LeadingLane Podcast

Ashley Fredrick (00:02)
Then Navan wants to move.

Zack, wat schist.

Calm down.

Steven L Burch (00:09)
Not go to the extreme.

Ashley Fredrick (00:12)
Yeah, I was like, maybe it's getting marked because he's buying the farmer, which whatever. And I was like, but I mean, like farmland normally sells for like 4,500 to 5,500 an acre. And I was like, we're talking about one twenty-second of an acre. So it's not even worth like five hundred dollars. It's like I pay him five grand to have that fucking corner just so that we have like a square. The reason that it got cut off, like when so like our house was a part of the original 80.

And then whatever they must have cut ours off for whoever they had lived there. Well, there was a I don't know, like a well house on that that corner. So like there's still the concrete and everything. So that's why it was cut like that was to keep that well house with the old property. Obviously, it's all been torn down or whatever. So it's like it just doesn't make sense. Like they're it's part of their driveway. And I'm like, I don't know. Like, why don't I'm not I guess I'm surprised that they didn't call or like friendly to be first, but

Like, should I pay them ten thousand dollars? I mean, like, they're never gonna make that crop in like twenty years off of a fucking point zero two acre. So I was like, Why don't you just have a meet and like he come in the house and like see why I don't really want corn to be like in the middle of my backyard. Granted, we knew that when we bought it, but

Steven L Burch (01:10)
Right.

Right.

Ashley Fredrick (01:29)
I it's just frustrating.

Steven L Burch (01:32)
Mm-hmm. Dad, that would be extremely freshing. Let me see what Brandon means. Please hold.

⁓ Come on back around here, guy. There we go.

No, that would be wildly frustrating.

Ashley Fredrick (02:13)
Want me to send you the picture?

Steven L Burch (02:15)
Yeah. ⁓

You should literally I mean your bathroom window. Don't you have a window in your bathroom back there?

Ashley Fredrick (02:27)
No, it's on the other side. Like it'd be it's right out of the living room.

Steven L Burch (02:32)
⁓

Ashley Fredrick (02:37)
So then Ben was like

garage on the other side. I'm like, Okay, we're not that wouldn't have worked either, but

Can you see the stick right by the fire?

Steven L Burch (02:52)
Got it. Yeah.

Ashley Fredrick (02:57)
And then the other one in the corner. So like they would take that whole corner.

Steven L Burch (03:11)
I was thinking that you were talking directly from the back.

Ashley Fredrick (03:16)
Yeah, I mean, so that's right behind the hot tub.

Steven L Burch (03:26)
You win more lies with honey, right?

Ashley Fredrick (03:32)
I just

I think that's the frustrating part as well. Like we've planted that. We I mean and I killed them like you gotta tell them like we clean that corner out because there's fucking musk rats, beavers, like all that shit just in that one corner. So no, I'm not gonna have them coming in my fucking backyard.

Steven L Burch (03:48)
Yeah.

Ashley Fredrick (03:53)
We'll see.

What do you do?

Steven L Burch (03:59)
Always always something, isn't it?

Ashley Fredrick (04:02)
Yeah, I told them that we needed to fucking sage the house this weekend. I was like, I'm done. We bought the sage a while ago. We should sage the house. Yeah. It's just been a long, long week.

Steven L Burch (04:09)
Buy to that. Yep.

Ashley Fredrick (04:17)
For sure.

Steven L Burch (04:25)
⁓

Any topics coming to mind?

Ashley Fredrick (04:41)
Yeah, I mean, like we had a situation this week that would be too too ⁓ close to home, but

Steven L Burch (04:45)
Too fresh.

Ashley Fredrick (04:48)
Yeah. But you know what I told you those sellers didn't get out of their house or whatever? So I put in blink and I asked if anybody could help and so Tevin and Haley went and then

There's that working women's Wednesday on Wednesday and whatever I ended up not going and I guess Haley like complained about it the whole time. At the table, like in front of, you know, strangers about how gross the house was and there was mold in the refrigerator and like how dare people live like that.

So I said something of what's up?

Steven L Burch (05:25)
Did the name.

Did anybody stop her?

Ashley Fredrick (05:30)
⁓ no, so that's half the problem. They told me about it afterwards. So then I said something to J I said something to Charles. And he's like, Well, I'll just use it as a training topic. And then I was like, I mean, you can do whatever, but I was like, one, someone should have stopped her, two, she should have been professional enough to realize like, Do you want to talk about that here? Like whatever, but not in front of like so who's to say that they didn't hear, like, like next time Hub City is talking about this condition of the seller's house, like whatever.

So anyway, Charles talked to Haley and to Stephanie. I had to have been like like whatever. I talked to Charles, Charles talked to Haley and Tevin, and then Haley said something to Stephanie, and then Stephanie ran over here and told me how inappropriate it was that I didn't talk to her first. And was like, she's an agent of the office, so

Obviously, you haven't had enough discussions with her that she doesn't understand that that's not kosher. So she was pissed at me and I was like, You can add me all you want. I don't really care. And I was like, It's a it's a learning opportunity. It wasn't just Haley. It was Haley and Tevin there together. And Tevin's also an agent. And then she's like, Well, it's the girls' fault. They're the ones that asked her how it went. And I was like, and she could have said, We'll talk about it later.

I'm just like I'm so beyond I'm so beyond this week. It's not even funny anymore.

Steven L Burch (06:59)
Like take ownership.

Ashley Fredrick (07:02)
I well I don't I don't I didn't tell you 'cause I didn't feel good, but I went to urgent care for like seven hours on Wednesday. Because it's like my huh? I like haven't been able to function like at all. So yeah, I went there like at seven because I thought I was gonna die. And then I didn't get it home until one. And then

Steven L Burch (07:09)
I knew something was wrong. I knew something was up.

Ashley Fredrick (07:27)
Like that's what people don't under and then I then I started crying because then I w knew that how much work I had to do yesterday. And then I thought if I was gonna be sick and I wasn't able to get the work done. It's just been a lot. But every time I come back here, like I just can't

keep up with all the other stuff. Like, I don't know if that's what's causing me to have migraines every day, but I told Ben I'm like, I can't, like I can't think straight. Like I can't even like finish sentences because my head hurts so bad. I could go to a meeting and then I had like I skipped like four events this week. I don't ever skip anything. Like I I was stressed for volleyball and I was like on my way out the door and I was like,

I literally can't I can't do it. So then instead of going to volleyball, I went to urgent care. And then I suppose to go to working with Men's Wednesday and I didn't because we met Delora. yeah, I have to talk to about that. And then yesterday was the downtown trick retreating and I got here and my head started pounding again. And then Stephanie's like, You're not even dressed for trick retreating. And I was like, I literally have half the outfit on, but I'm leaving to go home because I don't feel good.

And then I was just like, I can't like I have two listings that we need to go live today. And I have to deal with all of that. I told Ben that I'm like, when you're gone, I think I might I might go to Canoe Bay by myself.

Steven L Burch (08:53)
Not a bad idea.

Ashley Fredrick (08:59)
yeah. And then yesterday Ben was having an absolute meltdown. So I was like, okay.

That's why I said this morning, I'm like, we need to sage because apparently nothing's going quite right. ⁓ so on the you can tell me your thought process on this, on the estate planning, I think that that's also why he does not do well. Like, yeah, this estate planning is like putting him over the edge.

I was like, dude, it it's not like we're saying we're gonna die, but wouldn't you rather have money go where we want it to go instead of it not? I was like, we have like how many properties? Like that would be an absolute disaster for someone. Plus, currently it would go to our parents, which would be an even worse disaster than whatever. ⁓ so I don't know. I mean, yeah, this week he's like, I'm tired of talking about death. And I was like,

Steven L Burch (09:42)
Right.

Ashley Fredrick (09:59)
You need to leave next week and you need to do your thing. So we were like talking about like like whatever, like we're setting aside like dollar amounts to go to certain people. And so one of the thoughts I had was like I was gonna give like Jessica and Brian like fifty thousand dollars, set dollar, whatever.

Ben brought up the point of like what would happen to the office, which that's a good question. ⁓ and so I talked to Jessica yesterday and I just said like pretend Ben and I die in a car accident over Christmas. What would you do? And she's like, What do you mean? And I was like, Well, like, would you stay working here? Like, would you look for another job? Like, what would you want to do? And then she's like, Well, what are you insinuating? And I was like, I mean, like, you could be the broker. I mean, you don't have to be a

A practicing agent, you could just run the office because you'd have your broker's license and you know you could get a wage of $75,000 or something like that. I think she's open to it. And so the thought process that I said is that I would probably allocate her something else, like to bridge the gap of. And then I said, or you know, you could then potentially whatever Stephanie would allow, buy some part of my ownership so that if you're

not producing by your broker, you could have some of the owner's equity, whatever. So then she said, well, where does Steven come into play? And I was like, well, I guess I did not think about Steven wanting to run a brokerage in Wisconsin. And I was like, but what I probably could do is like write in like a stipulation that there would be wages for like Steven for like 90 days or whatever to come and help facilitate a change or whatnot.

Steven L Burch (11:47)
Yeah.

Ashley Fredrick (11:51)
So I don't know if you're open to me putting that in.

Steven L Burch (11:53)
Yeah, whatever you want.

Ashley Fredrick (11:56)
Well, I'm not gonna just expect you to drop what you're doing either.

Steven L Burch (12:00)
Yeah, but I mean, I feel that if that happened here, you would do it do it naturally anyway. Like I don't think it's necessarily a like no, I mean, of course, whatever you you guys need and want to put down I'm I'm here to to help. Hopefully that does not happen 'cause we're gonna have to put some time in there too for me to get through my shit if that does happen. So just make sure you put that little clause in there for Jessica to know like

Ashley Fredrick (12:05)
I wouldn't.

I

It I mean, it is it is very strange. Like they're very strange conversations to have. I mean like

Steven L Burch (12:36)
Mm. But it's very real. ⁓

Ashley Fredrick (12:37)
For sure. I mean, like think of all the people that like haven't had that and like look at I mean then look how many real estate transactions I've dealt with that they did not I can guarantee you that money did not go where it was ever intended to go. So

Steven L Burch (12:52)
Right. Well and I think the other not only just your own personal assets and everything else, like the whole brokerage is at a stop. Because like there's not an active broker at that point. So I think you have to have those plans in play of who is next in lightning.

Ashley Fredrick (13:04)
Literally.

Well, that's why like I mean we we gave her the whatever the January first date or whatever. And yeah, I mean obviously I hope that doesn't happen for like fifty years, but you just never know. But I think that yeah, I don't know why I bothered Ben so much because then we talked about like what would happen to the houses or whatever and interesting though, 'cause then like later he must have thought about it more. And he's like, I don't think we should leave the house to like we had like an order of like Keegan, Cayley, Chris.

Steven L Burch (13:23)
Sure.

Ashley Fredrick (13:43)
Eric and then his cousin. And then he's like, We should probably move my cousin up. I'm like, You mean since your cousin's the only one that doesn't actually have a house? That would probably make the most sense. And they have three children.

So but also then it like forced me to reach back out to the foundation. 'Cause I was like, I don't want it all to go to people, like I want it to go to charities too. And like right now there's no streamline for that. was like, I need that completed in like two weeks. So

And hopefully don't happen for a very long time, but it is a lot to just process.

Steven L Burch (14:15)
⁓ yeah.

I think also too it's those are true assets. right. Like I mean this is all a very true reality to where the go go go mentality, right, that we have of just like let's add another rental, let's do this. What is it? That's that that's a shit ton of stuff that's happening. And I think it's to slow down a bit and recognize what you have in our building truly.

Ashley Fredrick (14:48)
Yeah. That's the other thing is like I needed to talk to our financial advisor because you know, like I feel like trying to like pick dollar amounts to give to people is strange because I was like, I don't like how much money do I have to give? Like, do I have five million to give? Do I have ten million to give? Like I won't know until some of these properties are sold or not sold. Like so I think I really just like picked some dollar amounts, but then I was like the rest I guess is just a percentage of what's left.

Steven L Burch (15:02)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I mean it depends on if you want everything liquidated and then then sold out or

Ashley Fredrick (15:22)
Right. Yeah. I mean we we went through that. But I mean then it yeah, it's like a change to of then then I said like, well what happens if we buy a property in Arizona and then so it would have to be bought in the trust's name now. So it'll just make things interesting that way.

Steven L Burch (15:38)
It's no different than buying it in the L C name.

Ashley Fredrick (15:42)
Yeah, I mean just like a different like you know, that like now I gotta like tell like ten other people that I bought another property instead of just like the normal channels. So it's strange, but

Steven L Burch (15:54)
Mind means you have to tell ⁓ Who?

Ashley Fredrick (15:57)
'cause I think I have to tell the lawyer's office 'cause then they would update their records, I think, is the way they made they made it sound.

I mean, I guess if it's named in the trust, it's named in the trust and as long as somebody knows that there's a property somewhere.

Steven L Burch (16:14)
I feel like you Yeah, I think you have like an assets list that you continue to evolve. Yeah. ⁓ almost like an addendum type of thing. And I don't think you have to go through them because it's filed it's now public record and then the name. I mean I think for your record keeping and everything for sure.

Ashley Fredrick (16:20)
Right. And

Well, because one this one I had last year, it got really messy. Like everything was in a trust. But like you know how our county lines are, like right next to each other. Well, whoever was in charge of the trust just did Wood County and found all their properties in Wood County. And then somehow there's like three pieces of land across the street in Marathon County, and like no one found them like for 90 days because they didn't know they had land in Marathon County.

Super strange. So anyway. Yeah, it's been

Steven L Burch (17:05)
Yeah.

my my grandma had a in her office when she had an office here, basically her trust and every time that there was something that she purchased or whatever else, like she just put it in there and then that was I mean, she always said, like, if I die, this is the doc or this is the folder that you pull and this will have everything that you'll need and no, she didn't go through her attorney for every single little thing.

Ashley Fredrick (17:34)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think I that's what I told Ben I was like I wanted it I want a different safe. Like the one we have now is almost like a gun safe. I was like, I want like document safe. Like 'cause all the stuff right now is just like piled up in the safe. I was like, I want it to be like this way.

Steven L Burch (17:44)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, throwing everything in there. We have one in our front office.

But I look at safes totally differently now. I'm like, what's in there? How much money's in there? What's going on? What do you got?

Ashley Fredrick (18:10)
It is yeah, it's strange. I don't know, what do you want to talk about?

Steven L Burch (18:13)
Mm.

Where is that?

Ashley Fredrick (18:17)
Talk about your pumpkin ⁓ that went well. You didn't participate?

Steven L Burch (18:21)
yeah. Yeah. Well, because Brian is not the best at like giving the instructions and telling everybody. Like he basically said, Go to the truck, grab a pumpkin, we're gonna carve it. And everybody's like, Do we have knives? Do we have this? Like he didn't have everything together. So I orchestrated that part because he was too excited about carving his own pumpkin. Which was good. Yeah, he did. He did a very good job. I think we have like eight nine

Ashley Fredrick (18:44)
mm-hmm. You did a nice job.

Steven L Burch (18:50)
eighteen, nineteen thousand views on that.

Ashley Fredrick (18:53)
Awesome.

Steven L Burch (18:55)
I was like, this is so I mean it we overcomplicate everything.

Ashley Fredrick (19:00)
do you know how many I d I should look to see how many views are up on the fucking deer.

Steven L Burch (19:05)
I bet a l a lot.

Think I think that's a good topic of like going I mean yeah, overcomplicating in like social media and even but like which one?

Ashley Fredrick (19:13)
Overcomplicating things.

⁓ I gotta tell you about the admin.

⁓ so I told you I think w we I told you we had an interview last week.

Steven L Burch (19:31)
Maybe I knew that.

Ashley Fredrick (19:33)
Yeah, she like worked at the hotel. She worked at a jewelry store before that or whatever.

Steven L Burch (19:39)
Not ringing a bell, but okay. ⁓ yep, mm-hmm. Another Jessica, that's what I said.

Ashley Fredrick (19:40)
Her name is Jessica.

So I interviewed her. And I don't know why, but I think she reminds me. I don't know if you ever met Ash the Holzheimer. I think that was before your time, but she reminds me of her, which that's probably not the best. But ⁓ so she was like okay. Like, I mean, whatever. Like maybe I'm being too harsh. So I had her come back in for a second interview with.

Stephanie Charles. And that like went

Okay. It was really strange because when shoots her last week, she said she was like going to school for hospitality, but she decided she didn't like hospitality, so she quit. And then during the second interview, she said that now she's going to school for HR. So I was like, Okay, well, that's new from last week. So it's strange. And then her question was like, So can you tell me more about like how or why you think that AI you should be using AI? And so I gave her like

Some examples. I was like, for example, like our trust account was off by however many, like I spent five days on it, someone else spent five days on it. I had Jessica scan all of them in like 30 minutes. They found the error that had taken us like 10 days to not find. So I was like, that's just, I'm not having it replace people. I think that like the last three people we've interviewed, like, if you say AI, they're like, nope, I can't do it. and there was something else she said. that.

Steven L Burch (21:07)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Fredrick (21:12)
Ultimately she wants to be a realtor and I like, Mm, I'm not training someone to like be a front desk and then be a realtor.

Steven L Burch (21:19)
Right.

Ashley Fredrick (21:21)
So anyway, it was like, okay, well, Kathney was like, I love her. Like every time that sh I'd go to the jewelry store, she knew my name. I was like, my god, whatever. She's like, I think we should hire her. And I was like, I'm just gonna sit on it. Like I just something doesn't feel right to me. So this working women's Wednesday that they had was at Hotel Marshfield, which is where she is working, which is where Celeste used to work.

So nobody knows that Marissa's not coming back. Gotta worry about that at a different fucking time. So then Celeste said to Jessica that this our Jessica, that this Jessica girl quit her job at the hotel and told them that she was coming to work for next home.

Who does that?

Steven L Burch (22:20)
Before the horse.

Ashley Fredrick (22:21)
I was like, ⁓ nope. So I was like, that's also like a no. Like, and then I guess she like just quit. Like she didn't give a notice. And I was like, also, no. Like Sorry, I had Stephanie come in here yesterday and I was like, Yeah, so Jessica's like, I know, wouldn't be great? And I was like, nope, but I was like, you know, the fact that she quit her job and told people that she was working here. She's like, What? And I was like, like that.

Steven L Burch (22:25)
Yeah.

Okay.

Ashley Fredrick (22:50)
We can't do that either. I was like, that's just not kosher. So anyway, that's off the table.

Steven L Burch (22:52)
Mm-hmm.

Well, maybe Stephanie can hire for the boutique.

Ashley Fredrick (23:03)
my god, I need to tell Jessica. where's my thing?

Yeah.

Okay. Yes. ⁓ you remember Cheryl, the title company, Cheryl? When she retired.

And they didn't like each other.

Steven L Burch (23:31)
Stephanie and Cheryl. Okay.

Ashley Fredrick (23:32)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ so Stephanie came in here yesterday and told me that ⁓ she didn't know but that sh ⁓ Cheryl is related to showing and Cheryl works at the boutique one day a week.

Steven L Burch (23:52)
Is that on Wednesdays?

Ashley Fredrick (23:56)
Okay.

Steven L Burch (23:56)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Fredrick (23:59)
I was like, ⁓ I mean, like I don't think that Stephanie quite knows how Cheryl feels about her, but was like, this shit is gonna be like a fucking daytime drama series.

I mean

Steven L Burch (24:13)
But the the great the great thing is it's not in under your roof.

Ashley Fredrick (24:17)
Correct. But like she's like, they got another thing coming. I'm going in there next week and I'm cleaning house and I'm changing everything. And I was like

Hey. I just it's gonna all I all I hope is that it takes time away from here and then it makes a better case for me.

Steven L Burch (24:41)
They will.

Ashley Fredrick (24:44)
Well, and then so when she came in here and she bitched about Haley yesterday, I was like, I think I think you have more important things you need to be worrying about with Haley. I was like, She appears to have a confidentiality issue and now you have her sitting in meetings listening to you and Shelly. So who else knows? What's going on with that? And I was like, also like it appears like you guys missed a radon inspection last week. And she's like, Well, that's because the girls didn't put it in the calendar. And I was like, I'm not taking that as an excuse anymore because you have an admin that should be checking things.

Separate than the girls. So what is Haley's system to put dates and deadlines in the calendar? Well, she doesn't have one. And I was like, that's probably why it got missed then. I was like, What what could be her system? And she's like, Well, I'll just put them in. And I was like, Stephanie, then why are you paying someone to work for you if they can't do it? And I was like, She's been here for two and a half years.

Steven L Burch (25:25)
And

Right. Right. Okay.

She should know. She should be on top of it.

Ashley Fredrick (25:41)
I was like, I'm tired of it going back to being blamed on the girls. They're not the they're working on a hundred other transactions. Like you you should be the like catch all. So like you backdate and then you're like, wait, they're they're missing it or they think you're missing it and you guys check cross check each other.

Steven L Burch (25:44)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Just doesn't see it that way, huh?

Ashley Fredrick (26:08)
No. Also, we need to go somewhere for Christmas, so we need to get on that. Because I'm not staying here.

Steven L Burch (26:13)
Yes.

Yeah. Same.

Ashley Fredrick (26:21)
All right, should we talk about Halloween pumpkins?

It was nice to Ryan give me a little shout out and even know that he did it.

Steven L Burch (26:31)
Mm. Yeah, I'm I think he's starting to see that it's that simple.

Ashley Fredrick (26:37)
Good.

Steven L Burch (26:39)
So do you want me to start?

Sure. All right. Welcome to the Leading Lane podcast. today we're going to talk about this fun little activity that we stole or got the idea from Miss Ashley Frederick here. in our office, what we did is we did a pumpkin carving contest with our entire office. ⁓ all the agents, the staff and everybody ⁓ got together. We just did a we did it as a surprise. We didn't let them know. ⁓ they came in.

And we said, here's pumpkins, here's some carving kits, here's some templates, go wild. And it was actually a lot of fun. And I don't know the last time I actually carved a pumpkin, and I guess I should say I didn't carve any pumpkins. I was the one that was cleaning everything up. I was just watching and facilitating everything. But it was so fun to see all these adults that you know, when was last time that they actually carved a pumpkin by themselves without kiddos or distractions or whatever else? ⁓

And there were some that were a little resistant, which was fine, but ultimately every single person still participated in one way or another. ⁓ but Ashley, we stole that from you. That this is something that I think that you have done for a few years now. you do these types of things, these activities and whatnot in your office quite often. Why?

Ashley Fredrick (27:57)
Mm-hmm.

I think it goes back to culture. ⁓ I also think like real estate is such an interesting thing because we're each our own boss, like right, we're 1099, whatnot. But yet ultimately like we're all under one roof, like we're all under one company, we're all end up working with that with each other in transactions. So, you know, I think it kind of relates back to one of my first jobs.

Steven L Burch (28:16)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Fredrick (28:34)
was at a insurance company and they did this stuff all of the time and I think it just always helped people feel more like a quote unquote family or whatnot. So I felt like we did not do that stuff at my old brokerage. Like there was no I guess it in a in a sense I guess team building, I think in a roundabout way. ⁓ there was none of that. And so I just when I created this brokerage wanted ways to have people like look forward to coming to work.

feel like it's not just ⁓ you know, you're out for the wolves by yourself in this world because I do think that there's a lot of real estate companies or agents that feel that way. ⁓ you just started like, I don't know, doing things that I thought that like you would do if maybe you worked at a quote unquote like corporate office or something where people have activities. And so I think it's interesting because you learn a lot about people when you do like these types of activities, like

for pumpkins, like who cuts the pumpkin from the top, who cuts the pumpkin from the bottom. you know, like Charles almost threw up when he was like taking the guts out. Like then there's other people that have like, I've never ate a pumpkin seed. And then we're talking about recipes of, you know, how you can, you know, put them in the oven with sea salt and olive oil. And then Connie wanted to take all the guts home to feed her goats. I mean like it's just

Steven L Burch (29:36)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Ashley Fredrick (30:01)
All sorts of stuff, right? ⁓ but it's I think you also get to understand like people's competitiveness a little bit more or their creative side. ⁓ but really, I mean, it was like an hour out of the day where like, you know, I left my phone in my office. Remove like reality, like I think that there's a lot of stressful things that are going on in the world right now. Work-wise, things are strange. and I think just maybe being able to remove ourselves from that.

Steven L Burch (30:09)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Fredrick (30:30)
for a short amount of time and just laugh and whatnot together, I think is what's kind of missing. But yeah, I mean we do it for the pumpkins. you know, we do it for like we had a potluck the week before, just for Halloween. ⁓ so it's just kind of really opportunities to get to know each other better and then just yeah, put real estate aside for a short amount of time.

Steven L Burch (30:53)
Yeah. And I think it goes to show that, you know, we're in a a busy world, b busy industry, hustle, go, go, go. And sometimes as leaders I think we need to help bring everybody back down ⁓ and slow down a bit and understand like what what really actually matters and in perspective and ⁓ not trying to, you know, just shove a quota down somebody's throat to to make money. Like enjoy what you're doing and and I think that that's a huge thing in

People we we hear culture all the time. We talk about all these different things of what to do for culture. It's something this simple of carving pumpkins. Right. We already have it on our ⁓ in next or I guess in a couple of months, ⁓ the ⁓ gingerbread houses. We want to do gingerbread houses and put those together or or cooking. ⁓ you know, the really things that I don't do often at all anyway, right? But they're fun.

Ashley Fredrick (31:41)
⁓ Great idea.

Steven L Burch (31:51)
And I think it's kind of fun to go through Pinterest and start looking at different things of what else can we incorporate because it does bring people to the office that they're not expecting it. It does throw them off a bit. ⁓ and you know, I think laughter is really the the best cure to pretty much anything. ⁓ and when you get those ⁓ the laughs and the stories going, we even, you know, threw on music throughout the office and you've been to our office, it's we have the the huge ⁓

Ashley Fredrick (32:09)
Mm-hmm.

Steven L Burch (32:20)
War Room is what we call it. The title company next door came over and like, are you guys having a party? What's going on? ⁓ and so it's just a a really fun event. and you know what I think was really kind of wild ⁓ is we posted on social, you know, ⁓ a contest essentially of you know, who who's the best ⁓ pumpkin? Which one do you like the most? We have almost like eighteen, nineteen thousand views in a matter of a couple days. Like, who would have thought it was something so

little I mean I say so little simple right but like that's all it takes like that is what social media is about is being social it's about the people it's about showcasing those individuals and I think that was a real ⁓ eye opener for me you know getting back into that side of things on the broker side of things ⁓ that it doesn't I don't have to overcomplicate what social media is I don't have to overcomplicate what a a sales meeting is gonna be right I don't have to overcomplicate what culture is

Ashley Fredrick (32:50)
Simple.

Most engagement.

Steven L Burch (33:19)
Stop overcomplicating everything and just do the basics in that one thing that you're really good at and keep doing it.

Ashley Fredrick (33:27)
Well, I think it was interesting too, because I think that like Ryan made a comment about how like he wasn't gonna do it because he thought that the agents thought that it would be stupid and that nobody would partake or, you know, whatnot. So same thing, like you might think that, but maybe that's just what somebody needed. Like maybe they were having a bad week that week, or maybe, you know, they weren't just feeling it. And now maybe they're in the Christmas spirit and now maybe they'll go home and they weren't gonna plan to do it with their family, but now they are because they had so much fun doing it at the office. I think

Just thinking of how like those little things can start to roll off elsewhere.

Steven L Burch (34:00)
Right. Well and I think for Ryan, right, like he was he was so stoked at freaking carved pumpkins and I mean his was actually really freaking good. He was pretty proud of himself. But I think everybody saw him of how excited he was to be able to and to do it. And I mean that again, that's contagious, right? It's just like the laughter and that excitement really rolled through the room and everybody followed suit and ⁓ it was great. So

Ashley Fredrick (34:09)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Steven L Burch (34:25)
⁓ and you know, Ryan even posting that to the broker owner group on on social, sharing I wasn't gonna do it and ⁓ you know, those different vulnerability side of things. 'Cause I think he he realized himself too that overcomplicating things, right? It doesn't have to be anything ⁓ crazy like that. So ⁓ it's good to show those to other leaders as well that I, you know, was gonna I was hesitating to do this, but I actually stepped into the uncomfortable zone.

and step forward and it had a fantastic result. So trying to encourage others to step out of that their comfort zone as well and and try something different.

Ashley Fredrick (35:03)
Well, I don't think I think that a lot of times as leaders, like we try to we try to overcomplicate things or try to plan out exactly like how it needs to start, how it needs to look in the middle, how it needs to end. And a lot of times I think it's just like starting in and whatever way it goes is whatever way it goes. ⁓ but as long as you're actually doing something, I think that that's the biggest piece is doing something.

Steven L Burch (35:24)
Right. Absolutely. So on the lines of of social and overcomplicating things, ⁓ you had an event this last week ⁓ at your office that you shared on social. Tell us about that.

Ashley Fredrick (35:33)
Yeah.

Yeah, so I got this text message from our office manager in the morning and our like back glass door had red all over it and it had like red all over the concrete. And then so she's like, I got here this morning and I have no idea what this is. And I was like, I mean, it looks like blood, but I don't know where that would be coming from. And then she said, I think it's paint. And I was like, why would we have paint like on the back of the back or whatever?

And then so we actually have security cameras and it is the rut here in Wisconsin this week. So the deer are bucks are all over the place. And no lie, in the middle of downtown Marshfield, there are no woods, nothing, all concrete buildings. There was a buck that came into our parking lot. And when you listen to it, which the first time I watched the video, I did not listen to the video. When you listen to it, you can hear him fighting himself in the glass ⁓ window.

So ⁓ yes, it was blood. ⁓ from him fighting himself ⁓ in the reflection. And so sure enough, like I said to Jessica, I think that we should do like a Facebook post about, you know, our visitor and what he was looking for, whether it was love or a new home or whatnot. and yeah, I'm trying to pull up like how many views it's had, but it went ⁓ yeah. It

People like absolutely loved the post and made all these other comments, like looking for his love or yeah, looking for his next best. It was just again, like nothing to do with real estate really, but the engagement that it created, right? I mean, yeah, it's like 197 reactions, like 1600 clicks. Yeah, it's just wild.

Steven L Burch (37:16)
Right.

Well I think

And and that's a matter of, you know, a short amount of time, right? That's not been up for very long time. I think that what it is too is ⁓ the yeah, in in what couple days. ⁓ as people are scrolling through on Facebook, you know, they they're seeing the doom and gloom, they're seeing the the crazy things and like I think really what it is the social these posts are interrupting that. And so people are way more engaged into it because it's something

Ashley Fredrick (37:31)
Mm-hmm. No. Okay. Nine thousand views, yeah.

Yeah.

Steven L Burch (37:58)
positive it's something different it's not the yeah it's not scary like it's something that they can laugh about and and move on so I think it's almost being more human showing the things you know behind the scenes of what real estate is really about this isn't HGTV this isn't just go stab a you know a sign and make 10 grand real quick if you show the vulnerable the human side the human aspect of things and stop overcomplicating it

Ashley Fredrick (37:58)
Different. Funny.

Steven L Burch (38:27)
I mean you're gonna go creep

Ashley Fredrick (38:28)
Or things we wouldn't expect to see. I actually had people that were like, Are you sure you didn't AI that? And I was like, I'm positive that is not AI.

Steven L Burch (38:31)
There's a lot. I mean

And I mean, look at the engagement. I mean, asking those questions, right? They're people are questioning everything. And I think the more that you show the human side of things and those ⁓ those wild moments in life and in real estate, you're gonna attract more people to you. Which I mean, not that this is all about attracting people, but that's at the end of the day what we are doing.

Ashley Fredrick (38:41)
Right. Yeah.

I mean, I think it was even like a couple months ago, like it was randomly that I I was I swapped shoes like 'cause I was gonna go to this rural property. And so like I made a post about like everything I did before I went to this rural property, which like included checking for war and and making sure I had enough gas in my vehicle and then making sure that I swapped shoes in case I needed to run. I wouldn't have my ha heels on and like

I wasn't expecting that much engagement, but like the comments were like, my God, I would never thought about this, or like, Why aren't you packing? or like all these other stuff. Like, I'm just sharing a moment out of real estate that people don't think about. But that is a part of what we do is we have to be like always thinking like what could happen.

Steven L Burch (39:28)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yep. No, I I think these types of ⁓ events are fantastic. It's the the team building, ⁓ it's the vulnerability, it's being different, it's being authentic, right? It's not trying to showcase ⁓ all the just wonderful things in real estate, it's the human side of things too. So good. So if you were to tell a leader out there one thing to do, like in this culture or

⁓ these type of activities that never have stepped into it before, what would you tell them to do?

Ashley Fredrick (40:13)
I mean, I I think it's kind of funny, but it's almost like you think about the activities that you did in like elementary school. Right. I mean, like we carved pumpkins, we decorated gingerbread houses, we made like made a you know, may flower baskets. Like what's a simple like craft thing that you did when you were kids that like would be fun to do as adults? And I mean, I think you've even done like, you know, peanut butter and jelly, like as a different type of training session. Like there's just

Steven L Burch (40:19)
Mm. True. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ashley Fredrick (40:41)
You can Google it, you can chat it. I mean, like just find something that is like so simple that would make everyone maybe just, you know, become a kid again at heart and opened up what kind of fun and laughter you might have. And I think last year when we did it, like we learned that Jenny had never carved a pumpkin in her whole entire life. ⁓ you know, so it's just I think it's just so funny to like see how other people do things and let all the agents get to know like a different side of their coworkers.

Steven L Burch (41:08)
I love it. I love it. Well, thanks for tuning into the Lead Me Lane podcast and make sure you tune into the next one. We appreciate you guys.