113: How to Build a Business That Serves Your Life with Real Estate Reboot's Ben Oosterveld

00:00:00 Hosts

Welcome back to the Colonial Real Estate Podcast. I'm your mortgage broker host, Hosts. And I'm your real estate agent host, Ben Oosterveldn. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, man. 2025 was a good year for the pod. It was a great year. It was a really good year. It made me really excited for 2026.

00:00:15 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah,

00:00:16 Hosts

me too.

00:00:16 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah, I just want to say like, you know, one of our first shows, I think it was the first show in 2025. We had Mike Shaw on, who was a functioning quadriplegic. Incredible story. If you haven't listened to that episode, go listen to it. But one of my big takeaways from that show was gratitude and yeah, full circle from the last year. Super grateful for the year. Also really grateful for you as a co -host, as a friend, as a referral partner. You've just been awesome, man. It's been really fun to work with you and spend time with you.

00:00:42 Hosts

time with you. So thank you. I say I could not agree more myself. And it's like talking about the pod this year, the pod, we had like a few good milestones. We're now on TV every single day. Keep getting some funny calls from that, which is awesome. keep them coming. Our Instagram has popped right off. We've had like a number of viral videos now.

00:00:58 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah. I honestly, I, I didn't even know what viral was or what a number you needed to see, but like, yeah, some of the reels are over 50 ,000 views and thousands of shares and saves. And it's great because it comments. Yeah. Like it's a lonely, it's a lonely, I'm not going to say industry, I guess, but like it's a lonely thing to do sometimes to record podcasts when it's you and I, and maybe one other person, you don't know. Really how it's hard to engage the feedback or it can be.

00:01:23 Hosts

the feedback or it can be.

00:01:25 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah. I feel like we've really touched on some really educational pieces and some important talking points. So yeah.

00:01:32 Hosts

Yeah. Also, it needs to be said, we couldn't have done any of this without our producer, the woman behind that makes all the magic happen. Nikki McMurphy at Concrete Pad Productions. If you're looking to start a podcast, like a few people have asked me, honestly, buy this mic for. 300 bucks and call Nikki and get it going. Because like we've tried others and I'm telling you, hands down, the best thing that we ever did was hire Nikki. Hey, would you agree with that too? Absolutely.

00:01:56 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah. Anytime people ask me like, how do you start a podcast?

00:01:59 Hosts

Call Nikki. Yeah. Call Nikki. She's incredible. For real. It makes a big difference. And it's just our viral videos are because of her. And the TV and all that. So can't say enough. Thank you, Nikki. And wish you all the best in the new year. Yeah.

00:02:10 Ben Oosterveld

And our guests, a lot of appreciation to our guests over this year. It's a big chunk of time to ask for, to sit down and speak with Matt and I, but yeah, we've had some incredible guests on and we're having like our lineup for 2026 is unreal so far. So yeah,

00:02:21 Hosts

it's good. Looking forward to it. And we also have some nice events. We have a Kelowna election coming up, so I'm sure this will get the pod fired up for some of that. Seeing what's coming down.

00:02:30 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah. Matt and Taylor get political. Again,

00:02:33 Hosts

not really get political, but more like let's hear what the people need to hear. Yeah. You know, so yeah, 2026 will be a good year for the pod. So thanks for listening and keeping up.

00:02:41 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah. This week's guest. So, you know, for the past few years, we try and start out with kind of some inspiration, some motivational speaking and Matt and I were at an event. Seven, eight months ago, we heard Ben speak, you know, very authentic and transparent and resonated with us. So we were trying to align some dates to get him on. Yeah, I'm just really excited about the show. I think it specifically talks to more real estate agents trying to grow their business, restructure things, implement systems, have some accountability. But really with any of these kind of speakers, you know, anyone can have some takeaways and implement it. So he authored a book, The Richest Real Estate Agent. You can find it on Amazon or if you DM him on his Instagram book, he can send you a free online copy. But yeah, Ben Osterfeld, awesome guest, super high energy and really just talks about like the raw. Hey man, sometimes you get so busy with life, so invested in your business, you get blinded and you don't focus on the priorities of family and spouse and life. So he kind of recenters you. So yeah, awesome episode. I loved it.

00:03:50 Hosts

Yeah, it was awesome. He wrote a book, speaks. He was an agent. Like now his practice is helping other agents. So he was the right guy to get 2026 fired up if you're a real estate agent. So yeah, reach out to him.

00:04:01 Ben Oosterveld

to him. They do an awesome coaching program. And since we've had him on at a couple of people now that are actually in his coaching program. So it was cool to see that we have that inner circle already. But yeah, give the show a listen to and hang on for an awesome year in 2026.

00:04:17 Hosts

We appreciate everyone that's involved in the show. And especially our longtime sponsor for every episode, including this one and all the ones in 2026 as well. Century 21 Assurance Realty, best brokerage in Kelowna and the Okanagan. Not just the Okanagan, the interior, everywhere. Century 21 is growing. We just emerged with executive property management. So now we have a massive property managing department. Yeah. So we are in sales, leasing. managing. We're the brokerage for you. So if you're an agent or property manager looking for a brokerage, or if you're a buyer or a seller or a property investor looking for a property manager, Century 21 Insurance Realty is the best brokerage in town. Take my word for it. And enjoy the show and happy new year, guys. Thanks for listening.

00:05:01 Hosts

Okay, Ben, welcome to the show. The second time we... tried to do this virtually, but fortunately we had a bit of a hiccup and now we're doing it in person, which is, yeah,

00:05:10 Ben Oosterveld

that's cool. It's glad to be here guys. Yeah.

00:05:11 Hosts

Like, yeah, it was a good excuse to meet you in person.

00:05:13 Ben Oosterveld

Totally. Like it has hockey in Kelowna. So I'm like, well, see if these guys got a studio. Yeah. And yeah.

00:05:20 Hosts

What do you know? Kind of. I mean, we almost met you in person, but six, seven months ago, you were at an event in Kelowna and that's how we kind of found out about you. And yeah, unfortunately, like I had to dip out the last minute juggling kids and stuff,

00:05:29 Ben Oosterveld

had to dip out the last minute juggling kids and stuff, but it was super impactful. And I think. When you were on stage, to me, it was like so raw and authentic. So maybe if we can just bring it back to that, like as the origin story of your life changing event, like where did it start and kind of what happened? Yeah. So at that event, we're talking to business owners about scaling and the importance of it. And what does that even mean? It means that you have more time and you can make as much money as you want with this little amount of time. That's the goal, right? Why that's so important is because, you know, I've been in a grinder my whole life. Like I. I've done a lot of really cool things. You can see all my stats of all kinds of really cool things. Owned 61 properties. I sold two and a half million dollars of office furniture. And I rookie of the year as an agent. Sold the business. Have a national coaching company. Like all this cool stuff, okay? Man, I had a YouTube channel in 2008, 2009. Like I'm like, I'm growing this thing. Just imagine if it would have kept going, right? I was like, OG. I didn't know it was OG. I'm thinking, I wonder if everyone's doing this. I'm like, every week I was consistently posting. I was getting like 300 people just coming. I put a little $5 ad on Facebook, running to my YouTube channel like back then. And it was just like growing like crazy. I was doing speaking engagements. I had a really successful team, a coaching business. And at that time I came home and I kind of got totally sideswiped. My wife sits down and says, Hey Ben, I think I'm done. And so like. i'm thinking like i'm being a good dad my goal is to be a good husband and the thing is i was always a sales guy you know like learned how to sell as young age i lived on the streets for like a good portion of my teenage years so you're kind of this personality of like survivor and so you learn how to manipulate the situation to survive okay like i'd steal so i could eat or i'd steal so i could sell some booze at a friend's house to sleep the night And so my sales training was this, like you have no shame. You're like, look, I need to survive. But then what happens is you go through healing and transformation, but then you get married and you still have this survival mentality, which equals controlling husband and manipulation. But I was always a good person. OK, so it's not like I was an evil man. I was sitting there like as a broken human going, I don't think anyone's worth being trusted. i don't think anyone's going to take care of me so no matter what i'm just going to make sure i can predict my outcome all the time and so i would be there but i wouldn't be there i would listen but i was always like not listening trying to figure out how to take my life and be a really good husband and a really good dad like at the end of the day that's what i wanted and i remember sitting there and this is years being married maybe i don't know 10 years in and i sit down and my wife's like i want to leave and then i said with ability to like kind of manipulate I was like well let's talk this through it's almost like I'm like look what we have we've got cars we've got houses investment properties man I take you out on dates and and I had a really good pitch right I thought but this wasn't working and she got to this place where she's like I'm done chasing you like even saying that things are going to change and and it's not I'm like well things are changing you're not I said well I don't understand if you don't want all this stuff that we've done what do you want she goes I just want you And that was a really hard thing to hear because I realized I wasn't enough. And so why would you just want me? Like I'm me and just screwed with my head. And I realized, wow, I really fucked up. He said that over and over again. And I realized, holy shit, this is real. This is it. I fucked it up and I laid on the floor and I just cried. And I kind of had a remembrance or a vision, me leaving. the rehab center after I spent a year and I had two simple goals. One, I'd love to get a wife that's really just loves me. And I'd love to have kids that would just come to the door and say, daddy. And I remember seeing that and went, man, I fucked up. I have it. Instead of all this other stuff I'm building and I'm thinking they need all these things to add value. You're not always adding value. Like when you're doing any business, right? You gotta always add value. And it's like, I was doing it for my family, but they're not a business. And so anyways, long story short, I realized that I had been playing the game of life as if I was in overtime. I mean, I'm an Edmonton Oilers fan. And so I remember dry saddle in the playoffs one year. He had a high ankle sprain, but it was the playoffs. You can't stop. Like, I don't care if your leg's broken. Like, guys got busted spleens. Like, they're bleeding. Doesn't matter. We're hitting the ice. That's how I took my life. I played as if it was overtime every day. So hard. And I grew and I dominated. And the problem was I realized, oh my goodness, I have already won the game. I won the game. And I'm playing in overtime and it's wrecking everything. And so I had this huge realization. I think Rene would say that's the first time Ben really, truly hurt me. And I committed my life at that point. to working on my relationship, working on myself. I saw a huge different view of myself. I started approaching life that I've already won because I had everything I needed and it's like I'd already won. So I had to really look at what I wanted and I started digging into what I really wanted and I had already got what I wanted. So everything's bonus. When you meet a guy that's not chasing anything, it sure is different when you meet a guy chasing something. And so I now know what that means. So we've had a lot of personal work. Renee and I have worked really hard in a relationship. And just the other day we were speaking and we're still together. We just did a workshop together on how to stay married as real estate agents and not get a divorce. How do you become a top agent without getting a divorce? And we were talking together and asked her in front of everyone. I said, hey, out of one to 10, how are we doing? It's a scary question, by the way. You should try it. But she says we were nine out of 10. And I'm like, that's a freaking good score, man. And so, yeah, Renee and I. definitely come a long ways but that's the biggest thing that shifted me like shifted everything the way we coach real estate agents the way we do everything is now about how do we build a business that serves my life like we get taught in business is that we fit our life into our business and i'm like that's so wrong i did that and it didn't work like my family got the leftovers i got the leftovers and so now it's about building a life by design for sure and a business by design and so how do you stay like accountable. Cause I'm sure there's lots of people that have come to a point where they're at these crossroads and they're like, man, I, yeah, I need to make a decision. I got to make things better. I need to choose this right road and they can do it for a couple months, maybe a couple of years. But like at some point you're on that roller coaster, you're complacent and you start making bad decisions again. Like how do you keep accountable? And like, how do you coach your, your students that way? We do something called set your compass and it's a real deep dive. Like you've been. some of these top agents come and coach with us. Like within the first month, we have to do this session called Set Your Compass because everyone comes in with financial goals. Like you have ambitions. And so what we need to do is go, what do you really want? It's just a really important question. If we don't have a compass, I think you will steer. I don't need accountability to not stay in the straight and narrow anymore. Like it's not like I don't understand the question. I'm like, accountability. What do you mean? I know what I want. Like you say you want to be married. You say you want this. You say you want this. Your actions will speak. I really do want to be married and I really do want to have kids that are into me. And so what we do is we kind of go through a process of like, one of the best things my mentor actually showed me, Phil McKernan was my mentor and he came up with this very simple thing and I asked him if I could use it and he says, take it. Because what are the five happiest days of your life? And it's a really interesting question. The five happiest days of your life. So we do this to every single coaching client that comes in and it's always the same. So we'll cut down to the results here. First of all, people. People you love, okay? Always on the list. Travel, always on the list. Overcoming something hard, always on the list. Watching someone overcome something hard, on the list. And so what's very interesting is never money, zero. The only time it's money is I bought my first house, so that's a big accomplishment. So if you set a goal that's bigger than yourself, you can get a happy stay at the end, okay? Like that's pretty cool. But it's people, travel. And there's just something about overcoming challenge. So you mix adventure, challenge in the right people. So now we look at life design. So I think we don't ask ourselves what we want. We can go deeper into another time, but that's the five happiest days is a big deal. And then we really connect the dots on when I say, imagine that you've had all your goals meet, okay? All your goals are met. How do you feel? What's your day like? Because first we play and we set them up. We're like, what's your financial goals? They're like, oh, make a half a million or make a million. Okay, amazing. What happens when you hit it? Just imagine. Just imagine. The same answers are pretty much the same answers. I would feel less worry. I would feel, feel, feel, feel, feel. They're trying to solve an emotional issue with more money. Yeah. And it doesn't work. We break that apart. So when we're thinking about how we stay on the straight and narrow and like, how do we really stay focused? Well. I think we're swerving left and right from these things because maybe, maybe there's something inside you that's unsatisfied. You're not clear of what you actually want. I just know I want to be married. I want my kids. Like I want to travel. Like these are rules, man. I travel everywhere. I was Serbia. I just got back from Serbia. Why? I don't know. I want to go do some filming. Like, I don't know. Like you got to build a life that jazzes you up. And I think if we're hearing left or right, I'm wondering about the way that you're positioning yourself in life. Are you trying too hard? Are you chasing something? Are you out of alignment? These are more of the questions I would wonder about, because if you're not at peace, I'm not saying I'm always at peace either. But when I'm not at peace, I can ask these questions like what's out of alignment here? Personally, I find. Difficulty in the balance of being like ambitious or complacent. I get it. You know, I'm trying to like, when it hits on or off. Yeah. Well, yeah, it is. I am like, you know, when I'm ambitious, I'm like, you know, I should be more grateful. Like life's great. You know, maybe I shouldn't like to risk the reward. 10 years ago, sure. Like I felt like I had way more ambition because I had more to gain and less to lose. Now it's kind of switching where it's like, like you said, like I have two healthy kids, an amazing wife, you know, really, this is everything that I was trying to build for so many years and risking it. And now that you're there, I'm like, well, I also don't want to be complacent. So it's just up and down. It's so cyclical for me. Yeah, totally. You say a couple of things. Can I shoot straight with you? Yeah. So you said I should be, right? I should be this or I should be that. I think that's bullshit. Like that's just judging yourself according to someone else's standard. Yeah. Like, or according to an unrealistic standard or something. But like, what if it's okay to not be ambitious and be ambitious? What if your behavior is actually okay? Like, what if it's just like, today I'm not ambitious and tomorrow I am. Or like, it's like, that's where we find the place where you'll actually start growing forward. But you're busy going, I should be here. Should I be here? No, no, no. Just be. Be where you're at. This is who you are today. So one of the greatest things that changed my total life, like fucking anger. All this stuff is that, like, I work so hard on personal growth. Like, I'm an A -type, right? Like, you give me something, I'm going to crush it and win it and go to the top. Like, that's just... So I looked at personal growth that way. I'm like, I'm going to crush this. I'm going to crush personal growth. I'm going to learn everything. So I know a lot, right? Like, I can help a lot of people. But the thing is, though, I got to a point where I just kept getting worse. Like, every time I got new awareness, like, oh, okay, you know, positivity, you got to work on that. And it's like, be a present in the moment. It was like 75 bags of judgment because it was like, I got to do all these fucking things. Like, oh shit, what's in my food now? And it's like, you start getting like, now like I got a hack and some guy's got a new hack on skin or whatever. I got to do that now. Like you just walk around and you're just like, it's never. And that personal growth, is it like, oh, is it unrescental? Is it forgiveness? And I did it for years. So I've learned a lot. I've healed myself. But the biggest enlightened moment was I went, I'm never going to fix me. I'm unfixable. And I realized that that moment is that self. Acceptance is enlightenment.

00:17:16 Hosts

It's like, dude, you're up and down. Yeah, me too. Sweet. Yeah. What about Ben? Do you do meditation? Do you meditate? Oh, dude, I probably on the list I should do. Remember, so I should.

00:17:25 Ben Oosterveld

So no. But what is meditation? When I'm driving in my car. So ADD, dyslexic, and a lot of energy, like sitting there. So I get the rule book, man. It probably is good for me. Right? It's one of those things I could add to the list, like meditation. Dude, I find that I think I got to live my path. And I think, of course, meditation sounds perfect, right? Let's do it and connect and calm down. I just don't put the pressure on myself to do it anymore. And it's like, I find myself finding other ways to connect that way. I think there's other ways. I just think mainstream is like ice baths. Well, that's kind of getting uncool now. It was cool for a while and it's saunas. I just feel like I think meditation is really important, but I think the way that they're teaching meditation, I think there's many ways to connect. And I think it doesn't have to be so bloody hard. So that's where my thing is. It's so fucking hard. I got to work this fucking hard for peace. Honestly, that really resonates with me because like, same, like 10, 15 years ago, it was like, oh man, I should write. Yeah, man. Yeah, but then like I get energy from so many different things and meditation really isn't one of them.

00:18:24 Hosts

man.

00:18:27 Hosts

energy from so many different things and meditation really isn't one of them. So it's like, yeah, why am I trying so hard to do something that's not feeding my cup? You know, like meditation I'm talking about is just. realizing that you're just an experiencer experiencing what happens in every moment. This moment is all you have. There is no yesterday. There's no. So I think that's an awareness.

00:18:47 Ben Oosterveld

an awareness. Yeah. I think living in an awareness. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so if that's true, then I meditate, right? If that's the definition of meditation, I'm doing it all the time. Yeah. Except when I'm not. Everything works. Everything's good. You know what I mean? It's, I think we all have our own individual fingerprint. And I think that we get lost in someone else's all the time. Like I might start meditating next week. I don't know. I mean, especially right now when social media or, you know, internet, chat, GPT, anything, you can really like research as much as you want on whatever path you want. But like, it might just not be the fit for you. You know what? I came up with a belief system because I used to be such a people pleaser. I just so scared, right? I don't want to be judged for a long time, just trying to fit in. I don't want to do it anymore, but I realized I need to stand alone. And so if I was to give my advice to anybody. Be willing to stand alone. And I don't think we're willing to stand alone. Like I tell my kids, stand alone. Wouldn't that be good? Don't do peer pressure. Like stand alone. And it's like, I'm willing 100 % to stand alone. Like literally. And so what that then leaves me to is once you stand alone in what you believe, like genuinely going, this is my thing. And it's like, it could be freaking collecting Barbies and it's weird. Like I'm a grown man collecting Barbies, but this is what I do. This is what I do. You know how you're going to find? Barbie collectors. Yeah. And you'll find your tribe. Yeah. You seem stupid. I don't know where I could have an example, but this is what I decided because I couldn't fucking fit in. I couldn't fit into the real estate industry. I couldn't fit in anywhere. My own personal home life, my mom and dad, I haven't talked to them in years. They don't fit in. We're not fitting. It wasn't a good relationship. And I try to fit in with people that have leverage for me. It doesn't work. When I'm me, I will 100 % cause some trouble, but I will find my people. And I think we're too scared to do that. And we just kind of like, kind of do the thing and fit in. Like, so I'll tell you a secret. So I do these personal growth games all the time. No one knows this. I'll tell you guys. At that event, I dressed to the nines, okay? You know why? Because it put me in an insecure place. Oh, really? Yeah. So I would be misunderstood. Okay. Because it was Cologne. Cologne was like, it's chill. And I wore the freaking nines, right? Like white tie, white shirt. I was fucking dialed in. I did that for my own personal growth. Interesting. So then I could be laughed at. and looked at as this. And then I'll draw my talk and my people will find me. I play these games in my head. I'll do these things. Like one time I did a talk on a yacht. Okay. There's like 50 people. The owner of EXP was there. So the founder, it was an EXP event, right? I'm not associated with any brokerage. I was invited to be the keynote. And I thought, so there's some players on this one. Like he's a billionaire. He built the whole thing, right? And it's the whole team. And that's not the biggest motivator, but it could have been. But I thought, you know what I'm going to do is I want to do a lesson on standing out and standing alone and stuff. So I bought the craziest shoes online. Never worn them ever again. Like we're talking like velvet black with spikes on the toes. Like I must have looked like the biggest frigging pimp douchebag. So I'm wearing a normal suit, right? Whatever shirt. And I'm wearing these shoes and I don't say nothing. I'm letting people judge me because I want to feel the feeling of being judged and still win. I want to feel that feeling and get so used to it. Just like drinking, like these guys can get bit by a snake, but they've had enough of that venom that they can, there's another bumming sound. But it feels like that. I'm like, bite the snake. Go ahead, dude. You can't touch me. This is dominating. Like, it feels like I'm just going to be me. And I just know that's the secret to life is I'm going to be who I'm designed to be. So I put these shoes on. And during my talk, I waited till the right moment and I pull off the shoe. And I said, let me ask you guys, how many of you guys judge me for the shoe? Like 40 % of the people and everyone else is lying. They're like, muck, right? I said, do you know why I do this? I said, because I've been insecure my whole life. And I said, by me wearing this, I want to be okay with you judging me because I need to stand alone. I need to believe in what I believe. And I just kind of like used it as an example. But I literally did it as like walking around. It was five films. I've never worn those shoes again. It was the dumbest things ever. But it was just, I do these things to strengthen my own. confidence in my character, I would do and not tell anybody. Like I have a dream of showing up and be a keynote speaker, but dress as a homeless man for the whole like first hour or two before my time to talk and just like let everyone judge me. And then I go on the stage and drop the frigging thing. I think I want to do stuff like that. But anyways, can you define the richest man in real estate? It's your book. Yeah. Yeah. What is the richest man? Like, is it comfortable standing alone? Is it like, what is the value? So this subtitle is really important and it's how to build a seven figure business without sacrificing relationships. So that's the test. Did I get it? Nailed it. So the richest real estate agent is someone with freedom. Like the richest real estate agent, someone that can go home at night and their business is still operating. Not many. Yeah. That's real. Yeah. You can go on holidays and your business grows. Like you can take a month off. Like this is what the goal all agents wanted. When they got their license, they weren't sitting there going, I'm going to be rich. They said, I'm going to do what I want when I want. And it's not to sit and drink freaking mojitos on the beach. That's a dumb dream. Like how boring that would be. Like agents are going to be like, oh yeah, I can finally sit on the beach for a hundred years. That sounds terrible. Like, I don't know what this wealth management, like you can sit on the beach. That's our goal. Like, no, I want to work 40 hours a freaking day if I can, but doing shit I want to do. And I want to stop when I want to stop. That's the goal. So the richest guy has freedom. And I believe the richest guy has a deep connection with their wife, kids, clients. Connection with their clients for real. Because when I say relationships, build a seven -figure business without sacrificing relationships. I'm not just talking family. How many past clients are getting ignored? So it goes all the way through. Like if you don't have the ability to have an assistant, someone on your team implementing ideas because you're busy, someone to take care of like all the stuff you don't want to do. And all you do is build relationships with your clients, do the fun part of the job and manage and lead a team. Then you go home at night and you connect with your family. That's rich. Yeah. I find, especially in the last couple of years when things have been a bit slow, anyone in the real estate industry is so driven to like find new business, right? It's all sales. Where's the sales fund? Yeah. How do I get more leads? But like, there's so much in your existing database and it's not about, you know, providing that sale, like that income, just like the touch base, the value add and like, but it's almost like you had a best friend. But he was kind of helping you out. Say he's like a web developer and you're always hanging out with him or whatever. And then it's like, I don't need the web development anymore, but we're not hanging out as much. And then later, you need him again. Like, dude, want to hang out? Like, you're a schmuck. Totally. You're a schmuck. Oh, I need referrals. I think we forget it's a lot like investing in money. If we were back at 20 years old and we put a little bit of money every month away into the S &P 500, holy shit, right? We'd have millions of dollars. But it never feels that way through. It's $100, right? Yeah, $1 ,000. So now it's... $2 ,000. So what it is, is very short -sighted. And I think it's the industry has the problem. These new guys come into the industry and they're like, hey, let's go make money. And every single coach out there is a sales coach. Not one business coach. Zero. Like Tom Ferry, sales coach. Hey, let's get you listings. Richard Robbins, we're going to add value to get more listings. You got Brian Buffini, do your pot buys, right? And all of it's good, except when it works, it breaks. And so this is the issue. So what happens is they don't actually think going, I should probably put some systems and I should get an assistant. Like if you started a restaurant, wouldn't you want to get a cook? Wouldn't you want to hire the people out? If you're going to do a bodybuilding, like a gym or whatever, you're probably going to want someone to work at the front desk. See, agents are like, I'm going to do it all myself. It's so broken. When I started as an agent, I was a business coach. And I thought, what would it be like if I actually... practice what I preach because I was already coaching a bunch of people, had even national contracts with different companies. And so I finished my contracts and really niched into real estate. I started coaching agents and they started really taking off. And the thing is, though, I thought, what would it be like if your coach became an agent? This will be cool. So I'll be a case study. So I became an agent. I hired an assistant before I had sales. Yeah. Well, why? If I had a restaurant, I'm probably going to need a dishwasher. Like if you're thinking I'm going to grow, why would we not put the infrastructure in place if you think you're going to grow? But if you think you're not going to grow, I could understand not doing it. So it's even a mindset issue. So I just put an assistant in, 440 grand commissions my first year, second year was 660. And nine years later, we sold the team and moved on. But the thing is that I treated it like a business day one. And that is unheard of. They look at you like you're an idiot. You're getting an assistant, you got to have at least 20 to 30 deals. Well, so you're so busy, you can't train her. you're so busy that like now she's behind like you got to buy an assistant that's really expensive like this it's all backwards so yeah i was gonna ask so what's the common dispute to hire because like yeah i have a team member started earlier than i needed to but like we built such a great thing but like from your standpoint when you're in coaching yeah what has the resistance yeah there's tons like it's probably the number one personal growth thing we do is help them hire yeah hands down because you're dealing with a lot of things the relationship with money that's a big psychology Right. Spend money or not money. Huge. The other one is you're going to realize how frigging chaotic I am. They're going to be seen up close that their chaos and their beautiful brand is bullshit because the reality is it's chaos. Right. But these people fix chaos. They don't understand. Another one is how do I tell them what to do? Or I don't have enough to do. Yeah. And I don't know what the heck I'm doing. It's just all that. So a lot of it is that like money is a big deal. And what do I get them to do? So assistant first and then what?

00:28:08 Hosts

assistant first and then what? Buyer agents? Buyers agents way later.

00:28:11 Ben Oosterveld

agents way later. Like people do that backwards. What happens is normally, here's the traditional way. You're a hustler, good old hustler. You're banging deals. People love you. They refer you. You get busy enough. And that's the point where you're like, shit, I should have had an assistant. But here's the problem. They're like, oh, you know what? I can't handle all the growth. I know what I'll do. I'll bring on a sales team. Like don't look at it as real estate business. Look at it as a business. Because a buyer's agent is a sales team. So what's the sales team going to do? Bring in more deals. Now you're a mentor. You're a manager. Now you're doing triple the paperwork and you have no support. So it's like bringing in more people to your restaurant and you still don't have a cook or like you're cooking and maybe the dishes are piling up. Like it's impossible. So you've got to put in your operational systems. Paperwork's got to be off your plate before you jump into buyer's agent because you need that buyer's agent to have enough value to stay with you means we're taking care of all your paperwork. Oh, by the way, we got an assistant booking all your showings and all the listing stuff we're taking care of. We got emails every time you do a buy. Every step along the way, they're going to say, hey, just so you know, now that you're pending, here's what happens. Now that we're sold, here's what happens. All of that stuff's going to happen to support you as a buyer's agent. Plus, plus, plus, plus. So when you're actually promoting yourself to get an agent on your team, you've got unbelievable offer. And it's not this, I'll get you leads. Go pay $1 ,000 a month and get them some shit leads. That's usually what we do. It's like, yeah, I'll just get you some leads. You work those leads. If you made your calls, you make money. Like that's your coaching, right? So for sure, assistant, but then operational systems. in place to support the buyer's agent. Now the buyer's agent goes to the admin and the admin supporting that person. That's the structure I would use. And is it so you can then like really dive into those relationships, like bring up the Barbie doll analogy, then you can go collect your Barbie debts. Right. And you're hanging out with a bunch of people you. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Let's work together. Like what if a guy calls you and you're out of the blue and you're like, man, I got to connect with this guy. You got an opportunity. You're in the zone mentally though. Think about you being a little bit, you're already busy. opportunity comes or an old friend or whatever, even anything, you're showing up to that relationship probably a six and a half, maybe seven out of 10. But ask yourself, how good am I in my business at a 10 out of 10 energy? How good am I at a five out of 10? Five out of 10, you avoid relationships. Like you're walking down the street and you're like, oh fuck, I know he's a good buddy, but how do I, like I see on the street, I'm tired, I'm going to avoid you. Like, but if I'm like on the street and I'm feeling amazing, oh guys, how's the podcast? Completely night and day, we misunderstand that energy. We really undervaluate the cost of doing it yourself. That's why if you spend, let's say 20 grand on an assistant, you can almost build a million dollar business with a $20 ,000 assistant. The thing is though, your energy is up. And so I think we miss the power of when you feel good. When you feel good, things grow. When you feel bad, they shrink. And I think we miss that man behind the business in the whole thing. Yeah. Like what's the opportunity cost? Like the lost. Yeah. Known things like that. Right. The deals that you lose that they fire you on hurt. The deals that you lose that you could have had don't hurt. Like you don't know that you could have had a quarter million dollars more money every year for another 10 years. That's a lot of money. It's two and a half million dollars. Yeah. Like we don't feel it. So we never know. Well, it goes back to that like complacency of like, I want to, I want to do this. I want to scale the business. I want to put in these systems, but like things are okay, you know? So yeah. When did you write the book? I don't know, a couple of years ago now? Yeah. And what was the reason? What's your purpose to coach people, grow businesses? So two questions. Why I wrote the book and then what's the purpose? Why I wrote the book was, to be honest with you, I was going to leave real estate coaching altogether. I got sick of it. Seriously. Interesting. Because I talk personal growth. Yeah. I talk with the man behind the systems. I talk about, and you go to the brokerages and they want to hear about AI. They want to hear about like lead, lead, lead, lead. They don't give a shit. They just want to fill the room. Like when the brokerages are out there, this is a big bone to pick because brokerages are looking at recruiting and retention, okay? But they're not looking at how do we make them successful. That's a whole nother question. They don't have the budget. So they just try to keep feeding shit to these agents. And they're not bad people. Not saying they're bad, but it's broken. So I'm coming in going, hey guys, we need to hire. We need to do this. Not a popular topic. It's not a popular topic. And then in the business world, that's my peeps. Like I could literally switch over to anything and do business, no problem. So here's what happened. I kind of got to the place where I'm like, you know what? I don't need to work in this industry. Like I was investor, you know, I did this stuff and I was like, so what I did was, and this is after I even sold my business of real estate. I was like, I'm going to start shifting my gears to business owners. Okay. So I started across Canada tour. My first stop was in BC. I filled the entire room with business owners and it's rocking. Like, here we go. Right. They're eating this message up, right? How to scale and how to do these things. Then on the way home, I hear on the news that the MBA just shut down. I went, oh man, COVID. So I sat back in my office and I'm like looking at this going, okay, well now what? I thought, you know what? What if I just give everything in real estate away just to kind of help? So I just kind of just started giving away everything in real estate. Like I think I gave away some 800 people, took my thing and started doing this. Then I get asked to speak at all these different places online. And I started growing and I'm just like, and then it was like, do you know a mindset guy? Our agents are pretty fucked up right now. And I was like, interesting. Now you want to talk. This is good. And so that's where I really went all in with real estate because I was like, oh, they get it now. So COVID made everyone realize that there's a lot more to life than just these deals. And when the deals fell apart, they realized their marriages were hard. They realized they weren't happy. They were drinking too much. So I feel like the personal growth was thrown in their face. And that was actually the real catalyst to your success is the personal growth. Like in that connection was hard to make. Now it's not so hard. And plus, I've been banging this drum for a long time now. So I think it's gotten pretty loud and people get it. Because what I realized is I cannot sell to the industry. I can't be associated with any brokerage. I speak with all of them. We've got great relationships with all these brokerages and the boards and everything. But I have to stand alone. I got to talk this message. And what happens is my people show up. And what's happening is it's backwards because usually you go to the top. And the broker just kind of introduce you. I'm going to the bottom. I'm just going to the people. And that's been what I did for years and years. So that's the long story. So I wrote the book. And when I went to my publisher before, I said, I want to write a book. So this was in the middle of me transitioning out of real estate in my mind. So I tell my publisher and we're talking to them. I said, I want to do this book, but I want to leave everything on the table and just do one last thing because I know so much about real estate. I want to just leave it in a book. So I gave him my entire manuscript and he says, okay. He says, it just feels like it's missing something, like life stuff. I'm like, well, yeah. And so he says, okay, Ben, you've got two options here. You can make a personal growth business book, or you can make a real estate book, or I can try with our writing team to mold that together. And then you can merge it together. Business, personal growth, and real estate. I said, let's do that. And so that's the book. Now it's like, I'm crazy proud of it. It's like people that read it, they just... Where can you get it? Where is it? Amazon. Yeah, just Amazon. Okay. How about this? Anyone that goes to my Instagram, such as Ben Osterveld, send me a private message. So follow me, private message, free book. I'll give a digital copy away. Nice. Anyone that does that. There you go. Yeah. Thank you for that. For sure. I just want people to read it genuinely. Yeah. It's definitely not what I'm looking to make my millions on. The message is really important for the right person. Yeah. You can tell that when you hear you speak, especially when we're at that event, your authenticity just comes across as like, I can help make people's lives better. If people do want to work with you, First step, get the book, read it, reach out to you. Kind of like real high level. What does it look like to work with you? Yeah. So we're really focused on the agent. Like we'll probably consider 150K, but most likely a 200K agent that comes into our world. These guys are people that are definitely focused on building a life. They definitely want to have freedom. Some guys come into our world and say, I want to make millions. And if that's their senior goal, we don't work with them because it's empty. We just know that that leads to nothing. That's not actually a goal. Like it's just not a goal. It's not the culture we want in our group. And so people that need systems, they're a bit chaotic. They've tried a bunch of shit. They have all the pieces, but they might just need the Lego set instructions. They've got all the pieces, but we come in and it's the Lego set instructions. It's like almost like the picture of the box. Like, what do I do next? So you do this, this, this, this. Now do that. So what we do with our business is that we focus on its minimum one year. Most guys stay for years. And we start with 60 day sprints because psychologically, if I showed you everything you need to build, you're just going to be overwhelmed. If I show you a skyscraper. Of course, you want a skyscraper, but do you know how long it takes to build the hole? Like two years in a hole before you even see anything. So if I just say, look at this, everyone's just overwhelmed. So what we want to do is we bring them on and it's a 60 -day sprint. So the 60 -day sprint is every 60 days, they meet with a coach that's fully scaled the way we've done. Then every two weeks, they meet with a second coach and it's an implementation coach. This was a real hack in the business because you can coach and you get great instructions, good insight and good strategy, but you still have to implement and they're busy. So we're like, oh yeah, I didn't get that thing done. Okay. Try again next time. That's bullshit coaching. That's what's out there. So we have implementation coaches. They're administratively minded and they know our systems. So they sit with you and you're like, hey, how are you stuck? What system am I on? Okay. You're on the re -engagement campaign. Good. Did you get your envelopes? Oh, I've been needing to do that. Cool. Let's do it right now. And it's like, I look up shopping cart. You're running, you got a full shopping cart and the damn pebble hits that wheel. And it's just, that's the, I didn't order the thing. And it's like, we don't need these top agents to be coached. They do from a business side, but once they've got their plan and they've got their awareness, we need to move them into execution. And so we do everything from like helping you, like you haven't written the ad for the assistant. No problem. Let's write it right now. Oh yeah, we've got three versions of that. Every single one of our systems are built out. It's literally pull it out and plug it in. They still don't do it. So that's why the implementation coach sits there and does it. And then they still don't do it. So we added, we coach their assistant to do it. And this has been a huge hack. So we help them hire. We even got a done for you hiring service because you won't do it. Yeah. So we don't offer that for everybody. That's an extra cost. But if you're like a super, super successful guy and you literally have no time, just cut us a check. We'll have an assistant for you guaranteed. But then what we do is we actually mentor the assistant and the assistant actually gets coached all the time and not on paperwork and shit like that. You know why? Because a good assistant, they'll learn that in five minutes. Like a good assistant is admin. What we're teaching them to do is how do you deal with a chaotic person and be a really good compliment to them? Actually train them on how to be an assistant while they're learning our systems. So then it's like, OK, you want to do the reengagement campaign? Great. Here's the instructions. And these people follow instructions. Here's the SOP. Here's the instructions. Here's the instruction video. And you're going to get coaching on this. OK, so guess what happens every two weeks? They can jump on that call, too, and we help them implement it. So the assistants become the implementers. So that's the biggest thing. That's how we get them forward. Wednesdays, we have breakout sessions where it's like different coaches have different rooms. So it's like a mindset room, operations room, a hiring room and a marketing room. And so they can go into the group coaching and then split up to where they need to go. And then I still do drop in once a month on Friday. I actually did it today. I spent three hours and guys just come and go and they can get access to me. So really put a lot of thought into how to actually execute and to create the actual agent that scale versus teach you good luck. Hopefully you follow our system. That's garbage. So man, the training, the assistant, like implementing that is huge. So good. Right. Because that's where the biggest breakdown is. People are probably like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do it this weekend, but never. But the cost of not doing it. Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. It's the cost of inaction. It's like, oh man, if I would have just put it in six months ago, we're talking hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars lost every month that you just don't do one thing. Yeah. It's like, oh, I should have done that. I wish I would have done that. Should have called that client. It went somewhere else. That's $20 ,000. Like, it's just so easy to lose money if you think of the cost of inaction, the cost of not doing it. Yeah. And like outside the compensation, just like having the service to the client only should be, you know, standard. Yeah. And you keep your service high. Yeah. Like your assistant calls them. Hey, how you doing? Hey, we got birthday cookies on their doorstep every single birthday on their doorstep. Oh, man. I never get. Where are my cookies? The reaction? Come on, man. See? Friggin' love cookies. Oh, yeah. I forgot there's your real estate agent. Sorry. By the way, what he just did there is the most famous thing we get because they say my agent never did that. So we do full red carpets at closing. A full red carpet, but we don't publicly put it anywhere. It's just for you. Do we put our logo, make you hold a stupid sign that says Ben just sold your house and turn it into billboards? Hopefully you didn't do that because that's really good. No,

00:40:37 Hosts

I'll say that. Did get us a nice gift basket.

00:40:38 Ben Oosterveld

us a nice gift basket. Yeah, but I'm saying though, like the gift basket's good, but what would cause him to go, holy shit, fire your agent and hire you. That's what we think about. What emotional reaction can we create? It's basically just cookies for me. I'll be honest. I'm a pretty big cookie guy. And it's so hard. This guy's a cookie. I gave a lady cat litter once. It was the best. I rolled out the red carpet and walked down the red carpet because we were joking about cat litter. And it was just, it's got to be, I see you, I hear you, I love you. It's cast to be at that level, the human to human connection. If I would send my wife an email to say happy birthday. it would be an absolute joke. But in business, in real estate, oh yeah, I do a birthday email every time. Like, oh, congratulations. You're great at these relationships. Like, really? Sorry. Sorry, it's a little bit different. You're picking me up. I got it. I know, I got an agent sitting right here. I'll just try to figure out how I get Taylor to fire his wife.

00:41:28 Hosts

just try to figure out how I get Taylor to fire his wife.

00:41:33 Hosts

I'll be honest, she has not made me cookies in a while.

00:41:35 Ben Oosterveld

The door is open here. Okay, now I'm causing trouble. That's hilarious. Wives, you get bumped. I can't. Yeah, no help there, man. Tough cunt. You don't want that.

00:41:43 Hosts

I was going to get this book, just read the last chapter on how to steal that. Stealing his wife?

00:41:47 Ben Oosterveld

wife? That's weird. You're just hitting weirdo.

00:41:50 Hosts

Yeah. What we're trying to do here is, you know, hey, 2026 is starting.

00:41:53 Ben Oosterveld

We're obviously recording this just before Christmas and we want people to like get that motivation, get that going to kind of like end the show because we've got to be conscious of time here. What do you have any advice? Like goal planning, like what is a tangible takeaway that like, hey, you cannot walk away and not do this in 2020. So if I give a tactic, it's going to be cool and fun and be like, oh yeah, that's such a good idea. But the real truth is it's a mindset. It's 1 % every day and it's 1 % wins. Never celebrate your home runs. Never chase home runs. Never. I've gotten home runs before and I think I made it and they're not home runs and you're back to the grind. So in our world, we don't celebrate home runs. Like it's great that you're making tons of money. That's great. I did the thing. I did the thing. I did the thing. I did the thing. 1 % every day is 365%. It'll beat everybody. Oh, I like that.

00:42:39 Hosts

I think it's actually quite a bit more than 365 % compound. Wow, look at you. You should be a mortgage broker.

00:42:45 Ben Oosterveld

Did we add an interest element to this? Like did we add some kind of... Compounded,

00:42:49 Hosts

semi -annual. Add the cookies on. Done.

00:42:52 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah.

00:42:53 Hosts

OK, well, I love it, man. I love your energy. And like, yeah, I've said a couple of times, I just appreciate like the raw authenticity. And yeah, there's a lot more of you online. Like people should follow you on Instagram and go to one of your speaking events because, yeah, you've done some good things. So, yeah, I appreciate you guys. Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on and enjoy the rest of the hockey tournament.

00:43:10 Ben Oosterveld

Yeah, it'll be great. Like you said, get this book. DM Ben, that's what you want. Yeah, go follow me on Instagram first and then send me a message. Just write free book or. Don't be like, hey, dude, I want the free book. Just write free book because I've got a bot that's going to give it to you. Okay. And if you want the hard copy, and we might shut it off, so you got to do it now. Seriously. All of a sudden, everyone knows my thing. It's a word. 750 books down the line. What the hell is going on? Anyways, yeah. All right. Yeah, no, say hi. For sure. I love feedback. It's always good, right? Being confident is good. But what happens sometimes you don't get the feedback. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it's almost like you still need to feel that dealing of like, hey, I love the show or hey, thanks for helping me. Like it really drives you. So send a message that way. It's nice too. Awesome. Appreciate it. Awesome. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.