Nick Libert on Empowering Lives Through Real Estate

0:00Guys, it's no use putting it off, the best time for an underwear refresh is now. Tommy John underwear is designed for a perfect fit that stays put all day. There's zero shape thanks to four times more stretch than competing brands, and their innovative horizontal quickdraw fly is a game changer. With over 30 million pairs sold, there are thousands of men out there more comfortable than you. Don't settle for less. Go to TommyJohn.com today for 25% off your first order with code comfort. It's TommyJohn.com slash comfort. Tommy John, comfort perfected. Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you'd like to apply to be a guest in the show, just set on over to missionmatters.com and click on be our guest to apply. All right, so today's a very special episode. We have a return guest back on the line. So Nick Leifert, he's a CEO and founder. He's got multiple companies, and one of them is exit strategy realty. Nick, man. Welcome back to the show. It is an honor to be back on the show, Adam.

1:01We were just trying to think when we were last on together, it's been years of growth and change, and I'm just congratulations on all the explosive growth and the exciting things you've done with your podcast since the last time I was on. It's amazing to see, I always love to see friends do well and continue to bloom and grow and blossom, and it's just been, it's like ships passing in the night. I saw it. Wow. Look at what Adam's done. And then all of a sudden I got this invite to be back on the show. So I'm like, this is an honor to be on this much, even bigger platform than before. Thank you so much for being here. Well, man. Very, very kind. And like I always like to say, man, I'm approaching 7,000 interviews. And I'm just, I can't even imagine that many people want to talk to me, so I'm just, I'm flattered. So it's a fun, it's been a fun journey and really it's the guest. The audience, definitely grateful to the audience because if they didn't tune in, nobody would care. Good thing. And you have a podcast, too. And I don't know if you had one the last time we talked, so learn with Libert. I'm saying that right. Right?

2:02Like, you have a podcast. So did you have that the first time you came in the show? I don't remember. I don't think I did. So we've had it. So talk to you, man. Talk to me about the show. I want my audience to go check that thing out for sure. So learn with Libert, it kind of comes out from time to time. It's not as consistent as it used to be. It used to be weekly, but it's just all about real estate, green, sustainable housing, solar, all about what's going on in the real estate world. And just all about it's for real terraces, for consumers. It's a little bit of something for everyone relating to the world of real estate and all about empowering lives to real estate because that's really what we're all about at Exist Strategy Realty and Project X, which is my coaching program, which I believe Adam. I don't even think we branded that coaching program at that point when I first talked to you. Yeah. I don't think it was. It was a coaching program, but it wasn't branded. What was it doing? What was it turning into? And there's a reason why it's called Project X, so we're thinking quadrants. We map in quadrants.

3:03So there's been a lot of growth like you. Like I'm sure you're, you know, the way that you've grown out in tentacles and marketing spheres. There's been a huge growth spurt and intentional growth as to how we built out our platforms. That's amazing. Teach me up on some of that. I know you own multiple businesses and I own real estate. Some major focus in nitri like catch me up on the ecosystem on the world of neck. Like, well, what's going on? So the ecosystem is growing, not all the plants grow the same and sometimes we need to weed out a few, but you know, some of my ideas or not, some of my ideas come out half baked, but we always start. Welcome. Welcome. You know, love of entrepreneurship. On entrepreneurship. But I've learned a road test things on myself and on my close group of friends before we debut it to the world and my internal agency before we take it out to the external agents. So we really got kind of a nice crew and a mastermind for everything now. But the way the ecosystem is, it really all still starts with exit strategy, realty.

4:04But then you also have strategic title company, which is our title company, which we love. We also have Project X, which is our coaching platform. Project X has a lot of moving pieces to that. That is the various pieces of our, we have a CRM, we have a, we have access to the private listing network, we have a network of multiple emalescent that we feed information into, we have private listing network, we have off market listings. So a lot of different technology pieces that go into that white label product. Another white label product of ours is we have an app that is a concierge for our consumers. And that concierge lives well beyond the sale of the home, just like the relationship with your real estate agent should live well beyond the sale of your home. We have a lifetime app for you. It used to be just a website portal, but we're now launching an app that will live on with you in your home and your future investments. So there's a lot of moving pieces to it.

5:04And one of the things I'm really excited about right now with Project X and exit strategy realty and our various growth spurts that we're doing is we have such an exciting opportunity to be in the green and sustainable spaces. So they have very passionate about there's a couple passion projects I'm working on right now. Down payment assistance for people that are really trying to break into this tough housing market. We really want to get in down payment assistance programs. We've got a lot of down payment assistance programs that we've been working on that we've launched or that we've worked shopped with banks and lenders and outside entities for our consumers. But then in addition to that, we've been doing green and sustainable. We're looking at how can we make our housing more green, more sustainable getting into that. By the way, I want to go further into it. But where did that start from, like that idea or how did you get into that piece?

6:05To be really honest and transparent, I always try to be super honest with everybody. It came from kind of growing up broke. It really reams sustainable, started out like literally to survive. There were a couple times when I was a kid growing up that the lights got turned off. Dad was out of work, didn't pay the bills. My mom had to get a paper route. My mom was always the hustler in the family that was raising us and was really paying the bills. And so we had a couple times that the lights got turned on. And I remember being like, we need to fulfill what's going on with the electric bill. I always just was like solar panels. That to me as a child was sustainability. What if we had our own energy grid? So I was always fascinated playing around with solar panels as a kid, also green and sustainable in terms of the earth. You look at what's going on out there and how most of the manufacturing processes to get us our electricity is awful and our energy is awful. Solar panels, although it's a lot of effort to make the solar panel the way in.

7:07It's a very long life cycle for a solar panel and the battery is related to it. We love where green and solar is going. So my passion for green and solar came out of both a need as a child, kind of to keep us off the grid, so to speak. Keep us, keep the electric on, but not being dependent on someone else being self-sufficient. And then also kind of a passion for the earth always grew up around plants because we were running out of money sometimes. I'm like, you know what? I want to grow my own food. I want to learn how to grow my own food. We were not starving, but we made just children. But there were moments where I'm like, I think I want to learn how to grow my own food. And you know, we saw some neighbors that were in need. We didn't live in the best neighborhood. We lived in OK neighborhood, but I saw some neighbors and I'm like, you know what? Maybe we should get another monastery. And I grew up in Florida. And I remember, like, there's sustenance and sustainability. I love that I'm a passion for being self-sustained and being able to grow and help others do the

8:11same way. So that's how I got into the green and sustainable space and within housing, there's a big part of it where some of the ways we build our products and we charge and fuel our homes, it's not sustainable, it's not healthy, it's not affordable or it might not be affordable soon with the way the world is shifting right now, particularly right right now. So it would be a smart time for people to consider looking into solar. And so I've got a new avenue for them to look into that. We've got some great solar programs out there to get solar on your roof. If you are thinking about as a homeowner, even if you're in the city, people are like, oh, I'm in the city, I'm in a condo. Well, if you're in a condo condo, you can't do it. But if you're in a condo with a rooftop deck, private rooftop deck, you can do a veranda, you can do something over an overlay on your space. If you've got a good amount of outdoor space, we've got a wonderful group we work with, an architect and a design firm that can draw up lands and say, okay, you can have a

9:17certain number of square footage outside and you can have a terrace or a veranda over your space. And you can create enough solar energy to power your home, possibly your car, hopefully you're thinking about getting the EV, as most of these cars are driving themselves now. And you know, that's another thing, automation, I'm really passionate about can we make this world a little bit of a safer place with automation, automation, make it safer, make it more efficient. I had Lasik surgery 20 something years ago and it was great. But guess what? That was 20 something years ago, I'm 47, about 48 years old. I need to have Lasik again. And my daughter told me, you can't have it again until you're like, you're in your mid-50s, you can only have a twice in your life and I'm like, I don't see you all that night. I'm like, I really probably shouldn't be driving as much at night, should be telling you this. You know, people are in my car driving around the real estate with me, but you know, AI is going to help us get through those moments.

10:20There are senior drivers, you know, I lost my mom, my stepdad, and my real dad last year and a tragic three way, a three death last year. It was really sad. My mom stepped out of my real dad all past the way last year, but in the process of losing them, they were all in various stages of decline. And I watched, and I lived a lot of great lessons. I got some time, quality of time with each of them, obviously not enough. I wish they were also here. But with each one of them, you know, there were moments where I'm like, I can see where AI could help you or will help you in the future, things will be different. And my stepdad, you know, he drove CDL truck for years, he owned a CDL trucking operation. He would have loved to have seen what we're going to be doing with the AI automation of driving down the roads with the AI.

11:21That's you're going to be amazed at what the efficiency is going to be and how that's going to impact every part of the program. And you're doing work correctly from off, you're doing work right now at the EVs and Tesla and stuff, right? Like you're in that ecosystem. I am. What are you with? I was just down at the, you know, and Tesla's got a little bit of a sigma on them right now for various reasons and, you know, to shame sometimes that, you know, one person can kind of do that to a company. But here's the thing, Elon has said some things and done some things that are a little off sometimes to some people and that is what it is. The bottom line is that Tesla has some amazing products and technology and the future out there. What they are building is second to none. And so the bottom line is, is I look at it going with what's going to be for the greater good. And I'm looking at what they're doing with solar, what they're doing with AI, what they're doing with the driving technology, going back to my laser.

12:25I don't see well at night. I need to be able to drive at night. I have clients to see. I have people to see. I have to show for, well, my family was so, my mom and set that whistle up. I need to go visit them and make sure they were safe sometimes and my little brother was doing the same thing. Are you going to get around sometimes it's not always safe to do that when you've got a visibility issue, an impairment issue, AI is going to help that. Tesla's way ahead of the game with everybody. So you know, everyday out there that's kind of poo poo and Tesla and bad mouthing them for one reason or another. Look at the greater good that that company is going to do us because no one is anywhere near where they are in that space. And it's going to save a lot of lives and save a lot of convenience, but also make a lot of people better experiences, better consumer experiences. So the UX of things that is really going to be, it's going to be an absolute game-changing, life-changing experiences. AI continues to automation and for Tesla, full self-drive, all that stuff pans out in

13:31the next 12 to 24 months. This stuff is happening right now as we speak. So my car is able to drive itself to showings. I'm able to interact with my consumers more. I'm able to literally pay attention to my dog more, whatever in the car, when I want to go to a dog free self when we get the car to the full upset. Even the pubs are benefiting over here for me, that's awesome. Everybody gets those people get more, you know, you get more time in the car with your people. There's a lot of benefits to AI. You know, AI can scare people, but there's ways to really be excited about what we've got coming to us and for us, but you've just got to engage and understand the technology as it comes. And you've got to be around people that know how to use it and use it the right way and understand it. And that's where my passions come in. I want to show people how this is impacting my life, how it's impacting the life of

14:33people around me, how it can empower your lives through real estate, through property, how it can make your home smarter and healthier. That's the whole reason behind Project X is it's not just about selling people real estate. It's about a full life experience, health and wellness, personal finance, charity community, and of course real estate. This is the four pillars of my coaching program at Project X. And that's really where I think our real estate brand has taken a, I think a swing. I had the fence of beyond the fences of some of our competitors is, I think a lot of brands have lost their mission, they lost their mojo in this chaos of the interest rates going so far north and it got so expensive to buy. And there's so little inventory and the margins are so low for the broker owners that you really see the, I think the lifeblood of real estate brokerages like the mission statements

15:35are just shurdling up on the bike. And they're just not excited anymore and they can solidation in my industry that's happening. It's going on and it's so sad because these, you know, bespoke brands and brands that took decades and sell them 100 years for cobalt banker to be built in central tournament. They're all just slammed now under one big roof and you're like, wow, where was the mission statement? What was the culture? How does that survive? Don't worry about my little island at Exit Strategy Realty, where we've been and I weren't good. Yeah. It's a good island to be in, you know, sometimes I'm like, sometimes there's a bunker, sometimes there's an island and I really enjoy being around people that are mission focused, you know, like you that I just have a passion for the community and a passion for sustainability and for bettering the earth and bettering the people around me and empowering lives through property and just health and wellness and I'm like, it's not just about the transactions

16:36about a relationship and that, you know, I think that's been lost the last couple of years in the real estate industry. I think our real estate industry has gone through so much consolidation, losses, ugliness, just change and turmoil in chaos as has the whole world. But it's just been such an ugly time to joys and suck out a real estate. Like, I want to bring the joy back to real estate, I want to bring the passion back to real estate. I want to be a safe space for realtors and for consumers where they know this is a place where you can go to get a home, get a loan, get your home insurance, get trusted vendors and providers, get all this stuff done and protect your home and power your life through the property, know that you've got some trusted biases around you, we're not just here for a check, we're here for a relationship, we're here for the community and you've got resources after the closing. It's not just about that, it's not about the deal, it's about the community, it's about

17:41building out a better community through stabilizing housing and through stabilizing commercial spaces and looking at all the commercial spaces that are vacant up and down, you know, the drives, when you come in and out of the city Chicago and all our different urban and even suburban environments, you're stabilizing stuff, there's work to be done and I'm just really excited for where we could be if we are going to turn everything green sustainable. That's really part of the, my passion of plan is we're going to be able to save money for people when you take their roof solar, make your roof solar and green. You put the EV charging stations out back, you get some EV chargers, you've got green, green, sustainable and you own your property versus renting it. So for those people out there that are thinking about their, in their third or fourth year renewal on a lease and they're a small business owner, CPA account insurance company and they're like, okay, well, I've been here five years, ten years sometimes, how much money you throw

18:43away on rent, you could have bought that building, you could have bought that commercial union, you could have bought the block, own your block. I really want to flip the narrative on people in the coming eight, 12, 24 months in terms of not only being sustainable, but are you renting or are you owning to the business owner? You're Dennis, you're at your accountant, are they owning their space? I want to establish conversations, if you don't own your building, you don't own your business. I'm going to say that, if you don't own your building, you don't own your business. And I say that as someone who is still renting spaces, in non-spot, I am renting from my own agents though. I'm empowering my agents, I'm literally, our model is if I don't own the building, my agent's own the building and the process of buying the building where our primary offices and agents own most of the buildings where our brokerages, that's my model. If I don't own a YouTube owner. Yeah. I appreciate the market. If we're appreciative of the market, that you should buy real estate, we should be buying

19:48real estate. And that's the same way with a wealth advisor, but wealth advisor is telling you, oh, yeah, own real estate and they're renting. We've all got to look at ourselves and we should be owning our own your block, own your land. I'll tell you, Nick, you did not disappoint. You came with it today. I was looking forward to this. I saw you on my sketch. I'm like, what? I get to catch up with Nick. And you killed it, of course, as I expected. Last thing I want you to do here, as we wrap up, how do people follow up? How do they learn more about the coaching program, about the brokerage and just your whole ecosystem? How do people connect and how do they follow? It is so easy to get ahold of me and connect with me. I would love to be more involved with all of you. Just go to www.nicklibrat.com. N-I-C-K-L-I-B is envoyearty.com or on social media, I'm at Nicklibrat everywhere. So I would love to connect with you all and become a part of your ecosystem and let's

20:49go bring, let's go sustainable, let's own our blocks and our properties and empower ourselves. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. For everybody listening, just so you know, we'll definitely put some links in the show notes so you can just click on the links and head right on over and connect with Nick. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven't done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show, yes, you heard me write each and every day, we're bringing you new content, new ideas and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So hit that subscribe or follow button and Nick, man, appreciate all you do. Thanks again for coming back on. Adam, thank you so much for having me.