Thinking OTB | Thinking Outside the Box with Steve Valentine artwork

Thinking OTB | Thinking Outside the Box with Steve Valentine

100 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 20 ratings

Join Steve Valentine for #thinkingOTB... a real estate industry podcast about finding creative solutions for every real estate transaction that puts the people over profit (and makes a lot of profit in the process). Although Steve brings decades of experience in real estate, he is anything but traditional. If you're ready to level up your business and create a meaningful career in any aspect of real estate, this one's for you.

Entrepreneurship Business Investing agent realtor title bernieespinosa innovation lending mortgage outofthebox realestate sales
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed

Episodes

Episode 083 - Stepping out of your comfort zone by building relationships through group development

November 22, 2022 07:00 - 46 minutes

There’s a tendency as entrepreneurs to isolate ourselves when we’re working or even when we’re considering how to expand our business. It’s hard to talk about business ups and downs with our non-business friends and family who mean well but might not understand what we’re going through. To be among others sharing our experiences who might also become valued business relationships would be an invaluable opportunity, and that’s what my friend Kyle Depiesse and I are talking about on this episod...

Episode 082 - Understanding the Opportunity in Today’s Market

November 15, 2022 07:02 - 51 minutes

This week on Thinking OTB, Andrew Karam from Edge Home Finance is here to talk about what opportunities there are in today’s market. He shared how agents who can look past the chicken little view of the world can find success and wealth where others might fail. Frankly, there’s far too much talk out there about how rising rates are cooling down the market, making it harder to be successful. If you can look past rates and monthly payments, you’ll realize that the housing market is exactly how ...

Episode 081 - Leveraging Investment Capital to Build Your Portfolio

November 08, 2022 07:00 - 13 minutes

If you are like me, you aren’t sitting on a huge line of personal credit when you’re just starting out. So how can you get the funds you need to start buying those properties and start your investment portfolio? On this episode of Thinking OTB, we’re talking about the different sources you can use to get the funds you need to get started.   We’ve talked about “hard money” on a previous episode, but what does that look like with interest rates and terms in today’s market? What is relationshi...

Episode 080 - Stop waiting for the sky to fall and Start looking for Opportunity

November 01, 2022 06:00 - 11 minutes

With interest rates increasing and home prices going down, some people are insisting that the sky is falling in the Real Estate industry. So many people are still spooked from what happened in 2008 that they’re missing the true story of what’s happening and the opportunities that are still out there to create wealth and legacy through real estate. The truth is that we’re coming out of an over-inflated market where homes were going for way over what they were worth, and interest rates were so ...

Episode 079 - When we help others, we help ourselves

October 25, 2022 06:00 - 8 minutes

There are all kinds of property that you might come across as an agent whose true value might not be immediately apparent on first glance. Today we have a story for you about just such a property, which could have been an easy fix and flip, but turned out to be the solution to another client’s unique problem that worked out in everyone’s favor. That’s really the point of it all, working together with other agents and clients to find solutions to their unique problems that work out in everyone...

Episode 078 - Be Aware of Your Surroundings When Flipping Houses

October 18, 2022 06:00 - 8 minutes

On this episode of Thinking OTB, Steve has a story from his days of investing in foreclosed houses. There is always an opportunity to think outside of the box to increase the value of the investments you focus on, even when it’s full of all kinds of unexpected things. The point is: you never know what you’re going to find when taking on a house that was foreclosed on recently, so always make sure when you’re entering the building, be aware of your surroundings, assess any potential threats in...

Episode 077 - Being Your Unapologetic Self with Justin Mercer of Call Tattoo

October 11, 2022 06:00 - 56 minutes

We’re always talking about how much the market has changed from the days of Steve’s Dad and the old school way of doing business. One of the truly great things about being a real estate entrepreneur is the opportunity to do things your own way, being your true self, and letting your talent speak for you. Our guest on today’s pod is exactly that, so much so that he’s become a local celebrity: Justin Mercer from the Call Tattoo Real Estate Group is in the studio with us to talk about his story ...

Episode 076 - Thinking Beyond Just Making a Commission

October 04, 2022 06:00 - 10 minutes

As agents, we work hard to help our clients find the right kind of house that will fit their needs. The commission we make off of that purchase is a huge motivator to put in all that work. Working toward that commission tends to give us tunnel vision on what we as agents can do for our clients. The reality of our business is that the bigger the problems you can solve for your clients with those outside the box solutions, the more your income will be and the more net worth you’ll accumulate. O...

Episode 075 - Coaching: Where to start and what to look for

September 27, 2022 06:00 - 47 minutes

There’s so much to consider when thinking of taking on a business coach. Unfortunately, for those of us who have never had one before, the market for a coach can be overwhelming. How do you choose the type of coach that will best fit where you’re at with your business? What kind of criteria should be considered before spending the considerable amount of money coaching requires? This is a subject near and dear to our hearts, and something we have quite a bit of knowledge about, so we’re breaki...

Episode 074 - Working on Your Business Rather than in Your Business

September 20, 2022 06:00 - 11 minutes

As real estate agents, we tend to wear many different hats in our business. We’re the CEO, accountant, saleperson, marketer, and so much more. As we are wearing all of these hats and heaing up all these roles, we tend to think we need to be all of these people in our business in order for it to be successful. But here’s the secret: unless we’re some kind of genius with endless amounts of time and energy, most likely we’re not going to be the best person for each of those roles. It’s that age ...

Episode 073 - Keeping Tabs on the Winds of Change

September 13, 2022 06:01 - 11 minutes

There are many reasons for why the market moves the way it does, and not least of these reasons are in the winds of political fortune. It’s on each of us to keep up with what’s going on and make sure that we’re prepared for shifts in the market. What the past decade has shown us in stark detail is that anything can happen, no matter how stable the market seems or how volatile it might be. This isn’t to say that if you’re new to being an agent that this is a bad time to start, but it does mean...

Episode 072 - Get Educated about Creative Financing

September 06, 2022 06:00 - 9 minutes

Times are getting weird out there. With interest rates going up and the market normalizing, in order to be successful, it’s time to be creative. Creative financing, that is! Unfortunately, this is not something you’re going to learn in real estate school. To get the best information about what kind of options are out there, agents are going to have to seek out that education. The reality is that in this market, agents are going to have to invest in themselves to stay ahead of the curve and OT...

Episode 071 - Looking Forward to a Cooling Market? Time to get Back to Basics!

August 30, 2022 06:00 - 17 minutes

We’re going to say it again, and louder for those in the back: today’s market will be won by those who have good, well-developed fundamentals. It means getting back to basics and taking care of those clients that you’ve won, staying in contact with those clients you are nurturing, and reaching out to potential clients. All of this can be accomplished by effectively marketing yourself through social media, through client checkups, and having engaged, meaningful conversations. It might be temp...

Episode 070 - A Cooler Market: Doing the Hard Things

August 23, 2022 06:07 - 38 minutes

The subject on everyone’s mind right now is all the different ways the real estate market has been changing. Not to beat a dead horse, but we’re moving from a bullish market where sales and transactions moved at an extremely high pace, to one that aligns more with what we might call a normal market. We’ve talked about it before, and until things settle down, we’ll keep talking you through it. On this episode, we’re talking about going back to the Hard Things, but don’t let the name scare you!...

Episode 069 - Should You Start a Podcast? How We Got Started

August 16, 2022 06:00 - 24 minutes

Thinking of starting a podcast? This week we’re talking about what we’ve learned since becoming The Thinking OTB podcast! If you’ve been thinking about starting a podcast, now is a great time to start. The truth is, anyone can get started whenever they feel like they’re ready. All you need is some kind of recording device and a will to share your knowledge with the people. But what it takes to be a successful podcast, well, that’s what we’re talking about on this episode. Part of our success ...

Episode 068 - The Benefits of an Extra Boost featuring Nurse Rebecca of Rejuvenetix Global

August 09, 2022 06:00 - 9 minutes

You may have noticed us talking about being on a nutrients drip for the past few weeks while doing the podcast. We’ve had Nurse Becca from Rejuvenetics Global in the studio to administer what’s called a NAD+ IV drip. This is something to think about if you’re feeling stressed out by your work or life, maybe you wish you had a little more energy to keep up the pace that you’ve set for yourself. It’s something that we’ve been trying out ourselves to give us that extra boost of nutrients, and so...

Episode 067 - Sales Processes with Weaver Sales Academy

August 02, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour

This week we’re very excited to have Mike and Courtney Weaver from the Weaver Sales Academy as guests of the podcast! The Weavers are longtime entrepreneurs who have run multiple businesses, mainly in insurance, and now have transitioned into training others with a comprehensive sales academy. While they do focus mostly on insurance sales, our conversation shows that there is so much that can be gained from sales training in methods and practices. So much has changed in the last few years in ...

Episode 66 - In this market, who will you be?

July 26, 2022 06:03 - 54 minutes

In today’s real estate market, you have to ask yourself: are you a pessimist, an optimist, or a realist? The honest answer is that we all are one or the other at any point in time, but the key is inhabiting those roles at the right time to seize on success. In today’s market, so many people are pessimists about where the market is rather than being realists. The reality is that there is still opportunity in the market for those who are thinking long term. Interest rates are going up, but they...

Episode 065 - Staying Positive in an Uncertain Market

July 19, 2022 06:00 - 42 minutes

We’re doing things a little differently for this week’s podcast, with an episode focusing on Bernie asking Steve some questions about how he’s doing as an agent in today’s market. The truth is that things aren’t always sunshine and rainbows, even for someone who’s had success in the market like Steve, but even when times are hard, there is still opportunity to be made if you have the right perspective on things. The reality is that so much of the real estate market revolves around the perspec...

[ BONUS REPLAY ] Episode 048 - Good Networking Means Genuine Relationships with Kacia & Seena Ghetmiri

July 12, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour

Are you presenting yourself professionally as a resource or as a salesperson to your potential clients? This week we have with us in the OTB studio Kacia and Seena, good friends of the show who recently had their own unique set of circumstances that made finding the right real estate professional a huge priority. This continues what we were talking about last week with Bernie’s story of finding a new home: building a professional relationship of trust with your clients is so important to buil...

Episode 064 - What You Can Expect from a "Cooling" Real Estate Market

July 05, 2022 06:00 - 42 minutes

We’re back talking a bit more about Emotional Intelligence and what agents today can expect from a cooling market and how that can affect our professional outlook. It’s no secret that the market we’ve been seeing has been bananas and even if it moves back to a more normal equilibrium that has more basis in history, it’s going to seem like a huge slowdown to most agents who don’t know any different. That’s not a bad thing! It’s just that success isn’t going to be the low hanging fruit that it’...

Episode 063 - What is Emotional Intelligence?

June 28, 2022 06:00 - 54 minutes

What is Emotional Intelligence? That’s the subject of this week’s episode, and it’s a subject that Bernie is very passionate about. So, what is it, and how does it relate to our business of Real Estate? It’s the ability to perceive, reason, understand, and manage emotions of others in our day to day lives. For agents, being emotionally intelligent can mean the difference between working with clients on a purely transactional basis or understanding what they’re looking for on an emotional leve...

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: I will work with you, but not for you

June 21, 2022 06:00 - 1 minute

Each week, Steve Valentine shares mindset tips and actionable strategies to help build wealth and impact families through your real estate business. Want more of this? Check out the Steve D. Valentine mentoring program: https://stevedvalentine.mykajabi.com/

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Servant Leadership

June 14, 2022 06:00 - 1 minute

Each week, Steve Valentine shares mindset tips and actionable strategies to help build wealth and impact families through your real estate business. Want more of this? Check out the Steve D. Valentine mentoring program: https://stevedvalentine.mykajabi.com/

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Working with a VA Buyer

June 07, 2022 05:51 - 2 minutes

Each week, Steve Valentine shares mindset tips and actionable strategies to help build wealth and impact families through your real estate business. Want more of this? Check out the Steve D. Valentine mentoring program: https://stevedvalentine.mykajabi.com/

Episode 062 - Building Community with Networking

May 31, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour

One of the things that we like to think keeps people coming back and listening to us week after week is not just our ‘outside the box’ ideas, but our appeal as people in the business. We feel very strongly that the greatest strength of a successful real estate agent is the ability to network and be personalities people love to listen to and do business with. Building community by helping people get into communities is key to making it in this business, and that’s what our guest Frankie Gerola...

Episode 061 - Perspective on the Changing Real Estate Market with Kevin Kauffman & Fred Weaver

May 24, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour

In the studio this week we have one of the best partnerships in the business, two individuals who like Steve have made a huge name for themselves since the old days of crazy markets: Kevin Kauffman and Fred Weaver of Group 46:10 and Next Level Agents! We have a wealth of knowledge and shared stories that we’re going over this week, and how that experience of coming up in the short sale market that gives us a fresh perspective on where today’s market is heading. Bottom line: don’t fear the rea...

Episode 060 - Culture and Leadership in the Real Estate Industry

May 17, 2022 06:00 - 33 minutes

It’s the culture club episode! Today we’re talking about culture and leadership in your organization and what works and what absolutely doesn’t. A huge blind spot that was exposed by the pandemic and the great resignation is that for many people in many professions, corporate and work culture had become a source for burnout for workers because there has been such a disconnect between the average worker and the people who they work for. When it comes to building a team that sticks around and w...

Episode 059 - The Rise and Fall of the Real Estate Economy

May 10, 2022 06:00 - 28 minutes

You may have heard that interest rates are going up and that it’s a sign that the sky is falling and it’s 2008 all over again. Is it time to panic? We here at Thinking OTB are giving you a warm blanket, some tea, and telling you it’s all going to be ok. The market is changing, but that doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom. We haven’t been silent about the differences between 2008’s market and today and how there is still opportunity for some real outside the box thinking to still make a huge ...

Episode 058 - A Deeper Look at Real Estate Conferences (Our Time at Inman Connect)

May 03, 2022 06:00 - 19 minutes

We’re back in town after traveling to New York to attend Inman Connect and let’s just say that we have a few notes. But first, shout out to all of the speakers and the city for having us! It’s always a treat to take a trip to the Big Apple, and to be among so many of our colleagues from around the country is an experience that doesn’t happen every day. We heard about some new technologies that are intersecting with Real Estate, and what the digital landscape has in store for life as we know i...

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: For all the frustrated real estate agents out there...

April 26, 2022 07:43 - 4 minutes

Each week, Steve Valentine shares mindset tips and actionable strategies to help build wealth and impact families through your real estate business. Want more of this? Check out the Steve D. Valentine mentoring program: https://stevedvalentine.mykajabi.com/

Episode 057 - The One Constant is Change: Surviving in Today's Crazy Real Estate Market

April 19, 2022 06:00 - 47 minutes

Look, it’s no secret: this podcast is all about showing real estate agents in today’s market that using outside the box thinking to help they and their clients build wealth and legacy. It’s pretty much our whole thing, so when we have the opportunity to talk to a kindred soul, we’re going to be all over it. This week on the pod we’re interviewing Derek Jarr of Stay Frank to talk about their philosophy on providing solutions to their client’s situations, the direction today’s market is taking,...

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Deed of Trust

April 12, 2022 06:16 - 4 minutes

A lot of people don't want to own rental properties because they hear all the negative chatter about it. We're digging into it on this week's bonus short.

Episode 056 - Overcoming Hard Times as a Real Estate Agent

April 05, 2022 06:00 - 59 minutes

This week on Thinking OTB we’re bringing things a little closer to home to give you a little peek behind the Valentine Group curtain. Nicole Porter, one of our Rockstar agents is joining us on the podcast to talk about her life before joining up with Steve and how thinking outside the box and realizing her limitless potential has changed the way she views herself and her career as a real estate agent.   The truth is her story before joining up with Steve is unfortunately not a unique one. It...

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Get Your Head in the Game

March 25, 2022 08:32 - 3 minutes

So many Real Estate Agents are trying to learn to be salespeople instead of problem solvers. This week's bonus episode is all about getting your head in the game.

Episode 055 - The Best Tax Benefit for Real Estate Investors

March 22, 2022 06:00 - 47 minutes

This episode is part 2 of our talk with our guy in the financial industry, Michael Velasco. This week we’re diving deep into 1031 Exchanges, which if you’re not in the know yet, get out your notebook for this conversation. When you’re talking with your clients about investment properties, the 1031 Exchange is a super-tool to increase wealth and build your portfolio while deferring tax payments down the line. Let’s get into it.   “The IRS said, ‘We're going to give you the greatest benefit e...

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Turning People Into Homeowners and Homeowners Into Investors

March 18, 2022 06:00 - 3 minutes

The heartbeat of Steve's business is "turning people into homeowners and homeowners into investors." Learn more about why this is the center of his business model and how investing in home ownership creates generational wealth in today's bonus episode.

Episode 054 - How to Become a Real Estate Social Media Rockstar

March 15, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour

Social media is one of the best ways to reach out to potential clients but learning how to use it effectively can be a challenge. This week our guest Chelsea Peitz is here to show us the light about what we all can do to be more effective with our profiles and our posts. She is a grand master of using social media to market your brand and business, and she was gracious enough to come to the OTB studios and share with us some great tips and tricks for building an effective social media strateg...

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Should we wait until we are out of debt to invest in real estate?

March 11, 2022 07:00 - 2 minutes

So many of the big-name financial advice coaches out there claim we need to live on rice and beans for 10 years and get completely out of debt before we can invest in real estate. But in today's bonus Limitless episode, Steve explains why investing is a wealth-building strategy that actually helps with leverage. For more information, check out the Steve D. Valentine mentoring program: https://stevedvalentine.mykajabi.com/

Episode 053 - Properly Managing Your Taxes

March 08, 2022 07:27 - 50 minutes

We’re going practical and tactical this week on Thinking OTB with our guest Michael Velasco from Provident Accounting and talking about something that should be on the front of every entrepreneur’s mind: properly managing your taxes. It’s one of those messy subjects where there’s so much to know that it can be paralyzing to know where even to start, but if you wait too long that has its own pitfalls too. Well, that’s where the tactical part comes in because Michael is just the agent to get th...

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Rent to Own

March 04, 2022 07:00 - 1 minute

Today, we're talking about the strategy for leasing to own. For more information, check out the Steve D. Valentine mentoring program: https://stevedvalentine.mykajabi.com/

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Steve's Car Collection

March 01, 2022 07:00 - 7 minutes

If you follow Steve, you know he loves his car collection... but you might not know that some of his cars have come from real estate transactions. Say WHAT? Check out today's bonus Limitless Real Estate Strategies episode to learn more.

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Moving Assets to Create Wealth

February 25, 2022 07:41 - 2 minutes

Wondering how we help clients move assets around to create wealth? This week's bonus episode explains the process.

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: A Lesson in Flipping

February 22, 2022 07:00 - 1 minute

In this bonus Limitless Real Estate Strategy episode, Steve's sharing an experience and lessons learned flipping a house in his own neighborhood. 

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Limitless or Limited?

February 18, 2022 07:00 - 2 minutes

In this week's Limitless Real Estate Strategies bonus episode, Steve explains what Limitless means to him and his family and how he incorporates that mindset into real estate strategies... and how you can, too!

Episode 052 - Are you having these important conversations with your clients?

February 15, 2022 07:00 - 56 minutes

Are you having effective conversations with your clients? To say that the Arizona real estate market has been evolving over the last few years would be an understatement. For agents, it’s a huge part of our job just keeping up with the trends and changes that are happening on a sometimes-weekly basis. If things are that difficult for those of us inside the business, how difficult must it be for our clients, who might be getting bad information to begin with?   It's our job to be experts in ...

Limitless Real Estate Strategies: Using Equity to Invest

February 11, 2022 07:00 - 3 minutes

One of the questions Steve gets asked all the time is "Would you pull equity out of your home to invest in real estate?" The answer is yes!  Join us for the first-ever Limitless Real Estate Strategies bonus episode of Thinking OTB to learn more.

Episode 051 - Diving Into Opportunities With Paige

February 08, 2022 08:30 - 56 minutes

Life can be strange sometimes. The path that you envision for yourself one year might take an entirely different direction, depending on the decisions that you end up making. Our guest this week is Paige Callahan, a former employee of Steve’s and current real estate investor with multiple properties in her folder, and all accomplished by her 30th birthday.   Our conversation about Paige and her history graduating college, getting her first job and moving on to working for Steve, brought up ...

Episode 050 - Cultivating a Community of Outside the Box Thinkers with Sharane Dorrah

January 25, 2022 07:00 - 48 minutes

This week's episode is part 2 of our conversation with industry veteran Sharane Dorrah. Last week we talked about Sharane’s past, this week we’re looking toward her present and future. Specifically, we’re talking about what she's seen as someone who knows the market but is approaching it with a fresh perspective. It’s the kind of outside of the box thinking that we’re all about!   Sometimes approaching your comfort zone from a fresh angle requires you to be honest with yourself. For Sharane...

Episode 049 - Resetting Priorities for a Thriving Business with Sharane Dorrah

January 18, 2022 07:00 - 53 minutes

It’s a brand-new year and we’re ready to hit the ground running here at the Thinking OTB studios. After some much-needed R&R, we’ve come back together with our guest this week, Sharane Dorrah to talk about how important it is to give yourself some grace. Sharane is a veteran of the business who stepped away for health reasons but is back in business and ready for some outside the box thinking to get back on her feet.   To say that Sharane has been through some tough times would be putting i...