LeadingLane Podcast

Ashley (00:00)
Welcome everyone to the Leading the Lane podcast. Today is a special day. Stephen, can you tell us why it's special?

Steven L. Burch (00:06)
Thank

It's our hundredth episode. Hundredth recording. Who would have thought?

Ashley (00:11)
fully wrapped.

Right? So that's almost two years ago. ⁓ So let's remind the lifters how that happened.

Steven L. Burch (00:18)
you

⁓ I think we were just ⁓ chit chatting, right? Actually, I think it was at the mastermind that we started talking about. No. Where was it? Because I know I was like.

Ashley (00:35)
We were

on a different group coaching call and then you side text messaged me, what do you think about a podcast? And I was like, let's do it.

Steven L. Burch (00:41)
Okay.

⁓ Yeah,

that's right. And I was like, I was kind of kind of kidding, but kind of kind of not right. and if we all know Ashley, like one, if she says that she's going to do something, she's going to get the shit done. So she's committed. She's in it. So, and she's going to make you do it too. So, but I mean, honestly, I think that, you know, looking back at that, like as much as, know, people say, no, it's just joking.

Ashley (00:55)
we are.

Steven L. Burch (01:13)
Even though I saying I was just joking, but in reality, there's some truth to that joke. ⁓ And now you pushed and ⁓ look where we are. Like how much we've grown and just like listening to the episodes when we first started versus where we're at now. It's totally different tone, different vibe. think, you know, the same message and mission that we're trying to do from the very beginning, but just so much different level of comfort, comfortability for sure.

Ashley (01:17)
Mm-hmm.

I think too, just in general, helping when you're talking in front of people, like, right, there's just more of a natural ability because we do it every week. ⁓ You know, so think, yeah, the comfortability, the, I think the openness too, as far as just not necessarily being afraid what to say or what might come out or who might take it wrong. So I think that it's just been.

a growth opportunity for both of us, then I think hopefully a growth opportunity for our listeners. ⁓ What do you think is the biggest thing that you've learned thus far?

Steven L. Burch (02:20)
I think before what I was so focused on is the number of likes, the number of people commenting, the things that you think that you're going to get, or I thought, I guess, that was going to happen out of it. And then kind of at the beginning, be like, man, is anybody even out there? But then learning, the more that we have done it, the more consistent that we are.

Ashley (02:41)
it

Steven L. Burch (02:47)
and changing up, you know, our posting a little bit as far as like the different things that reels and whatnot that we're throwing out there. The amount of people that do not like comment, react, engage is wild. And I think that it's. Eerie in one way and one breath, but also so humbling and enlightening that there's so many people that are out there that are listening and even it's just snippets, right? Like.

People are always watching. always listening. You may not get that instant gratification or that reassurance validation of the little thumbs up or the little heart, but continue to do it. Because I think where the shift then changed was, yes, as long as we can help one person, that's our motto. Really, as long as it's true to us and we are doing it, we're really doing it for us to help others. So it's changing that mindset, I think, as far as

not doing it for the glory or the fame. I don't care about all that. It's just knowing that your message is heard, regardless if you get the like.

Ashley (03:54)
I think that's just it is it goes back to not even like the podcast, but just your, general social media, right? Like there's plenty of people that don't like, or don't comment and don't engage, but you know, that they see it because they'll bring it up sometime when they saw you. Right. So I think that for a long time, people got focused on that was a measure of success where it's, really not. It's the people that are reaching out and have said that you've made a difference. So what does it feel like when you get like a random message from someone?

Steven L. Burch (04:25)
It's almost like, what are you talking about? What episode are you talking about? Like how long ago was that? What message did you listen to? Right? because people are, I mean, it's the internet, it's living there forever. And we don't always post all of our reels, obviously in order they're mixed up and everything else. So there may be things that we've said a few months ago that are just now resurfacing and people are now commenting. And it's like, I think what it is is it's bringing it back in.

listening to what they are saying and how they are saying it, like what the message that they heard, don't think that necessarily matters. It's now engaging with them, listening to what they're actually saying and having a true meaningful conversation. So I think the feeling for me went from, is this? What did they want to, ooh, what can I discover about this person? What did they love about the podcast or not love about the podcast? And, you know, let's make her that relationship. So I think I answered your question.

Okay, something like that. My brain's all over the place today. So what about you? Like, is, we're both obviously rural America. How does it feel with doing the podcast and how people locally say different things to you?

Ashley (05:46)
Yeah, you know, I think again, like there is no like log of who's listening or who's watching or anything like that. ⁓ So we might think that no one's listening, but there are a lot of people listening. So I think that, you know, as far as like locally, I guess I just find it.

I don't know, strange, also like inspirational in a sense that people are, you know, listening or people will send a message and say like, it's such an inspiration or I really needed that message today. And I think it just goes to show that people are looking for something, you know, and it's a lot of times it's not even necessarily people that are in the real estate industry that say that they listened. So I think that, you know, sure we're in real estate.

We do own other businesses, et cetera. But I still think a lot of the things that we talk about just apply to everyday life. ⁓ But I think it's just amazing. Like we've both had people reach out to us and we have like no idea who they are, but then they say how it impacted them. And then we actually like get to meet them. Like I think of Evelyn, ⁓ you know, and it's just funny way we went to New York, we got to meet her and for her it was like this celebrity thing, which is also very strange to me, which I know you get when you come here as well. ⁓

But it is right? Like you hear someone and it's like, right. You listen to Mel Robbins and you think of like celebrity or, or whatnot, just interesting when you meet people that you actually don't know that have been listening and say like, an impact that you've made on, their lives. And I think we even had one when we were on vacation, we know you and I had talked about a wellness journey and sure enough, someone listened to that episode and actually like hired that.

same person for their wellness jersey and it's exposed things and their health that they weren't aware of. And like to me, that was almost like a, holy crap, like someone listens to that podcast, hired that person and now like they're making changes to their health. So that really was extremely eye opening for me.

Steven L. Burch (07:48)
Yeah. you know, I think too, for me is the rule of America has always kind of been this, ⁓ I have to mind my P's and Q's and what I say and who is, who's going to be offended. I mean, you kind of already said that as far as kind of censoring some of the stuff, you know, of course I'm not ever going to expose anything of, you know, confidentiality or anything else like that, but

Ashley (08:01)
step out of line.

Steven L. Burch (08:17)
I think it's almost given me a different level of confidence of allowing my voice to be heard and understanding that it's okay to have difference of opinions with different people, right? You can agree to disagree, ⁓ but it doesn't mean that they get to silence me. And I think your voice, my voice, our voice is what changes and helps other people. so telling our stories and how it affected us, I think that

the more you can do that, the more you put that into the universe, the more the universe is gonna be able to bring that back to you. So I think it's a give and take there and it's a confidence level of not really caring what other people say or think. It's completely different caliber of how you handle and manage how you speak, so absolutely.

Ashley (09:11)
I think one of the really cool ones too was we talked about just like hiring admin or hiring help or like when you are when you feel like you're at that next level and what that looks like. And there was, you know, a of owners that listened to that podcast and took the steps to hire an office admin and how great that has worked out for them. Like to me, again, it's just like sometimes, you know, we'll get that message like

That was the exact kick in the butt that I needed to get this done. so again, it's just, it's just important, I think, to just not give up, right? Or like not, it's important to not be like, oh, we can skip a week or we don't need it right. Cause as soon as you start doing that, like you start to fall off the wagon and then it doesn't help. think just remembering like whenever it feels like a lot, like you look at all those messages and you almost house them in a database so you can remember, be like, this is exactly why. I mean, I think we've.

impacted more than one person for sure, right? So it's just a matter of all of those and when you go to conferences and people have listened to them or here I really liked that episode and you're right, like you have to try to remember back to where it was. Like I had a friend that text messaged me and was like out of the blue and was like, I hope you have a great day. And I was like, that was really strange, but okay. And I was like, thanks so much. And she's like, do you get it? And I was like, Nope, I don't. And here it was like three months ago where I think we had said like,

Reach out to five people today and just say like have a great day. And she's like, I'm listening to your podcast. And I was like, I totally forgot about that one. But I love that you sent a message.

Steven L. Burch (10:42)
And you know, like when you first start, and you know, we do an hour a week is essentially what we do this week. There's two hours just because we're playing catch up and whatnot. But an hour uninterrupted, nothing else going on, recording and talking. That's.

Honestly, it's a lot. It's a lot of time to give up and then you have all the back end stuff that obviously we have Brandon and people to be able to help us with us. Thankfully, because I would not have been able to do it at all. ⁓ But being consistent is extremely tough to make sure that you're always on that schedule and you're not dropping the ball.

And I think it gives me a level of accountability as well of, cool. Like, could we move Ashley or could we move, you know, and skip this one? Like, yeah, it's okay. Like, but then I started thinking like, well, what happens if we miss that, you know, a complete episode and now we're off a complete week and then, know, like that snowball effect. And it's, I look at it like the gym, right? Like, yeah, it's great. The hardest part of going to the gym is showing up.

show up and just do it and knock it out. And it doesn't matter if it's the gym, it doesn't matter if it's the podcast, it doesn't matter if it's your cold calling or writing out your notes or whatever it is. It's just making sure that you make it a priority and you're consistent with it and you do not allow yourself to slack off. do you?

Ashley (12:12)
when it's a commitment, right? Like, are you

going to commit to what you believe in and things that you want to see from it? I think it's helped us grow as humans just as far as the ability to talk about things, making an impact. think it's helped, you're not helped, but it's grown our relationship even further. And a lot of times, you know, like the weeks are tough. And I sometimes look forward to this one hour because it is an hour of

great time with Stephen, but also time to brainstorm and try to be positive. And I think there's been a couple of times, you and I have both like text messages to other after like, awesome. I needed that today. Thanks for the hour of a pickup. I think just, you know, knowing how impactful it is not to only other people, but to us as well.

Steven L. Burch (12:59)
Yeah, and I think that goes back to like it has to fit your like whatever we're talking about podcast again, whatever I don't care what it is. It has to fit in what you're wanting to do and accomplish and it has to be easy in the fact that it fills your cup. If it is something that is not easy, you don't enjoy doing it, but you're trying to force it, you know, make it work like.

you're making it way more difficult than it actually needs to be. Like just because everybody else says do it that certain way, if that way does not work for you, don't rock out with it. Find your own way that brings you joy and making sure that you stay consistent with it. Cause that's easy to compound the fun things that you enjoy doing. It makes things very difficult and shitty when you have to do nothing but the shitty work all the time. good. So what's next? What are we doing?

The next push, are we going like another hundred? Like when does this always just go? I don't know.

Ashley (14:01)
Hey, it just goes. you look at, think at like the, what, like the hustle humbly and like you look at, um, a Ninja selling, I mean, I think they're up to like, you know, 500 episodes or whatnot. think it's just, you know, building this database of resources, right. And I have some ideas of, you know, websites that are like categorized as far as what are we specifically talking about, right? Like, we talking about mortgages? Are we talking about staff? Are we talking about mindset? You know, and that people, if there may be specifically looking for something they can just.

hone in on that, right? I think that there are a lot of people that are doing a lot of podcasts, and I think that it can be overwhelming for people to find them. But I think, knowing that we have a strong following and you know, you and I were at a recent CE and I think picking up other people that are, you know, now listening and I think getting ourselves in front of people that need just that sense of, there is another path, I'm struggling and there are

ways, you know, we talked to a couple different people that were struggling and wasn't always necessarily just their real estate career, but looking for different ways, you know, I think that that's the thing too, is we're not just real estate focused, although that is what we talk about a lot, like a lot of what we can do applies to these other fields. So whether it's, you know, helping people with their business plans, regardless, right? ⁓ What that might look like, just knowing that we can shift outside of real estate and still make an impact to people I think is important.

Steven L. Burch (15:28)
Well, I think what makes this so great of yes, real estate is our foundation of what we have grown as far as businesses wise. ⁓ But because of that, we deal with people all the time and we know how to work with people or identifying people we don't want to work with. And I think that makes it even better of having that realization of how much this flows over into personal, into other industries. ⁓ Because, I mean, I've had I have a funeral director friend.

Right? Like she listens to our podcast and I gave her the Ninja Selling book and I was like, I do understand that this is all about real estate. However, I you to take the concept of it. Right? Like, and it's now she applies that to her business and has hit her goals and everything else. And I'm not saying it's because of me by any means, but I think it's because of that shift of different perspective that when you always get the same perspective from the same people or the same industry.

kind of going to get the same results. So venturing out and being able to continuously learn from other people, you may not get every single aspect from them or agree with every aspect. If you can pick a few little things out of every conversation and make

Actually, Keith Robinson told me this one time. He said, you can take one bit of information that you learned from every single conversation, imagine how many conversations you have in a day and a week and a month and a year, how much more you are growing just by making meaningful connections and learning from other people. I was like, huh, that's a really interesting way to shift it other than let's hurry up and get through this conversation. It's slowing down and making that connection.

Ashley (17:11)
So talk about some of the guests we've had on the podcast.

Steven L. Burch (17:16)
Ooh, just Valerie Garcia. She was on the Memories the other day. So, ⁓ Ant, I have it popping up all over my social media. I love it. I want just a little bit of his energy and positivity because man, he can go.

Ashley (17:21)
Yeah. ⁓

Yeah.

We saw animated.

Steven L. Burch (17:43)
You know, we've had what Tracy on here, we've had a lot of really great people. ⁓ You know, I love enjoying watching the, ⁓ the reels on those. And then because they zoom in on some people and watching the facial expressions of whatever we're talking about at that point, like, yeah, that's maybe what we should do is just watch everybody's facial expressions and then guess what are we talking about? ⁓ what about you? What are some of your favorite?

Ashley (17:47)
Spouses. Don't forget about it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think, ⁓ and is, you know, just a ball of energy. mean, having Haley and Colton, I think that, you know, working with your spouse is definitely a dynamic that is not easy. So I think like being relatable that across the three of us, like we have a lot of the things that we either like, or that's sometimes frustrating or things we have to work through and, you know, having those conversations, ⁓ you know, openly, I think.

fun for Ben Argyle, know, HGTV star, which I love, you he loves when we say that. ⁓ but just talking about what an impact, you know, I think he's another one too. It would almost be fun to have him back on, you know, like a year later, like now that we've been involved in his life and you know, what that's meant for him and his company. you know, I think like Bobby, there's listening to what she's done for, ⁓ you know, real estate in general. think that it's just great to get other people's, ⁓ you know,

perspectives, what about like guests coming up? What are you looking for? Who or what types of things do think would be good?

Steven L. Burch (19:17)
You know, I have a family friend, Von Paul Webb, that we keep on missing and I need to get with him because I would love for him to be able to come and share his story and his message about working with young athletes and the overdose. I mean, there's just so much that he has to bring in the energy. And I think it's awesome that he's friends with my parents. So that makes it even better to get some of those old stories. ⁓

And honestly, I do think that that's a great idea to bring some of the guests back on and check to see what's going on. ⁓ We grown tremendously. ⁓ so being able to hear those success stories and what they're doing, I think that would be awesome to be able to share. I think we have talked about it multiple times, and ever since we started, we need Leon on here.

Ashley (19:56)
A lot of them had a lot of changes.

I'm

just gonna say that's my like number one is I need to Leon on here.

Steven L. Burch (20:17)
Do you think that we should do like a Leon and Lisa? Like the couples, like I think we're gonna have to do one Leon, one Lisa.

Ashley (20:24)
One Leon for sure,

because Leon is his own amazing self. But Leon and Lisa would be fun.

Steven L. Burch (20:27)
And then

one Lisa and then together. Cause I think it'd be really fun to listen to their story as a married couple and working together and their personalities. They're amazing people.

Ashley (20:40)
Well, and also just

think like, you know, someone that, you know, grew a huge team and then basically started over again. Like I think that those are tall tale signs that like the work can be done and you can, know, but also just the commercial side and like the things that he works on, you know, obviously at a much larger area than what we're, you and I are in. having like some of his commercial stories, like blow my mind, the kind of money and the kind of turnaround. And it's just really interesting. ⁓

to hear, but he's also just a tell it like it is. Let's wrap this up. Let's get moving. But genuine heart of gold too.

Steven L. Burch (21:19)
I am lovely on. ⁓ I don't know, who else? I mean, there's time.

Ashley (21:23)
Stephanie, I think would be good. Stephanie Jones.

Also, I know she's a great listener. She's listening, but her, you know, 30 some years of advocacy for realtors as well. But same thing, like well into another franchise and making the jump to another one and what that has mean for her personally. know, putting herself, Neva has been great. I think it'd be great to have Neva back on too, because she was one of our very first guests almost two years ago. And what, you know,

Rise and Thrive is meant to her and her growing business. think all those types of things would be fun to almost like recheck back.

Steven L. Burch (22:00)
for it all and I think that too like one thing that really kind of stuck out like when I asked what's next you know like we the fun part of business and these types of projects and whatnot is you don't always know you don't have a crystal ball of truly what is next I think it's truly seeing what has worked well for you and what ⁓ you know different areas you can improve on or you need to adjust a little bit and so on and so forth

Ashley (22:15)
No.

Steven L. Burch (22:27)
But that goes right back into business and that goes on to when you're working on systems and processes and these different things, like you don't have to have the end result a hundred percent right now, but it's knowing to start, learn from it, pivot, adjust, grow from it, right? Like it's a constant building block. ⁓ and then the analogy that's used, ⁓ this last week was

Ashley (22:39)
to start.

Steven L. Burch (22:55)
Like it's building Legos, right? Like what you're doing is you do not know necessarily like where all the pieces go right away, but it's slowly and surely going to stacking one on top of the other and making sure it fits. And you know, if you need to move it around, whatever the case may be, but you are continuously working on that project and building and adding Legos to it. Like I think that was a great way to explain. don't have to have the end result now. Go with it. Enjoying it, have fun and.

Ashley (23:20)
Mm-mm. Have a great summer.

Steven L. Burch (23:24)
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I love it. I'm enjoying it. 100. Who would have thought? Thank you, sir. We appreciate you. And who would have thought I would have had so much issues with internet?

Ashley (23:29)
Special shout out to Brendan for all the behind the scenes work.

Yeah, you need to get, you need to find someone that can fix that.

Steven L. Burch (23:45)
Kim, I'm letting you know, please find us new internet at the office. You know, we'll put it on your. Oh boy, that's going to, so yeah. Thanks to tons of people. We have tons of people around all of it, like that we can bring on and bring tons of personality and talk about pretty much anything. So, if you want to be a guest on our podcast or have ideas, suggestions, topics, et cetera, reach out to us. We would love to hear from you and thank you for your continued support.

Ashley (23:49)
We should have Tim on sometime.

Steven L. Burch (24:15)
Tune in for 101.