We recently connected with John Zupancic and have shared our conversation below.
John, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.
I am lucky to be the son of Tom and Carrie Zupancic who reside in Indianapolis, IN. My parents are both incredible humans, and I am beyond blessed that they instilled their values and work ethic in not only their children and grandchildren, but also inspire every single person they meet.
My parents have been married for 47 years and with that has come many obstacles. They are the epitome of what it means to be a team and work together to achieve their goals – no matter how wild and outlandish those goals might have seemed at the time. For example, pre-kids, they uprooted their lives in Indianapolis to move to Minnesota so my dad could chase his dream of wrestling in the Olympics. Trust me, this was no movie-like adventure. They struggled financially, their only apartment furniture was a mattress on the ground, and even chose which monthly bills to pay by doing a blind drawing of them out of a mixing bowl. However, it didn’t matter how difficult things were, my parents set a goal and were determined to do everything they could to work to reach it. After all of their hard work, my dad was able to become an alternate on the US Olympic Wrestling Team.
From there, it was on to the next adventures. They began life as entrepreneurs and opened a weightlifting gym, Zupancic’s Gym. Their gym even went on to be the first co-ed lifting gym in Indianapolis. My mom went on to win the Couple’s America Bodybuilding Competition in 1983, my dad set the world record for heaviest neck lift, and he became the Strength and Conditioning coach for the Indianapolis Colts.
These are just a few of the amazing goals my parents set and achieved.
I aspire to be like them: a supportive partner and someone who doesn’t have to look back and wonder – what if I didn’t go for it? I want to be like them and set crazy big goals! – Heck, such big goals that people think I’m crazy and I get to say “watch me!”
Finally, I owe my parents the biggest levels of gratitude for always, no matter what, instilling confidence in me. They so strongly encouraged me to be myself and to follow my passions, to get in front of people and perform, and to never change myself because of someone else. When I told them I wanted to move to Nashville to be a musician vs go the traditional route of getting a W2 job, they responded with “when do we need the Uhaul here?” When I told them I was going to dive into real estate as a full time job and I would be quitting the corporate job with guaranteed money, they responded with “Go for it Bucco! You’ll never know unless you try!”
I cannot thank my parents enough for the love they have given me, my wife, my siblings, their families, and the countless friends and acquaintances I have been lucky enough to introduce to them over the years. The amount of people who call my parents “Mama and Papa Zup” is way more than I could ever begin to count, and I am incredibly lucky that so many people have been able to feel that same love and support from them that I have felt my entire life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started Muttz Realty in October of 2021, so we just recently celebrated our third birthday! In real estate, you have to work for a firm for three years before you can open your own firm, so I used those three years to hone my craft, learn as much as I could, and ask as many questions as I could think of. Once I hit my three year mark, I immediately went on my own and opened up Muttz Realty. What started as me being Principal Broker and the lone agent has since grown to 20 licensed Realtors and some incredible partnerships in Nashville. I am proud that Muttz Realty has the motto “Real Estate that Rescues”, because we donate money from every single closing to one of the community partners we work with.
My wife owns Movement Lounge by Yoga Muttz, and when we started our respective businesses, we made a firm decision that we would use our platforms to give back to the community, do good, and bring awareness and support to the groups that we love. We have five dogs, two cats, and two rabbits (all rescues), so one of our primary focuses is to support animal welfare and local animal rescues in Middle Tennessee. One of our primary partners is SOAR Rescue, a local foster-based rescue committed to reducing the stress on our overburdened shelter systems throughout Nashville. Along with SOAR Rescue, we share a goal to help make our city become a no-kill Nashville.
Our passions for community extend far beyond animals. When I started Muttz Realty, it was extremely important to me to create a safer space in real estate for alo people to not only be able to find their forever homes, but to set people up to create general wealth for themselves through real estate. Because of that, we are proud to be the inaugural sponsor for the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance in Nashville, to have worked closely with Nashville GSA, and to have a booth each year at Nashville Pride. Real estate is a scary, intimidating, and sometimes not a friendly world. At Muttz Realty, our agents and clients have an open and collaborative space where they are loved, heard, supported, and know that their money is going further through our partnerships with the rescue animal community and our overall community efforts.
In terms of real estate: we work with all aspects of the business, from first-time homebuyers and sellers to some of the most experienced investors in the industry. Each of the agents here specializes in their specific fields, and we have agents from all walks of life — so whether you are looking for someone to take your investment portfolio to the next level, looking for someone to help you along the process of buying your first home, or just looking for someone to have a drink with and make a new friend, we welcome you to the Muttz Pack!
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
My number one piece of advice for growing your business and clientele is to figure out how you can serve your community, dive in head-first, and do it authentically. We have had the most success growing our clientele by, quite simply, throwing our full-fledged support into the groups and community efforts that we feel passionate about. We are heavily involved in the rescue animal community and the LGBTQ+ community, both groups that we love and want to do everything in our power to support.
By putting our money where our mouth is, we have grown a loyal client base who know that their money is going farther by working with us, as we are donating a portion of the compensation we earn to one of our community partners. But, our motto “Real Estate that Rescues” goes far beyond financial support. We are heavily involved in volunteering and being present and supportive during the public events that the communities we are trying to support are involved with.
In the animal rescue space; we actually foster dogs at the Muttz Realty office. We have taken in dogs through SOAR Rescue and turned our office into both a whelping ward (meaning we host mama dogs and their newborn puppies from a few days old through 8-10 weeks) to emergency cases where the dog is a bit older and has some trauma to work through on their healing journey. We are able to provide the dogs a quiet space where they can relax, get into a routine, and begin to regain confidence and trust towards humans. With the mama dogs, we help to ensure that all the puppies are growing, eating, healthy, and make sure that the mama is well taken care of, comfortable, and able to do what she needs to do. We have slowly turned into the “Dog Realtor People” which I love, because we have become top of mind for the dog community here in Middle Tennessee.
Through our partnerships with the LGBTQ+ community, we are a presence at as many events as possible. We have a booth at Pride every year, we have sponsored “Queer Prom” in Nashville, and we were the inaugural Rainbow Sponsor of the Nashville Chapter of the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance. The amount of people who I have spoken to who said they were so proud to see us at an event or they were excited to see that there was a real estate group that was so public in their support of the LGBTQ+ Community is both heartwarming and an honor.
Our goal has always been to make a difference in our community, help animals, and ensure that all people know there is a safe space in the real estate world through Muttz Realty. My advice to those trying to grow their clientele: look internally about what you are passionate about and what you want to support, then put your energy behind that specific group/thing. You will slowly become the go-to person in that world when it comes to real estate. The biggest thing, though, DO NOT go in with the agenda of gaining clients. Go in with the attitude that you are there to help, support, and grow and let the other stuff eventually take care of itself.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
There are a ton of different strategies for managing a team and I am not going to begin to say that my way is the only or best way. I have been on a bunch of different teams and worked in a variety of different roles within those teams. I took some of the best strategies that I learned from prior bosses, took the negative things I learned from other teams and made sure to avoid them, and try every day to learn and be better for my people.
When I interview new members of the team, and every year during the “year wrap-up and new year kick-off” one on one, I make sure to ask “what is your definition of success?” Everyone’s definition is different. Someone’s definition may be “I make $200,000 a year and can comfortably live”, others may be “I want to sell one house a quarter and have enough money saved up to buy myself x and not have to bat an eye when it comes to buying gifts during the holidays” and so many things in between. I can’t tell someone what “success” is, but I can ask questions, learn more about what they are wanting to do, and then give strategies and work with that person to achieve that goal.
I try to follow up with the individual agents once a month and talk about their climb towards accomplishing their goal, see if there is anything I can do to help, and continue to provide as much positive reinforcement as possible.
We have a lot of agents who do real estate part time, so it took me a minute to find the delicate balance between pushing people and letting things happen as they come. I really feel that if you asked someone on my team how I am as a leader, they would say that I give them the space they need but am the first person to jump when they need something.
I have implemented two other strategies throughout the year: training on things people care about and an end of the year awards ceremony. There are so many businesses in all facets of the corporate world that have meetings just to have meetings and check a box. So many things can be done not in a meeting setting, and people can get so easily burnt out if they feel like they are wasting their time or their money on something that 1) isn’t helpful and 2) isn’t something they are interested in.
Because of this, I have tried to create our trainings and meetings to reflect things our people actually care about. One of the questions during the kick-off one on one is “What is one thing you want to learn about this year, it doesn’t have to be real estate related?” and those answers help to formulate what our trainings look like for the year. Obviously, there are things that need to be covered that we do on top of that, but if it wasn’t for the implementation of that feedback we would never have had a social media crash course, a lawyer come in and explain the benefits of setting up your assets into a trust, or a self defense seminar.
I wanted to make sure that our agents felt appreciated and got the recognition they deserve, so we have an end year awards celebration. I wanted to give out awards that were different than just a trophy, so I created the awards to reflect the accomplishment while also being something that was a bit different. For example; the person that does the most amount of money in transactions wins the award called “The Big Cheese” and gets a Green Bay Packers Cheese Head as the trophy. We have an award for the person who does the most amount of closings, an award for the person that goes to the most events throughout the year, and an award for the person who is the most helpful throughout the year. Finally, we have a dinner for any agents (and their plus one) who sold over $1 million in transactions. Agents who reach that target are members of the Muttz Club, receive a plaque, and then we go to one of the newest and nicest restaurants in the city to celebrate. All of these awards and the winner’s name is commemorated in plaques on the wall in the office, so agents have something to look at and be proud of when they come in.
All in all, my biggest advice is be flexible. Have your strategies, provide your feedback, but be open to new ideas and genuinely ask for feedback in return from your team. To put it in sports terms: don’t force people to learn the offense based only on what you think is the best and most effective strategy, be willing to tailor your playbook to the strengths and the needs of the people actually running the plays. And, at the end of the day, make sure your team feels appreciated, respected, heard, empowered, and supported.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.muttzrealty.com
- Instagram: @nashvilledogrealtor @muttzrealty
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-zupancic-nash/
Image Credits
Schuyler Phoenix, Good Neighbor Festivals, Alex Guidi Zupancic, Maggie Gale