Nikki Miller on Real Estate Innovation and Relationship-Driven Marketing

Host1 00:00

The key to relationships is like everybody likes talking about themselves. Why don't we just build something that solves for that problem?

Host 00:06

It's something that I think all entrepreneurs dream about, but not everybody gets to do it.

Host1 00:10

I think is a natural byproduct of having really good relationships.

Host 00:13

When you want to have a relationship with somebody, what are you doing to be the type of person that they would actually want to hang out with?

Host1 00:18

The more you just treat them like a real person, the more they want to be connected to you. I think it's like the most underutilized and undervalued relationship strategy. Well, how do I do that? How do I know who they want to hang out with?

Host 00:31

You could just ask. What's up, everybody? Grant Wise here. Welcome back to the Partner Profit Podcast, the show where we teach you how to turn your relationships into revenue. And I am pumped for my interview today because I know she's gonna do a fantastic job of just that. So welcome, Nikki Miller. Hey Nikki. Hi, thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for being here. For uh, anybody that's listening that may not know much about you, give us a little bit of the backstory. How'd you get to where you are today?

Host1 00:55

My short backstory is that I I sort of grew up in real estate and followed a similar trajectory that a lot of people do. I started as a solo agent and built my business sort of methodically, doing the work that everybody tries to avoid, and ended up building a fairly successful solo agent business, moved on to struggling through building a team, and eventually became the CEO of what at the time was the largest brokerage in California. And it was there that I realized that both brokerages and agents were trying to solve for very similar problems. And in my position as the CEO of a brokerage, I realized there's a couple groups of people that we had pretty well figured out. The first is brand new agents. Like we knew what to do with them for the most part. There was training programs, and by the way, like we could all argue over whose is better or who does it best, and I don't really care about that. Like there is a place for them to go and figure out how to sell real estate. We also had figured out how to support teams and how to grow their businesses and give them the resources, and companies were starting to pop up to do that at an even higher level. But then you had this whole group of people that lived in what I lovingly call the messy middle who were not brand new agents and who were not agents on a team or desiring to build a team. So it was a bunch of individual agents, which makes up our largest body of people inside real estate who didn't want to build it themselves, right? Like they didn't want to build their own team, they didn't want to join a team, but they needed support and they needed leverage. And as an on the brokerage level, that was our biggest revolving door, our biggest challenge, like my biggest time suck. And so I said, we we need to just solve for this problem. This is obviously our largest problem. I bet that it's not just our problem. I bet this is this is brokerage wide. I bet this is nationwide in the world of real estate. And so I found myself, Grant, at this mastermind one day with I'll call them the the powers that be in real estate. And we were trying to solve for this problem. We were trying to figure out how to better support individual agents. And we were all sort of talking in circles. And I finally raised my hand at one point and said, has anyone just asked them? Like, has anyone just considered asking this group of individual agents what they want? And and I'll never forget, I had uh someone whose name everybody who knows real estate would recognize, but I won't name, lean over the table to me and say, Nikki, if Ford had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. And I leaned back over and I said, but they would have said faster. And most people can't name that which they haven't seen. So they wouldn't have said we want cars to help us go faster. They all they knew in transportation was horses. So they would have said, we want to get to where we want to go faster, but we don't really understand the vehicle through which we're able to get to that, in this case, literally, right? And so I said, these agents want this specific outcome, which is what they wanted, all the economies of scale, all the support, all the benefits, all the infrastructure of having a team around them, but they didn't want to build it themselves. They didn't want to take on the overhead and complexity, but they also didn't want to join a team and give up their brand. I said, Well, why don't we just give them that? Why don't we just build something that solves for that problem? And everybody was like, nah, let's not do that. So uh so that's what I went out and did. So I built a first of its kind leverage platform that was very exclusively and specifically designed for solo agents. I launched that company, self-founded and self-funded. Um I launched that company in January of 2021. And over the course of a couple years, we grew it very rapidly. And by year three, we had we were supporting hundreds of locations in uh hundreds of agents in hundreds of locations. Um, and then in March of 2024, I sold that company to Mavoto, which, if you're not familiar, is the largest privately held real estate search engine in the country, and then finished my tenure with them in August of last year. I was just sharing with you. I took a couple months off to go hang out in Europe with my family, and then came back as the VP of Growth for Place, which uh which I'm super excited about. So we're a platform that supports uh teams very holistically inside their business and creates connectivity on technology through uh through our platform and through ancillary businesses within real estate as well.

Host 04:55

Man, that is awesome. I do remember, I think around the time that you launched that, because it was kind of when I got introduced to you and somebody explained the business model to me. I thought it was very smart. Obviously, you had a lot of success. So that's that's really cool. Really cool. I'm sure you learned a lot of lessons selling your company and kind of exiting that. Was that a first time for you?

Host1 05:14

Yeah, that was that was my first time selling a company. So um I had purchased companies prior to that, but had never sold a company that I self-founded and built. So that was a really uh a really cool experience. And uh as anyone would know who's been through that, I I learned a lot through that journey as well. I could I could do like a three-hour podcast on just that, grant.

Host 05:38

I can imagine so. It's such a it's something that I think all entrepreneurs dream about, but it not everybody gets to do it. And so it's it's um, I would imagine, a fascinating experience. Okay, so when I say Nikki, like how do I turn my relationships into revenue? Where does your mind go? How do we do it?

Host1 05:56

I would say that you don't approach relationships as revenue. And I like how you put that by like, how do I turn them into, which I think is a natural byproduct of having really good relationships. I think when you get into the right relationships, and and you know, the old adage goes, like, you are the you are the sum of the five people that you spend your time around. So if you're spending your time around people who uplift you, people who challenge you, people who uh who raise what you think is possible, you will naturally drive yourself towards high revenue, right? In this case, like whatever that means for you, whether it's through your business, whether it's through your personal growth, whether it's actually financial, like whatever that looks like. But I think that um I'm sure I've said this on podcasts before, that if there was one thing that I could go back and do better earlier in my career, it would be exactly this. Like part of the reason I wanted to come on and have this conversation with you is because I wish that someone had told me to spend more time cultivating, leveraging, and growing and fertilizing my relationships, which I think I started to do naturally in business, just because that's who I am, but I didn't do it intentionally at the beginning. I didn't spend as much time on it as I should have. I I wasn't as intentional about it as I should have been. And I can tell you that you could take everything away from me today and I could go out and rebuild it. And if you and if you said, Nikki, there's one thing that you can keep, like I'm gonna take all your money, I'm gonna take all the success, I'm gonna take all the knowledge, but there's one thing that you can keep, you get to decide what it is, I would keep my relationships. That would be the one thing that I would say, I I want, I want to hold on to that one. Because unfortunately, it's not something I think sometimes people try to like fake this, you know what I mean? And and they try and they try to be like, oh, I met you at this thing, so now we're best friends and like you owe me a favor, or or I'm gonna try to, I'm I'm gonna sort of try to fake this relationship so that I can get something out of you. And that just feels so inauthentic. And we know it, right? Especially those of us who have very real relationships inside business and outside. And so I think that what a lot of people miss in relationship building is that it's about authenticity and about making real connection and about becoming the type of person that somebody who you aspire to be like would want to be around, right? So, really, relationships is an inside game that ends up helping you on the outside. And I I would offer to anybody listening to this that that would be my first quest if I was like new early on in the relationship building game. I would say, well, how do I just become right now? I'm just gonna focus on becoming the type of person that people want to hang out with, that people want to be around. And then I'm gonna focus on how I add value to this relationship. And if you can do those things, then then the revenue is a natural byproduct of doing that.

Host 08:34

Yeah. I I wholeheartedly agree. I saw a post, uh, I think it was maybe just before we get on, and it was like the it was something like the consequence of an innovative society is that we all know what it means to be more human or something along those lines. And it was like going back to your point about um developing real relationships with people, is like we're all becoming so akin to the BS. We're I've had so many people on the channel say that we're in a trust recession, and with the rise of AI and content and all the noise, is like people are getting so good at being able to decipher like who is a real person and who is not a real person. And I think that is so fascinating. Well, I think what's even more fascinating is you said a second ago that you would focus on becoming, you know, an interesting person, somebody that people wanted to be around. How how would you do that? How do how do we do that?

Host1 09:28

Well, it's it's interesting to me because I I even if somebody if I was advising somebody on like a romantic relationship, I think often we spend so much time on this is the type of person I want to be in relationship with, or this is the type of partner I want. And I'm like, well, are you the type of partner that they want? Are you the type of partner that that person would want to be in relationship with? And like I'll use something really, you know, easy, which is if you want to be with a partner who's really fit, physically fit, right? Like that person has a lifestyle such as they probably want to be with somebody who is also physically fit. So, like, are you going to the gym? Are you taking care of your body? Are you eating healthy? Otherwise, you're not going to be in relationship with someone who wants to do all of those things because you won't be a match in your lifestyle, right? And so I think we often make the mistake in business of like, I want to be in relationship with that person. And to which I would say, well, do they want to be in relationship with you? Do you bring value to them? Do you how do you make them feel about themselves when you're around them in a way that's true and authentic? How do you make connections with them? How do you uh ask about their life? How do you get to know them? Is it real or are you just fishing for information so you can feign this relationship? Like to your point, people have a great BS meter and they know when you are being real and authentic, and they know when you're just trying to get something out of them, especially the people who you may aspire to get into a relationship with. Like you can assume that the higher they get on the sort of success totem pole, so to speak, the better they have to get at fishing out BS because lots of people want to be in their ecosystem, right? And my experience in being around people of all levels of success is that the more you just treat them like a real person, the more they want to be connected to you, right? And so I think that's important to remember is that like out outside put put aside their resume. Would you want to be friends with them and would you want to be connected to them? And if the answer is no, then just don't cultivate that relationship. Like you guys just aren't a match.

Host 11:27

It's such a good point. Relationships really are a mirror. And I think that a lot of people think about like, what can I do out there? And they don't always think about like, no, what can I do in here? Yes. Um because you're right, it's absolutely a reflection. You know, people want to hang around with people that are like them. And it's definitely something that I don't think people really sit back and think of. I I I honestly didn't really kind of sit back and think about it from that perspective, but it is so true. It is so true. And and really I think that it that's the truth at the highest levels. Uh I don't I don't really um typically like name dropping or stuff, but just to kind of feed into the point, I was at dinner last week in Nashville, and I got to sit by the CEO of Remax, uh Aaron Carlson. Really nice guy, super nice guy, who was formerly the uh CEO of Dish, and we got to just sit there and talk about like, you know, what was the big aha that you had at Dish. And you know, he we we dove into strategy, which is something that I'm a huge fan of, is business strategy. I love studying that stuff, and I love developing strategy for businesses. It's really fun. So we're gonna have that kind of a conversation. I'm sitting there like, okay, I'm this like 35-year-old kid sitting here at dinner talking to this like really cool CEO of this company, but we got to connect on like the stuff that I'm really good at, the stuff that he's really good at, like the the business stuff. Uh and so when you look when you work with or work around people that are even at the highest levels, like they're just people that just have a little bit of a different status than than a lot of people think. We we put so many people on a pedestal. That is an amazing point. And when you want to have a relationship with somebody, what are you doing to be the type of person that they would actually want to hang out with?

Host1 13:03

Yeah, I think it's like the most underutilized and undervalued relationship strategy there is. And and like I said, this comes up a lot when I'm having conversations with people who are trying to get into the right romantic relationship. They'll describe their perfect partner. I'm like, great. Well, is are you the person that that partner would want to be in relationship with? And by the way, same goes for business. Do you want to be in relationship with this type of business owner? Would they want to be in relationship with you? Is the value that you're bringing a mirror to the value that they're bringing? Or do you have a lot of red in your ledger on day one? And if that's the case, it doesn't mean that you guys can't be in relationship, but it means that at some point you have to equal out. Otherwise, that person likely won't want to stay in relationship with you.

Host 13:47

100%. The lobsided thing never really seems to work out, no matter how well-intentioned people people are.

Host1 13:53

Yeah, I mean, everybody knows relationships are like the ultimate group project. We all did the group project in school where you have like one person doing all the work and doing the heavy lifting, and we didn't want to be in that group with that person. Like we didn't want to be in relationship with that person and we didn't want to be on their team, so to speak. And it's the same when we get into business or when we get into life. We don't want to be in the group project with someone who's not willing to pull their weight or not capable of pulling the pulling their weight.

Host 14:22

Oh, it's so true. Okay, getting to adding value. I know this is gonna seem like a really maybe simple-minded question, but how do you know how to add value to the people that you are trying to, you know, do business with or to partner with or to get into a relationship with?

Host1 14:34

You listen. You ask good questions and you listen. I think that one of my greatest assets as somebody who's in relationship with a lot of people is that I'm just really I'm genuinely curious. So it is actually authentic. Like I like to learn about people. I like to know what makes you tick. I like to know what you're working on. You and I, before we even jumped on, I was like, what are you doing right now? Tell me all about it. I want to learn more about that, right? And and I'm genuinely curious. When I get somebody on the other side of me, I genuinely care about you. I genuinely am curious about what you're doing, and I genuinely want to find out how I can help you. But the only way to find out how I can help is to get a better understanding of what's going on in your world. And the only way to get a good understanding of what's going on in your world is to ask questions and to get good at asking questions. So prior to starting real estate, I actually was a sideline reporter for the NFL. So I'm like actually trained in how to ask. Yeah, uh fun fact. Um, so like I'm actually trained how to interview and ask really good questions. And I always, if I'm going to a networking event or I'm going to a real estate event or whatever it is, I always prep a couple questions that I can just have ready. Um, contrary to what I think most people would would think, uh given you know what what I do in the industry and in the business, I'm not super extroverted. Um, I get like a lot of anxiety if I have to talk to a like make a bunch of small talk with people because I'm not good at it and frankly, I don't like it. Like I don't want, I don't do the surface level, like, how's your day going? I'd rather get into what's actually going on in your life and like what's actually going on going on in your business. So I always have a few questions prepped that I can ask, like, tell me something you're really excited about right now, or tell me, tell me something that's keeping you up at night, or tell me something that's been really challenging for you. And if I ask a good question like that, you're going to answer. And then I'm going to do what most people forget to do, which is listen. And you might tell me, like, oh, I'm trying to, I don't know, get a round of funding for my business. This just happened the other day. I was at, I was speaking at Inmin Connect in New York, and I met up with a friend that I had there. And I said, Hey, like, what are you, what are you working on right now? He's like, actually, I'm trying to get a round of funding. And I said, Oh, like who are you, who are you in conversation with? This person, this person, and this person. I'm trying to get in conversation with this person. And I've emailed them and I've texted them and I've tried to be in front of them a million times. And they just like won't give me the time of day. I'm like, oh, well, it just so happens that person's a really good friend of mine. I'm gonna be in this place hanging out with them in two weeks. Could you get there? And I'll introduce you guys in person. I introduce them in person and they're now in conversation to have them be a first-round investor in what is a great opportunity for both of them. And so, like that type of thing happens when you ask good questions and you listen and you can be a connector for people. And by the way, I get no benefit from that. There's no benefit that I get other than seeing two of my friends who are both great people get into relationship together. And to me, that's a huge benefit. But in terms of the actual sort of like relationship and business itself, there's nothing in it for me other than being a value. But now I'm of even more value in both of those relationships because of the connection I made, because of the questions I asked, and because of the fact that I listen. Does that make sense?

Host 17:33

Oh, 100%. Yeah. It's so, it's so good. I I am like you. I am, I think people call it an introverted extrovert. I don't really um if you're in a room with like five people, I'm probably not gonna talk. But if you put me on a stage of like 5,000, I'm gonna crush it. And I've never really been able to explain to people why I'm like that. But I always love to have my questions preloaded, especially if my wonderful wife kind of drags me to a dinner or something like that with people that I don't know. I um I'm always gonna try to ask questions so that I don't have to talk that much about myself. And uh I actually like that. I like talking or I like asking questions and just listening because I'm very curious, like you. I like to learn about people and I find it fascinating, but I don't really tend to like to talk about myself that much. So yeah, I I can totally relate to where you're at.

Host1 18:18

But I think that that's such a great quality, Grant, because the key to relationships is like everybody likes talking about themselves. Like if you can just make it all about them, people will love you. I always laugh when we walk away from a conversation and I've just asked really good questions, and I'll find out from a friend later, they're like, oh, so-and-so met you, they loved you. I'm like, I didn't say anything the whole time. I just asked they just talked about themselves the whole time, which by the way, people love, and I love it too. I'm like, I genuinely do want to get to know you. So I love that you talked about yourself the whole time, and I love that I know you better, and I love that you felt good about that conversation. That's a total win to me.

Host 18:54

100%. My favorites are when we end in dinner and they're like, oh my goodness, I talked the whole time. I don't know, I I I don't I didn't get to learn like learn anything about you. And I'm like, Yes, that was when my design.

Host1 19:06

It was really I think, Grant, that's because I'm I I totally resonate with what you said. I'm like you. I'm like, I put me on a stage in front of five, ten, fifteen, twenty thousand, I don't care. I'm good. Like I'm happiest there, but it's because it there's no conversing, like it's it's a one-to-many conversation, right? You're not having a conversation with anybody, you're just talking. And so it's just a completely different experience. Whereas, like, if you put me at a dinner party with a bunch of people I don't know, it's like it's my hell.

Host 19:31

Yeah. It's my hell, yes. I would, I would, uh, I would agree with that wholeheartedly. Okay, so I have a couple more questions. You said you said a few minutes ago that if you know somebody came to you and they're gonna take away everything, but you got to pick one thing that you would keep, it would be the relationships that you've you've developed. So I'm gonna come at you from that angle. What if somebody took away all of the relationships you had, but knowing how valuable that is, you had to go develop new relationships. How would you do it?

Host1 20:00

I would very intentionally seek out people first that I felt like I could learn from who had skill set, which I still do. I I will cold reach out to people all the time, or I will find someone who can connect us where I'm like, that person is really good at this thing that I'm not good at. And I've spent enough time in business to know that very rarely are these skills born skills. Most people cultivate them over time. And so if somebody's really good at something, I will figure out a way to get in front of them to just learn how they became good at that thing. And especially if it's something obviously that I that I want to get good at. So that's probably how I would start with figuring out people I could learn from. And then depending upon what I was trying to build, I would figure out people who had connectivity to it. In other words, like it that could be someone who had built something similar and had been before me so I could learn from them, or that could be someone who had a business that was synergistic and I would get, you know, get in relationship with them. And then outside of like if I that that to me is sort of business focus. And outside of that, on the personal side, I would make every effort to get around people that I aspired to be like. I would, I would make every effort to become the type of person that people that I aspired to be like wanted to hang out with. And by the way, if somebody's listening to this and saying to themselves, like, well, how do I do that? How do I know who they want to hang out with? You could just ask. I I have every single close friend I have in my life, they will tell you, I make them have an awkward conversation with me at some point that goes a little something like this. Like, Grant, you and I will probably have the same conversation at some point. I'll say, Grant, how can I be a great friend to you? And like it's gonna create a conversation between us where it makes you think, like, what is a great friend to me? How can I be a great friend to you? And you might say, Oh, like, I just need you to pick up the phone when I call. I have a girlfriend who's like, I just need you to pick up the phone when I call. So she's my friend, where if I miss her call, text her and say, like, I'm doing this or I'm unavailable right now, I will call you back within this time frame. Right. I have another friend who's like, I just want to see you whenever I can see you. Like, and and by the way, every time we pick up that, that, that um experience together, it's like, it's like we saw each other yesterday. But sometimes we'll go a year without seeing each other. But if we're in the same place at the same time, we always make an effort to see each other. And if it's been too long, then I'll make sure that I make an effort to see her. Right. And I get a different answer from every person that I'm in a relationship with. And by the way, you should do this in business too. How can it be a great partner to you? How can I be a great business partner to you? You have to ask the question and they'll they'll tell you. And by the way, it'll make them identify what is important to them. So you don't have to guess. I think, yeah, just talk to people.

Host 22:38

I I think that um it's it's very interesting. We've gotten to a place in society where people are like unwilling to pick up the phone. I have somebody that works for me who I love to death, Lex is amazing. Um, and she will probably listen to this. So, yes, I'm talking about you on the podcast, Lex. Um, but when she first started working with me, she would she like all but refuse to pick up the phone and call anybody. Um, it was only email uh or you know support-based communications, and I would talk constantly. I'm like, okay, how how have you tried to communicate with them? And they're like, Well, I sent an email. So have you thought about calling them? It's like that makes me uncomfortable. It's like I don't like that. Yeah, it might make you uncomfortable because you like are refusing to do it, but let's, you know, you can do hard things. Now she will like at a moment's notice pick up the phone and call anybody. She's fantastic. But it is fascinating to me, especially our younger generations, they just kind of like refuse to talk to each other. And it's like, if you'll just pick up the phone and talk to people, they want to talk to you too. And uh, if you do it the way that you know you're talking about Nikki's, uh just be curious. I think it's amazing what you can learn about people and ultimately what you can do with people. It's very, very, very powerful.

Host1 23:46

I was just gonna say I think it's interesting because I say often to young people, I think the next to today, one of the things that we value most is someone who can, you know, understand technology at a really high level or code or like whatever it is, right? And I think the next phase of skill set that we'll value, the next sort of generation skill set that we'll value is people who have the ability to communicate. I I genuinely believe that that that the next the next cultivated skill set will be people who can like actually talk to people.

Host 24:19

Man, I could not agree more. That is such a fun thing to think about. And I I would absolutely I would absolutely agree. You can kind of see the writing on the wall there if you sit and think about it. Yeah. Okay. I always like to ask this last question before we before we um partner. I want to respect your time. Um, what is the number one way that we as listeners of the Partner Profit Podcast can partner with you? How can we walk alongside and support you right now?

Host1 24:41

To this point, I love connecting with people and I love social media for that reason. To me, social media is just a connectivity platform when you use it right. Like I like to follow people's journey, I like them to ask questions, like to tell them for people to tell me what they learned or what they're using or what they're doing, and for us to be able to connect there. So, so find me on Instagram. I'm just the Nikki Miller, and uh and tell me if you listen to this, what you got out of it and how you're using it and how it benefited you and and how we can be in relationship.

Host 25:11

I love it. We'll we'll make sure that we link up um all the ways that people can or uh your Instagram handle rather so that people can connect with you. And I highly encourage you to do that. Uh Nikki, I've not gotten to talk to you often. Obviously, I've known of you for a while, and um I hope I get to talk to you more often. This was a fascinating conversation, and uh, I really appreciate you spending some time with us today. Likewise, this is the start of a start of a new friendship, Grant.

Host1 25:33

I'm excited.

Host 25:34

Yeah, there we go. I love it. Okay, thanks, Nikki, and thank you all for continuing to listen to the Partner Profit podcast. This has been another amazing conversation, and I cannot wait for the next one. We'll see you. Peace.