Apple, everybody thinks there's a scarcity of business, life and money. There's not. It's so abundant. It's not even funny. And a good illustration of this is an Apple.  But then you open the Apple and there's seeds. You open the Apple and there's seeds. You took an Apple off the tree. It's off the market. It's no longer available for anyone else. But yet, that Apple, you open it up and there's seeds. What do the seeds do? Each seed, let's say there's four, five, six seeds, it grows a whole tree of apples. And all those apples are full of seeds that grow more trees and more trees and more trees, all from the one Apple. So when you take something out of play of the market, when you take a seller off the market, you know, and list their property, now nobody else can list that property. Or you take money, right?  There's less money over there for these people, etc. Not true. Not true. It's so abundant, it's not even funny. And so when you think about this and you think about the fact that closings are going to happen every single day for the rest of your life, you have to realize, and I hope you realize in this video that your business can be fluctuated by the market, but it can never be taken out. If you're making a million a year and the market takes a big hit, you can go down to $800,000, $700,000, $900,000, sure! You make a $500,000 a year, you can go down to $300,000, $400,000, sure! Not going to go down to zero unless you quit, unless you quit doing what you needed, unless you quit working. You know? That's just the way it is. And at the same time, the market helps the business expand as the market re-expands. And what's funny about this before I move on is when the market re-expands, which is going to happen within the next however long, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 years, whenever it is, when it re-expands, it multiplies your business so many times. It took my business from 30 deals to 100 deals when it happened in 2014. So it 3xed, 4xed my business, right? But when the market pulled back, it only hurt it by 20%. So when the market re-expands, that's your biggest opportunity to explode your business if you take advantage before the expansion happens by expanding your influence and retargeting and remarketing these people. I say do it through a weekly email. But it multiplies your business, but it doesn't take it away at the same rate. It only takes it away like 20% or whatever from whatever that peak was. And that's what's very interesting to me. And when you start to realize this, you can start to play this out how your career is going to lay out. And I hope you realize this is your biggest opportunity right now to expand that influence and take advantage of what's coming soon. All right. So the market doesn't have anything to do with your success as an agent. Closings are happening every single day.  Lean into it. Knowing that, okay, even though I might be putting a lot of work and only closing a month right now, that's okay because I'm picking up 200 new possible prospects for the future every month that will pay off in millions of dollars. Okay. The next slide is that it's easy. 90% of agents fail. Why do they fail? Well, they come in and they think it's going to be easy.  I'm my own boss. I don't have as much money as I want. I can set them on hours, freedom and all that stuff. And they come in and after a couple weeks, they start to become a little bit frustrated because there's this mountain of knowledge that they realize they're not going to learn in a day. And then a couple months goes by, they become disappointed.  Maybe they've worked hard, maybe they haven't, but they've worked hard. And they, they haven't sold anything. So they hit this disappointment level. So it's really high, high. They get this really low, low. And at that point, most agents quit. They kind of give up, they kind of, they may stay in the business for a little bit, but that kind of hurt them so bad they couldn't stomach the ups and downs enough to hang in there. So they kind of slowly retreat, or maybe they quit right then. Whereas the future top producers, they get that level of disappointment and they say, oh, okay. They look around and they say, well, yeah, this is harder than I thought it was going to be. But look, this agent over here is crushing it. This agent over here is crushing it. If they can do it, I can do it. There's no doubt. I'm going to get back on the horse. And they do. They get back on the horse. They ride another high. They're excited. And this high isn't as high as that first high. And then they experience another low. The low isn't as low as that last low. And what happens is you get this number where there's really high, and it starts to level out over a little while. And you start to kind of get it and you start to understand when to become excited. You start to become, you start to know when to get disappointed.  So, yeah, it's not easy. And like I said, the best formula for success is to do what's easy now. And the best formula for success is to do what's hard now. If you want to fail, do what's easy. If you want to succeed, do what's hard now, because it'll be easy later. And if you fail, it's going to be easy now, but hard later. It's the exact opposite. And that's exactly how the real estate business is. It's not easy. The last one is people think they're too young. People think they're too old. People think they're too young for the business. I got in and I was 20 years old and, you know, brokers told me I was too young and they said, did you know 90% of agents fail in this business? I said, okay. I said, that's fair. I said, but did you know 10% of agents make it in this business? And I eventually found a broker that would take me and I was on a mission to prove those brokers that doubted me wrong. But going back to this too young, too old thing, I get it all the time. Agents think, how am I going to get, you know, I'm too young? Why are they going to trust me? Why are they going to give me a shot over these experienced agents and this, that and the other? And I get it. I get the mindset, but it's a very limiting mindset. And the problem is, you've got people that say I'm too young and then on the flip side, you've got people out there saying they're too old. So it's like, who's right and who's wrong here? The people are too young. They're not too young. They're not too young to say I'm too young. And the people that are older say I'm too old. The people that are older say everybody wants a younger agent. I'm missing listings. They're going with younger agents. More energy and, you know, more pizzazz and, you know, more tech savvy and all this stuff. And the younger agents will say I'm losing out to all these older experienced agents who have all this market knowledge and have sold all these hundreds and even thousands of properties and have negotiated all these big deals and have all this money for marketing and so on and so forth. And what you have to realize is that both sides of this are wrong, dead wrong. And the point is, is that no matter where you are in your career, you can make up a story in your mind about why somebody shouldn't choose you as an agent. You know, you can make up anything. Everyone has a reason why they shouldn't be someone's agent and guess what? They lose deals because of it.  It's true. But they also gain clients who want a younger agent. What you have to realize is that you're never going to get 100% of the prospects. I've lost, I've had more deals fall through than I've ever closed in my life. And that's a fact and I'm sure it's true that they've lost more deals than I've ever closed. So you just have to realize that it's not about being younger or old, right? It's about you taking advantage of the positives. Take advantage of the fact that you're young and have more energy and more tech savvy, etc. Take advantage of the fact that you have more time on your hands to do market research to even know more than the experts who are out there doing it. You know, when you're talking to a prospect and they're like, well, how many properties have you sold? None.  I'm going to spend eight hours a day on your deal.  I'm going to watch your deal and I'm going to talk to every agent. I'm going to talk to every buyer. I'm going to talk to everybody. I'm going to check with all the other agents who have listings in the area. Make sure I'm on top of every little activity that happens on other listings comparable.  Now, if you want a hard worker that's going to spend every waking hour on your deal, I'm your guy. I'm your guy. If you're looking for Mr. Hunter Dill a year, Ricky, down the road with 20 years experience who's closed a thousand deals, you can go down there and get Ricky. That's fine with me. It doesn't matter to me either way.  If you want to go talk to Hunter Dill a year, Ricky, look at him right in the eyes and say, okay, where's my deal going to be on your priority list? Where's my deal going to be on your priority list? Is it going to be at the top? You're going to spend eight hours a day working on just my deal? Because if not, I'm going to go with Mr. Young New Aging over here. I'm going to give him a shot because he said he'd do a little less on commission and, you know, he seems very motivated and he just, I have a good feeling about him and we'll go with him. That's what's going to happen.  And represent them the way that they want to be represented. Remember, we're not selling on what you want. We're not selling on trying to get a listing, you know, get the best commission. We're selling on their reasons. We're selling on what they want out of this. We're selling on why they want to sell, how they want to sell, what's their terms behind what they're trying to do in their life? This is where you win and lose the game and this is where... This splits the difference between average agents and professionals. The professionals go in not caring if they get the listing. They're more concerned with the person, what they have going on in their life, what their problems are, and what the solutions they can offer will be and what they can do to help them through the situation. That's what a professional does. It's not about the listing. It's about the person. It's about serving them and their needs. And not only does that help you win the deal, you know, but more importantly, it helps you win the client for life. All right? So anyway, that's the six lies that real estate agents believe. I hope you got a lot out of this. Very information-packed video with a lot of mindset stuff and tactical things. I mean, I went into all kinds of stuff, so I hope you got a lot out of this and appreciate the time I spent to make the video. Hit the like button, click Subscribe. Let me know if there's anything in the world I can do for you. Go to zerodenyman.com and start our 7-day free trial with my coaching program, Gold Bar. And I'll see you very, very soon. Let's go. I-35 with the top down. Quit the telehater. They should get it like everybody want it.


It's my pleasure and a great honor To warm welcome you on behalf on the world the World Economic Forum My name is Philip Ruslan. I'm managing director of the managing board. I'm responsible for all our regional summits around the world and first and foremost I Will say thank you to the Panamanian government to the Panamanian business society for these outstanding support and as well for these beautiful and excellent Yesterday's reception. So President Martinelli. Thank you very much And as we mentioned yesterday, they could not be a better place than the canal And they could not be better timing Then it's 100th anniversary because The canal Is a proof is a symbol how infrastructure Can connect economies markets regions and people and that is part our three days program But we have also major topics like inclusive growth fostering workforce improving skills education science and technology But to say you the truth The program Is not the reason for the uniqueness of the regional summit on Latin America There are two reasons First reason are you as our respective participants Because we all know that Latin America is the fast-growing very important region in the world It has become more and more important the global economic world map and We are not here only for three days We are not here to rush in for three days To make business for three days and rush out after three days. No We are interested in a long-term Relationship and a sustainable partnership in the friendship. I know that is your mind-setting of doing business and the second reason is You as participants as well Because I'm convinced that you know many organizations and institutions which can bring people together particular business leader and public figures but the composition of All our participants is unique and the composition mirrors the philosophy of the world economic forum Our multi stakeholder idea. We are fear our politicians Seven heads of states heads of government From far away from Cosimo your prime minister We are fear more than 20 ministers state secretary. So public figures more than 400 CEOs business leaders social entrepreneurs We are fear science education and the youth for example our global shaper and young global leader And I'm convinced That these kind of garrison gathering is becoming more and more important because although we have Internet fucks Facebook Twitter and what's up? The personal contact is crucial to see in the eyes of your counterpart and Then to decide if she or he is a good business partner partner or at the end a friend That ladies and gentlemen is Our way to bring people together That is a way of the world economic forum to create a community of interest interest the region of Latin America to create a community of purpose to support you to Shape your regional agenda in Latin America And that is our way to create a community of actions actions to improve the state of the world and after the next three days actions to improve the state of Latin America So ladies and gentlemen The regional summit 2014 on Latin America is now opened Then please to thank you all our co-chairs the three days and to hand over to Marisol Agüeta our senior director and head of Latin America and let me say thank you to Marisol and her team for this outstanding preparation of our regional summit on Latin America now the floor is yours Thank you very much Marisol Thank you very much Philip. Indeed. We have had an outstanding support with the government of Panama The people of Panama and very specially from president Ricardo Martinelli. We're very very grateful, mr. President I would also like to acknowledge the presence of the president of Kosovo who's here with us today Welcome madam president. It's an honor to have you We're opening today the ninth world economic forum on Latin America with a presence of 650 Leaders from the region and from outside of the region in fact from 50 different countries in the world This is really a very important moment for Panama and for Central America We're very proud of being here mr. President and people of Panama Before beginning I would like to convey our sympathies to President Michelle Bachelet and to the people of Chile who have endured the very difficult moment of the earthquake that happened yesterday and I would also like to make a special a special acknowledgement to the participants from Venezuela that despite the ongoing very worrisome situation in their country have managed to be with us today a Welcome, you're very welcome, and we look forward into supporting favorable fair Unsensible solution to the strife that you're enduring at this time We have very distinguished guests in our panel today. We have with us. Mr. Ricardo Martinelli the president of Panama Kamala first start business are the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago Mrs. Laura Chinchia the president of Costa Rica and president Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala The main question we will be addressing this morning is What strategies are Latin American countries pursuing to achieve inclusive growth? We will begin with you mr. President This Central American country which has a privileged geographic location and a buoyant economy Has invested in infrastructure and has introduced business friendly policies that embodies the Dynamism and the potential that this region has President Martinelli Panama. I'm a tenio tazas de crecimiento Tadama has had impressive growth rates It has been able to grow up 17 spaces in the global competitiveness index carried out by the World Economic Forum and Also, it has positioned itself in an amazing way as a key player in international trade Can you please share with us? What have been the main drivers? Behind these successful results. What are the recommendations that you would give to the leaders? The heads of states in Latin America to boost the sustainable growth in the region Thank you very much. Very much Marisol first on welcome madame price prime minister and Distinguished leaders of the World Economic Forum distinguished guests. I would like to wish first of all the recovery to the leader of the World Economic Forum who is going through different health issues and I'm going to proceed to respond all of the countries have a policy Called red carpet in order to attract investors and when you go to the different countries What you have is pretty much red tape instead and it's hurtful to say this Because the truth of the matter is that Panama's success has been in the first place That I am not a politician. I'm a businessman and as a businessman. I'm used to Looking and focusing on results and because we have a red tape policy Which is very difficult to take apart from one day to the next I think that the most important thing is For the precedent to be behind all of the projects the precedent has to be following up continuously Throughout all the work taken by the government because the steps and the procedures that all of our countries follow With that famous red tape Make the situation difficult and the execution difficult as well in Panama For example on the first thing that you're recommended when you hold the position as a president Is that you need to help certain sectors of the economy in order for those sectors to be productive and Feasible and the Economist always talk about the infant industry theory We did the exact opposite. However The government began with an aggressive public investment plan and by having this We had to reorganize the tributary and the fiscal Programs in Panama because there were many sectors that were simply not paying taxes There were many sectors for example the banking industry in Panama, which is a very successful industry had an average rate of 7.8 percent tax rate, however the Worker in the bank it could be the cashier or the manager himself paid 27.5 percent things that were so unjust had to be balanced out and So Panama's success is based on the fact that our budget 45 of 45 cent of every dollar is invested in infrastructure Everything that Panama has done has been to take advantage of its competitive advantage its geographic position the inter-oceanic canal the port hub That according to the World Economic Forum is the fourth best connected airport in the world The port hub, it's the sixth most important according to the World Economic Forum as well And likewise we have began with a very aggressive policy to change the education system in Panama Because it was lagging lacking it was obsolete and with a social inclusion policy According to the statistics 38 percent of Panamanians lived in poverty and extreme poverty But currently 23 percent live in poverty and extreme poverty So there has been an important reduction of poverty and extreme poverty due to the economic growth that there has been which it has been an average of nine percent in the past five years and Also, thanks to the fact that we are in a full employment economy and Also, thanks to the legalization of all the foreigners here in Panama that was a very risky move because in Panama, there are many foreigners and They were they were part of the informal economy Every time they were stopped by an officer or a policeman what was promoted was corruption and so because they are now legal and the taxes have been reduced and to give a Close follow-up to all of these strategic investments that the country has done as a state For example, this week we're going to be opening or launching the metro or the subway of Panama this Saturday, it's 14 kilometers and Soon we're going to be beginning or launching the second line Which has 27 meters and the third line that's going to be a monorail That's going to go to a city in the west side of Panama called Chorreira What we have done is to connect the points and I advise for you to listen to that famous speech from Stephen Jobs from Stanford University 2005 called connecting dots and what we have done in Panama is precisely that collecting connecting the competitive advantages that the country has The possibilities of being successful in areas as mobility air and Land transportation and maritime transportation. You mentioned that the best foreign of the First ministers has been the Venezuelan presidents and I say this as a joke in Other countries in Latin America there is a Lack of Tranquility or an attack to the freedom of speech or direct attack towards the private sector the citizens of those countries try to find Better returns on their investment Safer places and Panama has become a safer place It has become a safe place because it's protected from tsunamis earthquakes. There's low inflation. It's a safe Country where there isn't Envy towards foreigners. It's a country that receives with open arms people from abroad and That is a very important competitive advantage that the government has had because we've been able to have good Income through the collection of taxes and to implement an inclusive social program and boost economic growth without Economic growth. We would not be able to have social inclusion without this The country will not be able to change the education system And so I believe that the most important thing that I have done as a president has been changing the old Economic and financial structures that we had in Panama Giving opportunity to those that didn't have them previously by charging the taxes and giving a close follow-up To each procedure so that the investment were done and carried out and it has taken me five years to go to all the world economic forums and those held in Latin America so that this Summit was possible here in Panama because the best promoter that our country has is its President and the president and I advise all the presidents that are here to go to all the world economic forums because This is the place to be this is where you get to know people and this is where you move investments Philip seems to be very happy by what I'm saying Honestly all of the countries look to attract investment But the way that you attract investment more quickly and the best promoter that a country can have is its precedent At the same time however when the investors come to the countries they find this enormous amounts of red tape and bureaucracy and That bureaucracy and red tape has to be eliminated Progressively and that is not the work of a precedent. However when a work Within a state budget Carried out the precedent also wants to give a good follow-up from the beginning to the end. Thank you, Mr. President. We also have with us more than 400 Important leaders in Latin America and also from outside of the region. What message would you like to give to this business sector? What is the role in these successful strategies? I think it's very important that we like to advise all of the business people to participate in Politics if you are not part of politics someone else that does not have the capacity and your experience is going to step in This is not to give a donation to a businessman or to put the most foolish Relative to go in and become a politician. It's not a matter of donating money to who you think is going to win This is about participation and the person Needs to accept the position through selection One thing is the position through election Which is an issue because it does have an impact in the personal and private life and also costs in sacrifices and another thing is When a precedent is selected to be or a person is elected to be a minister or a company director My recommendation for all the business people in the private sector is for you to support your leaders Regardless of their tendency or the country that they come from because if Leader a country leader does not receive good advice and there's no support from the private sector Believe me. He's going to be receiving advice from other people that don't think the same way And that is the reason why I stepped in politics. I went into politics because I was perhaps as many of you I went to the parties talking about politics and I was criticizing but a minister once told me look from the outside We don't pay attention to you because all you're doing is criticizing you have to step inside so that in word Inside you can promote changes So my advice is for you to become involved in politics and for you to participate in the way that you consider is most appropriate for the improvement of the country and Also, because when a businessman Participates the person supports the country for its improvement. Thank you, mr. President Now we are going to Introduce Another successful story in our region It has been known for its notable economic success It ranks among the top 40 countries in the income per capita And it's no longer considered a developing car a country according to the OECD Its economic success has been based on the influence of the energy industry it has passed from become from being an oil best based economy to a Oil if to a gas based economy the natural gas based economy But you have also diversified it very very much into the services sector You have invested in developing tourism in developing the finance financial sectors And you have also had important success in manufacturing But economic growth is in fact of very little use without investment in the region's most Precious resource and this is its people Can you tell us madam prime minister about your social policies as well? I understand that you have been very committed in Promoting gender parity and addressing the needs of women and girls and Trinidad and Tobago Can you share what have them being the most successful policies towards that end and What is the impact that these policies have had? Certainly. Thank you. May I first? Take a moment to thank his Excellency President Martelly for inviting us here to Participate in this forum and for the warmth and hospitality of the government and people of Panama on partner rival May I also take one moment To share our concerns with respect to the natural disaster which occurred in Chile Just yesterday seems a long ago and so we share the concerns of the people there And of course in any way that we can assist from the region. We would be willing so to do With respect to your specific questions Yes, we are oil based energy based natural gas oil and natural gas and that Presents a curse as well as a blessing. I would have heard of the curse of oil where our economy is so Strongly dependent on the energy sector What happens is that the other sectors have been left aside? And the wages are so high the salaries are so high in the energy sector It is difficult to get people to work in other sectors in the economy One strategy that we have deployed was that of ensuring that every single child had a place in a primary school and Every single child thereafter would have a place in a secondary school We are now working towards a universal preschool education That is to say from ages three to five. We are well on our way to that We're building the preschool centers as we speak and we're about we hope to be about 60 percent history Education by the end of this year. So if you if you would want to say what I see as being The son the focal point for development and inclusive growth would be education Education is a passport out of poverty Education is your key to a better quality of life and that is where I've really generated a lot of my efforts now as prime minister I'm proud to becoming prime minister in my past life I was Minister of Education and when I was then Minister of Education I'd set that policy in the year 2000 for a free Secondary education. So for 10 years we have had every person in my country having the opportunity to access secondary education In addition to that when I became prime minister I promised in my In my conversations on the campaign trail I had promised it should be formed a government that every single child Entering the secondary school would be given a laptop computer. So education. Yes and technology I think those are two drivers for Greater inclusive growth We've did form the government and this year will mark five years It means that every child in a secondary school form one two three four five everyone Would have had access to a laptop and that process will continue In other ways what we have sought to do is diversified economy We like to think of ourselves because of where we are positioned like Panama We are very protected because we're very far south in the Caribbean and therefore the hurricane belt Officially be outside of the hurricane belt, you know, the hurricanes are very devastating to a lot of the Caribbean islands so that location English speaking a highly educated workforce and In the world standard we have been we have been voted as the world's third Happiest people in the world the third happiest people in the world.  We like to think of ourselves as the gateway to the Americas between Eastern and Western Located there in the Atlantic and in the Caribbean basin So I invite you to come to Trinidad Tobago present Martelli has been there And we were very happy to have him all the leaders in the region We have a lot of opportunities for investment because we are seeking to diversify the oil and gas sector We are looking into tourism as you mentioned. We are looking into ICT Development we are looking into shipbuilding the maritime industries several areas about seven pillars the foundations for diversify our economy and for lift-off in terms of that Those are our strategies basically I invite you as I say to come we have the world's greatest carnival No disrespect to Brazil The Trinidad Tobago carnival is one of the greatest in the world. Why? Because it's not at one venue. It's entire Nation through Auckland land that is an industry itself the creative industries We are seeking to expand the fashion industry the creative industry for those who have been really will tell you There was a Panamanian young lady who came this year to a carnival. I met her here. I said, how was it? She said I cried I just cried Why did you cry? She said it was just overwhelming it because it's just Thousands and thousands and thousands of people on every street on every corner in every park. That's our creative industry I welcome you to turn out and to be go. Thank you very much Philip. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you so much And we have among us another great woman leader from the region president Laura Chinchilla period president Dear president Costa Rica's in the process to become part of the Alliance of the Pacific and your country is known globally For many different successes among these due to the environmental awareness and the visionary investment in education a bet towards Development in the different sectors and also because of the strong democracy and very solid institutions The next April 6 we're going to have presidential elections in Costa Rica And we would like to know what is the legacy that you're leaving behind in Costa Rica the most precious legacy after your mandate Well, good morning, and thank you very much Marisol. Thank you Ricardo as well for hosting this event where Once again, we have a confirmation of the enormous capacity that Panama has been developing From the point of view of the invitation of different events and being a host We can see the modernization efforts that especially in terms of logistics and infrastructure Panama has offered to the whole world. It's also a pleasure to share This space with my colleagues from Guatemala and Trinidad and Tobago and of course with this enormous community of business people people from academia and also Others that are connected and concerned with the global agenda Specifically in this chapter of the forum on Latin America as Marisol was mentioning We are very close to the new chapter in Costa Rica as once again For many years We have already been one of the oldest and strongest democracy in Latin America We're going to go to the presidential elections To have a relay in the government and now that I was listening to Ricardo Martinelli about the enormous Facilities that are offered to the foreigners that I was asking myself Maybe he would like to welcome me and have give me a Migration privilege because I'm going to be out of the job soon So I promise not to compete with the Panamanian politicians. That would be an advantage Well, yeah, so we're going to go to presidential election soon as we have always done it in the framework of a great civic Fervor and respect also despite the differences in different parties and We hope that Costa Rica is able to maintain what perhaps has been its biggest distinctive seal when Marisol So gently introduced me She highlighted at least four elements that I consider tend to be key in the development of any nation Because nations as in the case of human beings are societies are living beings and they require in the same way as a human being requires the taking care of many balances so that that development is The most balanced type of development possible and that has been the distinctive seal of Costa Rica a very small country But that can manage to have Achievements institutionally in human development environmental sustainability and Also integration with the world for me. These are the four essential elements by which a government and a President has to guarantee in order to have that balanced development that we should aspire to and so Sometimes it's very difficult to be able to have a quick summary In one term What your footprint is going to be for example for a country like Costa Rica where the obligation that we have is to try to maintain that balance for example When a president in Costa Rica is asked, how are you going to grow? How are you going to add one two or three points to the girls internal product? Immediately they know that they're never going to be able to do it competing with cheap labor Or they're not going to be able to do it degrading the environment because we have expressively set aside to the exploitation of the environment Costa Rica does not want to exploit oil or extract gold and so it's much more complex to imagine the Platforms that would take into account all these elements to have a balance So I'm going to quote for each one of these pillars where I consider that we have had a legacy Which what it does what it does is to be part of that Developed and wholesome development that Costa Rica has aspired to in terms of Institutionality without a doubt the biggest challenge that we had as President Mastinette Martinetti mentioned was the issue of an excessive bureaucracy. So we tackled it strongly to have a improvement in the regulations in 2003 the World Bank considered us one of the ten countries in the world that improved the most in this issue I have to recognize that we still have much room to grow Because the truth is that it was an element that was reducing competitiveness in addition we also Foster a good practice that I recommend for Latin America Which is to integrate a presidential council of competitiveness and I chair that Board and it has a participation of the private sector It allowed us to agree into an agenda that we kept for this period of time And we were able to have important progress in many policies that affected the competitiveness of economy The third element in terms of the strengthening of the institutions or institutionality was to fight Strongly to Begin our process of adherence to the OCDE Because if something had affected the development in Latin America in its institutions It's not to have a clear route of where you want to move forward The OCDE is a club of good practices and we are going to be part of it the OECD We're going to be part of it in 2015 in human development We consider the education and it is the key axis or the pillar and from that point forward We consider that Universal education has been available for several years and so the challenge was not a challenge of axis but rather one of quality and Belonging and so we had important curricular reforms that were connected to the introduction of the logical thought process math science Technical education was also a key pillar. We brought in the culture of technical education And we also wanted to be assessed against the best standard because it's not valid to say oh, we're the best educational system in Latin America Chile and Costa Rica are Because we know the Latin America is a disaster from the educational point of view So we went to be evaluated against the piece of standards and this is also Giving us a position that shows quality and education and finally in terms of human development We extended as a universal access access all of the health care attendants to early childhood And so we're trying to close the gaps between children of different social sectors in terms of sustainable development I don't want to elaborate much on but I just want to highlight that there cannot be in Development with inclusion if we don't consider the sustainability component and the challenge in Costa Rica was To look beyond and we're the fifth greenest country in the world But we had not taken into account the blue agenda as we showed and also the topic of integration with the world Now it's not enough for nations like Costa Rica that have been open nations to sign bilateral trade agreements to provide Safety and security to investment and to promote trade the country progresses in a Reconfiguration in commercial blocks the agreement between Europe and the United States is perhaps one of the challenges The greatest challenges that the Latin American economy is going to face in this regard. We celebrate the Alliance group alliance trade group of the Pacific and we went with Panama We were one of the first countries that raised our hand to be members as observers and fortunately the last meeting in Cartagena in Colombia It was approved for Costa Rica to be the fifth country to be part of the Alliance of the Pacific And we think that one of the best things that has happened in Latin America is this it's a group of serious nations It's a group of nations that advocate for a solid integration of their economies And it is a group of nations that also is very clear on Where the world is heading in the next years. Thank you very much Thank You madam president We also have here with us Another head of state who is leaving an important legacy in Latin America President of Guatemala from the beginning of his office has been committed with the promotion of innovative policies in order to be able to phase woes that have been very severe in Latin America and Insecurity and the drug trafficking is one of these we have already seen mr. President that there is more awareness in terms Of the need to involve the civil society and the private sector in providing proactive responses and collaborative Efforts in order to address this issue We have also seen important measures that have been carried out in terms of new regulations in the United States Specific states of the country and also you're why that deep penalizes the use of certain drugs Can you tell us what your diagnosis would be and what your next steps would be in order to advance in? Innovative and cooperative matter or way in order to address this issue Thank you very much to all of you Thank you to the president and to Ricardo Martinelli and the first prime minister to be with us today As it was said by Ricardo who was fighting for five years to bring the forum here to Panama We have had two years in the same struggle and we hope that what Malah We hope that it still will continue in the president as presidency We have four years to go and we are you will be welcome to go to Guatemala the topic that is very important of the safetyness and Before I get into this topic. I would like to tell you That many Think that Latin American is a very violent region that many emphasized that Latin America The problems that Central America has and within the problems of Central America the north triangle That is called Honduras Salvador and Guatemala's because they are close to Mexico and of course Because the closeness with Mexico and the United States But before I enter about that topic I would like to mention that the region of Latin America is a region with a lot of potential and more so To frame the violence and their societies I think that as well as is being said by the colleagues of states that just have spoken the potential That has been demonstrated by Panama for the growth the stability the growth that Costa Rica has had for a long time The potential and the development of Trinidad and Tobago and many countries of the region. It is important Every day it could be reinforcing that potential That there is in Latin American region and of course to make emphasis of the potential that it is in the region of Central America in the countries of Sica We have been doing a great effort Not just in the safety that I'm going to be talking about that for the integration of our countries And we do that because we need to have economies of a bigger scale Guatemala we are 15 a million of People from Guatemala, but if we gather that the region we are 45 millions in Central America And we add south of Mexico. We have 70 million of this region There is a more interesting economy for entrepreneurs and for the investment that could come and from there We have made an effort, of course in Guatemala As well as Panama and Costa Rica and the other countries of Latin Central America They are in the same struggle to be able to obtain the confidence of the institutions That is something that it gives the stability and The opportunity of that potential for investors in there to come to the region and the region could be Better the infrastructure That so we could facilitate that the cost of the logistics is very important we are projecting six million of three times three millions of that and 1500 megas in energy renewable energy that they are already Invested in our countries and they're going to be ready in two years Not only to place us as a country with the cheapest energy, but it's also an effort to facilitate That those investment would stay at the 28th of this month. I could have I will have the opportunity in Mexico in a meeting That with the chiefs of states in the Caribbean chiefs of states and there I will have the opportunity and and I am very grateful to the president of Mexico's to have That it goes from Guatemala To Mexico then it's going to be a big change Regardless of the efforts that we have done it is going to cost 600 millions of dollars and that is the first step For Central America and we could hope that in the future This gas pipe would go to all the countries in Central America And I mentioned this because each one of our countries is is making their best effort to That to have all those opportunities But there we have a point that is always brought up and I am glad that is here in this forum too is the violence that them and the Vincolation that we have That could be the transit or the or the consumption of the this drugs I would like to say that regardless that Decisions have not really been made in this topic and the change of that this Policies in this drugs. They are steps that they've been done already We have had and I appreciate that Presidente Martinelli and of course Costa Rica that they were with me in Guatemala Recently and to start talking about this and we started talking about this Because in effect it has been in different forms and we believe that what we have said It has a solid base 50 years in this struggle against this ah traffic of drugs and and the results are not No, they are not the ones that we really hope to have this traffic of drugs is really Attached to violence and on safety in this in the countries This means that part of this that we have really following in this years They have not really given us the results that we'd like and we have to start looking at another alternatives that Could give off the privilege or that could give us another roots instead of Continue doing the same that we have been doing for the 50 years I think we I hope that it could give us the results But I also would like to say that there are also things that every country is doing and what I could say It's about Guatemala. We have done very important things in the law in the last two years and in the city we have obtained thirty-seven percent lower of the homicides and Thirty-seven percent of homicides in two years and this year We're going to lower to 50 percent to lower this homicides in the city of Guatemala in the department of Guatemala We have been able to lower to twenty-two percent and in Guatemala and the city of Guatemala They they were it was concentrated fifty percent of all the delinquency in In the city so we have to continue with the same models that they are really Working there are many things that we also doing in each one of the countries and that they are giving us important results I would like to say something also that is really important. I listen the other day precisely in another forum Something like this that someone could say that the best policy Social policy that it could be is a good economic policy and now I could add something else that the best policy that of Safety is is that the countries could have is also a good economic policy And because if we measure that if we have less poor people more employment more investment more opportunities We also been fighting against the poverty and also against the violence in the That we cannot deny that we they are levels that we really have to fight against and the region is working and they are They are making the best efforts. There is a big growth as it's being said like Panama and 3.5 growth last year Guatemala is also going Working very with the different sectors in the country and As we said in Mexico we can we we can be Under side or we fight with the private sector or work with the private sector and Guatemala We are working with the private sector and we are going to continue doing that with the private sector because that they want to invest And and give the opportunity to see if we put together all this situation I think that Central America and Latin America has great possibilities To take advantage of this potential And I think that we're going to be looking at this growing with a lot of importance Energy that you mentioned is a very important point for the development Sustainable development of our region Also, safety is that the public safety is very important and we also have another kind of safety net the human safety net And in that aspect Latin America had advanced Tremendously reducing the poverty from 44 percent to 30 percent in the last decade And according numbers of the world backup from yesterday for the first time The percentage of the population in the middle class Is above the the the poor Numbers we are talking about a middle class That's about 35 percent 32 percent in Latin America And that is a poor Uh population of 30 percent, but in the middle of this population, there's a lot of vulnerability And we would like to continue Asking too much really what is the strategy that you would recommend especially in terms of Private sexual participation What what do you think? How can this be attended in order to continue reducing the poverty And what are the opportunities to give these opportunities to the latin america and that is that we can go back to the same Thank you very much. I think that latin america Is full of opportunities The integration That the central americans are having and also with the Incorporation of the pacific partnership or alliance which are Business oriented and not ideological oriented and with the boosting middle class I think that the consumption market that we will have in latin america The opportunities that there are in all of the countries There are some countries that are wasting a lot of time like argentina and venezuela but there are countries that Eventually are going to recover and with Brazil starting to look outwards instead of inwards. I am sure That what is happening in latin america, which is the continent that has Wasted a lot of time in politics and social experiments that have not Had good results. I think that the solution the latin america has is to increase the trade amongst ourselves to point towards that middle class so that it's not the sole taxpayers and also to Give opportunities to the multi latin companies in different countries So that they have an opening of their capital So that all of us are able to be part of the growth in latin america. Thank you, mr. President Tomorrow, we're also going to be witnesses of a very important signature, which is the signature of the A free trade agreement between panama and mexico Congratulations, mr. President On the issue of social


Good morning. So I'm Chicago Wilson. I am an assistant professor at the University of Maryland College Park. So what I'll do is, in the timekeeper, definitely keep me on time. Thank you. Just going to lay out what I do as a licensed citizen science, and maybe come in at a different route, maybe more of the earlier presentation about environmental health. So I'm an environmental health scientist. And so a lot of work that I do is in partnership with community groups. So we use what we call the community-based participatory research framework. But for me, CBPR and also citizen science are not really that new. And so I see citizen science as a paradigm that really is something that we should do more of, and as an academic, I think it can be supplemental to some of the work that I do. But also it should be able to replace a lot of what we do. And in a lot of the communities that I work with, they're differentially exposed to hazards. So this is a whole issue of environmental justice. And so a lot of the work that we do is not just about knowledge production, because as the previous speaker just mentioned, there's been a lot of exploitation of communities. And so we talk about a lot of the communities that I work with, they've been impacted by what we call scientific racism. So you go into a community. You do the helicopter research. It's very extractive. You're working a community of color, and nothing comes back to really actually solve the problem. You also have research that's been done. And this is why, again, citizen science is important when you have scientific colonialism. So you're going into a community, and you're there all the time, right? So your students are learning. You're getting grant dollars. You're getting publications. You're getting tenure promotion. And still, nothing is done to really address the problem. Then you have scientific imperialism. So that gets to the issue of who dominates the scientific agenda, who makes the, this could be the government agencies. These could be the major universities who gets represented in the news about, it's been the leaders in the field. And again, that really defeats the purpose of what science in my opinion should be. So a lot of the science that I do, science has value. We bring our own values to the science. So in the work that I do, we follow what we call Boyer's five dimensions of science. So it's the science of inquiry, data production, which is the one in academia that's the one that's most commodified, the one we emphasize the most. There's the science of teaching, learning from each other. There's the science of interdisciplinary science. So you want to be able to address the issue for multiple dimensions. It has to be prismatic, right? So since science is important for that, there's the science of engagement and there's the science of application. So getting back to the issue of, so what? For us, it has to be translated to action. If you're just doing science with just knowledge production for the communities that are working, where they're being impacted by a landfill, where they're being impacted by a coal fire plant, that's the issue of cumulative burden. So it's not just one source of pollution. There's multiple facilities that release the multiple chemicals through multiple routes and pathways of exposure. There's also other stressors, non-chemical stressors, including psychosocial stressors. So you can be a community doing this research and we find out that poverty impacts health, that your exposure to chemicals impacting your health. They know that already. So what are you doing as it relates to using the data actually translating the real action? What could be policy change? What could be some kind of, five minutes already? Wow. Some other kind of, okay, cool. Thank you. Some other kind of intervention. And so for me, you know, citizen science, if you think about, I don't have, again, I don't have any slides, but we have this community-engaged paradigm. So if you can visualize the paradigm, the left side of the paradigm, you can start out with outreach. You move to involvement. You move to consultation. Then you move to participatory and community driven. Right? So within that paradigm, you can have citizen science, where in some cases, some of the work I do, we're doing more outreach. We may be doing involvement in having community members help collect data. I have a mosquito project in Baltimore. We're looking at green space, urban form, and mosquito habitats. That is really more in an involvement, right? We have another project. We're looking at stormwater management issues in DC. And we're training community members to use best management practices to reduce stormwater inputs into Chesapeake Bay. And so it has more involvement consultation. It also has more participatory. But most of my work is more of the participatory community driven end of this paradigm. And so when the community groups that I work with a long term is the Western Revitalization Association, they're a community based environmental justice organization in Mebben, North Carolina. They were gonna be impacted by a highway without any input. They have what we call the lack of basic amenities limited access to public regulated sewer and water infrastructure. So they're in the city limits, but they're still on well water, roads are not paved, and they still have septic tanks. And so part of our work with that group, they came with their own framework called community owned and managed research in part in response to some of the researchers from my university, UNC, who were then very, they were exploiting them to been very extractive. So they fired all the academic researchers and they brought in students. And I was a student at the time when I started working with WERA to really help them build the research structures to collect data and use that data for action. And so part of what we did, we trained community members collected on water samples to look at the levels of microbes, fecal coliforms, E. coli, entericocca, and also colophages to see if the water was contaminated from due to their septic waste. And also the took samples of local from local rivers and streams to understand whether or not their waste was impacting water quality. And so they were able to leverage that data to block the highway. They were also able to use some of that data to get first time installation of sewer water infrastructure and use that data to get the roads paved. Now it's still a lot of work that needs to be done, but that's translating research to action, right? It's us very, so to me, that is sort of the foundation of the work that I do in my career. Since that experience as a student, I've used that sort of Comer principles, equity and funding, parody and management, make sure the data is used for compliance, the data is used for action. Out of that paradigm came what we call legal epidemiology, a legal based epidemiology, where you have the exposure disease paradigm, instead of just focused on this whole black box of all these chemical exposures and stresses and figuring out what the disease, stress of A leads to disease B, we focus more on the left side of the paradigm and say what are the sources? Are they in compliance with building codes? And really trying to figure out what are the sources of exposure and then what laws are not in compliance with leveraging Title VI and using that in a way to again address the problem to get a compliance and to get action and not been sucked on the whole epi-trap. We don't allow the epi-trap to stop us from getting action. So that's the paradigm that came out of the work, excuse me, with where? Another group that I work with long term is the Low Country Laws for Model Communities. It's a community group based in North Charleston, South Carolina. They are basically economically stressed, underserved, African-American neighborhoods who are gonna be impacted by the port of Charleston. It's the port, you know, all, because of goods moving across the country, all the ports are expanding, right? So this is a goods movement community. And so they have some of the traditional EJ issues, coal-fired plants, superfund sites, an old incinerator, thank you. An old incinerator and other facilities that have psychosocial stresses, poverty and some other issues. And so what we were able to do was to, part of the citizen science, they came to us to help them really wanted to figure out what were some of the baseline contamination issues in the community before the port expansion. They can use that as part of the mitigation plan agreement with the Port Authority. And so we helped train community members to collect their own air pollution data, a PM25, a PM10, collect soil contamination data near a superfund site and also near an incinerator. And so that data's being used as part of the local environmental decision-making. It's helped them with zoning and planning sort of discussions with the city. It's helped them really implement the mitigation plan agreement in a way that's more community-driven. And also what came out of that, sort of the next steps, what came out of that, the collaboration, a new community group was established called C-CRAB. It's the Charleston Community Research to Action Board because they really wanted to have a community RRB. And so that C-CRAB group, I'm gonna squeeze a little bit more time out of it. That C-CRAB group is a group that's really driving the research now and really driving, making sure the research that we do in the future is, again, it's about action. There was a sister group that was established called Women Against Environmental Injustice, Wage. So it's another group that came out, like a product of this collaboration. And then we also, we do a lot of public participants who are GIS, PPGIS. And so we have a website called EJ Radar. It's still sort of in beta mode, but we have all the data online. So we've been training community members to map their data. And we're actually gonna have a training session in February. The community group got some grant money from a local foundation. So we can come back down to Charleston, train them to map their data, and again, they can use those maps to help with local decision-making. So I could go on and on. I have other partnerships too, but thank you. Thanks. If I could have the panelists come to the front.