Episode 9: From Struggling Agent to Brokerage Leader

What separates successful agents from everyone else?

In this episode, KT Temple sits down with John Duke, "the Silverback Real Estate Agent", Founder and Broker of Duke Realty, to discuss the mindset shifts, leadership lessons, and business strategies that took him from struggling agent to brokerage owner. From overcoming early setbacks to building a thriving team, John shares practical insights on growth, accountability, lead conversion, and creating a business that aligns with your ideal life.

If you're looking to level up your business and mindset, this episode delivers.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I've got a guest in here who's about to become podcast famous. So I figured before he releases his first episode, I'd have him in here on the the first in-person show with all the equipment and everything set up.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

So introduce yourself, man. Hey guys, I'm Johnny Duke, also known as the Silverback Real Estate Agent.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

So Johnny was reaching out to me. He's like, I want to learn how to set up a podcast. And I said, Well, the person that was supposed to, I was supposed to interview canceled on me. Mallory, looking at you. Mallory. Mallory. And so I was like, come in and record with us. And we're we're we're not done. As if you're watching this online, you're seeing the background. The the sound panels are on back order. So we are waiting on those. But once those are here, we're gonna be done. So we've actually got all the equipment and everything set up. So he's gonna help us out testing all this stuff out.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

So I love it, man. Hey, by the way, this is like a goal of mine five years in the making. Yeah. So you helped enable that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Dude, we're we're excited to have you and we're excited to hear your podcast too. Have you you you asked for everyone to follow you on Facebook so they can help you to decide a name, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

That's a good move, right? Totally. Get people vested. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

It might just be gorilla jokes the whole time. It might be gorilla jokes, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I'm all right. I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

So what we do is we have agents come on the show and share a little bit of the knowledge that they that they've accumulated from doing business in real estate. So you guys have your own team out there. Is that you guys are Duke Realty out in where is it? I'm still learning Texas.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

We're in Bell County, Saledo, which is about 45 minutes north of Austin. Awesome. It's an awesome little like I want like an artistic community. Great. It's really cool. Small town vibes, they got breweries, literally famous artists, jewelry shops, shopping. It's an awesome place. Antique stores, it's a really cool place. So where does your real estate journey begin? Man, that's a great story, dude. So this is a weird one. So when I was a little kid, I remember my grandmother in Austin talking about she wanted to, she was gonna sell her place, and she did. And I remember thinking she didn't get enough for it, and I was only like five years old. So I've always had this weird thought about real estate, and I'm a country boy. I love real estate. Like, who doesn't like farm and ranch or pretty properties or pretty houses, right? HGTV is a whole market just on look at the pretty house. So literally, I'm all like, um, I didn't know I could sell things. Like, honestly, I I studied biology in college, so I had never had a sales job, and I couldn't make any money in the biology world. You have to have a PhD for that. I didn't want to go back to school, I was married, so I've just got a four-year degree, and I went to work at Dell, my first sales job, and I ended up crushing it. I didn't even know what a server was, dude. I was like, what are you talking about? You know, as a gamer, I didn't know how all this stuff worked anyway. I ended up doing well, and my wife knew my dream was to sell real estate, so she signed me up for my classes. Awesome. Yeah, that's how I got it. Got in. I didn't even know how to sign up for classes.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

I thank God for my wife, Meredith.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

That's awesome, man. So talk about your first couple years. How was how was the journey? The beginnings of the journey.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

It was the roughest. I tell everybody, I was the worst real estate on earth. Yeah, I was the worst agent ever.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

I might give you some competition for that.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Dude, I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

There's a reason I had to sell pizzas for two years when I first started.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Well, dude, I was doing landscaping and and working part-time jobs, uh, everything you shouldn't do. But I was surviving, I was married, had kids, had to do whatever. But um, I was no name brokerages. I didn't know about Keller, shame on me. Um, I knew about Remax, but I was never interested in them. And I failed like with three or four brokerages. I never even heard from my broker. I didn't even know how to do anything. And I was like, Keller Williams. There was one in Cedar Park, and uh Michelle Bippus was there, she was the team lead, and she said, dude, that office changed my life. Bold yeah changed my life. So for people who don't know, what is bold? Bold business objective life by design. It was Diana Kokoska and Sean Kokosuka, the teachers, the originals, the OGs. Yeah, dude, it taught me everything, of course, with all the things, color, all the coaching and training they do. I I drank that Kool-Aid so deep. So I played football in school, I had a football scholarship, so I used to be the cool guy. I think I was cool. I wasn't the cool guy. I sat in the back of the bus, I was a class clown, I didn't pay attention. I got through high school because I was just good with math naturally. And uh I remember I was like, dude, whatever I'm doing is not working. And Sean and them and bold say that uh what's the definition definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. I was insane, dude. So I literally moved up to front of the class when they started talking. And they used to say this this is a pivotal moment. I didn't even say that right. Pivot how do you say that? Pivotal moment, yeah. I guess I did say that right. I am a gorilla. Um, but literally, dude, they were like, How you participate here is how you participate everywhere. Yeah, have you ever heard that? Of course. So I was like, it hit my heart, and I literally just moved to the front and I started being that guy who asked all the dumb questions. I didn't give a damn about what anybody thought. Yeah, I got a little crazy about it. That's what happened. I changed my mindset and my approach to everything, including my life.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

So you you've gotten to this program. By the way, if you don't know what bold is, it is one of the few classes that we have that is a full program. It is eight weeks long and it is meant to launch your business into the stratosphere, right? This is what you go to actually build the habits, the patterns for your business, the systems for your business to actually get leads. And so one of the challenges that they have, I'm curious, did you did you manage to do the bold 100? Um, I'll be honest, I used to fake all that.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

But I'm gonna, but but I'm gonna tell you this, though. I'm gonna tell you all this on that.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

It is on the honor system, guys.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Yeah, and I'm I'm straight up, man. Like I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do that. But I will tell you this. I learned the scripting, I'll learn how to overcome objections. My first listening appointment, I learned that script, and they said yes. All I had to do was know what to say and how to say it. And it didn't sound scripted because I internalized it. Yeah, so that changed my life. I started getting them all, all the listening appointments I went on, and then the buyer stuff, also the buyer objection and all that, all the things you don't know. Uh, and mindset. Mindset was the biggest thing. I like all the little things they did. Yeah, the exercises. My gosh.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

It's tough to get out of your own way, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Oh my gosh, my ego had to die. My wife would tell you it probably hasn't died. Um, but literally, like watching, I'm gonna say Gina Ront from Lakeway was in there. Dude, that guy was like so inspirational. And Tim Heil was in there too, and he was just blowing up. And I remember thinking, wow, I'm in the room with all these guys that are actually not talking, they're doing. Yeah, and they're applying what they're learning. I was just telling some agents yesterday and one of my lender friends, I'm like, dude, you know, we talk about Buffini coaching all the time. Um I'm like, dude, just apply it. Don't just learn. Freaking apply it.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Awesome, man. So you get out of bold, you start launching. And so, how did we get to having Duke real estate as a team now? What was that journey like?

SPEAKER_00 7:17

This is an ugly journey, actually. It's actually the most beautiful journey, too, at the same time. So I learned everything. I got successful. I started getting listings and buyers and closing business and understanding that Gary Keller was like, Hey, your number one job is lead gen. That's your job.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Um, but it doesn't do any good if you can lead gen, but you can't convert them to contracts, right? Yeah. So I'm always telling everybody, hey, look, great if you can lead gen, but where's your skill set on getting those to closing to the closing table? Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Well, and and you know, a lot of people come to me and say, Hey, I want to run Facebook ads. I want to get leads. I want leads right now. Yeah. Leads are kind of a joke, right? Nowadays. I mean, if you can run a Facebook ad, you can get a lead. Yes. It is the conversion that is the problem. I can give you a hundred Facebook leads tomorrow. Yes. What are you going to do to actually convert those? Amen, bro.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

So working on that, knowing how to, you know, A B C D them priority, and then you know, they're a year away from now, or tire kickers, whatever. But to answer your question on the change, I actually left Color Williams. I'm back, of course. I'm going to get to that. You wouldn't be on the show if you but dude, I had to go like try my own little baby, Duke Realty. So we started our brokerage, went out there and found out, oh my gosh, we're doing admin, we're doing marketing, we're the janitor, the CEO, the CFO, blah, blah, blah. I was like, uh, about a year in, maybe six months, I was telling my wife, I was like, hey, we need to go back to Keller. Yeah. We need to get back to Keller. And she's like, no, this is our baby, no, right? And she fought me on it, but in the right ways. And eventually I was like, Meredith, I saw she saw the demand for when we started adding agents. The oh, sorry about that. That's the magic part of the gorilla, guys. Yeah. The hand gestures will throw you off. Yeah, sorry. I'm a part Italian, they say, I don't know, I'm Italian silverback, but but we realized real quick we were doing so much we couldn't focus on what we were doing, our clients. And we're weird, we're brokers that are in production. We're not just sitting in a little tower barking orders, right? We're actually, I love the sales process. My wife actually loves the office stuff, the operations stuff. So we're a great team. But we learned real quick we needed to get back. There's so many reasons why we need to get back. And I I won't go into all that right now, but I will say being part of an international real estate company is massive for mindset, for the training, for the exposure, for referrals, for networking, for the growth. Yeah. We ran back. Basically, it's the best move we made.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

What was what stood out to your wife that finally put her over the ledge? Like, okay, we got to go back.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Was it was there a certain thing? Absolutely. The operations challenges of doing the normal production plus 10 agents, yeah, all the coaching, all the stuff. I'm like, dude, so we leverage the beauty of color, the coaching, world class training, yeah, the all everything. Uh so we're out there in Saleda, but I tell everybody, I'm like, hey, y'all need to get down into that office at least once a month. Yeah. Hopefully more than that. I'll tell you this happened this morning. I sit down in the chair, I text you, I'm here. A lady walks up to me and goes, Hey Johnny, do you work Hillsborough? I've got a referral for you. I'm like, bro, this is what I'm talking about. Lead gym, right? Yeah. And that was one of those things. I'm like, I'm so grateful for that. Yeah. But it's the, oh my gosh, there's so much there I could go into with all the rabbit holes of why Keller. And I love the Keller Williams culture. And we focus with our agents right now. We want to build a culture where no one ever leaves. But we, and that's probably a dream, right? People are gonna leave. Yeah, it's gonna happen. But we're like, hey, maybe do like Johnny and come back.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Well, and so that's what I always try to remind, especially offices, about is people are gonna leave. Life happens. Yeah, life happens. But you've got to make that experience a great leaving experience so that you know they they might want to come back. I've seen a lot of people burn a lot of bridges just because they were a little bit salty that they were leaving in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Well, I can tell you, Michelle Bippus, she poured into me as a team leader when I was struggling. We went through some personal things, she knows the whole story. And I can tell I'll never forget how the Keller Williams office responded to that. We actually lost a baby. We lost a baby, and the whole culture, KW cares, all of it. Um, but also pouring into me as a business person, guiding, telling me to, you know, hey, you should do this, that. I was like, God, I need to be. I was just telling my wife yesterday, I need to be the Michelle for our agents. Yeah, like, you know, hey, you should really embrace this training, that coaching, this the mindset, the culture, all the networking stuff. That's the thing. Like, you can get uh caught up in all the water cooler talk. I can tell you right now, that's a trap. Don't do it. Just stay focused on what you're doing, run your down business, go get those leads and close them.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Instead of a water cooler, do it in front of a microphone.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

That dude, and if you're doing that, if you're doing that, you're not, you're not freaking, you're not literally freaking like creating leads and growing a business, right? So the other thing I tell people is act like an owner, have an ownership mentality. When I grew into the broker role, I was forced. Like one day I'm an agent, then I got my broker's license, and I'm supposed to know everything. Scariest thing in my life, but it forced me to grow in so many ways. So always chase that highest level of whatever you do, and don't act like, oh, what can you do for me? What can you do for yourself? Like get out there, learn, develop, pour, coach, all the things, the core tenants that color is all about. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

And actually do it. Don't talk about it. So, what's what's the future hold for you? What what what's on the horizon?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Um, so we're not chasing like money, um, but we do love a good life. George Strait has a song that um this the lyrics are like life is worth living if living well. So I want to live well. I want to pour in others, I want to help develop others, I want to get developed, I want to get coached. The minute I stop learning, I'm dead, right? So we're all about chasing this dream life. And it's mine's traveling, dude. Like my nickname, I've got a TikTok called Johnny Bahama, by the way. Yeah, dude, I'm all about being in the Bahamas. I love that tropical vibe, the island boy thing. Uh-huh. You know, I like there's so much stress in our business, right? Yeah. But it's how you mitigate it. So it's literally just growing our brokerage, growing the team, developing others, hitting those goals, and not making it about the materialistic side of it, it's about the fulfillment.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Yeah. My wife turns 30 in a few weeks. And so we're going on her first cruise to the Bahamas. Bro!

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah, in like a few weeks. Dude, I love that. It's gonna change your life. It changed my life.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Oh, I'm excited. I'm excited. So cool, man. Well, thanks for being on the show. If anybody wanted to get a hold of you and learn more from you and eventually find out where your podcast is, how would they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 13:57

So, John Duke, Johnny Duke on Facebook. That's my primary thing. But also, you can call me direct. You can email me uh 512-228-2886 or look me up on social media. You'll get me there. But you can text me directly and I'll actually answer.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Awesome, man. Thank you for being on the show, guys. I hope you learned something here. And if you want to be featured on the podcast, you've got a great story. We would love to start featuring you guys and showing off your businesses. Uh, just a reminder: we do have Breakthrough 120 starting next week. Uh, that'll be at the Northwest Market Center. Uh, I'll be teaching Friday. If you want to come learn a little bit about social media, come hang out with me there. Uh, and if you like this episode, again, share it, review it, guys. Uh, rating us really does help us get in front of more agents and share more incredible stories. We'll be back again next week in another episode. Thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Dude, right there, bro. All of that, bro.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

So I couldn't get Jess to go snorkeling. She refused to go snorkeling.