Speaker 1:

Welcome to today’s episode of David Vs Goliath, a podcast dedicated to helping small businesses leverage technology to not only help them compete against their large competitors, but win. Your host is currently the CEO of Anthem Business Software, a three-time Inc. 500 recipient, and a serial entrepreneur with a passion to help small businesses everywhere find, serve, and keep more customers profitably. Please join me in welcoming your host, Adam Degraide.

Adam Degraide:

Hey, everyone, it’s Adam Degraide from the David Vs Goliath podcast. From doo-wop singer to real estate success story, this is going to be another short episode of the DVG with an interview I had with David Dorman last year. It was awesome. I want to make sure that you watch it and you get a benefit out of it. The full video will be in the description below to the original interview, but you’re going to check it out. You’re going to learn a ton. I learned a ton during this interview. 

Today’s episode is brought to us by automatemysocial.com, where you can automate up to 100% of your business’s social media, set it, forget it, never have to think about it again. Save time, save money, automatemysocial.com. Visit us online at davidvsgoliathpodcast.com. There you can subscribe to receive information about the podcast and also apply to be on it. Well, let’s get right to it, folks. Here’s David Dorman. David, it is so great to have you on David Vs Goliath. Now, you’re not the actual shepherd boy from the story, are you?

David Dorman:

No, but I think this podcast, when I heard the first episode, I thought it was kind of named after me and I was surprised you hadn’t called me first.

Adam Degraide:

Well, it’s great to have you because you’re the very first real estate agent that we’re having on David Vs Goliath. For full disclosure, you’ve been my real estate agent before in the past. You’ve done an amazing job for me. One of the things I love about David is that I’ve seen David from the first time I moved down to Florida in 2003 all the way to now, my most recent home purchase, he’s helped me. And to see how much you’ve grown, David, from then to now is amazing in your business. Tell the folks watching and listening how you decided that you wanted to become a real estate agent and the progression of where you were and where you are now.

David Dorman:

It’s an interesting story because, at the time, I’d already worked at the theme parks. When I first moved here in ’85, I worked at SeaWorld. Then I worked at Universal as a acapella doo-wop singer. At the time, I just finished up seven years at Disney in attractions, and I was kind of just trying to figure out what to do with my life. But I felt like I had some really good customer service skills from those parks and all that. I’m working out at Bally back when Bally was still open. Are they even anymore? And the guy next to me was talking about timeshare. I’m like, “I could do that and do this singing-waiter thing.”

And then I realized I didn’t want to do timeshare, but I wanted to do residential real estate and got hooked up with an independent brokerage and then eventually, Century 21, and that’s when I met you. I’ve told you this before, but since your listeners probably don’t know, is once you and I got together, that first transaction we did was one of the biggest of my career and it really gave me the confidence and the finances to really grow my business. And now what, 21 years later, I am the owner and the broker of our franchise.

Adam Degraide:

It truly is amazing. So people thinking back then, it was 2003, internet was still relatively new, but that’s how I found you. I went online, and I searched for real estate agents in the Orlando area. I was looking to buy a vacation home at the time. And you were one of the first that came up. There was a few others. I talked to a few others. You were responsive, you were quick, you got back to me, and so you’ve always valued that stuff. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it now. How many employees do you have right now working with you at your particular franchise?

David Dorman:

Well, employees, you’re probably thinking agents as employees. Technically, they’re independent contractors. We have about 60 agents and about five or six employees. It’s a lot of behind-the-scenes people that manage our business. 

Adam Degraide:

That’s so great.

David Dorman:

Yeah. We’re constantly looking to grow that.

Adam Degraide:

Man, that’s great. It’s so fascinating to me because real estate is one of those things where it’s shifting so quickly technologically now, as you know. I mean, you watch TV commercials, they’re all either trying to get rid of the agent, or they’re trying to knock down the rates of an agent, or they’re trying to make it easier for people to buy, and they are. A lot of those tools are great, right? But, what has that been like for you to have to compete in that environment? Because obviously, you’re a small business competing in a very large space, you’re kind of fighting, jockeying to get that placement so people can know how to find you and see you. What has been the evolution for you from the early days of the internet to now there’s so much technology, how do you stay relevant and current?

David Dorman:

It’s a lot of research. It’s a lot of paying attention to any bit of information you can get, and it’s about not panicking. For example, I’m constantly on Facebook, and Inman News, LinkedIn looking to see what everybody else is doing, but not getting so caught up in it that I panic. I mean, when these brokerages, what you’re talking about, things like Offerpad and similar, they’re called iBuyers where they pay cash for a house and they basically cut us out of it. But the reality is nine out of 10 people don’t want to do that. They want someone who’s going to be hands-on with them. 

Another big change that’s happened over the years when I first met you till now is that you have these big teams of people where there’s a group in town and the agent says, “I sell 800 homes a year.” And I’m like, “No, you don’t because you would be a crazy person if you sold 800 homes yourself in a year.” Now, what they’re really talking about is their team of 20 people sold 800 homes a year, which is still impressive, but it’s not the same as an individual. When I say I’ve sold 100 homes in a year, I’ve sold 100 homes in a year.

Adam Degraide:

Man, we learned a ton from David this week. I really, really value the fact that he had such a spirit. He was a doo-wop singer and thought about doing all these different things, went into real estate, was one of the early adopters of the internet, which is how I personally found him. And then as a result of that relationship over the years, he’s been able to build it to, my gosh, being amazing and his brokerage is just doing fantastic. David, congratulations, and thank you for being on the David Vs Goliath podcast. Well, this has been another amazing episode of DVG. Next week, we’ll be back to a long-format interview. Make sure you tune in. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you then.

Speaker 1:

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Adam Degraide:

Thank you for joining us on today’s episode of David Vs Goliath. We’ll see you next week. Have an awesome day.