How Derek Worley Doubled His Business in the "Slow" Real Estate Market

Ready for a gut check? Do you think every real estate agent out there is truly putting you first?

I don't think I truly understood when I first got into real estate the vulnerability that you see with a lot of these people, the vulnerable state that a lot of them are in. Most of the time, they're selling their childhood home, their grandparents' home, or their mother's or their parents' home who have passed away, and it's tough. It's really tough. I've seen it be done the wrong way, and I've just vowed that I would never allow myself to make this strictly a transactional thing where I'm more so looking at the dollar figure than the relationship being built. My biggest point is, look, I am much more interested in building a relationship with you through the vehicle of real estate than I am about just collecting a paycheck from you when this thing closes.

Jason Montoya (00:39)

Welcome to an inspirational people interview on the Share Life podcast. I'm Jason Scott Montoya, and in this episode, I'm speaking with Derek Worley. Derek, say hello.

Derek Worley (00:47)

What's up, guys? How's everybody?

Jason Montoya (00:50)

Everybody's doing good, ready to hear your story. Derek and I met several years ago. I had a client called cablesandkits.com; my friend Craig Haney owned it, and Derek worked for Craig. At some point, he transitioned and decided to launch his own business, and I watched him from a distance. I was inspired by just what he did, the hard work he put in, and the way he communicated and marketed himself. Now, here we are several years later, and I wanted to capture that story and share it with you.

So, Derek's mission is to be the most open, honest, and trusting voice in the real estate industry. And there's a lot of real estate agents, so that's a high bar. But the thing that really separates him is he cares about relationships. "Relationships over Revenue" is his slogan, his tagline. I'm going to just go ahead and pull up the website here because when I went to it, I was just really impressed with the prominence of "Relationships over Revenue." Derek, let's start there. Tell us, what the heck does that mean?

Derek Worley (01:46)

Yeah, "Relationships over Revenue." That's one of the things. Whether it's a listing appointment or a buyer appointment, you get the question a lot of times, especially when you work with maybe, I do a lot with, maybe like FSBOs or expireds or whatever, maybe some people that aren't referral-based and they have no idea. You're just one person out of 15, right? You get the question like, "Why you?" We actually ran this the other day and kind of asked that question, "Why you?" There are so many agents out there, why you?

Genuinely speaking, it's—especially at a point now in my career where I've realized that—I genuinely want it to be something where there's a hand-holding going on, and there's a relationship being built so that long after the transaction is done, we're still connecting. We're still talking. We're still seeing how the family is doing, how life is. Because at the end of the day, I'll be honest, I don't think I truly understood when I first got into real estate the vulnerability that you see with a lot of these people, the vulnerable state that a lot of them are in.

Most of the time, they're selling their childhood home, their grandparents' home, or their mother's or their parents' home who have passed away, and it's tough. It's really tough. I've seen what I'll consider to be burly men hug me and cry. I've seen it be done the wrong way, and I've just vowed that I would never allow myself to make this strictly a transactional thing where I'm more so looking at the dollar figure than the relationship being built. So, my biggest point when asking that question is, look, I am much more interested in building a relationship with you through the vehicle of real estate than I am about just collecting a paycheck from you when this thing closes.

Can bad agents sell real estate? Yes. All right. So if bad agents can sell real estate and I can sell real estate, what am I doing in between that separates me from the bad agent, or even the good agent? Right? For me, that's what it's really about: making sure that the relationship with that individual is something that is nurtured even way after the transaction is done. I truly tell people, look, I want to treat you no different than I would my own mother in the real estate transaction because it's that important to me. And I understand that trust isn't built through phone calls. Trust is built through action and it's built through proving yourself. That's what I tell people all the time: I don't ask for trust because that's not something you're going to give me over the phone. But I ask for an opportunity to build that trust with you, to show you that it truly is more about the relationship than the revenue. It's definitely more of a lifestyle slogan.

Jason Montoya (04:58)

Yeah, I think it's important to realize that the relationship matters most over the long term. It's the long-term gain, right? Maintaining healthy relationships, win-win engagements, and doing good work, making commitments, and following through—demonstrating that you follow through is how you build trust, like you said. I think those two pieces are just fundamental building blocks for any successful business. Where did those come from? Did it just happen to be that you oriented that way? Did you learn those lessons?

Derek Worley (05:33)

100%. So, it's a great question. Two things I would say: one, as long as you've known me, I think I've always been a people person. I've always been naturally, just the way I was raised, very empathetic. So, I'm always kind of putting myself in other people's shoes, like, "How would I feel if this happened?" I'm always looking at that angle. Sometimes that's a pro and a con. Sometimes you get told you're wearing your heart on your sleeve, which is like, yeah, probably.

I've thought about that a good bit. Like, why, truthfully, why do I care as hard as I do sometimes? Because sometimes I feel like I might care more than the person that's actually receiving that. I had a transaction—it was probably like my second or third transaction—where, and I'll spare all the specific details, but I was working with this individual, and this person was driving me absolutely nuts. I mean, it was one of those things where if you told her to do A, she would do B very quickly. There was no sense of respect from a professional standpoint. You make a recommendation, and it's kind of like spit in your face, do the other thing. There was just so much. I finally, probably midway through that transaction, I just kind of hit this mental breaking point where I just finally was like, "You know what, man? I don't even care. I'm just ready to finish this transaction and collect this check. I'm just done. I'm checked out."

And I realized for the next two and a half to three weeks that the rest of that transaction in no way or form, truthfully, was I looking out for her best interest in any way. It was simply getting from here to the closing, and that was it. Really, there was no sort of intentionality. I'm not making it sound like for some reason I've jeopardized or put her in a bad position, of course not. But it was something where it was just, there was no attempt to really build and strengthen this relationship. It was more like, yes or no answers. I'm giving you a yes and that's it. We're moving on.

We ended up closing that thing, and I got done, and I started kind of like looking back and analyzing that, and I thought, "That's very dangerous." It is a very dangerous place to be, not only for myself, because it goes against who I am, but also I can't truly be good at who I am and what it is that I do if I'm strictly transactional. Because it makes it hard to even, if it's just the transaction, I can't sit there and honestly be very empathetic toward you because this is a check to me.

Jason Montoya (08:28)

Yeah, you're just an object to help me get what I want.

Derek Worley (08:31)

Well, and truthfully, Jason, they almost become like an obstacle between you and the closing. Like, anytime there's any sort of hiccup, you're like, "You again?" It's like, "Hold on, hold on. There is no transaction without that individual or without that seller or without these questions, right? If she knew the answer to these questions, she wouldn't need you anyway." Was she difficult? 100%. Like it was extreme. But you know what I realized very quickly in that moment, "Derek, do you think every transaction is going to be rosy?" Of course not. Okay, so how do we stick to who we are while also handling those type of transactions?

I always go back to that because there are times where during any transaction, something happens and you're like, "Gosh," and you start to kind of feel that. But then I just have to sit back and go, "No, no, no, no, this isn't about me. This isn't about me. I'm making this about me right now, and it's not about me. This is about getting them into their home or getting them out of their home into that next step of life, whatever that is." That's where I rely on the Lord in a lot of that, just praying in that moment and being like, "Lord, remind me what I'm doing this for." I'm not doing this for just a paycheck. This is something that I want to build this relationship up with them and be able to gain that trust. Honestly, Jason, I look back at that second or third transaction, and it taught me a lot by teaching me what not to look at from a mental standpoint.

Jason Montoya (10:03)

So I would make the argument that perhaps that was something in, like you had learned at a smaller level before. Like you had something to bring to that situation to be able to come to that analysis. I'm curious if there was something unique about, like you worked for people and you may have had a similar dynamic, but maybe not as extreme. What was it about this situation that made it so different than any situations like that that came before it? Was it simply being on your own, being your own business owner, or do you think it was something else?

Derek Worley (10:36)

Yeah, I think because it was new, right? I had never worked for myself. There's such a freedom. It was like a newfound freedom where there was no—I remember it taking me a minute. I remember talking to my dad and saying, "Man, it's like I've had almost like these blinders on because I've been employed for so long, and you look at things a certain way. And then when you become self-employed and you start working for yourself, you go, 'Huh, well, this is all just a game. I can really work within the parameters of the law. I can kind of do this however I want.'"

I called it kind of like the "employment brain." I had employment brain of having worked for somebody and you work within these walls, within these times, within these parameters. So I think there was that going on where it was kind of like learning the rules or lack thereof of being self-employed, but also having like a broker that you work under. So there is an accountability standpoint from your broker because you're not employed by him per se, but it is something that's still, yeah, there's that hierarchy there.

I knew that from the first transaction, I knew this was for me. I knew that I wanted to do this long-term. And I think that I just realized in that moment, this long-term is not a recipe for success from a mental standpoint for me if this transaction is representative from a mental standpoint of the transactions moving forward. I won't do well because I don't do well when it's not personal. It needs to be personal.

Jason Montoya (12:35)

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I guess the other thing that comes to mind is the transaction, like in the real estate transaction, is you getting it, you closing it, you getting your paycheck. That's a win, right? And what you're saying is there are some times where that win is actually a loss because of how you interacted with the person or how you treated them, right? And so there's a bigger win and a littler win. And the bigger win has to be first and more importantly than the smaller one, right?

Derek Worley (13:11)

Absolutely. And this is no cliché. This is the God's honest truth. I remember my wife saying that in a week I'd have two to three closings, right? And she'd be like, "Oh, good for you. Congratulations. That's been great. You've been working hard. What sort of income are you going to have this month?" And I'm like, "I have no idea." I haven't even really looked at it because, again, for me, I started learning that if I start counting those checks before they've even been deposited, I lose focus. I'm not doing it for the right reason. So, for me, and I mean that, I've hardly even... Now, as the business grows and you start to have more, you know, there's more expenses going out, more. Sometimes you're looking ahead only from a business, a financial planning standpoint, not as much about what you're making. But I remember that being the case for a long time where I'd have no idea what I'm making because I'm not even looking at that. I'm just looking at, like you said, I'm looking at the bigger win, which is being at the closing table and they're just hugging you and crying about how smooth things went, or just little things like that. The bigger win is the bigger fish, the increased relationship.

Jason Montoya (14:29)

Yeah. And also, if you have to choose one of the wins, you've made the decision of which one you're going to choose, right?

Derek Worley (14:38)

Absolutely, yeah, 100%. And there's—I've been told at times in my career, "Well, you can't do that, you have a business to run." And I'm like, "Yeah, but I am running a business, it's just not strictly the way you would run yours."

Jason Montoya (14:55)

Yeah, yeah. And I guess to kind of rewind a little bit, let's like, where did you start out? You didn't start out as an entrepreneur, so tell us about how it began and how you went on the employment journey. What was life like for you growing up? You talk about your faith. How did that play a part in all of this?

Derek Worley (15:18)

Yeah, so my dad was and is an entrepreneur. He's without a doubt probably been my biggest inspiration. I was born in a family of entrepreneurs, for sure. My dad owned his own business, started a metal roofing company right out of high school. It was a metal distribution company. He ran that for right at 30 years, sold it back in 2015. My uncle, really two of my three uncles, or three, three of my five, if you count both my mom and my dad, all own their own businesses. So really, we've always said, our family is built on entrepreneurial work.

I've seen my dad work his tail off. I remember watching him. I was at a church event not too long ago, and he was showing us how he can, based on certain fears and certain things in your life, pretty much show you what drives you and all these things. I looked at mine, and mine was that I am somebody that just strives to provide. I'm a provider, so I want to stack for my family and work really hard for my family, and that's always been natural for me, just for the way I was raised.

I was talking to the instructor afterwards, and I asked him, I said, "You know, I think this is accurate. I think I am right here." He started kind of asking me questions. He goes, "What do you think made you that way? What do you think made you that way?" And I was like, "I don't know. My dad was self-employed. He was an entrepreneur." He goes, "Okay, but the fact that you're so obsessed with providing and having options for your family and all these things, what do you think?" He goes, "Did you ever see anything really negative from your dad when it came to finances or owning his business?" And I said, "Well, yeah, he made it through the great recession."

I remember in '08, '07–'08, I remember very vividly seeing him at the dinner table, hair frazzled and papers everywhere, and him telling us that Christmas was not going to be too fun this year. Knowing that he was having to cut pay from all his employees and not give bonuses and not pay himself because things were so tight and he was going to go under if he didn't do it. That scared the living daylights out of me at like 13 years old. Seeing my dad, who never shed a tear, was never scared, was never frantic, was never very emotionally unmoved when it came to stuff like that, and to see him like that. I didn't really put that together until I was talking to this guy about that, and I thought, "Holy cow!" Yeah, I think that was a big motivator for me. That's where the overwhelmingness I have of making sure I can provide for my family at all times stems from.

He had one year, and I know that seeing him struggle like crazy—and that's a story for another day of all the hoops he went through to make sure that he didn't go belly up and everything—watching him persevere through that was still something that I'm asking him about all the time. "When this happened, how did you...?" He'll tell me, and it's a great story of just perseverance, and it's incredible. That has really fueled me to kind of know that that's in my blood and that that's just who we are in our family: we're not going to give up. We're going to keep working. He always said, "Nobody cares. Put your boots on and go to work." That's what he used to always say. That's always been kind of like a motivator for me. "Shut up, Derek. Stop crying. Put your boots on. Go to work." My dad definitely has been really, really influential in my life, for sure.

Jason Montoya (19:36)

So, what's you graduate high school, what happens next? You go to college, you go work for someone?

Derek Worley (19:48)

Graduated high school. I worked in Pendergrass off of Highway 129 at the QuickTrip gas station distribution center for a year, maybe. I was an idiot, living for the weekend type thing. It was just a job to you. You made a thousand dollars; you had a thousand dollars to spend till the next paycheck, right? There was really no sort of intentionality there. Worked there, worked a bunch of kind of just warehouse jobs, ended up then working with my dad.

I ended up deciding, "Okay, it's time to get my life straight. I can't do this. This is just not who God called me to be. It's not who I was raised to be. It's not who I am." There was always that spiritual disconnect where it was like I was trying to do this, but it just wasn't me. So I started working for my dad's company. Started going to school, went to Lanier Tech for business. Was really enjoying that. My wife now, my girlfriend at the time, she ended up getting pregnant with our son.

When that happened, I was working for my dad. We were dating. She got pregnant. I was living with them at the time. Started going to school full-time. Started working at a place called Rachetti's, delivering pizzas after I would clock out of Dad's place. And then that's when I started the eBay business. I was doing metal roofing, school, Rachetti's, and then started doing eBay.

I was actually, funny story—I don't know if I ever told you this—I was delivering, I was doing the eBay thing, was delivering a pizza to Jonathan Stover's house. Did not know Jonathan Stover at the time. My wife and his wife are friends, but I delivered a pizza to his house. Lauren came out and said, "Hey, aren't you Cassandra's husband?" I said, "Yeah." And she said, "Well, my husband wants to meet you. He wants to talk to you about a potential eBay situational deal." I'm like, "Okay." So we met for dinner like a few nights later, and that's when I got introduced to Craig like the next day, and that's how I ended up getting the CK job. It is funny how all these paths kind of like intersect and connect. Had I not been delivering this, I wouldn't have ever met Jonathan.

Jason Montoya (22:31)

Yeah, so you meet someone, then you meet another, and then before you know it, you're at this other company, and then I'm doing contract work for him, and we meet there.

Derek Worley (22:45)

Yeah, we did, man. You were a great ear. I really appreciate it.

Jason Montoya (22:50)

Yeah. So, you decide to go out on your own, start a business. Did you decide to start a business and do real estate, or are you not sure what you're going to do and things fell in your lap? How did this transition play out?

Derek Worley (23:07)

Yeah, so I didn't ever—I knew that naturally I was entrepreneurial. Even getting hired from Craig, I got hired based on proof and credentials. I had a top-rated eBay store. I was doing really well in that. And that was some of that Craig liked, and we hit it off when Jonathan introduced me. So, even just doing the eBay thing, that felt naturally entrepreneurial. At the same time, I was selling a bunch of random stuff for people. When I first took that job at CK, I remember Gary was a president at a time, he just like, "Derek, here's a couple of iPhones. Can you sell these and I'll pay you X?" My dad's friend called me, and was like, cause when I was doing the eBay thing, I got a reputation for just flipping all sorts of junk.

I was doing that. At the same time I was working for my dad's company. I remember one of the guys, one of his employees came in and had one of those Ocean Pacific, the automatic napkin dispensers. He's like, "Hey, can you sell this?" Sold that. I sold toys and trailers and also just random stuff for people. But I kind of got a reputation for being the guy that would just sell, could sell whatever.

While I was working for Craig, I started a little side company called "Time to Consign." I kind of made that something where I just said, "Look, I'll sell anything and everything for you." I tried to marry the idea of saving time while also putting money in your pocket. So, kind of married like Goodwill meets Plato's Closet, if you will. You have stuff in your house, and your wife's like, "Can you just get this out of here, Jason? Just take it to Goodwill." And I wanted to make it something where it was like, instead of taking it to Goodwill, take it to, "Can we consign that? Can we Time to Consign that thing?" People would just bring their stuff. We would set up a certain consignment number, and then I would sell it, and then you'd get your check in the mail. It was as easy as dropping off at Goodwill, but you got a check in return. That was kind of the idea.

This is a fun story because this is like the moment, this is the seed that put real estate in my head. There was a place called Value Village, right across the road from CK. On my lunch breaks, I would always go there. I would just find miscellaneous crap, you know, spend 20 bucks and try to flip it for like 120 or whatever and make a little bit of money. I was doing that one day, and I saw a car in the parking lot, and it had a for-sale sign, "$2,500" or whatever. I called the gentleman, and I called my dad first. I said, "Dad, I want to buy this car. I want to flip this car." And he was like, "Don't do that." I'm like, "Why not?" He was like, "Don't do that because you've got to get insurance and you've got to get this and you've got to get that. That's just that you don't want to do that." I'm like, "He said, why don't you just pitch him Time to Consign and see if you could just consign the car for him?" I'm like, "Well, that would kind of work."

So, I called the guy. He worked at Value Village. He comes out. I shake his hand. I introduce myself and tell him what I do, and I said, "Look, would you be okay if I could get you the money that you want for this car? Would you pay me like whatever on top?" "So, if you're asking 25, I'll get you three, would you be okay with giving me the five?" And he's like, "Sure." So, I was like, "Okay." So, I just took pictures of the car, threw it on Facebook Marketplace. The next day, I had a guy drive from Charlotte, North Carolina, bought the car for three grand, and he gave me the 500 bucks. I was ecstatic.

Jason Montoya (27:07)

It was like grabbing money out of thin air, right?

Derek Worley (27:10)

Yeah, because I was like, what did I do outside of taking photos for somebody? But the thing is, you were just simply that liaison. You were the person that did the little bit of work that he didn't want to do, which was the whole idea behind Time to Consign anyway: just being the person who values the stuff and the value of that stuff over the time to not do anything with it. Because that's all people are doing. People know when they take stuff to Goodwill, there's a value to it. They just don't have time to find that. So they just drop it off at Goodwill. And then Goodwill has a multi-billion dollar company from your stuff.

I was so excited, and me and my wife had pizza that night, and she was like, "That's awesome." I showed her, and she's like, "This is incredible." And I said, "Babe, at this point," I felt like I sold boats, jet skis, trailers, cars. I said, "Do you feel like the only thing I haven't sold is a house?" That was the little seed in my head where I was like, "I want to sell a house." Then it turned into maybe I get my real estate license. But, again, is that story what made me want to do real estate? No, but it was that seed. It was that one little thing that went, "Huh."

Jason Montoya (28:10)

Yeah, it's interesting how those seeds work. I'm working on my book right here called From the Garden to the Cross, and it's about Jesus. I've been working on it for four years. I'm hoping to be done in the near future. I had a seed when I shut down my marketing company. I had this thought, I really felt like I needed to end my company with excellence. I needed to finish well. And so this thought came to mind, "What does it mean to finish well?" And then the thought came to mind, Jesus on the cross says, "It is finished." Maybe there's something there for me to learn about how to finish well. That was the seed in 2014. And then in 2020, I started writing it. You bookmark those seeds, and then they get watered. Stuff happens in life, and whatever happens, they get watered.

Derek Worley (29:44)

Yeah, that's a great point.

Jason Montoya (29:44)

Is there anything else about your story that you think is worth mentioning before we jump into some of our other questions?

Derek Worley (29:53)

I think my family is crucial, and my faith is crucial as well. I know that even the story I shared earlier about just knowing that I'm not just a transactional person and I want it to be very relational, I know that that comes from a deep-seated spiritual part of myself too. Everything that we do, we're to do as if we're pleasing the Lord. In that moment, I think that those things that I felt in those moments where I felt like it was strictly transactional, that felt gross. I know at this point in my life that that was because there's a deeper spiritual purpose and meaning to what it is that I'm doing.

Like with anybody, there's been times in my career that I've questioned, "Lord, am I supposed to be here?" You have one bad transaction or something happens and somebody's mad and cussing you out and you did an awful job or something, and you're like, "Am I supposed to be here, Lord? Do I have this all wrong? Maybe this isn't." And the Lord has reminded me in so many ways and so many times, "No, I've got you right where I want you." He's shown me that he's given me this platform with real estate as a vehicle to change lives, hopefully more often than not for Him, and to grow His kingdom. I don't take that lightly at all. So I think, if there is one thing that I could say about my story and figuring out who I am as a business owner and a real estate agent, it's that I know the Lord's called me to be here.

In a lot of ways, when you, as a follower of Christ, when you know the Lord's called you into a certain role, it takes a lot of that pressure off. Not pressure in the sense that I don't have to show up, but pressure of, there's not that idea of, "Do I belong?" 100% I belong. I'm called to be in this industry, and there's no question about that because my Father's told me that.

Jason Montoya (32:17)

Talk to us more about the idea of belonging. Dive into that more.

Derek Worley (32:22)

I talk to a lot of agents about this often. I don't think it's specific to career; I think it's specific to humans in general. I feel like we have multiple times a year, we all have these identity crises. But we do. Even look in the Bible, right? God would call people to do certain things, and even they were like, "Who am I, Lord? You don't mean me, right? I'm a screwed up individual." It's a beautiful thing. It's such a privilege, and something we shouldn't take lightly as followers of Christ, to be able to have that one-on-one personal relationship and that connection through prayer. That's something I try to do every day, to spend time with the Lord in quiet time and in prayer, and just shut up. Stop talking and let Him talk to you.

Sometimes we get in our prayer, we start praying, and it's like, "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la." I just want to give you this time because you're worthy of it. I just want to hear from you. Just be silent and just embrace that silence. In those moments, it's like the Lord will—I know the Lord is telling me, "I've got a plan for you. This is where I want you." Outside of Christ, I don't really know how you would necessarily find that. That's how I've found it, is through Christ.

So I can only speak from, as a follower of Christ, how I find that purpose, but he's certainly shown me that this is where he wants me. So, like I said earlier, when I know I'm where he wants me, it takes off a lot of that pressure of the constant, every time there's an issue, I'm not going, "Do I belong? Do I belong?" I don't have that six-month identity crisis because I know he's got me where he wants me. That's something that I owe all the glory to him, and I think in a lot of ways, that's what allows me to just work as hard as I do because I don't have—I'm blessed in that sense that he's shown that to me.

I would challenge anybody out there that doesn't know how that feels, to feel maybe like called to do something or feeling like they belong. I would simply say that a lot of times, I don't think that's a physical issue. I would say it's probably more of a spiritual issue, and to look to God in those moments to tell you where he wants you and be ready to be. Luckily, I love what he's called me to do. That could change tomorrow, but that's where I find the longing.

Jason Montoya (35:46)

So talk to us about when you started your business. How did you start getting clients?

Derek Worley (35:54)

I told you earlier that the first night I took that notepad and just wrote down every phone number and contact in my phone, front, back, three or four pages worth. I just called and called every person I knew. I mean, when I tell you that for the next three or four days, I called, I mean, literally, I had so many names on there that I was calling nonstop. I had one person that said, "Yeah, I'm about to get married, and I want to be in a house before I get married." It was like, "Okay." So, I just hit the ground running and helped them find that house. That house is so special. 140 E Wright Street in Winder was the first house I ever sold, and that house is really special to me, but that family is really special to me. It was incredible. I remember being at that closing table for that first transaction when his mother called me and was like, "I found a house, I want you to help me buy this house." And it was like, it started snowballing at that point.

Jason Montoya (36:54)

Yeah, well, once you do the first one, then it feels possible.

Derek Worley (37:01)

Yeah, 100%. Like once I did that, then that monkey was off my back, right? Now it was like, "Oh, okay. That's how it looks. All right, cool." I was excited to learn what it didn't look like. I was excited to learn, "Where's the baseline of like handling a transaction? In the grand scheme, was the first transaction an easy transaction or was that a hard one?" I don't really have a baseline to know. So I was excited to kind of go, "I want to do five more so that I can look and see, where does that stack up in comparison to... "

Jason Montoya (37:37)

Yeah. So then number three was the hard one.

Derek Worley (37:47)

Man, yeah, number three. Had I been able to have some insight into that one, I would have really understood the first one was smooth sailing, for sure.

Jason Montoya (37:53)

Yeah, it's like having kids. You get a hard one or an easy one, and then you think everything else is going to be like that, and it's not.

Derek Worley (38:03)

It's funny you say that because I just told somebody that the other day. I said, me and my wife got a little bit of a big head when Asher was born. He was so easy, and he was such an awesome kid, slept through the night, never had any issues with him. Me and my wife, I remember one night, he was sleeping through the night, and we looked at each other, and we're like, "These other parents, they just, they just don't do it like us, apparently. I think we've got this thing in the bag." And then my daughter was born, and the Lord humbled us very quick. It was like, "No, it was just him. It was nothing to do with y'all."

Jason Montoya (38:37)

Yeah, yeah. So talk to us, what does it mean to live better?

Derek Worley (38:41)

That's a great question. To live better. I think for me, living better comes down to one word, and this is something that over the last year I've really, really, really had to hone in on. For me, living better is all about living with purpose and living with intention. I think that for so long, early in my career, there was a lot of tail wagging the dog instead of the dog wagging the tail, and maybe a lot more reactiveness than proactiveness. That was something that I had to learn as the years went on and as business started picking up and there was a little bit more certainty in some areas of my career. You do anything it takes when you're starting out.

Whereas things start to kind of level out and there's a certain level of expectation there. It was like, "Okay, how do we scale this in order to..." You remember the book, I think you may have mentioned it to me. I think I borrowed it from Craig, The E-Myth, right? The E-Myth was such a great book, and that was something that put it in my eyes like, "Derek, if you stopped going into work tomorrow, like you don't really have a business, you have a job." That was something where I was like, "Yeah, I need to be very intentional about building out these systems and building out these processes so that I can take a vacation with my kids and my wife and be where my feet are."

So to me, I've learned that for me, living better is living with purpose and living with intention. So that when I'm working, I'm working. And when I'm playing and when I'm with my kids, I'm playing and I'm with my kids. Last year was the first vacation I took since I got into real estate in which I was present with my kids and with my wife. We went to Disney with some friends. I put my phone in my wife's fanny pack, and we'd go to the park at whatever time they opened, 6:30, 7 a.m. Phone was in her fanny pack, and I didn't look at it until we got back to the hotel that night. I set the expectation with all my clients beforehand: "Hey, I'm going to be at Disney. If you have an emergency, here's who you can call. I will call you back. I will return your texts. I will return your emails, but it will be after 8 PM." Being intentional with that and being unapologetically intentional and not feeling like the whole time I'm at the park that I owe somebody an apology because I can't answer a question that they may or may not have. That's really important.

Jason Montoya (41:34)

So what is it that gave you that anchor?

Derek Worley (41:46)

My family, my kids. I just started getting really...

Jason Montoya (41:58)

You know, you didn't have to honor them.

Derek Worley (41:58)

I mean, like that's just who we are as great family men. I'll be honest, Jason, it's kind of an unnatural thing for me. I told you about my dad and how much of an inspiration he was to me. My dad didn't take days off. I don't know, looking at him, I don't know what a day off is. He didn't have an e-brake. He worked and worked and worked and worked and worked. That's all he's known, is how he was raised. So it's not natural. If I'm being honest, for me to be... I love what I do to a point where I could work through the weekend, and I would be fine. I genuinely love what I do. So, in a lot of ways, me taking off for vacation feels weird. It feels unnatural.

That's where I think, Jason, when I said earlier "unapologetically intentional," I naturally, because I think it feels so out of the norm for me not to be working, that I feel this deep-seated reason to apologize to somebody. I should be working. Those aha moments, those anchors for me is, I heard somebody say, I did BOLD last year with Keller Williams, and one of the instructors said, "Make sure that your willingness matches your wants, or your wants matches your willingness."

That was something for me where I went, "Huh, I do want 50 transactions in a year. I do want 60 closings. I do want that. But am I willing to put in the dedicated time and energy and all that it takes to do that?" I don't know if I am. Why? Because I want to see my kids' basketball games. I want to see my kids' dance recitals. I want to see my daughter in gymnastics. I want to take a spontaneous date night with my wife. And truthfully, I'm not at a point in my life right now with the systems and everything that I think I can handle 60 units and do those things. I'm not there yet.

So, for me, it was, I want to be at my kids' sporting events. I want to do these things. At some point, that was in a lot of ways, a motivator for me to go, "All right, it's time to really hone in on these systems so that I can get what I want within the business, but also not to sacrifice my willingness," if that makes sense. It was really about last year saying, "Okay, when I'm with my family, they deserve all of me. Just like when I'm with my clients, they deserve all of me." It was for me. It was like a baby step into what this year's been and really scaling the business and being able to hire my wife onto the team this year. Her helping me scale it has been awesome. But yeah, I'm going to say my kids for sure. I want to be there for them.

Jason Montoya (45:06)

So when we started, you talked about your difficult client at the beginning and the win of the transaction versus the win of the relationship, and having to balance those two. Now you've transitioned to a situation where that complexity, there's a lot more wins, a lot of more players involved. How do you help everyone win and manage this more complex system so it's fruitful and fair to everyone involved, but also motivating and exciting? Talk to us about just the difference of that complexity and how that just amplifies the challenge, but also maybe is more motivating to create something more complex.

Derek Worley (45:56)

That's where I feel like that's where I'm kind of at now, right? Because this year, it's been a great year. I've been blessed to be able to essentially double my units year over year this year with the help of my wife. I only say that to say that this is the year that I'm really figuring that out, right? Because I feel like over the last couple of years of my career, I've kind of had a ceiling that I just couldn't get past. This year, I broke through that ceiling two times.

That question is answered best by me talking about the systems. I got to a point this year where, because of me wanting to be intentional—I tell the agents that we're in these classes with and teaching and coaching every morning, you're going to get sick of hearing me say the word intentionality—but again, being very intentional this year at saying, "I want to scale this relationally driven real estate opportunity." The only way I know to do that, because how do you scale something that is relationally driven when there's only one of you that has that empathetic, relationally driven attitude? How do you scale that but give everybody the same level of service?

It simply came down to since I've hired my wife, she's been able to handle all of the transactional things: the paperwork, the scheduling, the logistics. Jason, I did not realize until this year, because again, I've done this by myself for five and a half years, how many balls I was juggling that I did not need to be juggling now that I had my wife helping. I started realizing that because there was like this myth that I had for a bit that like, "Well, based on what I'm doing, if it was just me and my wife, I can only do so many because I just can't service everybody." Then what dawned on me as we started working together and really starting to kind of expand on what her job would be and how much pressure would be taken off me on these certain transactional things, it was very obvious: "Holy cow, wait a second. I've just freed up like 60% of my schedule."

I can scale this thing as big as I want as long as the things that are getting in the way of that relationally driven process are taken care of with people that I trust, and they're being handled accurately and the way they should be handled. Hiring my wife and her... I signed a new listing and a buyer yesterday, and being able to essentially, as those emails come in, whoop, to my wife and go, "Hey, knock this out." And I'm at the appointments, and I know all the paperwork is taken care of on the backend. We put something under contract yesterday, sending that over to her, and she's doing a welcome email to the attorney and a welcome email to the lender and getting them all the important dates and all that stuff.

I'm over here, like calling the buyer, like, "Hey, is there anything, you got everything you need? You know, you need this, you need that. Let's see this tomorrow. Let's not see, you know." Because of those systems and those processes, she's allowed me, with her help, to only handle the relationally driven parts of the transaction, which is the calling, the showing, the listing appointments, the hand-holding, if you will, professionally. I didn't know until this year what that was really going to look like, but having her come on staff and being able to take over those things. She's like, "Sweetheart, I look at it like this: My job is to make it to where all you've got to do is go be with your people." She understands that, like, "Let me go serve my community." She likes being kind of the background work and handles all that. She was even handling all of our tax stuff, getting it ready for our accounting at the end of the year to see about where we're at from a tax standpoint. That's something that over the last five and a half years has drove me bonkers while I'm trying to do everything else. What a lifted burden. It keeps me at a level where I can talk to people and not be burdened by, "Well, I'd love to see you tomorrow, but I've got to do paperwork because I haven't been able to do paperwork for the last three days." So having a great employee is probably what I'm learning is definitely a way that I can scale it.

Jason Montoya (50:50)

Yeah. So that's kind of a dive into systems. How about the story side of things? I think if I remember right, when you did your podcast, you did the movies and TV shows of sorts. How have stories shaped you as a person, and how do they apply to your work?

Derek Worley (51:16)

How have stories shaped me as a person? That's a great question. Like I said earlier, I think my dad has inspired me in so many ways. Just seeing him, seeing my uncles. I've always loved the idea. I've always loved reading. I read a lot when I was younger. I remember the first time I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and just being so inspired by that. I've just always loved the idea of the freedom. Not to reference Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but the whole rat race idea, right? I've always loved the idea of being able to be financially free and being free from this. My dad, I saw his statement, and it's always stuck with me. He's like, "I want to sacrifice now so that I can enjoy life down the road." I want to work because I want to work, not because I have to work. That was something that I've always thought about since I was a kid: I really want to work one day because I want to work, not because I have to work.

I'm a big movie buff. I love movies. I love music. I love art. Used to do a lot of acting, did stand-up comedy for a while. I just always loved expression like that. One of my favorite movies growing up when I was a kid was like Ace Ventura, like any Jim Carrey movie. I feel like growing up, I knew those scripts. Getting into acting and stuff like that. What's fun, man, is like, again, you're pulling from that well. I loved acting, loved comedy, loved doing stuff like that, loved writing. Then when I got into real estate, I realized that I can use every bit of that. I can pull from every bit of that. So when I was doing the podcast, we're talking about movies and music, and I'm doing some skits and we're doing commercials, and we're putting together testimonials for the website in which I'm more or less being allowed to direct, what I've always loved doing since I was a kid. It's stuff like that that I love, kind of the unintentional influence of, of, you know, just do what you love, and you can incorporate it even in your business.

Jason Montoya (54:19)

What additional wisdom or insights would you like to share that you haven't yet had a chance to?

Derek Worley (54:49)

I actually wrote, so this is something I was talking about this morning in the class and in some of my shower thoughts. I think we do some of our best thinking in the shower. I was thinking this morning. I want to be very focused now and then going into my career even further as I grow. I want to be very cognizant of that line between contentment and complacency. I think for me, that's a line that sometimes, if we're not careful, we can allow ourselves to justify complacency.

I think that the only way that you can really know what your line of complacency and contentment is is to be able to kind of have a self-audit and look at yourself and say, "What is it that I really want?" And then, once you know that, then you have that line where you can say, "Okay, well, at any point..." Because there's going to be days where you just don't feel like your "why" is big enough, and you don't feel like you actually are motivated enough to go for that. If you don't know what it is that you really want and what really will make you content, then you really can't answer the question, "Am I being complacent or am I being content right now?" That's something my pastor and I were talking about the other day. He said, "What can I pray for you about?" And I said, "Just pray that I would have wisdom to know the difference between complacency and contentment." That's something that I think is really important because I think we can just—we're so good at justifying stuff, and if we're not careful, we'll justify ourselves into complacency.

Jason Montoya (56:44)

Who is a good fit for working with you?

Derek Worley (56:50)

I'll be honest with you. I think somebody that's a good fit for working with me is somebody that at the end of the day is prioritizing being able to have somebody that feels like, or that wants to be treated like family, that will feel like family. I've told people at their dinner table, "Look, if you're looking for somebody that's just going to give you—now listen, I can give you charts and graphs, and I can give you data all day. I can bore you with that stuff until you're sleeping. But if you want somebody that's simply analytically driven and they're just kind of here's our packet and here's how we're going to do it and read this and what do you think? That's just not me."

I'm very, I'm very much like I said, I've said it a hundred times at this point, I'm very relationally driven. So, I'm somebody that comes in. I'm going to be probably asking you more questions about who you are, your family, your kids, your schedule, what motivates you, stuff like that to really know who you are because, like I said earlier, I think bad agents can sell homes. That's the problem. But I really want to connect with that person. Some people just don't connect with me because they just want, "Hey, I just want you to tell me how to sell my house, and I want to be done." That's probably not, more often than not, the person I really want to work with. Somebody that prioritizes relationships is motivated by knowing they're taken care of, wanting somebody they can trust once the transaction is done.

Jason Montoya (58:23)

Is it mostly sellers and buyers, or just sellers?

Derek Worley (58:31)

Sellers and buyers. I work with a lot of buyers. I work with a lot of sellers. Actually, I looked the other day on my homes.com page, and you can actually see the balance. I'm very balanced. It's like within four transactions. It's like four more sellers I've represented over my six years than with buyers. So, pretty well balanced. I work with both.

Jason Montoya (58:55)

And what area?

Derek Worley (58:59)

I'm licensed in Georgia. I've been in Jackson County my entire life. All 31 years I've been in Jackson County. I serve Jackson and surrounding as well, like to say. So Jackson, Barrow, Banks, Hall, Clark, Gwinnett, Madison. But I've went as far north as Elberton and as far south as Atlanta.

Jason Montoya (59:43)

You kind of entered real estate in a very crazy, chaotic era of society and economy: the pandemic, the drop, the up, now it's crazy again in different ways. Does it affect you? Are you able to sort of skirt the crises?

Derek Worley (59:58)

Yeah, that's a great question. I remember when I got into it in 2020, everybody was like, "Oh, what a great time to get in it." And I'm like, "For who? Not for these buyers." I can tell you that. From the interest rate standpoint, great time, but from a buying standpoint, when your listing price is your starting bid, it's a pretty tough market. Real quick, Jason, this is one of those moments that tells you how bad this market was. I remember seeing a condo in Gainesville, $200,000. Made an offer for my buyers of $200,000, and the seller countered our full-price offer at $215,000. You tell me if that's a normal market. That was crazy.

But one that I'm actually very happy to have gotten in the business in because again, having my dad right there beside me, my broker at the time, they kept telling me, "This is not normal. Make hay while the sun's out, but save, save, save, save, save because a lot of these agents think this is normal. It's not, and when it pops and it shifts, you need to be able to be ready." We've seen the shift. We went from two and a half, two and a quarter, or two and three-quarter interest rates to they got as high last year as seven. That was a crazy, crazy, crazy hard time.

But this year, it's wild. I talk to certain agents, and they're struggling, struggling, struggling. Like I said, this has been the best year of my career. I've been able to double my unit goal. I'm realizing, I'm not trying to oversimplify it, it just comes down to your work ethic. It comes down to what are you doing during your slow times. I don't care how busy I get, I'm lead-genning, I'm dialing every single day, I'm talking to my sphere of influence, I'm talking to, I'm cold calling, I'm calling FSBOs, I'm doing anything that it takes, regardless of how busy I get. That's the level of intentionality that I'm hitting every day. Respectfully, Jason, I look at it, and I go, I don't really care.

Whatever the market's doing is what the market's doing. That's the confines that every agent's working within, and so I don't really lean too heavy on. Now, I need to know where the market's at in order to strategize, but I don't sit here and go, "Well, it's just a slow market. I guess it's just slow." It's like, "No, no, no. Somebody's buying because it's not zero sales."

Jason Montoya (1:02:40)

So what would you tell, like there seems to be a lot of despair in terms of like buyers, particularly young buyers of houses. They want to buy a house, they don't think they can. What would you say to them, to that group of people about buying a house?

Derek Worley (1:03:45)

I'm not somebody that's going to sit there and just try to sell everybody on the same product. It's so contextual, so situational, right? I'm not going to sit there and just tell everybody, "It's a perfect time to buy, buy, buy, buy." I don't know your situation. That's why I say that what I do is so relational because I want to get to the person I'm talking to. What are your motivations? Are you looking to stay in the area for a long time? "Well, no, I'm just trying to fill out the area. I may be moving from my job to Colorado next year." Hey, buying may not be the move for you. That may be a position in which you want to rent.

So really, it's just getting to know the person I'm talking to, figuring out what their motivations are, figuring out what their needs are, figuring out what their wants are. And then, based on that, walking through all of the—again, being intentional—and walking through the best courses of action that may work for them, right? I've talked to people who go, "I really want to buy, but I just don't have the down payment." And then you end up talking to them and find out they had no idea that they could borrow money from their 401k or that they didn't know they could do this or that.

It's just having an, I tell buyers all the time, "Let's have an intellectual conversation together so that we can make an intellectual decision." If that means you want to buy or you want to sell, then great. If not, no harm, no foul, but at least we've at least we've educated you in the process, and I'm here whenever you decide to make a move one way or the other. But, you know, I can't sit there and give a one-size-fits-all answer to a question that's going to depend on ultimately who am I talking to. It would really just depend.

Jason Montoya (1:05:37)

How can people connect with you? What's your website? Where can they find you?

Derek Worley (1:05:43)

My website is relationshipsoverrevenue.com. I got both of the domains for "relationships" spelled the normal way, and then the way that I do it on the hashtag on my social media is "realasianshipsoverrevenue" (R-E-A-L). You can do either "relationships" spelled normal or "realasianshipsoverrevenue." You can contact me there. You can add me on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Derek Worley. I would love to connect with anybody, hear from you, anything I can do to help serve on. I'm excited.

Jason Montoya (1:06:54)

Any final thoughts? Anything else you want to share?

Derek Worley (1:06:58)

I just really appreciate you having me on here. I love what I do. I love the opportunity to be able to chat with you, and hopefully this is inspiring to some people to get out there and work your butt off, man. Don't be scared to chase your dreams and don't be naive enough to think that it's an easy chase. It's something that you've got to always work hard. Like my dad says, "No one cares, put your boots on, go to work," right? Just go out there and work hard, love what you do. If I could offer one piece of advice to everybody, it's be intentional. Don't do anything aimlessly. I think that's a mistake we all make. A lot of these agents, they'll call, "Oh, I made about 20 calls, Derek." And I'm like, "What was the intention?" You can make a hundred calls. It's not worth anything if you're not being intentional, right? It's easy to be aimless. So, just go be intentional, go work your tail off because you're worth it, man. You really are. You're worth working hard for. Thank you again for having me on here, man. I really appreciate it.

Jason Montoya (1:08:04)

Yeah, well, thank you for sharing your life with us. I'm Jason Scott Montoya, and this has been another episode of the Share Life Podcast. We'll see you on the next one.

Derek Worley (1:08:10)

Bye, guys.