Why AI Can't Replace a Handshake | Anthony Kazazis of One National Real Estate | The Brainiac Blueprint
Today on The Brainiac Blueprint Podcast by Left Brain AI, we sit down with Anthony Kazazis, Director of One National Real Estate and the mastermind behind two of the real estate industry's most well known trade shows - the NYC Real Estate Expo and the Southeast Real Estate Expo.
Anthony shares how he built a real estate events empire from the ground up, starting with a single client from an expo that turned into 50 to 60 loans, and why he believes the in-person handshake will never be replaced no matter how advanced AI becomes.
He also gets candid about what makes a great exhibitor, why personality is the one thing no company can train overnight, and how he is pushing his event to go international with Dubai on the horizon.
Full transcript below.
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⏱ In this episode, we discuss:
00:00 – Intro
00:58 – Who is Anthony Kazazis and One National Real Estate
02:17 – "I think AI is..." Anthony finishes the prompt
03:46 – Anthony's background and how it all started
05:14 – One client from an expo that changed everything
08:15 – How the NYC Real Estate Expo was born
11:00 – Staying consistent and building industry relationships
13:00 – Building the A team and maintaining key partnerships
17:35 – The family business behind the expos
21:38 – How the Southeast Real Estate Expo got started
30:00 – How AI fits into an in-person relationship driven industry
40:00 – Using AI tools at the expo
44:13 – What makes a great exhibitor
47:04 – How to follow up after an expo the right way
49:29 – Ninja AI and recording conversations at the expo
51:00 – Rapid fire: automation, next expo location, archaeology and more
56:24 – Open forum: you have to love what you do
57:35 – Where to find Anthony and One National Real Estate
🔗 Anthony Kazazis
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonykazazis/
🔗 One National Real Estate
Website → https://www.onenationalrealestate.com/
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Episode Full Transcript:
Kyle Lambert: All right, welcome back to another episode of the Brainiac Blueprint, where we discuss the intersection of AI and how it impacts business and the world around us with our esteemed guests. I am your host, Kyle Lambert, founder of Left Brain AI and Action Hero Marketing. In today's episode, we take a slight step back and discuss how even AI can't replace looking somebody in the eye and shaking their hand, especially in a relationship driven industry like real estate. With that being said, today's brainiac is Anthony Kazazis. Welcome to the show, Anthony.
Anthony Kazazis: Hey, welcome, Kyle. Welcome.
Kyle Lambert: Good. It's good to have you. Good to have you here.
Anthony Kazazis: Good to be here.
Kyle Lambert: We've been talking a lot. It's good to get you on the show. You have a wealth of knowledge. So before we jump into everything, if you could just let everybody know who you are and you know what you work on.
Anthony Kazazis: Sure. Yeah, first of all I'd like to say thank you, Kyle. My name is Anthony Kazazis and I am the Director of One National Real Estate. It's the home of the NYC Real Estate Expo as well as the Southeast Real Estate Expo. And this is a trade show. We are basically event planners for the real estate industry. And these are two events. The NYC Real Estate Expo has been around for eighteen years and the Southeast is just a brand new event and that's been around for two years. So yeah, that's what we do, Kyle.
Kyle Lambert: Two years and it's already getting huge. I know you're talking about expansion and new venues and all types of stuff. I mean, New York has set the stage, it's been there, it's been dominant for a while, but the Southeast is a big opportunity for you.
Anthony Kazazis: Correct. Correct. Correct.
Kyle Lambert: Absolutely. Awesome. Well as I told you I have all of my guests kind of start off by just finishing the prompt, I think AI is. So I'm going to pass that over to you.
Anthony Kazazis: AI, I obviously from what we've been hearing from many, many, many people in all industries, it's a must that we must somehow try to be able to work with it and allow it to come into our industry. And obviously it's gonna help I believe all of us. I think it's already dominating. I'm enjoying the use of it when I need to have something written up for me and clean it up and spruce up my letters. So I am experiencing what it could do and I know it could really help all industries as long as it doesn't take us over. I think we're okay with it. So I think it's a must, must, must that we all must try to learn more about it.
Kyle Lambert: Absolutely. And you know, I think it's interesting, I know you're using it in certain ways, but I think most people as soon as they get in the room with you and start talking to you, they realize that you're a conversationalist, if you will. And your charm and your skill set can't necessarily be replaced by something like AI. You like to, I know you still do some spray and pray calls and all that kind of stuff. You know, pick up the phone and chat and shake someone's hand. So you know, it's interesting to see how it fits into something like an expo that is so in person and for someone like you who again likes to look them in the eye and shake someone's hand.
Anthony Kazazis: Yep. Yeah. Thank you, Kyle. Yeah.
Kyle Lambert: Absolutely. Okay, so let's jump in a little bit more. I want to jump into your story here. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you started off just by breakfast, right? Kind of like networking breakfast, and then it's expanded into this big multi-area conglomerate, if you will, of events. Tell us about the beginning and how you've scaled it.
Anthony Kazazis: Well you know, it's amazing. Trade shows has always been fascinating to me. I always got excited about going to a trade show, especially when I was in my twenties or in my thirties. It was always exciting. It was an exciting experience. And so I had an interest of learning a little bit more about it. I was in the mortgage industry, and then at one time I jumped in from the mortgage industry to help my brother in the title industry. I was actually working for my mother in the real estate industry. So I come from a family of all real estate industries. My father was a lawyer, my mother was a broker, my brother was in the titles, and I was in the mortgage business. So I definitely was excited about going to these trade shows. I knew the value that shaking hands with people, meeting people in these events are so valuable. And what really got me into becoming an event planner for the real estate industry was when I met one client when I was in the mortgage business. A client from an expo, and I think I might have done about 50 or 60 loans from that one client.
Kyle Lambert: Wow.
Anthony Kazazis: I didn't need a hundred clients. I mean I met a hundred people, two hundred people, three hundred people from these expos. But that one client, I was able to buy my house in Westchester County. And it was beautiful. But of course I had to keep the relationship. Of course I had to do good work. Of course I had to be able to place all those mortgages in the right banks so we could close. I mean obviously the expo gave me the opportunity, but of course I had to keep the client. But that's what really got me into the business. Now, obviously I started going to these networking events in Queens when I used to have my office there. I went to what's called a BNI. I think many of you guys know what BNI means. I'm not sure if you've been to one, Kyle, but it's like a Business Networking Institute.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: And I had to go, I think they wanted one person from each industry. So I actually went there from the events business. There wasn't really too many people from the events business. And obviously we all had to go to the breakfast meeting and try to give leads to the other people in that BNI group, which was like 20 or 30 people the most. And I decided like wow, I was always giving each person that was in that BNI group about three to four deals. But I wasn't getting anything back from anybody. So I was like saying, boy, you know, this is interesting. But what bothered me about the BNI group was it was costly as well. You had to come up with three or four hundred dollars, you had to come up for the monthly dues. I mean, it was a business. The BNI organization was a business and it was kind of a little bit costly. It's okay if you're getting leads and you're closing deals, and it's okay to stay in the group. But a lot of people would go to these BNIs and cancel out because they weren't getting anything out of it, and they couldn't afford to stay in the BNI. So then that's what got me going to create the NYC Real Estate Expo. And I started off in Queens County. It started off with the Queens Real Estate Expo. And I started doing my own little networking event, like a BNI, and I would bring the people in, have them pay for their own breakfast, and we'd get into a little section of the restaurant in the back, like a convention center or a conference center area, and I would bring in two or three speakers. And I would have these monthly meetings and Kyle, it just went from 20 to 40 to 60 to 100 to 200 to thousands. And that's basically how the expo was created. And then from Queens Real Estate we converted it over to NYC Real Estate Expo because we wanted to capture all the boroughs, not just Queens, all the boroughs.
Kyle Lambert: Of course, of course.
Anthony Kazazis: And I had to move it into New York City. So that's basically how I started. But I started with a networking event. A guy like yourself could do it. Anybody could do it. They just gotta get the people together and it just grows. It could keep on growing if you want it to grow. With me it just kept on growing.
Kyle Lambert: At what point were you like, wow, I really have something here? Like I can move out of, you know, my day job and like I can devote all my time into this and like this is something that I can do for the rest of my life.
Anthony Kazazis: You know, with me, Kyle, it happened kinda quick. I just realized, whoa, this is happening. And because at that time I was doing mortgages and then I stopped because my brother had some problems, health problems, and I jumped into the title insurance industry. And then at that point I had to tell my brother John, let's go back a little bit. When I was a sales agent for the title industry, I told John that this is a great thing for me to put together because now our title company will have a platform, meaning now the title company will be able to invite their clients, their attorneys, their bankers to come and speak. It wasn't really charging them. We were just helping them. We were helping these guys get business by bringing them all together so that they could give us titles. That's how I was treating this networking thing, to help our title industry. That's where it really became something. And then after a while, everybody told me, hey, you gotta become an expo guy. And the funny thing about it is back then what was really huge in the boroughs was called Learning Annex. They were huge and Tony Robbins, Rich Dad Poor Dad and Donald Trump, they were all partners in this Learning Annex thing, this event, and it was a magazine at first, a publication, and then it became a huge expo. And then one year, I think it was two thousand and four, it just stopped, Kyle.
Kyle Lambert: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Kazazis: And that was the year that I jumped in. The year that they stopped was the year that I jumped in and had my first expo at the Roosevelt Hotel.
Kyle Lambert: Okay. Awesome. That's so cool. Twenty years later, I'm curious, do you see anything that's still the same? You know, that's still staying consistent between that first expo or that first networking group to today?
Anthony Kazazis: You know, Kyle, it's in this industry and thank God that I have great friends and great people. Throughout those twenty years you establish relationships with all these organizations. Whether it's the Commercial Observer, the New York Real Estate Journal, whether it's the Real Deal or whether it was the Ariel Properties or the Architect Magazine. There's so many organizations out there. The Mortgage Bankers of New Jersey, the Mortgage Bankers of New York. I mean there's so many organizations. And the more organizations that you align yourself up with, the more power you got. And more resources you have, and more speakers you have to come in and help you put on a great show. And every year you just learn more, you meet more, and it gets better and it just gets better and better and better. As well as you know, you now have become one of the A team, one of the guys on the A team that I'm trying to make sure that we put together a team that is truly gonna help each other from here on in all the way to this show. So we're doing something a little bit different that I've never done before by making sure that all the guys on the A team are gonna get these leads way before the trade show hits in May. So we're doing something different but that A team is so valuable to have because we're all helping each other. We're all helping each other.
Kyle Lambert: Absolutely, absolutely. So, as you know, I like to call you Mayor Kazazis because you're so good at knowing everybody and maintaining these relationships. So I'm curious, what has been your key to maintaining these relationships? You have met so many people, you know so many names. All these different organizations, how do you do it? What is your key to success for maintaining these relationships?
Anthony Kazazis: I mean the biggest thing is if you could show each person that you really care about them then it's almost like a love story in a sense. They fall in love with you in a nice way, you know, in a professional way. And in my philosophy, you have to aggressively try to help them in their business. Now once you show them that, then they're gonna believe in you and follow you to the end. So I've learned that. Right now, the last ten people I'm speaking to, one person from Spain, I just got off the phone with this fellow from Panama, I just got off another phone with Greece, and they need our help. But it's the Americans as well, the American firms here. As long as you try to push them to do what is necessary. A lot of people go to expos and they expect things to happen. They expect that all the business is gonna come in. No, there's no guarantee. None, none whatsoever. But I try to push everybody to go after it. And I'm very easy going with passes. A lot of companies will not give out passes. I give out the passes. As long as you're gonna exhibit, my ultimate goal, my number one goal, is to make sure you come back next year. That's all that matters to me. I need you to come back next year. So if I have to give you 10, 15, 20, 30 passes to get your ideal clientele to come meet with you, and you're now a host, you're like me, you're saying to them that you're purchasing their ticket to come on over to the trade show, they're excited. They're very excited. They want to be a part of that show. That little perky gift is the most valuable thing because I go to a lot of shows and I wish I had five extra tickets. I wish I had ten. Because like when I go down to New Jersey to go to one of those big shows, I would love to invite you to come on over and Josh to come on over, all the guys I'm meeting in Philadelphia. Hey, come on over and I'll pick up your ticket. But their ticket is about two hundred dollars. I would have to spend a thousand dollars just for five tickets. But there is value to trade shows. It is worth a hundred to two to three to four hundred just to pay to go meet these exhibitors because they have the products, they have the services to help you in your industry. So I forgot what the question was again Kyle, but I think I hope I answered it.
Kyle Lambert: No, no, you're great. No, that was awesome. That's how you maintain your relationships, is you give them the value and everything. Exactly. Yes, yes.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah. You gotta give some perks, you gotta give love, and you gotta give some help, Kyle. You gotta give a lot of help if you can.
Kyle Lambert: I'll say, you know, we've known each other since twenty twenty four and that was one of the things that kind of really surprised me was just how loose you were with those tickets and the passes. But then when you get there on the floor, it's like, wow, okay, look at all these people that I want to talk to. And like there's still people today. I just had a call last week with a guy that I met in twenty twenty four at the expo. So I totally get it. As soon as you're there, you fully understand. I wanna make a slight pivot because you know we're talking about relationships and I think it's so interesting that you've started working with your family and now I know your wife and I know your children, and I think it was even your wife's sister was there at the Southeast Expo. So was that always a part of the plan? Like let's just get the family in there, let's kind of show that we are a family group and there is value and we do care and we want everybody to succeed? Or did it just kinda happen?
Anthony Kazazis: Well, you know, not every family could work with each other. It's a definite. Not every family could do this. But I'm a great believer that you can and it's rough. It's not easy. It's definitely not easy. But I believe that the kids will understand after when they get to that age where when you get to thirty and forty and your company doesn't want you anymore. And trust me, a lot of my friends that are thirty, forty, fifty, they're calling me up all the time and asking for help. When you have a family business, it is such a beautiful thing to give. Like my father had a law business and to be honest with you, I really didn't want to be a lawyer. I just did not want to go to extra school and study and be a lawyer. My mother had a real estate business, but I didn't really want to be a real estate agent either. And my brother was in the title business. I did mortgages, so I was helping, and it was easier for me to do mortgages. But then when my brother had a health problem, it was easy to sell titles as well. So I was able to work with my brother and it was more like a family thing as well. My brother would give me all the mortgages, my mother would give me more mortgages, and we were always referring everybody. It was really an amazing upbringing, amazing education, amazing. Everything was amazing. It was all good. And so I only wish and pray that I could offer that to my children and give them the same type of support. Now with our business, a lot of people overseas are watching us and they want us to come out to Dubai, to Greece, to Portugal, to Spain, and do events there. Am I into that?
Kyle Lambert: Sure.
Anthony Kazazis: No, but my kids might be into it because they're pushing me constantly to say, let's go, Dad, let's go, let's go there and do it. And I think they're gonna be ready to go over there, align up with those companies over there, mergers and alignments, and work together. And that's the great thing about it. You're gonna see a whole bunch of nice international organizations coming on over. Right now, believe it or not, that meeting that we just had today, the guy Izeeb jumped on and Mickey jumped on and we had a great meeting. And Dubai, we're gonna be going over there. Probably you will be going with us as well. We'll be going over there next year after our expo.
Kyle Lambert: Very cool.
Anthony Kazazis: So it's all good and very interesting to work with all these countries. To me, Kyle, that's like, whoa, this is fascinating to work with these people. It's a good thing.
Kyle Lambert: I agree, it's very fascinating. There's so much opportunity just across the globe. But we have a success story from expanding from New York to the Southeast. You took the Kazazis clan down there to South Carolina. We're two years into the Southeast Real Estate Expo. Tell me about that. You know, you went sixteen years or whatever it was just in New York and you didn't expand. What kind of led to that decision making process of being like, was it just a bunch of opportunity? Was there people saying, hey, you gotta do this? Like what was that like?
Anthony Kazazis: There was a couple reasons, but the main reason of course was COVID. Obviously that hit everybody, but that put us on the sideline. And we couldn't really do any kind of events. We had to be social distancing. So of course I got a little scared and I gotta say, boy, what are we gonna do here? So that shut us down for two years. And then I went down to the South. I went to Greenville, South Carolina, beautiful place. And obviously every state is a little bit different how they treat things. Their states of course are like, as long as you wear a mask or if you take ivermectin or if you take the vaccine, they don't care. So it was like one of those emergency situations. We discovered the place which was so beautiful. We're next to the mountains. We're not down by the water. We're next to the mountains. So it's really beautiful, you see nice mountains in the background. And it's such an adorable place. It's like one of those hallmark movies where you have an adorable town, a little small city.
Kyle Lambert: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Kazazis: And it is, it's really beautiful. And I think you enjoyed it yourself, right?
Kyle Lambert: I did enjoy it. It was my first time in Greenville. Unfortunately it rained the entire time so I didn't get to really experience it. But next time I'll get down there.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, next time. So that's basically how that happened, Kyle. We were kind of forced to move because of the business. And we discovered Greenville. And the great thing about being down here is that there's a big event in New York and probably many of your audience know about it. It's called the Triple Play in Atlantic City. So the Triple Play basically is New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. And it's a big trade show that offers exhibiting. Now when I saw North, South and Georgia all within an hour and a half of a drive, like when I was in New York City, in Westchester County, it was three hours to get down to Atlantic City. So I thought, if we create this triple play in the South, we call it the Southeast Real Estate Expo, and cater to North, South, and Georgia, it's gonna grow, it's gonna happen. Maybe six, seven, eight years, it's gonna get much bigger. And it just needs to take some time. But a lot of people exited New York City and went running down to Florida, but a lot of those people from Florida came back up and went to North Carolina, South Carolina, or Georgia. And Miami's gotten unbelievable. It's gotten really big. But some of my competitors are down there and I don't want to step on their toes. I figure let me stay up here in the Carolinas, which is a gold mine. I believe that Carolinas is happening. The property values are going up. So good things are truly, truly happening down here.
Kyle Lambert: Well I agree. I've met several people since coming down to the expo and everybody's been kind of shining that light. It seems like a smart move. So what's the growth plan looking like here?
Anthony Kazazis: It does take a little time to figure out, is North Carolina right to have it, is Greenville right to have it, or is Atlanta right to have it? And we're gonna give Atlanta a shot next year because two years we had it in Greenville. We figure of course the population in Atlanta is like ten times bigger than Greenville. So absolutely. And you also gotta find the states that want to collaborate and they want to align. Some states may not want to align or collaborate. They're a close knit group and they're not into sharing. So my goal is I gotta find the right states that will collaborate, will open up the doors and say, I believe in your plan and let's collaborate. See that's what I need as an event planner. I'm a big alignment guy rather than sponsors. Sponsors we could get. But we need to make sure that the real estate groups and the building groups and the business groups are all on board and four or five thousand of them will be there. We need to make sure that's gonna happen. If you can't get the groups, the organization groups aligned with you, you gotta get out of that state and run to a different state immediately.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah, there's no issues there.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, some companies are like organizations. Some companies have a thousand people in there. So you really don't need too many. You just need about maybe ten big groups that have a thousand people that will bring ten thousand into your organization.
Kyle Lambert: And not that Atlanta is New York, but it's a major metro, so it certainly will bring in these organizations and these groups and everything.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah. Absolutely. And they all want to learn, they all want to be involved, they want to network, they want to shake. They get it. They understand the art of networking. The art of networking is so important. You know, and I know, Kyle, that most corporations must have their people at these networking events. It's a must, must, must that they must attend, shake hands, meet people, get business cards, get connections because they're pushing their businesses. Now, obviously these big corporations, Kyle, are spending thousands and thousands of dollars on ads. But there's nothing like the real deal. Meaning the real deal of getting out there eye to eye, handshake to handshake. There's nothing like it. Not even AI will ever compete. I mean it won't. AI will help, but there's nothing like genuine networking from the human.
Kyle Lambert: I agree. I agree. And I myself have to push myself to be that social person that's going out there, but I always see the ROI when I do. More so than sending these emails or calling. And again, they have their own place in the ecosystem. But I agree. Having that eye to eye contact and shaking the hand, it leaves an impression, and it makes you stand out a little bit more.
Anthony Kazazis: Correct.
Kyle Lambert: Awesome. So I wanna continue along the lines here of expansion and change. So you expanded down to Southeast, you're also expanding digitally. We've had a lot of conversations, obviously. We're partnering up with the online magazines and directories and newsletters. I'm curious how you're approaching all of this, if you see where it all fits in because again, you do see the value in being in person, but there is a spot for this. So tell us a little bit about that. What brought that into play for you to be initiating some of these digital expansions.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, I mean a lot of attendees will call us up and ask if we're a membership organization. We're really not. We're just an expo company. But I figure that a lot of people, if we could align up with some nice companies that offer some great articles, everybody wants to read good stuff. Especially if you got a community of people coming to your expo. Our bankers, our brokers, our technology companies, our appraisers, our title people. If we could constantly put up some good, and now this is where good networking comes in. If we could put up some of our clients' articles and stuff that they recommend that are going to help others in their industry, I think that's a great service to offer. We're trying to iron all those things out right now, but we are gonna come up with some type of a directory, some type of organization that will offer their classes. Like if you're gonna be doing podcasting, Kyle is gonna be offering these podcasts at this cost factor, or these guys are gonna be offering these classes at this cost factor for training, or we're gonna be offering these events for this cost factor for attending. So we like to get back to the old days of what Learning Annex used to do. You used to pick up the Learning Annex magazine and see all those classes. So many classes. Now I'm speaking to some guys like Rec for Success, which is a big educational class for education. (Note: "Rec for Success" may be a misheard organization name — verify before publishing.) Now if we could have all their classes in the magazine where these brokers could go to school and learn, or OneKey MLS, they have some nice classes as well. Just like the Triple Play. If we could offer their classes and Rec for Success classes and OneKey MLS and some other schools too, it would be a great service to offer. And if we could offer all the different podcasts that you're doing, it keeps the community tighter. It keeps them all wanting to log on and see what's new on the community news. So we're just trying to iron that out. You'll be a big player about it. You'll be a part of it as well.
Kyle Lambert: That's great. I love that. I love that.
Anthony Kazazis: It's almost like keeping us together tighter and keeping us together and see if we could truly help them. That Christian type of givers gain philosophy. Just keep on giving, giving, and giving as much as you can. If it comes back, great. If it doesn't, just keep on giving.
Kyle Lambert: I'm a firm believer in that. Yeah. You give the value out, you give out positive energy and you know that that will come back to you. I firmly believe that. And you know one thing that you said at the Southeast Expo that just really resonated with me is, let's not let this day end, right? And I think that's what this is all about, right? The community here, we can stay engaged with people, we can continue to provide value in our inbox or in our contact lists or whatever it may be. So it seems like the natural next step, the natural progression of One National Real Estate here.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, Kyle, you're right one thousand percent. I forgot to even mention that and you're right. You don't want that day to ever end because when you go and experience that day, it's exciting. And I'll never forget, I think it was when we had it over there at Citi Field. Well, it was a very depressing time. It was right after COVID. Everybody was so depressed. And that was our biggest audience we ever had. Over twelve thousand people came. They all came out, yes, because possibly they were dying to come out. But so many people said after that expo, they were so depressed, so down, but they met so many people that they woke up. They just woke up out of a deep sleep. They said, we're so happy that you had your expo. We woke up out of a deep sleep and we got started to run again. And that was great to hear, by the way.
Kyle Lambert: That's so refreshing and invigorating.
Anthony Kazazis: It wasn't one person. And so that's where that idea came from. We gotta somehow try to make sure that our next show, if we can align with some people that also think the same way we think, then we'll go the long distance and we can all help each other. Because it's all about helping each other. You really can't be scared and have the fear factor of not working with someone. I'm a type of guy that would love to work with my competitors. After COVID everything changed, Kyle.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah, I mean competition is good. People just gotta realize that. It makes you get better and it makes people continue to get in that space, right? And into that mindset. Totally random question. You mentioned Citi Field. Are you a sports guy? Are the Mets your team? Was that like a dream for you?
Anthony Kazazis: Nah, you know something? I used to play football and I miss it so much and I'm a New York Jets fan. It's terrible.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah, that's rough.
Anthony Kazazis: I know it's sad. It's extremely sad. But I tell you something. I was impressed with Geno. Geno Smith had a great, great game. I mean the first inning, he went right down the field, really beautiful. It was like art. I couldn't believe what I'm seeing.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah, yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: I think a lot of the Jet fans out there are so excited. Just because of that one inning. I just hope that Geno could do it for ten innings or twenty innings, Kyle.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah. I mean, you know, personally as a Philly guy, I don't like seeing New York do well, but I'm hoping for you you can have something to cheer about.
Anthony Kazazis: No, yeah. I know. I mean, we wanna, it's time. It's our turn now. I always, I mean that one game with New England, with what's his name, your quarterback, what was his name?
Kyle Lambert: Nick Foles.
Anthony Kazazis: One of the best games I ever saw in my life.
Kyle Lambert: It's generally considered like the best Super Bowl. And you know, I'm a little bit biased, but you know, forty one to thirty three, high scoring, back and forth, what a great game. That's what you want from a championship.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah. I mean the New York Giants and Philly were two unbelievable games almost identical games where they beat the Giants beat New England. But that game with the Philly was so much satisfaction. I mean with Nick Foles, rooting for the underdog, it was the best.
Kyle Lambert: Me and my buddies went running out to Broad Street and spent the night out there. It was a great night.
Anthony Kazazis: It was the best. It was good.
Kyle Lambert: All right, let's bring it back into real estate here. So we've been talking about your progression and your growth and all these new ideas. So let's tie this into tech here. I'm curious where does technology and innovation and AI fit into the expos. I don't know if you want to shout them out or not right now, but I'm just curious what you're thinking about in terms of AI and innovation for the expo.
Anthony Kazazis: You know, AI for the Expo. I know that especially for brokers, like handling routine communications and data management, AI acts as a force multiplier, freeing up the agents to focus on activities that require human judgment, negotiations and relationship building. The moments where they provide the most value. But AI is there to always help them. AI will be there to also help us with the necessity things, maybe like the registration department and some of the other things as well. But you know what? Network is just simple, basic. Get together, shake hands. You know how many people, I think I have three marriages from my expo. Three marriages.
Kyle Lambert: Really? Wow.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, three. The great thing about the expo in itself. I had these people call me up and say, Anthony, I got married with a guy who I met at your expo. I go, my God, I love it. But you know what it is, Kyle? Everybody's looking for dating places as well. So the expo also acts as a dating thing too, because they all want to meet someone. It's a great place. Yes.
Kyle Lambert: With similar interests and lifestyles and yep. Yep.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah. So a lot of them definitely go. I haven't learned it yet. My son is more, he's the guy that knows everything about AI. And they're enjoying when they're writing up the articles, when they're writing up the flyers, they're enjoying all that AI uploading, all that fancy wording. So I'm enjoying that as well. But going to the expo in itself, there are apps out there that are amazing. I know that New York is New York, but when you go away to a place where you fly and you stay at the hotel and you can enjoy yourself, those AI apps are very valuable. Like those speed networking with the AI and it really lines you up properly with the right person or the same interest. But New York City, everybody comes in and out. They're one, two, three, in and out. Like the great thing about having an expo is that it's a good thing we don't have all seven, eight, nine thousand people there, because it wouldn't be great. I mean, my commercial guys go in in the morning and they leave right away. The residential guys come in and then they stay a little bit and leave as well. But they're constantly going in and out. But if I had a great event where I was going to Las Vegas, I would definitely align myself up with a tremendous amount of AI companies and offer some fascinating tools. Because I'm sure they're out there. It's just that I haven't really discovered them yet, but they're out there.
Kyle Lambert: I'm sure your inbox is getting flooded with people trying to sell you on stuff.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah. Believe it or not, you're right, Kyle. And I'm such a boomer that my head can't really wrap around it. Because I'm still like the good old fashioned guy. I don't even go on vacation unless I earn it. So I have to go out there, shake the hand and still do the earning. And it does work that way because they do want to hear from you. You know, it's like when you have nothing to talk about. Some people don't have the time to talk and they just send in a check. And they don't care, they want to talk to you, they just send it in and that's it. You know, it's good.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah. Well you're doing something right, Anthony. Clearly, again, like these expansions and everything don't happen if there's not growth and people that are involved. The last thing I want to talk about in terms of the expos and being in person is the exhibitors. And even the speakers, the people who are there trying to sell themselves for lack of a better word, or at least provide value. I'm curious what you see really resonates and really makes a successful exhibitor or a successful speaker or partner. Or what's a common mistake you see some of these people do so they don't get the value out of it?
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, I mean right now I'm doing something very strict with all my exhibitors. There are a lot of people that come, like I said, they come to the expos and they don't want to be bothered. They just want to give you the check. That's it. Come and set up the booth and that's it and sit down all day and not stand or shake hands or anything like that. I'm telling a lot of people I don't want you to come to my show unless you're gonna do it this way. And they're taken over by it, Kyle. They're really taken over by it.
Kyle Lambert: Sure.
Anthony Kazazis: You don't want our check? I go, listen, what I want from you is I really want you to come back next year. And the only way you're gonna come back next year is if you listen to what I'm about to tell you. And if you go out there and you do a little homework and you got six or seven, eight months to do it before that trade show happens, and find your ideal clientele, invite them on over, and I guarantee ya, you'll hopefully get some business. Now the only thing that's gonna stop them from getting business is their personality, Kyle. Because I see a lot of guys that come to the trade show, they have no personality whatsoever. And I don't wanna be the person to call up the company and tell them what your problems are. I hate to do that. But some of those companies will call up and say, Anthony, we let go of this guy and that's when I say, wow, I was hoping you would because I gotta tell you, this guy's coming when he's drunk and he has liquor on his breath or he just doesn't stand up, he doesn't talk, he hides in the corner.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: I don't, but it definitely works with the person, Kyle. The company needs, the person who comes and represents the company, boy, they better do an amazing job to make sure that that person sounds exactly like the company president. Okay, not a company employee, but the president. So I get a lot of guys that come on over to my expo and it sounds as though they own the company. And I always say, are you the owner? They go, no, no, I'm a worker. I go, wow, congrats. You sound like the owner. So you really gotta have the right person. And number two, I think if you could come across by saying that especially a lot of people after the expo, reach out, be personal, give them a call. And you help them. Try to help them. Try to give them, like right now, I'm giving these guys from Panama and Spain 30 brokers in advance. But I'm telling them, I'll give you 30 brokers in advance to call upon. But I need you to go onto Google and I want you to look at all those brokers and I want you to bring in a hundred invites. And they're shocked. These guys are so shocked that they can't believe someone's pushing them to do it. And I go, and then when you hop on that plane and you get off in New York and walk over to the expo, then you know you're gonna have a hundred and twenty people guaranteed at your booth. Because I cannot guarantee those people, but we're gonna give you that gift. We're gonna give you those passes.
Kyle Lambert: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's awesome. Yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: And then these guys have got to go home, get personal. A lot of people send out a small little professional email, blah blah blah. Just put out a little sentence saying, hey Bob, it was really amazing, or Susie, it was really amazing meeting you at the expo. Can we just hop onto Google Meet? Because I feel I could really truly help you. And I want to help you now. I want to start off. You take the initiative, you start immediately by trying to help that person immediately, and boy will they start to fall in love with you. It'll be like a relationship.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: And that's what you gotta do, Kyle. You gotta start up that forceful relationship. In a nice way.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah. That first year that I was there in twenty twenty four, my booth was actually across from our boy Martin. And so I started talking to him and got connected with him and he was telling me that every card he gets, he does a one, two or three plus or something like that, and he prioritizes the threes and calls up. I was like, that's just such a simple and easy way to so I've been trying to adopt that strategy. Call them up, get them on the phone. It's a smart, simple way.
Anthony Kazazis: And what about that ninja company that you and I just discovered? We're gonna get on the phone with those guys because believe it or not, I used to do the same thing, Kyle, but then I would lose the card and I'd forget it. But that little ninja thing, it's gonna record everything we say at the expo. And I'm gonna need that really bad, especially a guy like me. But a guy like you too, you're gonna be speaking to so many people that that's gonna be able to help you as well, you know?
Kyle Lambert: I'm looking forward to testing that out. It's a great use of AI. You know, yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, I yes, and that's AI, another AI. So there's so many things. So you cannot be against AI. It's there to help you.
Kyle Lambert: All good. Yep.
Anthony Kazazis: Okay, all right. So I forgot what I was about to say to you, but go ahead, Kyle. Whatever you're gonna say.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah. All good. We were talking about the ninja and AI and trying all that out. So very cool. We're fifty minutes in. So at this point I like to do kind of just five rapid fire questions and kind of see, just get some fun quick hit answers from you. So rapid fire question number one. In terms of, this could be a personal answer, this could be a professional answer, but I'm curious if you could just snap one thing and have some process or some task be automated and off your plate, what would that be?
Anthony Kazazis: Jeeze. Just snap your fingers, be off the plate.
Kyle Lambert: Just boom, it's done.
Anthony Kazazis: It's follow up.
Kyle Lambert: Okay. Yeah. Yep. That's always time consuming. All right. We kinda already talked about this, but you're obviously in New York and you're in the Southeast for the expos. If you had your pick of the litter and could just choose the next location, what one just kind of stands out and you would love to go to?
Anthony Kazazis: Next location. Jeez, there's so many, Kyle. There's so many. And right now I'm trying to figure out, everybody's pulling you in so many directions. I think we need to go over to Europe to form our alliance over there. Because again, we had about ten Europeans and outside of the United States, and then we had about twenty, and then probably twenty five. I think that list could get even higher. So now we're becoming more of an international organization. So I got a feeling Dubai is one of where they all meet together. I'm supposed to go to the Dubai one right now in September, but I can't. But I will go next year after my expo and go over there. I can't wait to meet all those countries, Kyle. Every country imagine goes there to this trade show and I can't wait to go over there and introduce myself to them all and tell them to come on over to United States, New York.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah. And it's so easy to get around over there too. So you can get a lot of different countries, a lot of representatives.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah. Yeah.
Kyle Lambert: Cool. Question number three. Have you ever been starstruck meeting somebody or been like, wow, I can't believe this person's at my expo?
Anthony Kazazis: Well, you know, a lot of people are coming now to the trade show. So you're seeing everybody coming. I mean, geez, you got Ryan Serhant from Netflix, Eleanora came from Netflix, Maurizio from Netflix from California. So you're getting some really amazing, we got HGTV people coming over. So there's a lot of guys over there that are really interesting and famous and I just, as an event planner, I'm running around like a chicken without a head and I just gotta somehow try to do a better job and enjoy my own show. Sometimes I'm too much hands on and I gotta let go so I can enjoy my own show.
Kyle Lambert: I will never forget that first time in again in 2024, showing up at like seven AM and you were still there setting up. You hadn't gone to bed. It's like, dude, get out of here. Like go to sleep.
Anthony Kazazis: Exactly. Sometimes, you know, the bigger you get, especially if the wires are not hooked up properly, the WiFis and electric, everybody's complaining. I think your friend Martin was complaining because he didn't have the right dosage for the WiFi. So you gotta put out all those fires. And unfortunately, you know, it doesn't matter if you got four or five people on it, when they can't do anything, they run after me. And my walkie talkies going off left and right. So that's why you really gotta be strict with the venue spaces. But sometimes that staff that you have, I gotta get stronger staff people that can really take care of the matter.
Kyle Lambert: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Cool. Rapid fire question number four. If you weren't doing real estate or involved in real estate at all or these events, what would you be doing?
Anthony Kazazis: Believe it or not, archaeology. I love going, I'm a historian, Kyle. I love going to like Greece or Egypt or somewhere exotic and doing some, wow, to me that's fascinating. I'm a historian.
Kyle Lambert: Digging up some fossils somewhere or something.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah. The Nephilim, the big giants, Kyle. Yeah.
Kyle Lambert: Amazing. Amazing. All right. Final question. If you hit the Powerball today, what's the outlandish, ridiculous thing that you're purchasing?
Anthony Kazazis: Jeez, Kyle. I am like so old fashioned. Probably just taking my family to a nice vacation. Something like because we need it bad, you know?
Kyle Lambert: Yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, we need something exotic. Maybe go over there to some of those nice places where our friends are. We're meeting so many friends now. They're all inviting us to go to their places. So I think we would take a month off and go to all of them.
Kyle Lambert: Have a personal assistant walk around and fan you guys or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, something like you or Martin. Exactly. We need you to walk with us. Yeah, that'd be fun.
Kyle Lambert: Amazing, amazing. Well cool. So just an open forum here, last question. Is there anything that maybe we didn't discuss or I didn't ask you that you're super passionate about that you just wanna kind of get out there for people to know or understand about you?
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, I mean, listen, in life you gotta love what you do. That's all. You just gotta love what you do. And my satisfaction is if you can help people get to where they wanna get to, that's it. As long as you got something that you could really enjoy doing. Because it's sad, a lot of people don't like what they're doing. You gotta find some happiness in what you do.
Kyle Lambert: Agreed.
Anthony Kazazis: And I'm blessed that at least what I'm doing right now, it's true when you go to these shows too, you feel really great when you go there. Everybody's in such a happy mode, you know. Everybody's like excited because they're all part of it. Because that's what we do. We make you guys all feel like you're the owner of the show and everybody's in happy mode.
Kyle Lambert: I agree. That's a great sentiment to end on. That's awesome. Anthony, thank you so much for joining. Obviously we're connected all the time, so we'll be talking soon. But for anybody watching, they can find you on LinkedIn and connect with you on there. They can also go to onenationalrealestate.com, see all the different expos and activities and everything that you're working on. Anything else that you want to kind of shout out or plug real quick?
Anthony Kazazis: Thinking about one week, our new site will be up or so. If our website's not working right now guys I do apologize but I know we're going through a transfer right now. So yeah, we'd love to help out. And if you're good friends of Kyle, reach out to Kyle. Kyle is gonna have a big sponsorship worth of passes that he would be able to offer you guys to come on down to the show and as long as you give him your name and your email address you could be Kyle's guest. So guys, once again Kyle, I'm really proud of you. It was, you really did a great job. I love the name behind you and the Blueprint. And yeah, Brainiac, my God, I love it. I love it, Kyle.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah. Wrong way. Wrong way. There we go.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, so good stuff. I really wish you the best, okay?
Kyle Lambert: I appreciate it. Yeah, right back at you. I really appreciate you joining today on the Brainiac Blueprint. If you don't mind, look at the camera and say, stay brilliant, Brainiacs.
Anthony Kazazis: Stay brilliant, Brainiacs. I love it. I love it.
Kyle Lambert: Amazing. Thank you so much, Anthony.
Anthony Kazazis: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. And by all means, Kyle, make sure that your people come down and hear you speak because Kyle is gonna be one of the keynote speakers at the expo and he's gonna have about maybe five hundred seats there for you to come on over and sit down and hear him out. Okay. I know it's a keynote, but we'll also try to get him onto the panel as well.
Kyle Lambert: Yeah, I'm excited. The worst part about it is we have to wait six months, you know, like I'm ready, I want to do it, but that'll give us time to ramp up and get going. So yeah.
Anthony Kazazis: Yes. And if you like to do your interviewing at the trade show on this Brainiac Blueprint, you're more than welcome, Kyle. This is very good, by the way. This is very good what you're doing here. Yep.
Kyle Lambert: I appreciate that. Yeah, I might have to think about that. We'll get some good content for everybody. Yeah. All right, love you too, Anthony. Appreciate it. Cheers.
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