How To Be Intentional In Your Career And The Importance of Mentors With Division Sales and Marketing Manager Taylor Humphrey

Stephanie Lindamood: (00:00)
Hey guys, it's Stephanie and welcome to another episode of the glam life of real estate podcast. I am so excited to be here today. Today my guest is going to be talking about how to be intentional and your career as far as going about your path growing and your role and kind of keeping your eyes on your big goals. So it is my pleasure to be interviewing Division Sales and Marketing Manager of Pacesetter Homes, Taylor Humphrey. So we're going to chat with Taylor here in a second. If you guys haven't already had the chance, if you would go ahead and hit pause real quick. Go hit the subscribe button and I do want to read a quick review of the show. The author of this review, I'm just going to spell out their name cause it's a nickname on iTunes. It's take underscore dat, dat underscore and then w I D Y a exclamation Mark.

Stephanie Lindamood: (00:52)
So I'm not really sure what that means, but the reduces top shelf productions. I don't know how Stephanie does it, but the production quality of all of her media is absolutely top notch. I really enjoy all of her stuff. Great job, thumbs up and 100% emoji. So thank you so much for your review. I am so excited for the show. And so excited for all the value that it's bringing to you guys. If you don't already know, I say this in every episode, but the reviews helped me understand what you guys want. More of, more content, the types of content. And it also was all the plat plus the podcast platforms. Know that you guys like the show and they serve it up to more people like you. So that's why it's really important. If you haven't already, take the time. Just shoot me a quick review. I'd really appreciate it. So we'd know what you guys are wanting more of. So without further ado, let's get to Taylor and the show to learn how to be intentional about your career path. So stay tuned.

Voiceover: (01:43)
You're listening to the glam life of real estate podcast where we talk about everything from productivity tips, social media strategies, business hacks, and more to get ahead of the curve and crush it as a real estate sales professional. Whether you office out of a model home or your car where lever, print and high heels never go out of style. Here's your host, top producing real estate agent, social media strategist, and for baby mama Stephanie Linda mood.

Stephanie Lindamood: (02:16)
All right guys. So today we have the privilege of talking with Taylor Humphrey. Taylor Humphrey is the division salls and marketing manager of Pacesetter homes here in Dallas, Texas. He's got a huge resume that we're going to talk about and talk about his career here in a little bit. But I wanted to just welcome to the show and thank you for being here today. Taylor.

Taylor Humphrey: (02:36)
Thanks for having me. I'm just excited to do it. You know, I love you. I'm excited to see you just get going on this podcast.

Stephanie Lindamood: (02:42)
Awesome. Well no, we appreciate it. So for our guests that may not know you, can you give us kind of an idea of your background and you can tell as much as you want, whether it's, you know, before your career. And then as we get into your career and then I'll kind of set up what we're going to be talking about, why we decided to have this conversation.

Taylor Humphrey: (03:01)
Yeah. So, um, I won't go too far back. Sure. You'll get it out of me here in a little bit, but um, yeah. And my grandfather sold homes for 25 years and in Houston and I just grew up running around model homes, sweeping houses in the summers and um, really just kind of wanted to do my own thing, um, but still stay within the industry. And um, short version is I was at 1920 he was traveling around the country building retail stores or a fun company called love sack, if you've ever heard of them.

Stephanie Lindamood: (03:35)
Oh yeah. Yes. The couch or the like beanbag place. Yeah.

Taylor Humphrey: (03:40)
Yeah. Whenever you're 19. Right.

Taylor Humphrey: (03:43)
I met this pretty girl and I'm here in Dallas. And long story short, after our first date, I knew I had just met my wife and just changed my career and had to do something that kept me building, you know, in some form of fashion. Uh, but kept me in one city, you know, um, cause we want to start a family and everything. And uh, I was like, well, Hey, I grew up in residential construction. I loved that. Let's do that. And, um, a company called darling homes, uh, in Oh six, took a shot on me and I was a, uh, a builder. I was a rookie builder of the year. What's up?

Stephanie Lindamood: (04:24)
Woo.

Taylor Humphrey: (04:25)
And I, I like to say I'm a operations guy who can just speak and understand people. I love, I love the art of conversation. And, um, yeah, so I started on the construction side and we'll go into my career in a little bit, but overall just ended up on the sales side and loving it.

Stephanie Lindamood: (04:43)
Awesome. So that's similar to my story in a sense. I watched my mom sell homes for years, so I literally would do my homework in the model homes and she'd pick me up after school and I'd be like, I want to go sit in the, you know, the bedroom that's all staged and decorated and why doesn't my room look like this? But, um, so the reason I asked Taylor to be on the show guys is because I would, I would say you're under 40 is that right?

Taylor Humphrey: (05:07)
Yeah,

Stephanie Lindamood: (05:08)
barely. Okay. Okay. So we're both about to approach the big four out here in a few years. And Taylor and I worked together a few years ago and when I met Taylor, you, when you meet enough people, especially in the builder world, you just kind of have a sense for those that are especially construction, the ones that are going to just stay where they're at and they like doing what they're doing. And then you kind of see the ones that are, you can just tell they're going places and they're what I would call fast tracking it and just trying to go to the next level. And so what I've seen Taylor do, and I've been watching him for a while, is I notice he seems very intentional about his career, about his life. He runs triathlons, he's got a family, he's super successful in his career. And so I wanted to have him on the show today to talk about how the heck he does that. Because, I mean, whether you're in sales for a builder, whether you're in management, those are big jobs and careers and then he's got all this other stuff that he's doing on the side that he's really good at. And so that's the main reason I wanted to have him on the show is frankly just selfishly to figure out how he does it and how he has the time and organizes it and is productive and if we can get some nuggets out of it. And so that's kind of where I want to star is

Speaker 4: (06:16)
[inaudible]

Stephanie Lindamood: (06:17)
asking the question is how much intentionality has been behind your career?

Taylor Humphrey: (06:23)
Uh, just it's, it's all been for one, one goal, you know, and I, I'm a big believer in that if you have a goal, you should put it out there. Right. And go for it. Right. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But I have a very specific goal and I've had some really, people are really good people and really smart people around me just kind of pushing me and helping me build it brick by brick, which is how we approach triathlons and stuff like that. And we can talk about that later. But my specific goal is I want to be a division president. Like that's, that's what I want to do and I don't want to do it whenever I'm like, I've got four years left. Yeah. You get there to where I'm, I'm running a division for a company or owning my own company, whatever that looks like.

Taylor Humphrey: (07:10)
Um, cause I just love, I love this business. I know people say it. I know it's cliche. I don't feel like I go to work every day. I get to do what I love. I love people and supporting people. Um, so anyways, that, that's my goal. And so from day one when I got into construction, it was like, okay, what do I need to do to wear one I can get to where I want to go, but then do it right, right. Do it to where if I'm managing somebody, I know what they've gone through, right? So it was like, okay, I'm going to do construction. I'm going to make sure I understand how to build this product from start to finish. And I got really good at it. Um, I've actually written three construction manuals, one sales manual, and created one training program for sales sales teams for new hires within my career. I'm a, like I said, I'm an operations guy. I love how it, how the nuts and bolts all go together and how to make it as efficient as possible. Um, but yeah, so then that's the way I've approached my career is come in, do construction. I went to, um, I'll drop some names in this podcast, one because they've been very beneficial and influential to me in my career, but then also I want to embarrass them a little bit.

Stephanie Lindamood: (08:24)
Bring it on. We'll tag him.

Taylor Humphrey: (08:28)
I went to Mark Barron, who was the sales manager at darling homes, and I said, Hey, you know my goals. You know what I wanna do? Um, can you put me in sales? Let me understand how salespeople work, operate, helped me, let me feel what it's like to negotiate deals so that way whenever I'm managing them at some point I know what they've gone through, right? Cause there's a lot of managers out there that manage from some book read and they think they understand. But until you sit in these people's shoes, you don't get it right. So,

Stephanie Lindamood: (09:01)
well you have a lot of empathy.

Taylor Humphrey: (09:04)
I tried to, you know, I mean, um,

Stephanie Lindamood: (09:06)
and you're very aware of having, again, the word intentional is coming to mind because most people, I mean maybe they get to that at a point in their career when they've gone through enough training seminars on how to manage people. But you seem to have this naturally,

Taylor Humphrey: (09:22)
you know, I think, well my mother is, we call her big Shannon. She's five foot three, she's Southern and she just gets people, she can talk to a wall. Right. And I think I just get that from her. You know, I love people, like I said earlier, I love the art of conversation, but not just trying to win a conversation. Like to really listen and understand why this person is asking what they're asking for. Um, and there's a book, a servant leader. If you lead a team, I've read that. I've never read a book that was more in line with my style. I don't manage each person or I manage each person very differently. I come to them and what they, um, what would I feel like would help them Excel, not just what I feel like I should put on them, you know, but I'm an intense person so I can still sometimes do that. Don't give me a hundred percent credit.

Stephanie Lindamood: (10:20)
And when you see, and you studied psychology in college, is that right?

Taylor Humphrey: (10:23)
Yeah. You know, again, I just grown up in the models seeing negotiations. Um, you know, we kind of had a little bit of a discussion on our pre-talk. I, I had a little bit of a rough life growing up. I'm from Houston on the North side, originally started in Greenspoint, moved to sprain my mother lives in the Woodlands. We didn't always have, you know much. Uh, but I really feel like it helped me understand, uh, people and where they come from. And so, uh, that's again why I went more towards psychology just because I want to understand what makes people tick and think, you know. Yeah.

Stephanie Lindamood: (11:04)
So from day one, what was it about being a division president that was attractive to you?

Taylor Humphrey: (11:09)
You know, uh, again, I've had, um, some really strong leaders over the years that it's been fun to, to watch them. Um, my personality type is, yeah, I like to be in charge, you know, um, and I like things done a certain way. Uh, but I also believe that you have to have the right team around you and they have to believe in you too. So I've been very lucky, lucky to see leaders like bill barley. It's a great leader and really gets his people, but then it has a vision, you know, of, of where they want to go. And, um, so over the course of my career, I've been able to see, uh, different, different leaders and draw a little from each person. And I hope I can eventually, you know, put all that knowledge into what I, what I see what I want to want to be into. But yeah.

Stephanie Lindamood: (12:04)
So you, as far as building the roadmap for your career, did you have someone help you say, okay, if you wanted to be a division president by either the stage in your life or this age you need to have done X, Y, and Z as far as be in certain roles to get the experience or how did you kind of come up with your roadmap? Okay, you've got this goal, which we'll talk about here in a second because I kind of go about stuff the opposite way. I wish I was more like you because I've gotten to where I want to be by doing stuff cause I didn't know what I wanted to do and that moved me closer to what I am doing now because I learned what I didn't like. Does that make sense? Yeah. So if you were to ask me in high school or college, what do you want to do when you grow up?

Stephanie Lindamood: (12:48)
I'd say, I don't know. I just know I don't want to be a doctor or a lawyer like legit. That was my answer for like seven years cause I didn't have this. Like it has to be this thing. And sometimes that's cool because you don't have an expectation so that if you don't accomplish it, you're not crushed because you like, I only want to do fashion design because that's what I want to do that for awhile and then that changed. But the other, the hard part about that is I didn't have as much direction. I didn't have the clarity to say come hell or high water. I'm going to go do this. And it means I might have to do an apprenticeship or I might have to be in sale like you sales. And that's not where I want to be forever, but I have to do this role because I know the next step. So having that clarity I think is awesome.

Taylor Humphrey: (13:31)
Yeah. I think you're, you're more than norm in some cases, but you know, were you, once you found what you wanted, I mean you have such drive and passion. I think once you found it, you just took off, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, to answer your question, w w I want to answer your question with a little bit of a cause I was thinking about is like what do I want to make sure it comes across? One, there's, there's a lot of young people in this, in this, uh, industry now in real estate, uh, because there's a lot of money to be made, right? A lot of them come in super headstrong. So I'm gonna say two things, uh, before I get to the answer changing your question. And one of them is any new hire that I get that comes in the door and any new hire that's listening will know exactly what I'm going to say is I say, don't be a bottle rocket.

Taylor Humphrey: (14:22)
Right? And what that means is you can come into this industry, you can make a lot of money. You can, uh, make a name for yourself and those people and people are in the industry know who your name is or what's your name is and what's your about, right? Because they can trust you and you've got to do the right thing. Or you can be a bottle rocket, you can come in, you can undercut people, you know, try and steal sales, whatever, whatever that may be and lose your name cause you only got one name in business and you blow up. Right. And the great thing about a home building, especially in, in North Texas and in Dallas, is that there's a lot of really good people in the industry and they all, there's so much to go around. Everybody wants everybody to be successful.

Taylor Humphrey: (15:08)
So maintain, maintain that name. You know, don't, don't be a bottle rocket and, and blow it up cause your career can be over before you know it. Um, to that with the young people, and I'll throw that out there is that there's a lot, a lot of people that I'm seeing just try and they're putting stuff out on Facebook and videos and whatever, social media, great job. Cause there's a lot of people that have been doing this for so long that they're almost too afraid to try that, you know? So, um, little, little nugget there. Please. Young young folks, keep tearing it up, man. Go for what you want, but just protect, protect your name. Um, and then you've got a lot of really bright people that have been in this industry for a long time that want to pass on that knowledge. So just listen, ask and listen.

Taylor Humphrey: (16:00)
So that, that goes, that leads me to answering your question is that the number one thing that I've done in my career is just find the Troy roars. Mark Barron's, um, you know, bill darlings at Blake Blake freezing on who you'll hear me talk about in just a second. Ask them, Hey man, what worked for you? What, what do I need to do next to get where I'm going? And for me, I lucked out. Every single one of those guys took the time to pour into me. Uh, but one more than most, um, that'd be Blake freezing hot. So who, who, he's our, uh, local, uh, VP here in, in Dallas for pacesetter homes. I'm going to give a little shout out to him is that he he for three years, and I told him when I, when I was going to Normandy homes with him, I want a mentorship. He said yes. And for three years, every Tuesday night, from six to eight o'clock, he mentored me and we talked about anything from, you know, how to manage your budgets, how to manage your community. Salespeople, make sure you read servant leader. That was him. He put that in front of me. Uh, how do we approach land? I mean, he's just, he knows where I want to go and he continues to know that and he's continued to just pour into me. So if you're listening, thank you.

Stephanie Lindamood: (17:22)
So it sounds like because we live in, let's be real. I mean, I live in an Amazon world where I love it when prime shows up the same day I order something. And the same thing with our careers and you know, especially kids getting out of college, they've got student loan debt. They look at real estate on a lot of different sides, whether it's getting into traditional real estate like I'm in now or new home sells like we both been in because there is a lot of money to be made and they look at it and say, Oh wow, like I do that, I see it on TV. You are willing to take a step back though and invest the time and not be where you, I mean, you're still not where you technically want to be. Right? And you've been in this industry of what since Oh five ish.

Stephanie Lindamood: (18:03)
So I mean, that in itself is admirable because you're on your journey. You know where you want to go, but you're where you are and you understand that you've got to devote time, energy. Maybe you do a job for a few years that you maybe don't want to do or it's not where you want to be forever, but you have the presence of mind to say, but it's going to help me get to where I want to go. And so I can be happy about it and I can gain something from it. And I think that's a really key point in today's world.

Taylor Humphrey: (18:32)
Exactly. Cause if you get there and you do get where you want to go, but you didn't take the time to learn all the steps to get there, can you really do as good a job as you wanted to do if you had just taken the time to understand and, and you know, in this business to who respect as a is a big thing. You know, I, I have a lot of people on the sales teams that I've managed construction teams that I've manages that have been doing it a lot longer than I have. And if I tried to, I mean Richard Pena CME and, uh, Amy Brownlee, like these people are rock stars, right? And if you approach him with, Hey, I know I've never done that before, but let me tell you how to do it.

Stephanie Lindamood: (19:12)
I'm like, your kid's age, so you should listen to me.

Taylor Humphrey: (19:15)
Okay. It's not going to work. That's where that servant leader comes in and goes, you know, um, I remember telling my team a couple of years ago is that tiger woods, Peyton Manning, they all have coaches. They can do it on their own and they're going to Excel. So if you can sell three houses this month by yourself, if I can come in and help, whether it's move a roadblock out of your way or I can, um, you know, help you find tune, whether it is your marketing or whatever that helps you get to an extra house, or maybe you sell two more houses because of it. That's what I want to do, right? I'm not going to rearrange how you approach your entire, you know, customer. But,

Stephanie Lindamood: (19:57)
well, and I think too, at the market, real estate can be hot, it can be cold or it can be a grind. And the grind is, there's still plenty of money to be made, but there's a different way of approaching the day to day because it's not as much fun when you've got all the issues and you know, you're fighting for every deal. If you only learn in a good market and then you get to the destination and in the market crashes you have, it's a toll. I mean, we're seeing it now with some of these builders I feel like that are coming back since the recession and they're kind of approaching things the same way they did before. And it's a totally different market. It's a totally different buyer. Technology's changed buying habits and what customers expect and the experience they want, but they don't know because they weren't really in it during that time.

Taylor Humphrey: (20:40)
Yeah, I had a salesperson, again, I'm dropping names, but just like if you don't learn from people around you, uh, his name was Steve Franklin or his Steve Franklin. And he used to always say a high tide covers a lot of rocks. Right? And what that means is, yeah, you can come into the industry right now and sell a bunch of houses, but you still gotta learn what you're gonna do whenever the, the economy does go down because we don't want it to, let's not put it out, but when it does, you better know what, what to do. I ended up being in this industry for the next 10, 20 years. You're gonna see ups and downs. So you really gotta be, uh, a master of, you know, and not cut cut corners when the tide is up, you know, because it's just gonna you're gonna lose those skills. So stay as sharp as you possibly can. But again, that's where a manager can come in and kind of help, you know, just keeping you, uh, as as fine tuned as possible.

Stephanie Lindamood: (21:40)
So I want to know is that your personality? Have you always been this way where you're just very methodical and because let's be real. I mean, most people get to their career and they just want to make the most money possible no matter what, as fast as, as fast as they can. So is this something you were taught of how to approach things and plan or is this something like, this is just how you've always been or you've learned it along the way?

Taylor Humphrey: (22:06)
So that's kind of a combination of two things in my head. Um, one of them is I grew up playing baseball and, uh, played it all the way in, into college and it was, you know, pretty successful with it. For a Texas guy. There's a lot of, a lot of baseball to be had. Um, but it starts with the fundamentals, you know, and I, I pitched and I remember having coaches slowing you down, going through each little thing and not getting too, um, too, uh, aggressive and overdoing it or over throwing for those pitchers that are out there. Um, you know, and you have to approach everything that way. And then there was no CrossFit whenever I got out of high school. So I'm,

Stephanie Lindamood: (22:49)
we're dating ourselves a little bit. We had no, we had no Facebook and we got out of high school. What are you talking about?

Taylor Humphrey: (22:55)
Nah, but, uh, but we did have triathlon. I saw, uh, like every, or most triathletes, I saw it on TV, they were showing the world championship. And I was like, Hey, this is, this is something I want to do. And if you want to do an endurance race like that, you can't just show up. You know, you, you've gotta, you've gotta put in the work and it builds over time. It can build over a year, you know, before you can eventually get to one of these long races. And so I approach my career a lot, like I approach, you know, triathlons and there's a saying in that world of brick by brick, you know, is that you can't just show up and have a house. You gotta put in the work and just go run your speed work and run your distance. And, um, yeah, so I've taken a lot from that.

Taylor Humphrey: (23:43)
And I've actually, Scott Scott eater is a local triathlon coach. He was Lance Armstrong's coach. He was my coach from, and I'm not Lance Armstrong. Please know that I was on a team, a sponsored team, uh, from Oh six to about a year and a half ago. And so we dispersed. But, um, he likes to say that I was just there for congeniality, but I was also able to be around some really intense, really focused, uh, professional triathletes. Um, and so I just learned from it. You know, it was, you gotta put in the time if you want to get where you are, you're going.

Stephanie Lindamood: (24:20)
So tell me again what a triathlon is. So I ran my first half marathon last year. Maybe do it again. I don't know if I'll run a full boat. I obviously triathlons way more than that.

Taylor Humphrey: (24:30)
Well, which one did you do?

Stephanie Lindamood: (24:31)
I did the silos in Waco and April. Yeah. Yeah, it was cool. It was for cancer.

Taylor Humphrey: (24:39)
So, um, so triathlon, depending on the distance, I'll just an iron man, which I've done two of those is, um, it's a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike, followed by a, a marathon, which is 26.2 miles. So it's 106 miles. Um, I did Houston and I did Louisville, Kentucky. But it's funny when I tell people that they don't, they don't realize kind of what goes into that. But then I've also done escape from Alcatraz, which is in San Francisco.

Stephanie Lindamood: (25:13)
Holy cow. With the sharks, shark water out there,

Taylor Humphrey: (25:18)
people get that one. They tend to identify with that a little bit more. But yeah.

Stephanie Lindamood: (25:25)
So when you had your mentors and you sounds like you still have them, what do you look for? So if someone's listening going, okay, I have aspirations of being a rockstar salesperson, maybe they want to go the management route and grow their career that way. Where would you say they should start?

Taylor Humphrey: (25:41)
You know, um, they don't have to look far there. There's, there's a lot of really good leaders in Dallas, you know? Um, and maybe I'll drop some of those names. I had a little bit too, but there's a lot of really good leaders, uh, look for somebody that you respect both in the industry and then, um, for me it's, you know, how do they lead people? What's their style? Do I want to be led that way? Would I want to be seen as a leader that leads that way? And you know, in some cases morally do they line up with what, what I'm looking for and what I would want to be aligned with and then go ask them people, people like to share what they've learned. Especially those that had great mentors, they want to pay it forward, you know? Um, I'm one of them. Anytime, anytime someone comes and asks for help, one of the first things I'm asking is, are you willing to put in the work?

Stephanie Lindamood: (26:42)
I was just about to say bet, but

Taylor Humphrey: (26:44)
they don't abuse it. How do you make sure that it's not just let me pick your brain and, but they don't want to do any of the work. Yeah, there's usually accountability. Um, it's, we'll put a duration on it. Hey, let's, I'll, I'll mentor you for the next six months or whatever. Or maybe it's shorter or some of them is straightforward. I just want to go have coffee and, um, ask questions. I'm all for it. You know. Um, we, we talked about this before of people are going to ask you, are you okay with sharing kind of the secret sauce? Yeah, absolutely. But you gotta be able to put the work in. I can tell you exactly how to get where you want to go to do it. That's why there's so many 5k marathons, half marathons, triathlon training programs that are out there that they're great, but you gotta be willing to go do it.

Stephanie Lindamood: (27:37)
Well, yeah, it's like I said in another podcast, we have all these resources on how to lose weight, but yet everyone's still looking for the silver bullet.

Taylor Humphrey: (27:43)
Yeah, yeah. There is no silver bullet. You've got to get up every day and put it in, you know,

Stephanie Lindamood: (27:49)
so that's a great segue because I want to know on a daily basis, like I like to get real tactical real in the details so that someone listening can take away some things that they can actually start implementing. So how do you approach your day? How do you approach your week? It's right now we're recording. It's January, we'll probably air this episode on February. How do you even approach your annual goals? And I know that's a lot of questions, but it's around the same spirit of okay, you know, you want to be a division president at some point. Um, but like how do you plan the rest of your goals, whether it's personal, spiritual, professional, and kind of set that up for your year. Because like I said in the intro, you've got a lot going on. You've got a busy life, you mean it's not just work, work, work. So how do you balance all that and figure out, prioritize all that good stuff.

Taylor Humphrey: (28:40)
So I'll go as in as deep and as, um, as, as in as many details as you'd like to go, but a apart, I'll preface it with, um, I hope I don't come off bad because I'm S very intense and not everyone is going to do it. Um, but I plan out my year, I plan out my, usually my months. Um, I plan out my quarters and every day I'm planning out my day. I make two lists every day. Uh, one what am I going to do professionally? And, uh, two is what I have to do personally cause I'm married and she,

Stephanie Lindamood: (29:20)
so a wonderful, wonderful girl.

Taylor Humphrey: (29:24)
Oh man, she is, she is perfect for me because she's just as intense. But she's my, like, she regulates me. Like I'm ultra competitive and she will hold me back and say, Hey, you need to sit this one out. You're going to come off as maybe a little too competitive. But she's fantastic. Um, so as far as lining out my year and lining out my goals, the first thing I do is I look at what kind of your rings, right? What do I want to accomplish within my family, within my household. So it could be financially, it could be, uh, what kind of dad do I want to be? What kind of wife or husband do I want to be? And then what's my next dream on? My next ring is going to be, um, at church for me, I'm very involved. Um, I'm at church every week from seven 30 to one 30.

Taylor Humphrey: (30:15)
Um, I'm actually a level four PPO. I'm a, um, I'm on the security team at my church and go to a very large church. Um, but we're, don't freak out about the security. We're very focused on loving, um, loving the people that come through the door, both homeless, drug addiction, you know, any kind of stuff that they have going on. But we call that 1% that people may be afraid to go talk to. That's exactly who I want to go love on. Right. Let them know they're welcome and get them in the right, the right programs. Um, so then church to job, you know, what do I have for the year that I want to get done and does it align with my five and 10 year goals? Um, and then out of that, outside of that would be within the city, you know, so am I or your, your community.

Taylor Humphrey: (31:07)
So for me, I'm on the board of adjustments for the city of Frisco and um, I feel like that's kind of given back. Uh, it's, I dunno, I love, I love the city of Frisco. It's very easy cause there's a lot to talk about. Um, but if for those that are listening, if that's something you want to do, there's a lot of boards and things you can, you can easily get involved in. You just got to go do it, you just gotta go apply. So I think that pretty much answers it. Um, but once I have those rings, then I have, you know, like I said, five goals from that and it's okay, how do I achieve them?

Stephanie Lindamood: (31:44)
And again, did have you had help and formulating this process or how did you come up with this? Because especially this time of year, it's almost cliche, we talk about goal setting, but then I think a lot of us sit down with a blank piece of paper and kind of go, well, I want to make more money and I want to lose weight and I want more time because I'm too busy. But what does that really translate into and how do you, how do you actually make it work for you? So how did you learn how to do this, where it was effective,

Taylor Humphrey: (32:11)
um, for finding the goals? You know, some of them I've stumbled across, you know, I have friends that have gotten into those positions or you know, for the, for the board of adjustments. We're, we're lucky we have, uh, Jeff Cheney, who we know is within our industry real estate agent that I had worked with before. You know, I looked at what did he do and where do you start out? And, um, for the board of adjustments, I saw him do that. And then my wife's uncle is a, an attorney for a lot of the cities that are around here, like prosper and, uh, you know, McKinney and other ones. And so I went to him and I was like, what's the best way? So to answer your question, it's, if you find those goals that you want to do, and it may not look like mine, you know, it may not, you may not have to do the rings, but find the goals that you want and then go find someone that, that, uh, that you trust that may know a little bit about that. Right. And they'll kind of help you. And if you don't have that person call me. I'll see if I can't help you.

Stephanie Lindamood: (33:21)
That's awesome. And does that kind of help you form your quarterly, monthly and then I'm assuming the weekly and daily goals is you're looking back at your annual goals saying, because otherwise I could see you just mired in emails and phone calls all day long.

Taylor Humphrey: (33:36)
Yeah. So, um, you know, we just went over with our sales team, kind of a, a tracker that tracks what you do in a day. And I don't ask them to turn it in, just know that I'm not a micromanager. Um, it's just, Hey, how can this make you better to get to the goals that you want? Uh, there's a book called goals. It talks about your miles that you have in a day and how efficient, you know, um, can you be with the time that you have during that day? Cause all heard it be Zoetis and all that. We all have the same amount of time during the day. It's just how you use them. Um, but I cut out a lot of distractions, you know,

Stephanie Lindamood: (34:14)
Ooh, preach, preach, preach.

Taylor Humphrey: (34:17)
I am on Facebook and Instagram and the social media platforms, but I'm approaching it from marketing, you know, what, what does it look like? But, uh, you know, there's, everybody has their vices and their distractions and more things you can cut out the better. I just don't have a ton of those, you know, I just go pro, I know what my goals are and that's what I devote my time to every day. And then everything in between is the people that are coming to me. So I just try and stay as organized as possible. Um, so that way whenever somebody does come to me and they have an issue or I already know I'm tracking down my schedule, I can take, I can pause and I can approach whatever it is they have.

Stephanie Lindamood: (35:04)
Have you ever heard of Michael Hyatt?

Taylor Humphrey: (35:06)
No, I haven't.

Stephanie Lindamood: (35:07)
All right, so I'm going to be, I think it'll air before this podcast episode, but there's a book out called free to focus and he's basically a productivity. That's what he's known for. His productivity. He used to be, I think he was a worked for a publishing company or maybe ran a publishing company, but basically, um, he wrote a book called free to focus and he's got the full focus planner. I've got it right here and it's amazing. I started using it, a girl I follow Amy Porterfield on her podcast. She interviewed and it's a journal where you basically, cause I'm good at setting goals, but I'm not good at tying my big goals to my daily activities. And so it really helps you write down your annual goals and then you look at your quarterly goals and you look back at your annual goals and you build from there and they limit you.

Stephanie Lindamood: (35:57)
So my personality is I want to do it all and I want to do it today. And it really is, it says, actually you need to do three big things a quarter or something to that effect to support your annual goals. And then it takes you weekly and then it takes you daily. And so that's something that I've been using the last few months, which has been great because you know, whether you're an entrepreneur or in sales or just a busy career and you've got the home front and then you've got anything you're trying to do, like you know, podcast or anything, you know, fitness, it, there's a lot to organize and you know, there's multiple goals. Sometimes they overlap. So that's been a good structure for me.

Taylor Humphrey: (36:35)
Yeah, that sounds awesome. I'll definitely look into that because exactly what you just said is a little bit of the way that I do it. But the more that you can write it down and put it out there, you know, my wife will call me and she's stressed out. She's like, I've got 15 things to do. She said write it out.

Stephanie Lindamood: (36:52)
Yeah. Oh my gosh. That it will release your brain. There's so many studies that, in fact, I'm reading a book right now. I'm going to interview her in a few weeks. Um, Cathy Heller and in her book that I've got, she was talking about, she started this thing called morning pages after she, you know, had somebody she followed recommended it where you basically write three pages of day, you just start writing, which when you first sit down and do it, you're kind of like literally writing, I don't know what to write. You know, I'm sitting here on the couch with the dog. And then over time what will start to happen is your brain will just start free flowing and you'll, you realize all those thoughts that are constantly rolling around like a hamster on a wheel come out and it doesn't take it brain space anymore.

Taylor Humphrey: (37:34)
Yeah, it's, it, it's like it comes off of your chest and then you just, once you see it written down and you're like, you know what, that's not so bad. And I'm totally the guy that will get to the office prior to writing my list and do three things and go ahead and write it on my list

Stephanie Lindamood: (37:49)
so you can check it off what I do.

Taylor Humphrey: (37:53)
Well good. It feels so good. And, you know, and, and don't procrastinate. And I had a, uh, one of my best friends, he's a construction manager. I picked this up from him. So many people write things down and then like never come back to it. He just does it. Like if it's, if it's something a little, whether it's a text or phone call or you're thinking about it, you know, you've got that friend you haven't touched base with in a couple of days and you're like, yo, I really need to reach out to Brian. You know, just do it.

Stephanie Lindamood: (38:23)
Just get it off your, yeah, get it off your plate.

Taylor Humphrey: (38:25)
Just did it. Yeah. And then, and then it's over. You don't have to think about it cause you know, you did it, you know, but once those things build up, you can be so, so stressed out. Um, but yeah, sorry.

Stephanie Lindamood: (38:37)
Well the other thing I like is I am the person that will have five to do lists. They're all in different planners or different on different pieces of paper. And so that's one thing that's really helped me organize is keeping it in one place. So that I can refer back to one thing and I'm not scattered physically with all these random to do lists, but I'm all right. So last piece, it sounds like when we talk, you've really got an abundance mindset. Earlier in the conversation you were talking about, you know, there's plenty to go around. I don't, you know, as far as from a homebuilder standpoint, if I've got competition, I'm not here to, you know, we're not trying to just undercut people cause we need the sales. Like there's enough to go around. Where does that come from? How do you, how do you have that? Cause that's not, again, something that, it's not a normal default usually,

Taylor Humphrey: (39:25)
you know. Um, like I said, I, I grew up, I didn't have much. I will say that my mother always made sure I had the best baseball equipment. Um, but we didn't always know, um, where the groceries were coming from that week. We moved a lot. Uh, I'll save the number for just me personally. I already told you, but we moved a lot. Um, and so one, that's how I approached my, my family is we're never going to be in that situation again. Um, and to, to just be appreciative to, to what you have. Right. Um, I think, I think I'm a, I'm a solid believer, you know, um, I know that I put my faith in my, in my Christ and uh, I know he's going to take care of me and if I try and undercut somebody or it's, that's, that's not the way to go about it. He's gonna handle it. Just do the right thing, take care of people, um, and, and protect that name. All right. So overall he's gonna, he's gonna put you where you need to be, not just trying to take a shortcut to get where you want to go and then maybe that's,

Stephanie Lindamood: (40:37)
yeah, no, that's a really good, and I think again, this segue back to sales professionals regardless, frankly, of your, of your industry, um, what, regardless of whatever industry you're in, I can guarantee you it's very small. The longer you're in it, the bigger name you get, the more you realize how small a world it is. And people remember and they remember the good and they can remember the bad. And so, um, having that presence of mind, especially when cells are not there. Right. Or you don't feel like, you know, you're on your game because you've had some cancellations or that kind of thing. So that's a really good point.

Taylor Humphrey: (41:18)
Yeah. Sorry I over cut you, but uh, just keep doing the right thing. Do the fundamentals. Don't try and just take a shortcut to get that, that sale. Cause it's been, you know, three weeks, a month since you had a sale, don't cut, just keep doing the right thing and it'll work out. Right.

Stephanie Lindamood: (41:37)
Yup. And I think a big takeaway from today's conversation, guises surrounding yourself with people that are ahead of you. So even if you don't know exactly where you want to go, we are the average of the five people we spend the most amount of time around. And a lot of times, even if it's not someone physically follow people on a podcast or you know there's a ton of Facebook groups, you can now join the, maybe it has the person you're following that you can get into live streams with them and you can actually ask questions and be mentored by them from afar to where you're not half. If you can't find someone here, aren't finding someone here, but surrounding yourself with people that have been where you want to go or have the life you want to have or have something, whether Taylor said it's, it's an abundance mindset, you know, where does that come from because we didn't all grow up learning this kind of stuff. You know, how do you budget, how do you invest? All those things are teachable and it's all figure-out-able as Marie Forleo would say. So it's investing the time versus I feel like so much of today is about reacting, being in the moment, trying to figure out where the next sale is coming from or just keeping up with the day to day. But if you will stop and kind of be a little bit more mindful and intentional in any area of your life, you're going to benefit from it.

Taylor Humphrey: (42:53)
Well said. I have nothing to add to that. That was exactly.

Stephanie Lindamood: (42:58)
So before we wrap up, I have five questions I ask each guest just to kind of give the listeners again, some tangible tactical nuggets that they can take away with. So you ready? Yeah. All right. Here's the rapid fire. So what's the most, what's one thing most people don't know about you?

Taylor Humphrey: (43:15)
Ooh, um, I sleep on the floor on hardwood floor with a pillow and blanket every night. I know it's odd, but I just, you know, I told you about how I grew up and that's how I grew up sleeping and it's not the most, um, marriage benefiting thing.

Stephanie Lindamood: (43:38)
I wondered about, you told me that yesterday and I thought, I, I don't know what to say. Like is Sarah down there on the floor? Like

Taylor Humphrey: (43:47)
we, we hang out and then when it's time to actually go to sleep, she gets a King size bed all to herself. And I go in the literary room,

Stephanie Lindamood: (43:58)
I can relate a little bit. So recently about two months ago, I listened to a podcast, they're talking about sleeping well and they were like, you know, you need to cut out the light and you need to breathe through your nose. And so when we go to sleep, I put on an eye mask, I put my little mouthpiece in cause I grind at night. I know that sounds super sexy. And then I put mouth tape over my lips, which forces my mouth to stay closed all night and I can breathe through my nose and Leroy looks at me like, Oh wow. Like I, yeah, I think I'll go in the living room now. Like it's fine for this leap. Okay, cool. So, Oh yeah, it's the best. It forces you to breathe through your nose. You get way deeper sleep. It's amazing. Our, and it's apparently good for snoring. Apparently I snore and now I don't snore anymore. All right, so question two, there's two parts to it. The first part is what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?

Speaker 5: (44:55)
[inaudible]

Taylor Humphrey: (44:56)
Ooh, um,

Speaker 5: (44:59)
yeah,

Taylor Humphrey: (44:59)
yeah. So the don't be a bottle rocket isn't, is a spin off from my grandfather, uh, protect your name, you know, um, make sure when somebody is talking about you, uh, you know that it's, it's, they know you're, you're leading your life with integrity and you're doing the right thing. Uh, I know I've said that a hundred times already on this podcast, but I kind of took that and spun it off into the, don't be a bottle rocket, but it comes from him.

Stephanie Lindamood: (45:28)
Yeah, no, that's great. And part two, the question is what's the best piece of advice you want to give to those listening, whether they're starting a career, whether they're looking to just Uplevel their life.

Speaker 5: (45:41)
[inaudible]

Taylor Humphrey: (45:42)
yeah. So, um, again, it goes into the, to the grind and, and looking for a mentor. If you, you get people on any kind of training or when you're around a mentor and they'll ask you, do you have it or do you understand that? And if you just say yes because it's easy for the conversation, or maybe you're in a big group and you don't want to be embarrassed because you don't get it, you're losing from that. The instructor already knows it. The person that you're trying to help you already knows it. Don't be afraid to say, you know what, that doesn't, I don't understand what you trying to say or can you tell me more about that? Right. If you don't ask, you're never going to receive. And that's, that's my mom. She used to drill that into me. Um, if you don't try, you're never going to succeed. And if you don't ask, you're never going to succeed.

Stephanie Lindamood: (46:34)
Love it. All right. Question three. What's one of your favorite books or the one that's had the greatest impact on you?

Speaker 5: (46:42)
[inaudible]

Taylor Humphrey: (46:43)
we'll say the Bible, but no, not really. It has, it has, but I've got, have felt like, I have to say that, um, now it's, it's that servant leader that I mentioned earlier of, um, approaching the team and, um, you know, I, I worked for a leader that used to say, we can all die tomorrow. Um, but you're the S the sales or you're the construction team. You guys are the people that are boots on the ground in front of the customer. And if we die, you're fine. We're gonna somebody else can come in here and support you. Uh, but you guys are the ones that, um, you know, that really keep the lights on and really take care of our customers. And so I've kind of taken that servant leader and, and really that piece of advice and said, Hey, my, my goal is just support my folks and get them what they need so they can succeed.

Stephanie Lindamood: (47:33)
Yeah. That's great. What's your current morning routine?

Taylor Humphrey: (47:38)
Ooh, depending on the class, cause I'm a member at Equinox, which I love because they have an app and you can book all your classes and it just feels fits in my schedule. Um, and it's a gym full. Um, this isn't an Equinox commercial, but it's a gym full of just like highly competitive people.

Stephanie Lindamood: (47:57)
I've never heard of it. I got a lifetime, but I've never heard Equinox.

Taylor Humphrey: (48:01)
Well, you're welcome. You need to look this up. Now it's in Plano. It's at shop a little bit. And there is a, it's a group of just focused folks and some of the classes start at five 30 for me. Some of them start at six, some are six 30, but every morning I'm up at five. Um, I am the guy that puts all his clothes and stuff together the night before. Whatever. You make fun of me if you want to, but I'm ready to go.

Stephanie Lindamood: (48:29)
No, that's, yeah.

Taylor Humphrey: (48:30)
But I feel like it, once I'm done with my workout, I'm hitting the ground running where a lot of people are getting to the office, they're getting their coffee and they're not actually productive until nine. I was in a community at seven 20 this morning, you know, going to work, looking at my marketing, looking at the communities. So start early.

Stephanie Lindamood: (48:51)
Okay. Well, I'm going to ask a followup to that. What time do you go to bed and then how do you get up at five? Like do you have multiple alarms? Are you just have a lot of energy when you wake up? Like what's your process?

Taylor Humphrey: (49:02)
I am not a morning person, but I don't need to be a morning person. I'm like, I get up at five and as far as going to bed, usually by 10, I'm out. Um, I don't stay up late. I did in my younger days, but, um, and then as far as multiple,

Stephanie Lindamood: (49:20)
Hey, we're still young. Come on. I appreciate that.

Taylor Humphrey: (49:25)
Uh, multiple alarms is, I really feel like if I don't get a my competitor, whether it's in my business or triathlons or whatever, they got up and if I lose, it's because I slept in that day. And so I kind of put that much weight on my alarm going off. So

Stephanie Lindamood: (49:46)
it's kinda like that football player that's sitting there going, if I'm not up doing this, my competitor is exactly that same thing. Yup.

Taylor Humphrey: (49:54)
Yeah. But it's so true. You know, if you do that four times in a, in a month, that's four workouts you missed prior to race. Now I wonder, you lost, you know.

Stephanie Lindamood: (50:06)
All right, last question. How do you unplug and unwind? Because so far you don't sound human, so please tell us you relax a little bit.

Taylor Humphrey: (50:13)
Well, you know what, I am blessed. My wife makes me, she'll say she schedules, you know, vacations

Stephanie Lindamood: (50:20)
go Sarah.

Taylor Humphrey: (50:21)
She's fantastic. She really takes care of me. She, she has had days where she's like, you're not out tomorrow because I can tell you need it. So she's been my regulator just in anything. Um, but how I relax, unwind. I love my girls, Lyla and Sarah and um, it allows me, like I'm a assistant basketball coach for Lyla and it allows, he's eight. He's super-intense too. She did a year and a half of MMA and she's eight. Um, my Lord. Yeah, I know

Stephanie Lindamood: (50:54)
you have a female version of you.

Taylor Humphrey: (50:56)
I love it. I could tell what she was like eight months old. I was like, you are, you have it.

Stephanie Lindamood: (51:01)
We want her to have all of her teeth though. Like, as she gets older.

Taylor Humphrey: (51:06)
That's true. But yeah, so just spending time with them allows me to decompress and think about, cause I, I just want to take care of them and that allows me to take my focus off of everything else and just make sure they have with any

Stephanie Lindamood: (51:23)
awesome, good deal. Well, we appreciate you being here. I want to shout out any last words you want to say while we're here and then also your social media info. That way if folks want to connect with you on LinkedIn or on social, they can [inaudible].

Taylor Humphrey: (51:38)
Yeah. So, um, if you haven't been out to pay center community here in DFW, please come on. Um, I'll, I'll throw it out there. My number's two, one four three, three, five, three, nine, three, four. Uh, give me a shout and if you got a buyer looking for a community or just want to know about the product, let us know. Um, as far as LinkedIn, it's Taylor Humphrey and um, Google or look at pacesetter homes. It's me

Stephanie Lindamood: (52:08)
and it's Humphrey. Like H U. N P. H. R. E. Y. Correct. Not the IES. Okay.

Taylor Humphrey: (52:14)
That's right. And then on, I guess this would be social media for um, uh, what's called Instagram. Instagram is T Humphrey zero, zero and you can, should be able to find me.

Stephanie Lindamood: (52:28)
Perfect. So what's the next, are you running a race this year or doing a racist here?

Taylor Humphrey: (52:32)
Yeah, so the goal is I've got, um, eight triathlons that are all sprints and stuff that I want to do. And then I am going to do the Spartan stadium run at a at and T with my church group. Um, and if anybody wants to join, that's the watermark group. You can hop in with us. We'd love to have you.

Stephanie Lindamood: (52:51)
Awesome. Good deal. Well we so appreciate your time and all the value you brought on giving us some insight into how to create a blueprint for your career, how to be intentional, having people around you to mentor and elevate you to the next level. So we appreciate all the nuggets today and we will talk soon.

Taylor Humphrey: (53:11)
Thank you so much for having me. You're a rock star.

Stephanie Lindamood: (53:13)
Thank you. Have a good day. Oh, that was so good. So I hope you guys enjoyed this chat that we had with Taylor, that you were inspired, that you can look at areas of your career, your life, where you're wanting to be more intentional and setting out those goals. If you want to connect with Taylor, don't forget, you can check them out on linked in. And I really appreciate you guys being here today and we'll talk soon. Bye.