Life Behind the Highlight Real

Ep 27: Finding Your Why to Create a Life of Purpose with Jona Flores

May 03, 2022 Season 1 Episode 27
Life Behind the Highlight Real
Ep 27: Finding Your Why to Create a Life of Purpose with Jona Flores
Show Notes Transcript

Our very own NAR 30 under 30 recipient, Jona Flores, is a leader, a professional and overall an amazing human! She has connected to her "Why" and that is the rocket  fuel she needs for a long and successful career. 

In this recording of our previous Meeting of the Minds session, Jona will share how she got to where she is, the steps she took to discover her "Why", and how it influences her business and personal life to allow a life lived with purpose, passion, and professionalism.

You'll walk away from this episode with tangible action items you can use to find your "Why" and propel you into your purpose with passion.

Magical Quotes:
“I am a firm believer of giving when you can’t. Because if you can put forth the action to volunteer, even if you don’t have the money, it’s something that is instilled in you.”

“I was really passionate in business, I just understood it. I knew my passion was problem solving and it always has been. And that’s what real estate is. Figuring it out… A lot of it is solutions. Identifying the problem and finding the solutions.” 

“It was one of those pivotal parts in my journey for finding my "Why". Because back then, home was a place I did not feel safe in. Home was a place I never experienced Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving… My definition of home was shelter. Shelter so I could get dressed and leave to go do fun things with friends… Now it is different, obviously. It really taught me how to define what home is. Being able to build my own [home] now, and understanding that it really is the staple, the foundation of a good life.”  

"[Self-care books] keep you mindful, it keeps you aware. In situations where we’re managing emotions for people, it’s really easy to forget the place they are coming from."

"You want to meet your client where they're at. A lot of times people want to have them come to you. That's not customer service. Customer service is meeting your client where you need to be at."

Accouncer  0:01  
Welcome to Life behind the highlight reel. The podcast that takes things beyond the curated life we all see online. Join host, Sarah and William Huffman as they dive in with their friends to talk about the good and the hard things that come with a real, not perfect life behind the highlight reel.

William Huffman  0:20  
Hey, everybody, William here and Sarah. And we just need to let you know that we are licensed real estate agents in the state of Minnesota with REMAX results of Good Life Group. And that's our legal disclaimer.

Sarah Huffman  0:33  
Hi, everybody. Today's topic and speaker is the one and only Jonah Flores. I can go into our own intro. That'd be good idea. Because we'll make cry. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely proud moment to have Jonah up here with us. So well, and I started a good life. REMAX results a good life group. It will be five years in September. And Jonah has been with us since go. Synth drop. Since who are you? There we go. So my name is Sarah Hoffman. This is William Huffman next to me, everybody, William here. And we just we bring meeting of the minds to our community, both in person and online. Because we really wanted to give people an opportunity to learn to grow to hear success stories. Learn about themselves. It is not necessarily real estate related. But it's really just like how as a community, do we band together after a strange couple of years and get better. And so that's where meeting of the minds kind of came from. And as we were going through topics, we really wanted to highlight Jonah, because she has come through adversity, and she'll share her story and found great success. So what else do you have? Well,

William Huffman  1:51  
I have a lot. So thank you, everybody on the livestream for joining us. I know we've had people from all across the country wanting to join I know, I'm glad to have the 1520 people we have in the room. And I'm excited for everybody else that's here as well. So thank you eat the food. As I said, it does not get cheaper if they throw it away. So yeah, take as much of it as you can. There is coffee over there. It's slightly better than you know, it's just regular coffee. Delicious. It's the best coffee ever said no one ever. My name is William and I am going to try and not ramble too much today. If you know me, you know that's probably not going to happen. Without further hesitation. Let's go ahead and start. Jonah. Why don't you give us a quick introduction of who you are right now. And we'll kind of go from there.

Jona Flores  2:36  
Sure. My name is Jonah. This is my fifth year now in real estate. And I have had my entire career with Sara and Raul. And it's been exceptional to just watch the team grow overall and me grow as an individual. What else do you want to know?

William Huffman  2:56  
Well, that's fine. I mean, I could ask you questions all day long. So you guys, it took a lot of convincing realistically to get Jonelle up here. So I'm going to allow her to kind of navigate the way she wants to talk because I will show some love on her. Jonah is a $10 million plus a year producer, she is NARS 30, under 30 for the nation, which is by no means a small deal. Sure. Her background.

Sarah Huffman  3:23  
Can we actually start there? Yeah. Jonah will go back into your background. But I think just to like set the stage for what you have accomplished. When people hear Nara 30 under 30. Like we know that is an insane accomplishment because that's a national award. But can you actually talk to us about what that is? what the process was? How you worked for it? Can you start there?

Jona Flores  3:48  
Yeah, um, they choose 30 applicants every single year. Last year, I was chosen as one of them and who is the National Association of Realtors. So I had to go through a fairly extensive process for applying. I met a lot of the people that have been previously introduced to that network, and they do an exceptional level of sales every single year. I think they do a lot of community involvement. So even though I sell a lot of real estate, but to be totally honest, there are I'm sure a lot of other individuals that sell double what I saw. The reason they chose me for this year was because of my community involvement. And aside from that, I did have some really high productive year for 2020. And a lot of that came in when the social injustice came in the protesting and the rioting downtown. And I shared a lot of our cleanup efforts. Hannah and I helped cleaned up the city of Minneapolis and it was just decimated when we had walked through the other thing, too, is we did do sponsorship events. Cindy Radness, had helped us spearhead one of them to provide some supplies for neighborhoods out in St. Paul. Yeah,

William Huffman  5:18  
why is that stuff important to you? I mean, it, I say stuff because I do. Why? Because not a lot of people volunteer. I mean, everybody talks about wanting to volunteer and talks about wanting to give back to the community. You you do this, like, this is like one of your core beliefs, why

Jona Flores  5:37  
I never understood it until I really broke down my background, which I'm sure we'll get into. One of the biggest things that keeps me grateful, is perspective. So understanding if I'm having a hard day today, my version of hard today is a different version for somebody else. And being mindful of what the community needs and people in the community is something that I've always been able to contribute to. And I am a firm believer of giving when you can't, because if you can put forth the action to go volunteer, even if you don't have money. It's something that is instilled in you, I believe. And yeah, it's just something that I've, I've always done, give back.

William Huffman  6:23  
Awesome. Absolutely.

Sarah Huffman  6:25  
I can keep going. I actually wanted to jump in because you mentioned someone named Hannah. And if you can just give us a quick introduction of like, who who you are like what's home life? Like? Like, tell us a little bit about that. She's probably

Jona Flores  6:38  
watching i Anna, we're here she is my fiancee, we are having dinner. Now we

William Huffman  6:46  
just did you exclusive.

Jona Flores  6:49  
We just got engaged. Um, she is. She's amazing. She dedicated her entire life to public health. And I did not know exactly what public health was until I heard her speak. And in a clear cut definition, it's literally dedicating yourself to improving the quality of lives of everybody in the community. And understanding disparities and understanding. Yeah, disadvantages overall down to race down to sex down to anything that could impact them. And a big part of it was housing. So I actually didn't get clear on my y until I really understood the passion that Hannah had for public health, and how housing has a direct correlation to that.

Sarah Huffman  7:37  
So I'm just going to tee it off there, Jonah, like you talk about your y. And really your wide the title of this has been finding your why. Which also helps you find your purpose. So what does that mean? Like? What is your why every day

Jona Flores  7:53  
to get up and be the best version of myself? And that starts at home, you know, that search?

William Huffman  7:57  
Okay, that to somebody who hasn't heard that I was gonna stop there. Because to somebody who hasn't heard somebody talk like that before. It sounds like a load of crap. Like it really like it does come on. If somebody says My goal today is to be the best version of myself, da, that's everybody's goal, right? Like, what is what does that mean? It is sorry to put you on the spot there. Like we didn't rehearse this. But we know we did it. No, not at all. Imagine that. I mean, what does that mean to you, if you can just get a little more granular, as much as you're comfortable sharing?

Jona Flores  8:25  
Yeah. A lot of it? Well, to me, it's hard work. It's hard work. It's discipline. And a lot of it is commitment. And that starts from my personal life down to my clients down to my community. And I've really, I've been super clear on this, especially coming into 2022 If one of those aspects aren't fulfilled, so if I'm not giving back to my community, if I'm not showing up in my personal time, or if I'm not giving the most of my clients, I can't feel like I'm fulfilled no matter what my production is this year. And I felt that, you know, for 2020, during COVID, and during the protesting and the writing, we felt the need to have to give

Sarah Huffman  9:12  
I want to go back to how you got into real estate. Like how did that happen? Where you like growing up and thinking, hey, someday I want to be like a badass real tour. And like, well, I'm yeah, I'm

William Huffman  9:25  
asking you PG. 13 Okay, that's PG 13 Yeah, nothing above the s bomb.

Jona Flores  9:32  
I don't know if my mom is watching. But so cultural expectations. I'm Asian. I grew up in the Philippines. I'm an immigrant. I came here when I was seven. Our culture was very much stick with something safe. And that meant it. That meant nursing. That meant being a doctor. I found out very quickly I couldn't get into the medical field because I faint at the sight of blood. Whether it's my own or somebody else's, so I've never met men, how did you

William Huffman  10:03  
find that out?

Unknown Speaker  10:04  
I don't know.

William Huffman  10:06  
I want to hear that story.

Unknown Speaker  10:09  
But yeah, so culturally,

Sarah Huffman  10:13  
keep going Jonah.

Jona Flores  10:15  
My mom was very, very clear on the fact that we have to go to college. And we have to stay on those paths. My brother is at Iowa State right now, pursuing it. My sister is an RN, and she's in Utah. So they followed, I was the odd one that decided to go into business. And that was very frowned upon.

Sarah Huffman  10:40  
So what kept you going?

Jona Flores  10:44  
To good question. I was really passionate in business. I just understood it. And I knew that my passion was problem solving. It always has been, and that's what real estate is figuring it out. A lot of people have asked me, you know, hey, I'm interested in real estate, what does that look like? And a lot of it is solution, what just identifying the problem and providing solutions. I went to college. And I had to, it's a very difficult time in my life, because I left home very abruptly at this time. And remember, I'm an I'm an immigrant. So I needed a lot of documentation to be able to take out something as easy as a loan. And at that time, it wasn't, I wasn't in the best standing with my family. So I had to,

William Huffman  11:43  
I was gonna say, Tell me more. But nevermind, just keep going.

Jona Flores  11:46  
I had to find a way to go to college. And I had to be very strategic, because every class is very expensive, especially if you're paying out of pocket. And that's exactly what I did. So I was really fortunate to be able to. I started in Greenville. So it's a restaurant down in Lakeville. And I started from the front. And by, I think the six month that I was serving, I wanted to bartending, which provided me the best opportunity financially to go to college. So I would bartend at night, I would do full time schooling. And I started in business management, I realized that it wasn't the best fit for me. So I finished all my courses. And if you know me that you know that this is exactly how I work. I took all the required courses. And then I went into accounting. And I took all the required courses for that. And balance sheets and Ledger's were very, very natural to me. And then I also took all the courses for economics. The only reason why I didn't finish and it is my biggest regret is because I am stubborn, and I didn't see the need to take electives, like art courses or anything that I really can't apply. You know, so if there's anything I wish I would have done, I wish I would have gone back and finished. But I took a lot of a lot of courses I needed to be able to understand the economy and how money works.

William Huffman  13:18  
Awesome. Can everybody hear her Okay, when she's talking? Okay. Otherwise, we can turn it up. When we turn up. I asked this question too. The question was, how many credits do you need? Don't

Unknown Speaker  13:26  
have no idea. Yeah,

William Huffman  13:27  
she's moved on. I think she's doing okay. Yeah. Cool. So you know, you said you're an immigrant. And now, you said, I mean, you couldn't get something as simple as a loan for to go to school. What do you want to share about where you came from how you got here? Or if you don't want to at all, we can just sort of skip that. But if we want to go back that far, I'd be interested to hear more about that.

Sarah Huffman  13:58  
And my question, too, is how old were you when you came to the US? Yeah,

Jona Flores  14:02  
so I grew up in the Philippines. It's a small island, near Asia. I was raised by my grandma. And my grandma was very strict. And I was really fortunate. Because my mom worked super hard to support us from a different country. She came here on a work visa. She was a valedictorian, and she pursued it. She I mean, you know, she was a hard worker. That's where I learned a lot of my work ethic.

Sarah Huffman  14:28  
And so she would send money back to the Philippines. Yes, to put us through

Jona Flores  14:31  
private school, and we had a lot more schooling years required in the Philippines. I'm not sure why. But I did. I was very fortunate to learn English right away when I was younger. So I was fluent in it. As soon as I came to the States. One of the I don't remember much because I was so young. There was one thing that I do remember, and it were it was the the villages. So my grandma's house was a couple blocks So we're from the markets in the villages. And the village, I would walk past anytime I would go to the market. And I remember just seeing these squatter homes. And the structure was built out to be to two to three sheets with one open front, and a thin sheet of metal over the top of it. And the ground was just dirt, like gravel. And I remember walking past this to get to the market. And seeing like children and families, this is where they lived. And sometimes I would when I'm going to the market, I would drop off leftovers, and my grandma would say, Hey, why would you drop by dropping up leftovers? And

Sarah Huffman  15:46  
just for perspective, how old were you at this point,

Jona Flores  15:49  
between five to seven, because I came to America and I was just turning eight. Um, so that was an eye. Everything that I'm going to talk about today really does come into full circle. And this is one of the biggest reasons why community I didn't want to get into it then is so important is when you see something like that it really sticks with you. And homelessness here is different. It's still a very big problem here. But in a different country. That's a whole nother level of homelessness. They don't have shelters there. And it used to flood in the Philippines, it would fly there would be tons of water. And these people had really nowhere to go. There's no shelters out there. It's basically borderline third, third world, in my opinion.

William Huffman  16:39  
Okay, so that's one of your core memories, if we want to put it that way. Um, is that fair to say? Yeah. Okay. So, um, you grew up seeing that that's kind of one of your earliest memories. And then you said, you came here when you were eight? What did that look like?

Jona Flores  16:57  
Yeah, I came here, when I was eight, my mom at the time was just getting married to her now ex husband, and they had my brother Shane. So I was, where were we we had an apartment when we first came here, then my parents bought a home out in Rosemont. And that's where I was raised. So I went to Rosemont High School. Um, I haven't talked about this part out loud. And I've really had to learn to lean into this because it is part of my story, and why I work the way that I do with my clients. And when I was younger, I experienced the form of abuse.

Jona Flores  17:43  
It happened around and develop mentary school going into middle school. And it taught me very quickly how to make difficult decisions being young. Because essentially, when you're forced into this abuse situation, and social services gets involved, what happens is everybody that's involved in there, has their entire world rocked because they take you away, they put you in a facility, my mom had no idea what was happening until she came in the army, police get involved. And essentially what happens is they have to break the family apart. So it's either the the person who abused or the person who is being abused needs to leave. And there's a restriction. So you can't be within X amount of hundreds of feet. Otherwise the police have to come and come get you I'm so very quickly, I had to make the decision of where I was going to spend my time. So I stayed at my mom's house for the majority of the times, except for holidays, or any events where family was supposed to be spending time together. And I made the decision to leave because it was it was hard on my brother and it was hard on my family. And really all we would do is just sit there and talk about what had happened. And at that time, I just wanted it to go away. I mean, I was 910 and you just can't take that away. So I shut down the entire time. I had. And remember I don't have any family here. I have my immediate family.

Sarah Huffman  19:22  
And because grandma's still in the Philippines. Yep.

Jona Flores  19:26  
And then everybody I think was just in shock. I had shut down the entire five years. It was a five year ordeal because I wouldn't talk and I had you know, family members from the other side who were asking me to just not say anything and try to drop the case. And you just can't at that time people are going to ask you questions to clarify what had happened. Ultimately, this was right before the recession happened. And my mom not had not only had to pay for my legal fees to have my lawyer and my treatment. She also had to cover the fees for her ex husband now because that's my brother's dad. And it put us in a really tough position. And then the recession hit in firsthand, I experienced how difficult that was for my mom, because we almost lost our home so that it got a little, dark and deep. But it is one of those pivotal parts in my journey for finding my why. Because back then home was a place I did not feel safe in home was a place I never experienced Christmas Thanksgiving, New Years, I was always removed from my house. So my family could spend holidays together. And my definition of homeless shelter, shelter so I could get dressed, I could eat, leave and go do my fun things with friends or go to work or whatever that looks like. Now it's different, obviously. And it really taught me how to define what home is, you know, experiencing firsthand a place that wasn't home, and being able to build my own now. And really understanding that that is the staple, that's the foundation of a good life. And no pun intended, obviously,

William Huffman  21:28  
it says a good life group.

Jona Flores  21:31  
But now I mean, we just we closed on our house in August. And every day I see it every room, I see it, when we're painting our room, or we're decorating a room, it's it's a mix of our own style, it's something that makes us feel like this is a safe place. And I you couldn't put a number amount on that. For somebody who hasn't been able to experience that until 2425, you really can't put a number on what it feels like to be home.

Sarah Huffman  22:01  
I mean, that is like, that's an incredible reason for your why, and why you're so passionate with how you help others. And just even the way you take the time, like in your profession, to accept people where they're at, like, whatever their situation is, you are a problem solver. And like hearing this story, like I knew you were a hard worker, and I knew you were driven. But when you hear back to like being five years old, seven years old, dropping out food, having a traumatic experience that you had to go through as a young child. How you move out of your we didn't talk talk about that, but how you moved out of your house, you know, abruptly and really learned how to take care of yourself. And now you fast forward to 2022 where you're newly engaged, you have a beautiful like homey home. Like when you when you see their home it is it is

William Huffman  22:58  
it's annoying how cute it is.

Sarah Huffman  23:01  
But it truly is like that is like, as someone who grew up here, that is the American dream. And like I think about all the adversity that you've gone through, and you haven't given up, you just kept going.

Jona Flores  23:16  
Yeah, and that is one of the biggest reasons why I agreed to be here. A lot of times, I think people don't want to talk about the hard things. And for the longest time, I did not want to talk about the hard things. And the more and more that I leaned into hardship and how to overcome hardship. It's really helped me establish like, why I do what I do. And it's helped me understand how to stay focused, and I don't want to say motivated. But how did you be present and how to show up, even when you don't want to?

Sarah Huffman  23:48  
Like when I think of you Jonah, I really think of the word discipline. And sometimes it can just be like, how how does Jonah Why is she so successful? Like, oh, it's just Jonah. Like, that's just how Jonah is. And it's like, no, Jonah is super disciplined. And Jonah is super consistent. And Jonah has amazing follow up and follow through. And

William Huffman  24:09  
in everything, not just in real estate, lead generation and in friendships branch. Yes, absolutely. Your personal life and everything that you've dedicated yourself to. I don't think I've heard a failure come out of you. I think I've just heard of other opportunities to get better. And that's that's a incredible mindset that man, that's just it's a it's a it's a very inspiring thing.

Sarah Huffman  24:33  
So Jonah, we've known you for the last like, five, six years. And there's been incredible growth. Like we just knew you as like professional Jonah, right? Like there's been incredible growth in the last five or six years. What like, what are your goals for like five to six years from now?

Jona Flores  24:53  
That's a good question. Um, the biggest thing that I've found the past two years is Living, I've found a place where I'm very comfortable. Like I've found the minimum of what I need to make to be able to be successful at home. One of the biggest things that I'm working on right now is being present in my personal life. Because a lot of times, I mean, any business owner, whether you're a real estate agent or a lender or small business owner, you take your work with you at home. And I started finding myself taking phone calls not being present. And my partner deserves better than, and she would never tell me that I need to get off my phone or stop working.

Sarah Huffman  25:36  
So let's take a really good Instagram story. Yeah.

William Huffman  25:39  
Oh, yes. Or she'll say somebody has to pay for the house. I work for the government. That's exactly what you guys watching. Yeah, she is. Hi, Hannah.

Sarah Huffman  25:49  
Hannah.

Jona Flores  25:50  
Hi, Hannah. Um, that's one of the biggest things that I've focused on is really, it's wellness. You know, I found myself really sick in 2019 and 18, you guys saw that. And I had overworked myself, like, and I was out for a full month.

William Huffman  26:07  
It was like, it was scary. Like, it was scary. Like, I'm like, go to the hospital right now. Or I am going to physically carry your scrawny ass in there. And I looked at her I could Yeah, if I could catch her,

Jona Flores  26:19  
they couldn't figure out what it was. It was stress. It was a lot of stress and just non stop working. So at the time, my partner was finishing up her Master's. And we used to do work dates. So I would literally go into the office at 9am and leave at one of the nights we left at 11pm. She was studying her for her exam.

William Huffman  26:40  
That was annoyingly cute, too, to say.

Jona Flores  26:44  
And then on top of that, there's always more more to do in real estate. There's just as especially with a growing team. And in I think it was in August in August, I started feeling like a sharp pain on my arm. And I went to the I went to the hospital four or five different times, racked up, like at $20,000 hospital bill total. And they couldn't figure it out. They couldn't figure out if it was a stomach issue.

William Huffman  27:15  
It guy through enrollment, Graves disease and Crohn's like, I

Jona Flores  27:19  
have no idea. I remember, I just kept pumping me with IVs they sent me home. And one of the days I had a really good friend who was looking for a house. So I'm my stubborn self. I'm like, I'm gonna go take you. We went and toured one house, I tried to drink water, and I couldn't keep the water down. And that's when I had called I think I called you and I had to cancel the rest of the tours. Because I couldn't. That's when I knew something was wrong as if you can't keep water down. That's not good. So immediately I went to the hospital and and took me I was there for 48 hours, they still couldn't find anything that was wrong. But all in all, like that was a big wake up moment for me because yes, I want to work. But at the end of the day, if I'm incapacitated, who am I going to be able to help? Nobody. And that's when my gross journey start started, excuse me with fitness and wellness. And Hannah's vegan. So I still eat meat but I'm I'm supportive. So I have taken in a better diet. And we work out pretty often every morning. Can you

Sarah Huffman  28:27  
tell us a little bit about your wellness routine?

Jona Flores  28:32  
Yeah, we work out depending on the classes we go to lifetime. I prefer to start at five but there are no classes that start that early. So 5am

William Huffman  28:42  
Yes. Okay. Just want to make sure I am you guys.

Jona Flores  28:46  
545 we have yoga courses. So yoga is actually been something that I've instilled in my daily practice because it it helps you slow down. It increases blood flow and circulation and it helps you be mindful because after you do all this work, you have something called is it vinyasa? Well, I swear I do shavasana guys swear I do yoga. I don't know why I blanked out but it's like the past five to 10 minutes the the last five to 10 minutes you take the time to really be grateful for your body for doing all the work that you just did. That was a great thing that we've gone into. I also do yoga sculpt, which is weightlifting, yoga, that's

William Huffman  29:32  
Inkster yoga. Oh holy buckets.

Jona Flores  29:37  
45 minutes with weights, lots of cardio. And the best part is this is how actually how Hannah and I had grown the foundation of our relationship is she was also in her best version of herself working out doing the same exact practices that I was doing so we just brought them together. So instead of her going to yoga courses we would mesh are scheduled to go Do yoga together. So we work together, we worked out together. And it worked out really well for both of us, because on the days that I don't want to go, she would want to go and I'm very competitive. So I would race to go out to beat her. And vice versa on the days that, you know, she doesn't want to go, I'm telling her, I'm out the door, and she's racing to come beat me out the door.

William Huffman  30:22  
So what I hear there is even you, this rockstar of a person who holds themselves to a very high standard and schedule, still sometimes need that outside accountability person.

Jona Flores  30:34  
Absolutely. It's not easy. It's snowing outside, nobody wants to go because I don't have auto start my car, because they haven't came out with a model for it yet. But anyways, so it's really hard when it's negative five to go outside and then have to go work out for 45 minutes. The workout was really helpful, we took it the next level up. And I found like when we went to Mexico, they had us do a therapy treatment, and it involved the sauna and a hot tub. So in my mind, I'm like, Okay, let's instill that in our practice. So we worked out then we went to the sauna. And now we're doing like cold water therapy, which is it's not a dunk for like a tub, we're just doing a cold shower, basically, because they don't have a tub with cold water in it at lifetime. But that's one of the newest things that we've tried out and it really shocks your body into. I don't know how to explain it. It reduces inflammation it does, it shocks your body until like, down to your mental awareness down to your physical ability. It does reduce inflammation quite a bit. So

William Huffman  31:45  
So you went from literally killing yourself with stress to your stressing me out with cold showers. Anybody else want to take a cold? Not with me. Don't make it weird, right? But that's okay. I say that to be kind of funny. But to be serious, is 2018. You were I mean, not exaggerating, working yourself to death like you were not doing well. It was a very scary time to now you're up here telling me to take a cold shower, like a lot happened in there. And that's just a really cool jump that you've made. Without any hard work dedication at all right? Yeah, no.

Sarah Huffman  32:25  
So Jonah, you know, I said that you're one of the most disciplined people that I know. How, what do you do for fun? And how do you schedule fun I read.

William Huffman  32:34  
That was huge for that really quick? Yeah, I

Jona Flores  32:36  
guess I'm actually had to stop and think about what I do for fun. It got like this past is the real answer. I literally was like, Okay, well working out is fun. But is it actually fun? Or am I just doing it for wellness, it came down to it that it was a little bit of both. I started therapy this year just to unwind on somebody else's side for my fiancee because she's driving her insane. So one of the biggest things they had said was, you know, what do you do for self care? And I did not know how to answer that. And it was like a very earth shattering moment for me to sit there and say, Wow, you don't know what you do for fun. And I had to go back to actually doing activities to figure out what I found was fun. One of them is hockey. I love wild hockey. Massive hockey fan. Yep. And I don't know how I forgot, but I did.

Sarah Huffman  33:28  
If you ever want to see Jonah light up, talk about the wild.

William Huffman  33:32  
Yeah. I mean, you didn't you I mean, when we first met you, that was a huge passion. And then for a couple of years there, I didn't hear you talk about them. And imagine that that's when you were finding yourself in the hospital. And now for the last six to eight months. We've been hearing about a lot more you've been going to some more games and that's really cool.

Jona Flores  33:48  
Yeah. That reading and nature, we've found that nature has been really helpful. So what

William Huffman  33:56  
do you mean like going to a zoo? That's nature, right?

Sarah Huffman  34:02  
Yeah, hiking,

William Huffman  34:03  
camping. Okay.

Jona Flores  34:04  
Um, vacations growing up. When I was super young my mom took me to Disney World when we first got here and Orlando studios. It was great but they never helps me. Appreciate like just normal things that you don't really have to pay for. Hannah brought me camping on one of our first trips and I thought I was gonna hate it. And I did for a couple of days. His you I mean it's primitive. I guess you don't have to. You don't shower or anything for a couple of days.

William Huffman  34:37  
Well, can you keep boys life

Jona Flores  34:38  
put your own tent out but it was but I actually ended up really enjoying not being available. kids hear you have to be on 24 hours, seven days a week. And you really do have to Yeah, otherwise. I don't know. It's on your phone. It's on your soul. So I have clients who message me and there's nothing wrong with it. But it's hard to get away from work. So I've found that the best way to get away from work is to really die get away from work. Yeah, to where you can't get any service.

William Huffman  35:15  
I would also like to point out that sometimes your version of camping is what's known as glamping. And Instagram the hell out of it. I'm here today to ask that you had some short pain on your left arm there. Did that eventually go away?

Jona Flores  35:28  
Yeah, it happened a couple of times, and it would numb my arm so that I had to go in and do a EKGs every time I went into the hospital, um, a lot of it, I think was related to stomach issues. Because your stomach is the central of everything. And after I started doing a more healthy diet, cutting out dairy, being a lot more disciplined in how I eat, and I'm not sit down and eat a big meal person. I'm very much like a snack or I have to eat seven times throughout the day. Otherwise, I'll get to fall

William Huffman  35:59  
out three pounds of peanut m&ms And like 24 hours, though.

Unknown Speaker  36:02  
But yeah, I

Sarah Huffman  36:03  
want to share all this. Oh,

William Huffman  36:05  
I got some. I'm You're welcome, Hannah.

Jona Flores  36:08  
It just made my arm numb for a little bit. And I don't think it really came down to anything heart related. But a lot of it was stress induced. And I think it was a stomach issue. But I'm not sure. I'm not a doctor.

William Huffman  36:25  
So the question was, after you workout journal, what's the rest of your daily routine? What's your day look like

Jona Flores  36:29  
Monday to Friday or weekends. Okay. Monday through Friday, I'm disciplined to be in the office. And I don't know if a lot of people know this. But I work weekends for tours. And I'm in the office Monday to Friday. So we'll go workout Monday courses 545. I don't do amp. AMP is like cycling. Hannah does amp so we actually break apart in the morning, and I'll go run. So I'll go run for about 45 minutes, we'll do the sauna, Cold Shower therapy. I have an eight o'clock call with a team, where we talked about how our weekend was it's about a 15 minute call. I'm typically getting ready to go to the office. By that time. I'd like to say you have my full attention the full 15 minutes. Typically I'm doing

William Huffman  37:15  
my own work getting ready. Don't let me

Sarah Huffman  37:17  
know Jonah, it's okay. I'll

Jona Flores  37:18  
be in the office by 830 to nine I used to have accountability meetings at 830. But that is my commitment is before nine o'clock. Team meeting 10 to noon. That's adjusted. Now this is our first month we haven't had a team meeting on Mondays. And then I do client follow up. i The client follow up involves a lot of offer reviews. So I can teach my clients you know what we're experiencing what they're experiencing on their level. So that way we can hopefully win if we didn't win an offer. And then I do a lot of team work. So if somebody has a question about offer reviews, I'm available for the team. And that's why I show up in the office. What when you do your circle prospecting, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays typically from noon to two o'clock, I took on a coach on Tuesdays, so I'm unavailable for her between 130 and 230. And then we do call nights five o'clock to seven on Wednesdays. So I dedicate at least one night a week. It used to be Tuesdays to call at night. And one of the biggest things I love about our team is we train how to do this. A lot of times there are teams who purchase leads, we've found that it wasn't what was most effective for us. And it it's just based on our culture. So

William Huffman  38:44  
yeah, sorry to cut you off, but I did anyways. So how many hours a week do you say you're in the office?

Sarah Huffman  38:52  
We should get two answers. Jonah's answer and then Hannah's answer Hannah's answer.

Jona Flores  38:57  
That's a good question. Um, at least nine o'clock to four. That's not including the late days. And I'll have at least two of those one or two of those a week.

William Huffman  39:05  
So you're in the office between 30 and 45 hours a week. And then your tours on top of that.

Jona Flores  39:09  
That's right. Yeah, yeah. It's about 60 hours a week total with tours.

William Huffman  39:14  
Yep. But it's a very manageable very scheduled out very routine. 60 hours. So it doesn't feel ridiculous. Yes, sir. Correct. That's correct. Jake, what do you what are your 2022 goals? Are we talking financially? Are we are we talking like so why don't you give the real estate answer and the personal Oh, and the personal life when the personal pologize for my outburst?

Jona Flores  39:41  
I found my comfort zone for the life that we want to live in the production I did last year. So that's what I'm looking to do is duplicate that.

William Huffman  39:52  
So roughly 10 million in volume, right. A little bit over that with Referrals Out of state but yes, okay.

Jona Flores  39:59  
My coach might be disappointed in hearing, I wasn't going to shoot for more. Ultimately, if I could do just as much as I did last year and be more present at home, that's what's most important to me. Yeah, so my biggest thing, the most important thing to me is being able to shut off work when I get home. And that's a challenge. I'm sure for a lot of you in this room and everybody that's watching. But my biggest goal is being present at home, and working and actually working when I'm in the office so I can shut it off.

William Huffman  40:34  
How can you be more? Because when we say 60 hours a week, somebody who's not an entrepreneur, solopreneur, business owner, whatever. They're thinking, Oh, I work my 40 hours, I punch a clock and I'm done. Right? You're up here telling us that you're living this fantastic life. But you're getting up at 5am to be at the gym, which I love. Somebody was on horrible. I hated actually, I hate being up that early. But how can you on one sentence say I want to be more present at home and very one report, say I'm working 60 hours a week. Like, I know how you do it. But that's what a skeptic is going to ask.

Jona Flores  41:08  
Well, we sleep at nine o'clock at night, eight o'clock. We're literally asleep by that time. So it really maximizes our day, the next morning. So even your sleep schedule is routine. Pretty pretty routine, unless I'm having an off day where I'm super stressed. But yeah, if you ask Hannah, we're in bed by like eight. And all of her friends are like, why what? And I'm I mean, she's 28? I'm 30. We're both fairly young. What was your question?

William Huffman  41:35  
You're doing? So like, so you know, you're doing your 35 to 40 hours a week in the office? Yeah. And then you're doing tours typically on weekends? You know, the 60 hours is more in peak season. So like, how do you manage that on weekends? And how do you manage date nights? And how do you manage that personal life still

Jona Flores  41:55  
a big part of it as my partner, we've had a very clear understanding of how, how successful I want to be in my career. And it really starts at home. And if your partner there's not see in line with that, or they're not willing to support that, it's going to be a big push and pull. And I've gotten through that previously, in my other relationships. She is one of the biggest reasons why I can do what I do at such a high level and be present is because she's taking care of things at home. And at work, one of the biggest things I've dedicated to is discipline, I have my top five priority items that I need to focus on in order to feel accomplished. And that includes prospecting that includes talking to a number amount number of people that aren't doing business with me to continue to expand my business. And the reason why I've been so heavy on prospecting, even at the stage that I'm in right now, is because I want to have the freedom to choose my clients and your five, being able to honestly set expectations and I don't want to say refuse, but suggest a client to go somewhere else or work with somebody else. Because we may not be good fit has been one of the best things for me personally, cuz some people you just don't mesh with. And the freedom that I've gotten from the hard work is well worth, you know, is well worth all the time that I had to dedicate to training and press.

William Huffman  43:26  
So it sounds like you work with the people you want to work with. Not everybody because you have to.

Unknown Speaker  43:33  
I'm striving Yes, I'm striving to that point. I really am.

William Huffman  43:38  
That's that's a pretty amazing place to be. We've been there for a couple of years. And it truly does make the the the time and effort you put in more effortless and seem like they do something where you lose track of time. And when you're working with the right client, you're losing track of time because it's so wonderful.

Jona Flores  43:56  
Yeah. And you bring that home with you. You really do

William Huffman  43:59  
not pissed off that you deal with an asshole all day you're actually at home and having a good time.

Unknown Speaker  44:03  
That's exactly right. Yes.

Sarah Huffman  44:05  
What it really like comes from that abundance mindset that there is enough business for everyone. And you're going to be matched with the people that are best matched for you. That's correct.

William Huffman  44:14  
Awesome. All right. Well, it has been 45

Sarah Huffman  44:16  
minutes do you have and I would love to open it up for questions. I

William Huffman  44:19  
was gonna say if there's anything else that wasn't see it's gonna be any questions

William Huffman  44:27  
the question was, uh, you read a lot. So what are you reading for fun for business? What books you recommend? I

Jona Flores  44:33  
should have answered this with her question about my routine. I start the morning with self care books. Mel Robbins is my favorite Brene Brown I've just started going into and a lot of that is it keeps you mindful. It keeps you aware. And in situations where we're managing emotions for people, it's really easy to forget where they come from, the place that they're coming from. So Oh, Mel Robbins is great. She has this thing called a book called The High Five habit. And a lot of these books I will audible over and over again. If I liked the book, I'll buy the book and highlight it through. Podcasts is another one. We can do hard things by Glenn and Doyle is a really good one. For on my way to the office, I listen to prospecting because I have my I have to get in the right mindset to be able to get more business.

William Huffman  45:31  
Sounds like a pretty solid routine like yeah, what prospecting who you listening to ferry,

Jona Flores  45:37  
I do Tom Ferry for market updates. So I do housing updates once a week, David arbit when he has his sessions, I'm always on those sessions. If he's watching, he is my man crush.

William Huffman  45:47  
Oh, yeah, he's mine to

Jona Flores  45:50  
you, David. Understanding the state of the market has been really helpful for me as a newer agent. Glover, you, they've came out with a few new segments about understanding personality styles for clients. The reason why that's important is you want to meet your client where they're at. And a lot of times people want to have them come to you. And that's not customer service. Customer service is coming is meeting your client where you need to be at. So that's a lot of my practice has been personality styles and understanding how to speak to the right people.

William Huffman  46:23  
What about for fun? Oh, see? Yeah, you push her a little bit.

Jona Flores  46:29  
We What was that series called? If Hannah's watching. It's called The Secret Place

Sarah Huffman  46:36  
where they're like, Thriller podcasts.

Jona Flores  46:40  
Books. Yeah. And a lot of them are about murder. So I don't I don't think it's I wouldn't say it's fun, per se, but we've read them together. So well. Like

Sarah Huffman  46:50  
didn't she take you to those campsite?

William Huffman  46:53  
Why? Tell me more? What

Jona Flores  46:55  
we went to California, and she thought it would be funny to listen to Audible books about people getting killed in the areas we were staying at.

William Huffman  47:05  
What? Yeah, like no.

Jona Flores  47:08  
And then we started listening to crime podcasts in the same area that we were in when she's camping. She's camping, like a crazy person. Like,

William Huffman  47:18  
your marriage sounds really crazy. All of a sudden,

Jona Flores  47:21  
one of the camping trips we went to had no address. It was literally like a GPS coordination in the middle of nowhere, and then we popped a tire. That's right in the jeep. In the jeep and Arizona. That was awesome. And she thought it would be funny to listen to the morbid podcast about somebody getting murdered while they were camping. While our tire was deflated, and there was nobody around us. So I mean, that sounds fine. I slept with a kitchen knife.

William Huffman  47:51  
Sarah, you hate any man has a tail. That's not a dog. You're not a camper. But I mean, it's good question. That's good question. Any other questions? This is a real estate question. What type of prospecting you're doing? Are you focusing on listings? Or give the like the three minute version? Cuz we could ramble on this for hours?

Jona Flores  48:12  
I, yeah. Since I've been in business, it's always been a shortage of inventory. So identifying that problem in providing the solution, we can have all the buyers that we want. But if we're not bringing listings on to the market, that's the problem. So I prospect for listings, and I've grown my business with circle prospecting. And the reason why I found that was because we do a really good job with all of our listings, and why wouldn't they want to talk to us and being able to know that you are doing everything you can and getting the highest dollar amount will give you the confidence to speak with any neighbor. And at the end of the day, they want to talk to you too, because you just sold their their their neighbor's house for higher than anything else that's ever sold their circle prospecting has been the best avenue for me. I've built a lot of relationships. I've met a lot of people in person, a lot of times I'll have to go pick up the lockbox or the side panel. I'm five foot, I'm small. So if I approach somebody, I'm either selling cookies, or I am, you know, selling real estate, nobody ever gets startled when I approached them. So I've actually found a lot of people. I just closed on one in November. For a teacher that I had found she was reading a Rachel Hollis book, I used to read Rachel Hollis, I approached her introduced myself she contacted me when she was ready to leave her Townhome. So building relationships, and a lot of them take some time. But so

William Huffman  49:39  
are you just fearless or are your goals just more important than being afraid to do something?

Jona Flores  49:46  
My goals are more important than I know that I can do. I know that my work ethic will be the best for that client. And I know that I know that if they need me to talk them through something late at night. I'm there And I know that if they need help, they can ask me. And if I can't do it, I'll go find the solution. So at the end of the day, one of the biggest things that's most important to me is putting forth that work ethic because I, I personally know, I'm the best solution for them.

William Huffman  50:16  
Yes, that's very true. All right. Anything else?

Sarah Huffman  50:22  
I was just gonna wrap it up with or do you have more to say, okay, is like Jonah you are? Like, I don't want to say small but like, literally, like small but mighty. And it anyways, you learned I am gonna say it because like, I think the first impression can be like, Oh, that's shown me. You know, maybe she's weak or small or whatever. But like, if you really get to know Jonah, like you are a warrior inside and I really think hearing your story today.

William Huffman  50:53  
Yeah, and she has a mean chest bump on the golf course. Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  50:56  
So like, keep doing you. It's working. We're so excited for you and Hannah. The balance that you bring to each other's life. And it is mutual. It you see it both ways, is just phenomenal. And if you ever want to go out to dinner with Jonah, you email, Hannah. Like, there are Jonah hacks. There they are.

William Huffman  51:17  
What? Oh, yeah, it's not Hannah's number. Oh, no.

Sarah Huffman  51:21  
Jonah hacks like that. That could be our next Tiktok or something like Jonah hacks. But we really appreciate you like sharing with us today. We appreciate you being vulnerable. And not only sharing with this room, but also our live audience. And honestly, like the sky is truly the limit because wherever you decide to go, you're gonna, you're gonna get there and you'll

William Huffman  51:41  
be well dressed when you get there. Thank you, as always. Well,

Unknown Speaker  51:44  
thank you, everybody, for coming.

William Huffman  51:46  
All right. We love you very much. Everybody give Georgia round of applause.

Accouncer  51:51  
tune in each week. For more in depth conversations about life behind the highlight reel. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform to make sure you never miss an episode. For today's show notes head over to lb thr.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai