Real Estate, Burnout & the RV Life: Jason Shinpaugh’s Road to Freedom
Download MP3Our industry has a lot of people sitting on islands right now, and I think our industry has done new agents a disservice. They don't know what to do. There's so much out there with social media, The Highlight Real. We need to be having real conversations in our industry about what it's really about. And if you're not having these conversations, you need to be around people who are because that's how you grow your business.
Announcer:Welcome to the real estate distilled podcast. Get ready for a smooth pour on insights on sales, marketing, lead conversion, and technology. All shaken, stirred, and perfectly balanced to help you succeed in real estate.
Scott Hack:Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Distilled podcast. Super excited today to have a guest with us in the studio. Normally, we bring our guests in virtually through either a computer or a telephone call, but Jason is here with us. He's traveling across the country with his family in their RV as Jason is a mobile entrepreneur.
Scott Hack:So I'm excited to have Jason join us here in the studio, like as I said. So Jason, introduce yourself and tell everybody who you are and where you're from.
Jason Shinpaugh:That's awesome. Thanks for having me. That's super cool to get to come see what really happens here for your podcast, and, I'm glad to be here. My name is Jason Shinpaugh. I'm from, Cocoa Beach, Florida area, and, we've been traveling full time now for just over nine years, which is crazy to say out loud and been in the real estate business over twenty eight years.
Jason Shinpaugh:So like, Scott, I'm like the old guy now, like giving out advice. I'm like, I remember when I was your age. I'm that guy now. And I can't believe that it's been that long. And man, what a crazy life that's been, being in this business that long.
Scott Hack:Well, and you are similar to me in that we both have spouses that are also either in the industry or in adjacent industries. So your wife, Linda, is in the mortgage industry. So it's like you wake up, you're eating, breathing, real estate.
Jason Shinpaugh:Yeah. Funny enough, my son turns 18 next week, and he's getting his real estate license.
Scott Hack:What state is he going to work
Jason Shinpaugh:on? Florida.
Scott Hack:Florida? Okay.
Jason Shinpaugh:It's the easiest. I can help him the most there, and he's pretty excited. We'll see what he does with it, but it's already in his blood, if you will.
Scott Hack:Yeah. When I was so for those that do not know, my mom is a real estate agent, and my father is a custom homebuilder. So a lot of dinner conversations were about real estate and home building industry and new subdivisions and deck building and things like that, and I had no idea that those type of conversations were not normal until much later in life. So, you know, when we're getting together, so you spoke at Real Estate Distill this year, and so you're traveling across the country. I know you all have a big trip you're doing.
Scott Hack:You're headed up towards Alaska this year, and you've got some family and a little base in a small town in Southern Indiana, and we're not too far away. So when you stop there, you've been able to visit with us. When is the the start Trek West start happening?
Jason Shinpaugh:We'll actually be going back to Nashville tomorrow, picking up our motor home. We're going to Texas. We have a cool thing happening for our social media down there. And then we'll start we need to be at the border of Alaska on May I'm sorry, June. That's our that's our break into to Canada and then from Canada into Alaska, and we'll spend the summer up there.
Scott Hack:Okay. So when you said that date, like, do you have a reservation across, or is it just like the window for weather?
Jason Shinpaugh:Well, the weather obviously plays a big role in it. We do have a couple of reservations in Waterton National Park, which is in the Canadian side, Banff, and Jasper. And other than that, we have no reservations for the whole summer. So we're literally just gonna wander our way through the Yukon into Alaska, circle around, come back, and we'll follow the weather up, and then we'll follow follow the weather back.
Scott Hack:That's awesome. So you're going to continue to work this summer. Mhmm. You're going to continue to do your coaching. So I know that you've got some people at eXp that you help mentor and coach through.
Scott Hack:So you're gonna continue to do your Tuesdays and Wednesday coachings that you do with them. Linda, like I said, is a lender, so she's gonna continue to underwrite loans and do processing for those. And your kids are building a YouTube channel, right, for your family, for traveling. So it'll be business as usual, just in a new place every day. Right?
Jason Shinpaugh:That's exactly right. I mean, it's what we've been doing, as I said, for nine years. So we don't really think anything different of it. And, you know, one of the things that was super important to me was creating location freedom. I don't do good in a box.
Jason Shinpaugh:And when we left, I you know, you know a little bit of my story, but, you know, super burned out on the real estate business. It chewed me up and spit me out because I was trying to build this big team. And, actually, I did build a big team. And what they failed to tell me was that that model is a flawed model. It's it's it's it's not the perfect model that they portray it to be.
Jason Shinpaugh:And when I got burned out and left, we just left. And not right or wrong, I can look back and say all sorts of things I would have done differently, but what was important to me was to be a great husband and be a great dad. The rest of the stuff comes after that. And I think this industry has just become something that it was never meant to be. Right?
Jason Shinpaugh:You think about your mom selling houses. You know, somebody from church wanted to buy a house that she wouldn't sold them a house. It was it wasn't all the stress and the that goes into the business nowadays. And I watch people just failing all over over real estate because they've made more money than they ever thought they would make. They've got busier.
Jason Shinpaugh:They've got notoriety. They got all these things going in their life, but behind the scenes, our our industry is breaking a lot of people, and it broke me.
Scott Hack:Yeah. So, I mean, you're echoing some of the the themes from your talk actually that you gave this year at Distilled, which we have some audio from. So, hopefully, we're gonna be able to get that mixed into a future episode that we're gonna share. So if you are listening to this so we are recording this today on Thursday. I believe it's May 1, definitely early May.
Scott Hack:So the Kentucky Derby is about to happen, and traffic is a little bit extra special here. So people have been traveling to the track, and I actually just got back from visiting in Florida where one of our other speakers and our friend Neil Mathewick put together his summit. And there was a lot of conversation that echoes what what Jason's saying. Some of it actually is, I think, being perpetuated because of social media. People are using social media and thinking that that's the real world.
Scott Hack:Mhmm. And it's a highlight reel. And there's not a lot of people that are sharing their defeats and their struggles. And when people see highlight reel, highlight reel, highlight reel, start comparing to that the the life to that. And comparison is the thief of joy.
Scott Hack:Absolutely. And so, I mean, your your journey to bring clarity to your business and prioritize family and being a good husband, being a good father is something that probably does not show up on the highlight reel. Mhmm. Because that's the real world. That's the real life.
Scott Hack:That's what you're doing. I'm I'm always curious when you are picking your path and where you're gonna where you're gonna go. And I know you all have a base down in the it's Fort Myer Beach. Right? Correct.
Scott Hack:Yeah. So you all got a base down there. So I'm always curious, like, how you decide what today's what today's focus is gonna be. So how do you just make that determination?
Jason Shinpaugh:Well, it it just depends on you know, we've done it for so long in so many different ways. This this year has been all about Alaska. You know, my son turns 18, as I said. He's not going anywhere soon, but statistically speaking, he's not gonna be at home much longer. And Alaska is kinda like the stamp on our travels.
Jason Shinpaugh:We've been back and forth across the country, I don't know, fifteen, sixteen times. I mean, I have I've lost count, right, of the times, you know, that that's out one, back two, just not to be, you know, whatever. But because we were so intentional about Alaska this year, like, that is the summer. Last summer, we went out west, and we spent a month in Utah. We spent a month in South Dakota.
Jason Shinpaugh:We spent a month in, Montana and Wyoming, and we spent a month in Colorado with no planes. We just did that. And I think, you know, if you go back to the what this podcast should really be about for the people listening, you know, we we were just broken, and my only way out was just to leave. I'd spent a ton of time, effort, energy, and resources building this brand. I knew everybody everywhere I went, which is awesome, but I was just worn out.
Jason Shinpaugh:And when I look back at it all, I didn't have a real estate problem. I had a people, a paid problem. But in my world, they became the same. And that to me was, like, I'm grateful for all of it because we're where we are today. This wasn't something we set out to do.
Jason Shinpaugh:We just said we don't wanna do what we're doing anymore. We're gonna do something different. Most people aren't gonna do that. But if you if you watch any of our YouTube channel or any of that stuff, our goal in everything we do is to encourage people to make memories now with their selves, with their spouses, with their kids, whatever that means. Very few people are gonna sell everything and get an RV and travel full time, but it could mean that you went on a date with your wife tonight.
Jason Shinpaugh:It could mean that you went to the beach this weekend. It could mean that you were just intentional about making a memory now. And I think that we are so focused on we're gonna make that memory tomorrow, And then I think we can all agree that time goes by quickly, and it's the only commodity, the only commodity we can't find more of.
Scott Hack:Yeah. It definitely goes by very quickly. When you have children, you see that happening before your eyes for sure. So one of the other things I think is really interesting about you all's journey and and path is that one one of my favorite things, honestly, about visiting conferences is the community coming together and seeing people that I don't get an opportunity to see, but maybe one or two times a year. And, you know, obviously, with the nomad lifestyle, you get the opportunity to visit with people in their homes a lot of times as you're passing through town.
Scott Hack:So, like, I think this is the third time I'm gonna see you now in the past four months Yeah. Which is which is pretty cool. So how do you build those relationships, and how are you finding people, you know, where they're at? Because, obviously, you're hitting a lot of different states. You're at a brokerage, you know, that's nationwide, so that obviously helps having those connections.
Scott Hack:Are you checking Facebook posts? Are you asking your your people to introduce you to other people in those towns?
Jason Shinpaugh:Yes. I'm just intentional about it. You know? My number one God given gift is I'm a connector. And I just I believe in relationships, and they've always been super important to me.
Jason Shinpaugh:Every person that I meet, I put them in my phone with where I met them, where they live, and now I put if they have RV hookups. You know? But we we have just been so blessed by so many people. And, really, this was one of the biggest unintended benefits of our lifestyle that I didn't think would be. But think about, going to real estate distilled.
Jason Shinpaugh:You have this amazing connection. You you have so much in common with everybody sitting there at Hello. Right? You have team leaders, broker owners, independent agents. They're all selling business.
Jason Shinpaugh:They're all selling houses. They're all trying to figure out when to sell more houses, when to get more time back. They're they're they all have all this commonality. You go to these events. You know, I can remember going and go have this amazing steak dinner and a nice bottle of wine, and my wife's at home eating peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Jason Shinpaugh:It's two two hours old on the counter. And I'm like, this was so cool. She's like, I don't wanna hear about it. Right? And you would go to this event, you'd meet these really cool people, and then you went home.
Jason Shinpaugh:And maybe you all went to the same event next year, and maybe you didn't. And maybe you saw each other's at another event. But overall, like, there was no there was no was no connection beyond that. And for us, like, when I'm going somewhere, I mean, you you knew six weeks ago I was coming to town. Right?
Jason Shinpaugh:I'm like, hey. I wanna make sure that we connect and we have a a coffee or a lunch, which we're gonna have lunch after this, which I'm excited about. I just had coffee with another guy that I met at real estate distilled before I came to see you. So my intentionality is there. And because of it, we've got to see some really cool stuff.
Jason Shinpaugh:We've got to do some really cool things in people's hometowns, and there's something different when you're in somebody's hometown. Right? When your family meets their family, when your kids meet their kids, when they take you on their favorite hike, when they take you to their favorite ice cream shop. I mean, we were coming through Saint Louis and met some real estate friends there, and they took us to this really cool barbecue place. And they look like little kids.
Jason Shinpaugh:They're like, we gotta go to Ted Drew's. Like, we got like, I mean, they're like, Ted Drew's is just around the corner. It's this in their town, the most famous custard shop ever. So we go over there. I mean, we would have never done that.
Jason Shinpaugh:I promise you, we would have never done that. And so I am very intentional about where we're going, who I'm gonna see, and it just it's important to me. It always has been. And even you know, even if I'm not coming to town, I'm messaging you every so how are you? What's happening in your world?
Jason Shinpaugh:Anything I can do to help you? Like, I think that's why my my business has continued to grow is because I believe in serving people.
Scott Hack:Yeah. There was a big, big I'm a say it again, big theme at Neil Matheweg's event that I was just at in Florida. And, you know, relationship was that was one of the underlying themes. There was, of course, relationship for the community, the people coming together. We were talking about how many of our client interactions are relationship based.
Jason Shinpaugh:Mhmm.
Scott Hack:We're asking for referrals or we're doing client events. You know, we're asking for relationships essentially. And when you know, one of my pillars of business is online leads. And it has been for a long time. It's where I got my start.
Scott Hack:But you do not you don't start that with a relationship, but that's the ultimate goal, to have a relationship.
Jason Shinpaugh:That's
Scott Hack:right. Because they're not gonna do a transaction with someone that they don't have a relationship with. So you have to take that from a cold name, email address, and phone number into a meeting, into rapport to then build trust and then relationship and then a transaction.
Jason Shinpaugh:Mhmm.
Scott Hack:And then hopefully, can rinse and repeat and build, you know, off of that relationship into introductions to their people. But it all starts, essentially when the relationship starts.
Jason Shinpaugh:I agree.
Scott Hack:It's it's that's awesome that, you know, I am a huge fan of the city of Louisville. That is one of the reasons why Liz and I love hosting our conference here. We love introducing the city to people, sharing everything that's special about it. I'm actually taking some of the things that I've learned about hosting this podcast for Real Estate Distilled, And I'm gonna be launching a podcast that is for my personal real estate business, and it's gonna be called Dear Louisville. And I'm gonna be bringing in local guests, and we're gonna be sharing basically love letters to the city.
Scott Hack:So the guests are gonna be sharing things that they think are special about the city, why they love the city. And I'm excited to start having other people share what they love about us as well. So I really appreciate you stopping in town and visiting with me. Anything else that you wanna share with the listeners here today?
Jason Shinpaugh:I think my my my thing to you would be in this business right now, it's been tough. Right? It it's been I've never seen anything like it. We went through the crash. We lived it.
Jason Shinpaugh:We we were a part of it. I would just encourage you not to quit, and I would encourage you to get into some type of community. If you're not going to events yeah. I was just it's funny. Was just on a call, yesterday.
Jason Shinpaugh:I'm like, if you guys aren't going to events, you're crazy. Right? Whether it's just at your board, whether it's a regional event, whether it's a national event, I don't care. You need to get to events. And, funny enough, yesterday on my call, there's, I don't know, 20 some people on there.
Jason Shinpaugh:And I said, every one of you on this call are a byproduct of two people that I met at two different events, And you now have relationships with one another. Your your businesses are growing. All of these things are happening because I went to an event. And it wasn't because of who spoke at the event, it's who I sat next to. And and that is that is that is an incredibly powerful thing when you really think about it.
Jason Shinpaugh:It's awesome, the event that you host, but you guys do such a great job of getting people into relationship and giving people the space to connect outside of the stage. And the stage is awesome, and it's great, and it's encouraging. And I I mean, that that's what it's all about. But I think real estate distilled in what you guys have built there has just been so good for our industry. You've done it at a place where people can get there easily.
Jason Shinpaugh:You've done it at place where people can afford to come. You guys are so hospitable. Like, I enjoyed it. I was super honored, number one, to to speak there, so thank you for allowing me to speak there. But just met some great people there.
Jason Shinpaugh:You know? The guy I just had coffee with. I've known him as Facebook friends. I met him at your first real estate distilled. As you know, I met Jessica at your first real estate distilled, and, I mean, we're in business now, and she's changed my life all because of your events.
Jason Shinpaugh:So if you guys aren't going to events, I would say absolutely go to events. Be intentional about it. You don't have to, you know, spend 9 gajillion dollars, which is what usually keeps people from going or they're too busy. And it's funny to me how the people that are the busiest are the ones that are at events, and the ones that claim to be the busiest are the ones trying to be home and have more business. I noticed that in the calls that I host.
Jason Shinpaugh:I do host a call every week. Anybody in the country is welcome to come. I do it via Zoom. It's on Wednesday mornings at 09:00 to to, 09:45. It's called Agents Helping Agents, and I built that call just to give back.
Jason Shinpaugh:It our industry has a lot of people sitting on islands right now, and I think our industry has done new agents a disservice. They don't know what to do. There's so much out there with social media, the highlight reel. Matter of fact, one of the calls I just hosted, last week, I was talking about running your own race. It's funny that you said that.
Jason Shinpaugh:Right? And, I think people get caught up with impostor syndrome and thinking that they should be doing what the other people are doing, not knowing behind the scenes the people are broken, not knowing behind the scenes their their business is not making any money. I don't care how many houses you sell. How much money did you keep?
Scott Hack:Yeah. 100%. Right? Yeah.
Jason Shinpaugh:I was talking to a guy not long ago, and he's like, I our our our gross profit margin's up. So I'm like, well, how much did you keep? Well, our gross profit margin's up over I I don't care. That's it. That that number's irrelevant.
Jason Shinpaugh:How much money he wouldn't answer my question. Either he didn't know or he didn't wanna share, all of which are fine, but we need to be having real conversations in our industry about what it's really about. And if you're not having those conversations, you need to be around people who are because that's how you grow your business. That's how you grow your life. That's how you find the joy in this business because it's changed my life just like it has yours.
Scott Hack:Jason, if someone wanted to join you on that call on a Wednesday, what is the best way for me to help get them connected to you?
Jason Shinpaugh:I'll give you the link, you can just drop it in the description.
Scott Hack:Okay.
Jason Shinpaugh:That's the easiest. It's a it's they can jump on to sign on. I'll get them the the information.
Scott Hack:Okay. So I will share that link in the bottom in the show notes for our our chat today. And then if you're not already in the Facebook group, please jump into the Facebook group, join the conversation that's taking place, those connections. Jason, among others, will be there. We've got about, I think we've got about 2,300 people in the Facebook group, and there's probably a good 500 people that are active in there.
Scott Hack:So if you've got a question, you've got a concern, you're thinking about doing something crazy and you need to tell someone, have someone tell you that it's a crazy idea or this might be the best thing you've ever thought about, jump in the group, post your question, post your comment, and participate. Build those relationships online, and then we can take them offline and bring them to the conference that we'll be hosting again in March of twenty twenty six. Again, thank you for joining us at the Real Estate Distilled podcast. I wanna thank Jason again for stopping in. We'll talk with you all soon.
Jason Shinpaugh:Thank you, Scott.
Announcer:That's a wrap for this episode of the Real Estate Distilled podcast. Visit RealEstateDistilled.com for more tips, and jump into our Facebook group to keep the conversation going. Here's to making every transaction a smooth pour. Cheers.
