In this episode of Hello Chaos, host Jennifer "JJ" Sutton speaks with Jamie Morris, a realtor and founder of Morris & Co. They discuss Jamie's entrepreneurial journey, the importance of mentorship and coaching, and the multifaceted nature of real estate. Jamie shares her experiences navigating challenges, building a personal brand, and the significance of community in entrepreneurship. The conversation highlights the dynamics of client relationships, the differences between buying and selling, and the unique experiences that come with being a realtor. Jamie emphasizes the importance of taking action, the value of coaching, and the rewarding aspects of helping clients through significant life transitions.
Jamie's story is a testament to the importance of carving out your own identity in a family business. After years of working under her father's company, she realized the need to establish her own brand. This shift allowed her to not only grow professionally but also personally. As entrepreneurs, it's crucial to recognize when it's time to pivot and pursue your own vision, even if it means stepping away from familiar territory.
One of the most impactful decisions Jamie made was hiring a real estate coach. This experience transformed her approach to business, helping her identify blind spots and delegate tasks effectively. Jamie emphasizes that having a coach is not just a luxury but a necessity for growth. As founders, we often wear many hats, and having someone to guide us can make all the difference in achieving our goals.
Jamie highlights the relational aspect of real estate, where trust and connection are paramount. She focuses on working by referral, which allows her to build lasting relationships with clients rather than just viewing them as transactions. This approach not only enhances the client experience but also fosters a supportive community. As entrepreneurs, we should strive to cultivate genuine relationships in our industries, as they can lead to more meaningful and sustainable success.
[00:02:27] Entrepreneurial journey origins.
[00:04:17] Navigating residential real estate challenges.
[00:12:06] Personal brand discovery journey.
[00:12:17] Importance of hiring a coach.
[00:18:23] Fulfillment in real estate career.
[00:21:49] Explaining the "how" in real estate.
[00:27:30] Unusual house hunting experiences.
[00:30:13] Resale value in home buying.
[00:33:24] Naming streets after family.
[00:38:21] Importance of mentorship in growth.
[00:43:02] Teamwork and entrepreneurial success.
[00:46:54] Real estate spouse dynamics.
[00:48:13] Taking action in entrepreneurship.
[00:51:30] Community in real estate support.
Jennifer Sutton: Welcome to Hello Chaos, a weekly podcast exploring the messy and chaotic minds and lives of founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Every week we talk to founders from different industries at various stages, Of all shapes and sizes, we hear the real, the raw, the unbiased founder stories. It's why our mantra is where aha meets oh shit. We drop new episodes every Sunday. Founders tune in to us for tips, insights, and strategies on growing their business or ways to be better owners and leaders or to find a community of like-minded and mission and like mission people and no longer feel alone. HelloCast is one of the many resources brought to you by OrangeWIP, that is OrangeWIP W-I-P for work in progress. OrangeWIP is a multimedia company dedicated to serving founders and entrepreneurs in affiliate cities. We've designed hyper-local media platforms to inform, inspire, and be the independent connective tissue between founders and their entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our innovative digital zines are an all-in-one content hub with fresh and engaging stories, curated calendars, and local dynamic roadmaps to help founders navigate those local ecosystems with ease. We've really done all the hard work for founders, so they only need to go to one trusted place to find the local information they need. We're in three South Carolina cities today looking to expand to cities across the country, because every city that has entrepreneurs and founders needs an OrangeWIP. This is Jennifer Sutton. My friends and family call me JJ. I am the founder of OrangeWIP and Bright Marketing, And I'll be your host today. So welcome to Hello Chaos. All right. Well, today we have Jamie Morris, realtor, broker and founder of Morris& Co at Century 21 Sheets out of Indiana. Welcome, Jamie. Welcome to Hello Chaos.
Jamie Morris: Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Jennifer Sutton: I know. I've been looking forward to talking with you all week. Thanks for being a guest. So I always ask, you know, just start us out. How in the world did you start your entrepreneurial journey? What inspired you to start your own business?
Jamie Morris: Well, a lot of people in Bloomington joke that I was born with the gene for real estate because my grandfather was a builder. My dad is a builder developer. Um, uncles and brother realtors. I definitely did a lot of work in my dad's office growing up, you know, summertime when I was a teenager I was writing real estate contracts when they were carbon copy and you had to press really hard. And then we had fax machines that had the rolling scroll. So I learned a lot of lingo and how to, at a young age, just by being in his office. I thought I wanted to be an architect growing up. And then there was math that got in my way. The geometry. Yeah. But I grew up in the business around the business. I pretty much did traditional like study in college right after high school. I was a merchandising major. I took a little detour. Like with eight credit hours left, I left IU and I moved to the Carolinas to pursue a career with a NASCAR team. Like motorsports. Yeah, motorsports and really was taking some of that merchandising and licensing and things that I had learned in college and applying it to something that wasn't traditional retail or buying or designing. But ultimately, I came back home and My dad said, Oh, I've got this job for you for about six months. I need you to run these apartments. And that just was like a, that was in 2003. I came back to Indiana and I finished my degree. Um, and then I managed rental properties for 10 years and I got my real estate license in 05, um, in the midst of this massive construction on. townhomes, like near the campus at IU, because we're in a college town here, the job supervisor quit. So I suddenly became the job supervisor, the managing broker, the property manager, just… You wore every hat. …of a lot of things. Then I started having babies. And just for perspective, like the market kind of crashed in 2008. It really bottomed out in 08. And that's when I had my first child. We had 42 employees in 2008 at my dad's company. And when I had my second child in 2010, we had four employees, including myself. And that is really where things started to stack up. And it was like, holy smokes, I'm in charge of everything. And if I don't show up for work, nothing gets done. It was like the cat in the hat on the unicycle. And I had to tell him like three times that I couldn't do this anymore. And he kept saying, we'll figure it out. And I really wanted to pivot and have real estate in our name. And he was really hunkering down to try to stay afloat and not focus on growth because he had just like come out of battle for two years.
Jennifer Sutton: Right. Trying to hold on to his properties and yeah.
Jamie Morris: Yeah. So I worked, um, from 2012 to 2015 I just worked from home, had three babies. I was the managing broker for, for his company from afar, but I was home. I wasn't interacting with clients and I really, really, really wanted to interact with the clients. So in 2015 I joined, excuse me, a regional brokerage and it was almost like a new career because I had not done any formal training. I got my real estate license and I would dig through my uncle's files to figure out what to write on contracts. It was all just training on the job, trial by fire. I learned so much and I don't want to discredit that experience. It wasn't pretty, but it taught me so much. I would not have the construction background if I didn't have to be a job supervisor.
Jennifer Sutton: You know, all the pieces and parts of it.
Jamie Morris: Yeah. Oh, just crazy stuff.
Jennifer Sutton: Like you were bootstrapping.
Jamie Morris: Yes. The stories could go, go on for days, but. It felt just so refreshing and traditional to have one focus to be real estate and no college kids.
Jennifer Sutton: All the processes and systems already done for you. You could just kind of go, oh wait, you mean there's, I just followed these steps. You already have this paperwork. I just need to, yeah.
Jamie Morris: I don't have to create the logo and I don't have to invent the wheel here. I mean, it was, There's still so many components that go into it, but to walk in the door and go, okay, they've already got this figured out and this figured out. And that was refreshing. It felt like a new career. But there were a lot of hurdles that came with traditional real estate that was very different from new construction. So navigating those hurdles were a different ballgame. And I had crisscrossed. residential and commercial real estate. And when I came to the brokerage, you had to pick one or the other. And really that is what you should do. You need to pick a lane and stay in it because they're vastly different. And residential just feels right to me.
Jennifer Sutton: Spoke to you more working with families. Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie Morris: Well, you know, residential real estate up to like duplexes and fourplexes and things like that. So there, there's interaction with investors and being in a college town, you get a lot of that, but no, commercial negotiations and cams and, you know, year long struggles to put all of that together.
Jennifer Sutton: And so when you started, so why'd you decide to like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to kind of create my own brand, Morrison Co. When did that, when did you come to realize you wanted to do that? Kind of put your own stamp?
Jamie Morris: You know, I, Wasn't really good at selling myself as a realtor because I worked for family. I was a salaried employee. It was non-traditional as a realtor. um, from 2005 until 2015. So for about the first 10 years, um, and I just felt like I needed real estate in my name. I needed something to help with that. And the brokerage like made a big difference because regionally I was with FC Tucker for about five years when I left my dad's office. And then, uh, I pivoted to century 21 in 2019 and that was, you know, just realizing, I wanted to push myself in a different direction. I interviewed with a lot of different brokerages and I just kind of, I was really picking a path instead of being in the herd and wanted to really focus. I mean, when I got to Tucker, I said, okay, I've got three kids. I'm going to focus and get to work. I'm going to be career minded. And like six weeks after I started working there, I found out I was pregnant for the fourth time. Oh, okay. You know, like.
Jennifer Sutton: You got to roll with it.
Jamie Morris: So, you know, there are speed bumps and potholes and hurdles. that slow you down. But ultimately in 2019, I had our COO really challenged me and he said, what are your goals? What do you want to do? And kind of pushed me to think bigger, dream bigger. And I said, Ooh, I really want to sell this much. And he was like, why? I said, I want to sell 8 million in real estate. And he said, why eight? And I said, I've never hit eight. He said, why not 10? Why not 20? Right. And I said, Oh, I don't want to set a goal that I can't hit because then I'll beat myself up for not hitting my goal. And he was like, you're not thinking big enough. And I sold somewhere between 11 and 12 million that year. I kind of blew my own mind. I was like, Whoa, I just needed somebody to give me permission. Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton: That's a good lesson.
Jamie Morris: It really, it really was. And, um, I did a leadership training in 2017 and had a moment where I was filling out the application for this state leadership thing. It was a year long program. And the woman at our local association didn't know who I was. She said I was a new realtor. And I, I was like, Oh, this isn't good. I've, I've been a realtor for 12 years. She thinks I'm brand new. And I was worried about drawing attention to that. I didn't want to put her on the spot, but I thought this is just as bad for me because I haven't been involved. So there's a lot of pivoting in the teens. of finding my footing outside of the family business. and getting some training, getting involved, rolling my sleeves up, and really diving into the industry. And that kind of fueled and inspired action. Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton: Well, it's like you realized, I had this family brand that you were under. Now it's like, OK, how do I carve out who Jamie is and your own personal brand from that and build some credibility around?
Jamie Morris: Yes. Yeah. Well, and I purposefully didn't use my maiden name. A lot of people will hyphenate their name, but I thought, I'm going to do this for me. I'm going to do this on my terms. It was just that time for me.
Jennifer Sutton: So what do you think you discovered most about yourself in the journey?
Jamie Morris: I've learned a lot about myself over the last. So this is the end of my 19th year in real estate. So I'm coming up on 20 years. If you count those summers in high school, it's been more like 30 some years. Um, but learning about yourself is really so important. And I hired a real estate coach and that just changed everything. Having that perspective, helping me see my blind spots, uh, delegating work, to other people and learning to trust other people, they were doing the things I don't like doing. And I knew I didn't like doing those things, but it was almost again, like I needed permission for someone to say like, Hey, you don't need to do this work on your business instead of in your business. And with four kids and just the kind of on call that real estate can be, if you don't set those boundaries or, or give yourself that time to turn it off, uh, can be chaotic. having a coach help me make those processes and set goals and get structured and organized really changed a lot. And now it's like how I focus my business instead of just kind of running hair on fire. Just put now.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah, just just answering the calls.
Jamie Morris: Well, so how did you find your fault? I think I, my natural instinct is firefighter, like problem solving. And I think that comes from so many years of running around with, with your hair on fire.
Jennifer Sutton: So how did you find your coach?
Jamie Morris: I, my managing broker did a training course. It was like seven o'clock in the morning. So it was once a week for like 14 weeks. And, you know, we had to make all these accommodations to get the kids to school and all these places for me to go to a meeting at 7am. Yeah. Um, but I was totally inspired by that. And, and what's funny, and I hear people say it all the time, because now I mentor and moderate classes for that coaching company. People say, oh, I can't afford it. I can't afford a coach. And I'm thinking you can't afford not to have a coach. It's a very limiting belief. It's a very, um, just short sighted. I think, I mean, when you look at. successful businesses, successful sports teams. The greatest athletes in the world have coaches.
Jennifer Sutton: And multiple coaches.
Jamie Morris: Yeah. And businesses have coaches. And our coaching company, it's Buffini and Company, the one that I use, they coach more than realtors now. They started out coaching just real estate, but now they coach entrepreneurs all over the place because there's a need for it. But through coaching, I go to a lot of conferences, learned a lot about myself. There's this fascinating, like lots of people take like personality profiles, disc profiles and learn their different styles or get their P.I. score. Right. I've done them all. Yeah. I went to a conference a couple of years ago and I'll be interested to know if you've heard of this one. The Working Genius. Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton: We've done that here.
Jamie Morris: Yeah. And, I mean, I have used that on boards with, you know, orchestrating committees. It's like, oh, you need somebody from every genius to well-round your teams.
Jennifer Sutton: It's a cog in the wheel. You need to have everybody kind of, it's that well-oiled machine. Yeah.
Jamie Morris: finding those, being alerted to those blind spots and learning, hey, this is what I like, this is what I need to delegate out, kind of just funneled things into a more cohesive process for me.
Jennifer Sutton: So what is your working genius?
Jamie Morris: Do you remember? So I'm invention and enablement.
Jennifer Sutton: Chandler, do you remember yours? I don't remember mine. I am, if I have to remember the, what was the, what's the D?
Jamie Morris: The acronym is WIDGET. Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement, Tenacity.
Jennifer Sutton: I'm Wonder, and I'm like a borderline Wonder to Invention, and then Heavy Discernment. So I'm an, you know, I'm a big vision. So I've always been called a diagonal thinker, you know, where you can think big, but then there's a lot of analytics and logic and methods to then go, what is then the right path forward? But enablement, that's like my worst. That's like my, yeah. I am, it's what frustrates me the most. And like at the end of the, the end of the process, it was the two and Chandler's over here. He's a producer and he's, that was one of his, he, I think you were enablement and some, it was the other, the T. Tenacity, the finishers.
Jamie Morris: Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. We need those people on our team.
Jamie Morris: Yeah. That my admin is so tenacious. I, I can give her a list and I can say, I've been thinking about this for a year and she has it done a week later. I'm like, oh my gosh, that didn't take you a year. I've been thinking about it for a long time. I just never did anything with it, but she's a task master. So she cranks it out.
Jennifer Sutton: We always need those people. So what's been the most rewarding part?
Jamie Morris: of owning your own company? Well, flexibility with a busy family. I mean, my kids are in every sport under the sun. Yeah. And travel sports, 20 directions. So having that freedom, I can remember sitting in an office from nine to five thinking, I was envious of my friends that worked at the hospital because they would work like three 12-hour shifts and have four days off a week. And I was like, I wonder what I would do if I just had one weekday off. And what's funny is I don't really have that many days off, but if I need an extra hour in the morning, I can build that in.
Jennifer Sutton: Or if I need- You control your schedule.
Jamie Morris: I can schedule that. Yeah. So I get to travel with my kids to all their tournaments and do fun stuff like that, that I couldn't do. calculating my PTO or vacation days.
Jennifer Sutton: So yeah, no. So if you had to sum up your journey in one word, what would be that word?
Jamie Morris: I think fulfillment or fulfilling is the word because this industry is so multifaceted and you are helping people with first time experiences. You're helping them with their largest purchase of their life. It's a scary purchase. Sometimes they're grieving. Sometimes they're going through divorce. Sometimes it's like we moved across the country and here we are. Tell us all the things about your town. And that's fun, too. It's very helpful if they are coming from a place that I don't have or that I have experience with, like needing to get kids into school or Hey, we want to start with a condo. Like I had a condo before, you know, just like, I love when it's someone who's going down a path I've been down before that makes it really easy. But I also love a challenge. You know, when someone says. I need to sell farmland and I've, I've never owned a farm, you know, but you learn so much and no two days are the same, uh, lots and lots of curve balls. Um, it, it is some days overwhelming, but invigorating. I mean, I learned a couple of years ago. uh, renters on section eight can buy homes and get assistance with their mortgage payments. So they don't have to be forever renters. I helped a single mom buy a home and I didn't even realize that that was part of the process until we were under contract. And she said, Oh, by the way, I have this person helping me with this. And, and that was huge. And so it's very rewarding. It's very exciting. It's a roller coaster of sorts, but it is a fulfilling career. that you you get to do so much in your community, you get to have such a huge impact on local politics and zoning. And, you know, we I go to DC and I get involved. I mean, I got a book recommendation from one of our senators and read that book. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, how many people get to sit in these chambers and talk to people and have an impact on what's happening in their industry. So that's It's just so multifaceted and there are so many unique things that we get to do as realtors and we touch upon so many different layers and different, you know, we're dealing with construction workers and subcontractors. And we're dealing with attorneys and we're dealing with title companies and insurance. And, and so, and a lot of it is language.
Jennifer Sutton: People don't necessarily understand it's complex. Why do you have to have all these players, you know, around the table. So to, to help your buyers kind of, or sellers kind of walk them through all of that. I don't think people talk about the, your industry in that way.
Jamie Morris: No, and you know, that's something that I think I just came from our state conference a week ago, our Indian Association of Realtors was talking, they had some speakers in and a couple of them were from California. And it's just so interesting to learn how real estate is so different from state to state, you have to have a separate license in each state. And I'm only licensed to practice in the state of Indiana. But talking about our how, and some of the problems with like, Real estate shows you watch on TV kind of glamorize it or people on social media will be like, Oh, I sold this house in four hours and you're making it look so easy, but it truly is hard. It's very stressful. And consumers sometimes are only doing this once in their life or two or three times over the span of 40 years.
Jennifer Sutton: I don't recommend that. We've been that way.
Jamie Morris: And so explaining your how instead of your why, I think will be a big focus for me in 2025 because people really don't understand the steps and they don't understand what goes into it. And I think it's my responsibility as an agent to explain the how. Sometimes people are really guarded with their method in real estate because, you know, your neighbor is your competition, right? If they're a realtor, we, We are in a community of about 120,000 with students, and there are a little over 500 realtors in our local board. It's a mid-sized board. It's not big. In Indianapolis, they've got tens of thousands of people in their board, I think close to 20,000. We're a medium-sized board, but I think that it's just so important to have an understanding of what happens there, share it with your peers. Because if, if I get better, and you get better, then the experience is better for our clients. And if you're throwing elbows and just trying to get to the top of by yourself, it's very cutthroat. Yeah, feel good. And it is really a relational business. And my coaching emphasizes working by referral. And you know, I don't take cold leads off the internet. I'm afraid I'd walk to my death, meeting strangers. I usually get business from a client who's referring a colleague, a family member, a neighbor, right? Um, I have a big family, so I get a lot of personal referrals from family, but that just feels good to me. It's very, uh, very Midwestern and very comfortable and not as terrifying as. Oh, someone just called off the internet and I'm going to meet him in a dark house at you know, all hours of the day.
Jennifer Sutton: So what, what do you like better? Is there a difference in your mind of, of the process of working with a buyer versus a seller? Do you have a preference?
Jamie Morris: Well, at this point in my career, so many of my buyers are sellers. You know, it's, it's so layered. It is fun in the sense like a first time buyer, it's just like, What do I do? Tell me what to do. Take my hand, lead me down the path. And then sometimes you're dealing with people who have bought and sold so many homes. I always tell people, I'm your guide. I do this every day. I can give you the data, but I'm not bossing you around. I have heard for years, so many people saying, oh, my realtor made me feel pressure to do this or to hurry up and do that. And I always try to emphasize with people that I am a guide and a resource. I, but I work for them, right? So whether you're the seller or the buyer, I'm going to give you the data, I'm going to give you the plan, the marketing plan, or, or the infographic showing you, Hey buyer, this is step number one and two, and Hey, we might have to veer off here and do this. If something comes up on an inspection, et cetera. Um, so I don't necessarily think I have a preference cause there are fun and exciting things that go into both of them. There are challenges with both. Um, And the market ebbs and flows, you know, rates and just all the things, supply chain problems. You know, you want to close on a house and you're waiting for a garage door and you can't close because the garage door is on back quarter. You know, just weird things like that happen.
Jennifer Sutton: Or someone comes to the market and goes, I want this type of, you know, house, the size and this area. And you're like, there's no inventory.
Jamie Morris: Yeah, a lot of times people come. So we do a like what I call an intake. When someone wants to talk about buying or selling, we do a quick phone call, maybe 20 minutes and just kind of feel it out, understand the timeline, understand what they're looking for, what their goals are. and their urgency. You know, are you moving here because of a job or you need to leave or sell your house by a certain date? Because then that helps the strategy for the list price and the marketing. On the buy side, you know, time sensitive things can, you know, they say, oh, my lease is ending July 31st. You really need to be closing on a house and getting possession in June or sometime around the first of July just to make those transitions. So understanding the timeline is really critical. Yeah. And, and I usually ask all of my clients, like they're top five when they're buying, what are your top five must haves and getting couples on the same page with that is, is fun. I might have like a certification in marriage counseling.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie Morris: to help with that.
Jennifer Sutton: For all the process, I'm trying to think if we had, we never really had a top five. That would have been fun if you would have walked us through that because Pat and I are both like vision, like we can walk in any property and go, Hmm, I can make that work. If it had like certain, we were more like location specific.
Jamie Morris: Yeah. And that's the thing. Some people are tethered by a location or a proximity to work if they, are on call or if they're commuting and they only want to be so far. Some it's school districts, some it's the lake. We have a couple lakes here and people want to be close to boating or whatever. The people who aren't tethered by that become more challenging. They're like, oh, I'll live anywhere. I just want to find a deal.
Jennifer Sutton: Well, that was us too. Yeah. Because we went in some doozy of some properties.
Jamie Morris: There are some
Jennifer Sutton: Like our realtor, I felt like she's like, it's an adventure every time I take you on a house, a house tour. But yeah, we saw some like I swear to God, there was one that it had to have been some kind of swingers home. They had six hot tubs in that house that like every room had a hot tub. The master bedroom was had a hot tub in the center of the master bedroom. that was a raised that you've walked up like three stairs, like all the way around it, the hot tub. It was like the strangest.
Jamie Morris: I'm just cataloging all the hot tubs I've seen. It's not the Simaris, but yeah.
Jennifer Sutton: We were like, what is happening in this house? Or we walked into a house and it was like, right when you open the door, they had these double staircases but it looked like from the pictures it looked like this grand you know those grand like these grand entrances with the double stairs it was like you walk into a house and it was you could almost hit it with the front door like one of the stairs and you're and it went up To nowhere like it was just a dub like a landing that overlooked this teeny tiny Living room and we were like, what is the purpose of this? House of I mean we want but we were like, oh this is why this is not selling and it's why it's on 20 acres and that you might as well just either knock this house down and you're just But yeah, we went and we had fun. I mean it took us a while to find our house, but uh
Jamie Morris: We found it. It is an adventure and you see so many different things.
Jennifer Sutton: I mean, especially I was wondering like, cause you're a, you know, you come also from a developer, like logical floor plans on how to then have it be a good resale property. Do you walk into these properties and go, Oh my God, what architect builder thought this was good?
Jamie Morris: Well, I am constantly counting drawers and kitchens because you wouldn't believe how many kitchens only have two drawers. My hairdresser was looking for a house years ago and fell in love with this house. And it had a finished walkout basement and all these things. And it was in their budget. She was like, we love this one. And I said, you're foodies. You love to cook.
Jennifer Sutton: You'll have to get this kitchen.
Jamie Morris: Where are you going to put everything? And she was like, Oh my gosh, I hate you right now. But thank you for pointing that out. You know, just are you taking your dishes 10 feet away from the sink to load the dishwasher? Or is it conveniently next door? So thinking about people get like, distracted by pretty backsplashes and renovated homes, but the practicality of what you do day to day in a home really matters. That's right.
Jennifer Sutton: The flow, how many people you have in the house. Yeah.
Jamie Morris: And I'm always thinking about resale because it happens. We're in a college town and it's very transient. Coaches come and go or professors. Yeah. Yeah. Grad students will be here for two or three years. And when they call you back to sell their home, if they paid a premium for it, you better be prepared to be able to market and sell it. So it's very important that they get a good deal when they're buying so that you can sell it when they call you to sell it. So that's always on the forefront of my mind. And I don't think that I've ever said, I don't think you should buy this house because again, I'm not telling them what to do. They can make the choices for them, but there will be signs or there will be comments, you know, just have you considered this and this and this, you know, to help them make a, an informed decision.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. That's what we would go through houses and it would be, I love this house. And Pat's like, it has a sunken living room. And then after we saw like several houses over like six months, we started like, so you don't like levels that are, that are small levels. Like you walk into a room and you have to go down two stairs and then you walk and say, you know, maybe go up two stairs. He was like, you learn those things about yourself that you didn't know. Yeah, and we were like, we've, you know, our realtor was like, I'm noticing a trend, like every house that has something like that. You don't like it. So I'll just eliminate that as we walk in to get so it became like a joke of, oh, takes two stairs to get up to the bed master bedroom, we might as well just mark.
Jamie Morris: But some of those things you don't know until you get there, right? Right. Like sometimes photographers are very strategic to get you to the house and You can't search for a home with descriptive. Oh, I know. Yeah, search by hard facts.
Jennifer Sutton: But it became just like a joke of every time we tore housing. We're like, well, this is gonna go. And he and he'd go, I don't know, maybe I can compromise. And then he'd walk around and he's like, I don't like it. I don't like walking down these like two steps Well, that's what we were like, well we could just put money huh? No, no We'll find something. We're like there. They'll be another house. They'll be they'll be something else At least that was like, we were never that type of a buyer that would be like, that's it, I have to have this. It was the mindset of like, we'll find something because we could see, because every house I feel like that we bought was ugly when we bought it. We were the ugly baby on the street and made it pretty.
Jamie Morris: I've seen most of your houses. I don't think, I mean, I think everybody when they move into their home does something to make it their own, right? Whether it's changing the front door or painting the shutters or Taking down wallpaper and moving walls. But I really liked your first house in Sacramento. I loved that.
Jennifer Sutton: Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, we had to paint it and we made a little addition. We did some work on it. Made it our own. Yeah. I did like that house. That was a cute little house. A little front porch, cottage. It was cute.
Jamie Morris: You know, the other fun thing that we have not talked about is working in a development family. Yeah. I got to name a lot of streets and some of them are named after your children.
Jennifer Sutton: I know. And you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Our kids. Well, it's your, there's a Jamie Lane, right? Or is it a Jamie Street?
Jamie Morris: Jamie Lane.
Jennifer Sutton: Jamie Lane. Jamie Street. There's Calloway, my son. He's got a Calloway, is it Calloway Circle? Or he's a court and a street. And then Eloise. No, Carberry, because that's her middle name.
Jamie Morris: Carberry and Sophie. And Sophie. We lived on Sophia.
Jennifer Sutton: You did Sophia Court. Yeah. Sophia Court. Yeah. Yeah. To develop.
Jamie Morris: That's fun to name streets and name neighborhoods and Those are things that I wouldn't have been able to do if I didn't work for.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. We need to see a Morris neighborhood. Someday. Someday.
Jamie Morris: There's a new rule in Monroe County that you can't duplicate names. So we have like Rogers Road and Rogers Street and one runs east and west and one runs north and south. And it can be very confusing if you're not.
Jennifer Sutton: So now they won't let it.
Jamie Morris: So you couldn't have like a Rogers Circle or a Rogers Court because there are already two. So there are some kids and grandkids in the family who will not get street names.
Jennifer Sutton: They'll never get the street names.
Jamie Morris: They might get neighborhoods, you know.
Jennifer Sutton: There you go. Neighborhoods. That'll be fun. Landmarks. So what do you think has been the most challenging part of owning your own company?
Jamie Morris: Discipline, time management. Sometimes there's a little too much freedom where you can get lost. There's no like how-to guidebook 101. There are thousands of them. And there are also so many people who want a sliver of what's happening in real estate. And it's like, buy this, try that, you know, and or use us for leads or this or that. And so there's a lot of distraction.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah.
Jamie Morris: In real estate.
Jennifer Sutton: So, yeah, a lot of discipline. Well, because you're only accountable to yourself and your people. So, yeah, it's hard. So what's something you would like about yourself that you wish other people would recognize more?
Jamie Morris: I think I mean, it helps to work by referral. But there is a little bit of a grind to building trust with new people who don't know you and like understanding the integrity and like the, the history of how long you've been doing a job. And I think that's where focusing on the how will help convey that message to clients, because I think you can have a 15 minute conversation with somebody and know right away if this is the right fit or not. I mean, you don't even have to. take the time to drive to their house. You can figure that out much sooner. And I wish that part can get a little challenging for me because I want to help.
Jennifer Sutton: I want to- You're a pleaser. You're a server.
Jamie Morris: I'm a people pleaser. And when I'm starting over from the beginning or if I'm feeling a little bit of burnout and it's like, oh, I got to really sell myself to these people. And there are days when you're like, but I've been doing this for 20 years. Why don't they? I don't get it. Or that I want to do good for them. Right. So so that part is hard, I think, to just constantly sell yourself and convince people.
Jennifer Sutton: Have you figured out your how your little your elevator speech?
Jamie Morris: My how? I mean, let me count the ways. I mean, nothing is black and white in real estate or entrepreneurship. I mean, it's like I consistently refer to the cat in the hat on the unicycle because it really is what working for yourself is all about. Like, oh, I'm stacking the plates and now I'm juggling and now I can only pedal with one foot. And, you know, just it can all come crashing down or if you're lucky, keep it afloat.
Jennifer Sutton: All right, Jamie. Well, so if you had to hit rewind, is there anything that you would do differently?
Jamie Morris: I think I would have pursued more training and education earlier on in my career, or I wish I had known about real estate coaching sooner because it just gave me so much direction and guidance. And I don't want to say that I wasted time early on because I learned so much and I learned from failures and learning from trial and error. So it's, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily do it differently, but there are things I know now that I wish I had known then, you know, like we all do.
Jennifer Sutton: But the coaching's a good, a good lesson.
Jamie Morris: I just don't know how I would stay on course or stay on track without that kind of mentorship.
Jennifer Sutton: Or to scale like you did. Yeah. So what was your greatest aha moment?
Jamie Morris: I think just when someone else believes in you or gives you that personal ask, it's almost like someone is allowing you as an adult to do something. Like you spend your childhood being guided and told yes or no. And then you work jobs where you have a boss who tells you yes or no. And when you go out on your own, if you don't give yourself permission, it's really helpful when a peer or colleague or mentor gives you that permission and says, hey, I think you're good at this or hey, you should try this. You would make a great whatever. And it has taken me to places I never considered. I just didn't know what I didn't know. And I was the president of our local board of realtors last year and That was triggered by, like years ago, a friend saying, I think you should join this board. I think you could be the president of it. And then my managing broker at my last office said, I really think you should do the state leadership. And I did the leadership academy. And that really gave me ideas and gave me the confidence and the, I guess, permission, for lack of a better way to describe it, to just… You got the push. Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton: What do you think was your biggest, oh shit moment where you just like, oh no, what have I done?
Jamie Morris: Well, I, I think my biggest, oh shit moment was between 2008 and 2010 when I realized I work for my family and nobody knows I'm a realtor and I need that direction. And then, you know, having a coach helped me in like 2017 to 2019 figure out Just learning about myself was like, aha, now I can get further because I have a team and I have people helping me where it was like, nobody can do it as good as I can do it. So I'm going to do all the things and stress myself out and never see my family. And then suddenly it was like, oh, no, you know, and examples like, you know, a surgeon doesn't go into surgery and do all the prep and all the x-rays and all the things beforehand. They're executing on the actual surgery. And it's like, it's a team. The team really propels you. You can go further with the team and do better for your clients with a team instead of trying to do it all yourself.
Jennifer Sutton: That's right. So what do you think, well, I was going to ask, what do you do just for fun, like to deal with stress, anxiety? Is there any disciplines that you have to keep you sane?
Jamie Morris: I like to be a little bit of a workaholic. I like to listen to self-help books. I crave learning because I didn't do that for the first 10 years of my career. I was just trying to keep my nose out of the water. It was like survival mode. So I really crave that. But if it comes to guilty pleasures, I love memoirs. I love reading memoirs. I love music. I like to try to get to a couple concerts a year with my husband and our friends. He was in a band for about 16 years. He plays guitar. He still plays. He still plays. Our kids are all learning how to play guitar, just casually. But it's fun if I walk in the house and he's got two or three of them sitting down with the guitar. Charlie's in a band?
Jennifer Sutton: Charlie's… You got to announce his band name because I think it's hilarious.
Jamie Morris: He and his friends had a band when they were little with like toy instruments called the Awesome Dragons. And the Awesome Dragons allowed his friend and his friend's little sister in the band. But unfortunately, he said the cutoff to get in the band was like three days before his sister's birthday, so she wasn't old enough. And his friend's sister was allowed to play the microphone, which meant she could sing. So that was kind of a mean boy band.
Jennifer Sutton: He's so funny. It was exclusive. And now he's driving.
Jamie Morris: Now he's driving a car. He's very helpful. I think maybe some of my kids might want to be in this industry someday. And he's super helpful.
Jennifer Sutton: He's an entrepreneurial spirit kind of guy. He has some of that. Yeah.
Jamie Morris: And my youngest daughter mocks me all the time. Oh, I'm Jamie Morris Realtor. She'll like mock me on the phone. And I'm like, come on.
Jennifer Sutton: She's a little sassy. She'll own a business. She'll become president. She's always in charge. Okay, Jamie, if we were to meet a year from now over cocktails, what would we be celebrating? So my husband joined my team this year.
Jamie Morris: I saw, yeah. And I cannot wait for him to soar in this business. He has some entrepreneurial experience in a different field and he's got a lot of connections in our community and he's just getting started and I'm really excited for him. So a year from now, I really hope that we are celebrating his individual success and then our success overall as a team.
Jennifer Sutton: Nice. Have you set his aspirational goals?
Jamie Morris: His stretch goals? He has some goals, yes. And I joke with my coach, I just sent her a thank you card last week. I said, our most recent team coaching session, there's another agent on my team, her name is Macy, and she couldn't make it. We had to reschedule kind of last minute. My admin couldn't be there. So it was just my husband, Chuck and I, and I sent her a card afterwards. And I was like, thank you so much for all of your insight. And P.S. Not only are you my coach, but you're kind of like my marriage counselor. She can see our blind spots together. And it's like, Jamie, you're frustrated over here because he's not doing this, but he's never going to do it the way you do it. He has his own way. And we, in addition to all these profiles and things that we do, they have a, the coaching company has a something called a Real Strengths Profile and he took that and it's fit. We actually got those results this morning and went through those.
Jennifer Sutton: Is that based on the StrengthsFinder? Like the top five, you get like 35 strengths and then they give you the top five? Is that what it's based on?
Jamie Morris: They bought this program like in the 90s. It used to be called your Heritage Profile and they've rebranded it as your Real Strengths and it's like Are you pragmatic or are you like I'm a create finalize like I like to start things and get them done like rapid and he's execute finalize like it kind of dissects different parts of your personality and it's got all these families of things like you know you're how relational you are or if you're a learner or are you a gardener or you know I don't really know.
Jennifer Sutton: It feels a lot like the Strength Finder, similar, but it sounds like it has its own little nuance.
Jamie Morris: Yeah.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. Were those good? Did you and Chad kind of go over them together?
Jamie Morris: We did. And it's interesting to see how that layers, like things that we have in common and then things that are vastly different. So he really, he's always said he likes to be second in command as far as business ownership goes. So that pairs well with the husband and wife real estate team. He's really good at letting me take the lead. He's a great support person and he has done, I mean, there are times, a real estate spouse is like the invisible wingman that nobody sees or wing woman. I've had him pick up like tractor tires out of a yard. Like somebody was using a tractor tire one time for gardening and like had flowers planted in it. My buyer didn't want it and seller didn't take it. And he took it, hauled it away. propped it up on the side of our house. And I was like, we can't keep this here. And some guy that worked for him wanted to use it in his home gym to flip the tire as part of his work. I'm like, you see, we repurposed that. It was fine. But the logistics of getting like giant tractor tires from the house, stored in our house to the next person's hands is a little clunky. He has a lot of roles that he's taken. You know, we've been married almost 17 years and he He was a realtor by osmosis just without the license for a long time. Now he's officially a realtor.
Jennifer Sutton: And I know he was kind of nervous, kind of get into it. Now he's like, it's like, Chuck, you were kind of born for this, you know?
Jamie Morris: Yeah. No, he's such a patient people person and easy to talk to. And just getting some of that background that I've grown up with that I take for granted or the terminology, some of the real estate vocab is a little crazy and just the Scenarios and negotiations that go on it's like yeah, you don't know what to do until you experience that and then you you learn that's right Okay.
Jennifer Sutton: So what what would our listeners be really surprised to learn about you? We know your mom You'd like music but what are some what's something that's not I on your resume or anything on your website closed Stage name when I sing karaoke. Oh, that's right.
Jamie Morris: Okay What's your stage name? It's not very often. That might happen once or twice a year. And I'm not going to tell her name. That's my stage name. I can't help myself, you know.
Jennifer Sutton: Guess you can. Karaoke queen. And then because you've had a coach and I'd be like, so what's the best piece of advice? I mean, you've given a lot of tips and lessons, but, you know, what's the best piece of advice that you would give another founder entrepreneur? getting into wanting to start their own business, what advice would you have for them?
Jamie Morris: Don't get stuck in paralysis overthinking all the things. You really, really, really have to take action. And that might mean leaning into peers or fellow business owners and sometimes it's your competitors. And, you know, no two people are the same. No two people know the exact same network or sphere of influence. And so you can share those things with each other and learn and grow. Having peers and colleagues in my circle to support me and to support. It's made the biggest difference. I mean, I joke with people in my office who are new and they're like, how do I do it? What do I do? And I'm like, well, have four kids, put them in all the sports, join every board and every committee and run yourself ragged and you'll read all the books. More business than you know what to do. So that's my joke. But I think I didn't know to seek out those things. The first half of my career and the second half, you know, these last nine or 10 years, have just been a it's almost been like a completely different career. Yeah. Although I wouldn't be who I am and have the experience that I have without that first part. So they go hand in hand. But take action instead of just thinking about what you want to do. Do that. And that is so much easier to say than do. And I do that in all facets of my life. Right. We're compartmentalized with with the work. But.
Jennifer Sutton: But get out there and meet and meet people. And I think that's so a good piece of advice, too. I think people are afraid to talk to who their competitor might be.
Jamie Morris: That's like, don't be saying something wrong or silly. I learned so much. Someone asked me to chair a technology committee and I don't consider myself to be techie. But because we went from 42 employees to four, I learned how to fix the copier and fix the Wi-Fi and the router and all the things. And it's like you just keep trying until it works. Right. And so joining that technology committee, a lot of the people on that committee, a lot of the realtors through our local board that were on that committee, not me. I would come up with an agenda saying we need to brainstorm and they would bring all these ideas and I would walk out of there like, whoa, I learned so much. And I think there's a veil of like intimidation when you think, ooh, I'm brand new to this or I've only been doing this for three years. I don't belong in there. Yeah, you do. Just get in there. There's a seat at the table for everybody, and you just have to be brave enough to come up and sit in it. That's right.
Jennifer Sutton: Yeah. No, that's good, because I think that's what we find is, especially in the entrepreneurial community and especially in industries like yours, that it is very welcoming. And if you just, hey, can I grab a cup of coffee or a beer? I think most people, yeah, absolutely. Let's go find a time.
Jamie Morris: And I also think, I mean, I've worked at a small, what I call like a mom and pop office, I do think it's important to surround yourself with other people. I mean, in our state, you have to have someone, a broker, hold your license for two years. That can be an independent broker or it can be a big office. But it is advantageous to get that training early on because you'll have fewer stumbling blocks as you go. Yeah, that's a good point. And you have people to call and say, I don't know what to do. How do I help my client get from A to B?
Jennifer Sutton: Surround yourself with people. Get your community. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, before we go, last question. How do you want people to connect with you, Jamie? How do you want them to find you and connect with you?
Jamie Morris: They can find me on Instagram, Facebook. I think both of my handles are Jamie Morris Realtor. My website is JamieMorrisRealtor.com and my team is all there. We do a lot within the community. Occasionally, I'm posting things about my kids and exciting things going on around me Insights for the industry. Yeah, maybe a funny video now and then No, actually you do.
Jennifer Sutton: I like your content. It's fun. I'm always amazed at how fast this goes Thank you for hanging out with us today and really enjoyed the conversation Likewise, thank you so much for having me. It's been fun. Well, hang tight hang tight I For everyone listening, thank you for joining us. This podcast episode will be available on Sunday, so subscribe to Hello Chaos. Give us a like, a shout, a comment, a share. Help us build a more connected entrepreneurial community. Hello Chaos is one of the many resources brought to you by OrangeWIP. That is OrangeWIP, W-I-P for work in progress. OrangeWIP is a multimedia company dedicated to serving founders and entrepreneurs in affiliate cities. We're in three South Carolina cities today, looking to expand to other cities. Every city needs to have an OrangeWIP, because we'll probably become an Indiana soon, too. Just an email to join the community. And we are a one-stop content hub for founders and entrepreneurs and an innovative digital zine experience. If you'd like to be a guest on our podcast or support us, send us an email to hello at orange whip dot com. Y'all, thank you for tuning in to Hello Cast. It is where aha meets oh shit. We will see you again next week.