How to get the most out of a Real Estate Convention w/ Scott Hack

TJ McGraw (00:07.812) All right, back again, Age of Mind Podcast. I'm here with Scott Hack today from Finish Line Realty and Real Estate Distilled, an awesome conference that I'm gonna let Scott talk about. Scott, man, thanks so much for coming on and chatting with me today. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (00:22.218) Yeah, absolutely. I'm really excited to share with your audience and see if we can share some knowledge to impact their business. TJ McGraw (00:28.824) Absolutely. Yeah. So the real reason I want you on here today, or I invited you on is because you have, by the time this is, this is aired, you will probably already have done this in your, in your Facebook group with real estate distilled, talking about what to do, but how to prepare when you're going to a conference, things to bring and stuff like that, which I think is a great topic because I know when I first got into real estate, I would just go to conferences and without much of a plan. but you get much more value out of it if you go into it with a plan for sure. So we're gonna dig into that. But first, before we do that, like just tell us about Finish Line Realty, that's your brokerage. Tell us a little bit about that. I know you're up in Louisville, Kentucky. And then I wanna talk about Real Estate Distilled, the conference of course, because I think that's an amazing, amazing thing you got going on there. And then we'll dig into the meat of all of it. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (01:21.39) Okay, yeah, so really appreciate, like I said, the opportunity. So Finish Line Realty is a brokerage that I started. We're almost 13 years old. So I think May 2nd or 3rd actually is our birthday. And so it's me and about 10 agents. We are an independent brokerage. We are tech heavy. Most of the business is generated from website. And then of course our sphere of influence. So that's a big piece of it. We... operated virtually for a really long time. And then I guess it was October of 2022, my wife and I bought an office condo and we've slowly been building that into our media and training center. We're actually in the process of setting up a podcasting studio in there ourselves. And that's kind of part of our focus for 2024 is actually launching that. So we're excited to move that direction. TJ McGraw (02:13.372) Nice, cool. Yeah, and I know I could ask you a gazillion questions. We could take all day talking about just your brokerage and how you're set up and what you do for leads and all that stuff. But I really do want to talk about restaurant distilled. So that's coming up, right? In February, what are the dates on? Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (02:31.166) Yeah, so real estate distill is taking place on February 27th, 28th and 29th. So this is a leap year. So we all get an extra day this year. So we're asking, um, agents, brokers, team leaders to invest in themselves, to spend that extra day with us in Louisville. Uh, we've got three days of content, workshops, breakout sessions and keynotes that are all taking place during those three days. And for those that are not super familiar with Louisville or have not traveled here, Some people consider us in the Midwest, some people consider us in the South, and I always tease that you can go to most of the restaurants and order sweet tea, which I feel like is a Southern thing. But we do have all four seasons here, and it's a really affordable city. That's one of the things that, you know, our hotel, for instance, our Block Hotel, is $141 a night. And we're able to keep our ticket costs right under $300, right around $300. And we of course invite people to come in town, be thirsty for knowledge, learn, but potentially also take in a bourbon distillery tour while they're here and do a little bit of bourbon tourism. TJ McGraw (03:40.24) Nice. Now you're talking my language right there. So I'm curious though, what possessed you to start a conference? I mean, it seems like for me, it seems like an overwhelming task and a big undertaking. So where did that call come from? Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (03:42.303) Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (03:55.534) Well, yeah, TJ, you're a smarter man than I am. So you realize that from the beginning. For me, so this is going to be our sixth event in seven years. And so my wife and I do the conference together. She has a background in non-profit work and board development, fundraising, sponsorship. So she had a lot of connections already with our convention and the visitors bureau. Working with hotels helping with the room block in our space and things like that So when we first started kind of kicking around the idea, I Really wanted to take all of my agents and do an experience together and at the time the only thing I really knew about was it was in men and That was going to be really expensive for a thousand plus dollar ticket hotels in New York City flights up there so in my You know being naive, I thought, you know, this is going to be cheaper and easier to do a conference. And thankfully, my wife's really supportive. And when I brought the idea up to her, she's like, let's do it. And we jumped in, you know, with both feet and been going ever since. We had a lot of early support from some local businesses that are in the real estate space, which also made it a little easier to get started. So we've got great sponsor in Sierra Interactive. They've been with us since the very beginning. And then one of their add-on partners, GGMS, also was pretty quick to jump on board with us and just been growing and doing things slowly ever since. TJ McGraw (05:34.7) Yeah, that's, that's also, it's kind of, um, like a true entrepreneur, like it, you created it out of necessity basically, because you, you wanted something for your agents, but Inman was kind of like out of reach. I totally get that. Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (05:48.306) Yeah, yeah, it was it was out of reach. And like I said, I think, you know, in hindsight, maybe it would have been a better choice and easier to do. But obviously now at this point, since we're on the other side and moving into our sixth event, there's so much value that I get out of the community. It's a ton of work. I don't want anyone to not think that it is a ton of work, but all the connections. I mean, obviously. Our connection wouldn't have happened because I wouldn't have had the connection with Neil and then I would not have been connected with you through that. So just all those connections have been really important to my business. It's hard to measure that actually. TJ McGraw (06:23.34) Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That's, that's a, how valuable is that? I mean, especially that now that you're going, you're like several years in and I just can't imagine. I know several agents that have been, they can't say enough good things about it. And, you know, so it's really, it's a great thing. Before we dig into like what, you know, how to prepare for, not just real estate distilled, but other conferences that you might be going to, like what if... Any agent that is on the fence about going to Real Estate Distilled or they haven't heard about it until now, what would they expect from there, from going and visiting you in Louisville for the conference? Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (07:04.53) Yeah, so first of all, a couple different places. We've got a Facebook group that they can join. So if they search for real estate distilled for the Facebook group, we've got a website, real They can go on there, see our speakers, see what our topics look like, that sort of thing. We do have an Instagram account, which I'm slowly trying to learn how to use. It's definitely my least polished social media channel. So I'm trying to learn. But we're going to have approximately 150 agents that will be in attendance. We have attendance from 20-plus different states. Actually, I think we're probably pushing close to 25 this year. And for three years, so this is going to be, I think, the third of six years, we're actually going to have a few people from Canada as well. So have a little bit of reach that direction. So I think I mentioned a little bit, but like day one, we got set up as workshops. TJ McGraw (07:53.436) All right, international. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (08:02.514) So you've got your choice of a morning session, afternoon session, three hour workshops, the deeper dive into some different topics. Day two, we've got set up mostly as breakout sessions. So we've got three different rooms going. And they've got an opportunity to pick from one of those three rooms throughout the day. And then day three, we end just a little bit earlier. And so we go from roughly nine to three on day three. and it's keynotes. So we're all in the same room that day and a little bit earlier, just in case someone wants to try to grab a flight home and get back home and get caught up and start implementing. TJ McGraw (08:41.325) Yeah, and this is not, so I've been to a bunch of conferences and a lot of times it's just kind of a big commercial to like join something or, I'm with EXP so I can definitely say like there's conferences that EXP has put on that I've been to, but it's a big commercial to join EXP. I mean, there's a lot of good value in there, don't get me wrong, but which is, it's kind of a, for me it's a little bit of a turnoff because I'm like, if I'm going to go spend the money and go to a conference I want. value, education, and that's what your conference does. There's no, they're not gonna sit there, it's not gonna be a timeshare type of thing. It's all value and education, and you're gonna walk away with knowledge and networking. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (09:21.114) Yeah, so that's our cornerstone is we're really trying to provide value. And do you need to your point like we're not a software company, we're not a coaching company. And yes, there's a lot of value offered in those types of setups. But really the reason why that we do real estate distill is for the community and for my agents. So we're trying to do education. It's not a loss leader or marketing thing that we're doing to sell something. We have sponsors. TJ McGraw (09:39.152) Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (09:46.474) So don't get me wrong, there are things there that people are gonna wanna tell you about and hopefully that you're gonna be interested in buying. But as an organization, we don't have something that we're trying to pitch as part of it. TJ McGraw (09:59.105) Yeah, which is great. I think that's amazing. Because it's getting more rare nowadays. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (10:04.106) And we really are trying, we try to find speakers that are actually in the trenches. That's a big part of what we're trying to do. People that are doing the work every day. So these are not concepts. I call it astronaut talks. We're really encouraging speakers to get into the trenches, not give the 20,000 foot view. TJ McGraw (10:08.764) Mm-hmm. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (10:24.294) really do tactical ABC 123, do these items from, you know, this is how you're going to implement this concept or this is how I did it. Here's the steps to do it. Here's a template to do it. Here's a printout or a template you can start with. So we're really trying to get the speakers to distill, you know, their information. TJ McGraw (10:47.756) Yeah, I love that. That's amazing. Because you're right, oftentimes it is pretty lofty. And it's like, just tell me like step one, step two, and step three. And then we'll go from there. Cool. Well, that's awesome. Thanks so much for that. Just a little plug. If you haven't looked into Real Estate Distilled, you're listening, go check out. I'll have the link in the show notes for the website and the Facebook group and all that, and we'll talk about that later on. So let's... Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (10:58.699) Right. TJ McGraw (11:14.576) Let's dive right in. So what do I, I got my tickets for Distilled. What do I, what do I do now? How do I prepare? Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (11:21.79) Yeah, so I think there's three different steps of being prepared for a conference. Obviously, you've got before, during, and after. So before the conference ever takes place, you need to start setting up a plan. You need to start identifying who's going to be there that you want to make a connection with. And it can be people that you already know online that you've not met in person or even people that you've met previously. It's okay to spend some time with people that you already know and strengthen those relationships. But I do think that you need to devote a percentage of your time to making new connections. So be intentional about it. Go ahead and reach out, introduce yourself to three or four people. Make those lunch and breakfast, happy hour, dinner plans. I think one of the easiest ways to... make connections if the event doesn't have organized dinners, do some research, find a couple restaurants, make sure they have a flexible cancellation policy, make a reservation for 12, and as you're meeting people through the day make sure you're getting their contact information and inviting them to dinner. Because I'll tell you there are many times where I've not done this myself and you finish the conference and you're like what am I going to do? and you're standing around and you're looking for someone to step up, be the leader, tell you where you're gonna end up going, or you're trying to figure it out, like, oh, do I wanna invite, so and so. So if you take the intention from the very beginning and start inviting people as you meet them throughout the day, and then as quick pro tip, get there a little bit early. So if you set your reservation for 6.30, get there 10 or 15 minutes early and sit in the middle of the table. I mean, it's like any other social thing you do. If you're on the end of the table, then you've got like three people you can talk to. You sit in the middle of the table, then you've got at least five or six that you can actually be within your shot. So be intentional about where you're sitting at also. TJ McGraw (13:27.944) That's a good, good tip. Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (13:32.728) So. TJ McGraw (13:33.316) That's a good one. I love that. I have a background in the restaurant business, and I just like food. When people are relaxed and there's something about sharing a meal, people let their guard down. That's a super, super great tip. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (13:47.506) Yeah. And then I think that if the event has meals, I would say be intentional also about who you're sitting down with. You don't need to sit with the same people every single day. Move around. Obviously, if you have an opportunity to get up, that's one of the things that we're kind of excited about at the Still This Year's with the Breakouts. Instead of people sitting in one table the entire day, they have the opportunity to be around other people through the different sessions. And the rooms are gonna kind of get reset as those sessions take place and people switch from room to room. So, you know, be intentional about trying to sit with new people, making new connections. And then I think it's also a unique idea. Obviously not everyone needs to do this, but. and I should have prepared better and had an example. But two years ago, we had two ladies come from, basically, greater Toronto. So they came, they drove down from Canada. They printed out four by six postcards. And then they hole punched the postcard, and they attached a hockey stick key chain to the postcard. And then they took a bag of single serve potato chips that were ketchup flavored. which is not common in the United States, but evidently in Canada, it's a common flavor, and it's unique. So it was like a spicy ketchup potato chip. They rubber banded the postcard, the hockey key chain, and the potato chip together, and then they actually went out and introduced themselves to people at the table and handed them that physical item. I mean, talking about having basically a pop-by that you're doing at a conference, Who do you think that they were going to think of? You know, I've got the Post-it Note and Hockey Note in my closet. Um, who do you think that I'm going to think of if there's somebody in the Greater Toronto area? Um, you know, it's, it's a slam dunk. So if there's something unique about your area that people associate or that you want to share and it's cost effective, definitely do some preparation and see if there's something that you can bring. Um, when I went down to the Agent Rise Conference, my wife and I own a coffee brand. TJ McGraw (15:50.705) Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (16:07.882) And I brought four or five bags of coffee with me and gave out, I think I gave you one of the bags. So, we handed out some of the coffee. So that's something that for me that I usually do when I'm attending conferences is bring a little, pop by, I don't do it for everybody, but bring a little bit of it for the people that I'm spending time with or that I wanna make sure that I cement the relationship with. TJ McGraw (16:14.064) Yeah, it was good. It was delicious. TJ McGraw (16:31.544) Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that was good. That was good. That's a whole nother podcast we could do about your, your relationship with the coffee business and all that. But, um, uh, yeah, that was delicious. And that, that was a great gesture. And yeah, I absolutely, the, the cool part about it was, um, just to kind of dig into, to solidify your point here is that the, I remember the packaging looked like a ticket from the Kentucky Derby, right? I'm not a I don't bet a lot on horses and stuff like that, but I remember that fact. And I know, like there's no doubt in my mind, like when I think of Scott Hagg, I know you're from Louisville, Kentucky. It's just like, that connection. I didn't realize how intentional you were being with it, but that's cool. That's awesome. Yeah. And what a great advice to people. It doesn't have to be anything like extravagant, but something just that people will think when they have somebody move into that city or state, for sure. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (17:31.298) Yeah, one of my, you know, it's weird, the relationships that we make through the conferences and things like that. One of my actually best friends that I talked to probably weekly online, he lives in Russellville, Arkansas. He owns an independent brokerage there. He and I have attended a couple other conferences together. And when we first met, like I actually had to go back through my business cards and check. He actually did a custom printed business card. that was his contact information. Backside of it, it had the Distilled logo and it said on there, as a reminder, we met at Real Estate Distilled and it had the year. So he did a custom business card for the event. And I also thought that was brilliant. I've never seen that before. TJ McGraw (18:08.72) Oh wow. TJ McGraw (18:12.76) Yeah. That's I'm going to steal that one for the age and rise summit for sure. I love that. That's, that's such a good idea. Cause honestly, you can get a run of, you know, a few business cards and it's not really that expensive. Yeah. Just a little bit of planning ahead. What a great, that's awesome. I love that. What else you got? And now I'm like, I can't wait for the next thing. What else? Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (18:16.939) Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (18:27.626) Yeah, you're like $25 for like 250 of them. Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (18:39.21) Well, some of the tips I have are more logistics, but also not necessarily related to building business. But just as they're coming to me, I'm just going to rattle them off. So go ahead and get Uber or Lyft or some other rideshare service installed on your phone. You want to go ahead and get that done. Make sure your payment is updated on there so it's super easy to do. The event might provide a shuttle, but there might be a time where you want to just go out and do your own thing. hit the Walgreens or check out a different dinner location or something like that. So go ahead and get that done, get it out of the way. And I think that unfortunately as real estate agents in my experience, we want to not let people know that we're traveling and we're always available to them. But I do think that it makes a lot of sense to go ahead and set up on a vacation autoresponder on your email. Let people know that your communication is going to be delayed. You don't have to let them know that you're out of town. Let them know you're investing in yourself and that you're learning to be better. And that you will respond to them later that night. That way you can be present at the conference and you actually listen to the speakers and learn. And the same thing for your voicemail. Um, obviously you can check the voicemails at the break. You can respond to people, but set up a voicemail greeting that tells people. Hey, I'm in an all day learning session today. My communication with you might be delayed. Please give me a little bit of grace. As we get to breaks or finish for the day, I'll return your call. That way you're not tempted to, every time your phone rings, take it and step out into the hallway. I mean, it never fails that there's a gaggle of agents pacing the hallway on their phone during a session. And it's like... TJ McGraw (20:26.62) So true. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (20:27.538) And couldn't that have waited 40 minutes? No, maybe it couldn't. Obviously, if you've got a transaction that you're trying to keep together. But I think for the vast majority of the people, they could have set up a greeting and given themselves a little bit of time. So that's also a really easy win. And I think that we already kind of talked about being intentional about your meals, but pre-scheduling too. If the conference doesn't offer breakfast as part of the event. TJ McGraw (20:41.358) Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (20:56.322) Find out who you're gonna have breakfast with in advance. Hey, I'm staying at the Host Hotel, are you staying at the Host Hotel? Let's meet up at 7.30 and have breakfast. And it's a before your date ever starts, super chill, really getting to know someone, understanding their business, and be intentional about who that's gonna be with. And it doesn't have to be one-on-one. Two or three other people. I think if you get more than four, it's really hard to be intentional about building a relationship. But you know, getting those people in advance and scheduling those is really important. Something that you can do. And then I'm just going to hit on hit on this digital business cards, I think, make a lot of sense for a lot of situations. But they do have a fatal flaw. And if I can find my stack here on my cluttered desk, but Um A business card, and these are not all from conferences, but here's a stack of business cards that I have. And each one of those business cards is a physical and tactile reminder of following up with this person. And if you do a digital business card, yes, your contact information goes into their phone, but there's no reminder at the end of the conference to follow up with that person, to be intentional about reaching back out, to set up accountability sessions. That's one of the things that makes a lot of sense from these people that you meet. Like, hey, we're both at the conference. I'm going to spend Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at the conference. I'm going to be Friday catching back up in my work life. I'm going to do Saturday and Sunday with my kids and family. Let's schedule a meet on Monday or Tuesday and dig back into our notes together, figure out what we're going to implement, and then let's set up an accountability plan. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (22:48.854) Like, we're going to check back in four weeks, and did you implement these three items? Similar to the book club. Book clubs are great because you know that you all have to show up on XYZ date, and you have to have the book read. It's not necessarily like the discussion. It's the accountability, because otherwise you're showing up, and you're like, oh, I have no idea what you're talking about because I didn't make it to that chapter. So. TJ McGraw (22:49.297) Yeah. TJ McGraw (22:52.86) That's a great idea. TJ McGraw (23:07.59) Yeah. TJ McGraw (23:10.764) Yeah, it's a little embarrassing. But I like to go back to the business cards. Something I do is when somebody gives me a business card, I'm intentional about making a note on that business card. Something either something we talked about a minor detail about their life. Something I just, you know, um, favorite color is blue. I don't, whatever, whatever it is. I try to cause it solidifies them in my mind a little more. And I have a little detail for the next time I talk to them. It could be another month before I have another conversation with them. It might even be the following year that we meet back in at the conference, but I'll have that little bit of, that little detail that just is, at the very least, it's endearing to them, if you remember. And at the most, it just helps you make a connection. So that's one thing I try to do. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (23:55.594) Yeah, 100%. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (24:02.77) I think that this is kind of getting more into general business and not just necessarily at conferences, but this is my business card holder. I have a couple of different ones, but it's a unique species of wood. So when I'm giving someone a business card, it starts a conversation just from what I'm getting the business card out of. And I'm like you. I leave my business card backs blank. TJ McGraw (24:27.35) Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (24:31.274) because I want someone to be able to have that opportunity to write on the back and do something. It's not coded. So I do think that there's being intentional about when you're giving someone a business card. And I train my agents when they're doing networking events in general, like giving someone a business card is an invitation to ask for their card. So I'm only giving cards to people whose contact information I want. It's not necessarily that I want them to have my information. I want their information because I'm going to control the follow up. So yeah, when the event's over, I'm reaching out to them on Facebook, making sure we're connected. I'm sending them an email reminding them what market I'm in. I'm asking if they want to be part of an accountability group so we can implement things. I'm double checking to make sure I know what territories they cover for referral opportunities. Real estate distilled as a conference, we have a referral directory that we do that's map based. So I'm, you know, not all conferences do that, but, and if they don't, then you need to generate your own. I have a pretty good memory, but to be honest, you know, it's not what it used to be, that's for sure. So it's really hard to remember. TJ McGraw (25:49.103) Yeah, especially when you're absorbing all the information just from the speakers and the conference alone. It's really tough to, because it's like a fire hose sometimes, often when you go to a conference. So anything you can do. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (26:01.227) Yeah. And you and I were talking like right before we started recording. And, you know, I was asking you about where you are because you go to a conference and you tell people that you're in Atlanta. But Atlanta is a huge city. It takes an hour and a half to drive, you know, north to south of it practically. So there's a subsection of Atlanta that you work. So you want people to remember you for the actual territories that you cover. So putting a pin on you know, southern part of Atlanta and Fayetteville or Fayette County. TJ McGraw (26:28.796) Mm-hmm. Yeah, Fayetteville is part of Fayette County. A lot of people know Peachtree City because we have, it's a, it's unique with golf carts. There's a lot of, there's a hundred miles of golf cart paths. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (26:37.139) Okay. Yeah, so I mean, that's obviously what you want people to remember you for. Uh, I'm sure you would take a referral for anywhere in the Metro Atlanta area, but, um, as you building out your team and have someone that could help with that, but, you know, making sure that they know that you're in, you're in Fayette, Fayette County, Fayetteville and Peachtree City, that's super important. TJ McGraw (26:50.64) Yep. TJ McGraw (26:56.364) Yeah. If they want me specifically working the deal and not one of my team members, which they're very good and then very competent, but if you want me to do it, then it's, yeah, it's gotta be in the Southern, the Southern side of Atlanta. Yep. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (27:08.519) Yeah, so putting those, you know, people on a map so you can actually see where they're located at. And then when you need to refer to it, like, oh, I can't remember who I know in Colorado Springs. And like, zoom in on the map and see who has a pin there. It's like, oh, yeah, so and so is there. Or, you know, this is who I know that's in Indianapolis. And you know, obviously, you know a ton of people across the country. We all have multiple connections. Not everyone's. active on social media and doesn't always stay top of mind. But once you put someone on your referral map, they're there forever. TJ McGraw (27:43.672) Yeah, I love that. Awesome. What else you got for us? Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (27:49.418) Um, so I think that also, you know, just a few things that we talked about for packing. So, um, obviously you're going to be away from your home for a while. You're packing your suitcase, you're packing your travel bag. Um, I will just say that for me, changing from a satchel or messenger style bag to a backpack, uh, for my laptop and most of most of my stuff was a huge game changer for travel. Being able to throw, you know, backpack on, walk through the airplane easy, walk through crowds, have something, you know, completely here instead of just all my weight on one shoulder, you know, not hurting from carrying that big thing, not bumping into the aisles and things. So that was a big thing. Like I think do a backpack. There's a reason why kids use backpacks. I don't know why we thought it wasn't, you know, cool or fashionable to do it and we need to briefcases and other things, but a backpack is huge, easy to do. And then throw a, get a battery pack. There's never a good opportunity to charge your phone. And you don't wanna have thoughts that your phone's gonna die and it's gonna keep you from participating and doing something. So get a battery pack and bring it with you. Preferably one that's fairly large, that you can charge your phone three or four times with. That way you can stay connected, not have to worry about anything. Super easy. Layers. the room will inevitably be too hot or too cold for you. So a flannel like this, a jacket, something that you can change into, down to a t-shirt if you get hot. I think that's important that you bring layers so you can dress for whatever the room is. Inevitably, like I said, they'll try to make adjustments, but it won't be a perfect match for you. So being able to do that so you're comfortable. When you're not comfortable, it's hard for you to concentrate on the content. So making sure you're comfortable. And that goes... TJ McGraw (29:44.76) Yeah, that's good. Good point. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (29:48.374) I don't want to single out, but I'm a tennis shoe guy. So, you know, jeans, tennis shoes, you're gonna be doing a little bit more walking probably than normal. Just wear comfortable shoes. You know, figure out what that looks like for you. Wear comfortable shoes. I think that's probably one of the things too. A water bottle is a really good idea too. Obviously they're probably gonna have beverages there, but you want something that you can keep with you. Continue to make healthy choices while you're traveling. You're already going to be probably eating a little bit worse than you might at home. So, you know, taking in fewer calories through a water bottle, just staying hydrated in those big rooms with all the people around is a good idea. And, of course, it keeps you from having to get up and, you know, during the sessions having something with you. And then a notebook. It seems really simple. A lot of conferences are going to give you something to take notes in. But bring a notebook and a pen just in case. And then also maybe something that you decide that you want to use for yourself. It's important that you're putting all of your notes into one place. You don't want to take the notepad from the hotel room and try to scribble on this and have these different small little pages. And, you know, it's important that you're taking adequate notes. So you have something refer back to. So I think bringing a notepad and a pen that you know you're going to have and that it's going to have all your information on it is something really easy and basic to do as well. TJ McGraw (31:21.24) Yeah, I'm a, that's one of my pet peeves is, is I have to have my own pen and it has to be, it has to write a certain way. Like I just have this, if it, like, if it, if it's too, if it flows too easily, it's an issue for me. And if it like sticks, I can feel it like, if it like scratches the page, it drives me crazy. It's like this tactile thing almost. So yeah, I always bring my own pens. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (31:35.9) Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (31:42.858) Well, I'm kind of the same way about it. It's not that you'd mentioned flowing too smoothly. Like if a pen flows too smoothly, then my handwriting gets crazy and it's hard for me to read it. So just obviously, whatever is going to allow you to be able to read your notes. I used to type a lot of them on my laptop. And I still do that for some sessions. But I think there's obviously something about TJ McGraw (31:54.936) Yep. Yeah, I'm the same way. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (32:11.362) physically writing it for comprehension and retention of the information as well. TJ McGraw (32:18.66) Yeah, just being engaged in that analog way. It speaks to the brain a little more, gets deeper in there. Well, cool, well, is there any question that I didn't ask you that I should have asked you? Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (32:22.494) Yeah, one in a percent. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (32:33.078) I don't think so. I mean, we covered several different things. I'm like, so I'm not really sure if I had it organized in the best order for people to digest it, but I definitely think there's some nuggets in there for people. And, you know, I'm interested to hear what other people do in their travel and what they might have. I'm still, like you mentioned, I'm going to be doing a webinar next week about it. So these are the early notes that I have for things and I'm sure I'll have a few other nuggets ready for next week. TJ McGraw (33:02.744) Yeah, will that live in your Facebook group? Like once you do it, are you? Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (33:07.35) I'll try to record it, but it's probably not going to go live into the Facebook group. So, yeah. TJ McGraw (33:13.364) Okay, just checking because I think this is going to air just after this will be published just after that session. So, but I know that joining the Facebook group and asking follow up questions from this podcast recording, if you miss the webinar, is completely the next best thing. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (33:34.59) Yeah, 100% jump in there, ask questions. And then of course, most of the conferences that you're gonna attend, they're gonna have some sort of communication channel like that. And that's gonna be the best place to meet other people who are attending. If there's not been a post started, get permission from the conference organizer and say, hey, can I throw a post up asking who's gonna be attending? Or is there a directory of people who are attending? I wanna go ahead and start reaching out to people, making some connections. TJ McGraw (34:04.101) Yeah. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (34:04.576) I know that if someone asked me that I would give permission, I think most people would. TJ McGraw (34:09.464) Yeah, a hundred percent. And that's some of the best advice that I got a while back was like, find out who's going and make a list of at least three people that you want to connect with. Whereas like if you connect with no one else is like those three people you want to connect with. And, you know, usually it's, um, sometimes it doesn't always work out, you know, because if, you know, if it's a speaker that is only there for the, for an hour, then it's tough to connect with them on that level. But. It's a good, having a plan going into it is way better than just kind of showing up and winging it the whole time. Cause there's a level of stress to involve with that. You know, even if you're not, a lot of people aren't planners, like I do tend to kind of, you know, it'll work out kind of attitude with, with sometimes especially traveling, but think of it as you're investing in your business and in your, the growth of your, of your business. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (34:49.087) Yeah. TJ McGraw (35:06.665) that always deserves a little bit of planning for sure. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (35:10.09) You know, I think as a real estate agents and as a broker, when I'm training a new agent, one of the things that I concentrate on in the very beginning, it seems silly, but one of the things I concentrate on in the very beginning is helping my agents understand that they don't have to know every single answer right at the time. So I tell them, like, the sooner I can get you to confidently say, I don't know, or I'm not sure, let me look it up and get back to you. the sooner that I can help you understand that that's okay to say, and you have the confidence to share that, the smoother everything else goes. It's impossible for you to know everything about every single situation. So on the flip side for a conference, knowing a few people in advance, doing some prep work, having that, so you have the confidence to go directly in, and you're talking to Jacob, talking to TJ, I'm gonna talk to Neil, talk to Mindy. TJ McGraw (35:46.715) Yeah. TJ McGraw (35:50.961) Mm-hmm. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (36:05.662) If those are people that you're trying to make a connection with immediately, having a plan in place makes it a lot less stressful. And when you're lowering the stress, you're able to concentrate on the, all the other little things that make the experience that much better. TJ McGraw (36:21.484) Yeah, a hundred percent. This has been awesome. I've gotten a ton out of this. So Scott, thanks so much for, for coming on the show. Um, a little sneak preview, like, uh, you're definitely coming down in, in April to, uh, the agent rise summit. Um, and there's more, yep. They didn't rise on it. So you'll, I think we're, we're talking about having you give a keynote. I don't know. Well, we'll see that's still in the works. Um, you'll definitely be there with all of your knowledge and sharing. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (36:36.746) Yes, be at agent rise. TJ McGraw (36:50.632) So if you miss Real Estate Distilled, you can still catch Scott at Agent Rise in April. But I highly recommend, they're both high quality conferences, but they're definitely different in their own right. So check them both out. But Real Estate Distilled, February 27th. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (37:12.834) 27th, 28th, and 29th. TJ McGraw (37:15.012) All right, and I'll have links to the website in the show notes and link to the Facebook group. And you can always reach out to me and or shoot a message to Scott through the Facebook group. And again, man, thanks so much. Ton of good information. Scott Hack | Real Estate Distilled (37:29.986) Yeah, awesome. I really appreciate it. Thanks, DJ. TJ McGraw (37:33.04) Yeah. Cool. All right, hang on just a minute.