$2B Real Estate Success: Insights & Advice from Mike McCann, Keller Williams

Discover the inspiring journey of Mike McCann, known as Philadelphia's "real estate man," as he rose from selling vacuums to achieving billions of dollars in real estate sales, earning numerous accolades, and leading a team of 300+ agents on this episode of “Follow Our Lead with Alaina Kearney.” 

With 36 years of experience as a licensed real estate agent, Mike is now the associate broker and partner of KW Philly and the owner and operating principal at Keller Williams Main Line. He founded the highly successful The Mike McCann Team, McCann Commercial, and Unlocked powered by McCann. 

Mike's leadership style revolves around compassion, as he strives to understand people's circumstances and find solutions to help them. He is team-centric and seeks to ensure he “hires for life.” His team is well-acquainted with his famous "McCann-isms," such as "gratitude is an attitude" and "if you believe it, you can achieve it." In this podcast episode, Mike delves into various topics and stories, including his most significant deal and the pivotal role of social media in showcasing his brand and values. 

This episode is presented by Barsz Gowie Amon & Fultz (BGA&F), a certified public accounting firm with offices in Delaware County and Chester County, Pennsylvania. Their strong presence in the real estate sector is evident through their valued client and friend, Mike McCann. Visit their website at  https://barszgowie.com/ to explore how they can partner with you in your financial growth and success.

Become of "raging fan" of Mike McCann by clicking the links below to learn more about his services.

KW Philly: https://www.phillykw.com/
The Mike McCann Team: https://www.mccannteam.com/
Unlocked powered by McCann: https://www.unlockedteam.com/
McCann Commercial: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mccann-commercial-real-estate/
Keller Williams Main Line: https://welovephillyhomes.kw.com/

Gary Keller and Jay Papasan's book, The One Thing: https://tinyurl.com/mry523suAs

Watch the episode live on YouTube!

Transcript

This transcript was autogenerated.

Alaina Kearney (00:06):

I want to welcome Mike McCann, “The Real Estate Man” to the podcast this morning. Mike has been a licensed real estate agent for 36 years. He is the associate broker and partner of KW Philly where he started the McCann Team, which services the Main Line, Philadelphia, and South Jersey. He and his team have sold over $2 billion in real estate and received over 500 five-star reviews. He is also the owner and operating principal at Keller Williams Main Line, where he oversees the Main Line McCann Team, McCann Commercial, and Unlock powered by McCann. Mike has consistently been ranked number one in the Philadelphia area since 1988 and has been referred to by his staff as the Michael Jordan of real estate. Thanks for being here, Mike.

Mike McCann (01:01):

Oh, my pleasure. It's an honor. Thank you so much.

Alaina Kearney (01:03):

So you've been an agent for 36 years. How did you get into real estate, and what made you stay in the industry for so long?

Mike McCann (01:13):

I got into real estate, interest rates were dropping down from 18% to 12%. So the market took off, and a couple of friends started to buy real estate. And I was in the hotel business. I was a banquet waiter, room service. I worked my head off at the Hilton Hotel. And my friends started to buy real estate. So he said, "Michael, take a course." I said, "I don't have money to buy real estate." They're like, "Yeah, just take the course." I took the course, and within two minutes, I'm like, "Oh my goodness. You can make a commission selling real estate?"

(01:47):

So in the major recession of a long, long time ago... My wife told me not to mention years because many of the people I speak to weren't even born when I was working. But '79 to '82, interest rates were 18%. I sold vacuums door to door, $644 vacuums. So I learned how to sell, and I did that for three and a half years, and kind of burned out at the time I was 22. From 19 to 22 I did that, opened my own business and I got cheated by a guy. So I just left that and went back to the hotel business. But then when real estate came up, I'm like, "Oh my god. I was the best door to door vacuum cleaner salesman. If I sell real estate..." So in about 60 seconds, I knew that was what I was going to do.

Alaina Kearney (02:32):

Wow. So what skills from your sales experience, either from vacuums or real estate, helped shape the way that you lead?

Mike McCann (02:45):

So early on I didn't lead, I just sold. Right? And selling... Couple things, is I got in real estate and I thought, "There's three things that I want to have." Everybody in real estate cooperates, meaning if I have a property to sell, most likely another realtor will sell it. Or if I want to sell you a property, I'll probably be dealing with another realtor who has the listing. So I thought, "Wow, if everybody cooperates, I want to have the best reputation, not just among clients, but in the industry." So I immediately joined the Board of Realtors. I immediately took education classes. I immediately networked with agents and cooperated. So the best reputation.

(03:31):

Secondly is among your clients. You have to do what's best for them first and foremost, no matter what. I got in, I had two kids, I had no money, $20,000 in credit card debt. But I didn't act like I had a commission. I did what was best for the client. So important, people can smell sales, or desperate people. Best reputation. Second thing is I decided I wanted to be the most educated in the business. In real estate, you can get a license in three months, but most people don't continue their education. So I just took classes, courses. So I not only helped my clients that became raging fans. I helped the agents within the industry. And people are like, "Well, why are you helping me? We're competition?" Because we are all independent contractors. But it didn't matter if they worked at the company I was at or any other company. I always helped agents through my knowledge, not in a knowing all way. In a like, "Hey, how about this idea?" Just in a compassionate way.

(04:39):

So the best reputation, become the most knowledgeable in your industry. And I used to say I knew I was going to work the hardest because I had determination to go above and beyond where I was in life. But now I say, "Work the hardest and the smartest." Because of technology, I have to work very smart. So those are the three things. Most knowledgeable, best reputation, and work the smartest and hardest.

Alaina Kearney (05:06):

I love that. I think for me, somebody who's always trying to better themselves, I like to think I try to do that a lot, but there's so much information out there. How do you weed through all of the information and figure out what is most important and what's going to get you to the next level?

Mike McCann (05:23):

That's a great one. So I always tell my agents... For my sales agents who I'm coaching and myself, I prioritize money making activities. You have a million phone calls or a million emails or a million taxes. You deal with the top priority, which is going to generate income to support your business. The other stuff can wait an hour or two or three or four. So money making activities.

(05:51):

Now, in this world of everybody's a coach, there's all types of education... It's funny, Gary Keller wrote a great book called The One Thing. And everybody's so proud that they're multitasking and they're doing this and doing that. Gary Keller wrote this great book, and it says, "You need to focus on one thing, master that, decide what that is that you need, focus on that, master that, then go on to something else." So many people in our industry, they go to these seminars, they go to these events, they listen, and then the next one, and the next one. But they don't implement anything. So you need to time block and focus on what you want to become an expert at. Reach out to the best people that are doing that. Ask for help. People love it. Successful people, anyway, love to help. And so focus, time block, determine those two or three things. So that's so important.

Alaina Kearney (06:55):

Okay, so if anybody sees on my calendar in the next couple weeks that I have focused time blocks, you can thank Mike McCann for that. So in 2019, you left the agency you had been with for decades and moved to Keller Williams. And I read that all but one person followed you. Now, as you mentioned before, real estate agents are independent contractors. So they had no obligation to follow you, but they did. And I think that that speaks to your leadership abilities. But why do you think they followed you?

Mike McCann (07:25):

So I do want to back up just a little bit just to... So when I first got in the business, I was with a no name brokerage. I didn't search the best company to go to. My friend's friend had a real estate company. There was no one there to train me. I didn't realize that they did property management. So I learned the business myself by classes, reading everything. You didn't have podcasts and all that stuff then. I took classes at Temple. And nobody would let me in houses. It was unbelievable the difficulties I had to get in because I was with a no name brokerage, no one knew me.

(08:02):

Then I just got determined, and by the third year in the business, I was the number one agent in the city. I sold 90 properties. So all of a sudden now I get this award at the Philadelphia Board of Realtors. All of a sudden, everybody wants me to come to their company. Everybody wants to be my friend. I'm like, "Wait, you wouldn't even let me show your house last year." Anyway, so I was with the company for six years, and people started to follow me.

(08:27):

And then I had to leave that company because he had problems, and I went to Prudential. And we walked in there, and at that point, I had hired my own assistant. And my assistant, nobody in real estate as an independent agent had a real estate assistant. But because I got my education outside of the marketplace, I was always much more advanced than everybody in the Philadelphia marketplace. So I had an assistant in '89, '90, I hired an assistant. And was so important for me because I was doing 90 transactions, working 14 hours a day, seven days a week. And back then, prices were much lower, brokerages took half the money. Now the cuts are different.

(09:13):

And a mentor of mine, Allan Domb, who was one of the number one agents in America at the time, taught me at Temple, said, "Mike, if you don't have an assistant, you are an assistant." And I said, "I can't afford one." He said, "Mike, if your value is $10 an hour and you can hire someone for $5 an hour to do the things that you don't want to do, you will do better." So I saved up. I said, "Honey..." to my wife, because I'm sales, my wife is details. She helps me, pays my bills, tracks my funds, everything. You guys know her. She's the best, right? Key to success in life, marry well. I will tell you that.

(09:58):

So I hired this assistant, and my wife came up with operations for her. That next year I netted... When I sold 90 transactions, I made about $45,000. Made $90,000, the broker got $45,000, I got $45,000. The next year with that assistant, I netted $40,000 after all my expenses. The best part about that was I was not doing the things that I didn't like to do or want to do. So the miscellaneous things that someone else could do, so I could focus more on money making activities, generating income, best tool. By '92, I hired a second assistant. But back then people are like, "You can't hire an assistant. You work for Steven Glass Real Estate." But I could and I did. So we go to Prudential in '92, and we come in there, myself, two assistants. We have our own computers. Nobody had their own computer. I bought a laptop in '89 for $4,500, right? Again, because I was more advanced because I went to California and Toronto and places that were more advanced than us, and for training.

(11:04):

And we went in there, they called me Mr. IBM. What are you talking about? They're like, "You have your own computers and your own assistants." So then I helped all those agents grow. I'm like, "You should get an assistant. You should get a computer. My system will help you." So I just gave back and gave back. And then I started to get this massive following. And then I got so busy that I started to hire buyer's agents. Meaning people come to me, "Mike, I want to buy a house." "Okay, I'm going to have Drew take you out. He's my buyer specialist." So I started to specialize just like other businesses do. No one else was doing that at the time.

(11:42):

And by '96 I said, "I don't want to be successful, and my wife divorce me and my kids not know me." Right? So in '96, I said, "I'm not working Saturdays." And then by '99, I'm not working Sundays. Now what real estate agent doesn't work Saturdays and Sundays. Right? But Saturdays was my kids' day. Monday through Thursday, I would be out from 8:30, 9:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night. That's the way that it was. But Friday at 6:00, 7:00, I was home, and I didn't go back to work until Monday. Now I still returned phone calls and stuff, but what I did was I focused on what's important to me. I have this growing family. I have a successful business. But I have 24/7 demands in real estate, so I hired people to cover that. And then in 2000, it went off. So I stayed with that company for 27 years. But what happened... And maybe I'm rambling. Shut me down if you need to.

Alaina Kearney (12:43):

No, this is great. 

Mike McCann (12:47):

What happened was, I have been the top agent in Philadelphia since 1988, since I sold those 90 deals. People have tried to catch me. And you know what that does? That makes me go to the next level. I've had people who I've trained, not working on my team, I've trained, I've given them everything, and they start to catch me. People are like..."Oh, he's going to get you." And I'm like, "Good luck." And then I go to the next level. So competition, healthy competition is great.

(13:11):

I was 27 years with Prudential, which then became Berkshire Hathaway. I was a top agent in the country for them out of 84,000 agents, every year for 17 years, on stage in front of 6,000 people, I'd get the top number one award. And I was by far higher than anybody else. But what happened to me was, when you're winning the championship every year, it was amazing in the beginning. I never thought little Mike McCann from Philly is going to be number one beating these California, New York agents consistently. But what I saw was in our industry people coming up and down and up and down. My growth was always slow and steady and continued.

(13:54):

So the key to that was as I brought people on, I hire for life. That's my role. I used to call it one and one equals three, meaning that person doesn't need me. I don't need them. But together we're going to not add up to two, we're going to add up to three.

(14:14):

Keller Williams has a terminology, win, win or go home. So I have people with me 25 years, 23 years, 22 years, 19 years. In the real estate industry, people come and go consistently all the time. No one has the longevity that I have. So you give more than you take. And what happened was, as my clients, as I trained, I brought like-minded people into my world. So I wanted people. I didn't need the smartest. I didn't need the best looking. I didn't need the strongest. What I needed was someone that said, "I want to be successful. I want to have a good life. I'm a good family person. I'm honest, trustworthy, and hardworking." That's the person that I want. Because still today, my analogy is in the restaurant business 'cause I started in the restaurant business when I was 12. Still today as a realtor, I will wash the floor, I will clean the bathroom, I will do the prep, I will do the service. It doesn't matter. I do lead by example.

(15:22):

But what happened to me was the real estate industry grew. I constantly changed and grew, grew this team with 25 people and six were assistants and 19 were agents, 26 people. And the industry started to change.

(15:42):

Change in our world, Gary Keller gives a great analogy. It took the industrial revolution 100 years to change. Change has accelerated and accelerated. Now we're having change every seven years. I mean, what has happened since '08 when the iPhone really came? The world has changed. It's changing faster.

(16:01):

So today, unlike back my parents and even some mine, you got a job, you're on that job for 40 years. You didn't grow. You didn't change. Now you better change, and the world's changing, and you have competition. So the world was changing. I was always ahead of the curve. The company I worked for was not changing. And it got bad for me to be the number one person.

(16:23):

I want to be around people better than me. I played ping pong when I was a kid in tournaments. I wanted to play people better than me at ping pong. I didn't want to be the best, right? 'Cause I wanted to get to them. So in real estate, the world was changing. And Keller Williams was a growing company. They came to me early on. I'm like, "I'm not going to them" in '05. I got offers all kinds. I had offers throughout the 2000 through 2010, '15 to go to companies, people offering me all kinds of big money. And I'm like, "No, I'm happy where I am. My company is great." I'm a loyalist, right?

(17:01):

The grass is not always greener on the other side. And if someone's offering me something too good, chances are it's not going to ... One company offered me, "We'll give you a million dollars and we'll give you 100% commission." And I'm like, "Ah." And this was '04, '05. And I'm like, "Ah, that'd be great." And I'm like, "Wait, that's not good." That'd being like my wife and I's relationship, me in complete control. It's just not going to work. It has to be win, win or go home. It has to be one in one. It has to work for both people. But by '16, '17, real estate was changing big time. Keller Williams was growing. And Keller Williams is a company based on education. It's based on God, family, business, it's actually what their ... the whole package. It's not just about numbers. And there's so much personal growth. And after I stopped fighting Keller Williams, 'cause they were growing like crazy, and I was with Prudential and then Berkshire and I was fighting them and trying to get my company to change, and it wasn't, and I saw the energy over there, and then finally I decided I would look into it. And then I opened my heart to Keller Williams.

(18:10):

And I'm like, "This guy, Gary Keller, he's a billionaire. He's in the business every day, just like I am, helping agents grow. He's a realtor. It's a company built by realtor for realtors." And the education, the growth, the principles, the systems are unbelievable. Just unbelievable.

(18:29):

So I made the switch in '19 to go to Keller Williams, which was a big shake up in the industry, right? Because I've been the top 25, number top 25 in the country out of 2 million realtors. Well, depends, 1.5 to 2 million, depending how many for ... the top 25 for about 15 years. So when I left, it was national news. The number one Berkshire agent leads for Keller Williams. And even my team was shocked because I'm such a loyalist. I hire for life. And what I do when I hire for life is I make sure that people can grow with me.

(19:11):

So if you worked for me and then you're doing really good and you felt like you hit a ceiling, at a certain point you're going to leave. So we make sure there's ... I make sure there's other opportunities to grow within my world. And if there's not, I would wish you the best to go on. But that's what we try to do. We want people to continually grow. And it's not all about Mike McCann. I think about my team first. If they're not happy, if they're not making money, if they're not doing good, that keeps me up at nighttime.

(19:45):

Anyway, so I came to Keller Williams and like 25, 26, 25 came. It's funny, the person that came was a person who I took from nothing ... who didn't come, I took from nothing at the company and helped them grow dramatically. But they just didn't want to come. They didn't like all the rah-rah. 'Cause Keller Williams is like a, there's tons of training and ... You should see our office. I mean, yesterday we had a woman's event, three to five. We brought in four business owners, women business owners, and just to tell their story. I mean this office was packed here. Last week we had a great social equity. We had, I don't know, 100 people here. We do classes on social media. So there's constantly classes and everybody wants to do better. She didn't want to buy into that, but my other 25 came and we've grown since that time. So I rambled on.

(20:42):

So you have to change and grow today and you have to ... If you are around people, you are a product of the top five people you are around. The people in my world. So now I have my wife's involved in my business. When I moved to Keller, one of my top agents, I gave him some partnership, ownership interest. I've stepped on people up. I'm now a director of agent.

(21:12):

So Keller taught me how to really organize more than my old school ways. I have a director of operations, I have a listing department, a closing department, a conveying department, a social media department. I have all these departments and I'm raw. So I'm just out loving people. So to be successful in sales, to be successful in business, the key things that I got early on was from growing up with my mom and three sisters was compassion, love. As I was raising my mom and three sisters, compassion and love.

(21:47):

I care about everybody. I don't care if they're the brand new agent. I will help them out left and right. Or the top agent. Actually my mindset is always helping people grow up because of where I came from. So compassion is key to empathy, and then doing what's best for them. So all my agents know that I care. They can call me. I'll set up a meeting. I'll talk to them on the phone. I give them more than what I take. The last thing ... I could be sleeping on a bench, homeless. I wouldn't ask you for any help. That's just the way that I am. But I will always give help. And that fulfills my life.

(22:33):

The more that you give and the older you get, you say this. I always like to say, "I'm not old. I've been around a long time," because most people will tell you I have more energy in my little finger than most 28-year-olds in their whole body because I have passion for people, I have passion for my business, and I love the business. And yes, I could have retired 20 years ago and be down on an island on a sailboat. Yet I still ... This morning I'm here eight o'clock, I'm the first person in the office. I don't stay out as late as I used to. I try to get home to Cindy by seven, like 6:30, 7. And that's my ... So today I have time bought, not time but I'm home 7:30 to 10:00 is Cindy's time. The phone is off. That's my what.

(23:16):

She goes to bed at 10. And then it's I'm on my bachelor time. 10:00 to 12:00 I'm on my social media, emails. That's like my bachelor time, I call it.

(23:25):

In the morning I spend quality time with my wife. I always did. Before the day started. Again, today started last night. I was prepared for today last night, yesterday. I get home at night, I pick my clothes out, I put coffee on a timer. I make sure I have everything that I need. And then when I wake up in the morning, for me it was making sure I was connected to my family. So that was the best time.

(23:53):

So yeah, 5:30 to 6:30, Cindy and I had a pot of coffee in bed. I'm not a 5 AM we're getting up running and jogging. That ain't happening. But I am connecting with my wife. And when my kids were home, they would all pop in the bed in the morning too for an hour before school. That's my connecting time because during the day I'm just running around.

(24:16):

I always did have a desire to succeed big time. But there's three parts, you know what I mean? There's your family. I'm not successful if I don't have people that love me, if I don't have people I love, if I don't have a family, if I don't prioritize. Cindy knew when she married me that this was important. But she has helped me do that. Cindy's my wife. But giving her what she needs is what I make sure, giving my children what they need.

(24:50):

So I rambled on forever. I'm sorry. Yes-

Alaina Kearney (24:51):

No, this is great. And I love this because sometimes when we ask these questions, and you're not the only one, but it goes off a little bit, but that's when the best nuggets of information come out. And I think we got so much from what you just said.

Mike McCann (25:04):

Yeah. I asked you before we came on here to play U2 It's a Beautiful Day, okay? That's my theme song. Whenever I speak or every morning driving into work, I am playing U2. It's a band, U2, my favorite band in the history of the world. And It's a Beautiful Day. That's my song.

(25:22):

So I constantly, thank goodness I was born with a smile and I was born with optimism. I was born with many challenges. And as I said, people say, I see you. When I'm speaking to realtors I say, "You think, 'Oh, it's Mike McCann, the real estate man. Oh, it's easy for you Mike.' You have no idea where I came from."

(25:40):

So I look at it as I have no idea what's going on in your world and in your life, right? So I'm going to listen to you, and then I am going to bring it around, and then I am going to just have you get out and do something. I have a bunch of sayings. We call them Mike McCannisms. Actually, my team bought me a poster. One of a person on a motorcycle and all my sayings and they all signed it. And some of my sayings are... when I'm helping someone, I'm like, "Patient persistence overcomes resistance. We're not going to fix this today. Let's patiently, persistently work on this, think about this, focus on this every day." Another saying of mine, again, I got from Winston Churchill is, and I've shirts made for my team, "Never, never, never give up."

Mike McCann (26:02):

One of my things that's, for me, is like a zen is I ride a Harley and my wife goes with me now too, right? When I'm out on the road, the wind, the sun, the sound, it's just beautiful. We were in Hawaii. We just did the Road to Hana on a Harley, Cindy and I. 75 miles, 600 switchbacks, turned around. It's just gorgeous, right? And that's my big zen. 

(26:57):

And then, I got some sayings when I was selling vacuum cleaners door to door. So '79 through '80 was a horrible time in our country. There were no jobs and I'm selling vacuum cleaners. This guy was my mentor and he taught me, "Mike, if you say you can't do it, that means you won't." So I have this saying, "Can't means won't." If you believe you can achieve, like I would've never said, "I'm going to get to where I am if I didn't believe it." My mom was like, "You're quitting Hilton to do real estate. Oh my God." So many people were like, "You can't do that. You can't."

(27:34):

If you believe you can achieve. Never, never, never give up. Can't means won. Patient persistence overcomes resistance. The harder you work, the luckier you get. Oh, Mike's so lucky. No, it's because of hard work. Now I say, "Harder, smarter work."

(27:51):

So you just have to believe. You just have to... so I try to get people to believe in themself and I try to get people to post a note on their mirror and whatever you dream, it will come true. Again, I'm going to ramble, but when I was a kid, my parents were divorced. We had no money. I grew up in [inaudible 00:28:09] Northeast Philly. Nobody else's parents were divorced. We had no money. And I just remember feeling, "Oh my God, I want to never live like this." So I started working when I was eight years old. It took me till I was 10. I saved up, bought my own minibike. And that minibike set the values of hard work versus reward. So all my other friends' parents bought them their minibike. Nobody took care of their mini bike more than, better than me. Nobody rode it more. Nobody enjoyed it more.

(28:42):

So I learned at an early age because of obstacles, I made lemonade out of lemons or whatever, however that saying is is to do that. But then, going through school, I remember telling people, "I'm going to be a millionaire." My friends would grab, "What are you going to do?" "I don't know, but I'm going to be the best." So I had this mindset, this silly thing that I told my mom and my sisters and everybody. Remember a teacher in seventh grade I did a project of me being a millionaire. And they laughed at me. They embarrassed me. But guess what? That mindset and I can go on that. That's an extreme example from when I was a little kid. But if your mindset says, if you say, "I want to be the best at this, I want to help my clients the best."

(29:25):

I have what's called raging fans. So if you buy yourself from me, your experience will be, and someone in your office or your friend and your family says, "Oh, I need to do a real estate agent." They don't say, "Oh yeah, I used Mike. He's good." They'll say, "Oh, no wait. I'm going to call Mike." No, you have to call Mike because I treat everybody like family. And that's what I do. So I deal with a lot of troubled situations in selling homes and I overcome not the objections. I come up with solutions. And that's where the knowledge gives you confidence. I tell people in school, I was so embarrassed, I couldn't even raise my hand in class. I had no confidence because I wasn't the smartest kid in the room. I was always a tunnel-focused person. I was great at history and that was probably about it.

(30:19):

But when I got in real estate, they wanted me to speak somewhere and when I was like [inaudible 00:30:24]. I couldn't even speak in front of people. Now, I spoke in front of 18,000 people. I speak in front of... but the confidence from the knowledge gives you that. So I come up with solutions from my knowledge that other people don't think of. And that's where sometimes, it's a two-minute discussion with an agent needs help. Sometimes, it's an hour. Sometimes, then, it's a follow-up. But coming up with solutions, I do that with my clients.

(30:54):

So I always say, "I am in real estate. I am what's called the air traffic controller." I don't build a house, but guess what? I know everything about building houses. I know the best builders to get to build houses. Okay? I'm not an attorney, but I know everything about real estate and law more than most lawyers. But I'm not a lawyer. And if someone needs a lawyer, I get the best lawyer. Okay? Accountants. I know a lot about accounting, about the deductions in real estate, but I have the best accountant, right? Thank you.

Alaina Kearney (31:23):

That's right.

Mike McCann (31:24):

And painters, I know what needs to be painted to prep a house, but I don't paint. I have the best painter. So I have the resources. So if you go to sell a house with me and it needs to be cleaned out, it needs to be painted, there's some title issues, I can get all that stuff. I don't say, "Okay, well let me know when it's done." No, I take you and I carry every aspect, not just selling the real estate. So I give exceptional service, so my people become raging fans and we call it clients for life.

Alaina Kearney (31:59):

I love this, this raging fan client for life. Online, you have 500 plus five-star reviews. I'm a marketing director, and you all do a fabulous job on social media of lifting up employees, sharing what happens behind the scenes, and sharing the continuing education you do. You mentioned the women's group. I saw that on Facebook. I saw the social equity committee that you all have also. So how do these committees bring inclusivity amongst your staff bring everybody together, because you do an excellent job of promoting yourselves on social media and showing what you're doing to better your employees, your clients, and those around you.

Mike McCann (32:51):

So again, so you do have to be intentional. Let me just even back up. So on social media, I think it was '08. Facebook started to come out and stuff and people were like, "You got to do that." I'm like, "I'm not doing..." I'm in the business, what? In '09, I was in business 20 years or something, right? '88, '90, '00. Yeah and I'm like, "I'm not doing that." And then in about 2010 and a half, I started to get on Facebook and I do the Mike McCann Facebook. That's all just me personally. Nobody else does that. That's just me. That's just raw Mike McCann. That's not the mainline McCann team or McCann team or my mainline office. That's just me. But I just want to say something about that.

(33:34):

So if you drove through Center City, South Philly, my signs are all over. Everybody knew whose... oh, I had a unique marketing position. So in '94, Mike McCann, The Real Estate Man, brand came out. People had been calling me Mike McCann, Real Estate Man. And they're like, "You got to advertise that." I'm like, "Oh, that's tacky. No way." I ended up, in '94, branding that. So you drove through town and you saw my sign everywhere. You saw Mike McCann, The Real Estate Man. So that unique marketing position helped me big time.

(34:06):

So if you drove through town, you saw my sign, you had this image out, he's all over the place. He must be pompous. He must be an idiot because once people got the know, they're like, "Oh my God, I never thought you'd be like this" because I have had haters say to me, "Well, if I were you, I would only sell things over a million dollars. Why do you still do $200,000 houses?" I'm like, "They need me more than my million-dollar buyers and sellers?" Like, "What? Are you kidding me?"

(34:35):

So when I went on social media, finally, I said, "Okay, I'll do it." Got on the Facebook and took me a little bit. Six months in, I had people coming up to me, "Mike, I've known you for four years. Now, I see you on social, on Facebook? Oh my God, now, I really know who you are." I've had people responding to me, "Oh my God, I thought you..." so it got my image out, who the real Mike McCann is. And if you go online, it's me with my wife, it's me riding my Harley, it's me at the office. It's some business a little bit. And then, I'll get 500 Likes, 800 Likes, 300 comments. And I'm still... I love Facebook. I know Instagram and this TikTok and everybody's doing all that. And I am on Instagram, but I'm not as... I love Facebook and Facebook for real estate, believe it or not, is still the number one lead generator.

(35:29):

So anyway, so I got 5,000 people, but it changed who I was. So people got to know who I am. I'm not this rich, greedy real estate person, right? I'm this compassionate, loving, sharing, caring, and supporting. And there's thousands of people since 2010 and a half that I've helped that have no income generating activities to me at all. The more you give, the more you receive.

(35:56):

And there was this one big meeting, Keller does a thing called Bold. And there's a couple hundred people in there. And one of the things was about gratitude, right? So a gratitude is an attitude. That's another Mike McCannism and I've been saying that forever. I would come, when my kids were home, I would come down in the morning and be like, "Boy, do I feel great?" "Oh, Dad." I'm like, "It's a beautiful day." And they're like... I'm like, "Listen, you have heat. You have hot water. You have food to heat. There's 2 billion people starving. Be grateful, man." I'm still grateful for the smallest things in life, right? And if you have gratitude, you have a happy life. Trust me. I don't care. You say, "Oh, all these problems in our world today." We live in the best time, in the best country in the history of the world and our problems are first world problems. And you can make them a problem. We live in the best time in the history of the world. We live better than kings and queens did 100 years ago. So that's my attitude. But social media really helped me to identify who I was out there.

(37:08):

So I try to just give people solutions and then encourage them. I can't say I developed this through a class. I was born to love everybody from my mom. I was born to never, never give up for my success in life through James B. Marion III. Allan Domb, who taught me how to help people, to get people to help me. And then Gary Keller, who's really taught me how to help more people at a higher level. Four years ago, I came to Keller and I had never ever wanted to own my own brokerage. I mean, my 25 people was enough people to take care of.

(37:53):

Now, we went from 60 people to 327 people at Keller Williams main line. I have 327 people that I'm responsible for every day, in addition to my team, which now has grown to about 40 people, in addition to the main line McCann team, in addition to Powered By Unlock. But I've brought more people into my life that have roles that are growing and will be with me for life.

(38:19):

The other thing that my team bought me is a framed album, the Hotel California and they all signed it also. And there's a song on the Hotel California called, "It's such a lovely place, but you can never leave." That's one of the lines in there. So that's the McCann team. It's such a lovely place, but you can never leave.

Alaina Kearney (38:41):

I love that. But they have the same loyalty to you as you have to them. It's clear. It's absolutely clear.

(38:48):

So I want to talk about one more thing because I know we're getting close to the end of the time here, I want to talk about the biggest deal you've ever brokered. And I know it's not always about the biggest deal because we've just talked about that. It's not always about that. But from generating the lead to closing the deal, what sales strategies or tactics do you find most effective? And we've talked about some of them, but I want this to translate to the people who are listening, who own a business or who are in business development, tactics, or strategies that they can use in their own line of work.

Mike McCann (39:20):

First of all, confidence and conviction. Do you think that you're... So to me, breaking into luxury took me quite a while, to break into luxury real estate, and have all these fluffy realtors, right? Not one second in my mind did I not believe that I would provide better service, better communication, than any agent. You have to believe that you are better than your competitor, and not in a cocky way, and you'll do more than your competitor. I can really say any one deal, but one of the things I can tell you: most of my luxury ones are patience, persistence, follow up, tenacity and... There's many transactions that I sold where the other agent didn't sell the property, so I would be the second or third. That's how I finally got into it. When people couldn't sell stuff, I would take it over and help them out.

(40:27):

When I meet with someone to buy or sell, I try to physically meet. Now Zoom is pretty good, but it's still not like meeting. Just like the world has changed since COVID. You've got to get in the office. I am in the office on an appointment at 9:00 every single day no matter what. I try to meet somebody and develop a relationship. If somebody likes you and trusts you... Like my wife loves you guys, trusts you guys, and that's great. You know why? It takes such a burden off of her and off of me. In your business, if they trust you... I try to form a good relationship, a trusting relationship, because I don't want to know accounting. I just do real estate.

(41:14):

So I bring someone in, if someone's asking you for help, you have to give them the options, and one of the key lines I always use is, "Whatever you want to do is fine with me," so it diffuses people, because we both think I'll just put... Whatever you want to do is fine with me, but if you were my sister and you were doing this, this is what I would do. So I'm constantly diffusing people saying I'm just trying to get a sale.

(41:46):

And then I have tenacity. So a lot of people jump in real going, things aren't working out and then they give up. It doesn't matter to me if I have a property for two weeks, two months, or two years, I will consistently never lose my enthusiasm. I'll try to come up with solutions and stuff like that, but I will never ever give up on it. If you have a relationship, you can move mountains. So you have, and now listen, today in this world of texts and emails, a lot of times you got to call and have tone. 'Cause the email and texts do not have tone. And that's where it's, you listen to people. I'm a sales guy, I love to talk, but I have to ask questions, listen to people. And then I also don't go on. I'm good at when I meet with somebody and making them feel really important.

(42:38):

But I don't need to spend two hours for them telling me one story. I am efficient and I direct that conversation a lot of times the compassionate way. Yeah, I really don't have any one biggest sale. The multiple... And in Philly, you're not doing $10 million transactions. I mean the average person in Center City, Philadelphia is $575,000. But I do, do a lot of $1 to $3 million transactions in the suburbs a lot more. So my biggest sale was actually, I sold last year was $4.5 million on Delane Street. But another agent bought me on because they couldn't handle the client. The client was this dominant, incredibly successful professional woman. I'm best with women because I was raised with women. And it's funny, Cindy, my wife was raised with her brothers, she's better... If you go to a party, I'll be talking to the women and Cindy will be talking to the men.

(43:42):

But anyway, so this was his dominant woman who was beaten the heck out of these two female agents. And like, "Well, can you help us with this listing?" So I went on and blah, blah, blah. They watched throughout... And they were being CC'd on emails blindly. This woman from freaking out to, by the end of that transaction, it took me seven months to sell it, get it through to settlement. So I would make her happy, things would go good, I'd sell it, then the inspection, then she'd go crazy again. Then I'd make her happy. But at the end just thanking us and loving us. And she would constantly try to attack me and then I would compassionately go back and tell my story. Everybody gives these short little texts and emails. So you just have to, and sometimes I don't react right away, but I do communicate fast. Most people know with me two minutes or two hours and I'm responding back.

(44:39):

Now with the brokerages, it might be three hours, but I would say two minutes to two hours when I was out on the street. And I love that, taking somebody who was just they wanted what they wanted, what they wanted. Was used to bossing people around tough as nails to thanking me multiple times.

Alaina Kearney (44:59):

And it's interesting, you have brought up your background and your roots a few different times and I think that this really shows that no matter where you come from or what background you have, you can absolutely attain success like you have. And you've developed these skills like empathy and compassion and the ability to diffuse. And I think those are skills that are really hard for people to just randomly come upon. It's something that's sometimes rooted within us and comes from experience. So I love that you bring that up. I know we're running out here, so what's next for The Mike McCann Team? Tell us what's next for you and where we're going?

Mike McCann (45:33):

So listen, my biggest why today is helping people grow. So early on, it was providing for my family so I could feed them, house them, then put them in college and all that stuff. And now my biggest why is to make sure everybody on my team does good, the brokerage is good. So growing and expanding, and so we're going to grow and we're going to expand. But I am a slow and steady, I've seen people skyrocket up. There's companies right now that skyrocketed up and they're skyrocketing down. So I'm going to slow and steady grow the Main Line area.

(46:17):

When we came into Keller Williams, I bought Main Line two and a half years ago. It was number 14 in the marketplace. There was like 60 agents at the company. I told everybody, "I'm only doing this if we're going to be the best, it's going to take us three to five years to knock out these companies, but we're going to be the best."

(46:35):

So I brought on good operation, people had a couple changes here and there. You bring in people that are like-minded like me to bring into my world. And the second year we just hit number two in the marketplace. The energy is off the charts. So positive energy breeds positive energy. And so we're going to continue to grow here, 'cause we want to take over that number one. And it's not even number one as I tell when I have my meetings each week, when the Main Line here, start off with U2, my song and I'll do, I have my operations team do things, numbers and all. But I start, my vision is, not just to have the best brokerage on the Main Line, or the best brokerage in the suburbs, but the best brokerage on the East coast.

(47:23):

And that doesn't mean the number one in dollars. That means in positive people making a good living in their life and having a good life. And we do lots of things here that are life related, not business related. 'Cause if you do, you need the whole package. You need your family, you need a family, or close people to you. So to continue to grow. So maybe down the shore, expand in the suburbs, but slow and steady and make sure I have the opportunities for the people that are my future leaders to grow.

Alaina Kearney (47:56):

Mike, it has been such a pleasure talking with you this morning. Thank you so much for sharing your tips and tricks of the trade. Your energy is infectious and I think you might have to add motivational speaking to your resume. 

Mike McCann (48:11):

My pleasure, anytime. And you guys are awesome. I didn't want to give a plug, but we don't have to worry about our financing, so thank you for everything that you do for my wife who handles all that stuff for me. 'Cause I'm a tunnel focuser, right? And now we had one account for almost 30 years and you guys are 10 times better and just awesome. And you're doing it for my market center and I really appreciate it.

Alaina Kearney (48:36):

Thank you so much, Mike. We appreciate you. Have a good one. 

Mike McCann (48:39):

Thank you. Bye-Bye

Alaina Kearney (48:43):

Mike McCann has come a long way from selling vacuums. He wasn't born into a family of privilege, but his upbringing instilled values in him, like tenacity and persistence, that were the building blocks to his success. As he developed a reputation, he realized he needed to be the most educated, the hardest, and smartest worker. And to give more than he takes, he built his confidence, sought out mentors, married well, and prioritized his clients and staff.

(49:09):

Mike leads by example. No task is beneath him, but he also understands the importance of spending time with the people that matter most. Mike McCann and his McCannisms continue to inspire and uplift anyone who has the pleasure of meeting him. To learn more about how The Mike McCann Team can help you buy or sell a property, we'll provide a link in the description notes as well as link to purchase a copy of Gary Keller's book The One Thing. Until next time.