The Perfect 100

hello and welcome back to the Perfect 100.

Today's guest is someone as well known for his perfect hair as he is for his
professionalism.

Rees is a title attorney serving clients across Tennessee and Mississippi, and he's also
the assistant city prosecutor for the city of Germantown.

He's deeply rooted in the community, known for his approachable personality and bringing
clarity to even the most complicated real estate or legal situations.

He's married, a father of four boys, and still somehow finds time to give back, serve, and
make people laugh, all while keeping his hair camera ready.

Hello, Rees, welcome to the show.

All right, good morning.

Thank you for having me.

It's my pleasure.

Yeah, had to get the hair thing in there because that's I will all transparency Rees is in
my chapter.

So we there's a lot of behind the scenes jokes.

You know how they are in your chapter.

All right.

So we are going to start off with a 45 seconds so you can tell everybody a little bit
about you.

All right, well, good morning.

My name is Rees Hodges and I'm a closing attorney in Germantown, Tennessee.

And I hold the title attorney seat in my local chapter, BNI East Memphis.

And that means that I handle residential and commercial real estate transactions.

So what you're gonna wanna use me for is making sure that title passes free and clear
between parties that are buying and selling real property.

We handle everything from making sure parties aren't in bankruptcy to uh

making sure all liens are paid, taxes are satisfied, and basically that the buyer gets an
insurable piece of title that they can own free and clear outright of anything prior in

time before them.

So, all right.

All right.

So a title attorney, your title attorney whose reputation and professionalism build trust,
two qualities that deeply matter, I'm sure, in your line of work.

um What does your role look like?

Because I don't know, everybody knows what a title attorney does.

So what does your day to day look like?

What do you get satisfaction out of doing in your job?

Well, my day to day, I mean, there's a lot of things that happen in a day.

So that's a loaded question.

But a lot of what I do is behind the scenes work, making sure kind of like what I was
speaking to in my 45 second.

But, you know, when we get a contract to do a closing on a piece of property, we order a
title search and we check to see that the person who's purporting to sell the property

actually owns it.

If they have enough equity in the property to pay off any liens, we want to make sure
these people

that are selling or these companies that are selling don't have judgments, you know, that
they don't owe any back taxes, federal tax liens.

There's a slew of things that are are checked when we do a title search.

So a lot of my behind the scenes work is clearing those types of matters and making sure
that the buyer is, course, getting clear title.

But day to day in my office, I'm also handling the table closing.

So I'm sitting down with you at a closing and I'm making sure that you understand what
you're signing.

that we go over all the numbers and that everything is as expected and that I'm kind of
like a last stop to answer any final questions that somebody may have regarding the

transaction that's in

Awesome.

I know that I remember that being a very lengthy process when I bought my house is sitting
and just signing a thousand sheets of paper, which was both exciting and frustrating at

the same time because that was the first house I bought, but it was also like, wow, then,
you know, there's a lot of paper here to sign.

Yeah.

So you also work with your dad in your business, which I'm sure adds another layer of
maybe

complexion or not complexion, it can be maybe challenging or not.

don't know.

Tell us, you know, is that if you work in your family business or with family in your
business, I know that can be a challenge sometimes is that how do you guys get along?

Well, we surprisingly we get along great at work.

um We've pretty much mastered being able to separate work feelings from personal and
family feelings because work has to happen.

Things have to get done.

So sometimes we'll bark an order back and forth at each other to make sure that we're
moving along.

uh But that doesn't change the fact that we're father and son.

And occasionally he'll stick his head in the door and ask about a football game this
weekend.

He wants to make sure he's got the time.

straight so he can show up.

you know, there's always that balance of family matters versus work matters, but we get
along really well.

And it's nice that you have someone that you're related to, that you can trust, that you
can ask questions to.

Anytime you don't know something, it's very, very easy to just get a straight answer from
somebody that, you know, is your dad.

Yeah, that's awesome.

I don't know that I could work with my dad.

That would be an interesting mix.

We're very similar, so I think that we would butt heads too much.

em Have you learned anything that of interest that just working together with him that you
enjoy?

Well, I will say we have learned where we differ with our personalities.

We both have some strong suits.

I'm a very naturally patient person.

Anytime we have maybe someone who's upset about something that's out of our control, there
are definitely times where I get put in that situation because I'm better at maybe calming

someone down or getting things back to where they need to be.

Whereas if we need somebody to be headstrong and tell him how it is, he's capable of
letting somebody know this is how it's gonna be and there's no way to change that.

And oh so we both have our strong suits and how we handle certain situations for sure.

you're a good compliment, that's a great thing.

Yeah, of course.

So your work touches a lot of milestones, buying and selling a home being a big one,
obviously.

How do you help your clients feel comfortable and confident that what can be a heavy
situation emotionally is gonna be okay for them?

Well, I try to make everything relatable to day-to-day life.

uh Anytime we're going through the documents at the closing table, a lot of times people
get overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork that they have to sign, all the numbers, and

I always try to bring it back down to, we all have to have a place to live.

We have to have a roof over our head.

This is a transaction where you're taking title.

Yes, it's a big deal, but you're also putting equity into your home.

And uh it's definitely...

you know, more beneficial to them to be doing it that way versus paying rent, which is
something that most everyone's comfortable with.

So I try to bring it full circle and remove a little bit of the emotion out of it and just
say, this is to benefit you at the end of the day.

ah You you've come this far.

Don't let the final stretch scare you out of it, you know.

Yeah, and I know just because I know you, you know, obviously we're in the same chapter,
communication is strong for you.

Has that been something that you have always had or is it something you've developed in
what you've been doing, you know, what you do through work?

I think communication is something that I have always, always had as a quality.

It's, you know, when I was a little kid, I would prefer to sit down and speak with adults
over speaking with peers that were my own age.

There's just communicating and learning has always been something that just comes very
naturally to me.

Love that.

used to like to, my parents used to do a lot of entertaining and I used to always sit with
and want to talk to them too.

I always, think all my parents, friends always thought I was older than I was because I
could carry on a conversation because I wasn't scared to talk to them.

So I love how that plays out later for you in life, you know, becoming an attorney,
obviously communication is necessary.

So that's cool that that started when you were younger.

So talk to me about BNI, what first brought you to BNI and what did you think it would do
for your, what did you hope it would do for your business?

Well, got a phone call.

uh I was standing at a baseball field for one of my sons here in Germantown.

And I got a phone call asking if I would be interested in a networking group to try to
grow and build my business and connect with new people.

And just by default, that is very core of how I get business is networking and meeting
people.

So I, of course, jumped at the opportunity.

That was my initial.

my initial ask, if you will, that's how I got on board.

then from there, I just started meeting new people and, you know, learning the value of
this networking group.

So this chapter, this was your first, you didn't know about BNI prior to.

I did know about BNI prior.

I had a brief run in with the BNI chapter at the very beginning of my career.

It was very short lived.

was something that, uh let's just say I stuck my head in the door a handful of times, but
it never really stuck.

And it was in a different state.

It wasn't even here locally.

It was in Mississippi.

Well, it was local in the Memphis area, but it was in Mississippi.

And it wasn't the right time for me to be.

going to Mississippi at seven o'clock in the morning, we had a couple of small children.

So it just, it didn't really work out and I never really got the full benefit or value of
what BNI was.

I'm at a different point in my life now where I can reassess and kind of reevaluate and
give more time to BNI to get the full value out of it.

I like how you put that, run in.

Maybe it wasn't the right chapter potentially at the time either.

So title work is, I imagine, highly relationship driven.

How has BNI helped you expand or deepen those connections?

Well, I mean, like I just said, know, at the core of what I do is having a network of
people that I know in this community, because a lot of times when, you know, when you're

out shopping for a house with your favorite real estate agent and, you know, you buy into
contract, then the next step is where is this going to close?

And a lot of times the ultimate buyer or seller doesn't know anyone in the community that
does what I do.

So it's up to that relationship between myself and

real estate agent or even myself and the loan originator if the buyer is getting a loan, a
lot of times the lender will have a connection with a local office.

And so those relationships just never need to stop growing because that's a large source
of where I get my business from.

Yeah, well, and being that there's a never-ending supply, it seems, of realtors coming and
going through, you know, over time.

Getting to know them all, I imagine, would be fairly challenging, and staying front of
mind for people uh can also, you know, where BNI can be a big benefit, I would imagine.

oh

Yes.

all right, well, let's roll over to your power of one.

Let's see.

Let's see how we're doing there.

So I'm going to go from just read from left to right here.

So then this is the most recent report.

So you have a total score of sixty five in the yellow.

Your attendance, you have fifteen points.

um

your referrals per week you have 15 points in the yellow.

Visitors per week you have zero points in the gray.

One to ones you have yellow 15 points in the yellow and CEUs per week you have 20 points
in the green and we'll just roll on down to your your palms report is also up so this is a

total of 26 meetings.

You have 23 absences with three subs.

Referrals given inside seven referrals given outside

Referrals received inside 3, referrals received outside 49, visitors 0, 1 to 1's 21.

Thank you for Clubs Business.

Let's see if I can see that 16,086 and CEUs 26.

So what are your impressions of yourself?

Alright.

I will say that several months back I was lower than I am now.

I briefly bumped up and went into the green.

I'll have to reevaluate why I went to 65.

But overall, I will say I'm pleased.

I definitely see and know that I have room for improvement in certain areas.

But overall, I'm pleased with where I am.

It is a commitment and no one's perfect.

So, you know, it's always a struggle to make sure you're trying to take care of every
single aspect of all the things that are, you

the boxes everywhere.

Yeah.

You're only five points from green.

So 70 is green and you're at 65.

And, you know, I know again, cause I'm in your chapter, you've come a long way.

know, that's something that our chapter pays attention to.

So we want everybody to be successful and how you're successful is to, you know, get
yourself into yellow at a minimum.

So.

I'm amazed by the referrals received.

that a lot of the, because you've 49 in 26 weeks, 49 received outside and then three more,
so 50 some.

So are you happy with that?

Is that, it sounds like a good number.

Absolutely.

And again, you know, a lot of that's going to come from our real estate agent.

uh Anytime there's a buyer or seller closing a transaction.

also, you know, we got Ronnie in our chapter with Orion and he's originating loans.

you know, he's had a few transactions that he's been able to send over to my office.

So a very large majority of those referrals have have come from the two, those two seats.

But there's also uh the connection with Jonathan and his

know, financial planning and he's a lot of times he'll have a client who doesn't have a
last will and testament and he'll send them my way uh because we don't currently have

anybody in our chapter that can handle that.

So, and I can also handle small simple estate planning.

So that's another large source of those referrals.

But yes, I'm very happy.

That's awesome.

and you're part of, well, you're benefiting from what we call the firm.

So finance, insurance, real estate, and mortgage, those are the four seats that most
chapters start with, those four seats, the realtor being kind of the crux of everything.

So our chapter's currently um on the hunt for the correct realtor.

So it's been a...

fun couple of weeks because we're taking applications because if you're listening to this
and you're in a BNI chapter, the realtor is probably the hottest seat because usually once

they're in, unless their job changes, which is what's happened to ours, then it's
someplace you don't want to leave.

So we've had a whole slew of realtors come through our doors and looking for the right
one's been an interesting

time, I guess.

Yeah.

So how do you see how structure and rhythm in BNI uh really work when people follow the
process?

What do you think that kind of predictability does to help a small business owner succeed?

I mean, I think it goes without saying, you have to have structure and rhythm and
repetition and you have to have systems in place to succeed, especially in the business

that I'm in.

I mean, we have a tried and true system from A to Z from the moment we get a contract in
this door to the deed being recorded and the title policy being issued at the end of the

transaction.

uh We have a system set up and everybody in this office plays a huge role in getting all
of those uh processes completed so that everything stays on track.

So you have to have that.

There's no way to not.

Yeah, and that might've been a loaded question, because I know you're all about systems
and processes.

So let's roll over to your CliftonStrengths show what those are.

All right, so your number one is woo.

You love meeting new people and winning them over.

You enjoy socializing and making connections.

Your number two is consistency.

You are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same.

You crave stable routines and clear rules and procedures that everyone can follow.

Your number three is communication.

You generally find it easy to put your thoughts into words.

You are a good conversationalist and presenter.

Your number four is harmony.

You look for consensus.

You have no use for unnecessary friction and guide others toward practical solutions.

And your number five is achiever.

You work hard and possess a great deal of stamina.

You take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.

So what was your first reaction when you read your report?

uh This is

Yes.

Nailed it as usual, I guess is the way.

Did anything stand out to you when you read through it that was something that maybe just
caught your attention?

I mean, honestly, it's fascinating how much like me these five strengths really are.

And I think they're even in the proper order.

uh I'll tell you one thing that caught my attention was when I was reading about, there's
a little blurb about each one and what it entails.

In underachiever, it says, you feel as if each day starts at zero.

And every day when I wake up,

It's a new day.

don't ever wake up angry.

I don't know how to explain that.

It's just every day is a fresh start for me.

And it's usually something that happens during the day if I end up getting agitated that
makes me feel that way.

But I'm always ready to start and conquer a new day when I wake up in the morning.

It's just like a reset for me

Yeah, I love that.

Well, and it was interesting the, cause all the things you just said, you have a very
specific process and you know, to make sure everything is done properly.

I was curious how much of that was you was that, you know, did that exist before you were
doing that and you were just kind of carrying it on or were you definitely in there kind

of tweaking things to make it better?

There are definitely processes that existed prior to me being here and doing this, but
yes, every day is, there's always something that in my mind at least where I'm saying,

okay, we need to adjust how we're doing X to make it smoother down the road.

uh You're always perfecting those processes for sure.

Yeah, well, consistency and harmony together add a steady, fair and calming energy, which
are both important traits working in title work and in the courtroom because you're also a

district assistant district attorney.

So how do those strengths influence how you handle conflict or pressure, would you say?

I have a lot of patients.

Pressure is typically not something that crawls under my skin too much.

ah know, conflict, I definitely try to avoid it.

I try to resolve it if it's presented to me.

ah You know, and by the very nature of the job, there's conflict in a courtroom because
things are happening that shouldn't be.

So, you know, we're having to sort through that and figure out how to address it and how
to handle it.

ah But overall, you know, I think that my strengths balance.

my ability to be able to do that job efficiently because of the fact that I will try to
eliminate the conflict, we'll try to get to a resolution oh where it's fair and equitable

for all parties.

Yeah, yeah, that sounds about right.

And woo in communication also together make you a natural connector.

People tend to feel at ease around you is typically what those spring.

So how do those show up in how you build trust with clients or maybe referral partners
even?

You know, I try to be as genuine and just myself as I can be when I'm around people.

So I think a lot of that just happens organically when I meet people.

not, you know, I always say I'm not putting on a show.

one of the things I'll tell a real estate agent when I meet them for the first time is I'm
going to be the same guy that you see at the office if you, if you close a transaction

with me, I'm not going to change because I'm here trying to speak to you tonight or today.

you know, what you get in the office is the same thing you're going to get out here.

Yeah, well, in conversations we had, you described yourself as a bit of a chronic people
pleaser.

And after looking at your strengths, especially Harmony, Woo, and Consistency, that makes
a lot of sense.

How do you see those strengths showing up when you're trying to keep everybody happy?

And how do you balance when you have to make tough calls to move things forward?

man, ah mean making tough calls is definitely something I can do.

I don't love to do it.

ah But you know when you're in a position like I am and you run a small business, you have
to make decisions about things and sometimes those decisions come from a gut feeling and

sometimes you just take all the information that's presented to you and you make the best
possible decision that you can with what you've got.

ah But you know there's no perfect answer to.

how to address that.

kind of have to, each one of those you deal with as it comes, you know.

Right, yeah, well you have two influencing themes, you have two executing themes, and you
have one relationship building theme in your top five.

So that's a good balance of opportunities to kind of meet people where they are.

When I looked at your report, I was thinking to myself, you and I need to team up because
you're the opposite of me.

I have achievers in my top 10, but the rest of yours, oh

Communications is in the teens, but the rest are in the 20s or maybe 30s.

So that I like to look for people.

I always tell people when I have to take on a new assignment where there's a lot of change
that needs to happen, then I look for people like you because you have those abilities to

kind of cut through and

meet people in a way, you when I'm upsetting the apple cart, you're behind, you know,
making sure everybody's okay and understanding what's happening.

And a lot of that rolls over into exactly what I do, which is I've got a title issue and
I'm trying to resolve it and keep everyone happy and keep everything moving forward.

There are definitely people in my office that will bring me the information that might
upset the apple cart and then it's my job to put it back together.

Yeah, yeah, that's great.

you know, we all seem to land eventually in the thing that we're great at.

And why I like doing these interviews is you can see that, you know, when and the reason I
talked uh before the interview, I was saying, you know, when you were attuned to watching

TV and seeing people in courtrooms, uh you have a picture in your head of a very dramatic
scene.

And I said to him, you know, I was picturing him in that I was having a hard time
picturing him.

doing that, but then when I see what his strengths are, makes complete sense because he's
able to see past all the things and get things accomplished.

You know, he's got Achiever, but he also is looking to make, he wants to talk it through
and make sure everybody's comfortable is what I read, right?

Okay.

uh And Achiever,

also means you thrive on productivity and forward motion.

So how do you balance that drive with patience for your profession?

Because sometimes you are not able to do that.

Well, I mean, I'm always looking to get something done every single day, uh whether it's
something small, whether it's something large.

But I always have a whether it's a mental list or a handwritten list.

I have both.

But I'm always looking to achieve and get something done every single day.

I almost don't feel complete if I don't have some task that I can check off every single
day.

uh So, you know, I do I do have to just balance.

you know, work in life and some of those achievements are not even work related.

Some of those are, you know, maybe I cleaned out a room at home or I made it to my kids
game on time and I wasn't late.

You know, who knows what it may be, but just something.

Yeah.

Well, and I have that achiever means I work every day, whether it's a weekend or not.

It's, you know, work.

I don't mind working on the weekend because I'm, it's achieving, right?

I'm getting something accomplished.

I'm moving something forward.

So that's the unfortunate people that are married to achievers sometimes have a hard time
with, okay, sometimes you just got to stop working and stop checking off the list.

So when you look at your top five, what do you think has grown the most?

What might you have used be using more in BNI than you would have thought?

Or, you know, you just see it growing because you're in BNI.

I mean, that's a toss up between woo and communication.

Meeting new people is BNI.

You come to these chapter meetings and there's visitors, there's guests, there might be a
substitute.

So there's always an opportunity to meet new people, which I don't necessarily find
challenging, but it's also personally, I wanna go meet these people.

I wanna find out who they are and there's never enough time to meet them all.

uh

And the other is probably communication because at the very core of what we do, ah you
know, we have to be able to communicate with one another and make sure everyone in the

chapter knows what each other's businesses are and what they do and where we excel.

So communication is also really key and I've learned a lot through the BNI chapter with
how to use communication skills.

Well, and I know that we're, I don't know if we're lucky, I will say we're.

um

Lucky's not the right word.

We're in a chapter where we always have visitors and pretty much every week There's
somebody new and you said we run out of time to talk to them all and that's a that's a

typical whoo em Conversation there are some people that Jonathan Ashley our financial
advisor.

I did an interview He did one of the podcast episodes a while back and he he struggles to
go and talk to new people That is not his thing.

So

you know, it's funny how each of us, know, our strengths drive what we're interested in
and um that is something that a Woo person would say is there's never enough time to meet

all the people Because you can't win them over if you don't get a chance to talk to him,
right?

So So I love that.

All right, so let's change gears a little bit You also serve as the assistant city
prosecutor every Wednesday

um which is a very different side of your legal work.

So what kind of cases do you typically see and what drew you to take on that role?

So there are a lot of driving cases uh that happen, just speeding tickets, uh a lot of
drivers on suspended licenses.

those are, uh in the state of Tennessee, driving on a suspended license is a class B
misdemeanor, which means that it's technically an arrestable offense.

But there's definitely a handful of those.

There's some domestic situations that come through Germantown.

There's a variety, but what led me to take on that role?

is honestly being involved in a courtroom.

uh My real estate practice is enjoyable and I love it and I get uh a whole lot of
satisfaction out of it.

However, it doesn't put me in a courtroom.

So I was a little bit disconnected from other attorneys in the community, in the legal
world, and I wanted to reconnect and that's why I took the role really.

Yeah, well, and that sounds like em all the things you enjoy doing, right?

From your strengths is you don't want to sit in your office all day and not talk to
people.

You like to, you know, the variety of talking to other people and using an achieve
achiever likes to achieve things.

that's one more thing to do in the day.

Right.

em So that position kind of gives you a front row seat to human behavior, potentially
under pressure.

What surprised you most about that work?

Good or

bad.

The answer to that question probably has to be how many people don't care about their own
situation.

uh I genuinely expected that there would be more people who would show up, you know, maybe
apologetic or just, you know, with their actions corrected.

Maybe they didn't have their registration in place and they would show up to court with it
corrected.

And it's a little bit unbelievable how many people just don't.

the things they've been cited for and they just want to pay and move on and continue to
operate with all of those things and disarray in their life, which is anti everything

that's inside of me.

I want everything buttoned up and fixed, so.

Right.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Well, you know, from I moved here from up north.

We're in the mid south for those of you not listening in the area.

And one of the things I was most surprised about was the driving.

um It is.

But I lived in Washington, D.C.

for six months.

And that's the second worst traffic, I think, in the U.S.

But the skill level of driving here doesn't seem to be.

What's the right way to put it?

Well, when my

We sent him to driving school because it's not required here.

I was also shocked by that.

I had to take drivers that as a school class in order to get my driver's license.

isn't something...

What you're citing there, the lack of care seems to be abundant amongst drivers here.

I don't know how you fix that, but it's a little scary to get behind the wheel of your car

sometimes.

It is, yeah, the driving skills in this Memphis metro area may not be as refined as they
are in other places.

Yes, refined is a good word.

How has um your experience doing that changed how you see justice or fairness or even how
you approach people day to day now that you have that sort of purview?

I don't know that it's changed how I view that, but I do try to handle everyone ah with
fairness.

That's innate in who I am as a person.

uh So I'm always gonna listen to your story.

I'm always gonna see what happened and get your side of things.

But at the same time, rules are rules and they need to be followed.

So every story is kind of unfolds in front of me and then I get to make a decision in a
lot of...

in a lot of situations about what happens with the case.

And I just have to base my decision off of the facts and off of the story that I'm being
told as it presents itself.

Okay.

Yeah, I uh being uh I got selected for jury duty.

I don't know how it's been four or five years ago now.

And I got I got picked for the grand jury, which was I was not it was both not fun and fun
at the same time, because it kind of like I guess what you're what you see on it on your

weekly basis is a whole variety of different things.

You know, in grand jury, you get to sit through all these different cases and the
attorneys tell you what you know you need to know.

And uh people come in and it's just

was kind of interesting.

Fortunately I was an alternate so I didn't have to stay because my degree, the people that
did get picked had to stay for like two weeks.

So I was kind of happy not to.

And it's not everything that TV makes it appear, right?

Right, no, not at all.

wasn't at all, you know, you have this big, you know, visions of grandeur in your head
from watching TV and it wasn't anything like that.

It was an eye-opening experience.

So the contrast between real estate closings and courtroom cases is pretty big.

What do you take from each role that makes the other better?

wow, what do I take from each role that makes the other better?

So I will say that court is very efficient.

you know, there are, there are times when I will think about how efficiently the process
runs so that everybody gets in and gets out and their cases get handled timely.

And I'll take that efficiency and I'll say, how can I apply maybe something that we're
doing?

courtroom wise at my office to make our processes more efficient.

So that's going to be a trait I can pull from court.

And then, you know, with regard to what I could pull from my office and apply to court, I
mean, there's it's I don't know that there's a good answer for that because there's

definitely processes that we have, but they just don't really relate to the processes that
are in court.

It's just a it's a different ballgame happened.

So

enough.

Fair enough.

All right, and how do you recharge after a day?

We had talked about your Wednesdays.

have chapter meeting on Wednesday and then you're doing your regular title closings and
all that and then you're off to court to hear everybody's stuff.

That's a lot of balancing and then you have a whole family at home as well and you've got
four boys or four kids?

Four boys, yeah.

So that's a lot going on in a day.

So how do you recharge when you, you know, after all?

of that.

uh Well, sleep is the number one answer here.

uh I will say that I've always been a heavy sleeper, so I have to make sure I allow for
that.

And there's no way to skirt around it.

You have to get in the bed and go to sleep and let your body take its natural course.

So I sleep probably eight to nine hours every night.

Okay, that's awesome.

I aspire to that.

I have to make it happen though.

It doesn't happen organically.

There's always something else I could be doing, speaking of the strength, but sometimes
you have to just manually shut that off and say it's time to go to bed so that you can

function tomorrow and do it again.

you might have, you only have your top five.

If you unlock the rest, might have discipline in your, in the rest somewhere.

Cause that's a, that definitely is a discipline thing where, know, cause I, I, I try to
get seven and that sometimes is a struggle, you know, to force myself to, okay, it's time

to go to sleep now and you know, not screens.

And I was actually just reading atomic habits and how you can make things like that happen
by setting your

yourself up for success by, you know, kind of preloading things that you have to read the
book.

But sleep was one of the things where it's like if you can't, if you want to watch TV,
take the TV out of the room.

If you want to at your phone, take, you know, have someone else lock the phone in a
different room.

All the things that stop us from doing what we should be doing because we have a day
tomorrow.

So, uh so you've lived in Germantown your whole life.

Sounds like you're deeply rooted in the community.

What does that sense of local pride mean to you and how does it influence how you serve
your clients?

Um, it means a lot to me and it definitely influences how I serve my clients because, you
know, again, because I grew up here, there's just so much that I know about this community

and I know where things are, how they operate.

know things about neighborhoods and, I can relay a lot of that information to my clients
when we're in a closing.

Um, so I always try to make things relatable.

I've lived in a lot of neighborhoods in Germantown, um, growing up and there's, there's.

I do feel like I have a lot to offer, with regard to just my knowledge of the area in
general, you know, it's what was what remind me the other part of your question.

How does it influence how you serve your clients and what does local pride mean to you?

Local, that was the second part, local means to me probably, you know, just staying
involved in the community.

I serve on a couple of boards locally on the Germantown Education Foundation.

um And also there's a Cancer Kickers Soccer Club that I've recently joined the board for.

And I just try to stay involved in the community and finding ways to give back to the
community that helped form me and shape me into who I am today.

That's awesome.

Love that.

From your perspective, if you think about because you work in a team at your office, um
and I imagine a courtroom is a bit like a team, and then you're also on a team in BNI, um

what separates a good one from a great one?

Probably leadership.

uh Leadership has a lot to do with a team.

Somebody has to be in charge in giving orders and other parties involved have to be able
to accept those orders and carry them to fruition.

Not everybody on a team is a team player, uh as we've probably all experienced at some
point in our life.

you know, definitely having a strong leader who's able to dictate what needs to happen and
relay that with grace, but also with importance so that the tasks actually get

accomplished.

How do you feel like that plays out in a BNI chapter?

very well.

The president leads the meeting and uh it's no secret that our chapter has a bell to keep
everyone on schedule and it's good.

We would run over if we didn't have the structure that we have and the leadership that we
have to move us along and keep us on track.

Yeah, and being the bell ringer, which is why I laugh when you said that because I get
grief for ringing the bell.

I also, we actually had a visitor stand up last week and say the thing they like most
about the meeting was the bell.

And I will have to give you credit on the bell ringing.

You have a soft ring, and then you have a, ringing it for the second time ring.

And they're very distinctive.

So you do try to give someone a soft ring on the first time.

And if they keep going, then it's time for the harder ring.

I try to be nice a little bit.

I appreciate that recognition on that.

All right.

So if you could think about somebody starting because you started in BNI not all that long
ago.

If you take yourself back to when you very first started and now you're in someone else's
shoes, they're a new member.

What would you tell them about building trust and reputation in their network?

building trust and reputation, I mean, you have to follow through with what you say you're
going to do.

So, you know, your reputation is built by your actions, in my opinion.

Don't over promise and under deliver.

So always make sure that you are doing what you say you're going to do.

Do it promptly.

And if you can't do it, tell someone that you can't do it because nobody wants to hear,
I'll get that done for you to turn around and then it didn't get done.

So.

Yeah, that's a big thing.

uh know, especially when you're new in a chapter that nobody knows, you know, anything
about you, then your word is your mandate, you know, that what you do or don't do is kind

of colors what's coming in the future.

And that also colors what you may or may not receive.

Because if you're if you're slow with me, then you're probably going to be slow with my
client.

Or if you don't deliver, you know, to me, you're probably not going to deliver to my
client.

So that means maybe my clients might come in your way.

So there's that's a good that's good.

I like that.

All right.

And this is a, if you could think about yourself and go back to, I think you went right
from school to becoming an attorney.

That was your intention, right?

Correct, yeah, went straight from undergrad all the way through law school and then I
started working shortly thereafter.

and you come from a family of attorneys.

So.

grandfather and father.

Okay, so if you were to do it all over again and let's say the family, you know, they were
doing other things, they weren't attorneys, would you do the same thing over again or

would you be tempted to do something

that's a hard question to answer because it takes a lot to get here.

You know, knowing what I know now, yes, I would do it again.

Ask me, you know, year two into my career, having been through several years of school and
you still kind of don't know what you're doing and you're trying to understand and learn

the role that you're in.

I mean, it's a lot.

It takes a lot to get settled and to get comfortable.

And, you know, again, with,

some of my personality traits and strengths.

uh I like routine, I like consistency, and it takes a long time to find that little niche
where you can get into that rut and do the same thing and do it well.

But yeah, to answer your question, I would do it again.

you do it again.

actually think if I had to do it all over again, I think I've several lifetimes because
there's so many different things that interest me.

But being an attorney was one of the things I always felt like I would enjoy doing because
I enjoy I have high influence.

uh My influence are not is not woo, but um I enjoy moving things along and kind of, you
know, getting things accomplished in a different way.

I always thought being an attorney would be a fun thing to be, although the

park kind of is a that's a long haul that I don't know that I would want to make.

Yeah.

All right.

So as you look ahead in your business, the community, your family, what excites you most
about the kind of impact you want to make?

I don't know that I've ever given thought to that.

mean, each day I wake up and I have probably my family uh and the future of what will
become for my children.

And I always try to make sure that I'm planning ahead so that they'll be well taken care
of.

ah And there's no perfect answer to that question, but I'm always looking ahead and trying
to plan out where will I be?

Will I have enough to take care of what I need to take care of?

and trying to balance having fun while getting there.

Are there any future attorneys in the mix there, upcoming?

My oldest has expressed some interest.

He is still in high school, so it's a little premature for him to make that decision with
100 % certainty.

But he has expressed interest, so we uh will see how it plays out.

All right.

All right, well now we're gonna go into our quick fire lightning round.

So these are just like fun questions where you can answer just quick answers, know, minute
to minutes.

All right, you ready?

All right, so if B and I had a hall of fame for members, what would you wanna be
remembered for?

improving.

Okay.

What's something people are surprised to learn about you outside of work?

I love music and I can pretty much turn anything you say into a song.

There's a lyric somewhere out there and it's, my brain is full of unnecessary, useful
lyrics that I will constantly pull and pluck and start singing a song when I'm in a

conversation with somebody.

Okay, I'm going to ask you to sing one at the end.

No, I'm just kidding.

Alright, and speaking of a song, what song would play if the courtroom doors opened and
you were walking in?

What would be your kind of walk-up song?

All I do is win.

Okay, nice.

And what is your pre-court or pre-closing routine?

Any rituals that help get you in the zone?

um Pre-closing routine, I always look at what I'm about to have the client sign.

I will flip through the settlement statement and I will make sure that nothing on it looks
unusual to me that I need to ask my closer about prior to because sometimes it has

happened where I'll sit down with a client and then I have a question internally that I
could have asked before I walked in the room.

So I've learned to check my own self before I go in there so that I don't have to do that
in front of the client.

uh

That's probably about it.

Okay, nice.

And if you were planning the perfect Saturday with your family, what's first on the list?

Sleeping in.

Long morning of coffee.

a feeling you were going to say that.

And who's been a key mentor or influencer in your life and what's one lesson they taught
you that you'll never forget?

wow.

ah I mean, I'm going to have to say my parents on this one.

have a really good mother and a really good father and they've taught me values.

They taught me to appreciate what I have.

And just the smallest of life lessons were taught from day one.

So it helped mold me into who I am today.

Something as small as, you know, if there's a peppermint laying on a counter and it's not
yours, don't take it.

You know, even if it's something trivial.

Yeah, that's awesome.

I love that.

And what's one small daily habit that keeps you staying positive or grounded?

One small daily habit.

My cup of coffee in the morning?

Again, I thought you might say that.

Yeah, if your perfect Saturday includes a lot of coffee, I was going to say that's
probably coming.

All right.

And what's something that fails, never fails to make you laugh even on a hard day?

wow, uh my family, my children, having four boys, you don't ever know what they're gonna
say.

There are jokes for days and I thought I knew them all, but boy was I wrong.

Yeah, they can come up with some stuff, Alright, and the last one is finish this sentence.

Success to me, looks like.

a well-balanced life, ah having time for the things that you want to do and the things
that you have to do.

Okay, awesome.

All right, well thank you, Rees, for showing up and showing us how consistency,
connection, and community can work hand in hand in business, in law, and in life.

It was great having you here.

Yeah, I appreciate being here.

I was a little anxious at first, but this was uh very enjoyable, so I appreciate it.

Awesome.

Well, thank you.

And for our listeners, remember whether you're building a firm, a network or reputation,
your strengths are your greatest advantage.

If today's episode inspired you, head to the perfect100.com or tamisarek.com and go ahead
and get your own Clifton strikes done.

And if you want to understand what it means and how to apply it in your life, you can talk
to me about coaching.

And before you go, please hit the subscribe button and share this episode with your
chapter and help keeping us helped.

keep us growing towards the perfect 100.

Bye everybody!