What If The Real Edge In Real Estate Is Service | Chopper Russo

We sit down with New Jersey real estate leader Chopper to unpack how a massive network turns into repeat business when you prioritize connection, education, and real service. We get tactical on commercial vs residential, team building, AI workflows, and the kind of community involvement that actually lasts.

• building a career by making introductions feel personal rather than transactional
• shifting from furniture manufacturing to real estate and recreating yourself fast
• staying top of mind through branding people remember
• balancing residential, commercial, and business deals and why commercial takes patience
• raising your standards through education, certifications, and learning from top producers
• hiring an admin first to win back time and protect focus
• using AI to handle mundane work and review calls for honest feedback
• serving the community for the right reasons and why “doing it for business” fails
• creating a client experience that stays with people long after closing

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Chad Armbruster – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadaarmbruster/

Transcript

Chopper Russo 0:00

It's just a connection. I don't I don't call these files. I only say my clients say so listen, I'd be honored if you introduce me to any of your family, friends, or colleagues that can use our YouTube.

Sean Leary 0:42

Chopper

Big Numbers And A Big Welcome

Sean Leary 0:43

and his team had 151 transactions last year in 2025 and 70 million in total sales. Uh so he covers all of New Jersey, like Justin said. Chopper, thanks for being here.

Chopper Russo 0:53

Glad you wanted me here. And it's an honor to be part of this podcast. I've been watching a few of them. And besides that, I like your product. Did you just say we have he's a viewer?

Justin Armbruster 1:04

Let's go. We have a go. Chopper,

From Furniture Factories To Real Estate

Justin Armbruster 1:07

how'd you get into the real estate business?

Chopper Russo 1:08

We were furniture manufacturers originally, and uh we were right by the Lincoln Tunnel in Union City, and my grandfather bought the buildings originally so that the neighbors wouldn't complain about the factory. One thing led to another, and it was a good profit center. We had 105 units, a bunch of warehouses and factories and parking lots. And like I tell people, I did my first building rehab at eight years old. So we do a lot of leases, and I love these people that call me, they tell me this story. I'm like, dude, I've heard that story. You know, I may give a tenant the pass when they come up with something original that I haven't heard, you know. I got this one guy, and I'm like, dude, I said, Mark, you're so full of shit hockey. I've heard that a zillion times. You know, I mean, I took a minor at Marquette uh in uh real estate, and then um I actually worked for the Paps Brewery when I was in college. I was the number one salesman in the country for three years. Chris Farley was on my rugby team. Mr. Paps loved me because I had a pair of wavers on me. Here I am with an earring, a little mustache from Jersey. I go, hey, Mr. Paps, is it true you drove a car into the Holiday and uh pool? He goes, It was a Howard Johnson. My boss wanted to kill me. He died about a year ago. And in his obit, he had lost a bet, and it was it was a similar name. It was a boutique, and sure enough, he drove his car right into that pool.

Justin Armbruster 2:37

Huh.

Chopper Russo 2:38

So that was pretty wild.

Justin Armbruster 2:40

How long ago did you get in the business?

Chopper Russo 2:42

What it was is I had offers from nine of the top ten brewers, and my father offered me a job, and then when I got to the factory, he bulls me. So he goes, I'm gonna give you a straight fee. I said, No, you're gonna pay me a commission, otherwise, I'll give you the seven bars I'll be sitting at during the day. So we my brother and I we took that from like two million to eleven million uh throughout the United States and the Middle East and uh, you know, Korea and Japan, and then uh we ran that well. Um then uh between the Teamsters, 9-11, China. I mean, we wound up having a factory in Catania, Sicily, and uh factory in Shanghai, but it was just we were too much of a niche. We were on the pimple, the back side of the furniture industry, and everybody just copied us. I mean, I had a set of tables we make 15,000 sets in a year. Within 18 months, we're down to 1,500. The overhead and everything was just too much. Yeah, you know. So I was getting divorced. I told my brother to take it over, and I recreated myself and got into this full time. I actually got my license by accident because I know so many people. Like my phone, I got like almost 19,000 contacts. I've always been good at connecting people, and I was putting together a deal with Columbia Savings, Bank, Starbucks, and Walgreens. And my buddy's like, you better get a license because when I used to do things before, I'd run it through the company. And he's like, No, get your license. And I did, and then I was getting divorced and everything else, so I wound up with the license. And you know, my first transaction in real estate was six figures. So then he told me, because you know, I went right into Remax, and I was kind of in aberration because she was supposed to have multiple years of experience, and I did and I didn't. You know, I've been wheeling and dealing and selling stuff since I'm a kid, but real estate also until I got my legal license. So I just fell into it and um told me to partner with this girl, and I did 98% of the work. She got 50% of the money. That didn't last too well. And as they say, partnership is the only ship that doesn't float. So it was May, it was May of 2010. I was at one of the New York Giants houses that was being sold, and I got a call from a company that I was up to run the whole tri-state area for them for furniture. I was kind of pregnant. You know, I was like in furniture and I was in real estate, and like my buddy Sully says, you can't be kind of pregnant. Either you are or you aren't. So I just turned to the girl at the time and I said, I'm done, no more furniture.

Justin Armbruster 5:29

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 5:29

But you see, JCM sales still exists, and it's the number one tri-state uh furniture rep organization. It was John Chocolate Mike, so they're doing well.

Justin Armbruster 5:40

So you got into the business on accident. Why are you still doing it? Checks don't bounce.

Chopper Russo 5:47

Kobe had one check for 50 grand from a landlord about six months ago. So I I should say the checks don't have a majority of bouncer, but yeah, no. Yeah. That's why. I made more money. Listen, I worked for my family, this and that, and we built up what we built. I made more money the first year out of uh furniture in real estate. But it's not about the money, this is a good gig. It's fun.

Justin Armbruster 6:10

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 6:10

You know, it look, I'm up to almost 19,000 contacts on my phone. Right before we connected, I'm helping out the guy with the carnival to get an air conditioner guy to fix his ice cream truck. You know, just what I do. That's why this is like a natural for me.

Sean Leary 6:30

So, what's one habit then do you feel like or a routine that's helped you stay in front of so many? You have a huge network. What's something that's helped you kind of stay in front of uh so many of your your influence, your sphere of influence, uh to help generate that repeat and referral business?

Chopper Russo 6:45

It's just connection, you know, and I don't I don't call it referral. You know what I mean? It's I I want you know, I I always say to my to my clients, and I never call them customers because customers are transactional and that means money. You know, clients is is an appreciated relationship. And I always say my clients, I said, listen, I'd be honored if you introduce me to any of your family, friends, or colleagues that can use our assistance. You know, because we have a wide gamut of what we do. I don't just do resi, we do commercial. Um, we're doing uh businesses. I have the chopper breakfast wrap, the chopper tuna melt, the chopper hot plate, the chopper broccoli rob sandwich. Oh, the chopper cheeseburgers, 1995. It's two eight-ounce sirloin triple ground patties with Taylor Ham, which is a Jersey thing, a northern Jersey thing. South Jersey calls it pork roll. It's friggin' Taylor Ham. Egg, bacon, and lettuce and tomato. All right. So I have all these foods named after me, and for my birthday on May 31st, I used to give out a hundred at each one of the restaurants. And the reason I did it was to promote, you know, I paid for it. But it got to be, people are bad when you give them stuff for free. And I mean, they're like disrespectful. And I said to my all my guys, I said, look, you're gonna get your glomers, you're gonna get your regulars, but that 30% that are new hopefully turns into four or five that become regular customers. But it really became burdensome, so I just dropped it. But yeah, my my intention before God calls upon me to be a full uh menu. I definitely want the veal the chopper veal chop. That's my goal. That's my goal.

Justin Armbruster 8:34

So you have a relationship with these restaurant owners? Is that how you're getting these foods named?

Chopper Russo 8:40

No, I sell them. No, I sell the restaurants to them. Oh, okay. Oh, JD's deli, the number one seller is the chopper breakfast wrap. All right. I had to go there for a year with the Korean dude that his, I mean, alright? I KO on one hand and and a roll of toilet paper in the other, until I figured out there was like only one item that was safe. And he runs into me at the bank and goes, Chopper, you got me a couple nice American girls with nice bodies. I sell business. They do better. I don't know how to sp I don't know how to cook American. I said, Cook, I said, you burned friggin' water. You should have been out of this business three years ago. Filled my stomach over here. I'm lucky I didn't get a friggin' ulcer. You know?

Justin Armbruster 9:22

If

Starting Over With Calls And Learning

Justin Armbruster 9:23

if you had to start over your real estate business today, what would be the first thing you do? What would be your advice to someone starting fresh?

Chopper Russo 9:31

Well, I picked up the phone. I saw this guy, Eddie Detroit. He was the number one guy in Remax in Jersey. And I said, listen, can I pick your brain? You know, go right to the top dog. You know? In fact, when I got the award that he had called the Diamond, he wasn't gonna go to AC. And I'm like, no, you have to be there because I always wanted to be on the stage with you. Listen, all these friggin' brands who are gonna teach you, they're gonna teach you in guts. All right? You gotta teach yourself. You know, it's easier now with chat and Claude and the rest of that, but you gotta learn from other people's experiences. You know, these masterminds are great. You know, you're only as good. Like, I fell in love with Darren Hardy back in 2011 at a conference. I've always been one that reinvests himself. I think I threw out some cassettes and some CDs a couple years ago, you know. But all of them, you know, like Darren Hardy. I used to get the Nightingale stuff. You know, it's funny, like how California and Texas, you know, one surpassing the other. I read about that 18 years ago, it was forecasted. You know what I mean? You see, the thing with the only thing I didn't read about was AI. Because I would have been all out of that. But just like about how they're gonna make meat out of a petri dish. I told my guys like five years ago, they said they're nuts, and they've been talking about it the last couple years now. So it's all it's all about education, it's self-motivation. But if I got if you dropped me in the middle of Topeka, I'd find out that the top individuals, the top teams, you know. Listen, what's a knucklehead fairy say out in California? Rip off, rinse, and repeat. When I was in the furniture business, now I'm gonna show my age. It's gonna get a lot of people to scratch their head. But the greatest designer in furniture was Kodak. People taking pictures and you know, copying everything. This ain't rocket science, you know? It's a shame that 70% of um all the realtors did zero transactions.

Justin Armbruster 11:40

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 11:42

But there's no great barrier of entry. I mean, in Jersey, you only need 90 hours to sell a million-dollar house. But the guy to cut my hair, I got a haircut tomorrow. That would have been a little bit better. He gets 20 bucks, but he had to go to school for 1200 hours, which is ridiculous. Yep. You know, I I got 30 accreditation certifications, and all my team members have a minimum of eight. You know. Besides, you don't learn, you die. You can't sit still.

Justin Armbruster 12:13

What do you make of that? Uh it takes more credit hours to cut hair than sell real estate. Do you think the barrier of interest should be higher, or what do you think?

Chopper Russo 12:20

Yeah, but again, it's a state mandated thing. I'm down in Atlantic City, I have a thing called triple plate. I have New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania realtors, and I'm talking to one of the head mahas. You know, I'm like, why don't you have a minimum? You know? Because here's the funny thing. We get bunched in with used car salesmen or carton salesmen, okay? But we're like a doctor, an attorney, um, a CPA, a financial. We are all licensed. So the other guys that sell the boxes, sell the cars, whatever, they're not licensed. And the problem is they don't realize that because there's a very low barrier of entry. What's 90 hours? What are you waiting for? A grand when everything is said and done? Yeah. Then they run around and say, Oh, I'm a realtor like this one and that one. And I'm like, dude, the only thing you got in common with me is we both got a real estate license, and that's where the comparison ends. You know, and you have that problem when you go to pitch somebody, oh, my brother's cousin's uncle's friend. Yeah. I've never heard of him. I say, let me ask chat. Let me, you know, and that's a great thing with chat. Because chat will be like, well, God, if it takes over my voice, say, yeah, Jimmy Jones, he's a schmuck. He doesn't sell anything.

Justin Armbruster 13:41

Love that.

Chopper Russo 13:42

You're funny, Chopper.

Justin Armbruster 13:43

This is good.

Chopper Russo 13:45

It's just me. It's just me. Yeah.

Sean Leary 13:48

So what

Commercial Reality And Branding That Sticks

Sean Leary 13:49

what percentage of your uh your business is commercial and what percentage of it is is uh residential?

Chopper Russo 13:55

It fluctuates. I mean, my idea, you know, look, we were talking this morning about a 10-year plan and stuff. Like, I want to have like four solid pillars resi, commercial, businesses, and the property management. You know? Um it's a weird, you know, like we've gotten number one in commercial since 2018, just for Remax in the state of New Jersey, which all right, when I was a furniture manufacturer, the biggest company in the world, in the world is Ashley. And I always made sure that my showroom was right by Ashley. You don't have enough time to get the story how I got the great spot in Tupelo, Mississippi. But anyway, Ashley's the 800-pound gorilla, and I learned from that that you could live handsomely off of them. I would tackle people before they go in their showroom because once they went through there, they their pockets were empty. So I would grab them when they slide a couple shekels in their pocket. But that's the same thing with our with our commercial. You know, we're doing whatever. You know, sometimes you never know where something's gonna take you. You know, you help a guy out on on something, a rental. You don't know that his cousin owns this or owns that. But to answer your question, right now I'd say it's about 60, 35, and the other 5% is businesses. So 60 Resi, 35 commercial, and five um uh businesses. But you know, the commercial's nice, but it's a long haul. We've we've had closings that take seven years, five years between the planning board transference and license and stuff. But those numbers are big. You know, those are easy to do the math. You know, those are six-figure checks.

Justin Armbruster 15:47

Yeah. For an agent that doesn't do commercial, which would be me, what is one of the biggest misconceptions or biggest differentiators between the two? Because I, you know, we have a license to do both, but only a certain amount of realtors know when to stay in their land and when they don't.

Chopper Russo 16:04

Yeah, well, that's what we profess. Because like I I gave Patrick part of part of the action, and I got him a lot of the guys I got out of high school and stuff, and nurtured him through college and stuff, and I got him confident and financially set enough that he just did commercial. When I first did commercial and I went out to Colorado, I showed him my business card, and let's say it's 2011, they're like, oh, you shouldn't have your picture on your on your business card. I said, Idiot, do you know studies have found that 97% of people retain the card longer when there's a face there because there's an attachment? Oh. Then they're breaking my balls because I put my picture, I advertise with the dog my picture on the commercial side. Oh, what are you doing up for? Anyway, fast forward like two years later, they're doing a promotion. You know, you should put your picture on your business card, and you should put your picture on your commercial sign. I raised my hand. I said, You shake you hillbillies. Is this a good thought or what? You know, friggin' idiots.

Justin Armbruster 17:12

Oh, yeah, I see it right here. Yeah, that's your dog right here on your boxes.

Chopper Russo 17:17

Listen, I got 64,000 lunatics in Jersey running around saying they're a realtor. Yep. So my nickname's Chopper. The dog's named after my high school Bosco. And everybody's like, How's Chopper doing? I said, I'm doing okay. And the great thing about that is, some kid knocked me off down by the Meadowlands where they're having the World Cup, put up a nice billboard. So I happened to know the manager. I said, dude, he's like, ah, he doesn't know you. I said, I do TV commercials, he knows me. So I waited a month. I said, Do I have to pay the kid a referral? He's like, what are you talking about? I said, everybody saw that billboard. It's Route 17 by the Metallands, so I don't know what the car count is. It's gotta be 90,000 cars. I got three freaking deals from him. So I called him. I said, I said, dude, do I have to give him a VIG? He's like, wait a minute. I said, I got three deals from the commercial from the billboard. Tell him I appreciate it.

Justin Armbruster 18:19

So he put up a billboard of you, or how did uh what did he put a billboard of?

Chopper Russo 18:22

Oh, he did a billboard with a bulldog. I was doing bulldogs before everybody fell into love with bulldogs. Now they're into the Frenchies.

Justin Armbruster 18:30

Yeah. That's fair.

Chopper Russo 18:32

And by the way, my guy got an award for the most comedic commercial. In fact, yeah. He's not with us anymore, but we got this from Cable Vision. So when the dog was alive, I'm like, hey, look what we want. He started, look, you see, he tried to bite it here. He thought it was a friggin' biscuit, you know. So then I had done commercials for a guy with a small Ford dealership, and Ford forced him because it was downtown and not a highway, to move to the big big street. And then they had the the dog Henry. Well, my commercial cost 700 bucks to make his cost seven grand. I kicked his ass. And another guy, I said, Well, you get the idea you're talking bulldog. What do you talk about? I'm like, we advertise on the same network, you know. I'm not expecting any credit, but I like to give him a little thing.

Building A Team With Culture First

Sean Leary 19:29

You know, and so a couple of things. You've brought up a couple names, like Patrick or guys on your team. When did you what up at what point in your career did you think, you know, hey, I need I need to get a couple of uh guys underneath me or gals uh to start building this thing up bigger than than what I got. What where was the switch?

Chopper Russo 19:44

And day one, I I've done over 1,500 transactions. I have never entered a listing once. I don't got time to type. And and thank God for AI that you can talk into it. You know, I have my own texting verbiage that my team knows about because I talk into that thing at 80 miles an hour, and it's it's up to them to decipher what I said. Yep.

Justin Armbruster 20:08

So what was your what was your first hire for your team? Was it an admin assistant or buyer's agent?

Chopper Russo 20:12

Well, actually, remember I said that business partner, because she would do all the listings, and then I let her go. And yeah, I went right to an admin. Yeah. Right, right to an admin. And then um, you know, I re read uh the Kool-Aid Kids um book, Gary Keller. Uh The Millionaire, uh, what do they call it? M R E. Yep, yep. Yeah. That was good. I wish I kind of read it before I started the team, but it it it helped to resonate. Yeah. You know, I don't know, you know, I hear that guys give splits here and there. You gotta live, you gotta eat. I was big on, you know, kind of like the Weikert idea, if you can fog a mirror, you're hired. I didn't know any better. Now we have a seven-step process, um, seven interviews before we hire you. And and still that's not a hundred percent correct.

Justin Armbruster 21:04

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 21:05

I remember there was a guy in the furniture industry, always got like the best lines, but then we lose them. And then we did some research and found out he was great at interviewing and uh but not good at performing.

Justin Armbruster 21:17

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 21:18

I mean, look, it it's it's like raising a kid. Right? There's no perfect way of doing it, you know. To build up the team though, it's culture. We we let someone go recently because it was bad for culture. Uh I made Patrick the manager of our team probably in hindsight would let that person stay on a little bit longer. But it is what it is.

Justin Armbruster 21:42

What would your advice be to uh there's a lot of solo agents out there who just kind of do everything themselves? What would be your advice or your reasoning on hey, hiring that first admin? Before we dive into that, the outside the box podcast is all about serving clients well and great realtors. No, the move is when the service matters most.

Sean Leary 22:02

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Justin Armbruster 22:18

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Chopper Russo 22:32

Honestly, they might be able to get away with it if they learn the prompts or teach the prompts on Flaud.

Justin Armbruster 22:39

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 22:40

But, like, look, I just went to Sicily for two weeks. And I had to let go. Alright. Not since I had the factory and say back in '88, before Al Gore invented the internet, before we had the boxy cell phone, and we didn't use answering machines, that I had like a really true vacation. I used to have to ask my wife what grade she'd give me from A to F. Um, that my team stepped up. I had all my calls forwarded and only did one call a day. I would like on the next trip to make a call maybe every other day. Um but to the single agent, if that's you know, what floats your boat, that's fine. Um but if you were to hire somebody, I I'd hire an admin. You know, it's it's tough. I mean, look, the one it's not like it hasn't been done before. I mean, you look at Joshua Cohen out on the West Coast, he's a single guy, but I know he has people behind him, you know. Um AI is not gonna replace us. It's the closest that I can say that is cloning as far as to replicate and duplicate and do do some of the mundane. I mean, the money's in the mundane, the repetition and stuff. You know what I get upset about? A lot of these these uh brokerages, they lie to them when they come in. You know, we're gonna teach you this, we're gonna do this and that. They don't do shiitake for them. You know? And then they lead you on that uh, oh, we're gonna do this and that. And yeah, they give you one session and then it's only $99 a month. And oh, what's your average uh, you know, what do you get if you you sell a house? Think about that. You get one one deal and you cover the 99 a month. I've seen a lot of 99 a month uh guys and gals go out of, you know, go bankrupt, you know.

Sean Leary 24:35

So

Community Work That Cannot Be Faked

Sean Leary 24:36

I was kind of just thinking with uh your network and and we touched on it earlier, your community, uh doing a little bit of research on you. I say that you are just have your hands in and so much of the community. Um what kind of where did that start at? I mean, homes for heroes, uh baking for memories, St. Jude, Education Foundation, you just have your hands in and so much of the community. Where did that kind of where did that start and and why are you why are you doing that so much?

Chopper Russo 25:01

I've always asked myself that to tell you the truth. What happened, I don't know where it came from. I I knew my grandfather was very generous, not that he was in the elks or the knights, but I um I had a big impact on my life at my high school Don Bosco. There's uh something I got from them. Um that's the name of the dog. And I got involved in there in 1998 as uh alumni chairman. And I did that gig for about 12 years that I was on the board of trustees, and that came to an end, and then one of the ladies in town, I think they got me in the nights in between, you know, because it's all related to the Catholic Church, but um one of the ladies in town knew I was done with Bosco, and she got me in the Oakland Education Foundation, and just one thing led to another. I like it, but I just fell into the thing, you know what I mean? I I mean, look, the mayor calls me one day. Hey, I need you to run the green team. They said, tree hugging? And yeah, he goes, she goes, they're all good, but they don't know how to talk to people. The guy from the DPW wants to put them in the shredder, the other guy wants to roll run them over, this and that. So I got to be that because I know how to talk to the different people involved. And then they asked me to do the public events thing. So I get a call. I'm only in public events for six months, and buddy says, Hey, congratulations. I said, What? He goes, You're chairman of public events. I'm like, what? So I call the mayor. And she goes, she knows I love the godfather. And she caught us something. Imagine that. Crazy. And I said to her, I said, you can't be quite, you're Jewish, you can't be calling the godfather. That doesn't matter. But yeah, you know, I got involved in the dog park. Then we were um chairman for there's um big animal rescue, rampable animal refuge. It's fun. I like it. Uh sometimes it gets a bit much. Um my wife asked me, uh, you know, slow it down a little bit, you know. But I I I try to do what I can. You know, I'm Uncle Chopper to a lot of kids. And you know what? It's funny, I dragged my team into it. They got um for the state of New Jersey from from Remax, got the community service award a few years back. So it's good. Listen, you can't take it with you. I know my previous broker didn't do anything like I did. I did, you know, pet adoption day, a whole bunch of things. I had a realtor once going, Oh, that's great to do for business. He said, You're a schmuck. Don't even think about doing it. If you're doing it for business, everybody'll see right through it. Do it because you want to do it. If you get business out of it, good. If it doesn't, you save some dogs, some cats. That's all that matters if that's what your gig is. You know?

Justin Armbruster 28:02

Yeah. So you said the uh the money is in the mundane. What are some examples of things that agents need to be doing just over and over again? The mundane things to make the money.

Chopper Russo 28:14

Anything that makes you uncomfortable, anything you don't like doing, that's the mundane.

Justin Armbruster 28:18

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 28:19

Specific is to each person, you know what I mean? Some people don't like making the calls, some people don't like the door knocking, some people don't like kissing babies, so to speak. You know? My guys are not as sociable as I am, and I'd like them to be a little bit more. You gotta get out there. You know, I like back to like when you were saying if you got dropped into it into a town besides talking, I would join some of those different groups like a B and I or what have you. Those are always beneficial, you know, just to get to know. Yeah you know, like we're our Chamber of Commerce struggles because why? Everybody joins and thinks they're gonna get business. No, you're there in the Chamber of Commerce to help the community. If the community benefits, then you by default would benefit. But make your community better, and it'll work out for you.

Sean Leary 29:13

So kind of you're you're an awesome people person. We've picked that up within about 30 minutes of the show.

Justin Armbruster 29:18

He's way funnier than you, Sean. Yeah, hilarious.

Sean Leary 29:20

Yeah, we need to get you on as a third chair in here. We'll we'll fly, we'll we'll just have you zoom in for all of our uh our next podcast guests onto that. But it makes me think people probably like doing business with you. You know, you shoot them straight, you take care of them, you're very knowledgeable. What do you think the key is to turning like a one-time client, a one-time opportunity, into a lifelong client, a lifelong referral source?

Chopper Russo 29:41

Treat others the way you want to be treated. This ain't rocket science. You know, you you gotta deal, you gotta know the different personalities. A lot of people talk about disc. I like Bolt, you know. Um, you have such a vantage today with this chat. All right. And that and when I say chat, I'm just meaning AI. I'm telling my team members, I think it's Dimu or something. I said, do yourself a favor. Record your calls, then drop it into whatever one you want, and let it talk to you brutally honest. Where did you mess up? You know? There's so much self-teaching because this goes back to the single agent. You might see more single agents because of AI, because of all the back office work. Yeah. You know? But I laugh at any of them that take their time to put up listings. My one guy that I know, the one who turned me on to this, to your boxes. He's got a 54 prompt that all he does is drop the pictures, the taxes, and the price, and boom, it does the listing. All right. I gotta teach myself to that, but that's not today.

Sean Leary 30:50

Obviously,

Client Experience Over Closing Gifts

Sean Leary 30:51

you see, you know, we're half an hour into this. We typically don't talk about ourselves at Bizbox and what we got going on, but uh I w how did you hear about Bizbox? Uh and and and was that guy using it for a while? And why do you feel like it's been effective for your business? And and clearly, I mean, you've ordered from us a a hand, a couple handfuls of time that this year. And so what do you feel like it's added to your business? How do you feel like it's made yourself easier with BizBox?

Chopper Russo 31:13

It's an added value prop to me. All right, and I and I think it it it's stickiness and connectivity with the client. I always try to do something to enhance the value. I think this is a nice is a nice thing. You know, I do not give gifts at closing, and I'll tell you why. The reason I feel that a gift at closing means that the the relationship's over and then it was transactional. I see the girls bringing the champagne, the cookies, and the I'm like, they're not gonna remember that. Oh, you had the kid on. Um Jordan. Yeah, what's his face died? What a nice guy. I met him at uh Darren Hardy thing. I'm looking for his book, um The Gift Guy.

Justin Armbruster 32:05

Oh yeah, Giftology.

Chopper Russo 32:07

Giftology, what a nice guy. Him and I were at a Darren thing out in California years ago before Darren got smart and just put it online and made 10 times more money. You know what I you know what I like about your box is that when a dude goes to cell in 10 or 12 years and it might be covered with mold and stuff, but he'll remember me.

Justin Armbruster 32:28

Yeah. Yes, he will. Well,

Rapid Fire Habits Podcasts And AI

Justin Armbruster 32:32

Chopper, we appreciate your time. We're gonna maybe transition to some rapid fire questions, get you out of here. We know you're super busy. So we got some final questions, rapid fire that we're gonna hit you with, some kind of this or that questions. Do you wait?

Chopper Russo 32:44

Do you really think that I'm it's gonna take two seconds to do that the way I answered?

Justin Armbruster 32:49

No, we're we're expecting with the way this has been going, we're expecting a story in between. We're expecting a story. Okay. First question home office or uh office office? Do you go into work or you work from home?

Chopper Russo 33:02

Because of COVID, and I got very lucky, right prior to it, one of my team members would work remotely. So I got my computer guy to come here. I got the big screen, that's why I've been looking up. So he came here uh around Christmas or January 2020. So that when they threw us out of Madison Square Garden on Friday, March 13th, I was set up. Heretofore, office, office, office. COVID broke me. And I get mad if one of my team members makes an appointment for me before 12. Of course, I do more between 5.30 in the morning and and noon. Yeah. So, you know, like today we had all those photo shoots and stuff, but I like the home office from 5.30 in the morning to 12, but then on the road.

Justin Armbruster 33:52

Are you a uh a podcast guy or an audiobook guy? Both. More pods. More pods. What kind of podcasts are you living listening to? Any any good ones that our viewers should check out?

Chopper Russo 34:04

I listen to Gary V, I take listen to Ferry, Buffini's okay. I I Jared's okay, Jared James, you know. And then some other things pop up, you know. But I'm like I'm a sponge, especially now with AI and stuff.

Justin Armbruster 34:22

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 34:23

Al Gore's internet was a garden hose. Sam Altman's AI is a fire hose. It ain't going away. It's only gonna get better. I'm just trying to learn it and let it teach me. You know.

Justin Armbruster 34:37

What's your go-to AI? Are you a chat guy or a Claude guy?

Chopper Russo 34:40

I'm starting to segue to chat. Only, I mean, to to Claude, only because I call it Frida after my grandmother. Chat has been great, but I'm starting to cheat on Frida and go to Claude. But I know they're gonna have to work together.

Sean Leary 34:56

Yeah.

Chopper Russo 34:56

You know.

Sean Leary 34:57

So you said you don't write any listings, but when you're having people look at your listings, are you Zillow? Are you Homes? Are you local MLS? What's your pref preference there?

Chopper Russo 35:06

Oh, where do I post it? Oh, I'm on over a thousand websites, uh, a minimum the two to three uh MLSs, you know, plus a remax that are in 120 countries and stuff, which everybody used to laugh at until I got done with my fifth family with South Africa, group from Israel, guy from Ireland, um where's the other dude from Korea? Did I tell you? Ireland, Israel, South Africa. Oh, we got a listing in Jamaica, two in the Dominican Republic, and I had something in Italy.

Justin Armbruster 35:39

Chopper, last question for you. If

Best Way To Reach Chopper

Justin Armbruster 35:42

one of our listeners has a client in the New Jersey area that you service, what's the best way for them to get a hold of you and your team?

Chopper Russo 35:48

Call me 201-240-5200. I missed the telephone. Let's make a bet. All right, how long have we been on this thing? An hour? About that, yeah. All right, what's the over-under on text messages and what's the over-under on phone calls?

Justin Armbruster 36:05

Bet you've missed since we've hopped on. Yeah. Yeah. I bet. What's that the over-under? What do you think eight and a half text, two and a half phone calls?

Sean Leary 36:14

Oh, I was going more than that. I was gonna go probably about like 14, 15 text, and probably about I would say overall, probably close to 30.

Chopper Russo 36:22

Only nine text and only seven phone calls. Oh, bang.

Justin Armbruster 36:27

Boom.

Sean Leary 36:27

Bang. Boom.

Justin Armbruster 36:28

That is hilarious. This has been the most entertaining episode by far.