Be the Solution with Maria Quattrone

Referrals Made Simple: How Janis Benstock Is Reinventing Agent-to-Agent Referrals in Real Estate

• Maria Quattrone • Season 1 • Episode 359

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In this episode of the Be The Solution Podcast, host Maria Quattrone sits down with longtime friend, real estate educator, and broker Janis Benstock to unpack a revolutionary new concept in real estate: Agent4Agent, a platform designed to make referrals simple, transparent, and relationship-driven.

After decades in real estate and countless referral experiences that relied on spreadsheets, hope, and follow-up texts, Janis identified a massive industry problem: agents give referrals every day, yet have no reliable way to track them, monitor progress, or ensure accountability.

This episode is a deep conversation about:

  • Why referrals are broken in real estate
  • How Agent for Agent solves the problem
  • Why relationships—not big tech—should control referrals
  • The role of white space, intuition, and courage in innovation
  • How agents can grow without burnout or hustle culture

If you’re a real estate agent, broker, team leader, or coach, this episode will fundamentally change how you think about referrals, technology, and growth. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Why Real Estate Referrals Are Broken
  • What “Agent for Agent” Is
  • Why This Platform Is Built By Agents, For Agents
  • The Optional CRM (Without the Overwhelm)
  • Why White Space Creates the Best Ideas
  • Fearless Execution Over Perfect Planning

Best Quotes 

Janis Benstock:

“Real estate is a relationship business—and we should be doing business with each other, not big tech.”


Maria Quattrone:

“We are not climbing the mountain—we are the mountain.”


Guest InformationJanis Benstock
Founder — Agent4Agent

https://agent4agent.net/registration?am_id=janis222
 📍 Philadelphia Metro

Connect with Maria Quattrone:
Facebook: Maria Quattrone
LinkedIn: Maria Quattrone
YouTube: Maria Quattrone
Instagram: @maria_quattrone
TikTok: mariaquattronerealestate
Website: MQrealesate.com
Office number: 215- 607-3535

Maria Quattrone:

Thank you for returning to the show, Janice, on the Be the Solution podcast. Everybody, thanks for tuning in and listening today. Today is going to be a real treat because Janice, uh a dear friend of mine here in the Philadelphia market, and been in real estate for over two decades, and she is a great, great woman with lots of great ideas. So she's got something she wants to unleash to the world, and we're gonna unpack it today. Welcome, Janice.

Janis Benstock:

Hello, good morning. I'm when you say unleash, I'm like, that's what it feels like. It's like all this energy, and I just want to let it out.

Maria Quattrone:

Yes. So so we were talking behind the scenes, and you mentioned agent for agent.

Janis Benstock:

Okay.

Maria Quattrone:

What?

Janis Benstock:

Okay. First, I have to tell you the backstory because there's always a backstory. Let's do it. All right. A couple of years ago, I was sitting on my computer and a Facebook message popped up. And it was one of my kids old, sorry, all of a sudden. Thank God for editing. Oh, it was one of my kids' old preschool teachers. My kids are in their 20s now. And she was asking me real estate advice for her boss. And it was up in North Jersey. And you know, you get that feeling like you want to help people, but you're in the middle of doing stuff, and then people are asking you for advice for free. And you're like, oh, and you know, you're back and forth between I want to help and I should be paid. So I ended up deciding I'm just going to talk to her. I'm going to give her advice because I'm a good human. And the next thing you know, I realized there's a referral opportunity for a multi-million dollar listing. And I'm licensed in New Jersey, but this is all the way up North Jersey. And it just makes no sense. I can't serve the client by, you know, I don't know that I can't. So I decide to refer it out. And I posted somewhere in a Facebook group, probably Lab Code agents, I don't remember. And it was amazing because I got like 70 people flooding this. Like, I'll take it, I'll take it. And it's so overwhelming. On the one hand, it's good because you have all these agents, but on the other hand, it's like, how the hell do you manage and sift through and figure out? Because this is a big deal. And we not only want to serve the client, but we want to close. So I went through and I couldn't get through them all. I went through a few of them and I picked one and I just sort of hoped for the best. She seemed great and I hope for the best. And she was great. And she stuck with it. And, you know, and a spoiler alert, it closed almost two years later. She renewed the contract. They had to do price reductions, but I still got a nice big fat check in the mail. And during the process, she was pretty responsive. But there were times when I'm like, what's going on? What's going on? And it's a different MLS. So I couldn't stalk the MLS and see what was going on. Like, what's going on? What's going on? And I felt like a big pest texting her, but it's like, what's going on? So I had the seed planted in my head at that time that referrals should be easier. They just should be easier because there is so much business that agents do with each other already. And we should be doing business with each other instead of big tech platforms. That's my personal opinion. And so I thought there's got to be a better way. And the seed was planted in my head. And then one day I came up with the idea, but it took me two years to bring it to life. And now it's here and it's called agent for agent. And I'm so freaking excited about it because also the story of how we built it, but that's that's another story. So when I say I we built, I came up with the real estate idea and I have a tech partner who does all the tech. So I'm not taking credit for any of the tech. She does all the tech, I do zero of the tech. So make sure that when we say we, we're giving some credit to Simone. That's her name. So we came up with a platform where it's gonna be like a dating site for agents where you have a profile and people can scroll through your profile and see who you are and what you're about. But it's not for dating. Well, you do you. It's not for dating, it's for agent-to-agent referrals. And so when you join the platform, which it's free to join, there is a fee, but we'll talk about that in a minute. You join the platform, it's totally free to join. You fill out your profile, and then you show up as an available agent to accept referrals. And so if you have a referral that you have to send me, I'm in Florida now, right? So imagine I lived in Florida and you wanted to send me a referral, you wanted to send a referral to Florida, you go on the app and you scroll through and you're like, oh, who's this Janice chick? And you start reading, you're like, oh, I like her. You can message me, you can talk to me, and then when you decide you want to refer to me, we do everything through the system. And the coolest part is that not only is it easy to find the agent, but the client becomes a contact, like a like a CRM that we share. And I will see every step of the way when you do things, when you go under contract with them, when you write an offer with them, when you get accepted, when you go to closing. And I will be able to see all of that so that I don't have to stalk you and find out what's going on. And the system scores you based on your behaviors and your closing rate, so that when future agents, I'm sorry, scores me, I'm the one that you refer to, scores me. And so when future agents are looking to refer to Florida, they're not just gonna see my profile, but they're gonna see my score that I earned by actually closing deals and reaching out to the client. And then when it closes, you pay the platform a fee, flat fee, and that's it. And it's totally free to join, and it is gonna be revolutionary, and I'm so excited about it. So it's a CRM. So we have a CRM attached to it that you can that you can purchase. It's based on Go High Level, that's our platform. And then we've white labeled it so that it's specific to real estate, and we're offering that at a very, very, very low special founder's rate that we're not even allowed to promote publicly because it's below what we're allowed to advertise since it's go high level, but it's a very low price. You can have the CRM, but you don't need it. And the CRM is pretty fantastic too. But I'm not even out promoting that yet because I'm just so excited about the platform for agent for agent. So everything that's happening in the transaction is in there. Everything. Yeah, no, you don't, it's not transaction management. You're gonna use your office transaction management for that, but this is where it's like when you're in your CRM and you're reaching out to your client, it shows you talk to them, you emailed them. Absolutely. Yeah, so that kind of thing. So what if somebody already has follow-up boss? How does it work? If they have follow-up os, then they can just use this separately and eventually we're gonna have API where we'll be able to hopefully integrate into other systems, but we're not there yet. So at this point, so this is why we did the CRM also, is because some people and we are not follow-up boss, and I have my own things to say. We know. Are you still with them? Didn't you switch? I will be soon, right? We had this conversation a long time ago, so and I was resisted because I have 67,000 people in there, right? And it's a pain in the ass to move CRMs, it totally is. I get that. So we created a CRM, but we're not pushing people, you don't have to move. The reason why people would join our CRM is first of all, it's a really great CRM if you've ever used Go High Level.

Maria Quattrone:

I have, and yes, they have wonderful things in there if you can figure out how to do it.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah, well, that's one of the things too, is as we all know, and anyone who's watching doesn't know, I'm also an instructor. So one of the things that I'm pretty good at is explaining things. And so we are going to with the CRM hold sessions that I will explain the why to use certain features, and Simone will explain the how. Because as far as as far as my experience goes with CRMs over the years, there are so many features and it's overwhelming. And when I switched from Follow Up OS, I went to Lofty, and I I actually liked Follow Up OS better than Lofty. Sorry to say because I know you're switching to Lofty, but one of the things that I didn't like about Lofty was there were things all over the place. There was too much. They they have training videos on how to use it, but there wasn't, they didn't bridge the gap about why. And so so many of those features I didn't use, and my agents who are newer used even less of those features because they didn't know where to start. So we're going to be doing live training sessions. You also get the recording, but live so that people can ask questions where we'll talk about a certain thing. Like, for example, Simone was showing me the other day about how on social media with our system, with our CRM, you can not only post, schedule your social media posts, but you can also do that automation where if somebody comments on your Instagram in your comments, you can DM them your lead magnet. And I was like, I didn't know we could do that. That's so cool. So now we're gonna do a session where I'm gonna explain to agents why you would do that, how that could build your business, and then Simone will show how to actually use the system. And we're hoping that it's gonna bridge that implementation gap so that people can start picking, choosing, and using all the bells and whistles that fit their business so they can actually move the needle. Because the thing is, what's the saying in the industry is the best CRM is the one you use. Correct. Right, and you use yours, but I'm sure there's tons of features in there that you don't even know about because you're so busy doing what you're doing, but it could end up automating or growing your business if you knew about them, right? I'm sure, Jenny.

Maria Quattrone:

Yes, I'm sure. Because tech is not my number one skill.

Janis Benstock:

Right. And the thing is also the whole point about tech is it's supposed to be there to support you, not to be some other full-time job that you need to master. And that's and that's why the thing with my with Simone and me is Simone and me, not Simone and I. The thing with Simone and me is that we were like a perfect synergy because she does all the tech side, and I do it. She doesn't know much about the real estate business. I don't know much about tech. So between the two of us, it's like magic. So you have a whole human now. We have a whole human now. I love the way you put that. We have a whole human, and the way I met her, wait, the way I met her is so beyond phenomenal. It's she she actually, I don't know, I lose track of time months, months ago, a year ago. She was she's a go high level expert and other tech, like, but she's a go high level expert, and she was researching to see if she wanted to create a white-labeled version of Go High Level for real estate agents. And so she randomly found me on Facebook, amongst others, and she asked me if I would meet with her and talk to her. And again, I was like, people want to talk to me for free, but and I didn't anyway because I felt a pull. And so we got on this meeting and she's pulling up her screen and she's she's not really telling me what she's asking. She's just asking me questions. And I see her screen and I recognize high level because I use it for my school. I use it for J Brea. And so after she's talking, I'm like, is that go high level? And she said, Yes. And I said, Are you trying to white label it for real estate agents? And she said, Yes. And I said, then just ask me. I'll tell you like everything that you need to know. And so I started telling her all this stuff, and she she was like mind blown. And so then I said to her, I would love to switch, but I just don't have it in me right now to switch my brokerage to go high level. So maybe someday in the future. And I didn't think about it. And then one day I was walking on the beach not too long ago, and all of a sudden I just had this epiphany. And I said, Simone can build out agent for agent. It didn't have a name then. The name, the working title was refer me. That's what I called it for the last couple of years. And I had tried, I'd actually hired a web des uh web developer and another person, and we would meet and meet, and we had like NDA signed and all this stuff. But they I would sit across the table from them and I would tell them, and they're just like, Oh, so you want to get more students for your school? I'm like, no, you want to sell a house? No, like they weren't getting the concept, so I couldn't work with them. I talked to someone else who actually is in the tech business and he wasn't getting it. So I thought this was never gonna happen. And then I had this epiphany. I'm like, call Simone. So I got home and I messaged her and I said, Let's jump on a call. And within 10 minutes, I asked her if she wanted to be partners, like, not even I want to hire you to do this, like partners. And we are partners and we built this business together. And it's the like the best. And she's out of state, and her birthday was two weeks ago, and I drove down and I met her and all her people and in person. And like, it's just the coolest thing when you use the internet in ways to actually connect with other humans. I love that.

Maria Quattrone:

Oh, I love that. That's awesome. Where is she out of? She's DC. Oh, in DC.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maria Quattrone:

Oh, so she's local, like local ish. I could drive not over the pond, not over the pond, same time zone. Awesome. So agent for agent, agent for agent. So agents are gonna use this for the referrals, and now they can't have a CRM that's all part of the program. And how are you? I mean, how when were you launch it?

Janis Benstock:

So it's we're in on a wait list right now, and January 29th, which is next week, we're doing a webinar for everyone who's on the wait list. And you can sign up for the webinar so you can learn about the system. And then if you if you can't make it, you can get the recording. And then we're gonna be launching probably a couple of weeks after that. We have some finishing touches to put on, and we want to get more people from across the country because, in order, and it it will grow, you know, we don't have to wait to launch until we get more people, but we want to get more people across the country because if you don't have anyone to refer to, it doesn't make any sense. But one thing that I want to talk about that just came up in my mind when you were asking me this is something that's really important about this for me. And for those of you who don't know me, you're gonna get to know me right now. I am a 100% firm believer that real estate is a relationship-based business and that we as agents have value, and that value is no longer in data because the internet exists, but our relationship and our value, I mean, our value is something different. Each one of us has some sort of different value proposition, but it's the relationships that are at the core of it all, and because of that, I have decided that we are not doing any kind of advertising to promote this. So instead, what we're doing is we're doing affiliates because I want agents who use the system to not only share the word and spread the word, but I want them to profit from it rather than meta. So, what we're doing is anyone who joins the CRM, we're gonna have two tiers, like a base one. And when I tell you it's cheap, like I we made it so inexpensive on purpose because there's no reason that these people have to bleed us dry as agent. I'm an agent first, even though I own this platform. Uh it's that's why it's called agent for agent. Like at heart, I'm an agent. I built this for agents. And so rather than bleeding everyone dry, we want the tool to be there for something to actually help you build your business without this huge expense hanging over your head every month. And we want you to be able to make money from it by spreading the word. You use it, you love it, you spread the word. So if you're on the plus plan, you're an automatically become an affiliate, which means if you share and anyone joins, you get 25% of their monthly fees so long as you're a member of the platform. That's it. And so we're spending our money there rather than putting ads that are gonna make Meta rich. So it's everything about it is by agents and for agents. I love that.

Maria Quattrone:

That's a great business uh plan because affiliate. I mean, there's lots of people build mega million dollar companies by affiliate marketing.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah, but we're not just doing, and I agree, but but this is this is more than a business strategy, this is a value because only people who are using the system are going to be able to come affiliates. Like we were looking up stuff, and you can hire affiliates, you can put it on a website and you can put it on there, and people that are professional affiliate marketers can just jump on and become an affiliate and blow up your business, but we don't want to do that, and yeah, but this is why I'm saying also when it launches, it the map might be small because it's organic, but then it's gonna spread because when people start to use this, because every single person that I've told about it so far is like, oh my god, that's like a billion-dollar idea. Why didn't anyone think of this first? And I'm like, I don't know, but that's that's another thing is how many times do we think of something and we're afraid to do it because we're like, oh, somebody else, if nobody else did it before, then maybe it's not worth it. But if we take that leap, if we be the solution, I thought about that when I was coming on today because I'm like, that's a perfect, that is a perfect tagline for agent for agent. I'm not going to use it, but I'm just saying to describe because I saw a problem and I and it was bothering me. And then I came up with something that is the solution.

Maria Quattrone:

Right. Literally solves the problem. That's what the whole premise of be the solution is, is like it's about radical accountability for your life and you being the architect of it.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah.

Maria Quattrone:

And solving the problems, because we all have the answers to the problem. Well, not every problem, but you know what I'm saying. Like, if you want to find a way, you'll find a way to make something happen. You'll find the solution. So it's either like we make excuses or we find solutions. So and I agree with what you said, because there's so many things out there, and it's like, you know, that's why this year my word my word of the year is fearless. Feel the fear do it anyway. Because you have I have ideas, I have things that I wanted to launch, and then you're like, oh well, yeah, you know, uh, you start to think small. And that's like our excuse me, our brain, what's between our ears, is the most expensive real estate in the world. And so we are are either our own worst enemy or our biggest supporter, and we have to be our biggest supporter more than our own worst enemy, and that's just humans in general, you know, nothing about real estate, but totally and it's all about you know what's your what are your dreams? And you had a dream, came up with this idea because it was a solution to a problem in the industry. You give a referral, and you first of all, what about when you're never hear back from the people?

Janis Benstock:

Right. And what about you give out all these referrals and then you have to find some way to some system to track them, and then it's just another. thing to do on your to-do list.

Maria Quattrone:

And you have girls I gave out that I never even saw a check for.

Janis Benstock:

Right. And you'd like, and then someday you're like, oh, I wonder what happened to them. And I know some people they keep spreadsheets and then, you know, I've talked because I did a bit of research. I was doing this anyway. And I realized there are alternatives out there. You know, there's certain companies that are national and they have their own internal internal referral networks. And so those agents are probably going to be limited on my platform. They're probably not because they have their own, but they they can come on the platform and get get referrals from outside companies. So I realize it's not going to be every single agent in the entire country. But even the people that I talk to that are doing these manual ways to track the referrals, there's no like one central database. And we this is why we are offering the CRM along with it. We weren't planning on doing that. But we offered the CRM along with it just because I said during and I'm like I'm I don't the the only resistance that I have and I'm the founder is I don't want another thing to log into. So for me if it's all integrated because we're integrating it with our own CRM that solves that problem. But I want to go back to what you were saying about being fearless and you have these big ideas. And then this to me it was similar because I had this big idea but part of what helped me back in the beginning was I thought it had to be huge. Like I thought and I don't want to say thought but it's a limiting belief like you know I need venture capital or I need all this high tech or all these things to to start it off and I'm not a tech person. I'm I'm in real estate. And then when something hit and I met Simone and it it was like the universe just came down and was like oh no the answer is right here. And you know I realized and I know this intellectually but sometimes we just don't we don't feel it I don't have to do it the way everyone else does it. Right? We don't have to necessarily start with venture capital or height or you know all this money. You can if you have an idea and it's a real idea and you're led by this thing and my saying is be led by something greater than money and the money will follow like if you're led by this idea and and you you're like I just really want to do this like you said you will find a way you don't have to do it the way everyone else did it. And that's what also feels so beautiful about agent for agent for me was broke the mold and doing this thing our own way and we're getting it done.

Maria Quattrone:

I love it getting it done you know done is better than perfect.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah. And that's the thing we're human about it and we talk you know I talk about that and this is who I am and I say to people when I'm talking about the CRM I'm like we're building it out it can do a whole bunch of stuff and part of it is it's it's not perfect at all but but we're human and you can tell us we need this and if we can do it we'll build it like we're going to create it as we go along so that it works rather than creating all these useless bells and whistles that are just sitting there that you're paying for that nobody wants to use we're just going to build it as we go along and it's really you have to have a lot of trust in me and in Simone and in the fact that we're going to listen and we're going to work with you because some of these companies that are so huge you can't get a person on the phone you can't get them on the phone if you have a question and you're like what's going on they don't talk to you like you're human. We do.

Maria Quattrone:

So walk me through the system I need to find an agent in Tallahassee. And I just put in Tallahassee Florida.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah there's going to be search fields and not everything on someone's profile is going to be searchable but the the market that they work in and we're doing it by counties because we had to figure out the easiest way to do it. So it'll be by county and you'll search and you'll see all the agents that come up that service that county and their profiles and you can scroll through them and then you'll be able to just message them or just if straight up pick one and then send them an offer do the referral form electronically and then share the client information online and they start the transaction.

Maria Quattrone:

And they start the transaction and then you can go in and check.

Janis Benstock:

So you can set up the system to like email you or notify you when they change stages or you can just go in and you can check it on your own. We don't want to blow up your inbox and then you'll be able to see what's going along inside the transaction and know and actually know what's going on. So you can actually call the person you referred and be like hey I saw that you found a house yeah awesome yeah totally awesome you found a house congratulations totally because the thing is when you do listings it's a lot easier when you refer listings we know you can check MLS if it's not your MLS you can check one of the sites and you can see that the property's listed you can see the property went under contract but with a buyer there's no way to check there's no way to check that's there's no way to check and it's funny because I nerd it out like part of what I part of what helped me come up with this idea was what we talk in real estate about constructive notice and actual notice right remember constructive notice this is me being the real estate instructor constructive notice is putting something where a reasonable search would uncover it like recording a deed actual notice is actually notifying someone an email a text a phone call and that's what I was realizing and it kept coming up as when I was teaching this in class and I kept coming up in my head like referrals are only constructive notice. There's no actual notice to let you know that something's going on unless you get a check in the mail. And I was like there should be something with actual notice and that's what helped me create which is also so interesting is to me is that education whether it's real estate or any kind of education there's so much more juice to the knowledge than just the thing that you think you're learning. You think you're learning constructive notice and actual notice and you're like what's the point of learning it I'm not going to get anything about it. But when you learn a new concept when you learn new language about anything it expands your brain and then you can start seeing this thing in other parts of your life and so I'm teaching pre-licensure and the next thing you know these words help me form an the idea of my lifetime you know it's funny I always say that it's like um we don't know why we did something or learned something or until it could be a decade later and this is what that this thing over here brought me to here.

Maria Quattrone:

And you can never connect the dots forward only backwards.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah well it's funny that you say that because and I'll share this link with you offline is there's a mentor that I hired her I follow her programs. Her name's Melanie and layer I may have talked about her in the past she's been a mentor my mentor for years and she does she had us do this exercise in one of the group programs called Because of that. And so we basically had an all-writer because of that story. My parents split up when I was little because of that I moved here because of that I moved here. So we basically did exactly what you're talking about but traced it. And it is such a fascinating not just to trace your own story but we got to read everybody else's story. And it's like if the magic where the magic comes is that when you're in a moment now of strife suffering sorrow and instead of focusing on the negative you could say this is a because of that in the story of my future that's the magic and when that happens that's like that changes that's like jumping timelines that changes everything.

Maria Quattrone:

It is it's so you know I would say and you know some of the things that you know I went through and I would say all the time I had to keep reminding myself this is happening for me not to me. Yep this is happening for me there's a reason why this is happening I just don't know yet why I don't know yet why XYZ right it's so powerful this whole concept and how things unfold are it's so powerful. And you know I talk about um lately a lot I talk about you know people in our industry Janison and I know you would agree with this it's like the hustle culture don't take a day off work nonstop blah blah blah I don't buy into that I I look at it like and you know I travel extensively with my husband rest is not overword it's a strategy because the magic happens and you come up with things ideas when nothing is happening when you're not production yeah when you're not hustling a deal when you're not out showing houses I mean there's people friends of ours and acquaintances on social like that's all we talk about I'm showing another house they take another picture I'm doing and I'm like I hope they don't break down and end up in the hospital like I'm serious.

Janis Benstock:

Well also it's even if you didn't break down and you made it to 99 and then you looked back at your life and your life was all work and showing houses but there was no joy or magic in there what's the freaking point what's the point you know we talk about planning our year out you look you look at the year you look at the month you look at the weeks you look at the day anyway this is how I do it I look at the first thing I say is when am I traveling?

Maria Quattrone:

And I block it out. Yeah that you're angry how many weeks am I traveling how many weeks am I going to work events right how many weeks am I going to be sick and I'm not saying be sick I put it all in the schedule not the days but then and then we get basically two weeks of federal vacations days off. So then I come back with and I'm left with like I don't know 42 weeks or something after you add that all together. So then I look at it and I say okay here's the weeks I'm working here are the weeks I'm going to be in some type of production whether it's working on building you know our our our new adventure with LPT Realty or it's working on my listing course which is a six week course or I'm working on my book like whatever that is right and then blocking out here's the time I'm going to do my private coaching here's the time I have for client meetings here's the time I have to meet with agents and it's a time for myself you gotta if you don't have white space you can't create I bet you these things that people come up with they come up with because the dots finally connected something triggered it because of this this happened right I love that exercise by the way it's such the greatest exercise it was so great.

Janis Benstock:

I love I absolutely love that exercise and the thing is doing it on your own is wonderful but when you do it and you read other people's stories so if you're in a group or you you know deal with your coaching clients or something and you read each other's stories what it really gives you a different perspective and it helps what is the woman's name that your mentor Melanie and Lair I can give you a link to join she actually has a free mass uh free master class going on right now I'll give you the link to join it and then you'll you'll you can catch up on the modules there are modules um past modules but they're all recorded in the group and you can watch this and that's where this exercise was and then you'll see other people's you'll see mine because of that in there and other people's it's it's a really great way to look at at the world I love it. But like all this stuff it's really interesting to me because all this stuff that you're talking about like a lot of times you talk about what I I have this way that I look at the world and I say process over content. The content is the story like what I should be doing the nuts and bolts the things that I should be doing regard regardless of whether it's real estate or running my household or what my relationship, whatever. The process is how I think and feel and come up with the ways that I'm going to do things. And I'm much more of a process person. Like I like to focus on the process. And what you're talking about right now is process because my schedule looks very different than yours. It's the same idea but you seem to block out your time and like this is work time, this is relaxed time this is travel time. Mine is everything is just sort of integrated right like my whole day it looks very different than yours. I like to integrate it so that I'm doing something that's social but it also turns out to be work. And and I don't necessarily block out separate time, but our process is the same which is we need to create white space, we need to create organic we need to create this feeling of the space and that's where all the magic does happen. That's where the magic for putting the pieces together for agent for agent happen was when I was walking on the beach in the middle of the day because I just needed to get away from my computer and I was walking on the beach and I call them like I call them my Godzone walks because they're when I walk on the beach it's off season because I'm living down the shore I not temporarily not permanently but for the next few months. And so I take these walks on the beach and it's cold and I just I put my sunglasses on because you know you hide behind your sunglasses and no one can see you and you can get in your own space. And I just do these walks and I get into this like Zen mode and I'm telling you ideas that come from the universe from God Mother Nature Source whatever you want to call it it's when the magic happens but when you're sitting there and this is the thing when you're sitting there and you're trying and you're spinning and you're like sorry that's okay we can edit right we can edit we can edit please Apple edit that appit the ice machine it's okay so when you are um hold on I have to get back on my train of thought the white space the magic is when the magic happens and so when oh sorry I lost it give me a second I'll get it back I do this when I record my own videos all the time because I'm I'm recording like a whole online course I'm re-recording my online course and I also have to do um another recording today on the the women in real estate summit again this year. And I and that's what I do I just go on to script and I record the whole thing and then I stop I'm like cut this out cut this out so when you have that white space and you're able to just oh that's what I was saying. So when you're trying really hard to make something happen and you're spinning and you're like I gotta create something I have to create business I need money that's when you spin out of control and nothing happens because you cut off the flow of ideas of source of whatever you want to call it but the moment that you let go and that you trust and you just give space that is when it happens that's when the magic happens every single time in my life that is when the magic happened I agree.

Maria Quattrone:

You know I was wondering if it came to you when you were on the beach because that's a good place for ideas to flow. You know I get some of the best ideas in the shower yeah that's another place like I don't know what it is about the shower but I'm not in there that long I'm not I don't take long showers so but they just yeah they come like that. Yeah and some people I've got some of the best ideas in the shower.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah you want to share naked and free and right and the hot water's running down you setting yourself up it's the best what it would it so you want to share because I know you have a lot of stuff cooking in that brain of yours you're gonna share anything oh some of the ideas yeah well my listening boss course came to me while I was in the shower one day I said how do I get more people to be better listening agents and I was like I do this course I I wanted to do this course you know how long since COVID but it wasn't this course it was something else I just didn't know what it was and then I'm like I took 192 listings last year I think I'm an expert on taking listings and selling listings I think I could do something really valuable for people right so I came up with um oh god the idea for you know be the solution the way it happened was we were in COVID and uh remember nobody was saying anything online like it was crickets everybody was waiting and saying oh we're gonna be home for two weeks I was like yeah right two weeks and the woman who worked with me at the time and she's a friend um she said you need to go live I'm like Facebook she's like yeah and I'm like okay sure you know so I'm like what is the what's everyone else the leaders doing in Philly real estate well I know I had you on but other people weren't doing nothing they were sitting home telling their people relax for a couple weeks I'm like so she's like we're gonna do a podcast I'm like a podcast all right I'm like we need a name and to be the solution which is my mantra now right I'm not a victim but it came because you know one we talked about this offline a lot of I obviously I mean I get referrals from people but due to the you know the volume of business that I do is on like marketing and all other stuff I called expire listings that's how I started my career when I once I figured out there was these things called expire listings I didn't even know for like two years about this okay I found out about it and I was like oh I I'll call them I don't care

Maria Quattrone:

But she's like, well, what do you do for people? And I'm like, We solve problems. We're the solution to their problem not getting solved. And I'm like, oh my God. That's it. That's it. Be the solution. And so the be the solution is the it's more than a podcast. It's more than the book that's coming. If I can ever get it done. It's done. If I can ever launch it out there, which I'm gonna say that it's going to happen. It's gonna happen. I hope it happens sooner than later. That's one of those things that's not done, that's not happening, right? Maybe somebody will hear this and they'll say, Marie, I can help you get your book launched.

Janis Benstock:

Well, have you looked into Book Baby? Who? Book Baby. They help you publish or self-publish. A friend of mine is an editor because I have a book in the works too, but mine is very slow coming and it's not about real estate. And I talked to him about it, and he suggested Book Baby to me, so I'll share that with you as well. Book baby, Janice.

Maria Quattrone:

You you might have been the this book baby might be the solution.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah, it might be.

Maria Quattrone:

I talked to another book people the other day, and then they said, Well, they sent me the proposal. They said we can get you in USA today, blah blah blah thing. And then I look at it and it costs 60,000 for that. I'm like, well, this is over. This is not, I'm not this level.

Janis Benstock:

Right. And also it's like what's 50,000.

Maria Quattrone:

Like I just don't have it laying around to be spending on this.

Janis Benstock:

Right. And plus, also, what's the point?

Maria Quattrone:

You know, I'm not spending uh I'm not trying to sell a million copies of my book. I just want it out there. I don't want to share it with people.

Janis Benstock:

Like right, and your book is trying to get rich off of the book, right? Well, also the the reality these days is that your book is your business card, so your book is often the beginning the top of the funnel. Correct. So getting it out there is is important, but you know, there's options you can self-publish.

Maria Quattrone:

There's also Amazon EDP or AP.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah, but I would look into the different there's I I started looking into it and there's pros and cons to all of them, and I'm not fluent in them, but I know that there's pros and cons. I don't remember what they are. But if you, for example, like your ISBN number and check into it because if you do it, I think if you do it through Amazon and double check this, but it's something like if you do it through Amazon, those books can't, that ISBN number can't be used to be sold in bookstores like Barnes and Noble. So there's certain there's certain restrictions. So those are the types of things that you have to look into. And again, I don't remember, but I'm gonna send you the information for Book Baby and also Hay House has, and I know you've written the book already, but they have their free writers workshop from time to time, a couple times a year, and it's an online workshop, and that's gonna give you a lot of information about self-publishing, publishing with them and genres and titles and hooks and all that thing, how to market it. So I'll send those resources to you.

Maria Quattrone:

This might be the state the solution to that problem.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah, it could be, and that's the that's the other thing too, is we don't we we don't give enough we don't give enough credit or weight to the importance of people talking to people anymore, especially with the doom scrolling on social media, right? We see all this scrolling and people with really short attention spans, but in reality, how do businesses get referred? Yeah, there's a lot that comes from social media, but word of mouth, when people talk to people, like when I tell you about Melanie Ann Lair, she could have come across, she doesn't do Facebook ads, but even if she did, she could have come across your feet 20 times and you wouldn't have. But the minute someone that you know like and trust tells you from experience with connotation, you're like, I'm interested, I want to look. And then you see if it aligns with you. Same thing with Book Baby, same thing with this. And it's like so many of us get caught, and this is actually the talk I'm doing about social media for the Women's Summit, is so many of us get caught in this hamster wheel of production, of creating content, of doing all the things that we think we're supposed to do, and we lose sight of what really matters. And so we get really busy, but busy is bullshit, and we're spinning around trying to do all the things when sometimes if we just slow down and go deep, not wide, and have a conversation with someone. Like I'm having a conversation with you, and there's no agenda here. Like, yeah, I'm excited to tell people about Asian for agent, but they're gonna find out about it anyway. I'm not here with a purpose of like, I want to get something out of it. I'm here with just being able to connect with another human, you and whoever's whoever finds this big podcast and resonates with it. And when you're led by that, it just feels better in the moment because I'm not like commission breath, like, oh my God, I gotta sell this or oh my god, I gotta accomplish this. I'm just having a conversation. Look what comes out. You inspired me to sit down and work on my book because this my book, my book is is not about real estate. I could write a book about real estate, you know, from my perspective and the way I do things, but this is something completely different. And I have been working on it bits and pieces for years. And like I'm waiting for that to come out and be like, here it is, instead of me sitting down and forcing myself, I want it to come from within and be like, it's here. And I and I have like five versions of the book written, like 70,000 words, 100,000 words, like it's all random, but none of it feels like and you find out about Melanie Ann Lair and my because of that, because of that, because of that. That's right. How many of us, how many of us are trapped in freaking groundhog day in this wheel of production of constantly spinning in this capitalist society to try and achieve, achieve, achieve, but we forget to take off our shoes and walk in the grass.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah, yeah, that and that's that's why I do so much better too, you know, in the war months, because you know, this is like this is not what you meant by that, but there is something about grounding. It's huge, like we just wait. I'll just talk for myself. Don't do it at all. No, and I'm not talking about grounding, I'm talking about just being present. Yeah, so I've been that's what I'm not focusing on now, like this month. Um intentionally, I said I'm gonna have a podcast ever you know, I you know I we're doing this at 7 30 a.m. And it's a great time because you can have we're basically having coffee at a coffee shop, but you're in Florida and I'm here in Philadelphia, and we can do this because of online, but it's a great way to start the day with somebody because you get it's inspiration, it's nice to like learn, it's nice to just connect with another human, and it's not we're not sitting here, you know, trying to uh deconstruct a deal or could deconstruct a home inspection or whatever that'll come after we get off the call in real life, but that's why you love being in the shower and the ideas come because that's when you're present.

Janis Benstock:

That's why you that's why the ideas come. When you're in the shower, you're present. Right. And what can we do? Last week, last week I jumped on. I have a check-in with my agents in the morning, and before the call, I I have at home, I have this big crystal, this um it's quartz, it's huge, it's beautiful. And I in my short house, I get lots of light in the city. I don't, and in the morning, before the call, I just picked my crystals always around me, and I just picked up my crystal and I just held it in the sun, and I just sat there for maybe a minute or so, like not that long, and I just got lost in the light in the crystal, and it just made me start to cry because it brought me back to that feeling of being a child. Remember when there was no time and the world was huge, and you could just lay down in the grass and look up at the sky, or you would just be present and you could just you just felt it all and you were there. And how many, how many times as adults do we take a moment to actually feel that way? Like people talk about being present, but when you feel it and you're like, oh my gosh, this is what they mean, it's it's like it can bring tears to your eyes. And it's like those are the moments that we're missing when we're running on this spinning wheel all the time. And sometimes what when I just stop and I think, do I have to do this? Like offline, you know, we we started off the conversation this morning with like we didn't say it, but we're basically like, maybe it's time to throw in the towel and do something else, right? We didn't actually say that, but just that idea. And I I often say, if I won the Powerball and had all the money in the world and never had to worry about anything again financially, that would feel completely free. Like for me, that would just be total freedom. My lifestyle would change just to the point where it would be free. I wouldn't be driving a Lambo or anything like that. So if I also sold everything and I moved into a hut and lived on the beach and spearfished for my dinner, I would also feel totally free. So those are opposite sides of the same coin. And so the feeling of being free is the feeling that I go after all the time. And what I want is to not have to win the Powerball in order to feel free, nor do I want to have to sell everything and live on a hut in the beach in order to feel free. I want to be able to find a way to feel present and free in the moment, and that's by being led by something greater than money instead of being on that spinning wheel. And that's when the magic happens. That's when the idea for your course happens. The idea for your course didn't happen because you're like, oh shit, I need another revenue stream. Oh my God, I need to be famous and have all these agents know about me. That idea came because you're in the shower and you realize that you have this gift that you want to share with people. And now I promise you it will monetize because I promise you there are going to be hundreds, if not thousands, depending on how big you spread the word, of agents that are going to be foaming at the freaking mouth to get that course and list 192 listings in the year. Like, that's when I see what you list when you did your challenge. How many calls you were doing, like 100 a day or something? What was it for a month? Oh my god. I was like, what is this madwoman up to? Like this, she's what what is she doing? Like, you're not human. How do you do that? Oh, look how red I am.

Maria Quattrone:

You know what? I wanted to see what was possible. I love that. And I now I know what's possible. Now that is not to say that I want to repeat that month again because I had so much work to do. I I had so much work to do from all those calls that I couldn't actually keep up. And I have like four assistance, you know. I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't do it. Like I could have that many assignments from people, meaning opportunities to list a property, right? And it wasn't there all weren't right now. They were they came at all different times, and you know, but you figure out what works, what's sustainable, you know, you that would not be something that I would be able to do every day, year day in, day out. I mean, I guess actually that's not true. I could do that, I don't want to do that. How about that? Oh, I love that. I love that. I don't want to do that. So I know what I want to do, and it ain't that. So I could do it. I could take more, I could do more less things. Like I could have had more than I did the 192, but some of them I fucked up. Excuse me. Apple get rid of that F. Um, or just bleep it. Bleep it. Do a bleep, Apple. So, or you know, I didn't want it, or they were difficult, and or I forgot to call them back. Like, I'm a human too. I'm not perfect. I forgot, I forgot to call somebody back for a $1.6 million listing. How about that? That's gotta hurt, that's gonna sting. It did, yeah.

Janis Benstock:

I'm sure it did, but it's $10 $160,000 listings than you could have instead at the one 1.6 million. Yeah, I know.

Maria Quattrone:

Uh so that's what I'm saying.

Janis Benstock:

That's the thing. Like, I'm not perfect, of course. I make mistakes. Okay, you're still amazing that you were able, I mean, that is bonkers, and you probably learned so much from it. And one of the things also you learned is I don't want to do that, which is so valuable because that's the trap. It's like, here's here's the trap, and and I'm gonna be a hundred percent honest with you. I in and not that you're doing anything wrong, I just that's not me. Like, I don't want to be on the phone calling people all day that I don't know. It's just me. But there's a part of me when I saw you do that, I was like, oh my gosh, I could get on the phone, I could do this. I'm an agent, I know how to, I could learn how to do this, and I could get on the phone and I could do this. And you get this FOMO or this feeling like somebody else is doing it, that means that I should do it. And every single time we get that, it eats away at a little bit of ourselves. Like, if I if Marie is doing it and I'm not doing it, like what's wrong with me? Maybe I should be doing that. And what's so important and valuable, and I'm so glad you said this, because it frees a lot of people up, is you said, I can do it, but I don't want to do it. And if we all could say that about every single time we see an influencer on social media, if we could leave ourselves alone and instead of saying, Why am I not good enough or why am I not doing that, if we were able to just have some grace and say, I could do that, but I don't want to. Think of how much freer we would all be.

Maria Quattrone:

Well, and I love that it comes down to what is what is it that you want your life to look like? What is it that you want your life to look like? What is it? What does it look like? You are the director of your life, you get this to decide who's in your movie. You get to decide if these actions I take are gonna be for or against me, they're gonna help me or they're gonna hurt me. Because decisions we've made in our past in fact uh they affect who we are today. And so does it align with who you are and who you want to be? So it's not like I say this all the time to my team and people. I say, listen, who do you have to become? Who do you have to become to do the things that you want to do? Who do you have to become? Because it's a personal personal growth is all what the journey is about. And it's not it's a journey, we are not in a race, we are not there's no end game me except for well when we die, then that's over. But right outside of that, we'd like to. Oh, well, that's another story. That's another episode of the that's another episode. We'll go there another time. But there what I'm saying is there's no think about like this there's no mountain to climb, we are the mountain. So think about yourself as the mountain and not that you have to climb a mountain. We are the mountain.

Janis Benstock:

Oh, I like that. Or as Esther Gibbs says, Oh, go ahead, where'd you get it from?

Maria Quattrone:

Robert Palmer, the CEO of LPT Realty.

Janis Benstock:

Oh, I thought you were gonna be like Robert Palmer, the musician.

Maria Quattrone:

No, no, no. Um said it, and I was like, I got I like that. I have to use that because it's true. We are the mountain. So when I say that, it's like I'm helping other people climb. Love it, and that's part of like the course. But I wanted to ask you about your women in real estate. What's that about?

Janis Benstock:

Oh, so this woman Tara Croc puts it on. She's I think this is the sixth year, and it's in February. I forget the dates, but I'll have the link soon and I'll post it and I'll share it with you. So it's 30 women in real estate that are each giving presentations, and the presentations are recorded, but they drop at a certain time. You know, there's a whole schedule, and there's also a Facebook group, and there's some live events, and it's free to join. And then you also have the chance to upgrade to VIP. And if you upgrade to VIP, you get instant access to all of the presentations and you get some free bonuses. Like I'm giving away for VIP people, I'm giving away one module in my online course, Unleashed and Aligned. So there are women, lots of women that are giving stuff away. It is a phenomenal experience. I I binge all of them. I've met some really amazing women over the years by being a part of that. And so when I think I forget, I have to look at my calendar when we get the link, but we get the link sometime in February, and then I'll share it with you and people can sign up for it.

Maria Quattrone:

Awesome. That sounds amazing. I love it. I love the sharing. I think being, you know, you know that, you know, this, I mean, being in contribution is, I believe, part of what we're honestly required to do, but it should be part of who we are. Contribute to keep as many people as you can, make the world a better place, you know.

Janis Benstock:

Yeah, and it makes it better for me. Like when I contribute, it actually helps me grow. Like I I do some private coaching. When I do the private coaching, it actually expands me.

Maria Quattrone:

It does because you learn, you get to relearn some things and you learn about yourself in the same yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Janis Benstock:

And so you're gonna let us know when this you're gonna have this uh I have a link of agent for agent. Well, so I have the link now that people can register for the webinar for January 29th, and so I can share, I'll share that with you after the podcast. Or do you share it? I'll share that with you, and then people can sign up and sign up even if you can't come on the 29th, because then you'll get the replay and you can watch it. And I love the replay because you can watch it at double speed, which is what I do on every single replay. So you can watch it on double speed, and then you can sign up for the wait list, and it were as soon as we launch, we'll let you know, and then you'll fill out your profile and start giving and getting referrals and spread the word because in order for this to work for all of us, we need agents from all over the country. So, right now we have a ton of people on the waiting list, and they're mostly in the Philadelphia area. We have a few scattered, but we need the whole entire country, and it's gonna help all of us. It's gonna help us take a lot of the business that we normally have to spend money on big tech and hope. Hopefully it will bring us back into our own agent pockets as part of the mission of this as well.

Maria Quattrone:

Fabulous. I love it. Let's go. Let's go and keep on being the solution, Janice.

Janis Benstock:

Fabulous. Maria, it was I always have a good time talking to you, but today was extra special. It was extra juicy. Thank you. Today was extra special. I loved it.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah. I turned my morning frown upside down. There you go. Me too. Now I'm all smiling. Yep. I'm so glad.

Janis Benstock:

I hope you feel better. Thank you. You're welcome.