OYP Episode 47: Scott Bzdok

Scott Bzdok, former Digital Strategy Executive and newly minted Realtor at Brookstone Realtors, tells us about his decisioning process and journey that led to stepping away from a very successful digital marketing career to jumping in head first into the world of real-estate in pursuit of real fulfillment and happiness from his work.

Interview

Peter Szczerba - Welcome back to the Own Your Potential Podcast, where you'll hear stories from leaders across the globe about how they've taken control their career growth and lessons on how you can too. I'm Peter Szczerba. And today I'm very excited to be sitting down with Scott Bzdok, a former digital strategy executive, and newly minted REALTOR at Brookstone realtors. Scott has been really looking forward to this conversation. So glad to have you on the podcast. I mean, we go way back working together. But most recently, you've undergone a pretty significant career journey transition. And it's something we definitely want to tap into today. But I mean, before we get into that, why don't we start from the very beginning? You just take us through your career journey leading up until this point.

Scott Bzdok - Yeah, for sure. So, um, I've always had kind of an interest in things, you know, in the home, I guess. So when I actually went to Michigan State, which is where I went for my undergrad, I started actually, in landscape architecture, I started even in in high school, I was in drafting classes in architecture classes, and it was always like this kind of curious interest. And I've actually just forgot that, you know, when most people were were playing video games, I was designing houses, I actually had like drafting software on a computer that I used to play around with where people were playing like, Mortal Kombat, I was designing houses for weird reasons. But so that that was like my upbringing. And then I went to Michigan State, and I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go in architecture or landscape architecture. So I went to Landscape Architecture at a really good school for it. And my first semester, I chickened out, I literally saw the people I was with, got super intimidated by the the fact of having to rely on creativity to survive, and kind of being unsupported. And having just kind of to rely on your own ability and not being, you know, part of a collective group. And I kind of had a panic attack. And after first semester, I changed my career. And it's like, I've always wanted to do something that was interesting, a little bit different, creative in focus, but I felt like I wanted the structure of something to be supportive. So I moved into advertising. And actually, Michigan State also had one of the better or best ad schools or income arts programs in the country. So it felt like a really natural fit. And it wasn't necessarily because I thought it was where I should be going, it was kind of the alternative for where I saw myself going, and it just felt like a safer choice for let's do better. And, and that's how I got kind of got into this field, it's weird, I never really chose it, it just kind of, well, I did choose it. But I guess it was never like a excited choice, it was the choice of just Least Resistance in some way. Sure, which is never a great way to live your life truthfully. And, you know, I did well, I graduated, graduated on the Dean's list and graduated with honors, I've always whenever I applied myself to something I've done well. And then I got out of school and very quickly got an internship. So in addition to I should have started in advertising, and I also specialize in socio cultural anthropology. I love this idea of cross cultural study of society and understanding how people behave and how culture shapes, societies and communities. So that that kind of pushed me into, you know, obviously go into advertising. first job out of college, and like many people, you kind of go into the coordinator space, and you work the grind, and you work really long hours, but you're part of a group and a team. And that's kind of again, what I was looking for, I kind of grew up in these in the trenches with these people that were my age, and we all kind of came through the ranks together. So it was a really great bonding experience. And I learned, you know, from advertising perspective, what it was to kind of get your foot into the industry. And again, in a similar way, like my career started in just general advertising. But because of just ways rotations happened, you know, the spot that was open for promotion for me was retail marketing, very CRM, direct mail, focus, and it wasn't a choice that I actually made. It was just what was available. So in many ways, my career was kind of, you know, not necessarily something I drove it was kind of given to me in a weird way. Where some people there are very purposeful where they might want to go, I kind of just fell into it and No in a weird way. And I worked in automotive CRM and custom customer experience for more or less 15 years, working with really prestigious brands like Ford, Lincoln, Audi of America, Fiat Chrysler. So I had a lot of really good experience there, I also was able to dabble in some non auto stuff. So I ran some of the Pure Michigan campaign, worked on Ameriprise Financial, so I worked on a lot of diversified accounts too. And I got into strategy, again, just kind of happened to fall into it, I went to a really small agency, where there were probably six people on the team and we ran out each CRM one to one communications account for four years. And you know, you've you've worked in a small group, you, you don't have the resources that you know, a large agencies have. So you have to play every single role from copywriter to creative director to strategy. And that's where I kind of got a knack for it. So everything from that point on became a strategic role. And I kind of just built that career kind of, just by doing not by coaching, or anyone showing me the way, but just kind of my own practice of it, I guess, you know, being in this I got higher and higher. And I did really well, I performed really well clients like me, agency teams like me. And I, you know, I got promoted, and I got and I moved to another company, and it started making more money and got more responsibility. And, and for most people, that's a dream, like, that's great for them. And every place I went to the next level, I increasingly got more unhappy where I was at, I increasingly became more anxious about the work I was doing. And I also saw kind of what was coming up ahead of me. So, you know, by the point I left my career, I was a vice president, at a very large agency working on a very large piece of business, working incredibly long hours. And I also saw the people, you know, where my life would be going if I kept on this track. And it's not, it wasn't the aspect of working hard or working long hours. Like that was never the problem. The problem was, every the longer I kept in this, my own personal drive, and motivation. As my career increased, drop dropped completely. I wasn't I didn't have a passion for it anymore. And I don't know, if I had the passion really, for it. In the beginning, I was just kind of enamored by it for a while. But I realized that that was not going to be enough. And I'm a really driven person. You know, I I competed an Ironman, I know what it takes to put in the effort and do what's needed. And it got to the point that like that my own personal drive, which has always motivated me and kept me moving forward wasn't enough anymore. And it's just, I mean not to be really morbid, but it was just killing my life, it was killing my relationships with my friends, it was killing my relationships with my fiance, I was taking it on family, I was just not a good person anymore, because I was so unhappy with where I was. But I also had no idea where to go and how to change it. And you get to a point in your career where you've reached a high degree of success. And the idea of unwinding all of that, and 15 or 20 years of the slog to get there is incredibly scary. And starting over is incredibly scary. And that's what I think stopped me I thought about doing this change for five years. Literally five years, I had this conversation with my aunt, who did something exactly similar. She was a huge executive at GM, she was a plant manager in Europe, she ran she meant I mean, huge. And I mean, in some ways, I kind of recreate myself in her image. She did the exact same thing. She at the in 2008 jumped out of a very successful very, very lucrative job at GM, and went into real estate, and had no experience in it. But made it work. And I talked to her five years ago about doing the same thing. And I kind of had in the back of my head. And I think unconsciously I was saving money and doing all these things to prepare myself whether I knew it or not. And it's it just took something to kind of push me over over the edge I guess.

Peter Szczerba - It's such an incredible story arc that I'm really excited to be talking about, because there's so much to unpack here. And I think we'll get to the big decision of finally making that leap in a second. But I want to go all the way back to kind of where you started out at and you know, studying something that was largely Passion Driven like architecture or landscape architecture, and then making a shift out of that that had to be pretty difficult to do and I know you kind of talked about the intimidation factor and then You know, kind of the fear around having to rely on yourself to drive your career forward and be successful. But what's interesting to me is that, you know, down the line, you ended up being largely a professional thinkers that was literally, you know, driving thought and strategy anyways. And I wonder, you know, looking back on that, that must be a pretty interesting parallel to make.

Scott Bzdok - I think it's, I think it was one thing because I was intimidated by the idea when I was young had that I would have the ability to do that. I was until it was untested to me, I, I had no idea if I had the ability, and I was I was insecure. I mean, everybody has some degrees really insecure. I think what was interesting is that, you know, through a lot of hands on work, I got the confidence that I could do this, I and I and I did this well, whether I loved it and enjoyed it, I had that degree of like that backboard that helped me stand up and stand on my own two feet. So a lot of people, you know, were groomed for the positions that they were in and had really strong influences or leaders or managers. I had great managers, but they didn't really teach me how to do what I did. I was very self taught. And I guess it was in that process that I gained the confidence to realize that I anything that I put my mind to, and I and I had an interest and a passion for I'm going to succeed. And I did that in everything else in my life, I learned how to do an Ironman, I learned how to, you know, even just, you know, learn how to cook stupid thing, but learn how to cook. And I do it really well. And I, I'm passionate about it, and I will put the time in to do it. I had to learn that about my career aspirations in the same way.

Peter Szczerba - Yeah, and I find that really interesting, because as you talked about, you know, some of the different things you studied, like, for example, socio cultural anthropology and kind of finding a passion in understanding people's behaviors and examining how they differ, you know, plus accumulating skills by doing different things in the advertising and communication space. Ultimately, culminating, and all those things come together and strategy. I think that's really just because you picked up all these skills that slowly prepared you in a way that you're going to be now very excellent at being a real estate agent in a very unique way. Because you have a storied successful career, where you've dealt with very senior executives, really large brands, the stakes are always very high. And I think that what's interesting is you can easily pair all that, let's say the stakes of a family trying to find their first home, because they're different, but the magnitude of them or not. And so you know, I think it's really interesting the way you're now able to lift and shift your skill set and experience into a totally new context, but it's gonna give you like an accelerated effect in terms of being successful in this new space. And so have you found that to be the case, in kind of the short period of time?

Scott Bzdok - You explained it better than I probably could have even done that, but it's something that I knew in, I think, going into this is that what I was going to do, whether I knew it or not blended all the experiences that I've had perfectly, I mean, let's face it, the only thing I didn't understand about where I was going or didn't wasn't well tested for was the sales aspect of it or like negotiating. But everything about what I'm doing today is really deeper rooted in everything I've ever done. It, you know, marketing strategy, you know, even just like my interest in homes and design, and then those things like, it just it's this amalgamation of all these really important things you need to have in order to be successful. I need to market myself to show and build a brand for myself that people would gravitate to, I need to understand what people think how to empathize and position myself in such a way that his tracks like that is what I done for brands over the last 15 years. But now I can do for myself, I need to think strategically about how I'm going to differentiate myself in the marketplace, just like any other brand is, but I need to do it in a much more personal way. I need to think very strategically about solving my client's problem. The only thing I did again, I didn't have experience was the negotiation aspect of what I do. But I think that it is actually really, really true is because I have this suite of of experiences that sets me apart from a lot of other agents that are fresh out of, you know, taking their exam and starting you know, some agents for example, like 80% of agents in their first year wash out it's a it's a really kind of difficult business to break into, particularly as you get older. I mean, fortunately I have a I have a network I have things cultivated over time, but it's because of these also innate skills that I've cultivated over the last 15 years that is actually set me up to, to actually not even have a gap in terms of one meaningful or not income, but to be able to perform in this very high paced field, without kind of starting over like I, in my first, I've been doing this for two months, in a very crazy real estate market, I get you, the majority of the clients, I've been working with our buyers on the harder side of the proposition right now. But this week alone, my basically month two, I sold to a $1.6 million in real estate. When I first thought about getting into this, people were saying that's what you might do in a year, I did that in a matter of basically a month. So it is because I think I've been front loaded with everything I needed. I just needed one the motivation to do it, or the courage or the backbone to do it. But everything from a marketing perspective made it possible.

Peter Szczerba - Yeah, I mean, your coming in with such a different perspective than a 20 Something fresh out of whatever they were educated in and now pursuing this path. And maybe they were educated in business or marketing, whatever the case is pursuing this path of real estate, maybe they have a family in it or whatever the case is, but largely like no experience in the business world in any kind of facet. And then, you know, diving in headfirst, where's your diving in headfirst? Right, without fallback plan, really, which is probably the best way to do it. But 15 years later, after relatively story, you know, marketing career and I think, yeah, definitely, it definitely sets you apart. But I'm curious as you're going through the decisioning process for this. I know, you mentioned that subconsciously, you were kind of preparing yourself to make this kind of leap. You had an example of this being done successfully in your life already. But what else did you consider? You knew you weren't happy? Right? And I think that it takes a level of courage to even acknowledge those feelings, right? That you're not happy in the career that you're doing that, you know, your motivators actually end up being different than recognition in your space, or money or title or whatever. And, and that's just not cutting it for you anymore. So what else did you consider making a shift to because I have to imagine that a ton of things went through your mind over the last couple years, as you were really coming to a kind of crossroads.

Scott Bzdok - Honestly, it was, I didn't, I didn't explore much more I explored for a while actually being an architect. And I knew kind of where I needed to go, I knew how to figure out a way to get there. I thought about, you know, becoming a landscaper and owning a landscaping business, things of that nature. I knew that the space I wanted to play in. But I think the thing that was different though was I didn't find meaning in anything I was doing before, because I was working for really big companies that arguably were faceless. And despite how hard they work, whether I saw the results or not. Like I didn't think that I was helping or bettering anything for anybody on a meaningful or personal level. Yeah, clients were, you know, happy, or they were succeeding or not. But I didn't I didn't see that actually, you know, I felt like I was just part of this machine. And this profit machine, ultimately, helping big companies, rich companies make more money. And it's just kind of, I don't want to say it just put stuff very greedy. On the contrary, where I'm at today, I think a lot of people would would see things that are depicted in real estate and see like, oh, talk about greed. Talk about, I mean, you go off all day, and you you don't work hard, like there are a lot of misperceptions about real estate and a lot of those things are true. But there are also a lot of things where you are literally helping people through some of the most important decisions of their entire lives, where basic marry their entire life work and their life savings into these purchases and these these considerations in the decisions that they're making. And, you know, that's a really important thing that's really scary for people. So where so many, some people see real estate is very flashy and kind of ego centric. I don't I actually think it's really meaningful. Like one of the most interesting and meaningful things that I've done in my two month career so far is actually counterintuitive to what my job is. A woman had a land contract, it's a really weird way to buy a house and it was a really bad bad deal. She was kind of screwed, I'm sorry, I'm gonna use in your polite language, but and she was extorted ultimately. And she wanted to keep this house because she has she was raising her kids there and she had less invested a lot Not only of her finances, but herself into it. But she was potentially going to lose it, she couldn't afford it. She wasn't also getting any of the credit benefits of owning and paying on a mortgage because it wasn't being reported to the credit bureau. So despite, you know her heavy, really good intentions, and really wanting to keep this house, she was going to be forced to sell. And we were brought in to help her do that, which is not what she wanted to do. And it was obvious in the timeframe that, you know, she was desperate. And to me, you know, we decided very quickly there that we needed to figure out a way for her to stay in our house, which is, again, counter airy to anything I should be doing in my career. But that is the most meaningful ah, probably, I get kind of emotional thinks about it, because it was, it was life changing. And I never had an experience like that, in my 15 years, up to this point, right. But yet, in my first month, I did something that I actually think that literally could have changed the art of this woman's life, for the rest of her life. And you don't get those opportunities very often. And I don't know, if you get those opportunities. In, in a corporate setting where you're one of many, I think it takes a little bit of a different gumption to to go on your own, but to also try to make a more meaningful role for you, but also the people you're helping in your community and in you know, your network. So I mean, that in itself, has been the most fulfilling thing about all of this. And that's, I think, what will be really motivated into it, because I'm, I'm interacting and meeting people every day with different experiences. And I'm trying to relate to those experiences, but I'm trying to also help them out. And, you know, side by sidebar, but like, it's also really interesting, because you know, I grew up in this year and background and I try to understand who they are, what's meaningful for them. So I can relate on that very individualized level, and have the experience based on how they want that experience to go to the point that like, I try to craft every single iteration of my experience based on that I try to understand them. And I try to take notes so that, you know, when you meet with them again, I pick up I know what coffee they drink, so I can bring them a coffee. I you know, during our conversations, the gifts that I give them when they buy is something I've learned about them over the time. And it's also it's just tailoring it to be very individualized and specific. So again, it's just me playing, you know, 15 years of really good sound ideas and strategies, and then also data and making it just recontacting that to a different way to approach a business or a challenge or a client. No small fee client, not big client.

Peter Szczerba - Yeah, I love so much of what you said just now. And I will first I just want to touch on that I love just hearing that all the work that we did together, trying to drive personalization is being applied somewhere with great success, even if it's in a different context, but I mean, it's just that just makes me happy. But what I think is really interesting about what you said is about the fact that, you know, remove the context remove, you know, moving from big corporate into something that's, you know, smaller in scale and more personal. But what's important is that you reassess what your motivators were, and you reassessed whether the environment that you were working within and driving your career within was actually moving those motors, the needle against those motivators, I think what's important to take away from that is, if, for example, you are big corporate, and you are motivated by, you know, driving change for a client, or whatever the case is, then that's it. And that's, that's good for that individual for yourself, because, for example, I find that at least in my current stage in my career, that still drives me solving those big client problems, the, you know, the, the kind of the scale and the scope of that it's still very exciting to me. And I think what's important is locking in and understanding that as long as you're the environment you're working in is moving the needle against your motivators, then you're going to be really successful, it's going to be really easy to work very hard, but the moment that the environment isn't, and being able to have the courage, I think that I mentioned earlier to recognize that and actually make a decision, which largely is a hard one, to make that change, whether it's different, you know, a different company in the same space, or totally new space, which is even harder, that's really important to recognize and make move against and that's kind of what you find yourself doing.

Scott Bzdok - And I think that's actually a really good point. Like I don't mean to sound as if I'm super negative. For a second corporate. It's just for me, that wasn't the fulfilling thing, the filling role or the meaningful role that I saw my life playing, but for somebody else it and in that can be a very motivating and rewarding thing. That's you need to find your version of that, whether it is in a in healthcare and insurance, in marketing in engineering, like, you can find purpose in anything you do, but it has to be authentic to what I think your purpose is. And you have to find that match. It's like finding a life partner or spouse like yes to find that perfect match that role that job that fulfills you, provides you meeting and that makes, you know, the the lows worthwhile, but you know, accentuates the highs, too.

Peter Szczerba - Totally. And I think what's also interesting here is that you I mean, you started from the outset on this conversation, saying that you went into architecture and landscape architecture, that was where your passions and interests lie, and you made a shift, you know, out of relative necessity, right at the time, and then you kind of fell into your career and progress. And I'm sure along the way, given that you saw a lot of success, that was exciting. And that made it easier to kind of work hard and progress, but eventually, right, some of that excitement ran out. And so you it took you a while to realize that no, no, actually, my motivator aren't being impacted by this. And I need to shift into something where it does. And I think what's interesting and important to take away from that is that if you know you've fallen into a career, that you still happen to be really good at. Right? That's, that may not necessarily be reflective of the fact that it's impacting those those motivators. And maybe it takes time to recognize that, but eventually, you may. Now, I want to tap into something. Because you, you know, I know this, but you mentioned briefly that you you run Ironman, races, those are very difficult things to do. Right, then itself could be a second career. And, you know, for a lot of people just for the sheer time it takes to do an Ironman in itself. So training for one has to be reflective of that. But you talked about the fact that you're a driven person, and that you know, maybe the athletic pursuit that you have, you know, it helps it helps develop and nurture that drive. Did you have you found that having that happening in parallel to your career has made it that much easier for you to have the stamina and the power to work through long hours to work through challenging, you know, obstacles or problems and stuff like that at work and be successful there?

Scott Bzdok - 150% and two reasons. One is a big, hairy, audacious goal, where they I forget with an acronym, but there's a B hag, thank you. Yeah. If you can't break it apart, and you can't sub segment that into meaningful and achievable parts, you're never going to chase your big, hairy, audacious goal. That's, you know, I'm never going to be able to run 140.6 miles or net run, but you know, Buckland bike run. If I just think about that. It's just if I just think about the end result, I can break that apart and make that a digestible and containable then yeah, so that's what that's what my athletics has always taught me, it's like you put the time in, you have a strategy about how to do it, but you work on the execution of it. Strategies is, is great. Without execution, it means nothing. And that's where I also saw, kind of my role as is kind of unfulfilling in the corporate sense was because, you know, I could come up with the greatest ideas and concepts and ways of working, but if we can't do it, it doesn't matter. And the thing that I loved about lullaby phonics, and what I love about doing this in myself, but also applied to my, my life's work, now in written real estate is that I'm in complete control of the entire experience, I am in complete control of building, how you learn to approach something, whether it be in reach a goal, whether it be doing an Ironman, and breaking it out, and in developing the gameplan to do that, or listing someone's house or helping someone buy their first house, I come up with how we're going to approach that, and then execute against that gameplan. That was formative. I mean, any any Ironman or endurance athlete will tell you, like 95% of everything we do isn't talent, or isn't just God given ability, it's the ability to execute and be planned and be focused. And that equally has been, has made this really easy for me to move into. Because, you know, and the way I've actually positioned myself in this space is that, you know, you know, strategy doesn't win execution. And it's also a very relative thing, winning the means one or the other. There's various degrees to me of what it takes to win. You know, I'm not going to win an Ironman, but I am I going to reach my personal best. Did I win the race? No. Did I do something that's meaningful to reach a goal? Yes, same thing can be applied to this space. Like it doesn't have to be so cut and dry. So yeah, absolutely, I think it's actually been the thing that I think also sets me apart and makes me different. But also makes me a little bit memorable too, because I do I think have a different way of thinking about it that others might not.

Peter Szczerba - Yeah, absolutely. I mean, even as a conversation starter to say I run Iron Man, it's a little bit different than saying, you know, I golfer I play tennis. So, you know, I think that a lot of people immediately get intrigued by that. And I'm sure that that benefits you in the real estate spaces as in terms of peaking interest in conversation. But now in here, you say some of what you're saying is kind of clicking for me. I mean, the whole point of being an endurance athlete, especially in the most extreme sense, and doing Ironman races. I mean, you you refuse to quit. That's the whole point, you're you have the mental insurance, forget your body's insurance, your mind won't let your body quit. Now, I wonder if that was almost detrimental to you across a 15 year career where you're like, oh, maybe this isn't for me, but you refuse to quit? Because you know, you're able to succeed regardless. Do you think that maybe that played into how long for example, it might have taken you to actually decide to pull yourself out of it? Because it may have felt like quitting?

Scott Bzdok - I think that was part of it. I don't think it was the larger part. I mean, I think there was definitely something there to that. And you're right, like you're you had to push through things, you always have to kind of see the other side of it. I think honestly, the reason that I didn't do it, but I did it ultimately was because actually, I don't I don't, I don't really know, honestly, I mean, I actually chalk a lot of up to COVID. Truthfully, I'm one of those people that I think did this because their entire world was kind of thrown upside down and made them reevaluate things in a way that they might not have done otherwise. And I think if I told him two different perspective for me, what am I doing, like, don't, don't live your life, and maybe to the point you're just making like, I always kind of thought about, like, you know, tomorrow will be better tomorrow, we better. And tomorrow never got better. And as I was saying, like, every job, every role got worse. So I was looking for less and less positive, with tomorrow will be better. And I just stopped wanting to live for tomorrow and start living today. Like I couldn't wait, I couldn't live my life waiting for the weekend. I needed to live every day as excited as I was, you know, the, you know, the next day. So that I think was, you know, the catalyst that, you know, crystallized everything for me, and made me realize that, you know, get off the pot and start to do something different.

Peter Szczerba - Yeah, I think that's interesting. And then even as you touched on COVID, we were kind of having a funny conversation before this, this fitting given real estate is kind of where you ended up. But, you know, we spent the last what eight or I mean, for us, you and I specifically a year working together, and you know, we were just commenting that like, we feel almost more comfortable staring into each other's homes, like we've been in that room before, you know, I can, I can immediately see the drapes in the picture frame. And I'm like, Yeah, that's God, that's God's room, right, as well as, you know, relative strangers that I work with on client sides that I don't know them, but I know their office, or the bedroom or the kitchen. And now, you know, you've left that world with no more virtual entries into people's homes and you're in a real home. So which I think is an interesting thing. And a weird kind of, I don't know, meta transition.

Scott Bzdok - No, it is, it's true, but it's also like home means something different than maybe it ever has before and the future of what home can be and where where you live and where you work is going to be different. I think it's a really interesting time for anybody in a working capacity but in particular, you know, corporate life transitioning into this hybrid model, but also in real estate. It's what got people sick of their homes and why construction is insane and the cost of wood has been insane. It's also why the housing market has been insane because people realize and live a lot in their homes and either wanted something different or wanted to improve it because that balance that was very kind of traditional has been upset.

Peter Szczerba - So on that I want to touch on something before we kind of wrap up because you've been a big picture thinker for your career for a long time. Right so I know that jumping into the real estate business is not your ceiling is not simply being an agent. What is the big picture vision for you? What's the goal is it to run you know a whole agency is it to do that plus architecture in have a blended from lesson on the on the plan because I know there is one?

Scott Bzdok - No there is there's always been a plan. I've always had things a couple of years down the line envisioned i i thought being an agent obviously wasn't going to be my life's goal, but It was a really easy way for me to get into the space and start to build connections. I have a couple of concepts. One is like I think, I think the real estate life is, is really interesting. I think I'm being a broker at some point in having a brokerage and having a team of people that kind of think and work in the same fashion as I do. And kind of would embrace that kind of philosophy of being really client centric. And I think that that's going to be kind of a medium term. Interesting goal. I've also and what's interesting is like, I read a lot of really good cheerleader type of friends that say, like, you should go and do X, you should hang out, whether it be I had really good dinner parties or ahead, you know, my backyard or like, you should be a designer, you should do all these things. And the one thing that I think has been interesting, and I got to figure out a way to crack this is like, I'm going to call the Chip and Joanna complex, like people see the gazes and what they do on I don't even remember the name of the show right now. But when they buy a house, and they transform it, and they make it this dream house, and they see that vision on TV, and they don't know how to do that. And they don't, they don't know, who's the right partner that has the vision, but the ability to do that and make it feel easy and attainable standpoint. I think there's a really interesting bespoke type of service that some brokers and agents and you know, partners can will come to to make some of those things attainable. I'll take this celebrity real life, TV, Million Dollar Listing with Joanna Gaines like, but make that something that you can do in your own community. And that, again, would balance a lot of what I like it's strategic in the way you think about it. It's client centric, in the way you serve, it lends to the things I'm interested in, and the ability to design and think and transform a space or place. So it's kind of like that, to me is the holy grail of where I think there's a really interesting new business opportunity. There's also like tons of threats, though, in this space that is happening, you know, with discount brokerages and, you know, technology companies trying to do some of the things that, you know, in person agents, you know, are doing today, you know, there's a lot of the money made in real estate, as everybody knows. So it's going to be an equally dynamic space that maybe hasn't been upset as much as like FinTech has, but I think it's coming. And where in the past, I think that might have scared me or intimidated me. I think it's exhilarated me, because I again, my hearts warmed up. And I actually do believe that, despite what's thrown at me with this, because I honestly like every single day in real estate is completely different. Every client, every deal is different, you're going to get thrown 1000 different things, and where in the corporate world in my previous life, I hated that. I hated a curveball. And that's what created all this anxiety in this in this new world. It's exhilarating, because I honestly think I love it. And, and it's easy to work really hard, and think differently, and take challenges if you if there's passion and love behind it. It's not easy to take those challenges, when there's fear. And, you know, I'm saying fear and a degree of dislike. So it gives you a different way to accept and take on what's thrown at you.

Peter Szczerba - Well what I love and what is clearly evident, because every word oozes passion is that you've certainly landed in a space that you love. And you know, I have no doubt that you're going to kind of find your path towards that grill and even as you're talking about it, I laugh to myself because once a strategist Australia, always strategist I think I'd literally just heard you do part of a SWOT analysis for five year plan on this which is, which is amazing because it's exactly gonna make you know you unique and different in this space, but Scott, it has been a fantastic conversation. It's another example of how transferable skills can be across different industries, different professions and and I really enjoyed having it with you. I look forward to having another one, you know, sometime in the future once you're further into this space, but yet, thank you for your time and I look forward to the next one.

Scott Bzdok - Peter you are gentlemen and scholars my grandpa used to say thank you very much