What's up everybody? Ricky Kruth here. Welcome back to another zero to diamond show. This is show number two, since it started doing this in this format. Today we got Parker Gray with this. What's up Parker? Going on Ricky. How you doing? Just chilling man. Trying to make it all happen, you know? Yep. So the reason I wanted to bring you on is because you're a newer agent kind of going through that struggle in the beginning of building your business, building momentum. And so I thought it would be really cool to have someone at your level. Yeah. Come on and kind of talk about what you're going through because this is the part right here that people really need to hear. Yeah. You know, they need to hear about the struggle and the vision and how you need to, you know, the grind that it takes, the vision that it takes, the actions and the routines and everything we've been talking about. So like how long have you been in real estate? So I got my license last April but kind of like a lot of people who start in real estate, you know, they're kind of clinging on to a previous job which is kind of the situation I was in. Went through the training at Keller Williams but didn't really know what I was doing. A lot of people who get into real estate, they're making some kind of a lateral move or you know, they might have a general understanding of real estate but like when you talk about somebody who knew nothing about real estate like that was me when I got my license. So I mean, I hung onto that job until you know, like January of this year, I had kind of a health thing in between there and then but really I wasn't really doing anything productive and didn't know what to do or where to go because I was just mangled up in all these different real estate scripts and didn't have any kind of a sphere or anything like that. So I mean, I've had my licenses then but it wasn't until really December, January when I found your stuff and started clinging to it that I really became an agent and you know, started taking it seriously. Cool. So what was your other job? So I actually, well when I was, I'm only 22 I think I'm the youngest agent in my office but when I was in high school and I was 17 I worked at JCPenney, worked my way up into management and then we started selling major appliances. I wanna say 2017. So I got into major appliances sales and I excelled did really well at it was in the top of my district. And then I kind of was just looking to take sales to the next level but I also knew I wanted to get into property investments. And so after talking to some business owners and people that have done property investment they said, there's no better opportunity to learn real estate and to get a jump on the market than to become an agent and I already wanted to be in business anyway so both of those worlds kind of collided and here I am. All right, so are you still working your job or are you doing real estate? No, I have it on the back burner. I mean, I'll come in for a shift every couple of months until I basically term out because I still get paid time but I am a hundred percent all in on real estate. So that's where I'm at, yep. So okay, so you started taking real estate serious in December, January, what happened at that moment and how did you, what did you see? What happened at that moment that like, what was the switch that flipped that changed everything and made you go in this direction? Yeah, so you know, Ricky, honestly, I realized a couple of things. Now I actually, there was a guy that came into our office and he, I can't remember, he was with, I think it was Tony Robbins. He was with Tony Robbins and he did a speech on motivation and he talked a lot about your why and he said, you're never gonna go anywhere if you don't have a strong enough why and you really have to understand why you want to do something in order to truly get there. And I knew all the potential that there was in real estate and I realized, man, I got a girlfriend that I wanna propose to and get married to in the next couple of years. I wanna buy a house, I wanna have kids, I have all these big plans and so that's the moment I was like, okay, if I really wanna take these things seriously and I wanna provide for my family, it's selfish if I choose not to put every ounce of energy that I can into real estate. And you know, there'd been hiccups and bumps along the way and sure, definitely a lot of growing pains, trying to learn the business and prospecting and all those things, but seeing things finally start to come to fruition has been big and just the understanding that there's a lot of work that goes into it and if you wanna be successful, you have to really put the work in that realization when that speaker came in and said, you're not gonna do anything unless you have a strong Y that really opened my eyes and maybe think about what my Y is. Yeah, like, I did a video on how to focus at work. Did you see that? Yeah, absolutely, yep. Yeah, and like the whole thing was, I mean, you have to have this, what is your bigger reason for why you're doing what you're doing and if that is something that makes you jump out of bed in the mornings, you know, then that keeps you focused. You know what I mean? It makes you focus because you know that that's what you're chasing is this bigger, this bigger reason, this bigger Y. So before we, am I echoing in your end? You sound okay on my end. Okay, so before we got going on the podcast, we're talking about like routines and how you've kind of realized that getting into a routine has been really big. What kind of, what's your routine? Like, what are you doing? What do you think is causing you to maybe step up the production and are there holes in it? Like, are there things that you're trying to get better at? Oh, for sure. To be honest with you, that was my biggest, and up to this point, the routine and the time blocking has been my biggest crutch. And it's not something a lot of people like to admit, but one thing people don't think about when they get into the real estate businesses, it's the staple of real estate in my mind is time management and you have to manage your own time. And so I thought it would be easy because I'm generally a driven person, but then you realize when it comes to the decision where you can stay up and watch a basketball game until midnight or one o'clock or play video games or do whatever, choosing to make that decision because of what your ultimate goal is, proved to be more of a difficult decision to make than I thought it would be. So before I just kind of mess around and I would get up eight, nine o'clock, get into the opposite 10, and that was kind of my routine and it really wasn't a routine at all. But now it's getting to the point where I'm like, okay, in order to be serious and to make money, you have to time block because if you don't give yourself a certain window of time to get something done, then you'll just flounder around and not get it done. So now I'm getting myself another routine that, okay, you know, I wanna get up and get to the gym and I wanna start prospecting by nine, you know, until 11, if I have any admin work, I can do it then. If not, there's, you know, continue to call. Obviously you have deals and other things that may get in the way, but if you treat that prospecting time like it's the most important thing and don't let other things get into the way of it, no matter what's going on around you, you're still gonna be generating that business for three or six months down the road. Like a lot of agents around my office, they run into the problem of they get into the business, they have a big sphere of influence, they do two, three, four, five deals right away and they're real busy, but they didn't prospect during that time. So when that dries up, they have nothing that they filled their pipeline with that keeps them going. And so I've realized that that's super important in this business. And if you're starting from scratch, you gotta find lead somewhere and I'm not gonna pay for Zillow to, you know, take over us as agents. So I just made that decision. Like, look, if I wanna be successful, it might be a slow grind, but you gotta get up, you gotta prospect. And so that's kind of been my staple in the last month or so to really get going. And once I do my prospecting, it seems like the rest of my day tends to follow. Yeah, for sure. So just for everybody watching, what are your numbers this year? Like I want to know this, just to prove that like this doesn't happen overnight. I wanna know where your numbers are. I wanna know what you see going forward, but what have you saw? What do you have listed? What do you have going on right now? Yeah, so this maybe, and I know like, you know, I've been fairly active in the group. And I know, you know, it might be a surprise, but up to this point this year, I've done three deals, which have been self-generated. And then I have two under contract right now. I have a myriad of buyers that I'm working with currently that were waiting to find things for them. And then I have a lot that I've put in the pipeline from circle prospecting, which has been my primary method of business. So I mean, and honestly, through the beginning portion of the year, I wasn't totally in on prospecting or wasn't doing it consistently, but I've realized that it is crazy and there is no way. I mean, if I continue at the pace that I'm prospecting, there's no reason why I can't hit 20 or 25 deals this year at least if I continue at that pace. And that's what I'm trying to hold myself to. So, oh, and I have a couple active, I think two or three active listings right now as well. So I'm definitely working my way up and really trying to back load the year and fill everything out by continuing the prospect every day. What do you see for like the vision? What are you, where do you see yourself in a year to two years? I mean, I know it might be a little lofty for a new agent who's as young as I am, but I mean, my original goal at the beginning of the year was to make a hundred thousand in my first full year, which I know is a very attainable goal and it's gonna take a lot of work to get there because, and this is probably something we'll talk about, you know, later, but being a young agent has certain challenges and certain benefits. But one of the things that I don't necessarily have the luxury of is having friends that I graduated with that are looking to buy houses right now because they're still in college. So I know in order to hit those goals, you know, I'm gonna have to rely on prospecting efforts to build my sphere in order to do those deals and get that done. So that was the goal I set for myself was a hundred grand in the first year and so I'm trying to hold myself to that, but all I know is if I'm taking the proper actions even if I don't get there, if I know that I did the prospecting and I made my best effort, I can't control the outcome, but I can control the efforts I put in to try to meet that goal.  Like, and so like the grind, grind, grind happens, you don't see a lot in the beginning, but however, when the momentum starts to build and you start to feel that snowball building up and the pressure building up because you have so many people we've had great conversations with, so many people getting this weekly email, so many people knowing who you are and what you're about, that you're here to help, you're getting the word out, then, you know, word of mouth starts to spread, you start to get referrals, you know, and like everything starts to come together. So are you experiencing any of that or do you see any of that coming? Absolutely, and you know what? I will tell you, so I've had a couple of leads, actually one of my closings was from an investor that was given to me, but you know, one thing that I've realized is that a lot of people will treat certain leads like junk or certain price points like junk, but for me, I want every client from the bottom price point to the top, I treat like gold because you know, like you teach in your philosophy, every client is worth 10 to 20 deals and those people that might be investors and aren't looking at high price points, well, if they're successful investors, they're gonna buy a lot more properties with you, they're gonna sell their personal stuff with you and they're gonna be so appreciative of your services that they're never gonna let their friends or family members work with anybody else. So not only that, Ricky, but just through, just through like, I've had people on the phone that were just so happy with how low pressure the script was and like how much of a breath of fresh air it was to hear something so noninvasive that they've said, hey, like send me cards in the mail, like I have a couple of friends that live on my street that might be selling this year and I'd love to refer the business because you've been really helpful and you're not like some of the other agents or people that reach out and cold call and all this other stuff. So just exuding that like zero to diamond mentality through the cold calls and through every other interaction to real estate has been an absolute game changer, whether that be the for sale by owners that I'm starting to work with and hopefully convert into clients if they don't sell but just that whole mentality of it. Even though I've been really practicing about five months, I've already seen people who have been willing to offer me referrals just by displaying that I don't care if I get the deal attitude, I just wanna help you. Yeah, it's so simple, right? Dude, seriously, I'll go up on a little tangent to tell you a quick story. So I met with a for sale by owner last week and I called him, it was real simple, just asked how he was doing, what in the world I could do to help him. He said nothing. I said, well, you know, I didn't use the buyer script, I don't have a buyer, I'm not gonna yank this chain but I said, you know, I'd love to come and take a look at the property and I'd love to meet with the SA hello and if I have anybody who's interested down the road, I'll be sure to bring a buy and as soon as I walked in the door, the guy says, I'm not signing paperwork.  So I didn't care about the deal, I wasn't thinking about handling objections, I was thinking about how can I get to know this guy and offer him value and do what I can to help him. And so I got to know him in the process, we sat down, I gave him the for sale by owner God I put together, I said, hey, if I can help you host an open house, I'm happy to do so. Anything I can do to help you out, just let me know. And he said, you know what, the last guy that came through here, he shoved a contract in my face, he was so high pressure, I almost kicked him out the door and he said, he looked at me in the eye and he said, you're gonna go very far in this business. And he said, if I choose to work with anybody, I wanna work with you. And I'm not blown out of proportion, I'm not trying to sensationalize the story, that's exactly how it happened. And it had nothing to do with me, it just had to do with the mentality that this group provides which is the relationship is always more important than the deal. And guess what, even if that guy does sell himself because a lot of for sale by owners have been able to, just because the market's been really hot, it doesn't matter because I've built a relationship that I'm gonna work on continuing to build forever. And if not this deal, I'll get referrals from it. And I feel confident and comfortable in that.  Don't, it doesn't, it doesn't matter.   I can go out and find five other deals in the process and it doesn't matter. It literally makes no difference to me. Yeah, I mean, people are so worried about like wasting time on prospects that may not buy, may not sell or may not produce a deal. And it's like, you have to risk and invest that time for a possible return on that time invested.  There's a lot of times you invest your time and it doesn't pay off. That's part of the game. And that's one thing I think people really need to think about, you know, and understand that little quote that I have where the more time I waste on people, the more money I make, it's so true, man. Like the more time I waste helping people, like I'm not getting paid a dime right now for this interview. I'm not getting paid anything for it. But however, I'm seeing comments coming through about people that are 20 years old and you're giving them confidence and proof that you can do it. And that's so important. Yeah, I mean, stuff like that, and the fact that we're, you know, that we're here to help people regardless of whatever it is that we're doing, we're bringing value, right? You're gonna get a return on that time invested in the long run. And it's the quickest way to make, to do deals today.  And like, has he sold yet? He hasn't. Yeah, see, there you go. I mean, there's a possibility he may turn around and list that with your statement. Oh yeah, absolutely. Oh, absolutely, I'm staying in touch. And part of my thing with for sale by owners is I offered to help them with an open house. And, you know, obviously it gives me the opportunity to generate some leads in the process because it makes a warmer call for the neighborhood or I can go out and door knock and I can meet people at the open house. But just the relationship aspect of it and them knowing that I'm willing to help them, you know, without asking for anything in return that's honestly something that a lot of people are impressed by and it gives me an opportunity to build business as well. But yeah, oh absolutely, he's motivated to sell and he already told me he's inclined to list if he's unable to and, you know, told me he wants to work with me, you know, if that time comes but I'm not worried about that anyway. It doesn't matter. But oh, of course, keeping in touch, absolutely. Yeah. I think the cool thing is is that you gave yourself the best opportunity to be his agent. And then you just let the chips fall where they fall. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, like I think this business, if you think about it like this, we're all putting our name in the hat to become the agent for different clients.  But your name is in the hat for there to be a percentage that they will use you. Okay, so you have a percentage with that person. Okay, cool. Now we talk to this person. Now we have a percentage with this person. Okay, cool. Now we move on. And if we can put our name in as many hats as possible to just the possibility to be their agent, you're gonna hit some of them. You're gonna hit a number of them.   So that's 50 people who know who I am now that didn't before. So what the greatest thing about your philosophies is you teach people to perceive every single thing as a win. If you can see your cup is half full instead of half empty at every opportunity and at every bend and every turn, that mindset will allow you to push through any negative thing that you could come across in real estate. And so putting that into my own business model and my everyday life, it's allowed me to not get down when somebody thinks I'm too young to help them, not get down when somebody tells me that they don't think I can get the job done. It doesn't matter to me because my personality will speak for itself, my hard work will speak for itself and I will make my way if I work harder than everybody else and show people I care about them more than anybody else. And that's all that matters to me. Well, you know, the funny thing is, is that older agents, clients, there's clients that don't use them because they're too old. Right. And then like people who are really experienced, some agents don't wanna deal with them because they're too busy. Exactly, and that's where we fit in. Right, well, what I'm saying is, is that for every stage in your career, you can call out an excuse or find a client who doesn't want to deal with you because you are whatever you are. Yeah. But the fact is, is that there's this whole other group of people that want to work with you, that love you, that will be your loyal clients forever. And I think a lot of agents run into a couple people who say, I don't wanna deal with you because you're young or I don't wanna deal with you because you're old. And then they start stereotyping and thinking that, okay, well, I'm just too old or I'm just too young. And they don't realize that if they would just keep going, they would find these loyal clients that are out there for every single agent. There's an unlimited amount of loyal clients for every single agent. And if they'll just keep it in the work to talk to enough people and put in their name in those hats, then they're gonna run into all these people that wanna do business with them forever and give them all their referrals and so on and so forth. So switching gears a little bit. I wanna go back to this open house for sell by owners. Yeah. Is there a deal that you kind of work out with the owner as far as like, what if there's a for sell by owner sign out of the yard and you're hosting an open house, what if the buyer comes in and are you worried about the buyer just calling them for sell by owner? The number's right there on the sign or do you work a deal out with the owner? How do you, do you do anything to protect yourself or do you literally just go into it just totally unprotected and just say, look, I'm just gonna just provide value and help this guy and try to do what I can do. And if they, you know, whatever happens, happens. Or do you do it? Honestly, that's the approach that I take. I mean, some people would say that's not a prudent way to do business and that's fine. But the way, and honestly too, I've had for sale by owners that are kind of on the ball and understand that, that will make mention of it. And they actually say, well, you're doing the work for me. So if somebody comes in and writes an offer with you, then that's fine. Actually, one that I met with last week that said, well, if you'd like to do an open house, that'd be awesome. I'd love for you to do one for me. And she said, well, and she said, well, if I have somebody that reaches out to me and doesn't have an agent, can I just tell them to call you? Cause she doesn't want to deal with paperwork and stuff on their side. If they don't have an agent or don't know what they're doing. But yeah, no, as far as the open house goes, I also have an understanding too that, you know, whatever, if they call the for sale by owner, that's fine. But I'm sure there's gonna, if I have five people come to my open house, two are lookie-loo neighbors. One ends up writing an offer with the owner without coming to me. And then one is somebody who's looking six months down the road that I have an opportunity to convert as a client. I still have four or five people that I met with that I can add to my database, send them the weekly email and do a deal with them in the future. Not only that, but that seller is gonna be super happy with me. And even if they don't get an offer on the property, that's where I feel like my value and the chips are gonna start to fall because how do you not list with somebody when you're providing them so much value and showing how much of a professional you are? I mean, if I were somebody and I were in that position, there's no way I could work with anybody else. But even if they don't, again, it's fine. It doesn't matter. But personally, I don't set up all those rules and protections because I'm just trying to build a relationship with that owner and it doesn't matter for me personally. I see you as like being a super powerhouse agent in like three years, like doing 70, 80 deals a year. I hope so, man. I really do. That's the goal. I really hope so. And I think for me, I really don't care about the money and a lot of things. I just go into that there were so many what-ifs and questions about can young agents really do it and be successful. And I think for me, I would love to do that. And more than anything else, I would just like it to be a symbol for other people that are young who may have questions about whether or not they can do it that, yes, you really can. And if you have confidence in yourself and believe in yourself and you care about people and you try to learn and grow every day that you absolutely can do that. And hopefully I can be an example of that in a couple of years. Well, you have the mindset, you know what I mean? Like that's the biggest thing. Everything is up here. It all starts in your mind. Like even the physical work of it, it's yourself telling you that you have to do it. It's your big why that's driving you, that's keeping you moving. What is your big why? I would say my big why, I think it's kind of multifaceted, but I've had a longtime girlfriend. I have not bought a house yet. So I really want to buy a house. I want to be able to retire early. And I can't remember what book I read, but the time and money that you have, money is, I mean, money is great, but money buys you time. And I want more time to spend with my loved ones and people that I care about. So being able to have more experiences from the money that I'll be able to make is going to be something that really drives me. But for me, being able to get married by my first house with my hopefully future wife and have kids and have all that come to fruition because of my efforts in real estate, that really is my big thing right now that's my driving force of everything that I'm doing right now. Oh, that's cool, man. That's awesome. So how do you split your time up?  You're obviously going after for sale by owners.  Like how do you split your time up, right? What's your, what's your deal there? And where did you get these buyers? So I'd say that most of my time is spent on circle prospecting. Actually in the last month, I started triple line dialing, which I would definitely recommend to people who are committed to cold calling because I automatically saw a difference in numbers. And I know that numbers don't matter, but just for the simple fact that I'm able to talk to more people in a shorter amount of time, so I don't lose my flow. So, and instead of talking to one person every two or three minutes, sometimes it's every 15 or 20 seconds that I get somebody on the phone. And so I'm flowing from conversation to conversation a lot better. But the majority of my time is spent there. Like today I made 250 some calls today. I think at five email addresses and one investor that I set up on a property search, which was- How long did it take you to make those 250 calls? 250 calls, well, between putting them into my CRM, I'd say total dial time, maybe two hours, two and a half hours, maybe. Like a quarter of a day. Yeah, which is crazy. And the first deal I ever did, so the first deal I ever did was from an investor who I called on the phone. We saw a property that day, wrote an offer on it that day, got it accepted. And now she just emailed me the other day. She wants to look at another one and she's got between two and five for investments that she wants to list. So obviously it's time well spent. If you get one of those clients out of a random cold call, then that's amazing. So seeing the results of that already definitely pushes me to do that. And like I had a couple of rough days, but then I had an amazing cold call with this investor who's looking for rental properties and flips, who is also gonna be selling himself in the next couple of years. So I'm just adding these people to my database. I think long term, even though it's a slower game, like I just haven't been fortunate. Some people will call and they'll run into two or three people right away that are looking to sell now. I haven't had that luck, but you just can't control how those chips fall. But I've added lots of people to my database that are looking in, you know, six months to a year, that kind of a thing. So it starts with the circle prospecting. I don't have a huge market. So expires are not super prominent right now, especially because it's a seller's market and things are coming off for a reason if they're not selling typically. So there's not a lot to work with there. So honestly, circle prospecting and for sale by owners are the large majority of it. And then one thing I'm really trying to leverage more is social media. I've never been a big social media guy, but my buyer that I'm under contract right now who's a friend of mine, he ended up reaching out to me because he saw a picture that I posted with my previous clients at a closing. So I'm also realizing that being active on social media is important. So I'm trying to allow a certain portion of my data to that as well. And one other thing I'm starting to implement is I wanna do something every month where I interview a local business owner and I use a little bit of ad spend on Facebook just to build my local brand and give some local businesses some free publicity around me. I've heard some agents who've had some success with that. So I'm trying to diversify my business a little bit, but the staple's always gonna be from cold calling. And then my buyers right now, one of them is a circle prospect, one is a sphere of influence, and then I got a couple in the pipeline right now. I'm not sure where they're at. And then hopefully some listings very soon that have come from circle prospecting as well. That's incredible. So what's your daily routine like? Give me your get up in the morning, what time, what happens? So here, first of all, I'll tell you what my routine is and what I'd want it to be because, I mean, I'll tell you what, I mean, I know that I'm young and I can make excuses, but I could have done more deals by this point this year if I would have been more committed and it's okay to admit because we all have these struggles, but my routine, a lot of times I'll get to the, I'll wake up at seven, seven 30. I want to get up at five for five 30 to get to the gym because I'd much rather do that in the morning as opposed to the afternoon because it helps me more with my day. I'll be to the office at eight 30 ish typically, which is again later than I'd like it to be. And then nine to 11 is usually my best prospecting window. And then I will try not to let things interfere with that. And if I have anything going on with home inspections or emails to answer, I'll try to do that between like 11 and noon, take a short lunch break. And then basically I've been doing calling a lot from three to five. So I'll try to in between that one to one to three slot. I'll try to do some market research. I can respond to direct messages, check email, which doesn't take a lot of time. And then market research, just learning more about my market, learning the neighborhoods, trying to familiarize myself with more things so I can be the most knowledgeable agent I think is really important. So I try to spend as much time there as possible. And then most of my appointments, I'll try to schedule later in the day, like 5.30, six o'clock, so I can really hit that lead generation time in the late afternoon, early evening. But depending on how the chips fall with my schedule, if I have to change that up a little bit, that's fine. But that daily prospecting, at least those couple hours in the morning, I always try to make sure that nothing will change that. So you prospect in the morning and then again in the afternoon? Yeah, that's my, I don't always in the afternoon, depending on what I've got going on. But yeah, what I found that this is just from my experience, but nine to 11 is a great, great window. And then Chad Maynes, who was on with the yesterday making calls, he and I typically call 11 to one. So if I don't have anything going on or if I don't have admin work to do, I will make more calls with him. But my best windows for calling personally have been between nine and 11 and three and five. If for expireds, expireds usually, if you do those earlier in the morning is better before they get hounded by several agents, but for general pickups, nine to 11 is the best. And I actually don't do bad with three and five. I don't know if other people have had similar experiences, but that's been a really good window for me. Yeah. Yeah, I've always like nine to 11 has always been my favorite time. It's the best time for sure. I don't know why it is, because you would think it would be the worst time. That's when people- I know. I know. And then people always try to, you know, make excuses about what time they're calling and when the best time is and all that. I mean, it doesn't, I mean, as long as you're making the calls, that's the most important thing. But I think one thing about three to five, like I've tried to call like five to seven and people get really grouchy when you're interrupting their dinner. So the people that you're catching that are getting off of work early, you know, I tend to have a little bit better luck with that. But before people have to face all the stress of the day, I think that might be why nine to 11 is so good because, you know, they don't have those blow-ups at work and they're getting off at the end of the day and they're pissed off already and then you're calling them and, you know, but it all works as if you're making the calls at any time, that's more important than not doing it at all. So- Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Question for you, bro. What is the deal with you not getting up if you want to get up earlier? Yeah, I don't, I don't, you know what, to be honest with you, I don't know, I think, I think I don't like to. And one thing that I learned when I had a guy from a guy who came into our office with Tony Robbins, he said, if you want to do something, you have to want to take the action that you need to do to do what it is you want to do. I know that's confusing, but like, if I really, if I'm really pumped and I want to prospect at 7.30 or eight o'clock or whatever time you want to get going or be at the office or be to the gym, you can want to go to the gym all you want, but if you hate going to bed at nine o'clock, then you're not gonna do it. So you have to learn to want to take the action that's gonna get you to do what you really want to do. So my issue is just I'm not, I don't like going to bed at nine o'clock, so I'll just let other things mentally get in the way or other things I have going on. And that's been definitely a crutch for me. And I know that things will improve tremendously for me if I just make that commitment to myself and say, all right, I don't care what you want to do, you just have to do it. And then once I get into the routine of that, then things will shape up better. And when you have that routine, everything else kind of falls into place. So you want to do it, you just don't go to bed early enough? Yeah, it's just one of those mental things where it's selfish. If you don't make the cause, it's selfish. If you don't do the things you know you need to do to be as successful as you can to provide your family, it's selfishness on my part. So what time do you go to bed? Depends. I mean, that can be sometimes it can be 11, sometimes it can be 12. There's a playoffs game I really want to watch, could be 12, 30. And that's really the thing is just, I'm not a drinker, smoke or nothing like that. It's not like I'm not partying or nothing. It's just, it's not something I've been good about thus far into my career. I think if you just start waking up early, you know what I'm saying? If you start getting up at like 430, 5 o'clock, 530, whatever it is that you want to get up, you will automatically be tired. You are right, yeah. Yeah, if you were a verse engineer that and you start getting up early, you force yourself to get up, you will get tired at eight, nine, 10 o'clock. You will go to sleep. And then if you just go through that first week or two and make yourself get up, your body will, you'll adjust. Yeah, dude. And you'll start falling asleep. The reason why you're able to stay up later is because you got all that good sleep in the morning, you know, and your body's not tired yet. Yeah.  If you force yourself to get up at five and you're like, man, I'm not going to do that again. You don't have to worry about that, bro.  Yeah, it will. Yeah. You know, nine, 10 o'clock, dude, I'm done. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So I think you should start working on that because when you do get up early and you do hit the gym early, and that's kind of like your time to just kind of like let your mind relax. Your phone's not ringing.  You know, you have that time to really think and concentrate and work on yourself and visualize the day. You know, that's what I do in the mornings. So it's big for me. I mean, it's huge. Oh, I know. I see all the stuff on Instagram and see when you got the coffee brewing it at 4.30 in the morning. Oh, no, I see it. And honestly, I know that it's honestly, if you want to be successful, I know because when I forced myself to do it and I didn't never gotten to a full routine, when I was up and I was at the gym really early in the morning, man, just that energy and that fire that I had for the rest of that morning and throughout the day, you know, just feeling good about going to the gym.  Another question, man. So like, you're doing real estate full time. Yep. No other job, just kind of like maybe part time at the- Yeah, like I still have, you know, ties there, you know, when I say part time, like once every couple of months, I'm basically all 100% in unreal estate, absolutely. So do you have other forms of income that kind of help you pay your bills? Cause three deals this year isn't enough to pay bills and stuff, right? Yeah, no, well, no, because when I, that's the thing I basically, I was going to start renting because I was going to college before I got into real estate, so I was still living at our estate. And so before I decided to start renting and get my own place, I decided to stay there because I didn't have a lot of income. Well, I didn't have a lot saved up before I got into real estate. So that's my current situation. And my girlfriend has an apartment. So I basically split time at both places. So I don't have a lot of bills and expenses right now. So that's been a huge luxury getting into the business because it's allowed me to kind of go through these growing pains without having to worry too much. So that's why I'm really trying to capitalize on that because a lot of people don't have that luxury and if they struggle then they have to get part-time work whereas I don't and I can, and I have time to figure it out and still support myself. But I've made, most of my business has been in the last couple of months. So I've been okay now that I'm starting to do business. Starting to build that momentum and get that. Get them, let them, let them seeds. Yep. Some seeds grow. So, yeah, cause I was going to ask you, like, if you're part-time, you went full-time, I was going to ask you, like what advice you would have for somebody who has a job, who's part-time real estate agent, they want to go full-time, you know, you're brand new. So, I mean, you're just getting the front end of this enormous snowball that you're building and all this momentum that's building up, you're not even seeing it yet. Yeah. Like, from your perspective of just going full-time, you took the leap of faith. You're not even, you're not even across that huge gap of faith to the other side yet. You're still in between trying to make this thing work. What advice, from your perspective of not even really getting there yet, do you have for somebody who is thinking about making that leap of faith?  They're doing real estate on the side.  They want to do real estate full-time. What would you tell them? Well, you know, I would tell them a couple of things. I think I've realized this, even though I haven't been in that long, I mean, real estate really is a full-time commitment. I mean, if you really want to have a good reputation, sorry, some of the words here, if you want to have a good reputation in the real estate business, then you really have to be available for your clients. So, it's really hard to service the clients that you have when you're part-time and really establish yourself as a standout agent that's there for their clients. But not only that, if you, unless you have a lot of connections, there is a lot of work that you have to do to build an established clientele.  It's just impossible to, I mean, you either delegate the time to prospecting, but then the leads that you do generate, it's really hard to work those leads if you don't have the time when you're working part-time to actually turn those into sales, or if you're just focusing on your sphere and people, you got your license and you got few friends that wanna buy or sell, you put all your energy and time into that, but then you're not gonna have the time to fill your pipeline and prospect.  So, but the one thing I would say is, yes, it does take time. So have yourself a little bit of a nest egg where you can afford to survive for a little bit because like you always say, you can't control the result. So you need to give yourself a little bit of time, even if you're prospecting, busting your butt, you know, you should still have a little bit saved up in order to support yourself and even me not having a lot of expenses, it's what I did have that you can see how it can dry up pretty quickly when you're not doing anything and you have to pay for stuff. So, but yeah, if you're gonna make the leap of faith before you do it, just make sure you're committed to the grind and the everyday prospecting and doing things like cold calling that can be uncomfortable, knocking on doors that can be sometimes uncomfortable depending on who you are and doing all that stuff.  No, dude, you said it, man. That was beautiful, man. You seem to have so much knowledge, man, at such a young age. What do you, I mean, it seems like you're kind of wise beyond your years and stuff. Like, what do you attribute this to? I mean, not your ordinary 22-year-old here. Well, I think part of it, a lot of it, I honestly attribute it to family, but I think part of it, I tried to kind of stay on the straight and narrow in high school and never really gotten a drink in or you're doing drugs. You know, I came from a line of business owners and things of that nature, but I think a lot of it is just, I've always kind of had a vision way beyond right now. So I know that it'd be a lot more fun to be 21, 22, going out to parties on the weekends, going out to Pratt parties and college parties, but I'm trying to think long-term, and when I think long-term, I'm like, man, I would rather enjoy 35, 40 years of retirement, have a beautiful wife and kids, be able to provide for my family and do all those things and sacrifice some of the fun in order to provide and to know that I have a lot to look forward to. So I've always just kind of thought ahead in that respect. So that was a big reason why I got into real estate to begin with because I knew that real estate was such a great opportunity to build that kind of lifestyle for yourself. But I think too, just I like learning. So just having an agile mind and just learning to have a good vocabulary, like I don't have a real estate figured out yet, but I know how to present myself in such a way where I can fake it till I make it and I can learn all the things I need to learn about real estate along the way. So you just can't let any of those things stop you from just jumping into it. And again, like you asked me why I was beyond my years, it's not as much about wisdom as it is about mindset and in real estate, that's really the pinnacle of everything that you're going to do is your mindset. And if you have- Yeah, but that's wisdom, bro. Mindset is wisdom and no one has to think and no one how to act. So like, are you reading like 20 books a day? Hey, I wish, man. My girlfriend and I, we started a book club. We're picking books to read every month. But I mean, I've read investment books here and there and I try to read when I can, although I should more. So you think you were just born with this mentality, is what you're telling me?  I mean, that's why I think I was able to do well in real estate, sorry, in appliance sales just because I kind of had just a knack for linguistics and talking with people and things of that nature. And that's why with real estate, I realized, okay, I recognize that that's a strength of mine. I'm not the most technical guy. You know, I tried to do mechanical engineering in high school. I don't have the book smarts for that, but I have the kind of energy and personality and I know how to talk to people to where I know real estate is my strength. So if I don't play to that strength, then I'm really not taking full advantage of what I've been gifted with because it's really something that's out of my control. It's just something I've been given and I'm trying to utilize that to my full potential. And I'm never gonna be the guy who's gonna do complicated projects, but I can talk to people and navigate the nuances of the real estate market. So I'm just trying to play to my strengths and that's really what you gotta do in real estate is find out what works for you. So for me, that happens to be talking to people. So that's why I cold called at the time. What you have to talk to people to do deals, like there's no deals, not a deal in history, it's been done without a conversation. Yeah. You might have a couple that bought it through email and so I even did like maybe one or two in my career, but like overall people have to talk to someone to get to know them, to find out how to help them, to go through the process, to get to the closing. It's just not gonna happen any other way. So why not just have as many conversations as you possibly have, you know, put your name in as many hats as you can to give yourself the best opportunity to succeed. So I mean, you're hitting the nail on the head here, bro. Yeah. I think a lot of it comes in just people are afraid and people are scared, but I'll tell it for people who are afraid of like the cold calling. Let me tell you something crazy. So I use Ricky's scripts and it's not just about the script, it's about the way you come off on the phone. So I get into the mindset, okay, I'm literally calling to help these people. So that's the mind state I have, that's the way it comes across. And so you definitely have to get there in order to experience what I'm about to tell you I've experienced. I've had more people that say, I don't need your services, but I am hella impressed that you're making these phone calls and prospecting for business. I have more people tell me that than people who have hung up the phone or told me to screw myself. Oh yeah.  Nobody else is doing this stuff.  I mean, there's very few people that are doing it. So it's like, it's really crazy and mind boggling. And honestly, people tell me they're afraid because they hate getting cold calls. It's like, you know what? All I get now is robo calls. It's a breath of fresh air when I get a live person on the telephone. You know what I mean? That's an advantage as far as I'm concerned, but yeah, it's like regardless of how good you are at cold calling, I may have done it a little longer and it may give me some advantage, but it doesn't matter. Your conversion and you'll connect with people better as you do it, but if you throw enough spaghetti at the wall, some will stick. If you're a little better at it, a little more might stick than somebody else, but you will get there if you just do it. And there's no way you won't do deals if you just do it. So why not just do it and then get better as you go. Like you say, the practice is on the telephone. You know, people are like role playing and all this stuff and they don't get on the phone, but you got to throw yourself into the fire and get into the real deal to learn. And that's what I'm just like screw it. I don't want to do this. I'm not comfortable with it. Now I love the grind and the process and I sit back in my chair, my heart's not racing anymore. I'm comfortable with it because I've just, I've done it. So, you know, knowing that I was the person that started there and was not confident and I'll have all the confidence on the world on the telephone, every single other person that just forces them to do it, I guarantee you will get to that place if you just do it. I promise. It's like anything else, man. Like me speaking, public speaking, I just went to Brazil, you know, spoke to over 800 Brazilian remixed agents that speak Portuguese, right? Yeah. The idea is coming soon. It was the best speech ever, most biggest crowd ever. Wow.  But see, the thing about it is, man, is if what you're doing does not make you nervous or doesn't scare you, then you're not growing. You're not doing, if you're not getting out of your comfort zone, like were you stay comfortable? Like if you, like that word comfort zone is there for a reason because you're comfortable where you are in life. Financially, health, spiritually, family, all of it. You're comfortable. And if you don't, like if you don't get that little feeling in your stomach and something's scaring you, then you're not doing anything to grow. I mean, it's so true, man. I was talking, or I was watching a Will Smith video. He's great, he's great, man. I love, yeah, not to cut you off, but go watch his inspirational videos on YouTube if you haven't, if you're watching this because you need to, it's great, good stuff. Anyway. Well, it was so funny because the day of my big speech, I was in my room, I was kind of going over my speech in my head, I was getting dressed, and the Will Smith video popped up, you know, a new video on YouTube, and it was his family trip to Coachella, or whatever it is. And so his son and daughter were performing there, you know? And so he travels there and he performed too with his son, Jaden. And Jaden was like, Jaden said how nervous he was because the crowd was so enormous and they were about to go out here and just make it happen. And then the video kind of slowed down and it turned into this kind of motivational music and slow motion. It was Will Smith talking in the background about being nervous and how important it is for your growth. And like how you need to gravitate towards things that scare you, things that make you nervous, pushing yourself to keep going and to do these kind of things.  Like I was so scared to make that call. I was so scared to get on stage in front of all these people. It was like I was trembling in my legs and it was a feeling of like freezing. Like I think I might get up there and forget everything I'm gonna say or get on the phone and just forget what I'm saying and just be like, I don't want to do this anymore. And when you get to that point, then that's a fork in the road. And you can either go this way and keep going, right? Or you can, it's not even a fork. It's just continuing to go forward or you can go backwards. There's no fork, actually. It's just forward, keep going or stop and go backwards. So, man, it's huge and it's really cool to see people like you get to that little road bump and say, that's just a road bump. I'm gonna keep going. And then when you keep going and you realize how incredibly amazing making the calls are or speaking is and then it becomes addicting. You know what I mean? Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely. A hundred people. It's so addicting when you finally realize that talking to people is the key to everything, meeting people, helping people and learning how to communicate with people. And then like when you have those really incredible conversations and people just love the fact that you're there to help, it becomes so addicting. And then your business just starts to explode, you know? So, I don't know, man. It's just, it's something I think about a lot because I think that right there, what you just talked about is one of the biggest things holding people back. Yeah, yeah, I think so too. And I mean, if people could just see, you know, the all of the not just potential business that could come from it, but just the gratification of knowing like, it's not a bad thing to sit back and look at the fact that, hey, give yourself some love.   I might go on a limb here and kick myself for it, but I'm sure there's been, you know, 80% of people who've stumbled upon your videos that have made a commitment to themself that, yeah, I'm gonna do this and they don't follow through. So if you're one of the people that does, you, I mean, you deserve all the credit in the world and all the support in the world from people in this group and otherwise.  And, you know, you should be proud of yourself for getting up on the horse and doing it. And honestly too, you should do it because if you wanna provide for your family and you wanna be successful, then you should want to do it. But it does take some, it definitely does take some motivation and, you know, don't be afraid to give yourself a pat on the back for stepping up to the plate because a lot of people won't. It means that you really do want to succeed and you really do want what you say because a lot of people talk about it but very few people actually take the actions they need to and then even fewer people take those actions consistently as long as you need to to get to those huge goals that everybody wants. Everybody wants to make a million dollars, right? But nobody wants to put in 15 hours a day for 15 years. Yeah. And if it were easy, I know it's a cliche but if it were easy everybody'd be doing it. But the thing is, it's really not, materially it's not hard. It's just the road, it's just, it's not hard to make phone calls. Anybody can make phone calls. It's the mental hurdle of doing it that's hard. Yeah. You can get past that, the actions to get to where you need to be to be successful that starts with those cold calls or those doorknocks or whatever your medium is, that part of it's really not hard. It's just the mental roadblock can be the hardest thing for people but taking the action is not hard.  And this is why I created the levels. You know, Jim, Emerald Ruby and the Zero Diamond system so that people that do push through that discomfort and make those calls and do the 90 day action plan and put that work in that showing me through their actions that they actually want what they say they want and it's giving me permission to spend more time with those people and those agents to help them get to Diamond or a half a million a year or whatever their goals are. Cause I found a lot of people, you know, a lot of people want a million dollars a year but there's a lot of people out there who do not want a million. You know, they just want to get to 300 a year. They'd be really happy or they want to get to, you know, a half a million or even 250 and stuff like that. So, well, Parker dude, I really appreciate your time. And you know, Thank you Ricky. Yeah, from the Zero Diamond family dude to you, man we really appreciate you coming on and sharing your wisdom at such a young age. It's really inspirational. I know a lot of people are gonna, it's gonna get a lot of value out of this as it's gonna be on YouTube forever. And, you know, what else is there anything in the world I can do for you? I mean, you can keep doing what you're doing and that's a value to us all.   And I think that means an awful lot. But I think it's more important what you have done and can do for people continuously every day and that you have a lot of people to believe in themselves and that they can do it. And my one, I guess, piece of advice, if you will, I'm in no position to give any real estate. I mean, look, I got into this business. I didn't, I mean, I've never done construction. I mean, I barely knew what drywall is. Like I knew nothing and I'm still working my way up but having somebody instill the confidence that somebody like me can do it and I'm still in the mix and in the fire figuring that out. But I know because of your coaching that it's possible if you take the right actions. I hope everybody else who's listening to it that's feeling in that state that I felt while I'm trying to figure it out and while I'm still in the mix and still in that fire, I want everybody to know that you can do that and your teaching should make everybody believe that and me and Ben Steven and Chad May and all the other people that you've talked to and people that are doing things for themselves, it's because they've adopted that mentality and they truly believe that anybody can do it that they've been able to get there. So, I think you've done a good job telling people how you have been there once, just like everybody else was and there was one point in your career where you had never done a real estate deal and somebody had to trust you to be the one to do it for them and that's where every single person starts and I think that you've done a great job just instilling that confidence in people and telling people that, look, I was in your position once, I still get nervous on the phones and people just need to know that, I mean, zero to diamond, Rick, he started at zero one day too just like all of us did and the stuff you teach, it works and it's worked for you for a reason. I remember that first listing, man. I remember it, it was like six months into my career because I closed- It's a good feeling. Because I had my first- Bro, come on, you're Ricky Karuth, Ricky, all right. I mean, if you're Ricky Karuth, then do a deal until six months into his career, like how crazy is that? And look what you're doing now, like, that's crazy, bro. Yeah, six months in, because I closed it with him. I had my first closing in eight months, so I must have listed it within six months and I remember, dude, I was in the truck with my dad, we were, you know, I was still roofing and we were like, I think I was on, I think we were on a lunch break and we were coming back to the job site and I remember getting the call from the guy, the first call from him and he was just like, he basically just like gave it to him because like up to that point and like after a year and a half, I looked back at the first six months of my career at all these opportunities that I didn't know how to capitalize on. There was like people that were telling me that they wanted to sell but I didn't really catch the hints, you know? I didn't know how to, the lingo, I didn't understand how to capitalize on it. Looking back, there were all kinds of listings I could have had, lots of them. I just didn't know how to capitalize and but I remember this one, man, I remember it very clearly and he called and he basically just gave it to me. Like there was no like, you know, I was like surprised, like really, you want me to list it, you know? Like I was almost like, are you sure? You know? Like I don't know if you want to list it with me kind of thing and I remember going and we had to fax it. There was no electronic signatures. Yeah, I had to fax it, he faxed it back and I sold it within like 30 days. So yeah, I mean, it was really, it was really, looking back on that, you're right. You know, somebody at some point had to say, you know, I trust you with this property to sell it. I don't know why the guy did, I sent him a letter or a postcard or something and he called me and just listed it right then and there. It was amazing to tell you the truth and that was the start of my career. I started selling to a month for a while and then the market went crazy and then boom, I lost everything. The rug got swapped out from under me, but you know, that's what made me who I am, you know? And I basically went from zero to diamond back to zero to diamond, you know? So, well, cool, man.   Yeah, you too as always. All the wisdom and stuff. And guys, if there's anything me or Parker can do for you, we're always here. Anything, just reach out to us. Parker's in the group, very active. And you know, we love you. So anything we can do for you, let us know. We'll talk to y'all soon. Enjoy the rest of your day. Have a good weekend and crush it. Peace out.


The public is invited to a pair of community meetings designed to map out a course of action to help save the historic Carnegie Library Building in Bemidji. The purpose of the meetings is to discuss construction alternatives for the project to save the Carnegie. At the last Carnegie Task Force meeting, several options were discussed, including moving the building back in Library Park as originally planned, but in phases, not moving the building but doing all other planned restoration work and a new accessible entrance. As well as moving the building next to the History Center and the Rail Corridor and renovating it there. The Carnegie Task Force will hold two community meetings at Bemidji City Hall, one on Tuesday April 17th and another on Wednesday April 18th, both will run from 5.30 to 7.00 p.m. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


My name is Professor Masoud Badering. I teach Islamic law in the School of Oriental and African Studies. Islamic law has been taught at the School of Law here at Suez since 1948 when the department was first established. And we continue to teach it up to the current moment. It is quite clear that the relevance of Islamic law is quite important now in relation to its application in Muslim-majority countries, in relation to its influence on the lives of Muslims living in Diaspora and also its relevance to the discourse around international law, international human rights law globally now. All along, Islamic law has been one of the important specialized courses that we teach at Suez. And we teach it in a way that brings the course to life and also make it quite understandable to the students. There's no gain in the fact that Islamic law is a complex system of law, but then the way we teach it by the end of the course, students usually are always expressed satisfaction about their understanding of it. Now we teach it in a specialized way, as I said. We teach it from both a historical perspective and an evolutionary perspective that is both historical and evolutionary. By doing that, students are able to see the development, stage by stage, from the pre-classical period into the classical period up to the post-classical period and into modern times. Normally we start the course with the question about whether or not Islamic law is law. That is, is Islamic law really law? And this takes us into the debate of what one really means by law. We look at this from both a positivist perspective and from the natural law perspective and then examine the context of Islamic law within that debate. I mean, we do not rely only on modern contemporary English materials. We also make reference to traditional materials in that regard. Now we also look at the question of the debate between law and morality in relation to Islamic law. And then we move on to look at the different relevant terminologies so that students are able to really appreciate the course very well because as Islamic law, the language of it is Arabic. Students need to appreciate some basic terminologies such as the sharia itself in relation to what does it mean and the different ways by which it is used. And then the terminology Fikh, for example, and we look at terminologies like each tihar, for example, and so on and so forth so that students are able to understand these basic concepts and understand them as we move on. Now we then, in the first part of the course, we cover extensively Islamic legal theory that is Islamic jurisprudence, otherwise called Usul al-Fikh in Arabic. And in that regard, we mainly look at the sources, the methods and the principles of Islamic law. And as I said earlier, we look at it both from a historical and evolutionary context. Now in looking at the sources, we consider mainly the Quran as the major source of Islamic law. We look at it and examine its nature, its content, its subject matter and the legal content it contains. Now then we move on to look at the sunnah as well, which are the two major sources. Now when we start with the Quran, we look at it a bit in a historical context about how it was revealed and also its divine nature. Now after looking at that, we examine the question of whether the Quran itself can be considered as a code of law. That is a book containing law because it's a divine revelation and how can it be used in order to regulate the temporal life of human beings. Now in looking at that, we also look at the science of tafsir, that is the science of interpretation of the Quran. And in doing that, we look at it, I mean the material, the intrinsic methods of interpretation, then extrinsic methods of interpretation. We look at all these, such as the concept of Asbab-un-Nuzul for example, that's occasions of revelation. We look at it both literally, contextually and all the different rules of interpretation because that's, I mean, every student of Islamic law is expected to know there are specific rules of interpretation of the Quran and we look at this, I mean, seriously. Then we also look at its content. That is the legal content because there's a big debate about the volume of legal content within the Quran. So we look at the different academic debates about this and then engage the students in relation to the materials available on this topic. Then we look at its nature of the text. Let me say the nature of the text in the sense that some of the texts are quite specific, that is, Qati'i, and then some of them are quite speculative than me. And there are rules by which this relates with one another and in which they are interpreted. So students are exposed to these analyses of, I mean, the Quran as a reviewed text and its rules of interpretation, that is, I mean, the science of tafsir and also the legal content of it and how this interacts with one another and how these are used as sources of law. Then we look at the second main source of law, which is the sunnah and the debates around it. That is the nature of the sunnah and the rules, different rules that the sunnah play, for example, as a compliment to the Quran and also, for example, as a source that helps in explaining some of the general verses within the Quran and also as an independent source of law sometimes actually. So we look at this and the debates about how the sunnah evolved, whether it was meant to be a source of law right from the beginning or it developed in that context later. So we examine all these and also look at the categorization of the sunnah in the essence of the science of hadith. I mean, how the science of hadith evolved, how it developed and also the different books in that regard, different books of hadith in that regard by which students will be able to appreciate this second source of Islamic law. Then from there we look at the methods, that is the different methods of Islamic law by which the law is taking forward, such as the principle of consensus and how this is reached and how does it complement the sources, how does it take the sources that is the Quran and the sunnah forward and also the method, the analogy by which the sources, provisions within the sources are also taking forward. We also examine principles, principles by which the law is applied, such as the principles of a Muslim human benefit, the rural necessity, principles of a state sun, for example, and so on and so forth. So in relation to the jurisprudential perspective, we provide students with an in-depth understanding, analysis of the sources, the principles and the methods. Then the second term we look at, I mean, substantive issues, principally Islamic family law, whereby we look at issues of marriage, the various provisions on marriage within the Quran and the nature of marriage, the conditions, the rules regarding it. According to the different schools of Islamic jurisprudence, I mean, we look at the different schools of Islamic jurisprudence and their positions, their views in relation to the relevant provisions regarding marriage. And obviously we also look at the rules relating to the solution of marriages. That is, I mean, we look at divorce and so on and so forth. Then the rights of children, for example, within marriage and the right of spouses, for example, in relation to marriage and after its dissolution, we look at all these in the context of the evolution, that is, the traditional provisions and how this has evolved, particularly in relation to different Muslim-majority countries, both in Asia, Africa, and particularly also in the Middle East. And I mean, in that regard, the course is not only taught as a system of law which is stuck in the past. Students are able to appreciate its traditional foundations and then they see step by step how this has evolved over time and also how this is now applied in modern Muslim states. We also look at the concept of, I mean, codification. That is how codification, attempts at codifying Islamic law started and how this is now evolving in different Muslim states whereby the argument, I mean, that Islamic law has moved from what is, was traditionally known as jurist law to state law, perhaps part of state law and also justice law now. So we look at many, many cases from modern Muslim states where Islamic courts do exist and how they try as much as possible to move the interpretation of Islamic law forward. And one important aspect also is the issue of modern legal theory. I mean, it is interesting to be able to appreciate that, I mean, modern contemporary jurists and scholars in Islamic law have tried to come out with different modern legal theories by which Islamic law responds to the dynamic nature of human life. So we examine all these different theories in the context of the sources, the Quran and the Sunnah itself and also the classical jurisprudential rules of Islamic law and how this continues to be applied in different parts of Muslim majority countries today. Therefore, I mean, our students go through an experience of understanding Islamic law in its classical sense and in its post-classical sense and in its modern sense. So they don't learn about it, I mean, from as if the law was stuck in the past but rather they see it in Islamic law as living law and why it is still applied and used in many Muslim majority countries today. So by the time students have gone through this course, they come out quite well versed and well taught and very appreciative of Islamic law as a separate applicable legal system in its own right. And I mean, because this is a law school, students are also able to see it from the lens of more than western law, more than British law. I mean, because we use examples. I mean, everyone who teaches law in the school of law here, most of people who teach law in the school of law here also have experience as lawyers. So they are able to bring this experience into the course and students are able to see comparatively Islamic law in the light of, for example, British law and see how the similarities between them and also the differences, I mean, in relation to their application. So we teach it in a very, very interesting and very lively way whereby at the end of the course every year, students express great satisfaction and good understanding of the course. So if, I mean, anyone is out there who is interested in understanding Islamic law in the right perspective, Suas is the right place to be. As I said, it has been taught here, Islamic law has been taught here since 1948. I mean, by the leading experts in the subject area and continues to be taught by leading experts in that context as the years progress on. So we look forward to welcoming you to Suas to study Islamic law. Thank you.


Chances are if you're watching this video you're probably like me all those years ago and you're very very introverted I mean even to this day I still consider myself an introvert But what I was doing back then that was really preventing me from succeeding with women was that not only was I not taking action But I didn't even feel like I had the ability to do so for me when I define what an introvert is Which I it's not exactly the same thing as being shy shy people can be Extroverts actually too. They just they get energy from being around other people If you're an introvert and you go to a party or you go to a social gathering You're probably gonna feel pretty drained quickly an extroverted person will feel more energetic They want to talk to more people and hang out with more people and that sort of stuff and for a long time I was that guy that would go to a party that would feel Drained and super tired and not really want to talk to anyone feel nervous I had a lot of social anxiety when it came to talk to people The reason why you're feeling tired is because it takes a lot of effort for you to talk to someone because there's so much shit Going on in your head, you know you start thinking about a million things that could be going wrong And I was one of these people too and so I felt like I was going out with some sort of handicap I felt like everyone was on steroids and I was the only guy who wasn't shooting up You know, I just had I just had a disadvantage and I didn't think I was gonna be able to keep up So in this video I'm gonna tell you about all the steps that I took to be able to change myself from an Introverted guy who wasn't successful with women to someone who is not only successful with women But also kept his identity. So the first thing that I did was I told myself that Being introverted is not an excuse to live in fear. I'm gonna say that again Being introverted is not an excuse to live in fear for a long time I blame the fact that I was an introvert on the fact that I wasn't getting any girls the fact that people didn't Like me and I wasn't you know, you didn't have any friends or anything like that For a long time I used it as an excuse when I stopped using as an excuse when I said, you know what just because I'm introverted Doesn't mean that I shouldn't go up and talk to people That's why I started changing and the mindset shift that I did at this point was I stopped saying hey I'm introverted. I can't talk to people. I started saying hey I'm introverted, but I can be social when I have to be That little mindset shift allowed me to start tackling the problem start going out start talking to people start improving my social skills Second thing that I started doing and I probably should have done this sooner Was I stopped focusing on myself and started focusing on others stop focusing on your own self The more that you go in you know into your own head the harder It's going to be one of the biggest points when it comes to getting girls is getting out of your own head when you're out people have So many of my students the one thing that I'm trying to unravel with them is that when they're out They have a million things going through their head and dude I can totally relate to this Exactly how I was when I was going on to bars parties and those sorts of things I would be constantly thinking about all my looking stupid right now I bet people are looking at me like I bet this girl thinks I'm you know stupid or or not cool or a loser or a Beta male or whatever all these negative things that were going through my head I was thinking girls were thinking those things or guys were thinking that whoever it was once I stopped focusing on Myself and started actually paying attention to the people that I was talking to noticing certain things that were happening Trying to make other people have a good time That's when I was able to actually relax start being myself and well what I mean start being myself I was be my best self And and actually be able to enjoy the conversation and have a good time The things that are taking up so much energy are the things that are going on in your head The more you can reduce that the more energy you're going to have talking to people And then you're actually going to be present in the interaction and a lot of times get more energy from that later on So how do you do this? Well the first way is start focusing on other people, but also meditation Practicing presence practicing being present what that means is you're not thinking about things in the past or the future You're thinking about things that are happening right now, and that's what meditation does for you It stops you thinking Before you go out stop thinking about a million things that could go wrong You're gonna give yourself paralysis by analysis and that's one of the biggest problems I see with guys that are introverted there to paralyzed by their own Analysis and this is good in certain areas like I find introverted people to be very smart very analytical But it's not good when you're in social environments You have to stop thinking start doing some practical tips that I help out with this besides meditation are when you start the night When you start by going out start by talking to people that you know, we're gonna give you a good interaction Like for instance if you're going out to the bars or the clubs or something like that start by hanging out with your homies talk to them Too many of you guys you start out by just standing there and doing nothing with your buddies Start by talking with each other pick yourself up Maybe you run into somebody you know and pick your up pick yourself up that way if you're going out by yourself Start by talking to people that you know are gonna give you a good interaction These might not be the cute girls at the bar. These might not be the hotties These might be some girls you're not interested in these might be guys Okay, but I talked to all of them and the more positive interactions I get the more like oh hi five the awesome meeting you man like people laughing at your jokes that all these things will Give you more energy so that when the hot girl does come around that you're interested in you're in a good state of mind You have good energy and you can go about it and be your best self to her But if you start talking it like if you just walk into the bar and talk to the hottest girl And she like just regards you and just just walks away like you're gonna feel drained from that You're gonna you're gonna have less energy So what I would recommend that you guys do is start by doing things that you know We're gonna give you more energy so much of this and one of the biggest advantages that extroverts have over introverts is their energy Throughout the night. They're gaining more. They're feeling better But an introverted person is feeling less and less energetic being less and less confident And so you can see why an extroverted person has an advantage in this area But if you start in an environment They know you're gonna be able to pick yourself up and you can even the odds And the last thing is something that I already really mentioned which is relaxed dude A lot of introverted people feel like they have to do so much when they're talking to a girl They feel like their natural self is not going to be good enough So they have to crank it up ten notches and it becomes somebody totally different than they're usually used to being This is what's going to take a lot of energy out of you This is what it's gonna make it seem like it's so hard to talk to women because you're not comfortable being yourself So much of pick up so much of getting girls is learning to be your best self learning to express that to people And once you start doing that you're gonna be able to have a lot better time when you're out And you're gonna be like infinitely more successful like the results are just Exponential it's it's really startling what somebody can do once they embrace who they are and it takes time It takes practice which brings me to actually that wasn't my last point Which is you just got to practice like I said if you're living in fear and you're not going out You're not doing the things that you need to be doing it's gonna be really difficult for you to do this This took me years to figure out now if you're watching my videos and do my coaching program We'll cut down on that time. So it won't take you that long I'm this whole channel exists the whole program exists So you don't have to take as much time as it took me to figure it out But you you're still gonna need to go out You're still gonna need to talk to people and figure out what works and what doesn't work What picks you up what makes you feel good what doesn't make you feel good? And this is all part of the process so in the end I hope you're gonna be like me which is where you're still a closet introvert But you can turn it on you can be that extroverted person at the bar the club or whatever and there was a moment where I Remember I used to go out and I used to get very very nervous talking to people I used to think I was like a loser or I had all those thoughts going through my head I was always looking at other people having fun and figuring out like God like I wish I could just be like these people About a couple years ago, man. I turned around. I was at a party. I Turned around and I saw everybody else staring at me. They were looking at me the way I used to look at other people They were seeing that I was that cool guy talking to girls To be being the life of the party having fun Now I'm that person And it's crazy to think You know, so I hope that can happen to you guys All right Well, if you made today and consider subscribing I come up with videos like this every single week If you're a guy who feels like you're suffering from this issue We'll go we'll tackle through this.  So thanks a lot you guys good luck out there


I think a lot of people don't take the Titans as serious. Intercepted to five, Zach! He's got a lot of more. Jeffrey Seven. Don't let no one in the world tell you the story. An intercepted fire. I'm going to fight back, but to the name. We write our story. I'm in control, yeah, I'll go for fame. Everybody count on us now. It's our side, don't know how to fade. It's about us. It ain't a group in the world that I weren't ready to go to war with tonight right now. They're our top team at ANC, and I feel like going forward, they're going to make some big moves. I really do. That's how you do that. On the road. Getting down it. I know. This ain't trying to prove. Nobody wrong with trying to prove ourselves right every single week. From Nissan Stadium, I am Lance Smith, and I am joined by a whole bunch of people that I love. We have got the Air Force and the Army in the house right here to my right in this chair. CJ, 2K is in the house. Good to see you. So what's up? We are safe tonight, CJ. Yeah. We've got the service in the house. Thank you guys for being here. This is an awesome show, an awesome game that we're prepping for, but we've got to talk about the game that was... First of all, when you watch the game, were you expecting that? What just happened in Los Angeles? Yeah, that was crazy, man. For our defense to step up the way they did, the two interceptions, the score is so quick. You know what I'm saying? The turnovers and stuff, it was crazy. All right, let's get into it. Let's get into the show and do what we do here on Titan Splits. Let's do some hot takes with CJ since we got the man here. And let's talk about it. This defense, it's so funny because it's like, how long has it been since we've had this kind of front line? And we were talking off camera. It's like, it goes back to, I think the van and Bosch days since we looked this vicious up front. Yeah, the van and Bosch days, the Keith Bullock, all those guys from, that was my rookie year last time I seen us have a defense like that, create so many turnovers and get to the quarterback like that. Saks galore, we had five total. And we're not, we're not blitzing. This is just the front four wreaking havoc. Jeffrey Simmons with three, the big man, big Jeff. I mean, it's just, it's interesting. You just as a Titans fan because it's like, we just haven't had this in so long. And then all of a sudden you just now can't wait to see the defense get back in the field to do some damage to what many consider to be one of the top offenses in the NFL. So talk to me through this from your perspective. Like what was the key to that? Just individual overpowering?   When you don't have to blitz the cornerbacks, the linebackers, we can drop back in coverage and let those guys up front do their job. Which is why we now have the greatest safety in the NFL. We always knew it. Kevin Byard is, doing magical things because we do have that pressure in front. We talked about it last year, last season we didn't have that pass, and so Kevin was asked to cover a lot and do a lot, and what has been able to do what he's doing this year? And he's talking about just proving ourselves right. He seems to be having a ball out there. Does he have that much freedom now? Yeah, he has that much freedom. He don't have to worry about going out there, stopping the run, or blitzing. Like we say, he can just sit back and watch the quarterback and make it the plays that he's been making on the ball. He seems to be communicating so well with everybody else back there, being the leader back there in the teamfits. I mean, how difficult is it to communicate things like that on the fly?  How difficult of a job is that? It's difficult, but just like, I feel like he's the quarterback of the defense. Like, you know, you got your quarterback on the offense. They do everything, put everybody in the place they have to be in. And I feel like he's the quarterback on the defense. So he put everybody in the position that they need to be in to make the plays that we're making.  But again, from Jeffrey Simmons coming around and slinging Stafford around, making him look like Carson Wentz. We like this play. He does that every week. That'd be nice. Getting it done. Fine. It's really kind of remarkable. We'll see. Well, moving on. Let's, we love the defense. I can't wait to see what they're going to do for the rest of the season. It's comforting to know that we've got that. But we had the the running back by committee now that we don't have Derek Henry for seemingly the rest of the regular season. The old man, 36 year old Adrian Peterson getting the rock along with Foreman and McNichols. You were a Marquis running back. How difficult is it to share the load? It's definitely difficult, especially when you used to being a guy that get all the carries and you can get get the momentum and things like that. But, you know, sometimes like this day in age the NFL is going to run it back by committee offense. Anyways, so it's a good thing and it's a bad thing. Well, but talk to me though. I mean, I remember talking to me how how that were and are there advantages to it? Are you communicating? Definitely advantages because when he go in for a series or whatever, he can, he can tell me what he sees out there rather like and then when I'm on the sideline, I can tell him what I see from the sideline. So when I go in the game, you know, I'm taking his advice what he's seeing from being in there. You know what I'm saying then from what I see from the sideline.   Smashing dash, a little tenderizing. No, I get that. Is that is that hard for defenses though if they've been going up against got like that and all of a sudden here comes, you know, you got a game plan for two guys. And I'm not just one guy. You got a game plan for the power back coming out. Then you got a game plan for the speed back. So it's definitely make it more difficult on the defense. Yeah, well, you know, let's hope it's difficult for all defenses we face moving forward. Speaking of which just looking at the list here, the moving forward, first of all, going into this game, the playoff teams over the last four games from last season, handling our business. But now moving ahead, we have the easiest schedule in the NFL. We start to play the Texans twice, the Jaguars once, dolphins. We do have a couple of tough games, but the records combined 23 and 36. So we got a path. We're locking up this division. Is it it's how important though is it for the coaching staff to stress one game at a time? I mean to players sort of feel like it's definitely important because you know you look at it you say we got the Texans twice. We got Jacksonville but those divisional games. So anytime you play those games, they can beat you any Sunday and go either way when it's a divisional game. So yeah, no I mean hey we lost to the Jets. So you got to play. This game was certainly fun. I know I love watching us take out the rams in Los Angeles. Very well done. We got more Titans Blitz on the other side as we go to break. Here are some Nissan memorable moments stick around. What's going to take you to the who nearly came coming to you live from Nissan Stadium. Troops in the house as we celebrate Veterans Day our service game. This Sunday here at Nissan stadiums, we take on the Saints. We're going to pause the action from the X's nose a minute. It's one of my favorite segments that we do here on the program. Maybe we'll get you to do one of these segments. We ask our young talent to draw their favorite Titans players to see if our Titans could figure out who it is. And here is this week's vague van go. Check this out. I mean we got the one hearing. Oh man. Hold on. Oh man this one struggling. All right I see it's appears to be dreadlocks and a headband. This one might stump me here. All right you got the three days or a week or whatever you want to call them.  Nice. Coach is here. I'm out of here. Appreciate it. Go. Hey I'm going to go ahead and sit over there. Hey guys how are you? This is a really cool painting here. I love the powder blue. Great smile. Headband. Love the hearing. Iced out. AJ Brown. Julio has very similar hair to this. Just by the hair alone I got to go with Julio. We got the hair for sure which for me is a giveaway. I'll probably say that's Julio's gentleman. Headband, hoop earrings, smiling. Got the weeks going on. You gotta be me. And number two, Julio Jones. Julio Jones. Julio Jones. Everything. I better not see that on eBay. Great job. Great job. Listen. We've got some colors and some next rounds on you man. I try it out. I try it out. Yeah. I would love that. And C.J.2 K.Drew it. But you wouldn't be as good as Harper. Good job. Nice. All right. We got to play a little game this Sunday. Stick around more Titans Blitz on the other side. Trivia Gollet. Coming up. The Titans Blitz coming to you live from Nissan Stadium. I'm Lance Smith. We have veterans and troops in the house as we celebrate Veterans Day. Couple troops right here getting ready for our... Let's go ahead and roll it. Titans. Trivia Gollet. Are you intimidating yet?  I'm talking to soldiers if they're scared of the scary music. This Titans Trivia Gollet is brought to you by our friends at Martin's Barbecue. This is very cool right here. Also fed our soldiers tonight. How was the food, guys? Very cool. Very nice. Martin's Barbecue. Joint's been serving West Tennessee's style, West Tennessee bus style barbecue for the good people of Nashville for 15 years. Visit Martin's in the north end zone right here at Nissan Stadium or stop by one of the locations around the city line at martinsbbqjoint.com. As always, tighten up. Are you guys ready? We got you some Martin's Barbecue stuff there and you're playing for a really nice Martin's Barbecue gift card at the end of this. Tim, to my right here, where are you from? Rhode Island, originally.  That's right. We were going to find out. Okay. And Wendler, you said you were a Titan. I'm going to put you to it, Tim and Wendler. Tim, I believe you won the Rock, Paper, Scissor to go first. No one cheated? Yeah, I cheated. He's honest. I love that. All right, here we go. But Tim wanted, he's got the first question. First question is to you. Here we go. Look to the big screen. What results from a quarterback being sacked in his own end zone? Is that a touch down, a safety? He even knows what to do. I don't know who originated that, but there we go. One point, not two points, ironically. To you, Wendler, your question is how many yards is a false start penalty? Is that two yards, ten yards, five yards, or 15 yards? That's five-yard penalty. False start, five-yard penalty. That is correct. Next question, Tim, who is the only first round draft pick university of Tennessee? First round draft pick, University of Tennessee, Justin Hunter, Ryan Tannehill, Kevin Dyson, or Albert Hainesworth? That would be Justin Hunter, Lance. Justin Hunter, not first rounder. We were looking for Albert Hainesworth. That's right, that's right. Albert Hainesworth.  It takes a little right here, Wendel. Who gets to call heads or tails for the coin toss at the start of every NFL game? Is that the home team captain, the referee, the visiting team captain, or the visiting head coach? Away team captain. Away team captain. You have taken the lead with that one. Tim, to you. To tie it up, before the AFC South division was formed in 2002, what was the name of the division in which the Titans played? The AFC Atlantic, NFC South, the UFC, or the AFC Central? Lance, that was the AFC Central. That was the old AFC Central. But I'm going to overrule that. There we go. We liked the game. Wendel, to you. What jersey number did Mike Vrable wear during his playing career with the Patriots? Tough question here. 18, 50, 67, or 95. What did Vrable wear with the Patriots? I'm going to say 50. You're going to say 50. I'm going to say you're correct. Three to you. Question to you, Tim. Which of the following Titans was a six-round NFL draft choice? Six-round NFL draft choice of the Titans. David Long Jr., a money hooker, Nate Davis, or Roger Saffel III. Six-round David Long Jr. David Long Jr., the score is all tied up. Final question, you each get to answer. So, Tim will stay with you here. Which family film was number one at the domestic bus office the week of the Music City miracle? This one's hard, Tim. The Muppets, Stuart Little, the Incredibles, or Space Jam? Music City miracle, number one at the box office. The Stuart Little. Going with Stuart Little. Wendell, what say you? Same answer? I'm going to go with Space Jam. Going to go with Space Jam. Did you love Space Jam? I did. Did you love Stuart Little? Immensely. I love this video. It's actually Stuart Little. I'm going to give you stuff and here is a $100 gift card to you, sir. Very well. You've got to teach your friends that. That's in CJ back with you. We've got a big game coming up here. Anise, we're finally back home, been on the road for a couple of weeks. Finally back home in here at Nissan Stadium this Sunday to take on the Saints. Something very cool, though, to remember as you're coming to the stadium on behalf of LG. This is fantastic. Everybody come to the game. We've partnered with LG. We want you to bring your gently used clothing.  You don't want to wear anymore. Bring them to the game. Okay, LG will wash and donate them to local charities here in Nashville. And if you do that, you get a $10 voucher to concessions. You get a cool t-shirt. So if you bring a t-shirt, you get another one. If you're into just not losing things, we'll replace it. But we're going to take care of some local charities on behalf of, or with the help of LG. It's very cool. So let's just show the rest of the NFL why we have the best fans in the league. All right, game, Sunday, Saints, keys to this thing. My friend, CJ, you know this game better than anybody. What are the Titans need to do? I mean, I say air attack because we can't rely on not to say these guys can't run the ball, but that's not our game right now. Yeah, it's not our game right now, but we're going to have to find some type of way to get a running game going. And like I've been saying, we're going to have to find a way for our receivers to step up even more because we're going to have to change into a passing offense being that we lost our number one threat. Yeah, exactly. Julio Jones been sort of nursing, you know, a slight injury from earlier in the year off season. He's been still playing, though, getting through it. I mean, at what point is it playoffs but at what point do you kind of have to say, okay, well, I just got to I got to put it all out there. Yeah, at some point, but you them hamstring, I think it's the hamstring. Those injuries are tricky. They can go out at any time. And you never really can be yourself with that type of injury. So I feel like he's not set out enough. And I think it's coming around. I think, like right now it's it's due at that time. So you're going to have to do it like real soon. Yeah. Yeah, no, well, and I'm sure A.J. Brown is looking to get back in action. He's had some monster games going into this one. Had a couple of drops this game but he'll shake it off. We have faith. Yeah, he's been good this season. It's kind of the Derek Henry wide receivers out there. Thank you so much for being here. Good to see you again, sir. I want to thank this crowd, especially, hey, thank a veteran tomorrow. Without you guys, we wouldn't be playing this game or doing anything.  Thank you all for being here. Thanks for watching the show. As always, tighten up and let's get another