for Thursday, May 14th, and thank you for joining us. As a reminder, this webinar is being recorded, so please refrain from asking any personally identifying health questions. Sorry, a little technical problem there. So if you'd like to ask a question during this chat, please click the Q&A button from the Zoom application. You may also raise your hand through Zoom or press star nine from the telephone if you're calling in with us today. So today we have our public health director, Julie Fetterman joining us. Welcome to you both. Thank you. Good to see you. Before we launch into Q&A from the attendees and some other questions that we've had sent in to us, do either of you have updates? Sure, so I have a couple of things. So it's not COVID related, so that might be a little bit different. On Monday, there was a meeting of the town council, the school committee, and the board of library trustees where we talked a little more specific about the challenges that we have as terms going forward for FY20 and FY21 for the budget. And then the next day, on Tuesday, we met with the finance committee and got even more specific with actual numbers. So I just want to let people know that for FY20, when we do our projections, our revenues will be lower, but we've reigned in our expenses, our ongoing expenses. We've had additional COVID related expenses, but all those things, when you get to the bottom line, we're going to be fine for FY20. So we're confident moving forward on that. For FY21, it will be a bigger challenge. And so the ways that we will meet this significant challenge in our budget is by, and this is a proposal we've made to the finance committee of the town council, is that the three entities would be level funded, not level service budgets, but they would be level funded, meaning that every the towns, the schools, the regional schools in the library would receive roughly the same amount of money for FY21 that we had in FY20. The second piece we would have to reduce is our commitment to OPED, which is other post-employment benefits, which is something we've been putting way to pay for future liabilities that we have as a town. It's been a really important contribution, but it's something that, if we don't do it this year, we'll survive. And then the third thing is a significant reduction in our commitment to capital, the things that we do every day, like buying trucks and ambulances and police cars and stuff like that. We're going to hold off on making any of those kinds of investments at this moment in time until we see later in the year what our cash situation looks like. So these are things that can be put off. If there's something that can't be put off, we will be presenting that to the town council for funding, but one of the benefits of a council form of government is that we can bring something back to it and relatively short-term. So that's where we are with the budget. It's not a pretty picture, but we are fortunate that the town has for years managed its resources well and we have good reserves and we will be utilizing those reserves. The one caveat on this is we don't know what's going to happen with state aid, and the intent is that if state aid is reduced, we would use our reserves to offset the loss in state aid. Otherwise, we will be trimming our budgets in order to stay within the constraints of our reduced revenue coming in. So that's the big news from my seat and we're really fortunate that we have Sean Mangano who is our new finance director and working with Sonya Aldridge who's been our interim finance director and comptroller and so we're gonna need all brains on deck to get through this period. So we've got really good people working on it and it's gonna, we'll get through it. So that's why I have to add Brianna. And so folks who are interested in following along through that budget process as documents become available and plans become available, we will be putting those online at amherstma.gov slash budget. The most recent documents are up there now and we'll continue to add to that as we move forward. Julie, do you have any general updates for us before we launch into some questions? Sure, thank you, Brianna. Good afternoon, everyone. I thought I'd talk about contact tracing a little bit. You're all hearing about this concept. This is something that public health departments have always done for diseases. But of course, during this pandemic, contact tracing is being identified as absolutely crucial. So the state has ramped up a program to help communities with their contact tracing. We have been very lucky. We have Jennifer Brown, our public health nurse working on contact tracing in Amherst. And we also have two school nurses who have been working on contact tracing also during this school year when they're not staffing health rooms. And so we are so grateful to all three of them.  So we've had really great response with contact tracing. When we call people up, we're getting, we're able to reach them, we're able to talk with them. Contact tracing is, I guess I should explain again what that is, is so when we're notified confidentially when there's a positive case of COVID-19 in Amherst. As soon as that happens, one of the nurses calls that case, makes sure that they've got all the care that they need, that they're connected with the resources they need, and that they understand remaining in isolation. Over time, that patient is checked in with during the whole time they're in isolation to make sure they continue to be okay and to recover and to get the services that they need. The other piece of that is at that initial phone call, any contacts of that person and a contact, the definition of that has changed at various times. So at this point, it's anyone that they had come in contact with for 48 hours before becoming symptomatic. And so those contacts are called up and told that they've come in contact with someone who has COVID-19. It's all confidential. They're not told who they've come in contact, but just that they have come in contact with someone and then quarantine is explained to them. And again, people are monitored during quarantine because the purpose of quarantine, those 14 days when people are to stay at home in their own rooms is to see if the disease develops. Now, of course, there are many things that are difficult about quarantine, but one of them is that often people feel fine, but we are finding around the country that it can sometimes be day seven, day 11 when people start to develop symptoms. If a person develops symptoms, then they get tested. If they do not develop any symptoms and they go through their 14 weeks of quarantine, they're released from quarantine and they are able to go about their usual business. In the event that Amherst or any other community in Massachusetts gets overwhelmed with the number of contacts to be followed up with, the state has created a contact tracing program in partnership with partners in health. So that system has been ramping up for weeks now and is now fully in place so that there is this capability for cases to be handled by this statewide group of contact tracers, a thousand people in all, many of whom speak different languages and can help our community and other communities with contact tracing. So I thought it might be of interest to people to understand how that's rolling out in Amherst and in the state. And answer your cell phones, right? Yes, thank you, thank you. So the other piece of this is that you should always answer your phone. And if you get a phone call from an 800 number, a lot of us ignore those, don't ignore it because the contact tracers that are not in our town are using an 800 number to reach out to people. And so answer the call and also know that this is a completely confidential phone call. It's all about just limiting this disease and also helping you with your health because it's crucial for you to know if you've come in contact with someone and potentially been exposed because then you will be monitoring your own health closely and then you'll have the guidance of a contact tracer also to help you with that. So answer the call, thank you. But no contact tracer will ever ask you for your social security number or information like that, right? Correct, not to ask for your health insurance or your social security number. You'll be asked for your date of birth and that's only because they wanna make sure they've got the right person. So your name and your date of birth, any other of your private information is not necessary and won't be asked for. Great, thank you for that important update and reminder. So I just wanna say again to our folks who are on the call live, I see a number of you. If you wanna ask a question, feel free to use the Q&A button or simply raise your hand from Zoom and we will unmute you and pull you into the room to ask your question. So until then, I have a question here that involves maybe both of you. When do you think businesses will be allowed to reopen? Not just essential businesses, businesses like bookstores, coffee shops, barber shops, et cetera and who gets to decide that? So it's a great question. It's a question we're all wondering about. Right now, those businesses are closed at the governor's level. He has issued orders that only essential businesses should be open. They are reviewing that. They have a reopening commission that has been set up. I've been on a committee that's been advising that commission from the municipal level what it looks like on the ground at cities and towns. The May 18th is when his order is the governor's order is supposed to expire. And I do not anticipate that he's going to, I think that he will extend that order. I don't think he's gonna just say on May 18th, everything's open. There's no evidence, no scientific support for making that kind of determination. He may continue. I don't know, it's all speculation. But at this level, it's the governor who makes the general call. And it's actually something I've been advocating for and my fellow municipal officials have been advocating that we do this on a state level, not on a city, individual city or town level, because it can create chaos if one place opens bookstores or barbershops and the next town doesn't. You wanna do this on a state by state basis. And that's the best metric. That's the best level to be making the decisions. There's a lot of complexities in this. You may have seen last week when the governor came out and said golf courses can open in time from other state. And many golf courses did open. But there were a lot of rules that went along with it. So I think you'll see a gradual, you talk about the dial, a gradual opening of things beyond essential services. But there are so many things that have to be taken into consideration. I think it's gonna be a slow process. Any thoughts on that, Julie? I would concur with that. I think it's going to be a slow process. I think that Massachusetts is learning from what's been happening in other states. And I think the governor is very tuned in with his public health experts and scientists. And it will be a very slow opening. I know we all know how much everyone wants to get back to work and needs to get back to work. And I think that we're lucky that the governor is balancing that also with everyone's health. Because if we saw a slip back and cases began to rise, that would not be a good thing. So I agree that I think on Monday we're going to hear about what comes next but not that things are opening right away. This is semi-related. This person hears that the farmer's market, Amherst farmer's market is going to open. They wonder if you think this is safe and what might it look like? Will it be different than it was in the past? So we've been working with the farmer's market to see if they can open for, as a good place to buy food, not as a social gathering place. That's an important change. There will not be music there.  And anything like that is, it will be an outdoor place to purchase food. And in order to do that, we've looked at two different locations and the farmer's market will like to relocate the farmer's market to the town common. And that's what will be presented to the town council on Monday for their consideration. And if it opens, and that there's a lot more space in the town council and the town common, and that allows them to really space out things and to control traffic flow. There's a lot of requirements that will be put in place for them, including, and Julie has been looking at a lot of these things. And she may add more as we start to experience it on the ground, but you will have to wash your hands before you enter the farmer's market. You will be required to wear a mask when you are working there or entering or going through the farmer's market, though we socially distance all throughout the farmer's market. So I think the town council is eager to have the farmer's market open as a place to buy food outside, but it has to be done with certain precautions. And Julie on that. Yeah, inspection services has been working really hard on this, trying to figure out a way to set up that would be preserving the social distancing and keeping people safe. Notoriously, this has been a place to get food, but also a very social event. So setting up, setting it up physically so that it's not social, sadly is what we need to do now. And the building commissioner and the inspectors have been working really hard on ways to create a system that will allow people to flow through safely and to purchase food. I think it's also a change of mindset for the community that we're looking at. This is another place to get food. We all know it's been tough in grocery stores. Sometimes you're not finding what you wanna get. We also want to be able to support our farmers and eat local food. So this is a great opportunity to do this. The state is all behind farmer's markets being open. And so we're gonna be looking for the public to help us with this, to make it a safe place for everyone to go and for this to work well. It'll be a partnership. So we got a couple of follow-up questions that came in from some of our attendees here. Can businesses submit proposals for safely opening, perhaps partly by limiting services? So businesses, if it's a restaurant or something like that, they are permitted to do curbside takeout type of business. So there are certain rules for certain businesses, but only if they're defined as an essential operation. I think that's right, isn't it, Julie? Correct, yeah. At this time, I know a lot of businesses are thinking about when the governor starts turning that dial and opening things up. How could their business be able to open in a way that's safe? And until we get the guidance from the governor, there's nothing that we can really do locally about that. Definitely food service has been able to continue with takeout and curbside pickup. But at this moment, nothing has really changed from the past several weeks around what businesses can do other than, as Paul said, the golf courses. So again, we're waiting for the governor's guidance on what comes next and then we'll be implementing in Amherst how that can move forward. And one more follow-up on the contact tracing. The Sarah wants to know, will the contact tracers leave a message? Yes, thank you, that came up last week. No, they'll be calling back to help preserve confidentiality. Great, thank you. So some new folks are in the room. Feel free to use Q&A or raise your hand, star nine from the phone to ask your question. Another question we have here is, do either of you have an opinion as to whether the colleges and universities should reopen in the fall, physically? Oh, I was hoping to say, will. That's a should is a different question. Will and should. Will and should. Will they open? Well, we know Amherst Hampshire College has said that if the state allows it and the federal government allows it, they will open in the fall. They believe that they can accommodate the social distancing and the housing and teaching and learning environments successfully. We have not heard from Amherst or UMass and I don't think they, we're all eager to hear what they have to say. And so it's a total speculation on whether they will or not. I know they have a lot of things to consider because you're bringing lots of people into campuses from all over the world whether they, that's a good idea or not. Should they? That's above my pay grade. Maybe goes to Julie. A raise in my future. Yeah, I think this is something, we're confronting all over the country. This balance between wanting education to continue, but what will it look like? How will it be safe? I think it's above my pay grade and we've got a lot of great minds. Thinking about this on the state level with our state university and Amherst College and Hampshire College have been so thoughtful in their approach to this pandemic and how they've been so proactive in protecting faculty and staff as has the university. So I think I trust that good decisions will be made and they're tough ones to make. So, do we wanna talk about face masks again? We've got an initiative going on for the community, but do we wanna share any just refreshers on where we are with face coverings and face masks right now? Two requirements. Yeah, it's always complicated for folks.  When you go out the door, have a mask with you. You know, you might be going for a walk around the neighborhood and think you're not gonna run into anyone, but then suddenly there might be like a group and it's a little hard to get past. So you wanna be able to have a mask on in case you're interacting with people. You know, if you're basically just walking past someone and it's, you know, one minute, 30 seconds, you know, you're not, the chances of you becoming in contact with the disease are very slim, but it's also partly about making other folks feel comfortable because they don't know. And so it's also a courtesy to just have a mask on if you're coming within six feet of folks. And really what you have to do is, you know, even if you're going out in your car or whatever, just have one with you. Have it in your pocket. I guess we all gotta have pockets now. Keep one in your car and just have it with you in case you're gonna stop somewhere, in case you're gonna do something. Make sure that your mask fits tightly around your cheeks because the purpose of the mask and across your nose. So some people have the blue paper masks that have a little bit of metal up here. You wanna really shape that to your nose. Make sure the whole thing is fitting smoothly. If you have a cloth mask or a bandana, again, you want it to really be sort of tied up against your skin, but you still wanna be able to breathe comfortably. I've talked before about the right kind of fabrics.  Here we go. I even got one right here, like this. And you wanna have more than one layer. And what they're finding is layers of two different fabrics that are very tightly woven like flannel and quilting cotton together create a great barrier. And there's some research to show that there's a little bit of static electricity that's happening between the fabrics that also might be helpful. The other thing to remember is that when you take your mask off, you wanna remove it from your ears and try not to touch the front of it because there could be virus on that. And when you've got a cloth mask, just when you get home, just what I do, I go right to the bathroom sink, goes in the bathroom sink, I keep a little soap in there, I wash it out, hang it up to dry. So really the best thing is for, if everyone can have two cloth masks, then you're kind of good to go. One's always drying, one is ready. And what else was I gonna say about that? So we're not recommending masks as you've heard for children under the age of two. Also the commissioner of public health put out an advisory saying that also we know that there are people who cannot wear a mask for various reasons because of their inability to be covered up like that. It can affect their breathing. So recognize that if you see someone without a mask, you don't know why they're not wearing a mask. We're not looking for people to try to enforce this on others, some people just can't wear a mask. And we're hoping that everyone who can will wear one. You are required to wear one if you are going into an indoor space, a store, an office building. So it's a real adjustment I think for everyone to get used to this. And as Brianna was mentioning, the town does have a mask program. We're still looking for donations of fabric and we're really looking and other materials, I think maybe like elastic also. We're also looking for sewers because the idea is to get masks out to people who don't have the ability to get their own homemade masks or to make them. And so we're really trying to make that happen and looking for more volunteers and supplies. And I don't know if you wanna say more about that, Brianna. And I just wanna say quickly, thank you to all of the people who have donated already, whether it was through materials, funds, or actually sewing, we were able to get a couple hundred masks out to people who have requested and we're trying to put them in the lending libraries and working with the school to maybe put them out through the lunch distribution. So that is hundreds and hundreds of more masks. So anybody who can volunteer time materials, if they could call the town manager's office at<PHONE_NUMBER> or visit us online on the community participation website, that's amherstma.gov slash get involved. So anything that you can do or share this with someone who you know might be interested, that would be very helpful. Yeah, it's been amazing the amount of interest with people responding to offer services but overwhelming response of people saying, yes, my family needs masks and we can't get them online, we can't find them, this is a godsend. One of our CPOs had someone in tears thanking her for the masks because of her family situation, she can't leave the house easily. And so she was really hoping for a mask. But we have way more requests for masks than we have masks available, even though we produce over 200 within a few days. So it's really a great outpouring, but we need a lot more. Absolutely. All right, I have another question here. And again, I'll remind the folks in the room we're coming up to the end of our time. So if you have anything you wanna pop into the question box, please do that. I have a question is, let's see, when will town hall in the senior center open to the public again? So the town hall we will open to the public, our first order of business is to figure out how to bring employees back safely. And that is a pretty large task because we know that people gathering in a space over time is a bad thing to do at this moment in time. So that's why we're not interested in doing that. We do have a team of employees who are working on our reopening plan for bringing our employees back. And then the next phase will be how do we open the building to the public? That's a second phase. First thing is to, how do we bring our employees back safely? The second is opening the building to the public. We're able to really meet the needs of the public and pretty successfully. We have staff who will meet you in the parking lot if you are looking for your marriage certificates or something like that. It's been worked out and people have been very creative about it. The Senior Center, I would not anticipate that opening this calendar year at all. We will not be looking for creating a space where one of the most vulnerable populations can gather. And again, we will lead all of our, follow our advice of our health and our scientists like Julie and she will guide us on these decisions. But my speculation is that I don't anticipate the Senior Center opening this calendar year. Julie, do you? Yeah, I would agree with that. Because our seniors are just so vulnerable to this illness, I think the idea of bringing people in to a building won't be wise until we have a vaccine or something else changes in this picture of the disease. We have a wonderful Senior Center Director, Mary Beth Ogilevitz, who's doing all kinds of remote programming. And so I think that there will just be more and more attempts to be decentralizing services, bringing services to people, bringing classes into their homes. And the benefit of that is there've also been lots of people who couldn't make it to the Senior Center. So yeah, there'll be silver linings there also. And the food program is still continuing. People are getting meals delivered. So the fact that there's not a congregate place for a meal has not interrupted people receiving meals. Great, thank you. So we're coming close to our 1230 timeline to either of you have any last words for our viewers today? Just thank you for tuning in and we really appreciate you taking the time. And thank you all for what you're doing with social distancing and wearing masks and staying home. Amherst has done a really good job of protecting each other. And I know how hard this is. I have been in my house for a very long time. And it's tough, it's tough. And so we really appreciate the community because you're doing it for yourself and you're doing it for others. And it's so appreciated. Great, okay. Well, thank you everybody. If you have follow-up questions, please email us at info at amherstma.gov or contact the town manager's office. The number again is 259-3002. We appreciate you all for joining us. Stay safe and have a great day. Thank you. Bye, thank you both. Bye.


Welcome to vlogmas day 17. I am in the airport. Mmm, it was a little stressful getting here. The snow was really bad today, but I think it's gonna be okay on the ride home. My uncle drove me here, but it was definitely an adventure. I didn't film any of it because it was just so bad, poorly like visibility and stuff, and so dark. Well, you couldn't really see anything, so it really didn't make a difference to actually vlog it. So, I'm in the airport. My flight is on time. Right in here, like, insanely early because I thought that the roads would be worse than they are. They were bad, but they just weren't as horrible as I thought. So, it's actually 5.56, so almost 6 a.m. and my flight departs at 7. So that is good. But in Saturdays, I actually only got about three hours of sleep last night. So, I am tired and I have a party to go to this evening when I get into Orlando. So, I think what I'm gonna do when my mom picks me up, we're probably gonna go get some lunch and I'll definitely vlog that and then I think I'm gonna take a nap. But I will be going to a party tonight that will have some interesting decor to look at. So, definitely show you guys. So, anyway, I feel really weird vlogging and people are staring at me and I'm wearing my YouTube shirt, so it's even worse. Anyway, all right. So, I will check in with you guys when I can. Guess what y'all? I'm in Florida! Here's my beautiful room. I usually stay in the same room every time. Maybe someday I won't stay in this room. You never know. You never know. Still rocking my YouTube shirt. It's really warm out. I actually have a fan that's on above me. Just got here. We went to Bob Evans for lunch, which was really good. Really hit the spot. I had some soup, which is weird because it's hot here, but I think I was having flashbacks from this morning in Minnesota. But what I think I'm gonna do is I am going to unpack this bad boy here as well as that as much as possible. I've got my own closet doors, which is fantastic. Let's see. Let's see what's in the closet.  Oh, this is nice. Just some hangers for me. Well, they knew I was coming. Thank you. So, I'm gonna hang up some stuff and get the unpacking process started and then I think I'm gonna take a nap. I'm so tired. I got two, two and a half hours of sleep last night and I have a party to attend that starts at five o'clock tonight, but I was talking to my mom and I think we might actually go at six. I'm not really sure, but I want to get in some shut-eye because I haven't seen a lot of these people for a long time and I know that I'm gonna need to be like present and on, you know what I'm saying? So I just don't want to be like groggy and lethargic. So anyway, I am gonna do that and you guys will see me when I go to the party. I'm getting awkward you guys. So I am in this winter wonderland of blow-ups. Whoa! Can you guys see some of these? I have my ring light on because it's super dark outside, but I'm at a family friend's house. Her name is Mary Ann and yeah, she's got like all these crazy like blow-ups and stuff. It's really cool. Hope you guys can see some of them. I don't know. I think I'm gonna take you guys around so you can see some of the blow-ups because they're actually really, really cool and she adds to this every single year and her property is like ginormous. Can you guys enjoy the light show? I am gonna end out the vlog here. I'm not really doing much else for the rest of the day. My, oh, stepping on stuff. My brother just got into town too. So I am gonna be going home in a little bit and we are gonna lay out a schedule for the time that we're here. We're both here till the 27th. So that being said, you're gonna see a lot of Florida vlogs. You will end up meeting my brother very, very soon which will be really cool and yeah, we're gonna have a few adventures. That'll be really cool too. So I hope you guys had fun looking at the blow-up wonderland. It is really weird being in Florida by the way with like no snow, no cold. It's like I have a t-shirt on. My mom's coming. There she is. So yeah. But anyway, I'm gonna end out the vlog here. I hope you guys have a great day and I will see you later. Say bye to Vlogmas Day 17. Bye! Bye Vlogmas!


What's going on everybody? This is Giovanni from the options trading channel. I hope everybody had an awesome and amazing weekend I know I did it was really Relaxing it was great before I start guys hit that subscribe button down below. I would greatly appreciate it I update you on all of my positions my trading all of that jazz all here on my channel And also before we start I just want to share a little bit of you know Some some almost like motivational music Something that I love to listen to throughout the day when I'm trading when I go on my bike rides hiking or whatnot Just something nice to something really cool to listen to that's pilot That's the name of the group and the name of the song is called loss really cool I like it. I'll put a link in the description down below for you guys. Alrighty guys Let's just get right into this. We're trading Apple Amazon Baba Tesla all at the same time I bought into three different positions. Well, I didn't buy into I got myself into three different Positions in addition to the Tesla one from last week. Let's get to the computer screen so I can show you those trades Show you what we did today. We did quite a bit of trading relatively speaking, of course We sold Here are the executions for today at the very bottom orders filled We sold one Baba call option the two eighty five calls that expired this week at two twenty We sold a Amazon call the thirty seven hundred calls that expired this week on Friday at 1060 we also sold one single Apple call the six hundred calls that expire on Friday at two 30 We can see these positions here, of course the very first one here CL that's oil that we've held on to it for quite some time Apple we are up a hundred and twenty nine dollars Amazon were up seven hundred eighty dollars Baba were up $20 in Tesla. We're even we're break even as of last recording, which was Friday on the 21st We're down $5 seem even skipping around even though the Tesla Has actually pulled back where is Tesla right here far bottom left it pulled back. It's looking good It's looking like it's not gonna hit twenty seven hundred by Friday. So everything is Working to our favor as you can see if you take a look at this number right here $72,006 and of course it's gonna fluctuate because this is a live live trading here That's how much it took Worth of margin basically to trade all of these positions today. Hey, look at that We're we were up $2.50 There you go. That's first time I actually been up on this position, but $72,000 that's how much it took to get into these trades. That's a lot of money So in terms of return rate of return, not the best We're probably gonna we're looking at one to one and a half percent return our on our account for the week It is for the week It's not like an annual thing or anything but one to one and a half percent rate of return on our investments on Total on the account, of course, right? It's about fifteen hundred dollars to about two thousand So we're just gonna keep an eye on them We're gonna manage them all week and I'll give you guys a live update as they come I'm really excited about these positions. No, we still got about 80 grand worth of option buying power Which I'm told that's you know, we can we can do a lot of creative things Get ourselves into different positions to counter Balance those positions that were in so I'm trusting my mentor I'm trusting the person has been doing this for you know, a couple of years down and he does this for Income every week. He does make about one to two percent on his overall trading account So, I mean, that's what we stand to to make this week. So I'm really excited again Thank you everybody so much. This was a short in sweet video for you today I don't want to take up too much of your time. I know your time is valuable But figured I would update you on the new positions that we got ourselves into Again, if you haven't already hit that subscribe button down below I would greatly appreciate it like and share my videos Don't forget to hit that bell notification so you get notified the moment that I upload a video See you guys here on the very next trading video hoping it's a green trade. See you guys later


So remember that if m is a square matrix and v is a non-zero vector, then there's a least value k for which the sequence v, mv, m squared v, and so on, is dependent. Consequently, there's a non-trivial solution to a linear combination of these vectors equal to the zero vector, and we can use this equation to find the eigenvalues, and we can avoid having to find the determinant. Because remember, we want to avoid algorithms that require finding the determinant. But the important question here is, can we find all the eigenvalues? And so we'll introduce a useful theorem. Suppose m is a square matrix and v is a non-zero vector, and let k be the least power for which there is a non-trivial solution to linear combination equal to the zero vector. Then all roots of this minimal polynomial are eigenvalues. And the proof that is relatively straightforward. This vector equation can be factored, and this last part of the equation can't be zero. Because if it was, there would be a non-trivial solution to an equation of lesser degree, and we assume that k was the least power for which a non-trivial solution existed. And since this is not equal to zero, that means it's going to be an eigenvector corresponding to the eigenvalue lambda one. But we can rearrange the factors and the same argument holds. So every root of the equation is an eigenvalue. So for convenience, we'll call this polynomial a minimal polynomial of m with respect to our vector v. Now that's very good, but there's a more important and somewhat concerning result. Suppose my vector v is a linear combination of the eigenvectors for k distinct eigenvalues. Then the minimal polynomial for v has degree k, and the roots will be eigenvalues of the eigenvectors of the linear combination. We won't prove this, we have to leave something for exercises. But here's why this is concerning. Suppose we, by chance, picked a vector v that was a linear combination of some of the eigenvectors. Then our minimal polynomial would only find those eigenvalues, and we might end up missing many of the actual eigenvalues. So we'll deal with the easy case first. Suppose we have an n by n non-defective matrix. Then there are n linearly independent eigenvectors, so every vector in Rn can be expressed as a linear combination of the eigenvectors. So suppose we pick a random seed vector v, which happens to be a linear combination of some of the eigenvectors. By our theorem, we'll find all the eigenvalues of the corresponding eigenvectors, and so every seed vector gives us a set of eigenvectors. Now, since we know how many linearly independent eigenvectors we're supposed to get, we can just check to see if we have found them all. And if we haven't, well, let's pick a new seed vector that cannot be expressed as a linear combination of the known eigenvectors. Again, since our matrix is non-defective, this vector that we've picked must still be a linear combination of the eigenvectors, and this means it must include some of the eigenvectors we haven't found yet. And that means we'll be able to find some additional eigenvalues. And since the number of eigenvalues is finite, we'll eventually find all of the eigenvalues and all of the eigenvectors. So, for example, let's consider this 4x4 matrix. So we'll pick a random seed vector. No need to be fancy. We'll go with 1, 0, 0, 0, and we find that if we apply the matrix to this vector, we get the same thing. And that means that 1, 0, 0, 0 is an eigenvector corresponding to lambda equals 1. But since A is a 4x4 matrix, the characteristic polynomial will be of degree 4, and we should expect 4 eigenvalues. So how do we find the rest? To find the rest, it's important to remember that it's possible for an eigenvalue to correspond to more than one linearly independent eigenvector. So let's see if lambda equals 1 corresponds to multiple eigenvectors. And so let's find all eigenvectors associated with lambda equal to 1. So we'll solve A minus 1ix equals 0. So row reducing our coefficient matrix. We have solutions. And since we have two free variables, our eigenvectors for lambda equal 1 have the form. And so we'll take one of our eigenvectors as 1, 0, 0, 0, and the other one as 0, 1, minus 2, 1. So to find another eigenvector, we'll take a vector u that is linearly independent of the known eigenvectors. For convenience, we'll choose, well, how about 0, 1, 0, 0. And you know this is independent because it's online, so it must be true. So after you've satisfied yourself that this actually is independent of our two known eigenvectors, we can find Au, A squared u, and A cubed u. And we get our minimal polynomial, which we factor. And so we know the roots 1, negative 2, and 3 are eigenvalues. And we've already determined the eigenvectors for the eigenvalue 1. So we want to find the eigenvectors for the eigenvalues minus 2 and 3. So going through that process, we find that lambda equals minus 2 has eigenvector 1, 1, negative 3, 4, and lambda equals 3 has eigenvector. And since a 4 by 4 matrix has at most four linearly independent eigenvectors, and we found 1, 2, 3, 4 linearly independent eigenvectors, we found all of the eigenvectors and all of the eigenvalues. And if we put this all together, this tells us when to stop. Since an n by n matrix will have at most n linearly independent eigenvectors, we can stop looking for eigenvalues when we found n eigenvectors. And if we have a non-defective matrix, we will eventually find all of the eigenvectors. And so we're done with the problem. What's that? Question in the back? Oh, right. This is only for non-defective matrices. What if we have a defective matrix? How do we know when we found all of the eigenvalues? We'll look at that next.


What's up everybody welcome to the zero-to-diamond podcast. I'm your host Ricky I'm on a mission to help reduce the failure rate in the real estate industry by helping you master your skills on the phone Conquer your fears and change in your mindset Let's get into the show What's up? What's up? What's up everybody? How we doing? I hope everybody's well today. Um, I've been showing property all day myself Had a couple clients rolling into town showing some properties Followed up with some stuff did a bunch of stuff man. Today was a really good day for me super productive Welcome to this week's show I'm your host Ricky Coruth and today we got Zach Manic on the program. Thanks for your uh, thanks for coming on the program today, man My pleasure. Thanks for having me as always Zach is uh, Zach is not like a long-time agent the reason I wanted to bring Zach on is because He really gets the mindset that I'm trying to convey to the world About success in real estate success in general long-term actions long-term thinking for short-term gain and long-term at the same time but uh, man like Tell everybody a little bit about I guess your background how you got into real estate and let everybody kind of know a little bit about you all right, so um So quick quick quick overview. Let's see I I didn't have a job until graduating high school because I played Football and that was like a full-time job in high school. So my first job Was like at a as a barista for a couple years And then I moved to San Luis Obispo I tried to go to Cuesta college and that whole thing partied too much and moved back home And got a real job at a distribution parts distribution company connected to the uh commercial vehicle industry They do like wholesale distribution for electronics and stuff. I was there for six years So from I'd say I don't know 21 22 i'm 30 now Um, I don't know. Whatever the timing was I worked in every Uh department is like kind of a paid internship gig planning for me to go into sales there um, but after you know, the bureaucracy and the politics of the whole company I just kind of got burned out after working in every department and um Is is kind of a family-owned atmosphere.  I was thinking about leaving And uh, I've been so it's been about four years now in march that uh That I've been in real estate. So right before I left I knew also one thing that turned me off from the job that I was at was I just hated the hamster wheel Feeling of it like every day doing the same thing or groundhog day, whatever analogy you want to use Where every day I feel like I was doing the same thing I had to answer the people whatever but You know, I was never like an inventive person and and once my sister got into real estate I just thought man, I I could do that like I could I you know I'm real confident in talking to people and it just kind of comes naturally. I'm not really that nervous all that stuff So I jumped in it. Um, I was actually working part-time at starbucks for a while And then the last brokerage I was at coldwell banker The sales manager took a liking to me and kind of brought me up as his protégé slash assistant Gave me a real good opportunity so I can quit starbucks and Um, pay me like 500 bucks a week to do like tc word transaction coordinating And kind of learn the business, you know, he'd let me put my son Writer up on his on his listing stuff like that Dude, what an opportunity bro. It was it was it really was and uh, and and honestly it really it Kind of it got me out of the starbucks. I went full time in real estate like pretty pretty soon Probably I'd say six months to a year after I started starbucks, which just was miserable by the way, but Yeah, so once I went full time, you know, I I started out Um, you know various coaches coldwell banker the one I was at was brought up through the mic fairy deal So they really pushed that so I was I was you know, I had no problem calling expired It's calling fizz bows cold calling and using those scripts and stuff, but um, you know, I just never really had a system to Like clearly track everything and funnel everything and that was the one thing I was missing and they were pushing You know coldwell banker at least the one I was at they were charging a seven percent franchise fee And they were pushing all their systems to capture all that and I and and it didn't work half the time And I I remember just getting paid and being so pissed because seven percent of every paycheck was going to something that didn't work, right? so anyway To move it along, um, I did okay my my second year. I sold about three million In real estate, which was I guess pretty good. Um, I don't remember how many sides or anything like that But then starting last year, um, I had a real real hard time I I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't have like the consistency and stuff like that that I found ZTD so I felt kind of lost like I was trying all this different stuff And uh, it's not that the expires and fizz bows didn't work. It's just the way that it was taught to me I didn't it didn't feel natural. Yeah, and I and and then and then that coupled with the beginning of 2017 I had a listing I really started out strong where I closed and I felt good But then I had a listing that fell apart where I had the buyer too And the buyer would have been like a lot of future business and he thought it was my fault Even though I had nothing to do with it and I lost him and I just was like fed up so actually like kind of step back from the business never fully left but um I started a credit repair company thinking like I'm gonna I'm gonna blow this up And that's now become like passive income for me Actually started that company and it's doing well But then I started watching your stuff probably I don't know. I signed on in october so I probably started watching a couple months before that and following and stuff and then You know it's been life changing honestly since I since I joined, you know now here we are You know after signing on in october, so Yeah, that's kind of my story in a nutshell I guess Oh, yeah, um a couple things guys, um everybody watching on facebook and also we're live on instagram If anybody on instagram has any questions for me or zack feel free to type it in same on facebook zack is a four-year agent Um, he's still in the building stages of his business But I wanted to bring him on the show just to have a different perspective You know, I've had a lot of really top producers on the program and I really wanted to have somebody that Was kind of still in that that mindset of just like fighting through the beginning stages and trying to figure out find your way and figure out what direction you want to go in and You know trying new things and figuring out what works and what doesn't work and all the stuff that newer Realtors go through to try to find their way. I wanted to have somebody on the program like that. So man like back when I started and it took me eight months to make my first sale I uh, I was asking my um I was asking my my broker at the time. I said man, what can I do? Can I uh Like can I sweep the floors or like is there anything I can do here at the company that I can make like You know some money somehow or a job or something like I was like It would have been amazing if I could have been like a transaction coordinator from 500 a week and learn the business and Stuff like like you did man. That was an incredible upper. That was like an opportunity to have a lifetime, bro was it was It was And There's a weird transition that happened there where I was I I'm just a loyal dude So like the guy that gave me the opportunity I I was you know a hundred percent on board with him But I was so upset about the franchise fee because there was a lot of money I was losing for something that I I didn't think was worth it whatsoever and I'll still argue that but uh He ended up leaving Soon after I left and started his own brokerage and for whatever reason He never told me he was ever going to start his brokerage and it kind of blew my mind but um after after I left And uh is when kind of everything kind of I wouldn't say fell apart, but I kind of just started doubting You know because I didn't have the support. I didn't have the uh the systems and the structure of my business like I You know, I signed up for two coaching programs like soon after I thought I was figuring it out and it wasn't my style and Then I really got burned out because I was like well, I paid these guys and it didn't work man This this business must be just you know luck and and smoking mirrors, but uh Yeah, so it's kind of kind of interesting Where where I'm at now because I felt like I had to figure it out after my second year Like I said, I did like three million the negotiating Um handling clients uh communicating the deals that was never an issue for me It was it was always just the consistency of the hard work and and having the systems to get up and actually like Do it, you know and and I just didn't have the support, you know what I mean, so As I said, you know that that didn't come until I signed up with your stuff and now it's been like life changing It's pretty awesome to look back on So so you're saying like you didn't have like the drive like the work like what do you mean the hard work like what do you mean Yeah, because um I I just was I There there wasn't First of all that the coaches I think a big part of it was they weren't in the in the business anymore or they said, you know so I didn't really have a mentor to really look up to After I left cobalt banker and that the guy I was talking about and You know, I I guess I'm not I need that mentorship that You know for the self motivation or whatever to follow to really get me going And I was just overthinking everything reading too much signed up for too much And I think I just got information overload to where I just kind of said screw it to the point where I I literally would like get out of bed like Super depressed like not even wanting to do anything, you know, I mean, but Then I remember the simplicity is what really turned me on with zero to diamond because you like only recommended two books And I was like I already followed grant card down So I like that and then the slide edge is such a simple yet Just powerful book in general That kind of just put you know every day is just simple actions lead to huge results And and that was in line with what you were teaching So it was like a real just focused singular message to where I didn't feel overwhelmed anymore And it was like, okay I can get behind this because I don't feel like I'm going a hundred different directions, you know and And that's I I guess that's what once I realized that it was like little actions And and and I wasn't like thinking and I wasn't so overwhelmed with all this like other stuff of how I'm gonna get to my end goal It just all kind of fell in place I just started doing one thing at a time made like one phone call 50 phone calls 100 phone calls Got the dot, you know what I mean got the dialer and I just kept did it at it and and now It's just building it's just like building now, you know, I mean, so it's it's it's just kind of interesting now now I'd say the self motivation just comes from like i'm addicted to getting those emails and having good conversations like My mindset has completely shifted because I made Those commitments of just starting out doing the little things if that makes sense It's amazing whenever you you hit that point if any if a realtor ever hits the point where They get the concept of Not going after deals and not trying to pressure people and not trying to close the deal and not trying to set an appointment and the real goal is I want to make an impression on this person that they they they feel like i'm gonna i'm not the same as all the other agents out there Um, give them something different create a relationship long term. They're always going to use you forever They're going to refer their friends and family. It's amazing Like what happens when that mind shift happens But it's so hard for people to make that mind shift because they need money now And they think that the mind shift is going to put it to where they're not going to make money for years Well, yeah, you know, I know you're I think a big part of it though is is the the the old school coaches Uh, that's what they teach. They teach Close for the appointment right away.  No offense to anybody or you know that that whole moniker analogy like I don't I don't it's it's not my personality You know and that's like I want to build relationships and and I kept just like Thinking this business can't be that way, you know what I mean I felt like I was just sold something that wasn't it wasn't true, but Once I realized it and I saw that someone as successful as you actually Were doing it built and and you were basing your whole thing off of building relationships and And I started just applying it.  No, man. No, it's it's so hard for people to like understand because they're like I need now business, you know And it's like, okay.  But see what you're missing man is those four to five people a day that you turned off That would have would have done business with you in the future You know, it weren't so pushy and you weren't trying to handle objections and you weren't trying to close deals They want somebody real and genuine and that's out for them one and what I've noticed too is You also don't get Far far enough along in the conversation, you know, like Since I've had the mind that what we're talking about with my mindset chef And I'm I'm so much calmer because I'm not putting so much pressure on closing the deal That I'm actually listening to what they're saying and asking tons and tons and tons and tons of questions, you know instead of like Going straight for the deal and if they say no, it's like, okay, we'll screw you by it's like, okay Well, no, that's cool. That's cool.  And then those those questions are so huge. I like just just the amount of calls That I've made now, you know, since being in the program I've had so many conversations where The the conversation starts out with there you could tell they're like, please don't talk to me but then Because it's so calm and and you just kind of gradually just let it turn into a conversation all of a sudden They just start telling you stuff. It's like, hold on. Let me get my pen. I gotta write this down like super fast Or I can't even keep up with what you're saying, you know what I mean If you're always going for the deal You're not getting that because because you're you're you're closing yourself off to that, you know, you're and it's just I don't know it just doesn't make sense to me and This way is so much better Is all I have to say about that Well, when you're when you're trying to close the deal you sound like every other agent And when you sound like every other agent, they don't I mean they can find those are a dime a dozen anybody You know, there's millions of agents out there like that When they run across an agent who says Who doesn't say hey, have you thought about selling your house? And they run into an agent that says hey, there's a house down the road that just listed or sold or whatever And I didn't know if there's something that I could do to help you today They're like, well, what what is this? Like what is this? Is this my brother? Is this my cousin?  Like you said go deep with those questions. Yeah, you know, they really do appreciate it You know, if you they really do appreciate it if you when I went you could if you can Properly communicate or I just say sincerely communicate that like it has to come from a sincere place And it takes it takes time I mean, I'm not I'm not acting like I got it all figured out You know, everyone knows that you know, I signed up in October But just by making thousands of calls now I feel so much more confident where that sincerity wasn't there to start and now Now all the all the fear and and the reluctance has gone away to where the sincerity is just naturally there now Like I'm actually myself on the phone call rather than Think I remember when I first started I couldn't wait to get off the phone So I'd just be like, okay, great and I'd be happy I made it through and I just wanted to hang up right away and now it's like I want to keep talking keep talking keep talking And so once that sincerity starts coming through is when they really start giving you the golden nuggets that you need, you know Yeah, yeah when when people when you have that sincerity People are like happy to hear from you like they want to hear from an agent that's sincere and wants to help and stuff It's like that's one way you can get over your fears of cold calling Is but when you understand this mindset and this concept and you and you apply it for a little while You see the results and you see how people react It's like your fear goes out the window and then you're in this mindset like Okay, I got direction And by being sincere not only am I going to build a bigger business that really means something I'm also going to help more people.  I'm doing the right thing and I'm building a I'm building a huge business That's going to support my family for generations and generations. You know what I mean? Yeah So What's your goals and stuff for this year? Like what's your goals for 2018? I only need 12 million So 300,000 commissions Yeah, basically I don't have it in front of me But basically 12 million sales volume is kind of where once I break down from my brokerage split And the taxes like where I want my salary to be I can't remember off the top of my head I think it's around 200,000 after all that. Yeah But um, but yeah 12 million, which is like a huge huge jump, but uh, I think it's totally Was the 3 million your biggest year? Yeah, I mean that was my second year and then Business for four years. So your first year you did nothing second year did three million. What happened the third year? Yeah, first so first year I did maybe You know a few deals You know, maybe a million and then second and three million, but then last year was my third year. So 2017 and uh I only did Because I literally just completely stepped back from the business almost left the business but kept my license going I just I said I I told everyone I wasn't done But I wasn't active, you know, I mean, so I think I did no more than a million last year I don't even yeah Yeah, that was the year that like you kind of stepped back and did the credit repair for a second and tried to figure out What you wanted to do with your life about going into the chp like I was just looking at all these different, you know, maybe even electrician and I was and then I just you know I started doing all the research. I was like, there's no way that well You went from you went from making doing three million in sales your second year. I mean, that's pretty good for your second year I mean, that's pretty good, you know income. Yeah, it was no it was it just uh, you know, I I was being I was being uh, I was being soft, you know, and uh, I'm very very competitive and it really was it was a weird, uh Weird deal for me because my mindset it wasn't Natural but I just was completely in the in the dumps, you know Yeah, and I really just had to slog through it And um The only way that I got out of it was fully committing 110 And then just doing the little actions every day just and and what you teach in your program, you know Honestly, that's why I say it's life changing and and that's all it is.  I mean even Even and it's bled into everything else that I've done like, you know, just like you say like an active lifestyle I was 30 pounds heavier probably last year at this time And uh, you know, I I just thought to myself, I'm competitive like why am I not Doing more competitive things, you know, I need to reactivate that in my head And then when I saw the way you attacked business, I was like, that's where I should I should look at real estate Like I see all these other guys doing it. I'm like, I know the way they were in high school I grew up with them. I would blow them out of the water if I had the resources or, you know, just got just figured it out Yeah, and so I kind of clicked back into that and made a full commitment I lost 30 pounds and now, you know, my business is really just starting to take off. I mean, I know I know once once once the escrow actually closes.  I mean people commit to this. I could you know, so So I mean it's it's literally that that fine, but that's what the slide edge teaches, right? It's like It's it's it's as easy to do the right thing as it is the wrong thing And so you can get in these bad habits where you're doing the wrong thing just slightly every day And all of a sudden you become someone you're not and it's just a complete opposite is true just like what you teach and Yeah, that's basically The way it's worked for me. Yeah, I mean You know Like I say like for me the best policy is is just to stay as busy as I can stay You know like just stay busy doing deals talking to people You know putting out fires closing stuff listing stuff You know and now I'm doing a show writing books speaking coaching You know videos I'm just stay busy man. You just got to stay after you know I'll tell you why one one big reason why people don't chase their dreams I think I figured it out but because of this coaching program I'm doing and like how much like heart and soul and effort I put into it I think I've realized why people don't chase their their dreams because You have to like if there's something you're real passionate about You have to literally Like go after it like fully commit and give it everything you've got all your resources for like a couple years for free You know and that's tough like you have to work your finger to the bone and really give it all you have And get to the point where like there were a lot of like really low points for me last year In my first year doing the coaching Because you know it's like why aren't people signing up or why aren't people buying my books or you know blah blah blah and You know It's the same thing with real estate being brand new real estate is a passion You know, it's like you have a dream you want to help people buy some properties Right, it's the first two years. You got to think man Like you got to think this is if this is something real that's going to be big for you You really have to think the first two years is this is huge learning curve And you're probably going to work your your tail off for basically free Yeah, you know I mean any any successful business. I mean like one of my favorite shows is shark tank and And any successful person, you know, they're leveraging so hard on capital To where they're literally not profitable until like three four years or even longer And they're they're hedging all their bets. It's going to work and it's just such it's so hard To not get anything and still do that the the hard work every day.  Honestly as grand card down says It's like that same man. This stuff is simple but not easy like the fundamentals of it all Yeah, it's really easy. Like really simple if you lay it out. It's like, okay. This is who you call This is what you say. This is what you do afterwards. This is what you do every day. It's like, okay, that's easy But it's hard to do it Over the course of years and decades Yeah, yeah, I mean and and you just you keep breaking through these levels where you have to it's like what you say I think you said in one of your youtube videos, you know, and then it becomes a whole another level of It gets it gets it's a home. It's a whole another level of not hardness but You know, there's there's more barriers once you get really successful and you still have to make those calls because You know what I mean? Like to keep pushing your business further even though you've got a lot of business That's a whole another level. It's like you keep reaching these new levels So it's never ends. But no just got to keep doing it and staying staying busy, you know Dude when you there is no such thing as the top Like the like the top doesn't exist man. Like like where I am.  I mean, I don't know and maybe there's some real But there's like people that do like 10 million 20 million 30 million a year 40 million 50 million You know, there's some serious You know heavy hitting people out there and uh, and there's even higher levels than that.  You know, I mean it really is man. There's just the beginning Yeah, this guy Sergio said he reached out to you. He said uh, he joined the coaching program And he reached out to you and had you had nothing but good things to say about the program and Um, I remember awesome. Yeah, he's he's happy to be a part of the coaching program That's absurd. Yeah Yeah, he uh, he called me one day and we talked for a while and uh He signed up and stuff. He's brand new that was like When was that? That was like a couple days ago, I think Yeah, I think I talked to him a couple weeks ago. So That's cool right on welcome Yes, Sergio. We're uh, glad to have you dude reach out to us Yeah, so your goal is 12 million this year What do you take us through a day? Like what's your day look like? What's your what's your daily routine and like how do you lay out what you're going to do? so the uh I make my calls first and usually I not usually I want my calls to be done by one o'clock and then That's how my learned in the past is is a time block in there. I want to I want my afternoon clear to set appointments so from like nine to 12 just like what you talk about I generally am making calls and Depending on where I'm at in my call list, you know, I may spend a little bit of time like getting ready I really do a lot of research before I jump into a call list by creating a You know my cma and and doing, you know, what's actually going on around the calls. I'm prepared So that would be like the beginning first. I work out in the morning Usually unless I'm playing tennis at night, then then I'll then I'll just play at like five five thirty But generally that's the way my morning goes a workout, you know coffee Make my calls and then If I don't have an appointment, I usually will finish my list make more calls or Follow-up with all the follow-up that I do so write my handwritten notes send out my emails Do my follow-up but now now that The afternoons are also safe for follow-up So now that all the all the calls that I've done, you know before the new year I have it linked from my budget to my google calendar and whatever reminders telling me to call this person so now that follow-up starting to like really stack up because Um, you know, I'm calling everybody that said they they want me to call them Even if they didn't necessarily say they were interested in doing something But although there were a lot of people that did so That's usually how my afternoon goes if I don't have appointments. It's real basic, you know I try to keep it as as simple as possible and then at the end of the day um at the end of the day I've started At the very beginning of the day and I learned this through slide edge Actually, one thing I do is is just real simple stuff. So I make my bed Which I never used to do I I I saw that from a navy seal guy You know, I do a few things of gratitude Uh, and then I kind of write out just real simply what my plans are and I'm not as busy as you yet So it's it's not much to write So I just kind of get to that and then and then I jump on my calls So that's that's that's actually real important. I want to make sure to add in there because um, it's just Little habits make everything else kind of fall in line And keep you just in a really good mindset. So it's really important and uh Yeah, and then so afternoons are for appointments and then if I'm gonna work out play tennis and I then I do that But or or I get ready for my next list So I'm doing a lot a lot of a lot of market research too like in my MLS like since I joined this program I'm like a wizard on my MLS now, which is huge Yeah, yeah, it's all I mean you got to know your market man You got to know See like that's the thing that separates a lot of agents is is if you're studying the new listings every day and The fresh closings and what goes under contract and all that stuff It's like you're right on top of the market and with some when you're talking to people on the phone You already know a lot about all this extra Market activity that's going on, you know, yeah, yeah, that's that's something that I highly recommend is That's made me really comfortable on the phones is is don't spend a ton of time Just get really good at MLS to where you can pull a CMA really quickly Around your thing like no basic things like when you're calling into a neighborhood that you're calling into a specific gated community Or a specific subdivision Because that subdivision can sell A lot different than right across the street to this other subdivision, you know, or condos, whatever you're dealing with Do that research beforehand because Sellers will ask you and if you and they'll ask you to test you you could tell the test in you and you want that in front of you Or at least to feel knowledgeable And the more you do that before every time you call And the quicker you get at it your skills get better um The confidence just changes and it really just helps a ton with your calls and You know, I actually Like when I'm I talked to my sister and my cousin who they do fine in real estate But they're they're doing it a different way, you know, there's different ways of doing it And I tell them like I never felt like I had my finger on the pulse in the market more than I do now And I'm almost and I love it. It's made me appreciate real estate in the whole new way like You know being able to Go from call us to call us from neighborhood to neighborhood and see the different trends I mean, it's crazy, you know and and people ask like how the market is and and you could literally say well It depends. I mean over here you're looking at da da da da compared to over here That's good money for what you're paying over there, you know, I mean and the more you do that The confidence just swells, you know, I mean and it just really once you have that confidence, you know Then there's nothing stopping you so I think that's that's that's really important That I do every day I guess to answer your question the long way Dual purpose, man, right, right exactly like you're making the calls to learn the market to create relationships To get a deal done today To find out who doesn't want to do business with you like there's so many reasons outside of just doing deals If everybody would open their mind up to all the real reasons you're making these calls and all the benefits dude, it's it's addictive Right and that's why and that's why I wanted to And to go along with what you're saying about the deals and about how I was taught before I've always my dad's an attorney like I always and and I always want to feel like a valuable resource I don't want to just look like a salesman. I don't want people to look at me It's just so here's that guy like turn away like I want to be someone that people come to If I can help them in a way, but be a real valuable resource, you know, and if If you're looking for that deal, then you're never going to appreciate like The actual value that what we do is agents or what we're supposed to do by providing Market information and knowing actual trends and stuff that's going on, you know Not just doing it from deal to deal to deal to deal. You don't learn anything that way Yeah, no doubt guys if you have any questions from me or Zach, feel free to type it in So do you do anything besides calls to create business or what do you do outside of calls? Um I mean not necessarily I hate open houses. I I know that they're they're really good But right now I'll do them like for my my new listings coming up until I get really busy then I won't but I I've done those My sister's real good at those and we we work together for a little bit So she she has all these little tricks on how to capture clients and you know throw open houses and stuff to get leads that way So I'll do those From time to time on the weekends, but generally no, I like my weekends clear to do my my hobbies The other way though is is I'd say Facebook ads I sign up for for a company that I'm sure people have seen jason war drop in arsalaam kg And there's like another one agent leads calm whatever and it's essentially the same thing like once you learn the fundamentals of it It's basically just a landing page Um, and then you just follow up with you know capturing those leads So I've messed around with that too. I feel really confident in doing those type ads but since signing up with you I Wanted to just keep it as simple as possible and I said I'm only gonna do I'm gonna just get really good at one thing That's another book that the one thing, you know, just really focus on one thing and master it and then down the road I think I mentioned this to you is just use the market report as like branding It's the same strategies, but don't worry about a landing page Just let them click right through and see the market report for branding whatever and just Focus only on the calls like to me I'd much rather have someone tell me no than do You know a ton of follow-up and have someone Messing with me through facebook messenger, you know, so I'd rather just get really good at one thing So essentially that's that's pretty much all i'm doing right now Dude, I can say man you you've got it like the mindset your actions Like you all you got it the only the only thing between you Where you are and where I am it's just time now And see dude, I wish I wish I had somebody telling me all the stuff that I'm teaching you guys Back when I was in your shoes Because I would be like I it would be crazy if I would have started if I didn't have to go through all this and learn it on my own I mean it took me From 2002 To 2008 Let's see that's six years it took me six years to kind of like to where I like kind of got it And then it took me another Let's see a Another six years to like perfect it Took me six years to like figure it out and another six years to like perfect it to get it to where it's really You know something that really You know Produced the kind of results I wanted to in terms of creating those relationships with people Yeah, I'm gonna say man is that you're in a super good position Um, you know me and I'm sure everybody else is really proud from where you've been and where you are now With the direction of your life. You got a really you got a really good thing going man I appreciate it and that's really reassuring because I'll tell you that year that Last year felt like eternity and so to hear you say that you know You went that those many years where you're figuring it out that really That really is reassuring. So I appreciate that a lot for sure Oh, yeah, man. I mean you're in your fourth year. It was six years before I even like figured out I was supposed to be Um, creating relationships and not going after deals Wow, you know and then by the time I figured it out I still like didn't fully commit because I was like everybody else scared Scared because I needed a paycheck and I thought the relationship route was a long-term play And then it took me another six years to realize Wait, the relationship route is the long and short term play at the same time. Yeah, you know, so That's good man. So Okay, so you don't do anything else really besides just make phone calls, which is all I did I did postcards and letters and stuff. But um other than that That was it right now. It's all I can afford my budget. I mean The next step With my first escrow I'll close because it's been a while like I just shared my story but as I I already have my My area where I have my high turnover and everything where I'll start doing the monthly postcards but I decided right away because I was going back and forth should I get the dialer then it was like Should I do the extra 50 for the trip when I was like screwed? I'm going all in That's going to be the highest producing dollar for for my time right now And decided on that I was like, I'll worry about the postcards when I when I when that time comes And then with what I was saying with the facebook deal, I'm not opposed to to doing that But the way that I think that it makes sense for me would be to have like an isa Just like one person that worked only that, you know, other than that, I only use it for branding, you know and just pump pump it like crazy and then just You know kind of just share what I'm doing on a date But totally just keep it simple But until I can until I'm doing enough business to where I I need someone to capture those leads and where it's actually making sense dollar-wise and I'm putting all my time into something that's producing money for me, which is phone calls, you know What uh, what at what level is that because I'm not there yet I've no I would say I mean, I would look at you if you're not there yet that I mean I've got a ways to go I just think well, I just think that you know, I find it interesting because I've studied teams and stuff and You would know more than me because you actually see the money come in and out of You know, you see the million the million dollar agents whatever on on the shows and stuff that that you know, they're doing over a billion or 500 million. I don't know exactly how those numbers break down, you know I I kind of get it on a business sense. I know there's expenses and and all these things So I really don't know what when that time would be I basically I'm just going to follow your model to a tee like what I tell people when they ask me in the problem like Don't think about anything else. Just do it. Ricky does so, you know When the postcards come they'll come then I'll just do the assistant Until I feel like if if I'm ever completely overwhelmed then maybe I'll expand, you know Just kind of but right right now. It's just simple make calls Marker report.  Obviously Well, well a little bit like she sets it up with the title company of stuff But um and she sets up inspections and stuff but I anything with the client though I handle, you know, like Like for like for instance, we in our brokerage I could pay 250 because we have a guy that does tc and he'll Basically be the go between passing like getting documents signed from the other agent or the disclosures You know, he does all that. Is that what your assistant basically does? Yeah, she yeah, she just she does that but uh, She does all that she gets stuff signed and stuff like that But like if like if there's an inspection done and we got to negotiate some stuff Then uh, you know, then I do that, you know Anything that's that has to do with the client because I want the client to know that they're getting me whenever they Whenever they call in whenever there's a situation I want to know that there it's me that's going to be handling that directly And I'm gonna make sure that that that goes the way it's supposed to go And then I'm not gonna hand it off to somebody else That's a big reason why I retain a lot of clients because I don't have a team Or even everybody all these other jobs that you know, those other people aren't me You know people do business with me because they want me So I really believe the team thing waters your relationship building Uh part of the business down But teams are more predicated on volume You know they focus more on closing a ton of deals And and and so It does water the relationship part now because a lot of times the client doesn't know who they're gonna talk to when they call in You know or who's handling what? Right. I I agree man. I mean so let me ask you do you Um like your work-life balance. I mean I see you kitesurfing and doing what you love to do I mean and it seems like you go home in a regular hour. You don't feel overwhelmed like with the Listen man, there's no such thing That's the thing that I see you doing it And I'm like, why do you hear the other side of it from these team guys that they they always say? Oh, well, you know But I'm my life, you know, I like having this and that I'm like, well, I'm seeing this guy do it You know, I just don't Here's the thing man. Here's the thing Those guys are working Just as hard or harder than me And they're making like 400,000 like they're doing like 1.5 But they're making like three or 400 and they're working just as hard or harder than me Here's the here's the thing they they started doing a team when they were at whatever level And they weren't they weren't that efficient at that level And so and so when they were at that that stage in their business They saw the inefficient side of the business and they thought this is this is where this is like real estate It's inefficient And so if they were to continue going on that path of the inefficiency Then yeah, you will work 80 hours 90 hours a week to produce but if if you were if you if you Like so they started building a team But if they would have that point not built the team and continued being a single agent and work through those inefficiencies and got to the level where they're working on a very efficient level See the thing with me the reason why I can live the way that I want to live And be a single agent is because everything I do is 100 efficient You know, that's why I only focus on property owners. That's why you know I don't go I don't do buyer leads. I don't advertise for buyers But I get a but I get a lot of buyers and I love buyers, right? So like like today I show property twice and then tomorrow I'm showing property I think three times and so sometimes you run into the situations where you have some stuff you got to do And you got to show property, but that's just part of it, you know And I work on the weekends sometimes but those guys that have teams they're working on the weekends and and if they're not Then they're taking a half a million dollar pay cut I don't mind going in on the weekends and showing some property because here's the thing, dude It's not a work-life balance. There is no such thing, dude. It's all life Like what you love what you do like it's all life. There's no like for me. There's no like in the middle There's no like breakdown point, you know, like yeah No, I think that's that's huge that I've learned from you is is exactly what you just said and also You could correct me, but it's like you if you just integrate it, but When you're away from work You completely separate, you know, and you're able to at least like completely Have freedom from that then you can do everything as long as you're not at home on your phone 24 7 or whatever then Either way, it's all intertwined and in real estate. It's like you may work on a Saturday But maybe like you like I've seen you you take off Wednesday afternoon for kite surfing because it's because it's open on your calendar Or if I want to go play golf, you know what I mean? But I work Saturday We have that we have that freedom. So You know, yeah, there's there's no need to really Like force it to be structured Monday through Friday and I have a team and it's it has to be a certain way that that totally makes And here's the thing too, man. It's all about using your resources, right? So like I have an assistant Right, you can do a lot of things, right? Okay But then like if I have a buyer that I don't want to handle, you know, I got it's an internet lead I got for free somewhere or whatever I can give it to another agent in my office that still pays me Still pays me 25 but I didn't I don't have to pay their expenses. I don't have to train them I don't have to deal with all the stuff that all the responsibilities of a team leader But I can still operate like a team because I have all these agents even agents not even in my office I can refer the buyer to anybody Let's do that referral fee for for nothing Yeah And you don't have to go on on appointments for them. You don't have to do any work for them Yeah, and I I'm 100 up board. That's another thing that sold me on Signing up with zero to diamond too is because that I in my head I always knew there's got to be a way, you know, I like I feel like I was being fed something that It's not that it doesn't work. It's just not the way that I would see it Working for myself, you know, so I remember seeing your stuff and kind of I was like once I embraced it.   I cannot inject my ambition into everybody Like, you know, my drive and where I want to be and what I'm doing is on a whole other level You know and everybody just doesn't have that scene drive inside of them And some people are happy with that 250 a year And if that's the case, dude, I mean it's I'm all about it But at the same time I got to express myself as in you can be a single agent I just I want to make the statement that you can be a single agent And you can still live that same life as everybody says that you have to have a team for You can live that same life as a single agent if You use your resources. You're efficient. You're smart. You adapt You know all the things that I teach Right, right Now I totally agree and I'm not I I'm not against the team either just like I'm not against you know, these uh These I guess teams that that their sole way of getting businesses through Facebook ads are people that There's so we're getting businesses through open houses. Everyone's got their own way But for me what makes sense is I want to make the most I want to I want to maximize the dollar for the value of time I'm putting in and And what way it makes sense for me if it can work, you know, I mean like again I keep referencing my sister because we're close and she's in the business I watch her she's starting her own team. She actually just left the brokerage. I was at so I'm watching her Kind of like get it off the ground and try to hire agents and stuff and I'm like that's interesting. It's just Like I'm not wired that way. It just doesn't to me. I'm like, that's cool I just have no desire to do that whatsoever and that's fine, you know Like if I if I can make the most amount of money per hour And help the maximum amount of people and actually impact their lives make a difference That's what I want to do. Right. Let's see Let's see. I got a question here From Nora She wants to know what's your last phone call like before you get the listing um I want to sell. Okay. Thanks. Yeah, I mean if so, I guess um I'm I'd say to answer that with where I'm at in my business and and not to sugarcoat it Is I'm still figuring it out But one thing again making tons of calls and thousands and if you just commit to doing You know as much as much call volume as I've committed to in a short amount of time You get you get really quick on triggers, you know and hearing uh motivations that you may not have heard if if you're not doing as many calls, so um, you know asking Okay, well, they may say oh, we're not thinking, you know Maybe a year from now or whatever Then you keep digging digging digging and saying well, look, I just want to come out and and see And and see the house and give you a fair estimate of what your house is worth Would you mind if I came out this week? Let's just set a time and talk Things like that and then when you go out there, you just come fully prepared and you just close the deal and you're there, you know So I think to answer your question It's just listening to the triggers and then just go and you know asking the right questions, you know And every situation is completely different But if if there's a smidgen of opening go for it, you know just ask for it and then You close for the listing once you're actually there, you know um One thing that I and I this this with with my lack of experience. Maybe there's other I think also the way other people do sales is different But I was also taught through older systems and other people you ask all these pre qualifying questions before the listing And I'm like I just think I I always go back to and there's the same thing on my market report Like what would I want to receive on a weekly basis? Well, how would I want the conversation to go like we get solicited all the time? There's nothing more than I cannot stand and when someone calls me And they keeps repeating the same thing over. I'm like dude, I'm not interested I'm giving you the time of day by not hanging up on you, but This is why I'm not interested like right right. I may even say right now, but they keep repeating repeating That just doesn't high pressure doesn't work And one thing I've learned is like don't close for the listing On the phone call before you get there like play it super soft And then when you go there come with all your guns blazing and don't like hard sell it when you're there But just be overly prepared, you know and then just Know when the right time to ask the question, you know just really listen and then when the window opens just You ask the question So if this all makes sense, you know, are you ready to do the deal right now? You know I don't want to know what my take on is open houses. Do I do them? Um, I don't do them unless my seller just really wants me to do the open house Um, but I will say it's all about adapting to your Your market like if I wasn't a market where open houses were the thing And I was losing listings because other agents were doing open houses. I would be the open house key You know, I would be the master of open houses. I would throw the best open houses of anybody around So it all just depends on your market. What does sellers expect? So on and so forth, but no, I don't do them because it you know, it's just not a thing down here But rarely maybe twice a year. I'll do one for a seller that just really wants me to do one And I'll do one Jonas wants to know one thing I don't get is how you deal with so few buyers It seems like in my market it's somewhere between 64 or even 50 50 split for top producer most of which are teams Here's the thing Jonas Those uh teams are buying leads You know, they're buying leads. They're not working efficiently. See I work efficient Right. So the thing is is I I want to work buyers But they're not they're not as efficient to work with and they're even more efficient if they're if they're property owners So my goal is is just to work with property owners Primarily for buyers and sellers And the thing is this man, take a look on your market at some of the single agents Look at some single agents that are high producers And call them up and ask them and text me or something or let me know what their buyer to seller ratio is Because it's going to be it's you can't really compare it to teams man because Teams buy leads for their team team members. I mean, that's just that's how a team operates It's expensive. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah So guys man, this has been a heck of a show dude. I really uh I really appreciate you taking some time out man to uh to share with this my pleasure.  I mean do the work If you do it at least make a hundred phone calls a day You know if you if if you can't one day, it's okay. Don't don't beat yourself up over it You don't have to necessarily make a thousand calls the next day like don't put too much pressure on it But just do the work You know, um, and and one day at a time one one minute at a time You know every phone call at a time, you know, don't put too much pressure and it's gonna just snowball I promise you a little snowball Because I I started out as reluctant as you are if you're there and you haven't started yet If you haven't got your first listing at whatever it may be It'll come you just got to you got to do the work and just commit That's that's the biggest thing, you know, just just commit and do it, you know That's that's all I'd say and yeah take pride in what you do Man, we're gonna end it with that dude. I appreciate it so much bro Thanks, man, you're the man everybody appreciates you so we'll talk soon. All right. Appreciate it. Take care


where the governor, Senator Ademola Delike, has resumed work after a month's vacation abroad. The governor immediately embarked on an inspection of ongoing dualization of old garage. Okifia Lameco wrote, among others, in Oshubot, the state capital. During the inspection, the governor said he was back to duty to ensure speeded delivery of the road project and other infrastructures. Elsewhere in the state capital, Ademola Delike also commissioned the Oshun Health Insurance Agency, building the state government secretariat. Today, we are commissioning another year-term project to house a very successful state agency, DOHIS. From this new interface, our administration will continue to thrive towards expanded health coverage and access. The health insurance office complex is to create a conducive environment for the administration of health insurance policies for a better health for Oshun citizens. To also cushion the unpleasant economic situation we get to importance of health insurance and intend to reduce or even eliminate auto pocket payment for treatment in the hospitals. That is the reason for making it compulsory for our political office holders to enroll in the Oshun Health Insurance scheme in addition to civil servants that are also compulsory enrolled. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.