Here’s a snapshot of a few things we talked about…

• Who is the Clark Kent, When It Comes to Rod Watson? [00:02:19]
• His Backstory and Where He Grew Up. [00:03:31]
• What Was it Like for Him When He Transitioned Back in After Playing Overseas? [00:10:35]
• Why Do Real Estate Agents Experience Burnout? [00:16:27]
• Why Did He Decide to Make the Transition into Luxury Real Estate? [00:19:08]
• How Tough Was it for Him to Break Through the Luxury Real Estate Market? [00:23:55]
• How Can Someone Break into The Luxury Real Estate Market After Pandemic? [00:32:30]
• One Thing He Wishes He Had Implemented Sooner to Accelerate His Journey? [00:42:10]
• His Advice for People Looking to Take Action

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

In this episode, Casanova and Rod talk about how and what you need to break into and excel in the luxury real estate market.

Rod is an everyday guy, who loves spending time with his family. Rod has always been a dreamer, ever since he was a kid, he had a bright and colorful imagination. He doesn’t believe in just working to create the world that he wants for myself, but also doing so while helping others and living life on his own terms.

Rod says that he is a passionate individual, and his family is his main source of motivation. He says that he didn’t get into the business of real estate, just for the money aspect. He knew that the money aspect would create equitable opportunities and some stability and long-term financial wealth, if he stayed consistent and persistent with it.

Ultimately, he did it because it created the opportunity to have right time to live life on his own terms, time to explore who he is as a human being and to work on manifesting the things that he dreamt about and the things that he wants in his life.

Growing up in the historic Fifth Ward community in Houston, Texas, Rod had a troubled childhood. It had a profound impact and effect on him, where it forced him to be in a position where he was on his own. At 14, to escape the negativity in the household, he started living outside.

Early on, he had to figure things out on his own, and had to go through that process of dealing with not having a father that was available to him, that he could speak to and discuss those challenges and issues that he was faced with. He found a refuge in sports.

When he found out about Michael Jordan, MJ became his idol. He wanted to learn how to play this sport because he wanted to be like Mike. He became that father figure, that superhero, that person he wanted to emulate and follow in his footsteps.

It kept him on the straightened arrow until he was able to earn a scholarship to go off to college, which led him to California because he didn’t want to stay in Texas. Rod had a mentor at the time, he didn’t see him as his mentor. He saw him as a friend, who was a great basketball player, and would play with them during summers.

He was the connection that helped him move to California. Rod says that the negative experiences from his early life that profoundly impacted him, also taught him how to be resilient, how to be tough, how to take on challenges head on. When he got the opportunity to play basketball in the state of California, he jumped on it, something he says was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Talking about transitioning back after playing basketball overseas, Rod says that he had prepared himself. He realized that he was eventually going to have to stop playing this game. He wrote down some goals and one of those goals was to obtain a master’s degree and also, potentially become a college coach.

When Rod got a call from his college coach who had just taken a job at our cross-town rival with an offer to join him. He took the assistant’s job. The university agreed to pay for his master’s degree, along with housing, at the time as a head associate coach and an assistant. Rod believes that it was probably one of the best decisions he made and is thankful that he sat down and wrote his goals out, and what he wanted to obtain for himself.

Another one of his goals was also to become a father and a husband, and have a family. Aside from getting a master’s degree was also to be a better example to his siblings and to his family as well, by how he lived his life.

Rod adds that you have to ultimately have a strong, positive mindset to be persistent and consistent towards working towards your goals, the things that you say you want to accomplish. That’s going to allow you to break through and get to that next level that you say you want to be at, or you want to get to.

Talking about why he made the transition to luxury real estate, Rod adds that there were a few reasons behind it. First, you would make a lot more money, doing the same amount of work. Secondly, he saw the long-term benefits and building his name and my brand in this space, because then he could take that money and work towards building wealth for himself and his family.

Thirdly, he also wanted to create other equitable opportunities outside of real estate for himself in the media space and he’s beginning to do that. Rod adds that it takes money to do great things, and to have longevity in this space. It takes money to build wealth. It takes money to live the life you want to live on your own terms and the luxury real estate states space presented that to him.

He talks about paving way for his daughters to learn the business, so that one day he could pass that down to his kids, as well as the wealth of knowledge in this space that he learned over the past 15 years. All of that information is going to be passed down to his daughters.

Rod adds that the world has convinced us that the only way that you can actually have success in society is by going to college, and it’s not. He says he is a living example, when he wrote down his goals, and wanted to be an example to the next generation; his siblings, aunts, and uncles. He wanted to break the generational curses.

Rod says that everything’s hard in the beginning, it doesn’t matter what you’re preparing yourself to do. The challenging part is doing the work, that’s going to lead to even just giving yourself an opportunity to experience the things that you’re seeking, or that you are pursuing in life. For him, it came down to a few things; relationship, knowledge and information.

Rod leveraged relationships, immersed himself in gaining the knowledge, and then researching information, to learn about things that he needed to have in order to be more informed about what it’s going to take to enter this space and have success.

He further adds that faith without any actions is dead. So, if you’re not going to put any action behind, you’re not going to produce the results. For him, the hard part was just being patient enough to allow that process to manifest or to evolve, and sticking it out to see it through to when he finally got that opportunity to get his first luxury listing.

Talking about how they got their first luxury listing, Rod says that it was one of his friends in California, who was an NBA player. It was their first luxury listing million-dollar property. They sold it in less than 30 days, and for a really good price. Rod says that they accomplished two things in one; they sold a luxury property that was owned by an athlete.

Rod says that with these individuals, it comes down to trust. He adds that there are four forms of currency, knowledge, time, relationships, and money. Majority of us spend time chasing money, and we devalue relationships. We devalue the fact that our time is our greatest asset next to our health.

He says that when he didn’t have money and was dead broke in his business, he leveraged knowledge, he leveraged his time and he leveraged the relationship that he had, that opened doors for him.

For people looking to secure listings in the luxury real estate market, Rod says that it’s about operating in the circles of where those people are, and utilizing the four forms of currencies. Those people aren’t just looking for a real estate agent. You should seek to build and leverage relationships with those who know you and like you, that operate in the space of those individuals that you seek to work with.

If you don’t have those relationships, you got to put the work in and put the time in and increase your knowledge in that space, and you got to learn the business. So, by learning and getting the knowledge, you can learn how to effectively market yourself, where you have to build your brand, your presence.

You also have to be in those places where these people are. So, that is either through relationships or friendships. Cass adds that you have to show that you’re different. Rod says that you have to be strategic, intentional, and you have to be committed.

Rod says that you can only acquire knowledge through time and being consistent and persistent about seeking that information out. He says that the only regret that he has is that he should have started sooner. If he had the knowledge that he has today, he would have started right out, and probably wouldn’t even have gone to college.

For people looking to take action, Rod says that you have everything you need within you, that God has given you, that’s your gift. Just have a strong undeniable belief in yourself, regardless of how you feel or where you’re at today. If you have a dream that is a signal right away to let you know, you have everything you need within you.

Key Quotes:

• “I enjoy just being a regular guy. I don’t seek attention from people. I don’t need validation from others…”
• “I’m just someone that’s passionate about my dreams, passionate about living this experience that we call life as human beings…”
• “In spite of my hardship and challenges that I was faced with that became my refuge, that became my church, that became my sanctuary being on the basketball court competing…”
• “That started with writing down my goals and then actually planning and preparing for the future that I wanted to have for myself…”
• “Sometimes you have to realize that it’s going to require you to get out of your comfort zone and there’s levels, right, it’s like a video game…”
• “I saw luxury being able to create the opportunities for me to further live out my life in the way that I wanted to live it, around the things that I’m passionate about…”
• “I’ve gained that knowledge and information of being in this industry 15 years so, that’s wealth in itself…”
• “If you have enough belief in yourself, you go out and you work towards building and creating something, that in itself is wealth…”
• “I tell people all the time, if you want to enter the space, you got to do the work…”
• “I’ve learned very early on that If you can leverage knowledge, if you can leverage time and you can leverage relationships, money will come…”
• “Relationships can get you into any door that a degree can not necessarily…”
• “If you study the greats too, they have a strategic approach to everything they do, period…”
• “Start is the hardest part…”

Links/Resources:

• https://www.instagram.com/rodwatson23/
• https://www.lavipagent.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/rod-watson-9a047932/
• [email protected]
• 281-797-3841

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