Mike Ferry: Hello and welcome to Mike Ferry TV, we are interviewing today a very unique character. One of my heroes, and he’s a hero for a lot of reasons, and I’ll express that to you in a few minutes. But let’s welcome Mr. Maverick Melech. His beautiful wife, Karen, and they live in a terrible place. It’s just sad to even have to say it out loud. They live in the state of Hawaii, and they’ve been there for seven years, and you can see by the smile on Maverick’s face that he’s suffering a lot. It’s terrible. Yeah, which island do you guys live on now?

Maverick Malech: We’re on the Hawaii island, the Big Island, otherwise known. So if you were to look at a map of Hawaii we are the most southern of all the islands.

Mike Ferry: How did you pick that island as a place for you and Karen to live?

Maverick Malech: We had travel to all the islands on vacation and we decided at one point that it’s always been my dream to actually live in Hawaii. And so we, you know, traveling around and we determined that the Big Island was the best suit for us. And it, you know, small town, good community. It’s on the west side. So, we get to see the sunsets. The water is beautiful. So, it’s not overcrowded. It’s just a beautiful place to live. It’s paradise.

Mike Ferry: Good for you. But what is the population of the island that you’re on?

Maverick Malech: 250,000. But most of them are on the other side.

Mike Ferry: Ok, so is it a pretty active real estate market?

Maverick Malech: Very active. We have roughly 6500 sales and on my side of the island each year we have roughly 900 real estate agents.

Mike Ferry: Say how many transactions again, please?

Maverick Malech: 1600

Mike Ferry: And with nine hundred agents?

Maverick Malech: Nine hundred agents.

Mike Ferry: So most of the agents are doing between zero and less transactions a year.

Maverick Malech: That is correct.

Mike Ferry: It’s interesting. So what is the you know, you hear about island fever because as you know, when I had a home in Maui for a long time and I loved it, she loved it. But after about 10 days, she was driving herself crazy, driving around the island and wanted to come back to the mainland. Yeah. What’s that like?

Maverick Malech: It’s different visiting versus actually living here, because living here, we know where we’re not going back, you know, to the mainland. And so you just start to learn to accept living here and dealing with the fact that you are, you know, 2600 miles from the nearest state and you just accept things that are not here like, you know, certain shopping and restaurants and so forth. They’re just not here. But during COVID, it was awesome because we were kind of isolated to ourselves. And so, it actually worked out pretty well.

Mike Ferry: You could have picked probably not a better spot to be isolated for that length of time than where you guys were that whole time.

Maverick Malech: Yeah, it was, you know, we love the outdoors. And so covid did not bother us.

Mike Ferry: So you’re also an athlete, you’re a marathon and ultra-marathon participant. They have that big giant triathlon in Hawaii. Is that something you participated in?

Maverick Malech: Yes, I’ve actually, so the Ironman World Championship, I have completed three times.

Mike Ferry: Good. And tell us because I have a couple of other friends that have competed… the format?

Maverick Malech: So it’s a two point four mile ocean swim, followed by a one hundred and mile bike ride. And then it’s twenty-six point two, a marathon run afterwards, it all done within a specific time with cutoffs. But in order to get here, you have to qualify by doing another Ironman or half ironman somewhere else in the U.S. or actually in the world. So it’s very competitive to get here.

Mike Ferry: So, do they give you a couple of days rest between each event?

Maverick Malech: You know, it’s time limited. So if you don’t finish, you’re cut off. And so it’s all done within one day, we got actually 17 hours from start to finish, and after 17 hours, they cut it off.

Mike Ferry: That is incredible, good for you. I mean, that’s thank you. That’s a real physical, mental, emotional feat which makes selling Real Estate kind of easy in comparison.

Maverick Malech: Yeah, you know, I was always for the last… I’ve been now racing in the city for twenty-five years, and I always look at Real Estate as an endurance. It’s not short, quick things. It’s an endurance. And so someone says, you know, they have a hard time prospecting for three hours. I don’t understand that. I just don’t. I don’t get it. Three hours is nothing.

Mike Ferry: Yeah, three hours goes by like that. If you’re actively participating, that’s for sure. How long? How long have we known each other?

Maverick Malech: So. It’s been a long time since 1990. Ok. Back when I had black hair, thick black hair. But it was it was interesting because I was new to the business and typical broker training. I was told, Here’s your desk, here’s a phone and a phone, book good luck. And so, I just I didn’t know what to do, and a young lady in my office came by and said, hey, why don’t you come door knocking with me? And I said, Sure. And so, we went out door knocking, and she said, You take this side, I’ll take that side. And so we’re out door knocking, I noticed about halfway down the block. She goes into a house. I finished my side of the street and I start coming back on her side and she comes out waving papers. I said, What’s that all about? Oh, I just knocked on the door. I was using my script. I’m like, oh, I didn’t know you had a script. And she goes, you know, when you plan on moving. And they said, well, funny that you ask. You know, we plan on talking to agents really soon.

Maverick Malech: She went in, she actually listed the house on the spot. Wow. And I said, how do you do that? And she goes, Oh, some guy named Mike Ferry taught me. And I said, well, who is he and where is he? And so forth. And so she said, Oh, he’s going to be speaking at the Modesto Convention Center with Boyd Whitman. And so we went like the next week or something. So her and I sat in the front row, went up and I talked to you afterwards. And, you know, love what you had to say. And I said, this is for me. This young lady Sue gave me one of your cassette programs. And then I started going to events, you know, action workshops, productivity schools, one day events and so forth of yours. In the Bay Area where I was living. I just started buying all your cassette programs, go to all the events. But it wasn’t until 1996 when I went to my first Superstar Retreat, and that’s when I joined coaching.

Mike Ferry: Good for you. Yeah. So you’ve been you’ve been a coaching client for a long time. Long time.

Maverick Malech: Yeah, yeah. You know, I figured last night that I’ve paid over three hundred thousand dollars in coaching fees.

Mike Ferry: Yay. We need more people like you. Have you? Have you had a good return?

Maverick Malech: Yeah, I’ve made well over $10 million, and I quit counting because now it’s investments that I own and just it’s not just the money that I made, but the people that I’ve met, the relationships that I’ve created. It’s a great life. You know, it’s been a good life.

Mike Ferry: Well. Today, you and Karen sell Real Estate, but your primary for you personally is the coaching. How many clients do you coach?

Maverick Malech: I currently coach thirty-six people.

Mike Ferry: Ok, thirty-six. So, you have thirty six people that are lucky to be coached by Mr. Maverick Malech. But I know because you are an athlete and you’re very, very disciplined. You sometimes see people from a little different perspective than maybe the average person because of your training that you’ve always been involved in. Do you have a couple common characteristics that you see in people that are, in most cases more successful than others and are wonderful, crazy business?

Maverick Malech: Yeah, it’s a good question. A couple of things that come to mind, and we could probably come up with a list of 10, 15, 20 things. But I’d just say for a few things. One is they participate. Ok. They show up for the coaching calls. They go to events. They have role play partners, maybe part of accountability or Mastermind Group. They go to events. They just really participate, and they’re involved. I see when someone is not involved that that is a concern for me because at some point they think they’re going to do it on their own or they’re going to, you know, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence or there’s a magic formula that they’re going to run off to. So, the participation is one. Second, I say they’re highly competitive.

Mike Ferry: Oh, interesting.

Maverick Malech: Yeah, highly competitive. But they hate losing more than they enjoy winning.

Mike Ferry: That is such a great. Say that again, because that is a great.

Maverick Malech: They’re competitive, but they hate losing more than they enjoy winning. If they’re going to Listing Presentation, they don’t get it. They’re more upset about that one listing that they didn’t get versus the other two that they took that week.

Mike Ferry: Interesting thought, so they the ability to evaluate and figure out why you lost that drives them crazy, but they have to go through the process so they can often. Yeah.

Maverick Malech: And then I say another, a third characteristic that I noticed is that they’re always looking to upgrade. And it’s not just the clothes they wear or the house that they’re in, but it’s upgrading their friends where they go on vacation, how they live their life, you know, they’re constantly looking to upgrade. It’s those who don’t do things or they go to the same vacation every year they eat at the same restaurant. I guess we can call it, there are more versatile. And you know that to me, that is a common trait that I see with a lot of the top producers.

Mike Ferry: I’ve written down for our viewers that are hopefully all taking notes Maverick. I wrote down participate, competitive and upgrade. And then I wrote a sentence behind each one. So that’s really great advice. I know doing the coaching that there are some frustrations that you experience. So I wrote down, what is the most common challenge that you face in trying to work and help agents move forward because there’s many types of people and many challenges, but what do you see as being a more common?

Maverick Malech: We are the only limitations we have on ourselves are the ones that we self-imposed are the ones we put in ourselves. We can do so much more than what we think we’re capable of. And so I see that in the coaching clients that they hold themselves back. There’s a glass ceiling that they don’t see and they can do so much more than what they’re actually accomplishing. So, for me, I see it as a coach, and I try to help them with that. But for me, that’s frustrating also for them, frustrated because they, you know, they go and take a listing. Their goal is to take it two listening for the month, for example, they take to listening this week. And also, they stop because they’re overwhelmed with those two listings. But they could do that probably they could do that every week if they wanted to.

Mike Ferry: That’s interesting that you say it that way, because I agree almost all limitations of self-imposed. I will always kid that the agents get to watch this interview with you are lucky agents. Their broker is not telling them, hold your production down, keep your head down. Those words are never spoken, you know? It’s what goes on in here that comes out of here.

Maverick Malech: So that’s correct. And it’s like, you know, want to tell people that have done ironman and triathlons and everything, and they’ll go, oh, I could do one, and I’ll say, No, you can’t. They go, well, why do you say that? I go, because if you could, you would have.

Mike Ferry: That’s right.

Maverick Malech: And you’re not done it, so you’re not going to go do it. So don’t try to kill yourself that you think you could go do it, just go do it.

Mike Ferry: I tell you that Nike ad… Just do it. Yeah, twice every day. So you’ve got a group of 10 or 12 agents that have come to Hawaii and you’ve agreed to meet with them for 30-40 minutes and share a couple of what you would call key principles to help them succeed. What ideas would you share if they really want to move their business forward?

Maverick Malech: I would say, first of all, they need to set a goal for what they want to accomplish. Whatever that may be, they need to. They need to set a goal. You know, when I started out a race, I have a goal obviously finishing the race, but I have set a time right. I determine how fast I can do this race and when I want to finish it. And so I’ve never seen every race that I’ve started, I’ve always finished. I never stopped and I’ve had bloody legs, I’ve had pretty bad injuries during the races, I’ve had pulled muscles, I had torn muscles, but it never stopped. So the first thing I say is you need to set a goal and then set action steps in place so that along the way, you know, the goal is you want to finish and hit the goal. But at the same time, you need to have measurements along the way to make sure that you’re on track to finish that goal.

Mike Ferry: Which is critically important. I mean, folks understand that we’re talking to a world class athlete today. And I’m just the opposite of that. We, you know, we do a little three mile walk every morning and, you know, I’ve done it for about a Hundred and sixty straight days, which for me is like a record, thank you. And of course, as you get a little bit more aged, it’s a little bit more challenging. What I do is I will pick a spot down so far away from me that I say, I’m just going to make sure I get to that spot. Ok, now let’s pick the next spot. And then finally, I’m picking the spot where the car is parked, which is a little celebration. Here’s an off the wall question, two and a half mile

Mike Ferry: swim in the ocean. How long does that take?

Maverick Malech: For the pros, they do it in an hour or less. For me, it’s it was an hour and 40 minutes.

Mike Ferry: That’s a long time in the ocean. And of course, you have a beautiful ocean all around you. How long does one-hundred-and-twenty-mile bike ride take?

Maverick Malech: So the 120 mile bike is again, the pros do it, you know, super-fast. But for me, it’s five hours.

Mike Ferry: Do you stop and rest? Do you stop for water, or do you just keep going?

Maverick Malech: No, you just keep going. It was interesting, the first time I did it at The World Championship, I got stung by a bee inside my ear. Oh, about mile 60. I couldn’t get the stinger out and so I finished the rest of the fifty something miles with the stinger in my ear. That was fun. It’s five hours for me. The first time I did it. We had really strong winds and it was brutal. It took me a little over seven hours to do the bike ride.

Mike Ferry: And then how long does it take? I don’t like to drive a car twenty-six miles. You’re running twenty-six. How long does that take you

Maverick Malech: For the run? The goal for again, I’m a big guy. You know, I played college football. I didn’t. I’m not a runner per say. So, it took me five hours to do the marathon.

Mike Ferry: The whole thing is a very involved serious day.

Maverick Malech: It is for me. My best time was 13 hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty one seconds still under fourteen hours.

Mike Ferry: That’s a big accomplishment. Well, I’m hoping Maverick that we promote Mike Ferry TV each week and I’m hoping that everybody really pays attention. I took a whole page of notes on what you’ve said so far. You know, this is going to play for seven days during the week that we played, and I hope that everybody watches that two or three times because if you’re not inspired by this young guy right here on the screen with me, then there’s something wrong with us because I every time I’m around Maverick, I’m inspired, and especially with where he lives, how he lives the lifestyle, the discipline which is the name of the game. So on behalf of all of our viewers, I want to say thank you again for being with us. Thanks for being a great coach. Thanks for being a great agent. And most importantly, thanks for being a longtime friend.

Maverick Malech: Well, thank you very much, Mike. I really appreciate it. And I told you once I’ll tell you again, is that you know, you had your three mentors. You actually had more. But you always talk about your three mentors, you know, in your early stages of your of your career and your life. And I, you know, I told you before, I’ll tell you again, you know, you are you’re one of my mentors and I appreciate you. Thank you.

Mike Ferry: Thank you a lot. We’ll see you very soon.

Maverick Malech: All right. Thank you. Bye bye.