An Unexpected Journey: Keren Gonen

Summary

In this episode of The Chris Project, host Christian Brim interviews Keren Gonen, a real estate broker from New Jersey. Keren shares her unexpected journey into real estate, influenced by her entrepreneurial upbringing and experiences in customer service. The conversation explores the importance of support in entrepreneurship, the balance between control and delegation, and the significance of networking and community building. Keren emphasizes the need for kindness and understanding in business interactions, and she discusses her vision for creating a supportive environment for entrepreneurs. The episode concludes with Keren's insights on finding purpose beyond profit and how to connect with her.

Takeaways

• Keren Gonen's journey into real estate was unexpected but fulfilling.
• Her background in customer service shaped her approach to real estate.
• Networking is crucial for building a successful business.
• Support from others is essential for entrepreneurs.
• Delegation is key to managing workload effectively.
• Keren emphasizes the importance of kindness in business.
• She aims to create a supportive community for entrepreneurs.
• Finding purpose in work goes beyond just making money.
• Keren's entrepreneurial spirit was influenced by her family.
• She encourages new agents to learn and grow independently.

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Transcript

Christian Brim (00:00.398)
Okay. Welcome to another episode of The Chris Project. I am your host, Christian Brim. Joining me today, Karen Gonen of Real Estate Executives. Karen, welcome to the show.

Keren Gonen (00:15.119)
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it, Christian.

Christian Brim (00:18.932)
Absolutely. I'm, I'm excited to hear your, your, experience and your angle on this. so let's start with the CV. you know, who's Karen, what does Karen do?

Keren Gonen (00:32.559)
So I am a real estate broker with Realty Executives in Vernon, New Jersey, which is Sussex County. So we are in the northwest corner of the state. We butt with Pennsylvania and on the other side we have Warwick, New York. I'm originally from Israel. I came to the U.S. when I was 13 years old and moved to Connecticut, lived there for three years, moved to Jersey.

I would like to disclose I've moved 29 times in my life. It really is, but you'd be surprised, Christian, to learn that I've never thought of real estate before, ever, in my entire life. It was never something that I wanted to do, and it's by chance, or by the universe, or by God, whatever you believe in, that I made it to real estate, and it's definitely where I'm supposed to be.

Christian Brim (01:02.872)
So real estate's a good profession for you.

Keren Gonen (01:26.831)
because that's where I can do the most good, in my opinion.

Christian Brim (01:31.5)
that's interesting. I so we've talked about on this show a little bit, probably not as much as we should have around purpose. And and you mentioned a purpose in being in real estate that wasn't really your design, right? Like you didn't set out to be in this industry. Talk a little bit more about

about that from from your personal understanding and belief.

Keren Gonen (02:01.861)
Sure.

Sure, so I was always in customer service and managerial positions prior to becoming a real estate agent. I had worked with my family at shipping, import and export for almost 20 years. We had our own company and we were actually the third largest exporter from the US to West Africa. So we had always been at the top.

That's how I was raised. I was raised in an entrepreneurial home and we were always taught to do our best and our best better be good because that's just how we were raised. There's no other option. And so I got into real estate because I was in between jobs. At the time I had just left my job as a CEO for a beauty company out in Queens, New York because it was just, it was too much traffic. My kids were young.

My nanny was getting paid more than I was, you know, all these, right? It was all these things and it was time to move on. And so I had quit that job and I was at home and my then boyfriend wanted to flip houses in Vernon, New Jersey. We were living in Ringwood, which is a different County. It's Passaic County. and he wanted to flip in Vernon, New Jersey, because in Vernon you could get

Christian Brim (02:59.403)
Never a good sign.

Keren Gonen (03:22.651)
bank-owned properties for 30, 40, $50,000. And that's what his budget was, but he wasn't getting any answers from any real estate agents. No one was calling him back, texting him back, none of that. So he came home one day and he was very frustrated. And I said, look, I'm between jobs, so why don't I do this for you? I had always been in business and therefore I'm really good on follow-up. So I figured this would be the perfect opportunity.

Christian Brim (03:48.226)
Hmm.

Keren Gonen (03:50.819)
Again, wasn't doing anything, wasn't even thinking of getting another job at this point. I just, needed some rest from all the driving and all the drama at my prior job. And so I said to him, listen, why don't I take over? Because I'm attached to my phone, like everybody else these days, and I've always done customer service, always been in business, let me do it. So after two weeks of me trying to get a human on the phone in order for him to go and see a house,

I was getting frustrated because day in and day out I'm calling, texting, emailing, no one's responding to me. And one night, it was a Thursday night, he came home, we were sitting down at dinner, and all I'm doing is complaining about how all these real estate agents, no one was calling me back. And I'm sitting there and I'm going at it and don't these people need to make money by selling a house? Don't they not get paid unless they sell?

Why wouldn't they want to sell a, you know, not knowing all the background story? Cause it's not an industry I was ever interested in. Didn't even cross my mind ever in my entire life. And so he looked at me and he said, why don't you just become an agent? And that night I was signed up for class and the following Monday I started class and a month later I had my license. And that's how it all began. This is why I say it was some other force that brought me.

Christian Brim (04:52.653)
Mm-hmm.

Keren Gonen (05:14.885)
to real estate, it was not my idea under any circumstances.

Christian Brim (05:19.609)
I found that most of my ideas are bad ones. I don't know if you have that experience. Like I have this idea that this is what I should do and then it's like, Okay, so was that your first entrepreneurial endeavor or had you dabbled before?

Keren Gonen (05:34.519)
No, no. So like I said, my family owned a company for shipping. My dad and I had actually started it years prior where, again, I was in between jobs.

Christian Brim (05:46.889)
Okay, so you weren't just an employee there, you were a partner with your dad.

Keren Gonen (05:51.865)
I was the operations manager of the company. And just to give you a little bit of background question, I knew nothing about shipping. My dad came to me and said, hey, listen, I want to start a new shipping company. How about you come and work with me? And I said, Abba, I'm going to kill you. We're very similar. And so being very similar is not a good thing. I am my father just in female form. And so I said, I'll kill you within a week. And he said, let's just try for a week.

Christian Brim (05:56.055)
Okay.

Christian Brim (06:14.165)
Yes.

Keren Gonen (06:21.123)
If it doesn't work, you go your way, I'll go mine. Everything will be fine. And so he took me to his prior office and had one of the ladies there train me. And then he took my mother on a two week vacation to Florida and left me in the office. Yeah. And I called him up.

Christian Brim (06:36.129)
Perfect. That sounds like a brilliant indoctrination.

Keren Gonen (06:40.493)
Yeah, exactly. And I called him up and I said, Abba, how could you have left me? I barely know anything about shipping. Do you know what his response was, Christian?

Christian Brim (06:50.957)
You'll figure it out.

Keren Gonen (06:52.503)
Sink or swim, baby. And that's just the type of mentality that was in my family. There was no other option. You had to succeed and nobody was going to hold your hand and nobody was going to tell you exactly what to do. You were going to figure it out on your own. And that's exactly what happened.

Christian Brim (06:54.679)
Yeah, same thing.

Christian Brim (07:11.009)
Yeah, I find that most new entrepreneurs are shocked. know, some people come to entrepreneurship, reluctantly or situationally, as opposed to like those of us that it's really kind of innate in who we are and approach it more boldly maybe.

But this idea that everything's your responsibility is one that's really hard for a lot of people to get over. And it's kind of like, well, what about this and what about that? And I didn't know about that. And it's like, it doesn't matter. It's on your plate now, so figure it out.

Keren Gonen (07:55.129)
And then you do because you don't have any other option.

Christian Brim (07:56.524)
You do or you don't. I mean, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that don't make the cut. mean, they think they want to be entrepreneurs until they have to do entrepreneur shit. And then it's like, I can't do this.

Keren Gonen (08:12.731)
And you know, it's funny because I have, so I have a networking group, a few of them actually, but the specific one, we have a lot of younger entrepreneurs that come into the group and they have no clue what they're doing, but we're happy to help. And so I had what we call a sit down with this member and she said, what, I don't know how to do this and I don't know how to do that. And I said, it's okay, we're here. We are going to help you. There was another young lady with me. She does financial advising, but she's also very spiritual.

And this young entrepreneur needed help in many different levels of her life. And so by the time we left, she had a new set of habits, got rid of her old habits. Hopefully she will stick to that. But that's one of the things that I think entrepreneurs always need. Someone else who's been there, done that, and can help you, maybe not in your business specifically, but can help you with the good habits that you need to have as an entrepreneur so that you don't crash and burn.

Christian Brim (08:47.725)
Mm.

Christian Brim (09:11.967)
Yeah, I think that's, I mean, I think, I think entrepreneurs in general need support. Like they don't know how much support they need. I, I don't even know whether I would call it prescience or maybe it was God's provision, but, you know, I bought a franchise out of the gate. And so like I had that support, of course I was paying for it, but I had a support network built in that absolutely.

allowed me to accelerate my entrepreneurial journey. had I had to learn all those things myself that the franchisee, the franchisor had already figured out and put into a process in the system, I probably wouldn't have succeeded. I probably would have, but it would have been a lot uglier.

Keren Gonen (10:04.219)
But you would have gotten it done, right?

Christian Brim (10:08.063)
Yes, and you know that's interesting you say that because that that is the.

One of the, one of the most fascinating things I've learned over the last three years is this, this idea. I call it perseverance. My wife calls it stubbornness. I think there, I think there are two sides of the same coin, right? It's just, it's just who you are as an entrepreneur is you're very persistent. but it can in situation show up.

Keren Gonen (10:32.837)
Exactly the same, yeah.

Christian Brim (10:44.969)
negatively, right and it's like there was a Speaker and I cannot remember his name I I know he wears all pink and I went to an EO event entrepreneurs organization event and He talked about personality traits and and it was a family event so he was speaking to kids as well and He was talking about how you know

the things that we label characteristics certain ways. Like I said, you can call it persistence or perseverance, and you can also call it stubbornness. But he challenged us to think about those things not in terms of labels, but just as who you are, right? And not trying to fix it, but just have an understanding of, you know, this is who you are. Because in labeling it, we can...

can amplify certain characteristics of it. Like, so someone calls you stubborn as a stubborn person, you're like, well, I'm not stubborn. I'm going to show you stubborn, right? Like, right. So, so anyway, what, what, what I've come to find is that that characteristic that defined me for a lot of my entrepreneurial journey actually became a more of a liability. Not, not that I'd still didn't need it. I did, but it kept me

Keren Gonen (11:52.932)
Right.

Christian Brim (12:13.301)
from letting go of the wheel to allow others to do their job. And so specifically in developing leadership for my company, I had to get over this belief that I had, if something was going to happen, it had to have me as a driving force behind it. And that regardless of whether I knew what I was doing,

I had to hang on and figure it out. that was a real... Yeah, I don't... Maybe I was, maybe other people called me that behind my back. I didn't really feel that way, but to me it was like, I couldn't quit. Like that was something that...

Keren Gonen (12:47.041)
I that being a control freak. And I am a control freak. I don't say it in malice.

Christian Brim (13:07.115)
was deeply ingrained in me and I don't, I don't think it was my parents. don't, I don't, I just think that's who I was. Like you can't quit. I, I remember distinctly a coach in high school making the statement, you know, quitting is a habit, right? Like, so, so if you, if you, if you quit once, it's easier to quit the second time. Right. And so that, that was my attitude, but the reality in my business was

That I needed to quit what I doing. And, and it was, I said, I had held onto that rope until I'd burned my hand down to the bone. mean, it wasn't just flesh that had fled. It was down to the bone because I was hanging on, but it wasn't working. Right. And that, and that, that characteristic, that had made me successful that I had relied on actually was an impediment for me to move forward.

Have you had a similar experience?

Keren Gonen (14:08.121)
Yeah. I have. So like I said, I am a control freak. But the funny thing is my now husband says to me all the time, because I love to help people all the time. Doesn't matter what you need. I'm happy to help. I'm always here. And I needed help in my business. And I couldn't make it to a showing. I don't remember the exact situation. But I needed help. And there was only me, because at the time I was the only agent.

And he said to me, said, you know, if you don't let people help you when you need it, they're going to stop asking you for help. And then a light bulb went off because I want to give all the time, but I don't want to ask for help. I don't want to delegate. I want to hold on to everything because it's mine, mine, mine. And I can handle it all by myself because I'm a very independent woman. But as I grew older, I realized that's not the case.

And sometimes letting go of that control is much better for me and my business. So when I'm in a tizzy, as we say, and I have 300 things to do, but I only have time for two, I very often turn to my husband and say, hey, look, these are all the things I need to do. Because I'm so deep in it, I can't see outside. I can't see the big picture. Then I'll say, these are all the things I have to do. Do you have any ideas? So he's my sounding board where he says, well, is this really necessary?

Christian Brim (15:13.261)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Keren Gonen (15:34.469)
Do you absolutely have to do this yourself or can you delegate it to someone else? And sometimes that's what I need because in my head I can do everything at the same time and everything will be fine, but it won't be because I'll try, I'll stretch myself too thin. And at some point I'm going to crash and burn and I don't want that to happen. So I have had that happen many times and sometimes it's on a very small scale. Like it's just a day.

where I have an appraisal, a showing and a new client, a listing appointment at the same time, who can I give what to? So I'm not good with the giving away things. I should be able to do everything. So that's something that happens on a regular basis. And sometimes it's a lot bigger. Sometimes it's, hey, you have to officiate a wedding on a Saturday and on Sunday you have to be in Arizona and on Wednesday you have another event.

Christian Brim (16:15.841)
Yeah.

Keren Gonen (16:30.415)
Sometimes it's on a much bigger scale.

Christian Brim (16:34.537)
Yes, I think my experience with that resonates with yours. When you said, you know, I can do it all. I had the hubris to say I can do it all better than anybody else. And I actually said those words. I can't believe that I said it, but I said to somebody in my organization, it wasn't even like I said it to myself. It was an actual outside voice to someone in my organization.

that I can do any job in this company better than anybody else here.

Okay, maybe I don't even at this point stipulate that that's true. But even if it is true, even if you're the most brilliant genius and a polymath and you can do all kinds of things, you still have the limitation of time. You still have the limitation of yourself. And it's the the getting over yourself part that that's

I think a stumbling block for a lot of entrepreneurs.

Keren Gonen (17:40.581)
I agree. I think it's the idea of us not needing anyone else. And I think that's, especially for someone who's very independent. I'm a Leo. So you know I want to do everything by myself. And I can do everything. But I think it comes with years and practice and wisdom that you get as a result of your life experiences that makes you realize that it's okay to let someone else do it. I'm not a micromanager.

So if I have to tell you what to do step by step, we're not going to be working together. I'm the type of person that says, look, this is what needs to get done. If you need my help, let me know, but you do it. I'm not going to double check on you. I'm not going to check in with you. In fact, when I worked with my family, my sister used to try and micromanage me. And that would make me flip out on a regular basis. Cause who are you to micromanage me? I know what I'm doing. I don't need anybody to micromanage me. And I'm the older sister. So.

Christian Brim (18:19.564)
Yes.

Keren Gonen (18:39.471)
There.

Christian Brim (18:40.927)
Yeah, I was, I was at another EO event and there were about a hundred entrepreneurs in this room. And right before the speakers started to talk, was, Jeff smart. he and his dad, came up with strength finders in, and he wrote the book. Jeff wrote the book who, which is a brilliant book. and, before we started, like everybody was calming down a little bit.

And he looked at one of the people in the front rows and said, go get me some coffee.

And you could see the guy bristle, right? But he used it as a teaching point. And, and, and he said, entrepreneurs are very self-sufficient and at the core of that, they don't like to be told what to do. Right. You can ask me to do something and I'm absolutely willing to help love to help. Right. But don't tell me to do it. Right. And.

Keren Gonen (19:36.731)
Thank you Zach.

Keren Gonen (19:45.208)
Exactly.

Christian Brim (19:47.496)
I found because that's the way I want to be treated, that that was my expectation with others. And, and to your point, like I can't hire somebody that needs constant attention, right. Because I, that's not the way I function. However, I had to realize that, all of my employees, especially my leadership team are not entrepreneurs. They're not me. They don't think the way that I do.

And they need more than I would in that situation. And, and learning how to manage people, what was a challenge because I, I wanted to be managed the way I would want to be managed. And some people need a little more, a little different. Like it may show up as coaching. It may show up as mentoring. It may show up as, you know, educating, but you know,

You can't just take an employee and treat them like an entrepreneur and say go figure this out because the most of the time that

Keren Gonen (20:50.159)
Right.

And I think that's part of the problem. So as a real estate agent, and I teach this to my agents all the time, when you walk into a house or when you first meet a client, you need to assess who they are very quickly. For instance, if I go on a listing appointment and I meet a husband and a wife and the wife is naturally more emotional than the husband, but the husband is very analytical. He's about numbers.

I'm not going to sit down and be my emotional nurturing self. I'm going to spew out numbers and statistics about the value of their home, sales in our area, those types of things, because clearly he's very pragmatic. And this is what he needs in order to work with me. Whereas if it's someone who's more emotional, then we take a totally different route. And that's something that also comes with time. So I think the same is true.

Christian Brim (21:35.458)
Mm-hmm.

Keren Gonen (21:45.723)
for employees where if someone is more independent and they prefer to work on their own and they prefer for you to see the finished product, if you want the best production out of them, you need to meet them where they are. You need to treat them in the way that they can produce to the best of their ability. Otherwise, if you treat them in a different way, they're not going to produce, you're going to be miserable, and so are they.

It's bad on both ends. And I think that just comes with experience and life wisdom.

Christian Brim (22:20.939)
Yeah, it's definitely a skill that most entrepreneurs don't have. They don't bring to the table and, but, but to your point, it can be learned. And, what, what's we adopted, pre COVID. So, you know, eight or nine years ago, this model called, row results only work environment.

And I can't remember the author's name, but the author of the book was two women. it was, it was called work sucks and how to change it. That was a subtitle, but, but they were speaking to more managers rather than entrepreneurs. But, but I think it really, it really encapsulates, encapsulates the, the, the, think the best way for an entrepreneur to, to adapt to management.

because it's really not, I don't really care how you do things. I have certain expectations, outcomes that have to happen within a certain timeframe with a certain quality standard, for instance, but how and when and where you do that, I don't care. And that really resonates with entrepreneurs, right? Like, that, well, yeah, that's the way I'd like to be managed. However,

It gives you the framework to work with others that like, not everybody can work in a row environment. Like there, there are a lot of people that just need that micromanagement, right? Yeah. And so you have to be careful what employees you hire for that. They have to have the, a little bit of that entrepreneurial spirit of figuring things out themselves.

Keren Gonen (23:57.339)
pin holding.

Christian Brim (24:11.891)
But it it to me it marries the entrepreneurial mindset with myth management quite lovely quite lovely

Keren Gonen (24:21.019)
And I think that's that's the strength of a manager and that's a strength of an entrepreneur for instance if someone says to me well you can't do that that just lights a fire and Then not only will I show you that I could do it I'll do it better than anybody else and I'll do it twice run around you in circles to show you that I can So that's and again. I'm gonna bring up my husband because obviously

That's the most experience we've been together for very long time. But when we first started dating, he would say stuff like, bum, you can't do that. And then I would look at him and I would say, are you challenging me? And he would say, yeah, in the beginning, before he knew who he was dealing with, he would say, yeah, that's a challenge. I'm challenging you. Well, years later, he learned that when I say, are you challenging me, the response is, absolutely not. I'm just suggesting.

what you should or shouldn't do. Decision is totally yours and the difference in the words is what's going to make the difference in my reaction. Because maybe it's a bad idea, but if you tell me I can't do that, watch me do it.

Christian Brim (25:18.529)
Yeah, absolutely.

Christian Brim (25:26.045)
Obstinate defiance. That's what my daughter calls it. and, and, you know, it's funny. She was using that term with me, but like, like you and your dad, she's just like me in a lot of ways. And I'm like, yeah, pot, kettle, you know, whatever. but no, it, it, is, it is something that you, know, you have to be careful of as an entrepreneur of not being reactive. Like if someone tells you to do something, you're going to bristle.

Keren Gonen (25:28.045)
Yes. Yeah.

Keren Gonen (25:34.059)
no!

Keren Gonen (25:39.246)
my.

Christian Brim (25:55.681)
But that doesn't mean it has to proceed to that. Like that guy that he asked for coffee, he didn't tell him to go fuck himself. I mean, you know, that would be the inappropriate response, right? And clearly, it's almost like a child that reversed psychology. I really want the one thing, I ask for the opposite. And we as entrepreneurs can be easily manipulated.

someone tells you to do something or not do something, your reaction is visceral. It's like, well, no, no, I can do that. And you can be manipulated by your feelings if you're not careful. Like, you don't want to be reactionary.

Keren Gonen (26:41.059)
And I think that's part of the problem. And again, it's also part of age, because as we age, we have different life experiences and we learn what to do and what not to do. But when we're young and we're petulant and we're just going to react automatically, whereas when you're older, you understand you need to take a step back, take a breath, look at the whole picture, and then make a decision, not just shoot from the hip because you can and because you're smart and because...

Christian Brim (26:51.948)
Hopefully.

Keren Gonen (27:09.295)
Fast, fast, fast, that's the way to go, because it's really not. Not at all.

Christian Brim (27:13.195)
Right, yeah, not at all. So tell me a little bit more about your networking groups. Is that a business model or is that just something you participate in volunteering?

Keren Gonen (27:25.787)
So, that's a funny story. When I first came into real estate, we had moved to Vernon. We did find a house to rent that we actually ended up buying later on. But I didn't know anyone. I knew, I don't know, my landlady and somebody else in town that I had known from before, and that's it. And so I was a brand new real estate agent. didn't know, I had no network. I had no sphere, so I wasn't like the...

Every other agent that says, I know tons of people. I'm going to reach out to all my sphere, let them know I'm an agent, get the business. I didn't have anyone. And so I had gone to a BNI meeting, Business Network International meeting in a town over, which was Sparta. And I just fell in love with the idea. And I said, my God, I have to make this happen in Vernon because that meeting already had a real estate agent. So I couldn't join it, but I could start a new chapter.

And so I had reached out to B &I and I said, I'd like to start a chapter. And they said, well, you need 13 people. I didn't even know more than three, but I tried. So I got the electrician and the plumber and the attorney, and that was it. Three people. That's all I had. And there was me, so we were four. And B &I said, you know, we're really sorry. We don't start chapters with less than 13 people or 17. I don't even remember. And I said, OK, then I'll just wait because.

I believe things happen for a reason and if it's when it's the right time it's going to happen. I'm not going to kill myself trying to find people that will make no commitment to me because they don't know me and they don't see the value in what I bring to the table. You know I had no delusions of what my abilities are but I also didn't have any delusions about who I know and who I don't know. And so I put that on the back burner and a year later a gentleman called me

and said, hi, I got your number from B &I. They said you wanted to start a chapter in Vernon. I'm in Vernon. Let's meet up and talk. And we had chatted, and he had been in Vernon for decades. So we decided to start a Vernon B &I chapter. We met in my office. We had enough people. And so we met a couple of times. Then finally, we were ready. So I reached out to B &I, and I said,

Keren Gonen (29:39.611)
We would like to have our meetings on Thursday mornings because I, since I was divorced with children, that was the only day that I could do a 7 a.m. meeting a Thursday, because my kids were with their dad. And so they told me at B &I, they said, you can't do Thursday because the group in Sparta meets on Thursday and on the off chance that one of the higher ups will have to stop by yours and Sparta needs us too, you can't have it on the same day.

So I went back to the group and I said, listen, guys, I'm really sorry. The only day I am physically able and available to have a meeting is Thursday. BNI says we can't do it. I'm happy to find you another real estate agent that could do it. I can't physically can't. And so they said, absolutely not. You started this chapter. We'll just start our own networking group. And I was hesitant because BNI already had a structure. They already had everything figured out. And yes, they were very expensive, but

I don't want to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to. And so they said, no, we're not doing it. We'll just start our own. And there were people that were older than me with much more experience in being entrepreneurs. And they said, we can all figure it out. Don't even worry about it. We started the group six years later. We have over 40 members.

Last year we did $1.2 million in business and in Sussex County where everything is a lot cheaper, $1.2 million is a lot of money in business. A ton. Yeah, that's just one of my networking groups. I'm very big on networking, very, very big advocate for specifically women, but obviously men also. So I also have BW Nice. I'm the president of their Sussex chapter.

Christian Brim (31:09.334)
Nice, nice.

Keren Gonen (31:26.171)
And that's a women's only networking group that supports Daisy, which is a charity. It stands for domestic abuse and sexual intervention. So they have the shelters. They also accept men and women, but the group itself that fundraises specifically for Daisy, that's women's only group. And I took over that chapter a year ago. We had five people and now we have 21. So we're doing better.

Christian Brim (31:51.735)
Very nice. So then you do coaching or mentoring of real estate agents. What do you do there?

Keren Gonen (32:02.287)
do? I do. So I'm the broker of my office and when new agents, I actually prefer new agents because they come as a a plain canvas. They don't have any bad habits. They don't have anything that I have to fix and I just teach them the right way. I give them all the tools, but I do what is called bringing the horse to the water. I don't take you by the hand and tell you today you're doing this tomorrow you're doing this. I tell you what you have to get done. I give you all the tools and then I

throw you in the water and tell you to sink or swim baby and if you have questions I'm always here. I was with an agent doing a contract at 11 o'clock last night so I'm always available to my agents but I don't hand hold.

Christian Brim (32:48.544)
Yeah, no, and that sounds, you know, that that model real estate brokerage sounds ideal for a row environment or results only work environment. I was just reminded my daughter got to go to a dinner of the one of the founders of Keller Williams recently.

Keren Gonen (33:15.011)
nice.

Christian Brim (33:16.364)
She's here in Oklahoma and she's like in her 90s. Yeah, but it was a fascinating, what little bit she told me was fascinating. It was a women's group that was doing this interview, I guess, whatever it was.

Keren Gonen (33:22.159)
Wow.

Christian Brim (33:39.277)
She was a fascinating woman. She was a fascinating woman of faith too, in that, you know, she, she, she's Christian, but I kind of go back to, I want to circle back to this purpose. And I think that for me, you know, you reach a certain level of success and a certain age and you know, you, you, you start to look around and I've seen this with

a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, they get into their forties and, start looking around and they're like, is this it? Like, wait a second. and I think that, there, there, there is this really realization that there, there's a deeper purpose in, in what you do than just making money and providing for.

Keren Gonen (34:18.779)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (34:36.938)
your family. So what, what you've, you've touched on a little bit about it, but like, what, what does that look like in your life?

Keren Gonen (34:38.318)
I agree.

Keren Gonen (34:46.904)
I already know.

My ultimate goal in like, let's say 10 years, when I don't love selling and buying houses as much as I do now, my purpose is to create a business center in town that will allow entrepreneurs to meet with people such as an attorney, a bookkeeper, marketing, all of those different facets of being an entrepreneur that nobody teaches you. So I was very fortunate because I grew up in an entrepreneurial home, but most people are not. And so,

Christian Brim (35:13.718)
Mm-hmm.

Keren Gonen (35:20.581)
To open such a center obviously would be a charity. I would have to get different people involved, but I already have those people and they already know I'm going to call on them in 10 years when I'm ready. And that's really a deeper calling for me because I always want to help. I'm always happy to help. I was just at the municipal building this morning because the mayor asked me to come to the 9-11 ceremony. Last night I was planting at the municipal building because it didn't look good.

Christian Brim (35:43.574)
Mmm.

Keren Gonen (35:49.559)
And so I had my Rotary Club sponsor purchasing plants at the local nursery. And then last night it was me and two other ladies and all we were doing is planting. So help has always been part of my character. But now it's on a much deeper level because of my age, because of my experience, because I want to teach my kids the same. My kids will tell you they've spent Saturdays picking up trash and planting on the side of the road.

Christian Brim (36:13.099)
Mm-hmm.

Keren Gonen (36:19.455)
and doing all these different things because that's the legacy I leave behind my children. And so it's important for me that they learn that doing charity and being kind is just part of our life. It's not something we do later on.

Christian Brim (36:35.626)
Yeah, I think, you know, what that what that speaks to me or sounds like is the love your neighbor as yourself. And that that is one of the overarching laws of Judeo-Christian, you know, belief.

Keren Gonen (37:01.347)
Exactly. Right.

Christian Brim (37:04.244)
Of course, the other is loving God, you know, I don't think personally, I don't think you can love others completely until you love God. I think that the love of God that he shows to us is how you love others because you can't give something you don't have, right? And a lot of people don't love themselves.

Keren Gonen (37:17.114)
I agree.

Keren Gonen (37:25.968)
Right.

Christian Brim (37:33.849)
but when they understand the love of their father, then they have that to give to others, right?

Keren Gonen (37:42.651)
Right, right. And I think that's what a lot of people are missing. I would say in this country, but I think it's worldwide. I think we've forgotten how to come from a place of love. When I'm angry at someone or someone calls me and curses me out or yells at me, my initial thought is, I'm gonna fight right back, you And then I sit back and I say, wait, this is not who I am. I come from a place of love, a place of godly love. What would he do?

in this case. And that's funny thing, I teach my agents the same. I tell them if you're dealing with a really mean listing agent or a mean buyer's agent or someone is pissing you off, like they're not being appropriate, they're not doing their job because there are two sides to every transaction, buyer and seller. They're not doing what they're doing. I said pity them. Understand that they come from a bad place. Maybe their cat died.

Christian Brim (38:17.408)
Mm-hmm.

Keren Gonen (38:37.967)
Maybe, God forbid, they had an argument with a loved one. Maybe someone in their family passed away. Maybe someone's sick. Come from a place of understanding that if you want to succeed and you want the transaction to close, you get ready to do your job and theirs. Because otherwise, you won't sell any houses. You won't make any money. So what that does to them is the understanding that we can do it all. And it's OK to do all of it. But the other side who was mean

Christian Brim (38:53.27)
Mm.

Keren Gonen (39:06.303)
or wasn't appropriate or whatnot will remember that you did not treat them the same way. You were better than them. So next time they come around, they will treat you differently because you didn't retort with the same mannerism. You were better. You were the bigger person and that'll give you more success in the long run.

Christian Brim (39:28.48)
Yes, don't curse your enemies, bless them. And in doing so, keep burning coals on their head. Yes. Which I never really quite understood that analogy. I need to go back and understand the Hebrew behind that, but like, I'm sure that means something more than it sounds like.

Keren Gonen (39:37.743)
Ha ha ha!

Keren Gonen (39:49.165)
It always does. The Bible is just that way.

Christian Brim (39:52.461)
Yeah, I tried to learn biblical Hebrew. That shits hard. I even went to a messianic congregation that did intro Hebrew classes and took those and like I got to the alphabet. That was about it. You know it but I couldn't tell you the alphabet now and I mean it's like yeah, I took the Tanakh out in Hebrew and I started looking at it and I'm like there's no

Keren Gonen (39:56.699)
It is hard, I agree.

Christian Brim (40:22.302)
Like, and my pastor heard that I was trying to learn Hebrew and he looked at me like, you're nuts, dude. Like, why would, but to your point, like, language is unique. And, you know, you see this in the modern world where translations don't mean the same things. And so I felt like if I were going to...

Keren Gonen (40:43.567)
We don't.

Christian Brim (40:48.178)
Truly understand the word that I needed to read it in the original Hebrew and I haven't gotten there yet Maybe

Keren Gonen (40:56.303)
Well, Hebrew is the seventh hardest language in the world. And I can tell you it's true, because when I try to explain to people one word in Hebrew, I need like three, four sentences in order to get the precise meaning of the word.

Christian Brim (41:11.936)
Yeah, yes, yes, yes.

Keren Gonen (41:15.387)
I'm sorry, can you excuse me for just a moment? have a geriatric dog.

Christian Brim (41:17.996)
Sure, go ahead.

Keren Gonen (41:22.201)
What do I talk?

Keren Gonen (41:28.164)
you

Keren Gonen (41:40.419)
I apologize, my dog is 13 and she forgets that she just went out and just came in and just went out and just came

Christian Brim (41:48.589)
No, we had to put down our 14 year old Dachshund this year. I, yeah, yeah. He ended up with an abscess tooth and the doctor said, look, he ain't going to go through surgery. So.

Keren Gonen (41:53.131)
no, that's awful.

Keren Gonen (42:02.071)
yikes, that's really sad, I'm sorry to hear that.

Christian Brim (42:05.26)
Well, strangely when I was a child my I had a dog that I a German Shepherd and I was in second grade first grade and I came home and my parents had taken the dog to the vet and put him down put her put her down and I'm like why Well, I guess she had a brain tumor, but I had no idea about this like all this was going on without my knowledge I just came home one day and my dog was gone and

Keren Gonen (42:31.247)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (42:34.046)
I've never had an emotional attachment to a dog since. just, it is like, I'm not gonna love that damn dog. I'm not going to.

Keren Gonen (42:38.703)
That's your defense mechanism.

See, that's me in cars. When I got separated, I had to give up my Honda Pilot and I loved that car. That car I got when my kids were just born. So all, I attached all the memories to the car. And when that happened, I said, that's it. Not loving any more cars ever again. I'm all done. And you know, it's funny, now that I think of it, it happened to me with my chickens. I had chickens that I had gotten from a friend.

Christian Brim (42:50.891)
Yes.

Christian Brim (42:58.41)
Yes, yes.

Keren Gonen (43:11.387)
and there were 11 of them and I gave them all names and I was so excited because I love animals and I had one that I called

Christian Brim (43:19.788)
So these were laying hens. These were not frying chickens. Okay, right, got it.

Keren Gonen (43:22.693)
Correct. Yeah. No, no, I don't eat meat and I would never raise any animal that I'd have to kill and eat. I can't even fathom the thought. So one of the chickens was called Qua, because anytime we would walk by, she would go, Qua. So we named her Qua. And then one day I was going to a showing. I came by to pick up my husband for the showing. He had the chickens out. We were rushing to get to the appointment on time. He left the chickens out.

And when we came back, seven of them were gone. And that was it. No more naming of any chickens. No more, we're all done. I can't do it anymore. So I do. I have 16.

Christian Brim (43:54.592)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (44:01.846)
Do you still have chickens? But they're just like chicken one, two, and three. They're not, they're not named.

Keren Gonen (44:06.847)
They're just the brown one, the grey one, the bully. They have those type of nicknames, but there are no names anymore. I couldn't tell you. It's a defense mechanism. I was so hurt. I was torn. It was... And I know they're just chickens. I get it. But I loved them, so it was a problem.

Christian Brim (44:09.772)
Fair enough. Yes.

Christian Brim (44:27.498)
My wife helped out on her family, her uncle's farm when she was growing up and she tried to name a cow and they're like, no, you can't name that cow because we're gonna eat that cow. like, yeah, so yeah. Yeah, you attach a name to it and it gets personal. Karen, how do people find out more about what you do and more about you?

Keren Gonen (44:38.873)
you're yai.

Keren Gonen (44:53.249)
They can always call me on my cell phone. That number is 551-262-4062. They can also find me on Facebook and Instagram under Karen Gonen, real estate broker, or they can just look up my hashtag, which is Karen Cares.

Christian Brim (45:09.632)
I love it. Listeners will have those links in the show notes. If you like what you've heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. Until next time, remember you are not.