How do you build a good reputation? Chris Swartz warmly welcomes Mike McCann, who has been working as a REALTOR® in Philadelphia for over 30 years and is the Founder of The Mike McCann Team. Mike shares how he works the smartest and hardest. When you are consistent in giving your best, your reputation will grow. What’s most important is treating people with respect and dignity. Building personal relationships should be your priority. If you want to continue changing and growing for the better, you’ll love listening to this episode. Dive in!

 

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Mike McCann “The Real Estate Man”-Over 2 Billion In Homes Sold All Built On A Good Reputation

I’m super excited. I’m here with Mike McCann, “The Real Estate Man.” Mike, how are you?

I’m very good.

Mike comes to us. He is an Associate Broker with Keller Williams, the Founder and Principal of The Mike McCann Team at Keller Williams. Mike, do you want to tell us a little bit about what you guys are doing over there?

The McCann team is based out of Philadelphia. I’ve been doing it for many years. The team’s been around for several years. We list and sell homes and investment properties and do developments in and around the center city until we know we’ve expanded out to the mainline. We’ve been office with Keller Williams Main Line and Ardmore in Suburban Square. We’re expanding because our market and our people are expanding. That’s what I do. I am the Associate Broker at the two offices in Philly mainline and the team leader of the McCann Team, which is my most worthy team.

You’ve been around a long time in the real estate game. You’re being a little bit humble there. We’re going to put the business on the shelf in a minute, but for those people that are out there reading, let’s talk about how much real estate the McCann Team sells because these numbers are phenomenal. I feel like they need to be acknowledged. Where do you guys rank in the real estate community in Philadelphia and nationally? What volume are you saying?

I am proud, Chris, that being a Mike McCann affiliate, I started to get national recognition around 2000. I was a top agent in Berkshire Hathaway for seventeen years and was in the top 50 in the country. That was exciting. I’ve been the top agent in Philadelphia since 1988. The most exciting thing is in this business is like in any business and more than ever in life, you have to change and grow. Even though I was with another company for 27 years, I wasn’t changing and growing. I have to change to grow constantly. My team did $500 million in sales in 2021, which is about 250 rentals and 900 sales.

We opened up the team on the mainline. In the half-year, we did $53 million. We started a commercial division. This is all the client demands. Sometimes you have to watch what you pray for or wish for because I never want to let my clients down. I’m growing and expanding. That’s what I do, center city to the mainline, to the suburbs, commercial investment homes. I still love it and I’m having fun doing it.

For people that are reading that are connected in the real estate world, I want to put that into context before we dive into what we do here on the show, which is to unpack the Foundations Under Extraordinary Lives. That’s what FUEL an acronym is for. I appreciate you adding the magnitude of the volume that you’re doing in the real estate business, so people can get an idea of who we’re speaking with and the business you run. We’re going to take Mike McCann, “The Real Estate Man,” if it’s okay with you. You are one. This isn’t something we separate, but we’re going to separate Mike McCann, “The Real Estate Man,” and put it on the shelf for a little bit here.

The most important thing in the world is people, and you want to build yourself around like-minded people. Click To Tweet

I want to talk about Mike McCann, the man and the journey you’ve had to lead a team of amazing people. Those that know me know that I’m an owner of a mortgage company. I’m fortunate enough to work with some of the agents on Mike’s team. I’ve been doing mortgages, not quite as long, but seventeen years, which in our business feels like an eternity, 17 going on 50. I haven’t worked with a lot of people on your team. When I started to work with a little bit more people on your team, I said, “What’s up with this Mike McCann, ‘The Real Estate Man?’ Is he the real deal?”

How has this team? My genuine feedback is about the leadership, the availability, and the way you make people feel, no matter who they are or the time of day. The consistency I got is Mike always makes time. He makes me feel like I’m the most important person in the world. I’m sure they are to you at that moment. I think that says a lot about who you are. I want to unpack how did you get to this point? What is your journey? What led you to want to be in this position?

Thank you so much, Chris. Although, in my mind, I’m still 28 years old, what you do learn is the benefit of being older. You learn that the most important thing in the world is people. You want to build yourself around like-minded people. One of the proudest things in the ever-turning real estate world, my agents never leave me. We call it the Hotel California. It’s a lovely place, but you can never leave. The reason is that what I do is I give more than I receive. I’ve always been a contributor, even when I didn’t have much to contribute. I contributed with spirit, energy, hope, help, and optimism.

Being a contributor and as people in your world, helping them find ways to grow within your world so that they don’t have to leave your world because they’ve hit the ceiling. To me, it’s Mike McCann. It is not 1 and 1 is 3. Many agents, many assistants, and too many people in my world could have left me, but we found ways to grow together. Instead of them going off and me going off, they don’t need me. I don’t need them, but together we add up to 3, not 2. That’s the most important thing coming from a spirit of contribution.

To go back, I sold vacuum cleaners door to door in 1979, ‘80, and ’81. The interest rates were 21%. The economy was in shambles. You could not get a job at McDonald’s, but I was going to get a job. I found some jobs. Somebody showed me this movie about the American Dream. It was a thing on selling $644 vacuum cleaners door to door.

Basically, that was the best training in the world for me because, at the time, nobody had jobs. I had a job, but the best thing about it was entrepreneurial. I’d always worked since I was about ten years old, but this was entrepreneurial where the harder you work, the more you can make. It was all about building relationships with people. The thing that I learned was about finding entrepreneurs.

In real estate, I always say, “I’m not the best-looking, smartest, or strongest guy, but what I do have is that I looked like the best person when I got into real estate.” I learned this from my vacuum cleaner trainer guy, who was a multimillionaire, brilliant guy who was 1 of my 3 mentors in my life. He said, “Mike, if he can do it, you can do it.” When I got into real estate, I didn’t say I wanted to be number one in America or number one in Philly. I wanted to be successful because I had a wife and children. I tell people, “I need someone that says tell me what to do to be successful. I’ll do it.”

I was in the restaurant business when I was 12 years old until I was 17. I started out as a dishwasher. I was the best dishwasher there. I would work the hardest. In 4 or 5 months, I was moved out to prep man. In 6, 9 months, I was moved to short-order cook. I worked my way through that restaurant. I loved every moment of it. I had the most desire to please and help and I was a contributor. To me, that was the biggest thing. I was poor. My parents were divorced, so I didn’t have any money.

Good Reputation: Continue to educate yourself until you become the most knowledgeable in real estate.

 

Going through school was an embarrassing time when I was in 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. I used to say, “I will never live like this. I will be a millionaire.” People always laughed at me. I did a book report in seventh grade on me being a millionaire. People were like, “What are you going to do?” I’m like, “I don’t know, but I’m going to be the best at it.” I didn’t even find real estate when I was 27 or 28 years old. Thank God I found it. Whatever I did, Chris, I worked the hardest. I had the best attitude and fun doing it.

When I found an entrepreneurial role in real estate, that was the attitude that I took. My vision was I wanted to be the best. Through three ways, Chris, when I got into real estate, I said, “I want to be the most knowledgeable.” I continued to educate myself and became the most knowledgeable in real estate, where most people got their license and they sold real estate. That was it. I took courses, traveled to seminars, and read books. I continued to grow.

I said, “It’s a people business. I want to have the best reputation in the marketplace.” Your reputation, you can’t buy or sell. I am my reputation. That’s why even my strongest competitors say, “Mike is a great guy. Mike helped me with this. Mike helped me with that.” Nobody scares me. I help people grow even if it doesn’t benefit me. I’ve been doing that for many years. I have the best reputation among my clients and customers. I always said, “I will work the hardest/smartest.”

Back then, there wasn’t technology. You had to work hard. Now you have to work smart too, Chris. You need systems and operations. The Wall Street Journal has me in the top 50 in real estate for several years in the country out of 2 million realtors. Meaning, they have 2 million realtors. Those are the three reasons why is because I have the best reputation, worked the hardest, and am the smartest, and I’m not the smartest. My reputation is everything. You build off of that reputation.

That is so powerful yet basic, Mike. I’m the same way and come from a similar background. My father wasn’t around. I watched my mom work. I can’t even tell you how many odd jobs to make ends meet. I didn’t feel poor, but by all means, we lived in apartments. My mom didn’t have a car until she was 30 and I was 16. My friends were getting picked up and dropped off. I’m like, “If I want to get to the Granite Run Mall, I got to take the bus here. We’re going to do a transfer in Chester. I’m going to be at the mall in two hours.”

Honestly, I used to walk 2 miles to that restaurant when I was 11 or 12 years old. I would hitchhike too. We hitchhiked back in the ‘70s.

You can’t do that now. Any kids reading, we’re not hitchhiking, but it’s a different world. It’s the same thing. I started to see what my mother went through. I’m not a huge fan of the word hustling. She was always going and going, whatever it took. She didn’t have the most for us, but we had what we needed.

The biggest takeaway was the drive that she didn’t even know that she was giving me. When I was a kid, it was the same thing. You put a snow shovel in my hand, the lawnmower to paper route, working at the restaurants, everything from an age where nowadays kids would be looking at me like, “What are you talking about? We don’t work right now,” but that’s what I did.

When you give others the confidence to move on, you become important for the rest of their life. Click To Tweet

I started to look at my life and say, “What am I going to do?” I ended up getting in sales the same way. As I started my sales career, I looked for all of these silver bullets. “I’m going to buy these leads and do this marketing.” It took me about ten years of burning cash, wasting time, and working way too hard until I joined a mastermind group.

I’ve been in it since 2015 to surround myself with amazing people and started doing the basic stuff that I’m good at, communicating and my integrity. It’s the same stuff. You do all of these things to grow a massive business or achieve massive success. You can look at the most successful people like Mike McCann here. It comes down to these basic principles of what we’re doing, doing the right thing, and working hard. That’s not rocket science, Mike.

It’s funny. It starts out. I love helping people grow, Chris. In my team, I have all these top producers that want to join in. I don’t let them on. I love taking new people and growing them, but people with the right willingness, the right attitude, and who I believe fit my culture. I teach them one thing, the young people. You don’t have to wear a suit and tie, but you should dress nicely. When you meet someone, you smile, look them in the eyes, and put your hand out, “Hello.” It’s your basic fundamentals. When you’re standing at a party and you see somebody over there and they’ve got a grumpy face, you don’t approach them. You become very approachable in your appearance.

You gain the knowledge. If you have the knowledge, you have confidence. As a real estate salesperson, it’s one of the top three things people deal with. Death, divorce, and buying and selling a house are very stressful in people’s lives. I am a confidence builder because of my knowledge. I can carry them. I have become a very important person in their life. They tell me stuff that they don’t tell their spouses, their friends, and their other family. I have these personal relationships with people, which is awesome.

I take that confidentially, but I give them the confidence to move on. I become important for the rest of their life. Chris, they refer my business and refer me. They don’t say, “I used that guy, Mike.” They say, “You’ve got to call Mike.” I want raving fans. I did this before, too, Chris. Eighty percent of their marketing monies to get 20% of their leads. If you work with the people closest to you and take care of them, 80% of your business will come from them and cost you nothing other than being a great servant to them.

That’s a huge takeaway for anybody that’s reading. That’s universal. It probably translates to many industries. Focus on the people around you and your relationships and nurture those.

You have to be a confidence builder. When I go to an accountant, I don’t want to learn all about books and accounting. I want to know I have the best accountant and that accountant is going to treat me like I was his brother or father. That’s how I treat my clients. If I go to a doctor, I’ll ask him some questions. Don’t get me wrong, but I want the best doctor who’s going to treat me like their family. That’s how I treat every client. Whether it’s a $200,000 house or a $2 million property, a small single investment property, or a ten-unit multiunit, I treat them all like I would handle it myself. I have the resources to carry them through that process to deal with all the issues that will come up.

I’m optimistically confident. I’d never over-promise. I under-promise. I over-deliver, but you have to love what you do, Chris. I would have retired a long time ago because of what we’re talking about if I didn’t love what I do. Many years later, I work more than most people, not because I have to at all, but because I love helping agents grow and build the companies, my clients, and my customers. I love what I do because it’s my purpose. If you don’t love what you do, honestly, you’ll probably be mediocre and probably won’t live an abundant life. I love my life. I love the people in my life.

 

Good Reputation: Look at the best people in the industry and ask yourself, “Do they have happy lives? Do they make a good living?”

 

I started this company on the mainline. There were 90 before. We brought on about 250 people. I will not let anybody in this door that has a bad attitude, honestly. Fortunately, I’m financially sound enough. I don’t need anybody for monies in my life. Attitude is everything. Everybody wants to be on my team. People do not leave. That’s my proudest moment because everyone cares about each other.

Everyone will do anything for anyone. Everyone’s a contributor. People have my attitude of gratitude. Chris, I am grateful every day when I wake up and I take a hot shower. I used to come down to my kid and say, “It’s a beautiful day. What are you talking about? I took a hot shower. There are 2 million people in this world that don’t have hot showers and food.”

I still have fundamental gratitude for living in America, living at this time, and having the opportunity. As much has come at me, I’ll match anybody with adverse things that have come into my life. People think, “It’s easy for you. You’re The Real Estate Man.” No, I still live life. Being grateful, I always say, “I don’t have a bad day. I have bad moments, bad hours. I deal with that. I don’t live in that environment and move on. I’ll come back to that.”

It’s how you handle things. My grandfather, an old cagey Irish guy, said, “Michael, life’s beautiful if you don’t weaken.” What he meant was that life is beautiful, but there are going to be so many things that come at you. If you want to weaken and sit there with the “poor mes” it isn’t happening. No matter what industry I would be in, Chris, first, I would want to make sure that I want to do it. Secondly, I would look at the best in the industry and say, “Do they have happy lives? Do they make a good living?”

I love the restaurant business, but I saw that most people were still partying at 30 and 40. There were divorces and you’re working nights and weekends. Even though I was great at that business, I knew I didn’t want to stay in the restaurant business because of where I would end up. I looked at the real estate business when I finally got into that. I thought, “Those guys and women look like they’re doing pretty good.” I looked at the best people in the industry and said, “If they can do it, I could do it.” I shadowed, watched, and read.

That’s why I love honestly doing the show. I call the show FUEL, which is an acronym for Foundations Under Extraordinary Lives. Honestly, selfishly, it’s my fuel to connect with people, hear their stories, learn about people, and connect those people with other people in the world to make a difference. That’s my fuel. I happened to stumble into the mortgage business several years ago.

Contribution and help are the greatest gifts. People think, “You make money. You’re rich, so you’re mean, selfish, and greedy.” I’m sure there are people like that. Don’t get me wrong. You talked about your mom. I don’t want to boast, but over two years, I spent $30,000 on my mom for new teeth. How could I do that? That’s the greatest thing in the world. She’s so happy. She’s having problems with their teeth. I can help people. I put people through college.

I’ve helped people who deserved it. I contribute, and my life’s impactful. I’ve helped people grow in the real estate and the investment business, buying real estate. One quick call I got from a guy who called me up and said, “Mike, both my daughters have great jobs now. I want you to make them a millionaire as you did me.” I’m like, “John, it’s your gift.”

The biggest gift of being in sales is loving people. Click To Tweet

In the late ‘80s or through the mid-‘90s, I sold him a bunch of little houses in South Philly because I was buying at Penn’s Gordon Passyunk Square and he bought them. By ’05, he’s worth a couple of million bucks. He wants me to do that with his daughters. I took them out and sold them four properties over about six months. How cool somebody who was my age, either 28 or 29, I started to buy several real estate over the next 7 or 8 years. We don’t talk to each other for the longest time. I sold some for him and he has his kids doing that. We’re like best friends. We hadn’t spoken to each other for almost twenty years. That’s rewarding.

It’s the beauty of when you find what it is that you want to do. It’s almost like you’re not working. You’re working and putting in the hours, but the reward and the fulfillment that you get. You don’t have to do this for the financial reward at this point. You’re doing it for more of that internal reward plus that contribution. I love that.

Being mindful of that contribution will change your life and your world. Do you give more than you receive? These simple principles that we’re sharing here may sound like, “I’ve heard that before. It’s simple.” I’m telling you and sitting here with Mike, who’s living this. If you take these little nuggets here, the biggest thing is you’ve had a bad day and I’m sure you’ve had life events happen.

What you said there is you can’t wallow in that. You can’t stay in that forever because life, quite frankly, doesn’t care. Life’s going to keep going. It’s going to keep burying you and doing whatever it’s doing. You can stay stuck there for a little bit. We have these moments. We’re all human. There are all kinds of things that happen in our lives. You have to acknowledge it.

You have to be there for it, but not staying stuck is one of the biggest things that you said that you do. It’s not that Mike wakes up every day and it’s sunshine and roses. It’s what you choose to do when those things happen. Is there something that you can give to the readers, like, “This is what I do that helps me get out of that space quickly, so you’re not stuck or is it practicing it over and over?”

Maybe it’s coming from a tough childhood in the sense of being humiliated and embarrassed and this and that. I’ve learned how to deal with stuff a little bit better. My mom loved everybody. All my friends in our day, if nobody knew where anybody was, they asked her out on the street. Everybody would love to talk to my mom. My mom taught me how to love everybody. In school, I could hang with the crazy dudes and with the jocks. I protected the kid that got beat up. I love people. That’s the biggest gift for being in sales if you ask me. If I’m hanging out with the plumber, I love that dude. If I’m hanging out with a CEO, I find reasons to love that guy or woman.

If you’re in sales, that’s the one thing. You have to love people. When I was growing up, all my friends in my neighborhood hung out together, and all my friends at school hung out with that. I hung out with all different groups. I could be friends with anybody. I love people. That’s what allowed me to be very good in sales. I care about people. When something tough happens, I reach out to the resources and do what I have to do. A couple of hours later or whatever, when the time allows, I’m still moving on with the rest of my life. I’m not going to shut down. I could go on and on about stuff that I’ve had to deal with.

I can’t live in that. I have to help people. Nothing is more important. This is the one thing I’ve learned, Chris. The most important thing in life is people. They say the top five people that you are around are who you will become. If you hang with a bunch of five crazy dudes, you’re probably going to be crazy. If you hang with five successful people, you’re probably going to be successful. You want to be around good quality people.

Good Reputation: Help people who deserve your contribution to make your life impactful.

 

If you don’t have much to contribute, there are many times when my own game before I’ve gotten real estate where I helped, I did stuff. It’s your time you can contribute. As you do stuff, you can do money. I teach other people or have other people help me. We used to do mission trips. I’m the Honorary Chair for Bethesda House. We’re raising $75,000 for the homeless in Philadelphia. We’ll be down at the Citizens Ballpark with this event with a couple of hundred people. I committed to raising $75,000 for the homeless. I went and visited all those homeless sites.

I met the person in charge and said, “I’ll raise money. I have to believe in the cause.” I went and spent a day visiting them all. My heart was filled. The work that they’re doing. There are volunteers there. There are paid people. Even the paid people aren’t making anything near what an entrepreneur is making. I thought I could do this. We raised $35,000 before COVID. I became the Honorary Chair. My whole team is involved with that. I have a team of contributors.

The other thing I want to say is I am a creature of habits, meaning I have good systems in my life. For example, my day is prepared the night before. I get home at night, unload my briefcase, put my sweats on, and make the coffee on a timer for in the morning. I put my clothes out. I wake up, spend 45 minutes with my wife and have a pot of coffee. We watched the sun come up. I take a hot tub, do some pushups and take my shower. I hit the road at 8:15. By 9:00, I’m at the office or with a client. That’s every day, except I stopped meeting people on Saturdays in ‘96, so I could live and love my family. In 2000, I stopped meeting people on Sundays also.

Being in real estate, I don’t meet people on the weekends, which is amazing, but that’s why I have a team. People want to grow. I have a 9:00, a 12:30, a 3:00, and a 5:30. That’s my time. In between, I’m returning phone calls too. I have great resources. People will call me out of nowhere. I need to get a good attorney, accountant, and plumber. All those people in my life love me and I’ve loved them because I take care of them. I can get stuff done.

The FedEx guy dropped something off at my house one Saturday. He comes into my garage. I gave him a $20 tip. He’s like, “Thanks. Nobody ever tipped me.” Having fun with people and taking care of people are the most important. The people in your life, family, and friends can be hard at times. You find out what people’s characters are when things aren’t right. How do you deal with stuff? I try to make sure that I’m around the right people. When those times happen, it’s much deeper than this.

There is so much there that people can unpack and apply these little things. Mike, getting to know you better, and selfishly part of this FUEL thing is, for me, is similar to you, I did a little exercise. I started to question when I got into some high-level coaching and stuff, what’s my purpose? What’s my contribution to the world? Initially, I was ashamed. There’s this guy from Delco who had grown up modestly. I’m not the smartest guy. I had all these stories in my head and was like, “I don’t know. People like me. I like people. I like to help and connect people.”

I felt so ashamed at that time because I thought, “This guy could fly an airplane. This guy is a doctor.” They have these high-level skills. I’m looking in the mirror and like, “My gift and skill are people like me. I can connect with people. I’m a genuine person, all these things.” It sounded so lame. We were at one of these things where they break you down. I’m like, “Do you know how valuable that is? How many people would kill to have that skill? How many doctors would wish they could talk to people?” Everybody has their own gift.

I started to own it finally. I was like, “Okay. This is what I got. This is what I’m working with. I’m not out there with the Sixers. I’m going to take home the championship for Philadelphia, but I got some skills, I guess.” Once you own those things, reel them. I started dubbing this term and people were like, “What else do you want to do? Do you want to coach? Do you want to help people?” I said, “I don’t want to do that. I want to help people, but I want to coach and do these things.” I dubbed this term. I said, “I’m like a relationship capitalist. I meet as many people as I can. I help them out. I have this relationship capital.”

The harder you work, the luckier you get. Click To Tweet

If you need a plumber or a resource, I’m going to connect people. When you connect with people and you help make their lives better, it flows back. That is what I started to in years and years ago. That sounds very similar to the things that you are doing. Especially those in real estate that we know that are going to read this and want the secret sauce for Mike McCann, “The Real Estate Man.” Mike, can we say that you’ve shared it with these basic principles?

Good things happen to good people. The more you give, the more you receive. Anybody who knows me must have heard it 1,000 times, but I have Mike McCann-isms. One of my free time things is I’d like to do road trips to California or other places. They brought me this poster with a guy on a Harley and put all my sayings on it. “If you believe, you can achieve.” I believed when I was in 6th, and 7th grade, that I was going to be a multimillionaire. Everybody laughed at me. I never gave up on that thought, even when I was 22 to 24, working in a restaurant 90 hours a week.

My vacuum guy, “Never, never, never give up.” Can’t means, “I can’t do that, Chris.” No, that means you won’t do that, Michael. Never give up. The harder you work, the luckier you get. These are Mike McCann-ism, “Never, never, never give up. If you believe, you can achieve. The harder you work, the luckier you get. Can’t means won’t. If he can do it, I can do it. Gratitude is an attitude. I am a grateful guy for the most basic things. I’ve never forgotten where I came from.”

Chris, I couldn’t even raise my hand in high school. I had such a lack of confidence because I was a C student. In History, I was an A student because I liked History. I’m a tunnel-focused person. If I love something, I can master that. I’ll dig deeper and deeper. In my real estate career, I had all these people, doctors and lawyers, buying from me. Ten years later, I’m doing much better than them. I’m like, “You’re a doctor. You’re helping people.” I help people in a different way.

Loving and helping people is the most important thing. You can’t be taken advantage of. That’s all I could say, “Love what you do. Be the best. Wake up with a positive attitude. Never, never give up.” Many times, I can’t tell you, one of my sayings is patience, persistence overcomes resistance. My team was like, “I hear it, Mike. I understand.” When they see that work, it happens. Life is not easy, but it’s unbelievable if you build a big life.

My whole purpose in life was I didn’t want to be poor. I wanted to provide better for my children. I was married to my wife for many years. She packs me lunch every single day to keep me healthy. It’s an abundant life. Money will not make happiness. You have to be around people to grow your business. Whatever business you’re in, to me, is you got to love what you do. That’s the key thing.
You want to be the best at it. You’ve got to have fun. People can’t believe how I’m still that kid from Northeast Philly. They think that I’m going to be this pompous dude. I’m not. Chris, it doesn’t matter. If anybody asks me for help, I will help them out. I don’t want to bother you if you’re busy. If you need help, I’ll help you.

Mike, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve got some Mike McCann-isms now of my own. Hopefully, our readers do as well. This was awesome. Thank you so much for taking the time to jump on the show. For everyone reading, a couple of things we want to take care of, too. One, if somebody is reading and they want to connect with you, what’s the best way to find you?

Good Reputation: You find out what people’s characters are when things aren’t right.

 

I am McCann@McCannTeam.com or text (215) 778-0901. I return every phone call and email within 2 minutes to 2 hours, from 7:00 AM until midnight.

One of the things that you’re working hard on now because I’m sure after the campaign and the fundraiser and the charities with Bethesda House, they’re still going to have a need. We can talk about what a donation could look like.

I tell people, whether it’s $10, $20, or $200, it doesn’t matter how much. There is an event. We’re going to auction and music and all that stuff. We don’t realize how fortunate we are. It feeds, houses, clothes and educates Philadelphia’s homeless and troubled. It’s been around for many years. I had to check it out. They are next to like Sister Mary Scullion’s Project for the homeless. It’s a great organization to help the disadvantaged youth in Philadelphia. It’s so important. Philadelphia has a 28% poverty rate. People live below the poverty means and there’s a lot of homelessness, but this is helping people. It’s helping them get back into the world.

I appreciate your gift to the world, Mike, everything that you do and your contributions, and this connection. Thank you so much. As we wrap up here, we’re going to do our fun little exercise. We have our three rapid-fire questions, completely fun, whatever answers come to mind. Are you ready?

Yes.

Mike, we know you’re a people person, so you may not like this, but you’re stuck on an island. On that island, we know you’d bring your family and your wife because you need lunch every day. She takes care of you and makes sure that Mike McCann’s still functioning, nice and healthy. We know you’d take all those people and loved ones. Outside of that, who would you take? It could be a friend, a celebrity, or somebody that’s passed away. Who would you take to be stuck on an island with?

I like historical figures, so I probably take Teddy Roosevelt, not the other one, the turn of the century, 1900. Teddy Roosevelt had an unbelievable life story. It’s the only thing I read documentaries of people’s stories. He’s an adventurer. He was everything.

It’s awesome when you go back in time and see the lives of people like that life.

It was Franklin Roosevelt, the guy in the third, who was okay, but Teddy was unbelievable.

Whatever business you're in, you have to love what you do. Click To Tweet

Number two is a book that you’d like to share with our readers that’s had an influence. I’m sure you have a lot of them, but something that might’ve influenced or impacted your life that you’d like to share.

In fourth grade, I read Thomas Edison’s book and I was blown away at how hard the guy worked and the light bulb, all that stuff, and how hard you work. For the rest of my life, Chris, that’s all I ever read were autobiographies and biographies. That’s all I ever read in my whole life, Thomas Edison in fourth grade. Rich Dad Poor Dad is unbelievable, easy to read, great book. Every self-help book when I was in 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, I did read that stuff.

We’re looking for the fun stuff. You nailed it. We are learning more about Mike McCann than anyone ever thought they would, the historian here. The last one’s fun. What food do you have to have? What’s Mike’s guilty pleasure, fun thing that you got to get shipped on this island and get it there somehow?

Pizza.

I didn’t know if we were going to give Philly a little love, shipping in some soft pretzels, or what are we doing?

I’ve got to watch my bread intake. My mom always had meat, potatoes and a vegetable. For lunch, my wife makes me the best salad, avocado. That’s probably my favorite thing.

Keeping it healthy. Mike, that’s it. You survived the rapid-fire. For everybody reading, if you got something out of this, I ask that you share it on social media, put it out there, and share it with anyone you think this might resonate with. Give us a five-star rating on iTunes. On that note, we’re out.

 

Important Links

• The Mike McCann Team
• Bethesda House
• McCann@McCannTeam.com
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• iTunes – FUEL with Chris Swartz
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/therealestateman/

 

About Mike McCann

Few people love Philadelphia more than Mike McCann. His enthusiasm for the city and its residents is contagious! A native of Philadelphia and graduate of the Temple Real Estate Institute, Mike McCann is well acquainted with the neighborhoods, geography and culture of the city. Mike earned his status as “The Real Estate Man” by utilizing his extensive knowledge and experience to consistently provide quality service for his clients, establishing a remarkably positive reputation within Philadelphia. For over 30 years he has been a top selling REALTOR®. Mike is proudly associated with KW Philly and KW Main Line.

Tags: attitude, contributor, optimism, Real Estate, Reputation, sales