Dave Lorenzo (00:00):
How do you differentiate yourself in a crowded market? We're going to cover that and so much more on this edition of the Inside Bs Show. Hey, now I'm Dave Lorenzo. I'm the godfather of Growth, and on today's show we're talking about differentiating yourself in a crowded market, specifically real estate. Here in South Florida, there's over 19,000 people selling residential real estate between the Keys and Palm Beach. We've got somebody who's really special with us today and we're going to talk about how to differentiate yourself. This is the Inside Bs show, the original except no substitutes, and we're here recording this live from Global Furniture in the design district in Miami. We are deeply appreciative to our sponsor Global Furniture, and if you'd like to learn more about them, we're going to put their information down in the show notes. I also encourage you to go just two weeks earlier to the episode we recorded with Francisco Ramirez, who is the regional manager here at Global Furniture, who's been kind enough to allow us this wonderful studio space. Listen to the show and you'll discover how to differentiate yourself in relationship-based sales, specifically selling furniture. That was a great episode. Let me bring in my co-host the person without whom none of this would be possible. Good morning, Nicki G. , how are you today?

Nicola Gelormino (01:29):
Good morning, Dave. I am fantastic.

Dave Lorenzo (01:31):
You got any New Year's resolutions? Anything we need to know about?

Nicola Gelormino (01:34):
I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. Sorry. Audience members. I believe in setting goals because they're much more specific and achievable than those resolutions.

Dave Lorenzo (01:42):
Alright, so what's one of your goals for the new year?

Nicola Gelormino (01:45):
One of my goals for the new year is making sure we are building our business.

Dave Lorenzo (01:49):
Okay, specific, measurable. So what are we? That's right. Come on. I dunno. I don't really accept that as a valid goal. What are you looking for in terms of growth? What would you like to see in terms of growth in our business?

Nicola Gelormino (02:05):
I would like to see new members and clients every month. So specifically we're looking to track at least two new members every month as we move forward.

Dave Lorenzo (02:12):
All right. That's a good goal. Specific, measurable, achievable and relevant. Time bound. S-M-A-R-T. Specific, measurable, achievable. Relevant. Realistic. Realistic. Realistic and time bound. All right. That third voice you heard folks, that is our guest today. And our guest is a fantastic residential real estate agent here in South Florida, but she's so much more than that. She is quite possibly the most fascinating residential real estate agent I've ever met. Gina rha, welcome to the show, Gina. It's great to have you with us today.

Gina Robichaux (02:50):
Well, it's certainly great to be here. I have to say I'm very honored to be here. Thank you for inviting me and I feel like I'm back home again. I grew up in furniture showrooms, so I just feel so at home and happy to be here. It's been a long time.

Dave Lorenzo (03:08):
Wait, so explain to us how is it that you grew up in furniture showrooms?

Gina Robichaux (03:14):
Well, a multi-generational family in the furniture biz, my grandparents made it down here in the thirties. They started a furniture business in New York that came to Florida and it exploded after World War ii. That's when South Florida saw a massive population growth comparable to what we've just experienced. And what happens when you build houses? Well, you need furniture.

Dave Lorenzo (03:44):
Okay, so you grew up in furniture showrooms. I also want to talk about some of the things you did that make you so fascinating to me. Let's start with rowing. So tell me about rowing, because I found some stuff about you online and rowing, so I want hear all about that. So you're quite the athlete.

Gina Robichaux (04:13):
Well, as my coach would say, I was an athlete, but yes, rowing is truly a magnificent sport. You either love it or you hate it. You have to be all in. And I just loved it. It was a spiritual experience for me because it really represented physically that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And I was very lucky at the time, university of Miami where I have two degrees

(04:49):
At the time, they were really, really, really going gangbusters for the football team. We were the winningest team of the eighties, Howard Schnellenberger and all the rest. But they wanted the football team to rank up in the NCAA rankings and be the top in that top score tier rather. And they needed another woman's sport. And the president of the University of Miami had gone to Yale and was a rower. And so they hired Joe Ochi O'Connor from Cornell, and he was the assistant head coach at Cornell graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. And he started our rowing program and I was the walk-on.

Dave Lorenzo (05:31):
Oh wow. And so did you row in high school?

Gina Robichaux (05:36):
I did not row in high school. Now I went to boarding school. I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. There was no rowing down here.

(05:47):
I go to Northern Virginia at the age of 14, freezing my little and never seen snow or anything. And I see in the middle of February I see these people in the water on these little tiny sticks rowing around. I crossed the key bridge and there's people doing that. And I thought, my God, that must be the most amazing sport ever. And that's the impression that's stuck in my head. And my best friend's brother was a rower at Johns Hopkins. So he would come visit and tell us all about it. And I had this in my mind that this was an amazing thing and when it came to, I had been drumming it in my mind for years.

Nicola Gelormino (06:32):
So when was the first time that you started rowing? Was it at

Gina Robichaux (06:36):
My junior year of college.

Nicola Gelormino (06:39):
Now did you train before you tried out to become a walk-on on the team?

Gina Robichaux (06:43):
No.

Nicola Gelormino (06:44):
So you had never touched a row? No. Oh my gosh.

Dave Lorenzo (06:48):
So is this, I don't know the terminology. I know there's two person boats and then there's what, seven or eight,

Gina Robichaux (06:55):
Right? Yeah, except for a single skull. They're even numbers. So you're in a two, four or an eight? We rode an eight. We were in the women's varsity eight novice and varsity eight. And so you have eight bodies plus a cox. So there's nine people in a very long thin boat and you each have one ore. Now there are boats that are super fast where you're sculling with two oars in an eight, but those are very, very

Dave Lorenzo (07:30):
Rare

Gina Robichaux (07:31):
To get eight people lined up all sculling together. Very, very, very rare.

Dave Lorenzo (07:35):
And how many meets per year?

Gina Robichaux (07:39):
Okay, now we're really drilling down. It's been a while, Dave, but probably so in the fall you have head races, which are the four mile long river races. You win based on your time. So you gear up, you start to get faster and you hopefully are at full speed when you cross the start, they start the clock and when you get to the end four miles down the river, they take your time and whoever wins has the best time. So you're such competing against the clock in the spring are the sprints and those are 2000 meters. And you have to skillfully get in your lane, there's a little bow ball, there's someone at the end of the line who's holding your bow ball and they, you're carefully making sure all the six, usually there's six boats lined up and you want your point and the Cox will put their hand up to say that they're ready. And so the person who starts the race looking for all hands up and the conditions are different, the wind could be blowing this way or that way. You draw for your lane, your coach is telling you what the conditions are and they do a game, they map out the course.

Nicola Gelormino (08:53):
I want you to talk to us, Gina, a little bit about the training because I know there is an intense level of training to be a rower.

Gina Robichaux (09:00):
Yes. So we had the privilege of running the stairs at my marine stadium. So we would go and we would also do sprints up to the top of the Rickenbacker causeway. That's when I learned Never eat a banana for breakfast. Oh

Nicola Gelormino (09:24):
No, no. Empty stomach is a little bit better for that. Yeah, that is a very steep bridge. I've ridden that bridge not doing sup. And that's a long sprint. It's a half a mile.

Dave Lorenzo (09:37):
Alright, so Gina, what did you take away from that experience that has helped you in your professional career?

Gina Robichaux (09:45):
Oh God. Okay. Where's the Kleenex? Well, the biggest learning from that was that I'm not who I think I am.

Dave Lorenzo (10:04):
Explain.

Gina Robichaux (10:05):
Well, because first of all, the physical level of training was beyond anything I'd ever done. And one of the women in the boat with us was in the ROTC and she said by far our training way surpassed what she was doing in ROTC.

(10:25):
So we really got some incredible training and it just blew my mind as to what I thought I could physically do. And so up until that point, I was what, 19 years old? Up until those first 19 years of my life, I didn't think I could sprint or run fast. And at one point I beat everyone. I beat all the girls running. And that was something I never believed I could do. And I wasn't trying to do it at the time. I ran as fast and as hard as I could. It felt like I was running into the ground. I was running so fast, but I did it. And so there's a book out there called Mind Over Water, and it's just ultimately you realize that it's not your physical that you're working with, it's your mind.

Nicola Gelormino (11:23):
So you come out of this powerful experience, let's call it that. What do you use that to do next?

Gina Robichaux (11:31):
Well, in my case, it helped me get through breast cancer.

Dave Lorenzo (11:40):
Oh wow, okay.

Gina Robichaux (11:42):
I mean there's a couple decades in between, but the real grit was a power 10, what I call a power 10. And rowers all know what a power 10 is. Do you guys know what a power 10? No,

Dave Lorenzo (11:55):
No.

Gina Robichaux (11:56):
So somebody said I should write a book and call it Power 10, but the power 10 is in the middle of a sprint race. So it's 2000 meters. You've got it broken down by 250, 500 and a thousand meters, and you know what you're doing at each point along the race. And your coach has, in our case, our coach was always riding his bike along the length of the course watching what we were doing. And you don't know what's going to happen with the other players, the other boats. So if a boat is coming up on you, he's riding up and he's passing you, your Cox is counting down the seats, so you know what seat, so you can tell are we pulling ahead or are they pulling ahead? Once again, it's a mind game, but you're already giving 105% of yourself. So your Cox is saying, okay, lane two boat's coming up into up two. So she counts it down. By the way, I was a stroke, so I set the rhythm. So I was the one who had to take the pace up. So two up two. So one, two, now you're going a little faster, but speed doesn't mean that you're pulling the water. It doesn't mean you're going to move ahead. So if you don't move ahead, then what you have to do is you have to pull harder, not faster. And that's a power 10.

(13:22):
So now, okay, in two power, 10, 1, 2, so now you're giving 120%, but maybe you're at the seven 50 mark, maybe you're not even halfway through the race yet. So you still have to give a power. You have to go,

Dave Lorenzo (13:38):
You have to find it. You have

Gina Robichaux (13:39):
To find it. Yeah, you have to find it. So now she's counting down and you're really pulling hard, really hard. And then she's telling you whether you're pulling away or not. And so if you're pulling really hard and you're not pulling away, it's very disheartening.

Dave Lorenzo (13:54):
Yeah, you must have been in amazing shape. That is unbelievable. So you're

Nicola Gelormino (14:03):
Still an athlete in our eyes. That's an incredible,

Dave Lorenzo (14:06):
So you're going to the University of Miami and your major is

Gina Robichaux (14:15):
So short story is I really wanted to study music folks wouldn't let me. I struggled,

Dave Lorenzo (14:22):
Folks being your parents.

Gina Robichaux (14:23):
Parents wouldn't let me. So they'd like, sorry, we're not writing the checks for a music degree. So I had to find myself, and it was very, very hard. I ended up with a Bachelor of general studies because they make fun of people with, it's called a liberal arts degree now. And in fact, my husband was like, because I told him what the courses I took, you had to take 12 credits of 300 level or higher in four different areas. So one of the classes I took, which I love was History of Florida. My husband was like, what do you do with history of Florida? Like, well, people enjoy knowing facts about Florida. So anyway, bachelor of general studies.

Dave Lorenzo (15:06):
So Al Leon and that sort of thing. Yeah, I'm with

Nicola Gelormino (15:09):
You actually, I think I heard some of this in your conversation earlier today, why you know so much about different areas of Miami. So that degree is still paying dividends.

Gina Robichaux (15:17):
Well, it works when you're a realtor also, and people want to know things. And Dr. Paul George was my professor in college and he's a famous Miami. He started his walking tours with our class at, because he took us on tours.

Nicola Gelormino (15:34):
So let me ask you this, Gina. So you're studying at the University of Miami and you're getting this general degree. They have an incredible music program. Were you taking music classes there?

Gina Robichaux (15:43):
I was running across campus and I was singing in the choir. So that was not part of what I needed to do to graduate. I mean, choir was one credit or one and a half credits or whatever it was. But yes, I was the only non-music major in the choir, in the university concert choir with Dr. Donald Oglesbee.

Nicola Gelormino (16:04):
And how did your parents know that you were taking the music classes or you were?

Gina Robichaux (16:07):
I think so. I think so because, yeah, I don't remember exactly, but it didn't affect my grades.

Nicola Gelormino (16:16):
Did you know then, sorry, that you had a talent for, and we're getting somewhere here with these questions. Did you know then that you had a real talent in singing?

Gina Robichaux (16:25):
Not really. I didn't, didn't really take it into, I was overcoming so much because they weren't on board with the rowing either.

Dave Lorenzo (16:36):
Oh, they weren't into the rowing either. Wow. Okay. The rowing, singing both of those things. Your body is your instrument, your body, it is your entire toolkit for both of those things. How has that helped you throughout your career? Because when you train in rowing, you're using your upper body and your lower body, so you're really in tune with everything. And you're also in tune with from the neck up because that's what singing involves,

Gina Robichaux (17:12):
Right? Singing is really your body. It's really your body, your throat and your vocal chords are what's shaping the sound. But your instrument is your entire torso and your diaphragm, which I'm learning now because I didn't have voice lessons. I'm learning now with Manny Perez, the studio of Manny Perez, and I've only been been six years with him learning. And I have also found out that there are quite a few athlete singers. That's apparently a thing I didn't know. In fact, there are some former NFL players who've become opera singers and singing opera is a very athletic, very physical endeavor.

Nicola Gelormino (18:06):
What is some of the training like for singing? Yes.

Gina Robichaux (18:09):
Well, there was an amazing Scandinavian singer, Brigida Nielsen, who I never saw her perform. She's before my time. But the way her voice was described soprano was that it was like you could feel it in your chest when she sang. It came at you like a spear. It was so focused and forceful. Well, she grew up on a farm and she said that the best training for singing was horseback riding. And Luciano Pavarotti rode horses. And it's all about your core and strengthening of your core. So opera singers aren't known for being the athletic type as far as running marathons and such. I'm sure they're out there, but they're working. It's a different understanding of how to work your instrument, where you're working with using your core muscles to tighten very gently, softly and hold it, holding it for long periods of time like you were riding a horse. Think of the jocks who ride thoroughbreds. They're up on their, they're not sitting on the horse. They're holding themselves up with their thighs the whole time. Oh my gosh. So you're just crouched. That's what singing is like constantly because you're up there for hours if you have a big role.

Nicola Gelormino (20:04):
And I want to talk a little bit about that. So Gina, you've been on a number of stages and you sent me a video recently, which was a pretty big stage to be on. I want you to tell our audience about that experience and who you were on stage

Dave Lorenzo (20:16):
With Trinity Church. Is that what you're talking about?

Nicola Gelormino (20:18):
She was on stage, was someone that our audience will very easily recognize.

Dave Lorenzo (20:22):
Oh, okay. All right. Let's hear it.

Nicola Gelormino (20:23):
So tell us about that,

Gina Robichaux (20:23):
Please. Well, that was such an honor and it's been an honor for me to sing with the Master Corral of South Florida. And this is my third year. And I am so blessed that we in this community have such an incredible organization. In fact, we won Master Crow of South Florida was just named by Classical South Florida Review. They publish all the reviews in this area of all the, not all, but as many as feasible of the most important classical organizations performing arts organizations. And we won Top 10 Master Corral of South Florida was named number nine in the top 10 performances this year. And so we've been hired in the past by Andrea Bocelli to be there choir when they're here in South Florida. And so two weeks ago we were on stage with his production company and all of his artists and himself at the, now it's called the Kasiah Center, the arena downtown Miami.

Dave Lorenzo (21:37):
That's amazing. Incredible. Wow. Incredible. And how long was the show?

Gina Robichaux (21:42):
Well, it was a couple hours. It show started at eight o'clock and it went on past 10. He did three or four encores and we arrive at two o'clock, we warm up and we do rehearsals from four until six. And because there's, there's, I don't know, eight or nine pieces before the intermission and then after the show was incredible. And to be there with Nadine Sierra, who's an amazing, she did the opening for the Notre Dame in Paris.

Nicola Gelormino (22:16):
Oh wow. So I have to ask, because this is the Inside Bs show, and we ask the inside take on a lot of things. I know you are not shy, Gina, and I know I am. Stage does not intimidate you, but when you are with these acts and you know who they are and they're really big names, does that make you nervous?

Gina Robichaux (22:37):
No.

Nicola Gelormino (22:39):
Why not?

Gina Robichaux (22:40):
Well, I have a master. So my second degree at the University of Miami is a master's in music, but it's music business. And Dr. Alfred Reed, an amazing person. May he rest in peace. He was a composer and a conductor and a professor at, and he actually started the degree at in 1966. It was the first of its kind in the country. So University of Miami School of Music is the place, the birthplace of the music business degree. And he said that everyone, regardless of their fame, everyone has to shower shit and shave.

Dave Lorenzo (23:35):
That's true. Definitely true.

Gina Robichaux (23:40):
And that's how he put it. So I didn't mind putting it like that here since this is the behind the scenes whatever BS side. But he pointedly said that it wasn't just a passing comment, he said it many times because he knew that any of us would be working with people like him. And in fact, I had in my former career, because I did go to work for Sony Music International for some time in my prior career over 20 years ago. And I was with people that like Bocelli, we had Julio Gle come through our office, Ricky Martin Shaquita, Paul Lanka, Mariah Carey, Maria, as they like to say her.

Dave Lorenzo (24:34):
Both of those things involve a great deal of training, a great deal of preparation, a great deal of attention to detail. Let's fast forward to today and let's talk about how all of that has helped you be successful in what you're doing now as a realtor.

Gina Robichaux (24:54):
Well, thank you for asking. I'll just circle back, make one last point about the rowing, which is that despite our coming on the scene and being brand new, we still won states and we won the equivalent of what we consider to be nationals. So we used to say, you can't row through a hurricane.

(25:21):
And that's the terminology when if someone passes you, it's they're rowing through you and can't row through a hurricane. So we went on to Philadelphia and we beat out in three days of racing, we beat out 44 other schools and we won the title and we took home in rowing. The other thing, because it was for a long time, it was a men's sport and the tradition was that if you beat out the other boat, they had to give you their shirt. So the women would often wear a couple of different shirts because they'd have, somebody would have to take their shirt off. And I came home with a lot of shirts happen. That's awesome. That's awesome. So how do I use that in my career today? Well, I guess it's a lot of attention to detail and I don't let anything get by me sometimes. It's a lot of heavy lifting because in real estate there's a lot of details and the details are growing, a lot of juggling of things because we are handling a person's life in the most vulnerable moment. And so we have to really notice what they're going through. We're not just putting them in a moving truck and taking them on. So we pay attention to everything.

Dave Lorenzo (26:50):
Yeah. How did you get into real estate?

Gina Robichaux (26:52):
Well, as one architect said, he told me, I'm an architect junkie, so I love architecture and I love interior design. And I fell into real estate. It happened at the time at a very, very, very vulnerable time for me. So in the year 2, 19 99, 2000, the music industry was going through its own revolution with Y 2K and the business model was changing and all the major record companies were shrinking and they were joining forces. So there were six major companies became three, and they were shedding some of their departments. And I ended up in a startup. I was in a startup company, it was called Espanol, and it was trying to be the Amazon for South America. And so they were putting all their content out in Spanish. And the problem at the time was that there wasn't enough infrastructure, whatever the problems were, there wasn't enough infrastructure and faith in the culture in South America for people to put their credit card into a computer. And also the shipping processes weren't as mainstream, so you couldn't count on getting something actually delivered to your door. And so they made it through a few funding rounds and then they didn't make it anymore. At the time that I was handed my pink slip, I was under contract to purchase a house in Coconut Grove, my first house.

(28:46):
What do you do when you reinvent? And I went to work for the broker who had helped me buy my first house.

Dave Lorenzo (28:54):
Oh, there you go. Alright, okay.

Gina Robichaux (28:57):
You just find some solid ground. And I was happy because I enjoy real estate, I love architecture, I love interior design, I love helping people. And so we do a lot to help people through the thresholds of their lives.

Nicola Gelormino (29:13):
And I want you to expand on that a little bit because when Dave opened the show, he mentioned there's 19,000, if I have that right, real estate agents across South Florida. It's a lot just in one particular area. And we can tell that you have such a unique background, which clearly is a differentiator for you. But for you, how do you view when you see that many professionals in the same space that you're in, how do you differentiate yourself?

Gina Robichaux (29:36):
Well, it's harder and harder. It's very, very competitive. And I've basically just, I'm focusing more and more and more on the context that I've developed over the course of my life. And I'm doing more and more. I'm not expanding. I'm contracting in a good way. In other words, I'm focused on the people that I know personally. I am not doing, although we have to be out there on social media for now, my attention is focused on all of my personal contacts. But in order to adjust and adapt and to grow, because I've got to grow, we all have to grow. I'm bringing on a partner, she's starting in a few weeks and in fact, she and I were the stern pair of the women's varsity a, oh my gosh, back in this full circle. I absolutely love it. Yes, yes. So if you saw the movie or read the book, boys in the Boat, she and I, we were the stern pair, just like the main character was in seat seven. Tracy was seat seven. And so she has two grown sons and she's moving out of working in education. She's ready to come back and work in the private sector now. And I'm so excited to have her come and I'm going to teach her all the business. And together I think we're going to go places. So.

Nicola Gelormino (31:14):
Well, that's really exciting.

Dave Lorenzo (31:15):
So what is a typical day like for you? Describe a typical, if there is a typical day, describe a day in the life of Gina Rob show.

Gina Robichaux (31:23):
Well, I start out in the morning, I try to eke out a couple of hours of private time for me. So I meditate in the morning, I write a few pages and I go to the gym. So ideally if I could add some vocalizing to that, that would really be perfect. But I still, I can't get to bed early enough to get up early enough to do all those things. But that's my personal time. And then from there I go to my office, which is just across from my bedroom. It's a long commute. Yeah, I wish it weren't, but for now. And I do some riding to my sphere. So I make phone calls and I follow up with a lot of details that's happening in people's lives. And after that we are servicing properties. So it's this month, December, we got two days left. I'm enjoying quiet time because it was an extraordinarily busy month. So we had three transactions, two of which did not materialize. And those kept me extremely busy. And then in addition to that, I had 17 rehearsals and 13 performances.

Dave Lorenzo (32:52):
Wow. Wow. Holy cow. And I've asked you this before, but I think it would be great for you to share with the folks who are listening. How do you make sure that your voice is always tip top? Because I know today we're doing three interviews today, by the end of the day today, my voice will be shot. And I'm only speaking a third of the time here. You have to sing two and a half hours in a show. And you just said you did two and a half hours of rehearsal before the two hours. So how do you keep your voice in tip top shape?

Gina Robichaux (33:30):
So there's this very special pill, it's called ibuprofen. When the stock value of my voice goes up, we take an ibuprofen at night. I don't like to take that on an ongoing basis. But during performance week and rehearsal week, because the week of a performance, we're also rehearsing every night before the performance and for a few hours, three hours every night. And then the performance. So the last thing I do at night before I go to bed is I'll take an ibuprofen with a glass of ice filled water and I drink the cold water and then I don't speak anymore. So you have to do vocal rest when you know you're going to be using your voice a lot, you have to not speak very hard.

Dave Lorenzo (34:29):
You

Gina Robichaux (34:29):
Have to only not speak. And then also you can do some diaphragmatic exercises for singers. There's things to do where you would be exercising your diaphragm but not using your vocal chords.

Nicola Gelormino (34:42):
Is there anything that you do during the day to keep taking care of that voice? As you know you're performing,

Gina Robichaux (34:47):
You have to stay very high hydrated, lots of liquids, and you speak economically. So you don't speak. You have to consciously not speak. Wow.

Nicola Gelormino (35:00):
And you mentioned your kind of morning, call it sacred time where you have your workout routine and you have your meditation. Do you in any way modify your workouts based upon having to make sure that you're in a particular type of shape for the vocal work that you do?

Gina Robichaux (35:15):
Well, not yet. I haven't reached that level of demand yet. But I would welcome it. I mean, I was built to do this sort of thing. Rowing is an all comprehensive body sport. It's so physically demanding, it's so rewarding. You feel so good. Rowing is, I just love it. I can't say enough about it. But the breast cancer experience did a number on me and I can't complain because thanks to the breast cancer, I discovered my voice. So I was really, really conditioned to let all of that go. I was told, if you want to be successful life, stop this thing. Stop screwing around and just get focused. And I pretended to be something that I wasn't. I let that go. And so I had advanced stage breast cancer, stage three C. It was a large lesion. I had to have a mastectomy. I had to have chemotherapy and radiation and multiple surgeries more than 10 over a course of several years. And I ended up with lymphedema in my right arm. And that means I can't put any weight or pressure on my right arm.

Nicola Gelormino (36:37):
Oh, wow.

Gina Robichaux (36:38):
And I'm trained for pressure, man. And my husband used to say to me, because we used to go to the gym together, he says, I love working out with you because you work out like a man. And I enjoy that physicality, but I can't do it. So I hired a trainer to keep me from hurting myself. So I have to do, the training that I do now is very tamped down and it feels like a warmup to me. And I had to condition myself. So he works with me where I can, and I try to do the erg, the ergometer, and I'm always battling this. I'm always battling this buildup of pressure in the arm. I'm supposed to be wearing a compression sleeve and I go to physical therapy every week for the arm. I've been doing that for 10 years for my arm. So once last year, Tracy and I, at the beginning of the year, about a year ago next week, we went to see Boys in the Boat together. And after that movie I was like, I'm getting a boat, I'm going out there. I'm like, I want to do this. I just don't know if I really can anymore. I'd love to, maybe I

Nicola Gelormino (38:14):
Will. It's just that drive will always be there as an athlete. And I think that's so smart that you got someone to say, Hey, you need to do what your body can handle. I would have the same problem that someone who really appreciates intense workouts. And I think you need someone to step in and say, don't do this because you'll hurt yourself. But you still have that same drive. And I think you always will. And I'd be surprised if you didn't say that Drive helps you in what you do in your professional

Gina Robichaux (38:38):
Life. It probably does. I'm sure it does. I don't feel it in the same way, but I am a perfectionist and I struggle with that because it holds me back sometimes from completing things. But I really do care about my clients and often the right ones become very dear friends. And we could save that for another time because one of my clients literally saved my life this past year. I went through quite an ordeal with legal things. These are clients who are retired now, but he was the former district attorney in Las Vegas.

Dave Lorenzo (39:19):
Oh wow.

Gina Robichaux (39:20):
And we uncovered some criminal behavior that I would never have imagined

Dave Lorenzo (39:27):
In South Florida. Shocking. I'm shocked. Criminal behavior in South

Gina Robichaux (39:31):
Florida. Well, you're right about that, but I'm not part of that community. Of course, of course.

Dave Lorenzo (39:38):
Neither are

Gina Robichaux (39:38):
We, by the way,

Nicola Gelormino (39:40):
To be clear, we would know nothing about it either. Just I read a lot of the news.

Gina Robichaux (39:44):
Well, so his entire career, his entire career was in las working with, and his wife was a public defender, the two of them together. And when I had to finally come to them with a problem, which I normally don't do with my clients, and I said, I have this situation, I wonder if you can help me here. And they started to tell me a few things and they opened up my mind to that, which then set me on the path that helped me resolve a very serious problem. And it was resolved.

Dave Lorenzo (40:16):
In

Gina Robichaux (40:17):
Fact, Jacque so helped me.

Dave Lorenzo (40:18):
Oh good. Great. That's great. So 10 year survivor, how long?

Gina Robichaux (40:24):
Yes sir. It'll be 11 years on January 6th. Awesome.

Dave Lorenzo (40:29):
That's awesome. That's fantastic.

Gina Robichaux (40:31):
Thank you.

Dave Lorenzo (40:32):
Alright, how do people get ahold of you if they can relate to your story and they want to buy or sell real estate in South Florida, how can people get ahold of you?

Gina Robichaux (40:41):
Well, do you want me to rattle off my phone number and email it?

Dave Lorenzo (40:44):
I want you to do that so people can contact you. Give us the phone number first and then you can give us the email address, which we will put in the show notes as well.

Gina Robichaux (40:51):
Okay. Well thank you so much. I really appreciate today. Thank you. My phone number is five eight two eight eight four eight,

Dave Lorenzo (41:04):
Again

Gina Robichaux (41:04):
3 0 5 5 8 2 8 8 4 8.

Dave Lorenzo (41:09):
Okay. And what about email?

Gina Robichaux (41:11):
So email is Gina at, which is GINA, Aruba robisho real estate punto com. So robo is spelled ROB as in boy, I-C-H-A-U-X for X-ray.

Dave Lorenzo (41:33):
Alright, perfect. We're going to put that in the show notes, the email address and the phone number will go in the show notes. Now you do residential real estate, correct?

Gina Robichaux (41:42):
I mainly do residential. I have helped people with some commercial transactions. So I'm working right now with an artist organization. We're moving relocating offices. They're in a building, they've been in the same building for 40 plus years. And guess what? The building property's been sold and it's going to be redeveloped. And so now I'm helping them find a new office space,

Dave Lorenzo (42:05):
Palm Beach Broward, Miami Dade.

Gina Robichaux (42:07):
Correct. So we just had a seasonal rental in Palm Beach, which was a lovely two bedroom, two bath, fully furnished direct ocean view. And that rented for 18,000 a month.

Dave Lorenzo (42:19):
Wow, that's great.

Gina Robichaux (42:20):
Yeah.

Dave Lorenzo (42:20):
Terrific.

Gina Robichaux (42:21):
And I have a long-term rental in Lake Clark Shores, which is near Lake Worth. And that's a beautiful three bedroom, two bath. We're looking for a long-term rental there. That's 3,800 a month, not furnished.

Dave Lorenzo (42:34):
Okay, so a couple of things that I want people to keep in mind when they're listing. The way to pick a real estate agent, the way to pick someone to help you, the way to pick a realtor in my opinion is find someone who, number one understands you and is ready, willing and able to take the time to understand you. And what I would do if I were you looking for property now is I would find someone who I connected with, who I had an affinity with because in my experience, you're going to spend a lot of time with the person who's your realtor. And if that person rubs you the wrong way, regardless of whether they have deep expertise in your type of home or the type of property that you're looking for, I think you want to spend time with somebody who gets you and what you're looking to accomplish and can read between the lines and can manage the dynamic with you and whomever else you are shopping for, real estate with. You buy a lot of real estate. If you are looking for a realtor, how would you select a realtor?

Nicola Gelormino (43:47):
What matters most is someone who really cares about your interests. So real estate, especially because the amount of people that are in that profession in South Florida can be very transactional. And I've seen far too many agents who will just handle it as a transaction and not as the person. So I'd be thinking, who's going to care about my best interest? Because every transaction is different. And setting aside your form, contracts are using it is still different. And someone who knows to ask the right question, someone who's going to care about, did we think about this for you? Did we make sure we put it in the contract? Did we talk about it? I've seen so many things overlooked. So it's the person who cares most about our interests is what I'd be looking for. And yes, relationships first. Someone who's going to just care about me as a person.

Gina Robichaux (44:30):
I agree wholeheartedly. And if you are in a situation where you're sensing that this chemistry is off, don't go forward. Find someone that you really do feel comfortable with because that will harm the transaction. It will just be another be, I can't think of the word, but it won't go well usually. I mean it's a lot to overcome. Just the most sane, phenomenal people go cuckoo in a real estate transaction. So you really need to feel comfortable with your person.

Dave Lorenzo (45:13):
Alright folks, you heard it here from Gina Rob Show her contact information is down in the show notes if you want to reach out to her. This is the Inside Bs show. We're here with a brand new interview at least once a week. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you heard today, be sure and follow us. You can follow us on Spotify, on Apple, on wherever you get your podcasts. And in addition, do us a favor, share the show with somebody else who you care about. I don't care. Share it with people you don't care about. Share it with people who are in business. Here's the reason why the show only grows by you sharing it with other people. You won't see us advertised on billboards along the side of the highway. We only grow when you share it with other people. Join us here again next week for another interview. We're here every Wednesday at 6:00 AM on the Inside Bs show. I am Dave Lorenzo, the godfather of growth, and she is G. See you back here again next week folks. Thanks to Gina Roba show and thank you for listening.