March 11, 2025 • 29 mins
Realty ONE Group Gold Standard has thrived for over six years as the pioneering ROG franchise in the Pittsburgh/Western PA area. Building on the brand's formidable success on the West Coast, founders Michael Hanlon and Dionne Malush recognized its perfect match with Pittsburgh's evolving landscape. Today, Realty ONE Group stands as the fastest-growing real estate brand in the United States. True to Pittsburgh's Black and Gold spirit, this high-energy real estate firm, co-founded by former chiropractor Michael Hanlon and graphic designer Dionne Malush, puts a premium on agent support. The company's commitment to providing a modern, dynamic work environment aims to maximize agent growth and profitability. Their distinctive blend of mindset and creativity continues to differentiate them in the competitive market. https://www.realtyonegroupgoldstandard.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
And welcome in. This is the CEOs You Should Know podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Heartwell, let's say hello to co
owner of Realty one Groups gold Standard in Pittsburgh, Dean Malish.
Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's so great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Tell us everything we need to know about Realty one
Group gold Standard.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, of course, we're the best real estate brokerage in
all of Pittsburgh. We actually give back most of the
money to the agents. That makes us stand out in
a flooded marketplace like Pittsburgh where there's nine thousand agents.
We are setting different standards for real estate agents where
they can actually be their own CEO of their company
inside of our brokerage. I think that's what really sets
us apart. Plus, we have a real estate attorney who
(00:41):
is our broker, so we give the most money back.
We have an amazing real estate attorney broker and we
let them run their business like a business.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And what is the history man?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So yeah, Realty one Group came out of California. We
brought the franchise to Pittsburgh's we're the largest Realty one
Group in the region. We were the first ones here,
so we disrupted the market which was incredible. What an
opportunity to come into Pittsburgh where everything's been the same
for one hundred years, and we came in and did
something different, which, trust me, has made the other companies
step up their game.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Oh what did you do?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We brought a franchise to Pittsburgh that actually gave more
money to the agent. Instead of taking half their money,
we gave them most of the money. So we were
able to tract agents very quickly, so we grew rapidly.
We didn't have to pay people to come here like
some companies pay bonuses to get the agents to join.
We didn't have to do that because we give them
the most money all the time.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And when did you come into Pittsburgh?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
So we started in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And how many realty agents do you have?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
We have nearly two hundred, and we're trying to get
to three hundred. So that's our goal for the next
twelve to eighteen months.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Two hundred already, well, we've.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Had well, we had one hundred in our first year.
It was really fast growth, all.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Right, So telling us about give us a snappack, a
snapshot of what the Pittsburgh market is like.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So I always call the Pittsburgh market stable. COVID made
us unstable. We had some amazing years. They were the
three best years in the history of Pittsburgh real estate.
But now we're back to our stable market, which is normal.
We don't have the big hugs and lows like everyone
else in the country. It's good in some ways, obviously
bad in other ways because agents love that idea of
just walking into a property and all of a sudden
(02:11):
it sells the next day with seventeen offers. That's not
the norm. The norm is actually being a real estate
agent and doing the job of real estate and teaching
the buyers and sellers how to get the most money
for their house and how to get the best deal
for the buyers. So anyways, it's been a wild couple
of years. I mean, for ha US come into twenty eighteen,
COVID hit twenty twenty, we couldn't work for three months,
(02:32):
and we're like, what.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Are we going to do?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
We're brand new, right, what are we going to do?
But we did it, and we started having zoom calls
all the time, And now I don't ever get off
of a zoom call. It seems like the history of
my life back to have like six today.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Now, I grew up in Pittsburgh. Do you grow up here?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I did in them on Valley?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
All right? And maybe it were a little biased, but
I think this is a great market. It's affordable, you know,
I seek a lot of people. You know, we live
here and we compare maybe the prices of what it
was ten years ago here in the It'sburgh market. But
if you compare Pittsburgh to other markets, it's very affordable.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it's got extremely it's.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Got great neighborhoods, we're stable, We've got so many advantages
that other markets don't have. Am I wrong?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
No, You're a one hundred percent correct. And there's still
opportunity all over. And it's funny because when I'm posting
on social media and I'll have someone that's from California
or from Texas and they look in there like are
you getting me? The house is like cheaper than an escalade.
You can still buy houses cheaper than escalades around here,
so you know, and it's amazing. One time we did it,
we bought a rental property. We paid eleven thousand dollars
(03:34):
for it. We ended up getting about nine hundred dollars
per side. It was a duplex eighteen hundred a month
for an eleven thousand dollars property. So you just can't
find that anywhere else in the country. So there is
still affordability, and there is also many great deals.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Plus it's great neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh, such great neighborhoods. There's so many great now.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Educational opportunities, and there's so much that Pittsburgh has to
offer to people who are moving here.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, plus the most amazing spitroles, and it's just Pittsburgh
is a really cool place.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So tell us your history of being in real estate.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah. So I had a graphic design business. I've always
been entrepreneurial. My dad was an entrepreneur growing up, and
I really didn't think I could work for anyone else.
But I tried and it didn't go so well, and
I knew at that point that's just not my thing.
I'm not good at having people tell me what to do.
So I started a graphic design business in nineteen eighty
nine and I about seventeen years I had that business,
(04:28):
and the last year I got into a partnership that
destroyed the whole company. But at that point I knew
that I had to do something else. So I got
my real estate license, and I really had liked real
estate and didn't realize how good I could be at it.
In my second year of real estate, I made as
much as I had in my seventeenth year of my
graphic design business. So I thought, oh, there's something here,
So I married the two industries graphic design and real estate.
(04:49):
Whenever everyone else used to use Microsoft Word to create,
I was creating beautiful images and houses that looked like
products versus just putting it out there like everyone else.
So I had a huge opportunity to disrupt myself right
because I was able to come into a market where
everybody was doing it the same way and do something different,
but as if they say, they say look left, and
everybody's looking right right. So I was able to do
(05:11):
that in real estate, and I think that that was
very helpful for my career. So I grew up my
real estate business I had. I was averaging about seventy
eight transactions a year, which the average real estate agent
sells between eight and twelve. And then we started decided
to have this brokerage, and we went out and took
a look at the franchise and realized it was black
and gold. I mean, it's the best colors for this
whole city and we have black and gold, and it
(05:33):
was just such a great model and something unique to Pittsburgh,
and so I love doing that. So after having been
in real estate, so it's been twenty one years and
I've earned the brokerage since twenty eighteen, so it's an
unbelievable experience. Something I really never wanted to have a
real estate company. That was not my goal. I was
actually going to move south and leave. We were traveling
(05:56):
down the coast looking for places to go, and then
my partner came to me and said, check out this model.
I'm like, I am not interested, not even a little bit.
But then I looked at the brand and realized it
fit this city so well, and so I guess and
that's why I'm still here. I mean, I do love Pittsburgh.
I love the Steelers and Penguins and the Pirates even
though yeah, I do love them though, just because it
(06:17):
was I can't even talk story. Yeah, So I mean,
what are you gonna do? It is what it is,
you know, I think I've got to know you. We've
known each other for less than ten minutes and let me.
You're a very passionate.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Person, aren't you. I am extremely Is this your passion?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
So creativity is my passion? Like I am the most creative,
actually more creative now at fifty six, almost fifty seven.
I can't even believe it than I've ever been in
my life.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
You know, when you said you were in graphic design
for seventeen years, in the real estate for twenty one,
I'm like, did she start when she was a fetus?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Thank you? I mean, seriously, tell us about your passion. Yeah. So, actually,
go back to about less than two years ago when
my dad passed away. I feel like I had to
instead of grieving, I had to find something to feel
that space. And I've always been creative, but since then,
I've been more creative than ever. I've been creating things
like I created a podcast, right, I created some amazing
(07:17):
things for our agents, Like I'm constantly creating new things
for them to help them build their business. I created
an intranet for our company, things that we didn't have.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Give us some examples of some of the creativity that
you present to your pages.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, so I create everything they need, Like I come
up with ideas on past client database on how to
you know how to build their business ideas. I create
campigraphics for them, like I do. All the stuff that
most people pay a company to do, I do myself.
So a couple of weeks ago, I did a database
booklet that I shared with them to help them build
(07:50):
their database, because I think database is a gold mine
for anyone in business, right if you are tracking your database,
keeping track of who they are, where they came from.
And one thing about selling a house every seven years
is what the statistic is for selling a house, So
there's a lot of opportunity. If you have two hundred
people in that database, ten percent of the people are
(08:11):
buying or selling in the next year. But if they
don't know who you are, if you're not top of mind,
they'll never be able to find you. Because a lot
of agents they don't reach out to their past clients.
They just go forward and not backward. Where I spent
my whole career on my past client database, and so
there's so much opportunity there. So I teach them how
to do that, and I'm always teaching them about mindset
(08:32):
and I've actually learned a lot about thinking grow rich,
and that's what I've been studying for about seven years.
I've had a mastermind doing that, so I learned a
lot about mindset and keeping your mind positive. And I
have to tell you right now, I'm going through probably
the hardest thing post my dad passing away, that I've
ever had to deal with it personally, and I am
(08:52):
living in positivity and hope, which is different. And people
look at me, like, you're going through so much, and
I'm like, I know, but I have to look at
the other side of it, and I know there's something
amazingly positive in this. So that's how I'm living. And
if it wasn't for all the years of self development
and learning from Napoleon Hill and other people like him,
Wallace Wattles, you know, Andrew Carnegie or Pittsburgh guy, if
we didn't have that opportunity, if I didn't have that opportunity,
(09:15):
I would not be able to handle the things I'm
going through at this moment. So I have to tell
you that's been a big part of my life and
the brokerage, because there's agents that will come into my
office they're so stressed out. Twenty minutes later they leave
and they're on fire again. Because I have that opportunity
because I've learned so much and how to teach them
how to you know, think positive and how to look
at the bright side. It doesn't sounds funny, like why
(09:37):
would I think about it that way with the bright
side of things, But there is a bright side to everything.
And no matter what we go through, every single person
goes through stuff, right, you go through stuff, you go
we all do. It's how we get up and move
on to the other side that matters and finding that
power in that purpose.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Have you ever heard of the term amor fati no
means love it all? I love it all.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Love the answer to everything.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
And because you know, even if it's something difficult, it's
something that you can learn from every time. I love
it all. And if you have that attitude, it's like,
oh my god, things are going things are bad, things
are Wait a minute, I'm going to get through this
and what am I going to learn? What am I
going to take from this? This? This is a learning
(10:21):
experience and as difficult that you know that some days
can be difficult, but if you have that mindset of
I'm going to get through this and this is going
to make a better me. And I like you. I
read Napoleon Hill early in my career and it really
made a difference. It was like, start with desire and
(10:42):
creativity and you know, being persistent and those and those
are those kind of philosophies that you bring to the
company and you present to your agents. And so that's
a great teaching tool, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I agreed. I think we have the ability to be
able to think what we want to think and be
what we want to be. Like that is incre just
knowing that we can be anything we want to be.
So I even for myself, like I always feel like
I'm not where I want to be steel, Like I
have so much more to do in this life and
so many more people to help. So it's my goal
to affect someone's day in a positive way every single day.
(11:18):
But now I'm to the point where one person's not enough.
I need to affect many more people in any given day.
Real estate allows me to do this, But I also
want to be able to help people like I love
AI and creativity and AI go together so well I
can help. The other night, I went to a mastermind
it was called the Next Level Association, and they had
(11:39):
me teach about AI and there were all these big
muscle guys, and I was like, oh my gosh, it's
so intimidating. Right, they were all sitting there and they
were so fascinated by forty minutes of my AI. How
to help your business with AI, you know? And I thought,
this is what I love to do. You want to
talk about passion. It's teaching people how to help help
(12:00):
themselves be better. That's what I love.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Tell us a little bit about that teaching.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Oh, it's so cool. So I just went, I put
together an AI presentation and I showed them how to,
you know, how to post on social media. Oh my gosh,
my voice is giving out.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Take a little sip of something there. It's a podcast,
you know.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, so I mean my podcast. I let it run.
What is what it is? Whatever I do or say,
it does not matter. But so yeah, so I was
teaching them how to, you know, how to post on
social media, how to do it from AI, how to
create their bio, how to help their brand, you know,
how to research in fact, what I told you before
about you know, looking left when everybody's looking right. So
I was I had a podcast interview with this incredible
(12:40):
lady from Florida, and she is only one in the
entire world that does a three D immersive keynote speech
in the world. She was on my podcast and I'm
fascinated by her. So she actually created this three D
model where she's on stage but doesn't see anything, and
she has all these things happening, you know, like the
brain and words, and she's pointing at him like they're
(13:01):
there and she doesn't even know. Amazing. Yeah, So she
gives this speech. So when she was talking, she said,
when I quit my job, one thing I did was
I wanted to look left when everyone was looking right.
So that's why I designed something that no other speaker
in the whole world did. So then I took that
idea and I said, AI, help me think of how
I can look left when everybody's looking right, or look
(13:24):
right when everyone's looking left either way? And what can
I do in my business to do that? So AI
shot out about ten ideas, and I was like, these
are incredible. So I taught the people in that group
that because then they were thinking about their own self.
It's just how do you prompt it, how do you
talk to AI like it's your assistant and teach it
to help you. So don't you think that would be
cool in any business in Pittsburgh if you talk to
(13:46):
AI and tell it all about you, let it learn
who you are, and then you ask it to help
you look left when everybody's looking right. Well.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
One thing I love about Pittsburgh is we have a
blue collar reputation, which is valid, but I also think
this is a city of passionate people with that always
strive for innovation. I think we're the one of if
there's anything one word that describes Pittsburgher's it's innovation. We
(14:14):
figure out a way to get things done for sure,
not just you know, our sports teams are a great example,
of course, but from from a from an industrial standpoint,
we've done that and we continue to strive. The collapse
of the steel mills devastated this community and we found
(14:34):
a way to rise above that. Now, the problem is
we haven't told a whole lot of people about what
we are like, and we need more people to come
into town. Because we talked about the real estate, you know,
is just it's a perfect place. We can expand very quickly,
and we have so much to offer.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
For sure. I agree. Yeah, And when you think about that.
So I grew up in a trailer park n til
I was eighteen, and I didn't even know that was
a bad thing until they started calling me trailer trash. Yeah.
Then I was like, yeah, you want to see what
trailer trash is made of. And then now I'm teaching them.
I'm showing them exactly what I'm made of. If I
hadn't lived in Pittsburgh, I don't know if I would
have picked up the pieces so easily. But I watched
(15:17):
so many people or sports teams get up and pick
up the pieces again. So yeah, that was difficult, but
I pushed through it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Tell us more about your podcast.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, it's called Shine on Success. It's on everywhere Apple,
you know, Spotify, everywhere. So I started this podcast when
my dad passed. So he passed in September, and in January,
I was working with a podcast coach and he taught
me how to put it all together, and so I started.
So I think I had sixty five episodes since last
year in January, and I love it. It's the best
(15:49):
networking opportunity I've ever had because I'm getting to meet
people all over the world and there I'm learning things
from each person. So it's more than just you know,
doing a podcast, I'm actually learning. So my podcast is
about adversity and pushing through to the other side. And
we try to throw in Napoleon Hill principles in there,
but half the time we just talk about like we
are just talk and it's incredible because I see that,
(16:10):
you know, I'm not the only one that had to
go through all the things that I've been through, and
neither is anyone else. But this gives us the opportunity
to share and you know, hear people's struggles and how
they push forward.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
And who are some of your guests?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Oh geez, I have so many guests, Like gosh, well
that lady I told you about, she was incredible. You know.
Jim Shorky from the Jim Shorky out Of group. He
was one of my first guests, and he's incredible because
he used thinking Grow Rich to help him get out
of bankruptcy Eminence when his dad passed. So we just
talked the other day. We were on the phone and
he came up with this idea and I said, Jim,
that's incredible. But he his company was bankruptcy Eminent. He
(16:44):
used Thinking Grow Rich. He actually put the principles in
place and built that company to where it is today.
He would credit Think and Grow Rich for that. So,
if you know Jim, he's read it one hundred and
sixty four times, and every single time he reads it
he finds something else in it. So when we go
back to, my husband and I were getting married and
Jim and I had been friends. So my husband asked
(17:05):
Jim if he could give me a copy of his
Think and Grow Rich because he had he writes lots
of notes in them. So on my wedding eve, my
husband gave me Jim's copy of it, which has all
of his notes in it. Really, it was just so
cool because I love energy, and I know the energy
in the books with someone else's writing in it, it's
so cool. So I actually had Jim's book at home
sitting there with all of his highlighted information on it,
(17:26):
and it's been a lot to me because he you know,
he is such an incredible guy. The fact is he
was all the way on his in his worst days,
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in debt, his dad passed,
and he was destroying the company.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I was not aware of that obviously. Yeah, and he'll
tell that short Auto group is you know.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Amazing, like one of the biggest ones in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
And his dad was fabulous. Yeah, and he had no idea.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, you'd have to get him on. You need to
bring him on because he has a great story and
you know, he's been through a lot. He had some
medical issues a few years back that most people would
have never pushed through, but he used this which he
knows again his mind and he pushed through and now
he's doing great. And so yeah, So I've had people
like Jim and geez, there's so many. I had a
(18:14):
lawyer on that who was jailed for like seven years
wrongfully convicted and then now he's a lawyer and helping
people that are wrongfully convicted. Oh geez, I can't. I
had Britney Cross and who's the social media wild crazy person.
She's incredible. She was you know, what's that exercise machine
that everybody loves, Peloton, the Peloton. Yeah, so she was
(18:35):
she was doing some stuff for Peloton. When she was
she sings and dances on her treadmill backwards. So yeah,
so she made a big splash in social media. So
I had her on. I can't even remember all the people.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
They are so fun, your guests.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So there's some podcast communities that I find them in
and I would just put up a post if anybody's
looking to be on my podcast, and then hundreds of
people come and so I have to hand pick through that.
And then sometimes it's just that I know and that
I want to have their story because I know they
have good stories. I had. Every he was on in
his story, of course, is incredible and he's you know,
he wants to be a professional speaker, which he's doing.
(19:10):
But I'm also on the board of directors of National
Speakers Association Pittsburgh, which I think is such a great
organization for people that want to learn how to speak.
And it's not just about professional speaking, it's about speaking
in your business, being a better leader. So it teaches
me a lot about how to speak better, be better,
and it's just a fantastic organization. But I'm doing that.
(19:32):
I love, you know, think and grow rich and I
study that all the time. And creativity, that's my that's
my superpower.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Tell us a little bit about your team.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, so we have incredible, incredible agents in Pittsburgh. We
didn't have all incredible people there are some people that
you know came and we had to get rid of,
but you just never know. But we have the most giving,
kind agents that will help each other, which is not normal.
I've been in a lot of real estate offices. Most
(20:04):
of the time you're too busy to help someone. Other
times you really don't want to share your secrets to success.
Even thought, yeah, that's how you grow in the world.
The more you share, right, give and receive. It's all
the way to back to the Bible. That's how we work.
So that's why I'm always eager to give everything I
have because I think that's what helps our brokerage. That's
what helps me as a person. But that's how our
(20:24):
agents are. They're the same way and they're willing to
help each other. We have brand new people that just
came out of school to at agents in their mid seventies,
so we have the whole gamut we have. I think
we speak fifteen different languages in our company, and I
just bought the url we speak real estate dot com. Yeah,
I was so excited about that because I think I'm
going to share that the diversification of our company and
(20:46):
how you know how cool they are so Yeah, we
have a great bunch of people. I actually know every
single one of them, like two hundred people, and I
know them all and know something about them that's important.
I really try to spend time, even on the whole holidays,
just making sure that I reach out to everybody and say,
you know, Merry Christmas or you know, happy Easter or
happy Thanksgiving, thank you for what you do. I really
(21:08):
try to make them feel wanted, because without them we
have we don't have a brokerage.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
You don't want to be a boss.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
You want to be a leader, correct servant leader, That's
what I want you. Sometimes I can be a little
bit crappy sometimes, I mean they have to be once
in a while.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
We all can't.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, so you can't be perfect all the time, although
I try. You know, another thing I have to say
is it's funny because I always get so shocked when
people are like if they say something bad about me,
because I do so many things good to help that
when something is negative, I'm like, oh my gosh, really
like I'm doing all this stuff trying to be good, right,
But you have to deal with it. It's life, people.
(21:46):
It's not always about me, It's about them.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Too, Well, what are you doing to get the word
out and to show people that you have a different idea?
What is your what is what are some of your
marketing strategy?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, so social media is the biggest thing because it's
the opportunity. I always tell our agents it's like having
your own reality show, right and why do show has
become so famous because we got to know the people, right.
So I tried to do as many things for the
people in the Facebook land and LinkedIn and Instagram to
know Dion Mallache and who I am. So I've been
(22:19):
working on that a lot, and I think it's helping
if people are coming to me, like something as simple
as wishing everybody happy birthday with a little birthday video
every day, every single day we send it out to
everybody in my Facebook. It's five thousand people a year
get a happy Birthday greeting from me. And that has
made so much impact with people because sometimes people will say,
(22:41):
you're the first person that's sang to me all day,
or my mom passed away a year ago and she
always sang to me. But now you are like little touches,
like drips right drips into people and just letting them
see the kind of person that I am and the
kind of person that I want to share with everyone.
How to be there our best selves because we only
(23:01):
get one shot at this life, right and we have
an opportunity every day to get up and be positive
or negative. I choose positive every day, no matter what.
And I'm going through a huge fight right now. My
husband is very sick. But you know what, I get
up and I help him get up. So that's where
I'm at.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I'm sorry you're going through that me too.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
It's shocking, but you know what, there's positive in it.
You know what he did on Saturday? He told me we
were going to some fishing thing because he has surgery
in two weeks. So we drive like two hours away
to go to this fishing thing and we get to
this house and he says he had to pick up
this bucket for one of his pieces of machinery. I'm like,
(23:42):
where's the fishing show. He's like, it's ten minutes down
the road. So he goes, you want to come inside?
I said, no, I don't want to come out. I'll
just stay here. I'll wait for you. No, no, you
need to come inside. I'm like, no, I really don't
want to come inside. I'm good, I'm just gonna sit here,
and he goes, it's for you. So I walk inside
and there's a little puppy there, little puppy that we
are going. We named Mercy after Mercy Hospital because that's
(24:04):
where we've been going for the last four months and
the nurses have been so incredible. So we named her
Mercy Grace. And she's a little wiener dog two and
a half pounds. And he surprised me. I had no idea.
So he's having surgery on the twenty seventh and he's
still worrying about me being happy.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I'm not crying.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Oh my god, he's such a sweetheart. Yeah, so here
we know. So that the good is that this little girl,
along with our little boy Hulk, will help him get
through his tough days because she'll be his nurse. And
so thank God for Mercy Hospital and thank God for everything.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Almar Foddy love it all.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
It's the answer.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, I'm this is sometimes I ask this question and
I don't have a lot of conviction behind it this
and I do because I'm really curious about where is
your company going to what's the future, because you seem
(25:08):
like somebody who has you definitely have a vision.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I do, and actually I worked last year on something
called a vivid Vision, which was a three year plan.
I would love to share it with you someday. It's
just a beautiful display of everything that I want in
my life. But all of that has to be with
Jason p And okay, because he's part of that three
year plan, right. So my vision for my life is
(25:33):
to enjoy it and to be able to help as
many people as I possibly can. But the next thing
is for our company is to be known as the
place where everyone wants to be. All of the agents.
Stop giving away all your money. Come to the place
that will treat you fair and give you the most
money and give you the most opportunity. We let our
agents run their businesses as successful little businesses inside of us,
(25:57):
and I think for us, the next five to ten
years will put us over that three hundred mark, which
is important. I mean, I'd love to see us at
five hundred. But I know with five hundred comes a lot,
you know, more staff. We have six locations already. We're
okay on locations. We don't need anymore because most of
the time people don't come into the office. I see
(26:18):
us being known as the place where agents graduate too,
So you might want to try out the other companies
just to see how it is. But then when you
get here, you never want to leave because it's it's good.
It's so good, and the money's good, and the training's good,
and we have everything. We're not a discount brokerage. We
give them everything anyways, but we give them back most
(26:38):
of the money.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You sound like a company that gives back to the community.
What we do, yeah, tell us some a little bit
about that.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
So City Mission has been a big thing for us.
That's the one that we've given to probably the most.
But all of our agents have things. For instance, one
of our agents had vet pets this weekend and we
supported him in that. He does an amazing thing for
veterans with pets. It's just a beautiful at name is
Umar Brooks. Our agents have their own little things. We
have another agent who does something for the veterans in
(27:07):
the summer which we support. So we're always supporting the
agents and their stuff. We did the Bag Brigade a
couple about a month ago. A bunch of us went
to the Bag Brigade in Belvernon and helped fill up
bags for kids, not realizing that six hundred kids in
that school district didn't have enough food to eat. I'm like,
are you kidding me? Like that's how can this be?
But it is. It's a thing. So I think our
(27:28):
passion is a lot about homeless, about veterans, and you know,
we're constantly doing new things to help new organizations too.
We don't just do one. But the biggest thing so
far has been the city mission for us.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
So if somebody wants to apply for a job or
get more information, or if they want more information on
the real estate side, what do you recommend?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
So on the real estate side, they just have to
go to join the goold Standard dot com and they'll
find out a bunch of information about us or gold
Standard Pittsburgh dot com. We love the name gold Standards.
So let me just tell you about that real quick.
Whenever Realty one we bought the franchise, they asked us
to pick the secondary name, which is a Realty one
group blank. So we've made a list. Mike, my partner,
Mike made a list, and I made a list, and
(28:11):
whenever he looked at my list, he's like, I really
like gold Standard, and I said, yeah, me too. I
love that name and it wasn't taken by anyone else. Ironically,
ten years prior, I had written in my notebook on
my phone that I wanted to if I did own
a real estate company would be called Standard real Estate
because of John Rockefeller and Standard Oil. Ironically, it became
gold Standard, so there was a reason for it, and
(28:32):
it's such a great name. I think we do have
the greatest name in all of the realty one Group
land and they even use it now in their marketing.
We are the gold Standard. No, we are the gold Standard,
not you. We are.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Tell us about your partner.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yes, I have a partner, Mike. He we've been in
business together now since twenty eighteen. He was a chiropractor,
he got into real estate and we met at Keller
Williams and then we decided he's the one that actually
went to look at the franchise and then came to
me and brought it to me when I didn't want to,
and I still did it anyways. But so we've been
together for you know, since twenty eighteen. Most partnerships don't
(29:05):
last that long, so you know, partnerships aren't easy, but
you know, I think personally we get along good and
you know, the company, we're just going to keep growing
it because that's it's the greatest opportunity for a real
estate professional to be in a company that supports them
and gives them the most money.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Deon, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Dean Malich,
CEO You Should Know. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
This has been the CEOs You Should Know podcast showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's
commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank
you so much for listening.
And welcome in. This is the CEOs You Should Know podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Heartwell, let's say hello to co
owner of Realty one Groups gold Standard in Pittsburgh, Dean Malish.
Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's so great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Tell us everything we need to know about Realty one
Group gold Standard.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, of course, we're the best real estate brokerage in
all of Pittsburgh. We actually give back most of the
money to the agents. That makes us stand out in
a flooded marketplace like Pittsburgh where there's nine thousand agents.
We are setting different standards for real estate agents where
they can actually be their own CEO of their company
inside of our brokerage. I think that's what really sets
us apart. Plus, we have a real estate attorney who
(00:41):
is our broker, so we give the most money back.
We have an amazing real estate attorney broker and we
let them run their business like a business.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And what is the history man?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So yeah, Realty one Group came out of California. We
brought the franchise to Pittsburgh's we're the largest Realty one
Group in the region. We were the first ones here,
so we disrupted the market which was incredible. What an
opportunity to come into Pittsburgh where everything's been the same
for one hundred years, and we came in and did
something different, which, trust me, has made the other companies
step up their game.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Oh what did you do?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We brought a franchise to Pittsburgh that actually gave more
money to the agent. Instead of taking half their money,
we gave them most of the money. So we were
able to tract agents very quickly, so we grew rapidly.
We didn't have to pay people to come here like
some companies pay bonuses to get the agents to join.
We didn't have to do that because we give them
the most money all the time.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And when did you come into Pittsburgh?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
So we started in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And how many realty agents do you have?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
We have nearly two hundred, and we're trying to get
to three hundred. So that's our goal for the next
twelve to eighteen months.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Two hundred already, well, we've.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Had well, we had one hundred in our first year.
It was really fast growth, all.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Right, So telling us about give us a snappack, a
snapshot of what the Pittsburgh market is like.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So I always call the Pittsburgh market stable. COVID made
us unstable. We had some amazing years. They were the
three best years in the history of Pittsburgh real estate.
But now we're back to our stable market, which is normal.
We don't have the big hugs and lows like everyone
else in the country. It's good in some ways, obviously
bad in other ways because agents love that idea of
just walking into a property and all of a sudden
(02:11):
it sells the next day with seventeen offers. That's not
the norm. The norm is actually being a real estate
agent and doing the job of real estate and teaching
the buyers and sellers how to get the most money
for their house and how to get the best deal
for the buyers. So anyways, it's been a wild couple
of years. I mean, for ha US come into twenty eighteen,
COVID hit twenty twenty, we couldn't work for three months,
(02:32):
and we're like, what.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Are we going to do?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
We're brand new, right, what are we going to do?
But we did it, and we started having zoom calls
all the time, And now I don't ever get off
of a zoom call. It seems like the history of
my life back to have like six today.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Now, I grew up in Pittsburgh. Do you grow up here?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I did in them on Valley?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
All right? And maybe it were a little biased, but
I think this is a great market. It's affordable, you know,
I seek a lot of people. You know, we live
here and we compare maybe the prices of what it
was ten years ago here in the It'sburgh market. But
if you compare Pittsburgh to other markets, it's very affordable.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it's got extremely it's.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Got great neighborhoods, we're stable, We've got so many advantages
that other markets don't have. Am I wrong?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
No, You're a one hundred percent correct. And there's still
opportunity all over. And it's funny because when I'm posting
on social media and I'll have someone that's from California
or from Texas and they look in there like are
you getting me? The house is like cheaper than an escalade.
You can still buy houses cheaper than escalades around here,
so you know, and it's amazing. One time we did it,
we bought a rental property. We paid eleven thousand dollars
(03:34):
for it. We ended up getting about nine hundred dollars
per side. It was a duplex eighteen hundred a month
for an eleven thousand dollars property. So you just can't
find that anywhere else in the country. So there is
still affordability, and there is also many great deals.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Plus it's great neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh, such great neighborhoods. There's so many great now.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Educational opportunities, and there's so much that Pittsburgh has to
offer to people who are moving here.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, plus the most amazing spitroles, and it's just Pittsburgh
is a really cool place.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So tell us your history of being in real estate.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah. So I had a graphic design business. I've always
been entrepreneurial. My dad was an entrepreneur growing up, and
I really didn't think I could work for anyone else.
But I tried and it didn't go so well, and
I knew at that point that's just not my thing.
I'm not good at having people tell me what to do.
So I started a graphic design business in nineteen eighty
nine and I about seventeen years I had that business,
(04:28):
and the last year I got into a partnership that
destroyed the whole company. But at that point I knew
that I had to do something else. So I got
my real estate license, and I really had liked real
estate and didn't realize how good I could be at it.
In my second year of real estate, I made as
much as I had in my seventeenth year of my
graphic design business. So I thought, oh, there's something here,
So I married the two industries graphic design and real estate.
(04:49):
Whenever everyone else used to use Microsoft Word to create,
I was creating beautiful images and houses that looked like
products versus just putting it out there like everyone else.
So I had a huge opportunity to disrupt myself right
because I was able to come into a market where
everybody was doing it the same way and do something different,
but as if they say, they say look left, and
everybody's looking right right. So I was able to do
(05:11):
that in real estate, and I think that that was
very helpful for my career. So I grew up my
real estate business I had. I was averaging about seventy
eight transactions a year, which the average real estate agent
sells between eight and twelve. And then we started decided
to have this brokerage, and we went out and took
a look at the franchise and realized it was black
and gold. I mean, it's the best colors for this
whole city and we have black and gold, and it
(05:33):
was just such a great model and something unique to Pittsburgh,
and so I love doing that. So after having been
in real estate, so it's been twenty one years and
I've earned the brokerage since twenty eighteen, so it's an
unbelievable experience. Something I really never wanted to have a
real estate company. That was not my goal. I was
actually going to move south and leave. We were traveling
(05:56):
down the coast looking for places to go, and then
my partner came to me and said, check out this model.
I'm like, I am not interested, not even a little bit.
But then I looked at the brand and realized it
fit this city so well, and so I guess and
that's why I'm still here. I mean, I do love Pittsburgh.
I love the Steelers and Penguins and the Pirates even
though yeah, I do love them though, just because it
(06:17):
was I can't even talk story. Yeah, So I mean,
what are you gonna do? It is what it is,
you know, I think I've got to know you. We've
known each other for less than ten minutes and let me.
You're a very passionate.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Person, aren't you. I am extremely Is this your passion?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
So creativity is my passion? Like I am the most creative,
actually more creative now at fifty six, almost fifty seven.
I can't even believe it than I've ever been in
my life.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
You know, when you said you were in graphic design
for seventeen years, in the real estate for twenty one,
I'm like, did she start when she was a fetus?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Thank you? I mean, seriously, tell us about your passion. Yeah. So, actually,
go back to about less than two years ago when
my dad passed away. I feel like I had to
instead of grieving, I had to find something to feel
that space. And I've always been creative, but since then,
I've been more creative than ever. I've been creating things
like I created a podcast, right, I created some amazing
(07:17):
things for our agents, Like I'm constantly creating new things
for them to help them build their business. I created
an intranet for our company, things that we didn't have.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Give us some examples of some of the creativity that
you present to your pages.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, so I create everything they need, Like I come
up with ideas on past client database on how to
you know how to build their business ideas. I create
campigraphics for them, like I do. All the stuff that
most people pay a company to do, I do myself.
So a couple of weeks ago, I did a database
booklet that I shared with them to help them build
(07:50):
their database, because I think database is a gold mine
for anyone in business, right if you are tracking your database,
keeping track of who they are, where they came from.
And one thing about selling a house every seven years
is what the statistic is for selling a house, So
there's a lot of opportunity. If you have two hundred
people in that database, ten percent of the people are
(08:11):
buying or selling in the next year. But if they
don't know who you are, if you're not top of mind,
they'll never be able to find you. Because a lot
of agents they don't reach out to their past clients.
They just go forward and not backward. Where I spent
my whole career on my past client database, and so
there's so much opportunity there. So I teach them how
to do that, and I'm always teaching them about mindset
(08:32):
and I've actually learned a lot about thinking grow rich,
and that's what I've been studying for about seven years.
I've had a mastermind doing that, so I learned a
lot about mindset and keeping your mind positive. And I
have to tell you right now, I'm going through probably
the hardest thing post my dad passing away, that I've
ever had to deal with it personally, and I am
(08:52):
living in positivity and hope, which is different. And people
look at me, like, you're going through so much, and
I'm like, I know, but I have to look at
the other side of it, and I know there's something
amazingly positive in this. So that's how I'm living. And
if it wasn't for all the years of self development
and learning from Napoleon Hill and other people like him,
Wallace Wattles, you know, Andrew Carnegie or Pittsburgh guy, if
we didn't have that opportunity, if I didn't have that opportunity,
(09:15):
I would not be able to handle the things I'm
going through at this moment. So I have to tell
you that's been a big part of my life and
the brokerage, because there's agents that will come into my
office they're so stressed out. Twenty minutes later they leave
and they're on fire again. Because I have that opportunity
because I've learned so much and how to teach them
how to you know, think positive and how to look
at the bright side. It doesn't sounds funny, like why
(09:37):
would I think about it that way with the bright
side of things, But there is a bright side to everything.
And no matter what we go through, every single person
goes through stuff, right, you go through stuff, you go
we all do. It's how we get up and move
on to the other side that matters and finding that
power in that purpose.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Have you ever heard of the term amor fati no
means love it all? I love it all.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Love the answer to everything.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
And because you know, even if it's something difficult, it's
something that you can learn from every time. I love
it all. And if you have that attitude, it's like,
oh my god, things are going things are bad, things
are Wait a minute, I'm going to get through this
and what am I going to learn? What am I
going to take from this? This? This is a learning
(10:21):
experience and as difficult that you know that some days
can be difficult, but if you have that mindset of
I'm going to get through this and this is going
to make a better me. And I like you. I
read Napoleon Hill early in my career and it really
made a difference. It was like, start with desire and
(10:42):
creativity and you know, being persistent and those and those
are those kind of philosophies that you bring to the
company and you present to your agents. And so that's
a great teaching tool, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I agreed. I think we have the ability to be
able to think what we want to think and be
what we want to be. Like that is incre just
knowing that we can be anything we want to be.
So I even for myself, like I always feel like
I'm not where I want to be steel, Like I
have so much more to do in this life and
so many more people to help. So it's my goal
to affect someone's day in a positive way every single day.
(11:18):
But now I'm to the point where one person's not enough.
I need to affect many more people in any given day.
Real estate allows me to do this, But I also
want to be able to help people like I love
AI and creativity and AI go together so well I
can help. The other night, I went to a mastermind
it was called the Next Level Association, and they had
(11:39):
me teach about AI and there were all these big
muscle guys, and I was like, oh my gosh, it's
so intimidating. Right, they were all sitting there and they
were so fascinated by forty minutes of my AI. How
to help your business with AI, you know? And I thought,
this is what I love to do. You want to
talk about passion. It's teaching people how to help help
(12:00):
themselves be better. That's what I love.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Tell us a little bit about that teaching.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Oh, it's so cool. So I just went, I put
together an AI presentation and I showed them how to,
you know, how to post on social media. Oh my gosh,
my voice is giving out.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Take a little sip of something there. It's a podcast,
you know.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, so I mean my podcast. I let it run.
What is what it is? Whatever I do or say,
it does not matter. But so yeah, so I was
teaching them how to, you know, how to post on
social media, how to do it from AI, how to
create their bio, how to help their brand, you know,
how to research in fact, what I told you before
about you know, looking left when everybody's looking right. So
I was I had a podcast interview with this incredible
(12:40):
lady from Florida, and she is only one in the
entire world that does a three D immersive keynote speech
in the world. She was on my podcast and I'm
fascinated by her. So she actually created this three D
model where she's on stage but doesn't see anything, and
she has all these things happening, you know, like the
brain and words, and she's pointing at him like they're
(13:01):
there and she doesn't even know. Amazing. Yeah, So she
gives this speech. So when she was talking, she said,
when I quit my job, one thing I did was
I wanted to look left when everyone was looking right.
So that's why I designed something that no other speaker
in the whole world did. So then I took that
idea and I said, AI, help me think of how
I can look left when everybody's looking right, or look
(13:24):
right when everyone's looking left either way? And what can
I do in my business to do that? So AI
shot out about ten ideas, and I was like, these
are incredible. So I taught the people in that group
that because then they were thinking about their own self.
It's just how do you prompt it, how do you
talk to AI like it's your assistant and teach it
to help you. So don't you think that would be
cool in any business in Pittsburgh if you talk to
(13:46):
AI and tell it all about you, let it learn
who you are, and then you ask it to help
you look left when everybody's looking right. Well.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
One thing I love about Pittsburgh is we have a
blue collar reputation, which is valid, but I also think
this is a city of passionate people with that always
strive for innovation. I think we're the one of if
there's anything one word that describes Pittsburgher's it's innovation. We
(14:14):
figure out a way to get things done for sure,
not just you know, our sports teams are a great example,
of course, but from from a from an industrial standpoint,
we've done that and we continue to strive. The collapse
of the steel mills devastated this community and we found
(14:34):
a way to rise above that. Now, the problem is
we haven't told a whole lot of people about what
we are like, and we need more people to come
into town. Because we talked about the real estate, you know,
is just it's a perfect place. We can expand very quickly,
and we have so much to offer.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
For sure. I agree. Yeah, And when you think about that.
So I grew up in a trailer park n til
I was eighteen, and I didn't even know that was
a bad thing until they started calling me trailer trash. Yeah.
Then I was like, yeah, you want to see what
trailer trash is made of. And then now I'm teaching them.
I'm showing them exactly what I'm made of. If I
hadn't lived in Pittsburgh, I don't know if I would
have picked up the pieces so easily. But I watched
(15:17):
so many people or sports teams get up and pick
up the pieces again. So yeah, that was difficult, but
I pushed through it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Tell us more about your podcast.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, it's called Shine on Success. It's on everywhere Apple,
you know, Spotify, everywhere. So I started this podcast when
my dad passed. So he passed in September, and in January,
I was working with a podcast coach and he taught
me how to put it all together, and so I started.
So I think I had sixty five episodes since last
year in January, and I love it. It's the best
(15:49):
networking opportunity I've ever had because I'm getting to meet
people all over the world and there I'm learning things
from each person. So it's more than just you know,
doing a podcast, I'm actually learning. So my podcast is
about adversity and pushing through to the other side. And
we try to throw in Napoleon Hill principles in there,
but half the time we just talk about like we
are just talk and it's incredible because I see that,
(16:10):
you know, I'm not the only one that had to
go through all the things that I've been through, and
neither is anyone else. But this gives us the opportunity
to share and you know, hear people's struggles and how
they push forward.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
And who are some of your guests?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Oh geez, I have so many guests, Like gosh, well
that lady I told you about, she was incredible. You know.
Jim Shorky from the Jim Shorky out Of group. He
was one of my first guests, and he's incredible because
he used thinking Grow Rich to help him get out
of bankruptcy Eminence when his dad passed. So we just
talked the other day. We were on the phone and
he came up with this idea and I said, Jim,
that's incredible. But he his company was bankruptcy Eminent. He
(16:44):
used Thinking Grow Rich. He actually put the principles in
place and built that company to where it is today.
He would credit Think and Grow Rich for that. So,
if you know Jim, he's read it one hundred and
sixty four times, and every single time he reads it
he finds something else in it. So when we go
back to, my husband and I were getting married and
Jim and I had been friends. So my husband asked
(17:05):
Jim if he could give me a copy of his
Think and Grow Rich because he had he writes lots
of notes in them. So on my wedding eve, my
husband gave me Jim's copy of it, which has all
of his notes in it. Really, it was just so
cool because I love energy, and I know the energy
in the books with someone else's writing in it, it's
so cool. So I actually had Jim's book at home
sitting there with all of his highlighted information on it,
(17:26):
and it's been a lot to me because he you know,
he is such an incredible guy. The fact is he
was all the way on his in his worst days,
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in debt, his dad passed,
and he was destroying the company.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I was not aware of that obviously. Yeah, and he'll
tell that short Auto group is you know.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Amazing, like one of the biggest ones in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
And his dad was fabulous. Yeah, and he had no idea.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, you'd have to get him on. You need to
bring him on because he has a great story and
you know, he's been through a lot. He had some
medical issues a few years back that most people would
have never pushed through, but he used this which he
knows again his mind and he pushed through and now
he's doing great. And so yeah, So I've had people
like Jim and geez, there's so many. I had a
(18:14):
lawyer on that who was jailed for like seven years
wrongfully convicted and then now he's a lawyer and helping
people that are wrongfully convicted. Oh geez, I can't. I
had Britney Cross and who's the social media wild crazy person.
She's incredible. She was you know, what's that exercise machine
that everybody loves, Peloton, the Peloton. Yeah, so she was
(18:35):
she was doing some stuff for Peloton. When she was
she sings and dances on her treadmill backwards. So yeah,
so she made a big splash in social media. So
I had her on. I can't even remember all the people.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
They are so fun, your guests.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So there's some podcast communities that I find them in
and I would just put up a post if anybody's
looking to be on my podcast, and then hundreds of
people come and so I have to hand pick through that.
And then sometimes it's just that I know and that
I want to have their story because I know they
have good stories. I had. Every he was on in
his story, of course, is incredible and he's you know,
he wants to be a professional speaker, which he's doing.
(19:10):
But I'm also on the board of directors of National
Speakers Association Pittsburgh, which I think is such a great
organization for people that want to learn how to speak.
And it's not just about professional speaking, it's about speaking
in your business, being a better leader. So it teaches
me a lot about how to speak better, be better,
and it's just a fantastic organization. But I'm doing that.
(19:32):
I love, you know, think and grow rich and I
study that all the time. And creativity, that's my that's
my superpower.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Tell us a little bit about your team.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, so we have incredible, incredible agents in Pittsburgh. We
didn't have all incredible people there are some people that
you know came and we had to get rid of,
but you just never know. But we have the most giving,
kind agents that will help each other, which is not normal.
I've been in a lot of real estate offices. Most
(20:04):
of the time you're too busy to help someone. Other
times you really don't want to share your secrets to success.
Even thought, yeah, that's how you grow in the world.
The more you share, right, give and receive. It's all
the way to back to the Bible. That's how we work.
So that's why I'm always eager to give everything I
have because I think that's what helps our brokerage. That's
what helps me as a person. But that's how our
(20:24):
agents are. They're the same way and they're willing to
help each other. We have brand new people that just
came out of school to at agents in their mid seventies,
so we have the whole gamut we have. I think
we speak fifteen different languages in our company, and I
just bought the url we speak real estate dot com. Yeah,
I was so excited about that because I think I'm
going to share that the diversification of our company and
(20:46):
how you know how cool they are so Yeah, we
have a great bunch of people. I actually know every
single one of them, like two hundred people, and I
know them all and know something about them that's important.
I really try to spend time, even on the whole holidays,
just making sure that I reach out to everybody and say,
you know, Merry Christmas or you know, happy Easter or
happy Thanksgiving, thank you for what you do. I really
(21:08):
try to make them feel wanted, because without them we
have we don't have a brokerage.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
You don't want to be a boss.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
You want to be a leader, correct servant leader, That's
what I want you. Sometimes I can be a little
bit crappy sometimes, I mean they have to be once
in a while.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
We all can't.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, so you can't be perfect all the time, although
I try. You know, another thing I have to say
is it's funny because I always get so shocked when
people are like if they say something bad about me,
because I do so many things good to help that
when something is negative, I'm like, oh my gosh, really
like I'm doing all this stuff trying to be good, right,
But you have to deal with it. It's life, people.
(21:46):
It's not always about me, It's about them.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Too, Well, what are you doing to get the word
out and to show people that you have a different idea?
What is your what is what are some of your
marketing strategy?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, so social media is the biggest thing because it's
the opportunity. I always tell our agents it's like having
your own reality show, right and why do show has
become so famous because we got to know the people, right.
So I tried to do as many things for the
people in the Facebook land and LinkedIn and Instagram to
know Dion Mallache and who I am. So I've been
(22:19):
working on that a lot, and I think it's helping
if people are coming to me, like something as simple
as wishing everybody happy birthday with a little birthday video
every day, every single day we send it out to
everybody in my Facebook. It's five thousand people a year
get a happy Birthday greeting from me. And that has
made so much impact with people because sometimes people will say,
(22:41):
you're the first person that's sang to me all day,
or my mom passed away a year ago and she
always sang to me. But now you are like little touches,
like drips right drips into people and just letting them
see the kind of person that I am and the
kind of person that I want to share with everyone.
How to be there our best selves because we only
(23:01):
get one shot at this life, right and we have
an opportunity every day to get up and be positive
or negative. I choose positive every day, no matter what.
And I'm going through a huge fight right now. My
husband is very sick. But you know what, I get
up and I help him get up. So that's where
I'm at.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I'm sorry you're going through that me too.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
It's shocking, but you know what, there's positive in it.
You know what he did on Saturday? He told me we
were going to some fishing thing because he has surgery
in two weeks. So we drive like two hours away
to go to this fishing thing and we get to
this house and he says he had to pick up
this bucket for one of his pieces of machinery. I'm like,
(23:42):
where's the fishing show. He's like, it's ten minutes down
the road. So he goes, you want to come inside?
I said, no, I don't want to come out. I'll
just stay here. I'll wait for you. No, no, you
need to come inside. I'm like, no, I really don't
want to come inside. I'm good, I'm just gonna sit here,
and he goes, it's for you. So I walk inside
and there's a little puppy there, little puppy that we
are going. We named Mercy after Mercy Hospital because that's
(24:04):
where we've been going for the last four months and
the nurses have been so incredible. So we named her
Mercy Grace. And she's a little wiener dog two and
a half pounds. And he surprised me. I had no idea.
So he's having surgery on the twenty seventh and he's
still worrying about me being happy.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I'm not crying.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Oh my god, he's such a sweetheart. Yeah, so here
we know. So that the good is that this little girl,
along with our little boy Hulk, will help him get
through his tough days because she'll be his nurse. And
so thank God for Mercy Hospital and thank God for everything.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Almar Foddy love it all.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
It's the answer.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, I'm this is sometimes I ask this question and
I don't have a lot of conviction behind it this
and I do because I'm really curious about where is
your company going to what's the future, because you seem
(25:08):
like somebody who has you definitely have a vision.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I do, and actually I worked last year on something
called a vivid Vision, which was a three year plan.
I would love to share it with you someday. It's
just a beautiful display of everything that I want in
my life. But all of that has to be with
Jason p And okay, because he's part of that three
year plan, right. So my vision for my life is
(25:33):
to enjoy it and to be able to help as
many people as I possibly can. But the next thing
is for our company is to be known as the
place where everyone wants to be. All of the agents.
Stop giving away all your money. Come to the place
that will treat you fair and give you the most
money and give you the most opportunity. We let our
agents run their businesses as successful little businesses inside of us,
(25:57):
and I think for us, the next five to ten
years will put us over that three hundred mark, which
is important. I mean, I'd love to see us at
five hundred. But I know with five hundred comes a lot,
you know, more staff. We have six locations already. We're
okay on locations. We don't need anymore because most of
the time people don't come into the office. I see
(26:18):
us being known as the place where agents graduate too,
So you might want to try out the other companies
just to see how it is. But then when you
get here, you never want to leave because it's it's good.
It's so good, and the money's good, and the training's good,
and we have everything. We're not a discount brokerage. We
give them everything anyways, but we give them back most
(26:38):
of the money.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You sound like a company that gives back to the community.
What we do, yeah, tell us some a little bit
about that.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
So City Mission has been a big thing for us.
That's the one that we've given to probably the most.
But all of our agents have things. For instance, one
of our agents had vet pets this weekend and we
supported him in that. He does an amazing thing for
veterans with pets. It's just a beautiful at name is
Umar Brooks. Our agents have their own little things. We
have another agent who does something for the veterans in
(27:07):
the summer which we support. So we're always supporting the
agents and their stuff. We did the Bag Brigade a
couple about a month ago. A bunch of us went
to the Bag Brigade in Belvernon and helped fill up
bags for kids, not realizing that six hundred kids in
that school district didn't have enough food to eat. I'm like,
are you kidding me? Like that's how can this be?
But it is. It's a thing. So I think our
(27:28):
passion is a lot about homeless, about veterans, and you know,
we're constantly doing new things to help new organizations too.
We don't just do one. But the biggest thing so
far has been the city mission for us.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
So if somebody wants to apply for a job or
get more information, or if they want more information on
the real estate side, what do you recommend?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
So on the real estate side, they just have to
go to join the goold Standard dot com and they'll
find out a bunch of information about us or gold
Standard Pittsburgh dot com. We love the name gold Standards.
So let me just tell you about that real quick.
Whenever Realty one we bought the franchise, they asked us
to pick the secondary name, which is a Realty one
group blank. So we've made a list. Mike, my partner,
Mike made a list, and I made a list, and
(28:11):
whenever he looked at my list, he's like, I really
like gold Standard, and I said, yeah, me too. I
love that name and it wasn't taken by anyone else. Ironically,
ten years prior, I had written in my notebook on
my phone that I wanted to if I did own
a real estate company would be called Standard real Estate
because of John Rockefeller and Standard Oil. Ironically, it became
gold Standard, so there was a reason for it, and
(28:32):
it's such a great name. I think we do have
the greatest name in all of the realty one Group
land and they even use it now in their marketing.
We are the gold Standard. No, we are the gold Standard,
not you. We are.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Tell us about your partner.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yes, I have a partner, Mike. He we've been in
business together now since twenty eighteen. He was a chiropractor,
he got into real estate and we met at Keller
Williams and then we decided he's the one that actually
went to look at the franchise and then came to
me and brought it to me when I didn't want to,
and I still did it anyways. But so we've been
together for you know, since twenty eighteen. Most partnerships don't
(29:05):
last that long, so you know, partnerships aren't easy, but
you know, I think personally we get along good and
you know, the company, we're just going to keep growing
it because that's it's the greatest opportunity for a real
estate professional to be in a company that supports them
and gives them the most money.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Deon, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Dean Malich,
CEO You Should Know. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
This has been the CEOs You Should Know podcast showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's
commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank
you so much for listening.
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