Mindset, Leadership & Team Growth with Anusha Paramesvaran

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to the team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne and I’m still atilio, and if you have any questions, just give us a call at 799, 9596 or check us out online at Team lally.com.

ATTILIO: 
Hey everybody. Our guest today is a dedicated real estate professional who leads with heart experience and a genuine passion for helping others succeed. She serves as the CEO of Anusha and Associates and regional director of the United home group in southern and central Southern California, where she supports agents and clients alike with care and clarity with

ADRIENNE: 
the background that spans a wide range of real estate, from working with first time home buyers to guiding investors. She brings a thoughtful and service oriented approach to every interaction. Please welcome our guest, Anusha para mess. Veron, and if a new show, please correct me your last name, please correctly.

ANUSHA: 
Oh, my God, I love you guys. I love you guys. Param east, Vern, there we go. Okay, you know what I say? It wrong every time I feel different, every time I say it

ATTILIO: 
okay. You know it’s like, I just be like, That’s what she said. You know? What she said? That’s, that’s her last name. What she said, But, yeah, you know? Hey, I can relate with a name like atilio. People are like, what you What do your family call you? Yeah, a bit like I got called acotilio. Artilio, armadillo, artillery, a Hillary. Anyway. Haha, I’m like, just, I just tell them, just don’t call me late for dinner.

ANUSHA: 
Yeah, exactly. So we

ATTILIO: 
are so excited to have you, you know, people, we’re, we’re, you know, we do the show and it’s and then people visually can’t see it. I think in the future, we’ll have our guests on there. But here’s, I’ll give you people a visual if you were to look for a Indian supermodel, that’s Anusha, if I’m not like very beautiful lady, it, you know what? And for us, the beauty is not only the exterior, but also on the inside. Because you have a lot of beautiful people out there. They’re not too they’re not, I don’t want to be around them.

ADRIENNE: 
And all that you’ve been able to share with our the Keller Williams agents over here, every time you come to visit, you’re always giving and, you know, providing value.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, if there was a meaning for Anusha in the Indian it would be authentic. Do you know there’s there a meaning of your first name?

ANUSHA: 
Yeah, it actually it means star, like stars in the sky. No, yeah, it means star,

ATTILIO: 
all right, so to to to walk us through. So the Hawaiian word is olelo. That means, like, your story, your history, yeah. What did you do before entering real estate?

ANUSHA: 
So prior to entering real estate, I mean, that was 2008 when I entered real estate, I was just about going through a divorce, a pretty nasty divorce. I was focusing on being a mom, yeah, and that’s tiny. I was 20. I was just getting into 30, somewhere around there. So that’s what I was doing as just before entering real estate.

ATTILIO: 
So for those people, we just, just, like all those people thinking right now, oh, I had to come from like, some super corporate, like, sales executive, high powered blah, blah, blah. That’s how all those people are being successful in real estate. We just blew that out. Yep,

ANUSHA: 
yeah, no, it was this 2008 everybody knows what was going on. And nine,

ATTILIO: 
it was like a mortgage meltdown. And

ADRIENNE: 
it was global. People were running from the real estate industry in that career and just diving right in.

ANUSHA: 
Yeah. People were quitting the industry at that time, yeah.

ADRIENNE: 
And so what made you decide to jump right in? I mean, 2008 that was an interesting time. So real

ANUSHA: 
estate, so I actually first generation. I’m a product or child of immigrant parents. And my dad was an accountant. However, he had all these side jobs going on, like he had a property management business, and he he would sell land. He didn’t really do houses, but he did land. And I just remembered as a child, like walking acres with him, and him kind of trying to figure out what the acreage was. And it was so cool to get to spend that time with him. Yeah. And as I was going through this divorce. It was a really nasty divorce and bankruptcy, and I lost everything, and it was very abusive marriage and all of that that I was in, I didn’t want a man or anybody else to ever tell me like that. I had to get time off to spend time with my daughter, right walking into being a single mom and all of it. Yeah, so I just went back to childhood, and just remembered my dad would have this time. It was like he would take us and measure land, and then he would get this really great commission check, and we would go to England, or we would go to Singapore, which is such not reality in real life, right? Like so I thought, Okay, well, I can work in real estate. I’m going to sell a whole bunch of houses, and life is going to be amazing. Yeah. So that was, that was what kind of got me into, into real estate. I just thought that I would have freedom of time and make all this money, which is true, you can do that if you structure it the right way. And if you have, you know, if you train yourself and have a great team and a great model, then, then, yeah, you can do

ADRIENNE: 
that. Is Anusha. Is that? What actually happened, though, when you first started your journey in real estate in 2008 like, what was it like being a new agent back then?

ATTILIO: 
Take us back in time,

ANUSHA: 
short, sale market, yeah, yeah, it was a short sale market. And I actually was selling homes in an area that it was like $85,000 I think my first couple homes were $45,000 houses, car more than you. So being in an industry like that, you know, short sale market, $45,000 homes, you could buy a Cadillac, more than that, and a single mom with bills. It was literally food on the table. Like, is it McDonald’s that day, or is it for gas bill? Like, what’s more important? So very quickly, I remember just going back to the roots of like, watching my dad. I’d hustle, yeah, it just became very quickly, like door knocking every single day I was out there networking, and it just that mentality of, I really learned a lot about myself, like, just the growth when, when, when I would go sit in the office and see seasoned agents were leaving the industry. And here I am, like, Am I crazy to not go get a, you know what? I would put air quotes like real job. And thank God I was with the company, you know, kW, I was at the, you know, that was the first company I was with, the only company I’ve ever been with. And I remember jumping into what was back then, camp 443, which is today, Ignite. And it saved my life, like it literally taught me everything I needed to do, and I was the best student that I could possibly be, because there was no other option, yeah, but, but to succeed and but to win, right? So I just did everything that I was taught in camp 443, I made my contacts, I door, knock the doors. I did the open houses. I had to build my business from scratch and and that’s literally what I had to do.

ATTILIO: 
Anusha, you know, what you describe those action steps? Do you think those have completely, radically, completely changed? Fast forward to today.

ANUSHA: 
No, no, it hasn’t. Some of it, some of it, maybe, I think, like for a new agent, I think it’s very important that the new agents, like, really lean in to learning, yeah, and being a sponge, which is what I was then. And I don’t think that’s any different now, like being a fun shadowing experienced agents, I think is so important to do now. Plugging into the training is so important. I think, you know, build one thing that I did learn back then, which is so true today, is building relationships with agents in the community is very important, yes, and I think that maybe a lot of people like they forget that step right, like you’re you’ve got to build deep relationships with the agents in the community. Time blocking is definitely that hasn’t changed, yeah, right. If anything has changed its technology and really embracing the technology,

ATTILIO: 
yeah? But the basics of building relationships with Agent technology is not going to do that for you.

ADRIENNE: 
No, no, pick up the phone. Can’t. You can’t. Sub that out. You can’t.

ANUSHA: 
Yeah, you can’t. And I remember when I was, you know, just getting started, it was a short sell, and I was short selling, short sell. And also REOs, yeah, and I just remember calling agents that weren’t even whether they were my brokerage or not, just calling them and introducing myself and asking if I can do open houses. And those relationships went a long way, because those that had escrows, you know, reo, agents that had escrows falling out of it, you know, deals falling out of escrow, they would call me and say, Do you have a buyer? You have a client? We know you’re door knocking. We know that you’re making phone calls. We know that you’re prospecting. Do you have somebody for us? Because they didn’t want to lose their asset manager, right? They want to lose their account that they had? Yeah, so so they would call and, you know, we fell out of escrow. Do you have anybody? We know that you’re out there prospecting. Those relationships matter.

ADRIENNE: 
Yeah. So, so. Anusha, you started in 2008 you did this Ignite program. How long, yeah, how long would you say that it took, yeah, for you to just, like, really, like, make a a big change, or, like, you see that those results of all that work that you front loaded about? How long was it?

ANUSHA: 
Yeah. So honestly, when I tell you that I jumped in to learning because I was so scared, there was, like, no other option. I had to make this work. I got my license in December, I think it was hung in the market center in January. I closed my first transaction in February, wow, yeah, and that year, that was my first year, I did 48 transactions.

ATTILIO: 
Wow, was it, wow, was it. I’m just gonna just dabble in this thing, and my babies are not gonna eat, or all in. I will figure it to bleep out, because my babies need to eat. That sounds like I

ADRIENNE: 
was, yeah,

ANUSHA: 
yeah. All in, it was, like, my daughter and I and school, like, all, like, I was 100% all in, there was nothing put all the cards on the table.

ATTILIO: 
Now, you’ve seen teams. You’ve been with teams. Could you say that if somebody has her own team, you have your own team, yeah, like, somebody who’s saying, like, hey, like, what would be the difference between doing it that way and the other way? Because, you know, Adrienne, I we mastermind with top 1% agents. And I say, if you could on it, I think I got this from, I forgot what, what product? Yes, I got this from but the question was, if you could, I think it was Lewis Howes School of Greatness. But anyway, he would say, if you could only give one piece of advice to someone, and all the other advice you have is just going to get burned up in a warehouse fire, but you only have this one piece of advice. And I always ask these top 1% agents all across the country from an all over the world. And he always said the same thing, join a team. Yeah, join a team again. What would you say to that again? Yeah,

ANUSHA: 
I 100% agree with that. Because, you know, if you have us, if you’re fortunate enough to have a strong team in your marketplace, which you guys are, I mean world right

ATTILIO: 
now, yeah, don’t join any good team.

ANUSHA: 
Join a great team, and the reason for that is because they’ve already failed forward for you. Yeah, they have already invested time, energy resources. They have the connections that they they’ve been through the years of training. They’ve been through the different like you guys have been through ups and downs of the cycles and the different markets like you have failed forward enough for everybody else, right for a new agent. So if there is a good team in your area, like plug into the team, because the expenses, the all of it, they take it all on, where you can then, as the new agent, you can focus. You can focus on what your strong suits are, and you can lean into the leverage. You can lean into the training. And right now, Gary Keller talks about this very com. I mean, it’s, it is what we are going to see the future of real estate. I do believe it is teams, and I also believe that it’s the teams that are going to own the market share and the inventory. And I strongly believe that, and as a new agent coming in, you can’t outshine a team like, there’s, there’s, there’s not enough time in the day to

ATTILIO: 
do, yeah, there isn’t, there isn’t, unless you’re like, one of these, one of these Marvel or X Men, characters that you can duplicate yourself and be in five different places at the same time. Yeah,

ANUSHA: 
if quality of life is important to you, then join the team. Yeah?

ATTILIO: 
Because I think I hear the horror stories from people like, yeah, my auntie did real estate and she had no life. Yeah, because she was doing it all. Yeah, I would say, yeah, they should replace the word life with leverage. Yeah, she had life because she had no leverage.

ANUSHA: 
Join a team and watch what, watch what your business does

ATTILIO: 
now. And this wasn’t on our question list, but it did not to worry, because I only ask you questions that you already know, because you’re in this you’re all the way in, yeah, you know, what would you say is a difference, key differences, between teams that succeed at a high level and and ones that just implode.

ANUSHA:
So the ones that implode, I believe, don’t really pour into their people, and they don’t really have their systems and strategies together. And I do believe that there’s a lot of people out there that just say that they’re a team, and it’s just a bunch of people going doing their own thing. Seasoned teams really lead with education and training and leverage and growth, and they really understand the market, and they, they, they really have their finger on the pulse of, like, what is happening and what? And they’re visionaries, right? They’re like, this is what we need to do to move forward. And they’re constantly reinvesting back into their people and their team, yeah, and very growth minded, and I think it’s important when people are looking to join a team, that they ask those questions. I mean, it’s the new agent that’s being interviewed to be on the team, but they should also interview the team and after that. Like, what is your five year plan? What is your 10 year plan? What does it look like? What is the growth trajectory of your team? Like, how many units are you doing? How much market share Do you own? What systems are you ask the right questions, because you don’t want to be the person jumping from team to team.

ATTILIO: 
I will tell you we we got a review for a hiring process, and it was the best review ever. Adrienne, who was it from, it was from cosmic bunny. Cosmic bunny gave us a one star review for our hiring process, and she just basically, it was super long description, and it was very insightful. She said,

ADRIENNE: 
your hiring process sucks.

ANUSHA:
Wow. You guys are so thorough and so intentional. Yeah. I mean, I have known you guys for so long, and you know, it was amazing. If I was living in Hawaii, I want to be on your team? Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
you know, and we know it works, because we haven’t hired any bunnies from outer space on our team

ADRIENNE: 
didn’t make it through. So Anusha, we also we talked about new agents. Advice for new agents. We also have on our question list, what advice would you have for a seasoned agent? Yeah, seasoned?

ANUSHA: 
No, I love. Just loved, loved that because obviously self reflection, right? Because I would consider myself a season, so it was like preaching to the choir. But I think it’s so important to just for myself and for anybody who’s I’ve been in this business now for 16 years, anybody who’s been in it for however many years, I would consider seasoned, anybody who’s like 10 and more, really, because in a cycle like what got us here won’t get us there. What got me to today isn’t going to get me to where I’m wanting to go, right? And growth requires change, but more importantly, like reinvention. And so I think for seasoned agents, it’s important to recommit. Recommit, like, reinvent, refocus, right? Like, lean into the reinvention. There’s so much going on in our industry right now. Like, lean in, to lean into that. And we hear all the time, go back to the basics. But don’t just go back to the basics and, like, skim through it, yeah, go back to the basics and master it. Master it. Go into mastery with the basics.

ADRIENNE: 
Yeah, right. Embrace it. Embrace those basics. Not it’s not sexy, it’s not exciting, it’s the basics, but it will get you to where you need to go, yeah,

ANUSHA: 
where you need to go, exactly. And then ask yourself, like, protect your energy, right? Protect your energy, and focus. And ask yourself, Is this the highest and best use of my time?

ADRIENNE:
I love that.

ANUSHA: 
And then the other thing is, as a seasoned agent, like, diversify your value. Like, what does it look like for you? Are you invent? Are you, like, investing in yourself? Yeah. What do you have to, you know, I don’t want to say, what do you have to show for, for all of the time and effort and energy. But like, what are you doing with with that? Are you? What is your legacy?

ATTILIO: 
You know, for Adrienne and I, we always have this conversation with our clients, and then thereby, therefore our team can have this conversation, is that we never give advice. We’re not following ourselves. If we’re telling you to invest in real estate is because we have real estate investments? Yes, yeah, if you’re telling you to get up early and focus on you and go work out, is because Adrienne and I are getting up early. You know, one of the questions Adrienne, what is the question that we stand up in a big circle, our entire team, and everybody has to answer this question, and your answer is either yes or not yet, what’s the question?

ADRIENNE: 
Have you worked out in the last 24 hours?

ATTILIO: 
So we call it positive peer pressure. That is a culture we have in our team, because if you don’t re energize yourself and take care of yourself, how are you going to give 100% not only to your clients but to your family?

ANUSHA: 
Right? It’s like taking care of yourself first, right? Like we one of the first things we hear on the airplane story, right? Like, yeah, how can you pour into anybody else, and in this business and in this industry, we are such a people business more than anything else. Like, how are you able to pour into another human being and their needs if you are not taking care of your own self.

ATTILIO: 
What are the things that you do to either protect and or invigorate your mindset? And what are your thoughts on mindset in this business?

ANUSHA: 
Well, I mean, I think mindset is everything, and I think that it, it really, truly is. And if you you don’t have the right mindset, if you’re not there, like taking care of yourself and doing all you cannot take care of anybody else. And so for me, it sometimes in this business, we can get into a very like reactionary mode, like taking putting out fire after fire after fire, and then we haven’t gotten anywhere. So I really, in the mornings, I try to between 430 and 445 sometimes five o’clock. I’m up and I’m sitting in front of my red light. I’m writing in my journal. I’m doing my little meditation. I’m saying my affirmations. I’m doing the things that I need to feel like, okay, I just loved myself. I just loved on me. I was there for me. I took care of me so that I don’t have, I guess you could say like resentment as the day goes by, or frustrations as the day go by, like I feel like I’ve accomplished what I’ve needed to and then I’ve got that little 45 minutes to an hour before 8am to then I can go and look at like, do I need to take care of some bills, or take care of things that I need to take care of for my life so that I don’t feel like I’m behind the eight ball. Because, yeah, you know, the first couple years I’m, like, maybe five, six years of being in real estate, the anxiety of like, not enough time in the day to do all the things, yes, that wreaks havoc on your life, right? So that was why the feed myself first.

ATTILIO: 
Ben, hello. News flash for everybody. There’ll always be more things to do in a day than time to do it on the priority list, you know, it’ll be on your headstone. Oops. One more thing, yeah.

ANUSHA: 
One more thing, exactly. Eggs. Exactly. But if you could be calm and relaxed and happy and all of those things, like, because you took care of yourself and you did the things that you felt like you as the time goes on, like you come to you come to meet with your clients, like in a happy, excited

ADRIENNE: 
way, right? Yeah, you

ANUSHA: 
feel, yeah, exactly 100%

ATTILIO: 
you know, my agents come to me, I say, let me look at your calendar. And I said, What are you time blocking for? And they’re so excited to show me all this prospecting and finance and all this, you know, script, door knocking, practice and door knocking. I said, Where’s exercise? Where’s meditation, where’s date night with your significant other? Where’s the time with your kids? Because show me what’s on your calendar and how you’re spending your time, and you’re telling me what’s important to you, and I will tell you Anush. Have you Anoush? Have you ever come across a realtor that said, dang it, you know, towards the end of their life, saying, I wish I had sold more houses? No, no. Not one of us, no. Tell us to wrap it up. Kind of tell us we’re in a couple minutes left. Yeah, tell us where you’re at with your with your success in your life is real estate.

ANUSHA: 
Where you at today? I mean, I’ve got, my team is doing really well. I’ve got, you know, I’m actually working as a regional director for Keller Williams in central Southern California. So I’m watching the region grow and the leadership journey the real estate has taken me on this leadership journey, which I’ve really enjoyed and been grateful for. And that’s the thing with real estate, you never know who you’re going to meet, people you’re going to meet, where your growth is going to go from there, right? So the market is very different today than it was even a year ago. It’s exciting. I’m at the stage in life and in my real estate journey where the market shifts like this, and it’s so exciting to me, yeah, well,

ADRIENNE:
because we’ve seen it before and we know what to do, know what to do.

ATTILIO:
Well, exactly what motivated us to have you on the show is you were in town teaching a class. We’re hoping to see you back in Hawaii. And I will tell you anybody, if you see on any of our social media or any kind of marketing that Anusha is back into town,

ADRIENNE: 
come see her. She’s going to teach an amazing course. Yeah, that it doesn’t

ANUSHA:
matter. I’m excited. I will, I’ll be back. I’ll be back there towards Oh, next year. I’ll be back there in 26 for sure. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
it doesn’t matter what comes out of her mouth. If she says something, write it down and then act on it. There’s your tip of the week. All right, thank you Anusha for being

ADRIENNE: 
on the show. Thank you so much for being our guest and providing such insights for our listeners. And it was, it was fun getting caught

ATTILIO: 
up, and we’ll sure we’ll have you on again. Yes. Thank

ANUSHA: 
you so much.

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