The Agency New York’s Jed Lewin and John Antretter launched their new podcast, City Views with Jed and John, where they get together every week to talk about the market, the life of an agent, working with celebrities and to share funny tales from the trenches. The series kicked started with a very special guest: The Agency’s own Founder and CEO Mauricio Umansky.
Watch their first episode on YouTube or Listen on Spotify, Apple or Amazon to get an inside look at how Mauricio started The Agency, his tips for agents and insights on the market.
We sat down with Jed and John to ask them a few questions and get the insider’s scoop.
Q: Can you tell us what inspired you to start the City Views with Jed and John podcast? What was the initial spark that led to this project?
Jed: It was really an idea born during Forum, our annual company conference. We were riding in a car with Susan Fishman (our Agent Experience Manager) and Kim Schrialli (Senior Manager of Sales Operations). They loved our banter and thought we should start a podcast or some sort of video content to capture it.
We wanted to do several things at once with the show. Firstly, we wanted to establish ourselves as a new generation of thought leaders in the industry by showcasing our deal-making philosophies, extreme dedication to client service, and success stories. We also wanted to share our more personal sides so our clients can get to know us in a different way. And we also wanted to connect with other members of The Agency family by putting ourselves out there as ambassadors for the brand in the New York market. We were inspired directly by Zach Goldsmith and Ben Belack’s outstanding content in To Live and Buy in Los Angeles, and really admired what they were doing with their podcast in the L.A. market.
Q: What do you believe sets your podcast apart from others in the same genre?
John: We really felt that the New York market was missing the voices of people who aren’t already successful as agents on TV. There are plenty of podcasts featuring agents who have nationally or even globally recognized brand names, and we wanted to be the voice of a new generation of agents building a successful business from the ground up, but in the middle of the process, not already at the pinnacle. We tell stories of real deals we’re working on in the moment, real agents we’re interacting with, real struggles and how we handle them in the course of any given transaction. City Views is really a window into the day-to-day of being a broker in New York, for better or worse.
Jed: I think we aim to also create relatable content not just for real estate agents to understand but to give our clients more insight into who we are, and which problems other clients face. A lot of readily available real estate content is focused on just the glamor of real estate transactions or the agents themselves. You miss a lot of the grit that goes into a successful real estate transaction. In today’s market where there is a lot of uncertainty, we aim to share more detail on what it takes to make a successful transaction happen.
Q: Could you share a bit about your backgrounds in the real estate industry and what led you to the decision to create a podcast focusing on this field?
Jed: We both entered real estate after starting our careers in other fields. I’ve had a 15 year career in and around the law, and John worked in finance for several years. John’s family was involved in commercial real estate, so he had more of a working knowledge when he entered the industry 8 years ago. I started six years ago, and we both began our real estate sales careers at the same boutique firm. We both recognized fairly quickly that for the networks we had, the clientele we were serving, and the businesses we were looking to build, that we needed greater resources. We both, but separately, made the jump to Triplemint within a few months of each other five years ago.
Q: Your first episode featured Mauricio Umansky as a special guest. What motivated you to have him as your inaugural guest, and what insights did he bring to the show?
John: We had done four episodes of City Views with Jed and John and felt that it was a great time to begin broadening the focus to include the experience, perspective, and insights into what it takes to be truly successful in the industry from other people. And who better to be our first guest than our CEO and basically the poster boy for “top agent,” Mauricio Umansky?! Mau was an incredible first guest, and he shared what inspired him to get into real estate, how he started, and how he built his business. Plus, our audience got to hear some of his amazing anecdotes from working with the likes of Prince and Lady Gaga, and his “pinch me” experience selling the Playboy Mansion.
Q: What topics and themes can listeners expect to hear on City Views with Jed and John? What do you hope your audience will gain from tuning in each week?
Jed: What we talk about on the show is basically the stuff that we deal with day-to-day, because we want our listeners to get a behind-the-scenes experience into what it takes to be successful in real estate sales in New York. Our market is unlike any other, and we deal with complexities and intricacies that you just don’t have anywhere else, especially when it comes to dealing with co-op sales. It’s really nothing like the way it appears on tv, though I do credit shows like Million Dollar Listing New York with inspiring an entire generation of agents to get into the business. We talk about experiences we’re having on a given deal, and how we handled it, talk about prospecting for business, marketing, and providing the highest possible level of service to our clients that we can. We also talk about the frustrations of dealing with other brokers, lawyers, managing agents, and even some unique clients!
John: We’re pretty spontaneous in our format. We map our big concepts that we want to address on a given episode, but the stories just flow!
Q: Can you share any upcoming guests or themes you’re excited about for future episodes of the podcast?
Jed: We’re excited to have a few of our celebrity clients join us as guests in the coming episodes, including a New York Times best-selling author, a famous sports broadcaster, and more. We’re also hoping to host some of our colleagues at The Agency from other markets to share their insights and perspectives, and to help foster a deeper connection with our amazing community around the world.
Q: For aspiring real estate agents and those interested in the field, what advice or insights do you hope to provide through your podcast?
John: Our goal is to inspire people thinking about getting into the industry, who are just starting out, and even people who have been doing it but not seeing the success they hoped for, and to show them what we believe has worked for us. Success leaves clues, and there are no secret formulas or magical shortcuts; we just talk about what we’re doing that works, what we’ve tried that didn’t, and what we’re planning to try going forward.
