Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to the Victory Show.
Hey victors. Welcome to this week's Victory Show. If this is your first time joining us, I'm Travis cody, author of 16 best selling books.
And I've had the privilege of helping hundreds of business consultants, founders and entrepreneurs write and publish their own best selling book. And through that journey, I've discovered a fascinating pattern.
Many businesses hit a revenue plateau and they really struggle to break through it. So on this show, I sit down with some of the world's most successful CEOs, leaders, founders and business owners to uncover the strategies they use to overcome plateaus and scale their businesses to new heights. Today's guest, Catherine Rain. She's a top real estate agent in South Florida and has been among the top three solo agents with with Keller Williams in the state of Florida for the past six years.
She uses her income to invest in real estate. Katherine and her family own a portfolio of properties including residential, commercial and vacation rental properties.
Here's the crazy thing. She arrived in the US with only $750 in her pocket.
And despite that, she was able to learn through hard work and sacrifice the power of owning real estate. And her initial instincts paid off.
She feels that the gift of being good with numbers and the knowledge she's acquired over the years by investing in herself is something she would like to pass on to others. And that's why she's here today. Her biggest passion in real estate is to teach others how to use that vehicle to grow their wealth. Now Katherine's part of gary Keller's top 100 individual agent mastermind and has been featured as a speaker many times on panels from Virtual Selling, Solo Agent Tips, wealth building and creating Passive income. She's also a best selling author. Her book now, I don't know if I'm going to pronounce this right, but is it vias dudast grammat or in English, how did you do it? It was a number one bestseller on German Germany in Amazon and Amazon in Germany. And she's currently working on two more books, one about mindset and a second one on how to start a successful Airbnb business.
And finally, Catherine's the proud mother of two children, Leonardo and Josephine, whom she loves to spend time with in the mountains of Georgia when not working in Miami. Katherine, thank you so much for being here. Excited to have our conversation today that.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Almost made me cry the last sentence with my kids. Yeah, my pleasure to be here. I'm excited. Thanks for having me.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Did I pronounce the German title of your book correctly?
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Let's just leave it like that. That's fine.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: You at least 50. Correct.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Okay, that's. That's good enough.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: All right, so you, you immigrated from Germany, and you only had $750 in your pocket. So let's talk about that. First off, what brought you to the States from Germany?
[00:02:57] Speaker B: I always wanted to come to the United States. I came to visit after high school many years ago. I'm not going to say the year. It's going to make me old. And I had traveled the California coast. I always knew that America is a land of opportunity, and I always wanted to come back. So for me, it was clear, one day, I will come back. So I saw an ad in a newspaper that they were looking for nannies in the United States au pairs. And that was, for me, the opportunity. Because I don't come from wealth, I don't come from a family that could just send me on an exchange program.
None of that was happening. I actually got a scholarship in the US for tennis. It was a tennis player, and I couldn't do it because my parents didn't have the money to pay the 15.
The scholarship was only 85. So for me to come to the United States as a nanny was basically free. And that's how I took my opportunity.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Wow.
All right. And so where did you land when you got here, or did you landed in.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: In New York City, there was au pair camp. That was in Staten Island. And then afterwards, I went to Boston to a family for the summer for three months.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Wow. I love that. There's an au pair camp. That's fantastic.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Yes. That was fun. I met a lot of people there. I'm still in touch with them.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Oh, what a great experience.
Okay, so you're here in the States. You got your foot here. Now you're. Now, now you're in the land of opportunity. So let's walk through, like, that progression of you're. You're working with other families. Like, were there some experiences you. I, I guess along that path. When, when did you start to realize that real estate was, was something that you should pay attention to?
[00:04:45] Speaker B: That didn't happen for a while. I was just so happy to be in the U.S. yeah. I remember my first experience with the U.S. was being in New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty. That was, for me, like the greatest experience ever.
And I, I was a nanny, and once I was done nannying, I went to Los Angeles, and there I, you know, I, I just stayed. After the care program, you're supposed to go back to your country But I didn't, I wanted to say my parents were not happy and I just stayed in Los Angeles and I got into the entertainment business while I was in Germany, already an actress. And I did, did the acting thing. I was a poor actress for many years.
I was a stand up comedian. I did all the big venues. I did the Comedy Store and the LA improv and it was fun. But after a while I really realized that this is not the way to grow wealth.
If I had one goal in life was not to be poor because I grew up having not a lot and I always wanted to be wealthy. And I realized pretty quickly that acting is not going to get me there.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Hanging out with, hanging out with comedians in the, the Comedy Store, you quickly realize that there's not a lot of wealth in that group.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: No, there's not, unfortunately. I mean I got very lucky because you usually only get into the Comedy Store after like three years. And I, that was my second show because some big comedians saw me on my first show and then got me right into the Comedy Store. I just didn't have, I just didn't have so much time to wait until I made it because I also then got pregnant at a very young age and I, you know, I had a child on the way and I'm like, I better figure this out. And as they say so often when you have children they will figure out life for you.
I don't know if I would be where I am today if I didn't have my son Leonardo at such a young age.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: Wow.
Well, you know, it's funny, a few episodes ago I had somebody on who she, she was in LA for, for a while doing stand up come the Comedy Store. I, I, we didn't talk about this before the call, but I was in Hollywood for 15 years a screenwriter. I also did the Comedy Store. And one of the things that would comes up about that life as a stand up comedian, especially in la, is that just getting to the venues is such a nightmare because traffic is so bad that you're like, oh, I'm going to go do a 20 minute set of the Comedy Store. For me, I lived in the Valley so like it was a two hour, two hour drive to get over there, you know, an hour back. So it's like three hours, four hours of my day to do like a 10 minute set. So right. Like it's just, it's, it's a, it's a lot, it's a grind. It's, there's, there's a, there's, you Know, there's a part of the grind to it, all right?
[00:07:31] Speaker B: And then you have to invite all your poor friends to go to your show. And how many times can you invite them, right?
[00:07:36] Speaker A: And then they go, oh, God, I gotta drive from the Valley over to the west side. I don't know if we're that good of friends. Yeah, exactly.
So how did. How did having Leonardo, how did that help you decide? The. Obviously you were like, okay, I can't. I can't have a son and do the standup. Com comedy like, I want to, you know, I want to have a nice life. So how did that determine the direction that you chose to go?
[00:08:00] Speaker B: So.
Well, that was actually.
You know, my husband was also working in the entertainment business, but he wanted us to move to New York because he thought that he can work there better, and that's where we moved. But then he didn't work there, only I could got jobs booked. And then he said, forget New York. Let's try Miami. Because my husband was one of the top 10 male models at that time. He did Abercrombie Fish. He did everything.
So, okay, he moved to Miami first, and then I followed. And in the beginning, I really hated it. And then I'm like, okay, what am I going to do there? I went on auditions, but everything was commercial, and I really wanted to be in film and tv, and there was really not much going on.
And then I started taking modeling jobs. And really, I'm not a model. I mean, I.
I did a lot of fitness modeling stuff, but that was not my thing. I can't stand still and smile and pose. I'm more than like the talk person.
And I hated it so much.
And then I had a friend that was our real estate agent, and he said to me, katherine, why don't you get into real estate? I think you would be really good at it. And I'm like, real estate? That was never something that would have crossed my mind.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: So, yeah, then I got into it and I did my first deal, and I'm like, wow, I really like that.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: So did you go to work with. With your friend's agency or did you find.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I just interviewed with one and they took me, and I was like, wow, they take me. Little did I know, you know, they take pretty much anyone.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: All right, so you're in a whole new arena now. Whole new world was off your radar at that point in time.
What. What was the learning curve like of. Of now that you're in this new arena? And I. One of the things you Said in your bios that you, you, you have come to realize that you're pretty good with numbers. And so, you know, during those first several years of, of doing this, when did that, that kind of start to percolate of like, hey, I'm, I actually know this in a way that a lot of people don't.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Well, that I was good with numbers. I always knew that because I graduated in math in school. So I love numbers.
I think that, you know, what really got me to, to the point that I am now. I always just try to be the best educated person for my clients. Even if I was new, even if I didn't know things.
I drove the, the, I drove by the properties the day before I looked up neighborhood studs.
I knew more than the listing agents of the properties just to make sure I have the knowledge, even if I didn't have the experience.
And that also gave me a lot of confidence. The first clients that I was working with, they didn't even know that I was brand new because I was so prepared. So I would say over preparation was my middle name at that time. And I did a lot of things that at that time I probably wasn't ready to do, but I just jumped into it. And my clients, they realized pretty quickly that I'm a numbers person and that I'm very educated on what I show them and what I offer them. And then I think the, the next factor that's really important is I cared a lot more than most agents and the clients feel that and they want to work with somebody that they like and trust. And I was that person.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Well, and I think that's just about, in any industry. Right. Like, so I come from the, I have a marketing background and one of the things that comes up all the time is know, like trust. Klt gotta get people to know you and when they know you, they can like you. And the more they like you, the eventually they'll trust you. And I think you're right. Right. And especially in the real estate industry there, there is such a, a turnover and there's such kind of a grind to it. I think it, you can tell the real estate agents that are there just because it's a job versus they actually care about the people. So.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: All right, so when did, what did you start with in terms, did you start on single family homes and did you work your way up or did you just, did you have what, what became your specialty?
[00:12:08] Speaker B: I do. I, I mean in the beginning I did condos and single family homes. I still do that.
And now, you know, the natural progression is a lot of clients also are looking for commercial properties. So we do commercial too, but we're still doing single family and condos, you know.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: All right, so how does, how, how do you become a top three agent? What, what are the things that you have to do to achieve that?
[00:12:35] Speaker B: I think that you need to be following up with your past clients.
You want to make sure that they stay loyal to you. And one of the quotes I've heard from one of my coaches in the past, she said, confidence is when you see your best clients having lunch with your competitor and you still know they're loyal to you.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: That's a good quote. I like it.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: I think you need to really follow up and invest in your past clients and then always acquire new clients. I mean, right now we have a niche that we are trying to cater to and it's working. We already signed multiple people in that niche, but it's because I purposefully pursued those people.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Hmm.
So was there anything in particular about that niche that attracted your, your attention? Because it sounds like you kind of spotted something that nobody else is really kind of paying attention to.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Well, so it's athletes, right? Everybody wants to work with athletes because they buy nice, beautiful homes and they spend money on assets. Everybody wants to work them, but not everybody gives them excellent service.
I used to be an athlete. I was a tennis player.
So I know how those athletes work. They have no time, so they need a high performer that takes care of everything. So if you think that you're just an agent that sells them a house, you're going to sell them one house and that's it. So we have learned that it's so much more that comes to, to selling them a house or reselling their property is like, sometimes you have to find them a nanny, sometimes you have to help them redo the property, sometimes you have to empty out the property. You have to take all the headaches out of their life. And I believe that we do that at a very high level, and that's why people are starting to really work with us.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Oh, you get a reputation for that. And word spread. So, oddly enough, athletes know other athletes and it's a small circle.
So when did you, when did, during this process, when did you begin to realize that real estate as an investment made a lot of sense, especially for long term wealth?
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Pretty quickly, because I'm with a company, for 14 years, I've been with the same company as Keller Williams, and they are very, they're very focused on teaching their agents that investing is important. And also, honestly, I feel, you know, if you're an investor and you want to buy a property, are you going to buy it with an agent that has investment properties or are you going to buy with somebody that's renting? Yeah, you're probably going to buy with somebody that has the experience of investing. And it was, for me, more like, you know, I need to teach, I need to preach what I teach.
And I started investing very quickly. Every extra dollar that I made, I didn't go to Starbucks, I didn't go on vacation. I didn't do all those things that people do once they start making more money. I put every dollar back into real estate, and it has really paid off because all those properties I acquired over the last 12 years, they have all gone up in value.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: So do you stick with your local area or have you expanded out for your real estate?
[00:15:56] Speaker B: I have property. Well, I have a Miami properties, but I also have properties in Georgia and I have properties in South Carolina.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: So how is the. The investing game changed with the sort of the explosion of vacation rentals? Because that wasn't really. Wasn't a thing up until seven or eight years ago. Nine years ago is when it really started to explode.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it exploded again when Covid started. Like, everybody and their mother thought it was cool to own a vacation rental, and they just focused on the one month in the summer, in July, let's say, for example, a beach rental in July brought in 10,000. And then they used that as a. As a.
As a.
How do you call it?
They use it as a. As a reference to the other months. And I got it and it's not the case. And also, when you have a vacation rental, you don't make 10,000, you make half, you make 50% because you have like, all those expenses, management fees, and so far, so on.
So a lot of those people that bought during the pandemic were really not able to hold the property for three months without covering their mortgage. And whenever the rentals didn't come in anymore, they were underwater and they couldn't afford their mortgage. So a lot of those people have already sold. And I personally saw in the areas where I own a lot less vacation rentals, a lot of people resold because they thought it was going to be that easy, and it's not.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: So, yeah, I could see how that, that the. The appeal would be there in Florida because it was one of the few places that was actually open for the year that, you know, half The States were closed. So you're like, this is great because everybody's coming there to get away.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: I, I personally didn't own any vacation rental in Florida until a few weeks ago.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Oh wow.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: My first. Yep.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Wow.
So, all right, so you've got a few books here. So the first one was how did you do it? Was that about your journey as a real estate agent or your journey getting out of getting from Germany to the.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: U.S.
i think a mix of both.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: So is there like, what was the, I guess the motivation for wanting to write that specific story?
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Somebody came up to me and asked me to write it. So they say there was no motivation for me. And then I'm like, well that's a great idea, let's do it.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Well, it sounds like you're very self motivated because most people will like.
I started asking the question when people were coming to me on LinkedIn saying they, you know, they want help with the book. And I've been asking how long have you been thinking about writing a book? And the average has been seven years.
And you're just like, all right, a book, let's go do it.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Oh, I actually do have another one that I've been working on for longer than seven.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: That's the say if the novel.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: And I wanna, and I wanna talk about those. So, so let's talk about what are some of the big lessons you've learned is in to, to running a short term rental investment property? Yeah. What are two or three things that were surprising about it or mistakes that people make when they are thinking of investing in a, in a short term rental.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: So number one, you need 12 months of resource. That's just for me like something that I feel comfortable with. For example, one of my listings used to rent for 700 a night. Now it's only 300 a night.
So if you count on that income and then you can't cover your expenses, you're, you're going to be very motivated to sell in a negative way and you're going to have to sell it very quickly.
You know, always calculate 50% of the income to go to cost, you know, your utilities, water, electric, gas, whatever you need. And you always need like with everything in life, you need to find a way to be different than the rest. Not better, but different.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Well, it sounds like your, your modeling and Hollywood entertainment background is coming useful for that because how do you stand out in Hollywood? You got to be different, right?
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: So with your own investments are, what are some of the trends you're seeing that you Want to try to get on? Are you going to expand your short term rentals or are you just going to keep doing the tried and true of you know what, where you're at so far in your business?
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Well, right now I'm at a point where I have too many units.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Oh, what an awful problem to have.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: I know, but keep in mind, every time you buy something, you're buying yourself a job unless you have a property manager, which I have on some of the properties, but not on the ones in Miami. So now I guess the next step would be to either hire a full time property manager and then add more units or to go into a different area. Because in Miami, unless you put 40% down, it's very hard to find anything that cash flows.
That's why at the end of last year, condo that allows vacation rentals, which has a phenomenal return.
I toured it for a client, client didn't want it, I bought it. And that happened to me many, many times that I just pick up the trash that others don't want and I turn it into a treasure.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: Well, but you're also boots on the ground and so you have an understanding, you know, and you're also looking at it differently. I'm assuming a lot of clients are looking at it as a primary residence, right?
[00:21:42] Speaker B: No, no, no, that was, that was for investment for one of my players.
The thing is, a lot of people want to buy, but they don't pull the trigger because they think the opportunity is a scam. You know, if I would think like that, I wouldn't own any property. At some point you also got to take a leap of faith and just jump in and do something. Even if the outcome is not certain. You will make mistakes, but you know you will be right many times too.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: So before we, we hit record and jumped on here, we were talking a little bit about you've got a book in the works and it's all around mindset.
So how, how important has mindset been to you and you're not just your life, but also your career. And, and what is it that you're writing about in the, in the book?
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Well, I can't get into detail about the. Hold on again, you can edit this, right? Sure. My aspect just fell down.
I don't know if you know, I had knee surgery, but anyway, okay to pick this, this up. I think that mindset is more important than skill because if you have the skill and you fall and don't know how to pick yourself up, you have nothing.
So mindset is super Important. I mean, I just had knee surgery three weeks ago. Major knee surgery.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Were you a tennis player when you were younger or what?
[00:23:02] Speaker B: I was a tennis player, and it was. It was very, very hard. Mindset wise, not just the physical.
The physical disability that I had for those two weeks, but mindset wise, because I had clients calling, had to do things. I was showing 29 houses on crutches. Okay, but they're buying. They're buying a house for 5 million, so yay, it worked out.
But I think that mindset is most important, and most people don't know how to work their minds and how to work their mind in their favor, and that's a problem.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: That's the title for your book right there. How to work your mind in your favor. That's a good title.
That is. That, you know, that is really important.
[00:23:49] Speaker B: It's not the title, but that's a good title. Might be another one.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that's at least a chapter.
You know, like, that's one of the things that, like, if you're familiar with Tom Brady, that was really fascinating as I was watching a documentary about him and they were showing the year that he was drafted. You know, he.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Second to dead last.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: I know.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: And that same.
And. And then that same year, there was a guy who, like, he still holds college records. He was a phenomenal college player. He won the Heisman Trophy. He was the number one draft pick. You know, everybody's like. And he went to San Francisco. They're like, he's going to be the legacy.
And that. And the first preseason game, like, his first. First play, he got whacked really hard, like, just took a brutal hit. And the second play, he threw an interception. And then he never. Mentally. He never recovered from that. And he actually never played a regular season game. He ended up getting cut. And so you look at it going, here's literally the best of the best that's ever played the game in college.
And then there's a guy who's, by any standards, was very, you know, mediocre, who's nothing.
And one guy, like, he doesn't have a very good mindset and, like, nothing. And here's the other guy whose mindset's better than everyone and goes on to, you know, do all this crazy stuff, so.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Exactly. That's what counts so much more. That's why I never strive to be the best. I always try, strive to be different.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: See if there's another chapter for your book, that's great.
Okay, so if you could go back in. In Time to your younger self and, and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be and why?
Business wise, Just any, any. How about one life piece of advice and one. One business piece of advice?
[00:25:36] Speaker B: Okay, so business, I know right away, life, I have to think, but business wise, I would say I would not work with anybody that I don't like, first of all, because that's going to be a very long transaction and you tie yourself up for all the other people that would love to work with you.
And I would only work with motivated, qualified, and loyal clients because otherwise I'd rather lay by the pool and watch my kids.
Time is a very precious thing.
And I've learned that time is not money because once you spend time, you will never get it back.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: So since you're working on a book around beliefs and mindset, what, what's a belief or a mindset that shift that's had the biggest impact on your success and your happiness?
I'm bringing, I'm bringing the good questions today.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: That's a very loaded question.
I think one of the things that I truly believe in is that we all have a huge light.
And if we surround ourselves with people that want to shine or that shine as bright as you, you will go places. And if you hang out with people that try to blow your light out, you're gonna stay with them.
So you need to be, you need to have the courage to leave those light blowers out of your life.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: I love it. Awesome. Final question. What's the best investment you've ever made in yourself?
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Botox. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: There's no right or wrong answer. It could be time, money, energy. I'm just curious. I always like to think, is there some one thing that you've done that you like, when you look back, you go, oh, wow, that was actually.
That was worth it.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: I think right now it's health.
I've been many, many, many years just been running and running and always working on my business and trying to make more money. And right now I've been really focused on my health.
I'm watching what I'm eating, I'm watching to work out. I'm trying to really be kind to myself.
And I think this is going to go a lot further than all the business decisions I've made.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: I love it. That's a great piece of advice.
So if someone's listening to this, they're a real estate agent, maybe they want to invest in property in, in Southern Florida. Like, how do people find you? How do they get involved in what you're going on. I know you also said that once or twice a year you also do a, a course on finding. Like, is it working with qualified buyers?
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. Because remember, I said earlier, I like to work with motivated, quality, qualified, and loyal clients. And I teach a very, very good class on how to filter out all the people that don't fit this criteria and how to make them commit. I share my buyers consultation that I do over zoom. I share all my tactics.
So I teach that a few times a year. Not as often as I should, but people keep asking for it, so I do it. And I love teaching it because it's, I've been told it's the greatest class out there, but I didn't, you know, and I, I, I'm on Instagram, Beautiful Miami team. And on Facebook, Catherine Rain. And you find me if you, if you Google, make it rain R E I N.
You will find me Catherine Rain.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: I love it. That's a good, that's a good tagline to own on Google.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: All right, Catherine, thanks so much for being here today. I've appreciated the time.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: You're very welcome. Was fun.
