Rod Watson, LA’s Luxury Home Specialist, shares his incredible journey of how he became an accomplished real estate agent and a top influencer.
Rod Watson works with homeowners and buyers in the luxury market to make sure he finds them their dream property. His clients range from developers, business managers, wealth managers and investors to professional athletes. Rod started his journey in real estate in 2006 and today, he is the proud Founder of The Watson Group, hosts his own radio show on ESPN and is co-producing and acting in his first real estate TV show on well-known television channels. Learn more about Rod’s experience and success story by reading his exclusive interview with PropertySpark below!
When did you start your career in real estate?
My real estate career officially began in 2006.
Please also in 2 short lines brag about yourself, if you really had to impress someone about what you do, what would you say?
I connect extraordinary people with extraordinary lifestyles. If you want the best professional services and experience when it comes to real estate, call Rod!
What inspired you to start in real estate and how did you motivate yourself to keep going?
My godmother was in the process of losing her home so she reached out to me to see if there was anything I could do to help her save her home from foreclosure. I did some research on Google, keep in mind this was back in 2006. After doing some careful research I learned about short sales. From that point on I knew real estate was the career path for me. Unfortunately I was not able to stop-my godmother’s home from going to foreclosure. But from that day forward I went on to help over 100 families short sale their homes. I love helping people which I believe is one my most valuable strengths that has lead me to where I am today as a real estate advisor.
Comparing your business from back then to now, what has been the main thing that allowed you to expand your business?
Just making up my mind that I was going to build a successful real estate business. I understood that all I needed to do was put in the time to learn and grow. Also making the decision to host an afternoon radio show on ESPN really opened a lot of doors for me that had helped my career in so many ways. Big thank you to Tim Garland for believing in me!
What’s the most profitable aspect of your business, why do you think this is and how can others apply this to what they are doing?
Building relationships and investing in my brand on social media. I believe building relationships and strategic partnerships are two major keys to building a successful and profitable business. Branding is all about trust and consistency. It’s all about giving more than you take. I’ve always gone into every relationship giving more than I take. It’s all about value. If you focus less on getting and more on giving, your career will be a great experience and eventually a very profitable one unless you’re doing the wrong things.
Choosing to invest in my personal development and brand on social media was the best and scariest decision I’ve made in my career. It’s allowed me to show my clients and soon to be future clients who I am as a person and how I live my life to the fullest. I’m a family man, family is important to me, which my followers get to witness along with my passion for cars, luxury real estate, sports and entertainment. I believe sharing my passion has created a platform that many other agents can use as the blueprint to building an engaged following and eventually clients for life.
How do you work? (Do you wake up early, work late, communicate, what jobs do you do yourself, who do you talk to, etc.)
Yes I’m up early at 4:30 am, meditating and planning on how I want my day to go. During the weekdays, there are also times where I’m up late doing research and working on future projects so I usually function off from 3-5 hours of sleep. I do all of my social media and marketing at this point. It’s kind of hard to turn it over to someone else but it’s something I’m working on. I have a great creative marketing director and photographer that I just brought on that’s helping me build my brand identity and enhance the quality of my marketing collateral both digital and print. I have weekly meetings with my team where we focus on lead generation and follow up along with communicating with our Sphere. The remaining time I spend on business development, hiring new agents, and building strategic partnerships with other relatable luxury brands.
When did you realize you were successful/made it and how did you feel/celebrate?
That’s funny, in my mind I’m still trying to work to become successful. To be honest, I was able to walk away from my full time job at the time selling a Porsche in 2008 and was able support my family selling real estate full time. At that point I felt I was on the road to success. I do it for the freedom period.
Looking back, what could have you done sooner to get to that point quicker?
Well that’s hard because I believe life’s all about choices and growing from our experiences, good or bad. If there was one thing I would say, I would have started selling real estate sooner.
What should other real estate entrepreneurs reading this be focusing on to expand their own business?
Great question, I think each agent that reads this needs to understand real estate is all about generating leads and developing relationships which over time eventually leads to deals. I would recommend that each agent start with focusing on their strengths. When I started, I realized I love helping people which lead me to doing a large number of short sales for the Bank of America. From each one of those transaction I’ve developed life long relationships with each client.
My career has now taken me into my true passion, which are sports & entertainment. I think it’s important for each agent to develop a short and long term plan around how he or she plans to build their business around their strengths and passion. From there once that’s figured out next step is to build a team around you that can help materialize your vision and build a successful brand. I would recommend outsourcing the $9 hr work and then focusing their efforts on generating leads and developing new relationships daily. At all times the focus should be on keeping your pipeline full well into the next year. Also I think it’s very important to develop an online, social media and networking marketing strategy that you can commit to and stay consistent with. If you don’t know where to start I always say start with your strengths and passion.
What do you consider the main differences between those people who have been successful in your industry and those who have failed?
I truly believe it all comes down to how much you believe in yourself and your ability to overcome obstacles and a large amount of rejection. It’s hard for a lot of people, the real estate industry is a tough business. People see all the glitz and glamor, the TV shows etc and think I’m gonna get my license and start selling Million Dollar Houses. This business is not for everyone. So with that said you either have it in you to succeed or your don’t. In my opinion, a lot people give up too soon or never get started.
How has social media and online marketing affected your real estate business? How much more success have you had now after implementing social media and online marketing efforts?
Social media has played a big role in elevating my brand. Influence is the new currency and if leveraged the right way, it can lead to opening a lot of doors. As for my real estate career it’s landed me over $7 million dollars in listings over the past 12 months. It’s also allowed me to connect with some great people within my industry that have referred business to me. Since making the decision to grow my following in 2013, I’d have to say social media has definitely played a major role in my current business success from hosting my own radio show on ESPN for 4 years, to co-producing and acting in my first real estate TV on Fox5 and CW6 to gaining two exclusive interviews with one of the biggest names in sports, Lavar Ball CEO and founder of Big Baller Brand. You can listen to the interview on my podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, and YouTube. It’s called the Rod Watson Audio experience. Let me know what you think!
We hope you’ve learnt a great deal about becoming a successful real estate agent. Make sure to reach out to Rod Watson for a phenomenal and a one of a kind experience in buying or selling real estate in Los Angeles!
Check out Rod Watson’s Instagram page here: https://www.instagram.com/rodwatson23/
Check out Rod Watson’s website here: http://www.thewatsongrouprealty.com/bosa-presents/
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