From the tranquil soundscapes of rural Wyoming, Michigan, to leading a bustling real estate empire, Scot Kellogg's journey epitomizes the essence of determination, innovation, and the sheer force of pursuing one's dreams. In this captivating episode, join Scot as he chronicles his multifaceted path—from academic pursuits to making waves in Chicago's vibrant hip-hop scene. His pivotal moment came with the creation of a compilation CD that celebrated local artists, turning it into a heartfelt homage to burgeoning talent. Scot's saga extends beyond melodies; it serves as a profound tutorial on spotting opportunities, fostering community ties, and marching to the rhythm of entrepreneurial spirit.
As we segue from tunes to transactions, Scot's story unfolds the highs and lows that accompany a life fueled by ambition. Experience his transformation from an underdog in academia to a virtuoso of the housing market, where he founded and continues to build 616 Realty. With over a hundred agents and growing, the firm's ethos revolves around collaborative growth, leveraging social media, great branding, authenticity and enhancing support systems within the team. Tune in as Scot divulges his strategies for personal and professional mastery, making this episode an inspiring soundtrack for anyone looking to craft their own success narrative.
From the tranquil soundscapes of rural Wyoming, Michigan, to leading a bustling real estate empire, Scot Kellogg's journey epitomizes the essence of determination, innovation, and the sheer force of pursuing one's dreams. In this captivating episode, join Scot as he chronicles his multifaceted path—from academic pursuits to making waves in Chicago's vibrant hip-hop scene. His pivotal moment came with the creation of a compilation CD that celebrated local artists, turning it into a heartfelt homage to burgeoning talent. Scot's saga extends beyond melodies; it serves as a profound tutorial on spotting opportunities, fostering community ties, and marching to the rhythm of entrepreneurial spirit.
As we segue from tunes to transactions, Scot's story unfolds the highs and lows that accompany a life fueled by ambition. Experience his transformation from an underdog in academia to a virtuoso of the housing market, where he founded and continues to build 616 Realty. With over a hundred agents and growing, the firm's ethos revolves around collaborative growth, leveraging social media, great branding, authenticity and enhancing support systems within the team. Tune in as Scot divulges his strategies for personal and professional mastery, making this episode an inspiring soundtrack for anyone looking to craft their own success narrative.
set out to do a compilation CD of bringing each of these artists to do one song. You know I had no credibility, but I think I was there often enough that they just started like okay, if you want agents to be attracted to you, you either have to help them earn more money or make their life easier.
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome back. Today we have Scott Kellogg with 616 Realty. He started about 11 years ago. It's grown into over 100 agents and really just looking forward to our conversation today. Welcome Scott, thanks for coming. Oh, thanks for having me this is great. Yeah, you're welcome. I've really been looking forward to hearing more. I know some of your backstory, so why don't you tell us us your you know Marvel origin story or whatever like where'd you grow up?
Speaker 1:I grew up in Wyoming, michigan. When I grew up it was actually kind of a rural area it was 60th and Burnley game, right before you get to Byron center Okay, and didn't have many neighbors and so I think that started me with always wanting to cultivate and bring people together. Just the loneliness of not having a lot of people around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can see that I grew up in a rural area too, you know. I think that you know, connected with people has been important. I can see how that makes sense. So you went to school. What school did you go to?
Speaker 1:Wyoming.
Speaker 2:Rogers. Okay, I ran there back in the day Remember track me Many moons ago but so you went to Wyoming. Rogers, did you go to college? You start in business? I think you have some construction building background in the family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I struggled through high school. So I struggled through high school and upon graduating from high school, I probably wasn't the person people thought that would go to college, but it was important to my parents and so I went to the community college, back then called the junior college, and I spent three and a half years at the community college. So that was a long time and I didn't really know what, where I was going, what I was doing. I started getting a business degree one point I was going into teaching, um, and then eventually I turned 21 and I decided you know what I've got to start moving this along a little bit. I seen people starting to do stuff around me and I ended up going to, uh, moving to chicago to go to college at depaul university, lasted there about a half a year and then went over and found the arts and science of music at columbia college and art college.
Speaker 2:Um, that I found pretty exciting at the time yeah, so did you take some art music courses, or?
Speaker 1:I, I love music. At that point, rap music was really the number one. I love doll music, but was number one passion, and so, um, I just wanted to be around it. And so, at that point, the arts and science of music there was. They were teaching you how to run a record label, um, also studio engineering. But my, my real interest I liked both, but was was business. I had that entrepreneurial sense from my dad being a builder and entrepreneur. So, um, I started thinking, oh, this is something I want to get into. Yeah, um, so I started internshiping. I internship at a&m records, which was big at the time when there was big record labels, um, they had blues travelers coming out, cheryl crow, you know. So I was in the mail room but it was exciting. Uh, lots of free shows, um, and then I went to a really small record label that someone was trying to promote their kids to be this next great cartridge family or something of that sort. And I learned a lot from the grassroots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this is like early nineties yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm thinking, sheryl Crow, I'm trying to think of some of the exactly that time period and boost traveler.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, so you're working. What were what you said? You were in the mailroom at that time and taking classes at Columbia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I for the internship. I was all still taking classes at Columbia.
Speaker 1:So an internship wrapped up like what was next for you Did you know, what you wanted to do then, or well, I was hanging out, especially on off nights. It would be hip-hop nights, so sunday and monday nights, basically, in these hip-hop clubs and rap clubs, and there would be freestyle nights, and I was just totally enthralled and fascinated, um, by what was going on, and I seen all these great artists and I'm like, wow, most of the music is coming for in that genre out of the east, in the west coast, and so I thought, well, someone should put something out here in chicago, and so that's kind of got me started thinking about doing a record label, um, and and eventually I went move forward on that.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you had the class talking about building a record label. Yeah, then, then you're, you have these ideas, you have access to the people, so did you actually start something?
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, I, I really didn't know that much, um, but I, I, I would, I I set out to do a compilation studio, bringing each of these artists to do one song and put a compilation out to kind of showcase what was going on in Chicago at that time and um. So so I, at these freestyle nights, I just go up to these people like hey, I'm thinking about putting a record out, and you know, I had no credibility, but I think I was there often enough that they just started like, okay, sure, and it was funny, the better artists I'd like, well, I'm gonna need, you know, a song, a tape, we're gonna have to record something otherwise and the the better artists were pretty giving of their stuff, and the ones that weren't as good as like, no, I don't want anyone stealing my beats or any of my stuff, and so they would hold tighter to what they had interesting like, yeah, I found that a couple of things in life too.
Speaker 2:Like you said, hey, you didn't know a lot, but you just went ahead and did it. So that's always been interesting to me. I mean, I see people in every genre of life and so many great talents, often just don't do anything. And then you have the opposite where somebody that just a novice but just does something, blows up, um, and it's. It's also interesting that the, the people that you know, weren't as good holding on tight, so they weren't really open, um, to getting things out. I mean, about that, I don't know about that time, I read a book years ago, um, about giving stuff away and really, um, it used to be more of that like, hey, don't steal my stuff. But once people started sharing that or letting people rip it off, napster type things like that's how a lot of a lot of bands, individuals, grew because they had a much wider audience. They weren't a paying audience, but in the beginning they had to, you know, let go of that and and they got so much larger audience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it makes sense, like real estate. Yeah, people need to know. Or whatever career you're in, people need to know what you do to to be able to use you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, uh, next step. So how did you record back then? Mean you're talking mid 90s now, maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah, expensive to record is from from my knowledge at that time. But maybe you had different I got lucky on that.
Speaker 1:Um, I found a guy in the recording studio that was pretty talented in this. I don't know if you'd call it a warehouse garage or what it was, but he had a pretty great setup and he was recording us for, I think, $25 an hour.
Speaker 2:And so.
Speaker 1:So he, we got a great rate. We'd come in at different odd hours and different things, but he, he did a. He did a good job for us with that. That was really helpful.
Speaker 2:So you put together a CD, have a dozen artists maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a dozen artists on it, um, and I started managing uh, mc juice was his name, he, okay, um, he, he. I started managing him and, um, or he was managing me. I, I don't know what you call that but I was following him around town.
Speaker 2:How?
Speaker 1:about that Sure, and his claim to fame before Eminem was big, that he was one of the only people that ever beat him at Jack the Rapper in a freestyle battle in Atlanta but really talented freestyle rapper that I was enamored with and so I was doing that too. That he was pretty unmanageable, um sure, but we had a lot of fun, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a like, a, only a slight connection, like, not not the same, but I lived in california late 90s, 97 ish probably. Um, I met a guy you know, starbucks barista, who's in a band, young guy, satori posse, a little throw out from like 25, 27 years ago. He was big on 311, he was a little um, he was the the lead and they were great they. They play at the, I think the roxy down on the sunset strip in hollywood and help promote and he had kind of asked me hey, you want to be my manager?
Speaker 2:sort of like half joking, half serious and I'm like it took it across my mind at the time. I don't know what that looks like, but it sounds like fun. Yeah, yeah, um, it sounds interesting. Never move forward with it, but, um, I think I still have their cd kicking around the house somewhere.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I would suggest never to manage artists yeah, it's pretty it's pretty thankless. Um, in a sense it's great to me. You know you're there because you love the music, but then you're in a whole side of making sure things go on time and and go off in the business and that's sometimes with art and business and the whole thing. It, it's, it's a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know one of our previous guests talked a little bit about the same too. It's like sometimes you do something you love and when you turn it into a business it's no longer the same, Like you lose a little bit of luster from it, so better to just enjoy it as a hobby or something like that.
Speaker 1:I think that's what I found. I mean, we released the record. It probably took me a year at least to get it together. But I released the album, got some really nice reviews in the Chicago Tribune, billboard Magazine and you know I was distributing it out of my car. I was driving around the south side of Chicago bringing it to you know, little independent record stores and the bigger ones also, but that you know little independent record stores and the bigger ones also, but that you know we're selling candy pop and then they would have some tapes or cds in it.
Speaker 1:Um, but really I just at some point I I was not good at it was a. I learned a lot. I was not good at bringing people in. I wanted to do it all myself and I didn't know how to get people involved and that was a big downfall on that. So I burned out at some point and what you just made me think of it was at some point. You know it's taking away of my love for the music. You know being so involved in putting it out out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now you think there's something if you would have done differently maybe hire people or whatever, um, like, what'd you learn from that?
Speaker 1:well, I I did learn um bringing people in asking for help, um asking questions, finding mentors. You know, there there was a whole lot of business lessons in there that I didn't realize at the time I was learning, but I learned a ton, a ton of those things, you know, of the importance of other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean knowing what I know. Now, like seeing some of that, like you do do a great job with hiring people and staff, surrounding yourself with people that can kind of take care of some of that. Like you do do a great job with hiring people and and staff, surrounding yourself with people that can kind of take care of some of that stuff. So, um, you can clearly see, you've learned that. Uh, so take us from there. Um, you know, after the, the record label or the, the, you know the distribution, you moved on. You decided, hey, that's not, not what you're going to do. What was next?
Speaker 1:well, I moved back to grand rapids and right before well, right before I left chicago, I took a, uh, I thought I took a three-week bartending school and I thought you know what an entrepreneurial still, and for wanting to bring people together and liking to drink, I thought I'm gonna going to start a bar. And so I took this bartending class, where they're really teaching you to make cruise boat drinks, you know, and stuff like that, and and uh, so I, anyways, you, you, you learn a lot in three weeks. And then I moved back to grand Rapids, started interviewing for jobs as a bartender and the only job I got was in this dive bar, alcoholic owner, and so I went to work there as my first bar experience. But I was like, yeah, this could be good. I lasted there about three weeks to a month and then I got fired. And that was another big life lesson. We didn't really see eye to eye.
Speaker 1:I really wasn't as good as bartender as I thought, and the rejection of getting fired from this dive bar I took harder than I probably should have. And actually, after I got fired the guy that trained me that worked the night shift I went back and I said why'd they fire me. You know, it was late, I was drinking and he goes why'd you want to work here? And I couldn't answer Well, I kind of can answer, but he caught me off guard and then he cut me off and sent me on my way answer. But he caught me off guard and then he cut me off and sent me on my way, and so, um, that that really always stuck to me is is where do you want to be? What's your bigger picture? And I, I didn't have it at that point in my life, um.
Speaker 1:So at that point I, my dad, offered me a job. He was a home builder, um built and sold his own houses, and so I thought he offered me a job and I thought, why not? I don't have anything else going on. But I really didn't like it. I'm not a home builder, but I half-heartedly put some time in there. But it got me thinking real estate. At that point I thought, boy, I'd really like to sell the houses, real estate. At that point, um, I thought, boy, I'd really like to sell the houses, um, and so that nudged me along into getting licensed as a realtor okay, so when is this what you know?
Speaker 1:this.
Speaker 2:Well, I got licensed as a realtor in 2001, so late, late 90s, yeah yeah, so did you just start um at the, at the family business, or where'd you? Where'd you go as your first um? You know, where'd you hang your hat?
Speaker 1:um. I started at five star real estate um in 2001 and I was still building a little bit, because it takes a minute to get going as a realtor and I I was still getting myself together, getting focused at that point in my life too, of career-wise business. I guess some say I matured late.
Speaker 2:We all have our pace, we all have our stuff, our timing. It's interesting I was licensed a few years later and started a small place, really small too, so um took a few years to kind of get rolling. Yeah, um, but anyway. So you were there. Uh, you sold. Did you sell exclusively for the family business?
Speaker 1:I don't know how big of an operation that was, for the construction well, I, I know I I sold wherever I could get work, I mean whoever I could work for, and so so that it just it just varied, but but luckily it did help there. There was some listings built in there or buyers type stuff, so it was, it was lucky to have that.
Speaker 2:So what kind of got you up and running when you finally, you know when things clicked and you decided, hey, you know, I like what I'm doing, um, I want to sell more or I want to start my own brokerage Like what kind of what?
Speaker 1:caused that pivot there. Well, I mean, I always was a good dreamer, so I always had thoughts of what I would like to do, and actually being a broker, owner of a company, was not one of the things I was thinking. Um, I just wanted to sell a lot, but my biggest problem was me really at that point, and so I started going to therapy, I started working on myself, all the things that I was holding myself back. Um, there there was just a whole lot of things that I I started working on and the process was very slow, um of of building, but, um, and you know, and that was when, in my early 30s, I got married, you know, a lot was changing, a lot I was working on, so I felt like I had to get a little bit more serious about what I wanted to become and do.
Speaker 1:No-transcript eight to ten years well, ten years in, I started the company, but eight years is probably before I even considered or think, thought about starting a brokerage. And that was because I was always like, just let me sell a lot, stay out of my way, and I didn't get the value of a broker. I went from one of the biggest companies to a mid-sized company to a very small company. So I got a real flavor of the different companies and in the good, the bad, what everybody does, and worked with some nice people. But at that point it was it was like, oh, maybe I could do this, but really still, my focus was on selling.
Speaker 2:Yep, I think that's a common through line for a lot of agents. I know too, it's like kind of bounce around a little bit maybe, or you kind of see, you know, as you progress. You know, stay out of my way. That was my, my theme and so many, you know, my agent friends. It's just let me do my thing. You know, I understand keeping with a corporate company brand and you know, having a level of professionalism, but I kind of want to do me in my way and that's that's really what attracted us to 616, even, and, and that you have, you know, some great systems in place, the people around you. It seems like you've taken some of that from each of those different places that you were and implemented some of the things that you thought were really important. And that's what we really, some of the things that you thought were really important and that's what really really enjoy about that.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the things I mean what what I realized some when I started somewhat early is if, if you want agents to be attracted to you, you either have to help them earn more money or make their life easier. And and our goal was always, or my goal is is to see how we can bridge those things together, because there was a difference between independence we're doing and what franchises we're doing, and trying to bridge those two things together with with great branding but making a comfortable, affordable place that had what agents needed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great way to put it, it's. You know, when we left our previous company, several of us came to 616 at the time.
Speaker 2:It was a big deal for us when you guys came over, yeah it was a pretty good sized group and really we were frustrated with sort of the corporate, you know, changes that had come in added costs but didn't add value. There wasn't a lot of value but there was a lot of trust or loyalty, I should just say, with the prior broker who was kind of working his way out of the business. So it was super attractive to see everything you had to offer, super attractive to see everything you had to offer, and that you know one of the parts, one of the through lines or mottos that in the branding is you know, work with real. And I think all of us that came over at that same time were like that, like we just wanted to be us, build our business with our connections, but have that support, like there was way more support on both how to make more money and how to be comfortable, um, and have all the resources that we needed. Uh, so it was. It was a pretty easy decision really. Oh great.
Speaker 1:Well, that was a big deal, um. But yeah, I mean my staff, I mean we've got a couple things in. I I mean I try to every day say how can we make this a little bit better? Um, and improve and being independent you're, you make mistakes, you do things right, but you can change when you need to, and and we've been good at being self-aware of where our weak points are. A couple of years ago, we hired someone to do social media. We were terribly lacking before that in social media and she's doing a great job with that but just always being self-aware of what's missing, what do you need, what do the agents need and how can you add that and that's been really good for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why don't we get into some of kind of what you do offer? I mean, some of the things that I've noticed that I really like is the coaching. Like it's a virtual coaching program but it's interactive. You can show up and have conversations. You've had accountability groups that are voluntary, where people can come and talk about struggles they're having or marketing ideas and kick ideas around. That, to me, is one of the more valuable things. You have monthly educational, but you have a lot of little things in between. So there's not really a lack of ways to get market knowledge, way to get kick ideas around. It gets a very collaborative, even compared to the prior place I was at, which was fairly collaborative among agents. Like people like I've had so many different agents I'm out of town show houses for me. I've done the same for them. There's a lot of interaction between just texting and groups within the company. So those are some of the things that I've found super helpful. What are some of the other things other agents have talked about?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean I think the first thing we do is you mentioned work with real. We understand everybody's different and going to do. When you have a hundred plus agent, the people do things differently and so we try to meet people where they're at, where I've seen other places kind of give the cookie cutter version of what a realtor is and I, their people are different, so realtors can be different. You know you usually attract like people and they want to work with you. So we we try to and say if someone comes in and says they're struggling, I I don't say you should do this, I ask them what they like doing and then we try to build out from that and and so that's big meeting people where they're at and who they are. It's been a big one Amongst, yeah, bringing on a national coach to stream in and coach us on Mondays and that's been another big thing to keep us really current on anything in the market. It's been a bonus also.
Speaker 2:Great. What do you see changing here? You just recently hit over a hundred agents and when I started there, what four years ago? The time flies. I don't even remember three, four years ago. Um, I think you were in the fifties or sixties, low sixties. So I'm doing something right Tracking a lot of people and, um, growing quickly, like what's what's coming up, what's new? What are you excited about in terms of the next phase or or kind of what you got currently going on?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean I, the growth has been good because, like I said, we've we've brought on coaching, we brought on a marketing person, social media. We wouldn't have been able to do that if we didn't have the growth to offset the cost of that. So the growth's been good. We can pivot into what our agents need more and what's next. And you know, the real estate market's forever changing, technology's changing and so just being available and you see more brokerages going cloud-based, being able to meet people with the cloud-based, but also having a presence in town or a staff, like you mentioned, where people can come in and connect. You know it's been big and so we're going to keep doing all of those things.
Speaker 2:Great, yeah, I think having that downtown location great little spot, lots of visibility I think that's attractive. You've done a nice job converting it into a comfortable space, a place you can either bring clients or come to meet. One of the other things I thought you keep up on the branding. That was something that the past brokerage was not good at. That I guess they didn't maybe hire professionals or the right professionals. So I've really been happy with the feel of your branding and it's out there. It's like I just, you just don't, you're not complacent. So it's been great to see that Anything that maybe you might do might've done differently. Um, like, what other lessons have you kind of learned along the way here?
Speaker 1:well, I mean and there's probably a lot I would have done differently we the the good thing and it wasn't on purpose. We actually the first three to five years, grew fairly slowly. Um, and it wasn't by design. I thought we had started, brokers and people would come. I had some friends in the industry and that wasn't the case. I mean we. So it was a slow process but it was probably good. Um, you know, we were really able to to get our roots down and and and start something and build and get prepared. Um, you know, I kind of compare it to like a tree growing. You get those trees that grow really fast and we've seen companies grow really fast and then they hit harder times. You know they don't have those roots in the ground where they can blow over. You know, and we did it slow, we got established or we learned from our mistakes on a smaller setting, and then, you know, in the last five years or so we've really been able to accelerate the growth. But but that's because we were ready, you know we did.
Speaker 1:We did the work, we put the time in. We were able to build the systems you know, so that's that's been good actually.
Speaker 2:Awesome, any advice you'd give you, advice you'd give new agents or brokers.
Speaker 1:I mean, I would think you have to be fearless in a sense and get out there and do it. You can't pay attention to what others are doing. You know it's the envy. You look at Facebook Someone sold this, someone did this. Realtors love flexing, you know, and you can get really hard on yourself quickly and then just be curious. You know I'm really impressed when people are asking questions. They're thinking about it. You can tell they're going to go places because they want to soak it all in, they want to learn, they want to get to that next step, and I think that's so important.
Speaker 2:I found that you have a mentor program for new agents, and I've been a part of that Good at it and that's one thing I found of the ones that have excelled quickly. They're asking a lot of questions, they're always curious, always looking at different ways to do things, new angles, and they're not afraid to jump in. So I think all of that stuff you just said I found to be true in this program so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, when I started, you know I couldn't figure anything out and but I would go in and I would see someone in the office that closed on a house and I would go where'd you get that client? Because I can't figure out how to get clients. You know in, you know whatever they told me. I would try to take that and do the same. So yeah. I think it's really important.
Speaker 2:Great, but I think we've covered quite a bit here. How about we tell people you people where can people find?
Speaker 1:you Well, 616 reallycom. You can find me in in all the great agents there. Otherwise, my email cell phone is all on there. Feel free to reach out. I'd love to talk to any of you, great.
Speaker 2:Awesome. We'll appreciate you coming on, scott. Yeah, it's fun. This is great, yeah, awesome. We'll appreciate you coming on, scott. Yeah, it's fun and, um, this is great, yeah, thanks. Thanks for joining us. Please like, share and subscribe if you've enjoyed this podcast.