It’s hard to deny we are seeing an economic recession. While that is a scary thought for those in the real estate industry, the truth is that there is a lot of opportunity for us.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started. What’s that? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast. Folks, what we’re going to be chatting about today is the R word. The recession. It is here, folks. Interest rate just went up what 7.75 basis point as of this morning, the Dow was under 30,000. Interest rates as of yesterday, according to my mortgage broker friend were 7.125%. What are we going to do? There is we actually just did an event on this topic last night. So I think it’s very relevant to share with you guys sort of what we uncovered there, because it’s extremely relevant to what’s going on in the market. And right now I understand you might be scared, I understand, you might be worried. But the reality of it is, is that these types of markets that we’re about to experience and face are when the biggest opportunities actually occur. The greatest transfer of wealth you guys always occurs during a depression or a recession, not during the peak bullish market. So what you want to be focused on though, is where you’re going to take your message. And while everybody else is out there, just doing a bunch of doom and gloom, what I wanted to share with you on is how to change this conversation. Because if you’re watching the news, if you’re watching the media, you’re probably like, literally on the verge of having a heart attack, because literally everything they do is not only not true, but it never seems to be at least notice. But it’s scary. It’s scare tactics. And if you don’t know how to change the conversation to your client tell your clients are going to remain scared. So what I’m going to chat about is how do we change the conversation. And it’s a lot easier than you think. So what I want to do is start out with some of the objections that you guys are hearing on a daily basis. I’m gonna tell you the ones that we heard yesterday from agents, and I’m sure these are true in your market as well regardless of where you’re at, in the United States. So number one, I’m going to hold off right now, and not buy a house because this market is going
to crash. I’m gonna hold out right now, and don’t buy a house because the rates are too damn high. So if this is your first correction, first off welcome and during the ride, but the good deals are bought in the shitty times, I want you to think back about anyone who bought a house in 2007, or six, bought at a peak just like anyone who bought a house in 2022 or 2021. Okay, and the absolute best deals in the real estate market came in the 2008 910 and 11 years. Personally, I was buying condos in downtown Chicago on the 48th floor for $140,000 To give you an idea of what we experienced in the last crash. And a lot of you guys know me as a video guy. But before I was a video guy, I was one of the top short sale teams in the country closing 25 to 35 transactions a month. And I did that for three years in a row. And at that time, I see a lot of similarities with what’s occurring today. Which is how I know this history repeats itself, folks. And when people are not buying, that’s when you buy, okay, you want to change the conversation quit doing what everyone else is doing the most, the best thing to do when it comes in terms of real estate investing is do the opposite of what the current market trends are. So for example, in the last market that we just came out of where people were overpaying for properties left and right ever the old markets ever going to crash librium crush been saying since March, we’re gonna go down 20% In at least San Diego County, and I am right on. Everyone thought I was crazy. I’m not doing this. It’s like well, you know, you guys ever been here before, dude. So what do we know with history, folks, for those of you that haven’t experienced a crash is that the best time to buy is when no one else is buying because that’s when prices come down. And the reality of the situation is is that as we enter into this recession, there’s going to be pain, okay? I don’t know how bad it’s gonna get. No, it’s probably not going to be as bad as 2007 Eight, I’m pretty positive. It’s not going to be because there are a lot of conditions then that were present that aren’t present in this market. However, there are going to be people underwater, and the more cost that goes up The interest rates hike the inflation, gas, all of these other expenses just leads to one end result, less people can afford what the prices are, therefore prices start to drop. So what I’m telling buyers what I would tell buyers, if I’m not, if I’m selling you guys is like, what do you mean? Makana buy, this is the best time to buy, but we have to buy the right deal. We need to find the person that is going to let their house go. Because it’s not about the interest rate. It’s about the opportunity. Now, I want you guys to really take that into effect. And just because no one else is buying and people are not, that’s when the prices are going to come down. And that’s when you pounce, yes, you’ll have to deal with an interest rate hike. Yes, you’ll have to deal with some of these higher costs. However, this is where an agent who is absolutely creative can come on into the mix. So one of the things that you change the conversation with is you actually start saying, don’t sell now buy now, because that is the entire purpose. Now what if someone right now can’t buy because they’re stuck with a higher interest rate, and they can no longer afford that house that they want? Well, it’s very simple. You need to start getting with your lenders and figuring out how to do rate buyouts, right? If I’m a real estate agent, right now I am I’m not selling them telling you guys what to do. But I am 100% starting to structure my deals with a three to 6% seller concession on every single purchase offer, especially in this high interest rate market. The reason why I’m doing that is because I’m going to use that concession to buy down my interest rate, how much of a bite down can it go, whether it’s three or 6%. I don’t know guys, get with your local lender and come up with a rate Bytown program because this is a marketing opportunity. Now I’m going to start marketing my business, instead of saying interest rates are so high bah, bah, bah, bah, like everyone else, and all these doom and gloom users. Instead, I’m going to say we’re getting properties, we’re not only buying properties under market value, but we’re doing it with a 5% interest rate. Here’s how, folks, there’s so much opportunity right now to stand out and do things different, because everybody else is going to do one or two things. One, they’re gonna go hide or neath a couch, most of them are. But number two, they don’t know what to do, because they’ve never been here before. Okay, the very first thing you want to do in this is changed the conversation, alright. And that’s the truth, people are going to have lose their jobs, they’re going to lose their incomes,
people are still going to get divorced, people are still going to have kids and move up, some people are going to have promotions. But with less buyers in the market, it’s going to increase inventory levels. And with more inventory, that just means that there’s going to be more deals because I’m not going to buy the house that my eyes fall in love with. I’m going to buy the house that my opportunity falls in love with because it’s such a good fucking deal. Now, how do we switch this conversation for sellers? If that makes sense? And if you guys have comments on that, please feel free to write in. But how do we change the conversation for sellers? Well, it’s quite the opposite. Because what we’re seeing with sellers already is they’re saying, hey, I want yesterday’s sales price and then us are stuck in the middle of being like, well, how are you going to help them? Well, your house isn’t worth that much, folks, you have to be honest with people. And you have to teach them the basic principles of supply and demand. As a matter of fact, in this type of market and appreciating market, you don’t price it at market value, guys, you price 5% below it. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Interest rates just went up another point seven five that hopefully they’re still not 7%. But that’s a big deal. That’s going to take a lot of people out of the market. Okay. And that’s not doom and gloom. That’s opportunity. Because you have to know how to position this back to sellers as well. sellers need to understand that there’s less buyers out there. But if I’m going to go out and sell a house, well, here’s how I’m doing it. One, let’s see if your loan is assumable. So you could pass through the interest rate to Why don’t you offer a rate by down program to start enticing different buyers to with the lower interest rate and have that built into your marketing plan. These are the types of things that are going to require everybody to be a little bit more consistent. So I want to walk you through a case study I did with this agent last night as we’re sitting here talking, and I’ll lay out the entire deal for you. And I’m going to show you how literally if she just takes my advice. She’ll put it together and she’s going to make $40,000 in another time. But before we talk she’s like oh, this is a dead deal. It’s a dead client. We have to bring value through the table by properly advising people and being creative in times like this. You often see people saying on social media oh the The Fly By Night agent is going to be out of business, they absolutely are. But this is why nine or 10% of the businesses, or 10%, the agents do 90% The business because the 10% that are doing the business are running a business, they’re not another salesperson chasing a fucking check. So what do we do? On the seller side? Well, let’s think about a couple of different creative solutions we could do. If you’re gonna sell your house, offer a rate bite out and put that in your marketing, make your house more affordable, make your house more appealing, at the same time don’t price at market value price below market value. Because in a depreciating market, people aren’t buying what it’s worth today, they’re buying what it’s going to be worth in three or four months from now, just like they are in an appreciating market, folks. Now, let’s look through this case study. And then I’m gonna give you a bunch of other recommendations. But here is with an agent, she has a buyer that has a house to sell, but cannot sell the house but cannot buy the new house because of the house to sell. So in other words, they have to sell the bot. Their problem is right now is they can’t sell their house in a timely manner. But they do have the house they want to buy. So they’ve located a $900,000 property that they want to purchase and move into as their primary residence. But they are stuck because they can’t sell the $700,000 property. And where she’s at right now is that well, the $700,000, or the 900,000, our house is about to get an offer. So they’re about to lose their dream home. So I introduced to her yesterday, what I said would be why don’t you do a bridge loan. Folks, if you’ve not been to owner advocate agent.com yet go to owner advocate agent.com. It’s an entire training course we just rolled out it’s a certification program, and we put you in touch with all of these different companies that you can finance deals just like this, what she’s gonna end up doing is taking a bridge loan type option through one of the financiers we recommend, and the bridge loan is going to allow her seller to go buy their next $900,000 house, and they’re gonna go ahead and buy it in cash. Now they’re gonna lend the money for cash on the $900,000 loan, and the buyer is probably going to pay a few points, say it’s two to 3% of the sales price, they’re gonna charge them $27,000 To borrow that money. Okay, so if you’re following this, follow the story here. Now,
in exchange, they don’t have to sell their house for the ability to buy it, they’re gonna buy the house close on the house and move into it, then they’re gonna go back and list the other house back for sale, but not after they’ve done some improvements. See, what they’re going to do is create what we call fixing list program. And because the sales price has dropped, and because it’s not in tip top shape, what we need to do is put it into the top shape to get that extra price. So they’re going to do small improvements utilizing another financier is going to help them renovate their house so that they could flip it or sell it for top dollar and make it the most appealing house on the market. Now once that house sells, what they’re going to be doing is then refinancing their $900,000 house into a traditional 30 year mortgage or whatever they assume they’re going to be doing. And if you followed history folks this small, or this interest rate hike we’re seeing today, if history proves correct, we’ll be short lived. And by the time that renovation is done. If my predictive analysis is correct, they’re going to be refinancing not into a 7% rate, but probably more into the five because when you’re in a recessionary market, and when the Fed raises interest rates, traditionally, traditionally, the mortgage interest rates go down, okay. And this is why you want to know all of these different types of things. This is why you need to know how to control the conversation in a market like this, folks, the best piece of advice that I would tell all of you is that if you don’t start sharpening your tool belt, in terms of the knowledge you have up here in your head, and the solutions you provide as a real estate agent. In this type of market, you are going to be out of business. You have to look at figuring out a way to solve problems because that’s what this market is, is the real estate agent who becomes the biggest problem solver will always be in demand. Because the traditional way of doing things that we’ve all been accustomed to doing for the last 13 years is changing and it’s going to change. You’re gonna see short sales, not quite the 2007 but they will be Hear, you need to know how to have that conversation with people who are underwater on their properties, when we were selling a lot of short sales, if I would have played my cards correctly, and I totally messed up on this, but again, this is what you learned from experience in history is that I would have built up and we did, but we didn’t really do it. Well, I would have built up a mega buyer’s list because we were doing so many short sale transactions, I had every investor in the city of Chicago showing up to my office, knocking on my door, taking me out to eat, because I controlled the freakin inventory at a certain aspect. And everybody came to us for short sales. All I did was learn how to do them and sharpen my skills. And before I knew it, I became the number one team because no one else is willing to learn. Folks, you’re going to have to be willing to learn new things in your business to control and change the conversation. And it’s going to be little things deals like this, that are going to allow you to do it. People make a lot of money in a recession in real estate and start controlling the conversation about how much opportunity is about to be in the market. Not all about the doom and gloom were to experience because these types of markets you guys are where brands get built. People remember and if you play your cards, right, it’ll change the course and the outlook of your life. If you guys liked today’s message, visit us at real estate marketing do.com I made a couple mentions here at the owner advocate.com or owner, advocate agent. If you’re looking for creative solutions, to help yourself stand out, take the training, sign up for a course. And I believe you will be well served by it. But start thinking outside the box folks, it’s time to do it. And people aren’t going to remember what house you sold them. They’re going to remember how you sold it to them. Appreciate you guys. See you guys next week. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training and then scheduled time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
I know there’s a lot of people right now who are scared and worried about what’s going to happen with the future of the market. There’s no doubt transactions are down and some people are struggling. But some people are still doing really well. What can we do to help us survive this economic shift?
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started. What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome to their episode of the real estate marketing, dude, podcast, folks. So you we don’t have any guests today, you’re stuck, which is good old marketing, dude, me. But we are gonna go and do a little bit of teaching today. And there’s a topic that I gave this morning on a webinar that I also want to give again today, because I think it’s very relevant
to today’s market, and experiencing the shift that we’re in. And look, I understand and I hear a lot of you guys, I know there’s a lot of people already and right now there’s a lot of people who are scared, worried about what’s going to happen. There’s no doubt transactions are down and some people are still doing very, very well. God bless you if you are. But the reality of the matter is a sales down across the board. I just saw a statistic. That is just mind boggling to me. And you might have seen it too. It’s been floating around on social media. And it said that only 8% of the real estate agent population has sold more than four houses this year, folks, it is August, September, I’m sorry, not in August, it’s September, September 16. As of the time of this recording right now, like for houses like you cannot survive in a business only 8%. So what are the 92% of Realtors right now are freaking getting their ass kicked. Because if you’ve only sold four houses in 10 months, like, you’re not gonna be allowed around in this business much longer. This is going to be a hobby, definitely a part time job. Unless you’re a trust fund baby, right. But most of us let’s get to the reality of it aren’t. So let’s go through and talk about, I want to get back to the basics. And I want to give you guys some really good advice. This is what I was telling you this morning. And there’s really, when it shipped like this happens, this is the second or third time I’ve seen this and what always happens, it’s the same like I feel like I have it down to a science. It’s happened every time. So I’m gonna go ahead and do it again. I’m gonna advise again, and we’ll see in six months if I’m right or not, but I’m always fucking right. All right, and we’ll see what happens. But the point is, is that we’ve already experienced a shift. And last one you did too, was when COVID happened in March of 2020. And I remember we were all scared, everything was going crazy, right? What’s going to happen? What’s gonna happen never know what’s going on. And a lot of people went into hiding, okay, and everybody’s eyeballs were glued to social media. I remember seeing at that time, okay, guys get really, really loud, because everybody’s eyeballs are gonna be on social. Everyone’s just gonna be stuck to their phones, on Facebook, Instagram, all these different platforms. And that’s what happened like all of our kids were stuck on the damn platforms, too. I’m still trying to get my son off of it. But the point of the story being is that a lot of agents went into hiding. And the ones who went into hiding got their ass kicked. There were some agents that were super loud on social media, and every single one of them had Rockstar years. And let’s be honest, the the COVID 20, when it came out of COVID, for the real estate market was 18 months of just crazy appreciation and massive price hikes across all the states. As long as you own real estate you bought in the last few years, you did pretty damn well, because the pricing was just going through the roof. But now the shift is here. And now what’s going to happen, right? So, folks, when this happens, and you get loud, is the point, just like the agents who got loud during COVID, all did very well. Because I believe that the entire business is based upon the attention that you have on your brand, the amount of people that know what you do in how many conversations you’re constantly having, which is why like always talking on video and being on videos, because you’re always conversing with somebody, even if it’s one person or if it’s 300 people, your videos always working for you even while you’re sleeping. So the point being is that you doubled down on brand and doubled down on content during the shift. This is what you do, alright, because you cannot count on lead generation right now the reason if you’re out there buying leads, and anyone who’s listening to this, if you’re buying leads, you just probably got your ass kicked last month if there was a negative shift in that, right and the scary thing about lead generation when a shift comes whether you’re buying leads on Zillow, or you’re doing some kind of paid marketing is that when a shift occurs and the consumer habits change, so does the ROI on your ad spend because you don’t know what consumers are going to do right now. So it puts you in a very vulnerable position. If you’re spending and shelling out money on lead generation stuff that was working six months ago that’s just starting not to work today. But the one thing you can double down down in it especially during this time is on your database on your market. Like if you have someone that’s cheated on you with another agent, the last 12 month’s Well, you’re not doing a good enough job of staying on top of your networker database because folks, the business has always been right in front of us. 74% of all closed transactions came from someone they worked with in the past, they were referred to, they personally met, or they already knew 74% which means that this entire business is based upon the relationships and the amount of people who know you in life. There’s somebody in your market right now that you’re like, Who the hell is this guy? And why is this guy selling houses, I want you to think who that is. There’s somebody in your office might be some other competing office. But there’s some agent that you think it’s a total douchebag but they’re way outselling you and be honest part of it is a little envious, you’re a little envious of that he like dude can hate this guy. But I also like him a lot. I sort of respect him because he’s outselling me. Well, the only difference between you and him or her whatever it is, is that they just have more attention or more relationships, more people know what they do they know what you do for a living. That’s one reason why they’re outselling you right now, but they’re not any smarter than you. They’re any better than you any of that that’s all just in your head. So what does that tell us? Well, it tells us be really loud, because regardless of what the market’s going to do the same things, people are still going to move, like, just because there’s a recession doesn’t mean people don’t move. However, how often they move might change, but people are still gonna move I moved, bricking a month ago, I didn’t know a month and a half ago, I needed to move I just sort of happened. So this is what happens in life, some people are going to die, some people are gonna get sick. In a recession, some people are going to lose their jobs, a lot of them. And they’re also going to a lot of people are going to lose some of the affordability issues with rising inflation costs and all of that people are going to get divorced, people are going to get a promotion. But whatever life happens, people move.
That’s not going to change whether they’re going to move because whether there’s a recession or no recession, but of which though, the main point is is that 80 plus percent of those people are going to hire the first person they meet with. So it’s either going to be you or somebody else. So the reason why I’m saying you got to get really, really loud is that the one thing you can do during this market right now is go right back to the basics. Because the basics always work. And then this time, don’t ever ignore the basics going forward. And you’ll never have a business problem, whether there’s a recession or not the number one reason why so many real estate agents fall on their face when the market shifts like this happen is that they’ve done a shitty job of cultivating the relationships they already have in life, because if they did, they wouldn’t matter if there’s a recession or not, because people are still gonna fucking move at the end of the day. So it’s really just up to whatever. So mindset, folks at the end of the day, and right now, I know that 90% of your competition is quitting 90% of your competition is going to fail. I just told you the stats only frickin 8% of real estate agents nationwide. We’re in September, we’re in the middle of September called October, only 8% of real estate agents nationwide have sold more than four houses this month. Folks, that is a fucking opportunity. If I reverse seeing one because the vast majority of those people goodbye, you’re gone. I’ll see you later. This is the opportunity to get out ahead and it’s during shifts like this, that you actually have a bigger opportunity to get ahead, because people will remember the one who’s standing tall and loud, while everyone else retreats. You see when real estate’s really easy and everyone’s buying a house. It’s like they’re taking gumballs out of a Gumball Dispenser machine, because it’s hot and it’s just the thing to do real estate’s really easy but when the going gets tough, how easy is it? 8% for houses it’s insane. That only happens to people who go into disappearing that only happens the people who hide and go into their closets The question is, are you one of them or not? You can’t operate out of fear there’s the thing I always say is faith over fear faith over fear faith over fear. I put my faith therefore I have no fear. So with with you guys, it’s no different you have to if you believe you’re the right person for the job, it becomes your obligation to let the world know about it. If not, you’re just a dick. I believe I’m the right person that you should hire for personal branding video whatever the hell it is that deals with real estate because I’m the right damn person for the job. And I believe that in my heart, you’ll determine whether or not you like me. But it doesn’t stop me from screaming from the fucking rooftops and doing a podcast each and every every day. Look, this podcast is coming out tomorrow when you’re listening to this I just shot this yesterday and there isn’t a shot at last second was because I didn’t have any other shows lined up. But consistency is so important that I have to keep serving my audience I have to keep making noise. And then when I’m done with this, I’m going to create two more videos because I’m out of videos to publish on my social feeds because I’m going to get really really loud right now too because everybody else is going into hiding. And when I have an opportunity to get ahead, I do it through personal brand, I do it through a lot of content creation, because I’m going to be screaming from the fucking rooftops real estate marketing dude, which is why you should be screaming from the rooftops. I’m the best Realtor in this market, you don’t even have to say that you have to remind them. So when people ask, like, hey, what can you do right now, well, double down on your brand and double down on content creation, it’s the least form, or the least expensive form of marketing or advertising you’re ever gonna do pull back on lead generation, unless, you know, it’s still providing a positive ROI. And you know, you can maintain that. If not you, that’s what you pull back on. And you double down on that brand, man, because double down on brand is a recession proof business model. Because every single real estate agent that has a brand isn’t suffering right now. Folks, if you need to know how to build a brand with video, go back through this podcast and listen to a lot of episodes, I’m not going to get into the weeds and tell you about how to do it. We talked about that each and every time. And you could go visit our website, because there’s a lot of way you can market your database. The point is, is I just want to show you where to focus your energy. And that’s going to be on your database. And let’s define who that is. This is your Facebook friends, your Instagram followers, anyone and anyone you say hello to in the grocery store, or that you would be pissed off to learn that I sold them a house not you, they you need their attention. You have to stay in front of these people. And you have to be very, very loud, doing so. Now, the only other thing that I would be focusing on doing right now is developing my unique selling proposition.
See people only stand out in two ways. One is through relationships, you create a lot of content, you make a lot of noise, like hey, look at me, look at me, look at me. That’s why video is so well. But the other way to do this is you got to offer something different. What do you do that nobody else does in your market? How do you make people feel after they’re done working with you? So we’ve said we gotta go back to the basics. Yeah, go back to the basics and go back to your ingredients. And define your food. Define your menu, what are you selling? What are you offering? So let’s dig a little bit deeper into that. And what does that really even mean? Mike? What are you talking about, dude? Well, let’s define what you offer. What makes you any different than John smo the real estate agent at cole banker? What do you do you put a listing on the MLS, you pop a sign in the yard, you wait for a buyer to come so that Zillow can sell the listing, then you’re gonna disappear until closing. That’s not worth five or 6%. And wait, doesn’t every other real estate agent offer the same fucking thing? This is what we’re talking about right now. You have the time not only to get really loud, where everyone else retreats, but you have the time. If you’re not as busy right now, there’s no reason why we’re not working on your business. Quit being that salesperson chasing the next check and be the business owner who’s defining what the hell it is that they offer. Why can a company or even a real estate brokerage, I just spelled out real estate is prime is a referral dominated business. It comes from belly to belly relationships, at least three quarters of closed transactions do so it’s not a business. It’s based upon lead generation and numbers speak for themselves. It’s based upon relationships. But there is a spot for lead generation. And if you want to get good at lead generation, well, you got to offer something different if you have 100 people selling the same shit. Well, that’s a lot less appealing when there’s verses there’s only one. And when you all sell in the same shed, what is the difference between you and that John schmo. That’s why people base their decision on who they work with off the relationship or the way they make them feel. So why can a company like Redfin, or purple bricks? Who was here, you know, they’re gone. Now they went back and got their ass kicked back to England. But if you remember a couple of weeks ago, years ago, purple bricks was a company in interruptor that came through and started doing I think it was salaried real estate agents and doing flat fee listing and all the realtors were up in arms about purple bricks. Well, the market decided on purple bricks, but purple bricks did start transacting and the reason why they did was because they had a unique selling proposition no one else had. So what’s your unique selling proposition? If you don’t have one, visit our other site owner, the owner or owner advocate agent.com, owner advocate agent.com as the unique selling proposition, you know, when we our agent say hey, we’re gonna go out and list the property for sale. We don’t list properties for sale, we give people five to six different selling options and let them decide which is best for them. That’s what makes us different. We communicate with transactional videos throughout the course of the transaction. You know, Hey, your offers accepted. Here’s what you can expect next. And that’s a nice little video email that will go out automatically when somebody has that milestone passed in their transaction because that I know that that experience is what they will remember, our closing gifts are very thought out and matched and they’re on brand for how we make them feel throughout the transaction. There’s certain steps involved in every single part of the transaction that encourages referrals and solidifies the relationships for repeat business in the future. Recruiting case studies off the different listings that we’re doing. See, we’re transactionally marketing, the people we’re working with and to new opportunities that happened later. But more importantly, I’m focused right now on transactional and customer service and all of these other things. Why? Because there’s a huge opportunity there. And when everyone in industry like ours is selling the same thing, you’re a commodity. When you start doing things different, you’re fucking rock star. That’s the difference. Not everyone likes the rock star, it’s okay. But the Rockstar always has all the attention. That’s the opportunity you have in front of you right now, it’s really up to you. Nobody’s going to do this for you, your broker is not going to do it. And even if your brokerage did introduce some sort of new selling proposition or something that you do different, it’s not yours, it’s theirs. So create your own, no one’s going to tell you how to do business by yourself, you work for yourself, 96% of people don’t hire your broker, they’re hiring you the agent, because that’s whom they have a relationship with. This isn’t 1984 And people are walking in off the street during floor time. Oh, I gotta go with gold banker because cold burgers been in the business for years, or, Hey, I’m only going to hire a real estate agent that wears a gold century 21 blazer.
That ship has sailed folks. The one with the most attention, or the one with the biggest selling proposition are going to be the one that wins. But why not be both. get really, really loud, create a lot a lot of content. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise and get loud, it’s might not lead to business immediately. A lot of it will. But it might not. But it will eventually unless people don’t like you. Because when the market does shift and turn, whoever they turn to first is the one that gets hired. And the one they’re going to turn to is the one that they’re going to remember. And that is all happening right now. So you have two options, you can either be really, really quiet and go to a room and hide and become part of that 8% of agents that have only sold four houses that will soon be out of business. Or you can decide to get really, really freaking loud, go back in the kitchen, work on your business model, start offering something different whether you’re going to follow a multiple option selling system, like what the owner advocate like I just told you about. Or you’re going to redefine the way that your marketing plan is for your listings and offer something different there. Or you’re going to start maybe you’re going to turn into a flat fee brokerage, I don’t care what it is, but define what makes you different in terms of the level of service or how you do business because that is what people remember, they either remember your personal brand, or they remember how you transact with it. And when you combine both of those concepts together, you should have no problem ever, ever, ever, ever worried about where your next deal is going to come from because you’ll have a brand that is recession proof. So folks, if you resonated with that message today, go ahead and visit us at real estate marketing do.com real estate marketing do.com And follow us on social Thank you for listening to the show over the years. We appreciate each and every one of you and we’ll see you next week with another episode. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing do.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
So what we’re gonna be chatting about today is brand vs brand identity. What the hell is it? Is my broker my brand? Are you the brand? Why do you need it? Why is it important? I’m telling you right now that if you do not focus on your own personal brand, you’re going to be out of business
Jason Byer serves as the marketing and partnership manager at Crowdspring, where he helps businesses and individuals grow their brand and make more money.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast, folks already chatting about today’s What the fuck do you do in a recession? I just did a video on this. And I was just talking about how important brand is
brand brand brand and a recession because you cannot rely on lead generation because everyone’s buying and selling habits have changed. So what we’re gonna be chatting about today is we have like the brand master from crowdspring. And we’re gonna go through brand identity versus brandied. What the hell is it? Is my broker my brand? Are you the brand? Why do you need it? Why is it important? I’m telling you right now that if you do not focus on your own personal brand is business, you’re going to be out of business. I’ve been saying this for last five fucking years on the damn show. So we’re gonna go here, and I think you’re gonna prove my point. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our guest, Jason buyer. Jason, how are you? Good. I’m great. Let’s do it. Why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about whom you are. And we’ll get right into, like all kinds of questions for your so I lead marketing and [email protected]. And we help agents or agencies, small business owners, real estate agents build their brand that starts from that name that you’re going to use if you’re not using your brokers name and the logo and visual identity. And yeah, it’s branding is that secret sauce, it’s that it’s what sets you apart. It’s, it’s not difficult to find a real estate agent, right? It’s difficult to find one that you’d like working with. And that’s really what we’re trying to convey through the brand. And remember, like, these are the stats are there, they’re sickening. At I think plus percent of people said they’ll use their agent again, but only 29% do. Mainly people don’t stay in touch with them. But it’s impossible to be remembered without a brand. You know, people don’t remember. Mike Cuevas remember real estate marketing, dude, dude is my brand. But when I get done with the show, I’m gonna go turn into Mike. So you have to have a brand. You guys, it’s whom you are. It’s what people read. You remember people buy think about your own viewing habits, and content, habits. Whatever you create, you’re drawn to certain things, right? People are drawn to certain things. We’re drawn to different brands. And that’s honestly how our, my mind works. And I’m pretty sure it’s about just the way the human mind is. So let’s dig deep into it.
I think real estate agents don’t see themselves as a brand, mainly, because they’re they look at themselves as a person, human. I’m not a brand. I’m a human being. I’m a salesperson chasing the check. Do you mean brand? How do you how do I how do you do that? Absolutely. So let’s first define the word so we can get that out of the way. Because a lot of us think brands are corporations. It’s apple, it’s Nike, it’s not us, right? And so a brand is, is every interaction somebody has with you or your company, right? Depending on who you’re you’re really representing. It’s everything from the presence of your vehicle doesn’t have to be a nice car, but it’s got to be clean. Right? You know, when you open up the door to papers and stuff fall out and your old gym bag and things like that, right? That’s part of your brand. That was my car for sure. When I was selling houses. Exactly. Right. So how quickly returned phone calls, you know, your your voicemail, the email that you use, are you still using the MSN or Yahoo email, people judge that right? So this is your whole brand makeup is every little interaction. brand identity is everything visual about your brand. So these are things like your logo and the marketing materials, the color, the font that you use, even your name because you spell that out in different areas. And so that’s your brand identity. And so when you think about like, you know, do I have a brand as a person, we all have a brand. But are we actively shaping it? Are we trying to control here’s the thing is that even even Apple and Nike can’t completely control their brand, they can only direct it, because you and I is the consumer and as the person looking at that company, we control the brand. We are the ones who who have certain thoughts about what this company or person means to us. What our goal is, is just to help provide the train tracks the rails to keep our brand moving in a direction that we want it. Do we want to be known selling to affluent individuals, or to budget conscious first time buyers. There’s a market for each, but we should be conscious of the fact of who we’re actually talking to. And not just you know, make it up on the fly. Well, I thought every real estate agents logo should be a roof with their initials and or maybe a set of keys next to it though. Yeah. And that’s the problem, right? So everybody thinks that way. And there’s certain industries that are very guilty of this. dentists, lawyers and real estate agents, you know exactly what that that logo is going to look like and therefore it means nothing to you. Right so when you go
out, and you spend all this effort, time and money to attract leads, you look just like somebody else. And it’s and you want to have that separation, it’s what we find with with free designs or something that’s cheap. There’s simply just mashups of certain industry symbols. And it doesn’t mean you have to avoid them. You can still incorporate things like you know, keys and homeownership into your design. But there’s ways to do that, that make them look more custom, that you actually took time to create something that that looks unique. So a lot of people, here’s here, I’ll tell you what their reservation is right off the bat, though. Well, if I if I do that, I might turn off some people.
What do you answer to that? Good? You know, like, that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to niche down. We’re trying to find out, you know, who do we want to work with? And, you know, can we speak directly to them? Because if we’re not speaking to them, we’re speaking to nobody, right? If we’re saying we service, every client, every every person at whatever stage in life in any geography, we just look like somebody generic, right? But if we say, we’re only interested in selling a million plus homes in this area, that’s very specific. And now I want to work with you because I don’t want you to say you have to leave to go help some kid by his first house, right? Or maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe you want to go after the person whose first time homebuyers because they’re like, look, this isn’t my third house. I’ve gotten a lot of stupid questions I’m going to ask, and I’m gonna feel really bad. You know, asking somebody who only sells to folks a million plus, that’s not me. Right? And so you want to brand yourself. And when you start talking about branding, you know, what matters is let’s let’s go with colors, right? So colors have meaning. So if you’re targeting an affluent market, your best to use colors that create trust, like blue, or black and gold, which create affluence, or feelings of affluence. If you’re going after maybe first time buyers or you’re branding yourself, it’s kind of fun, maybe using some funky colors, you know, you’re using the purples and the pinks. And we’ve, we’ve seen Realtors do this? Well, you know, they’re known as the pink realtor. And they’re saying, Hi, I was just gonna say that the that was one of the best brandings I’ve ever, ever seen. There’s I forget who the guy was a tough dude, the guy was like six, four huge, like, muscle builder. And he was the realtor. So it was like, so perfect for him. Because you just remember, you don’t expect to see the big burly guy in a pink shirt every day. But that’s that was his brand. And he views it as his uniform. Right? Absolutely. So like, there’s a great point, you want to find those additional areas to insert your brand. Right? So some of the obvious ones are, you know, the sign in the front yard. But can you do a vehicle wrap on your on their kid? Can you do something on the outside? Can you do a big mural on the outside of your building? If you have a physical location, right? All of your outdoor advertising, or marketing flyers, this should all have your brand, you shouldn’t be second guessing what color am I going to use? What font am I going to use? It’s whatever you’ve defined as your core identity. Sure. So you might see someone who focuses with military or VA, maybe do some cat some camouflage. I’ve done a bunch of dog tag stuff. I’ve done a bearded realtor, and I call this show beard budget. Like there’s all kinds of stuff you guys can do. But you have to remember that when you fall in line, like with everybody else, you’re just a sheep and no one sticking out. And when everyone’s selling the exact same service, it’s not helping you any. The truth of the reality is, is that the more you stick out brand is the one thing that it is your one thing and you have one, I’m gonna give them a couple examples on these so they could follow it. I’m gonna give you one I’m doing right now. So I’m going to have her on the podcast because it’s just an amazing story. But I won’t say her name yet. But we’re building a brand versus a brand new agent. And she her son was lost to brain cancer. And she was actually in the State of the Union. She got called out by President Obama and then and she was like the girl on when they do the state of you. And they always clap for someone that was her. Right? So as a few years ago. So what you did when when your son pass, she started this thing called kitchen and get cancer.org. Right? And she became a philanthropist in the last 12 years. It’s all she’s done. She’s meted and greeted and rubbed shoulders with very famous people, rich people, fluid people, you name it and she did successful but when COVID hit, she got crushed, took away all the goddess took away everything else. So she’s becoming a real estate agent. So we did with her. I go what do you really want to do with yourself? She goes off. I just want to save kids lives. I want to bring awareness as cancer I go, Okay, well, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re going to create a program and we call this program Johnny’s house. Johnny’s house is your son’s name, and every time there’s 10% of her closings will go to Johnny’s house. Now we’re going to license the program to other realtors who also want to give back. Sure, but everything she does is about giving, giving, giving, giving. So she could go out there and create content on say businesses in her community that also give back. Sure he’s going to help us golfers that’s all brand new guys. And the difference I think was what we’re saying here is that there’s a difference between brand versus brand identity. brand identity is going to be the stuff the visual crap, but the brand is going to be
What the fuck it stands for? Exactly, no, that’s a great example. Absolutely brilliant. Because you’re, you’re looking for a way to set yourself apart, right? Because at the end of the day, somebody’s going to be trying to compare you, and they’re gonna go to the fees, right? They’re gonna say, Wait, you know, 4%, you know, so you know, I’m in a more rural area, guys, we’re still 6%, which is just wild being in Chicago, you know, they got pushed down to 1%. And everybody’s, either way, everybody’s still competing for the small pie. So if you can say, here’s what we do with that money through Johnny’s house or something like that, that’s part of that brand story, you’re trying to create beauty 100%. And we talked about one, good one, because because some of your listeners might be thinking, Okay, I don’t have such a clear picture of my niche, right, I don’t have a charity that I want to create or support. I don’t. Right now, I’m just trying to chase leads, I’m not necessarily wanting to pigeonhole myself into one market or the other. One thing that you can do is start now, with the goal of simply rebranding refreshing in a few years, you don’t have to have the entire roadmap pictured, right? So Amazon wasn’t Amazon and Jeff Bezos had it was to sell books initially, and look what it grew into. You start with something simple, and it’s expected that you rebrand you refresh in a couple years when you have that define. But don’t forget that like, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is today, you want to start taking that action, right? So do something to start creating a little bit more of a brand of focus, with the intention of updating that every couple of years.
What do you think?
Can you have a brand without a brand identity?
It becomes difficult, because the brand identity is that that quick symbol, we process visuals, you know, 1000s of times faster? And so yes, I could tell you who I serve? And what I do? And how great you know, my closing is and all that, but are you really going to listen to me for a couple of minutes while I ramble on. But if you see a logo that’s using, you know, you mentioned the military example, it’s using sharp angles, you know, to show toughness, it’s using kind of a camo or dark green or gunmetal color, you’re starting to paint a picture, okay, this guy either is of that, or he’s focusing on vets, you know, it starts to and that just opens up a whole new brand, right? If I’m dealing with a vet, you know, there’s a certain level of expectation that I have working with him. And I’m excited by that, right. And so you really, can’t you, I suppose you could, but then you’d have to sit down with everybody and explain yourself instead of just allowing them to visually process it. So if you guys caught what he said,
visual imagery is processed through the brain faster than anything else. That means faster than what you hear. It’s more imprinted. And this isn’t this is just the way that we’re wired. I bet you you read the same book, I did look at the power of visual storytelling.
I’m looking at it right here. And I so do that it was one of the best books I’ve ever read, when it just really changed my outlook on so many different things. But what they say in the book, though, is they go back and the way I always understood and this is when it clicked for me was that if you go back to like Egypt in the cave days, what the hell was on the walls, right, just a bunch of hieroglyphics. Those are pictures. And that’s how the ancient humans told stories before words were created. So our brains are wired, God made us this way. Like we tell pig, we tell stories, but we intend, and we have stories that we do through pictures. So when you have your logo, like if I just have my logo on this video, I’m constantly branding, branding, branding. Now, let’s talk about elements of a logo, because all people are gonna be like, oh, like when I build a logo, I just need to accomplish three things for me, I needed to tell story, I needed to remind people, what the hell you sell to make money. And then I need to reflect your personality into it. As long as I have those three elements, that logo will turn into your most powerful marketing piece you ever do. Because you don’t even have to talk about real estate, you just have to show it. Exactly, exactly. And it’s going to follow you around on every piece of marketing that you do, right. It’s expensive doing direct mail, it’s expensive, creating these relationships where maybe somebody sends an email, to introduce you, you want to make sure that it’s it’s a big deal buying and selling a house, you know, it’s a lot of money at stake. It’s a lot of trust that we’re putting into a realtor, you want to make sure that that you have those opportunities to keep building that trust as you go along. And that’s a great place to keep inserting that logo. We did a this morning, I was scripting a video for one of our clients. And he’s a VA veteran himself. He’s a mortgage broker, but he’s in the north. He’s like in the Seattle area up there wherever that basis, but so he does a VA buyer bootcamp. Alright, so every 30 days, he does a VA buyer bootcamp, he knows exactly who and his audiences. Well, he’s having it at a veteran owned brewery. Okay, guys, so like, you have to make sure in all of his videos, there’s an American flag in the back. Right? Right. So it’s, it’s it’s what can you own that be proud of it and fill out those additional ways you can insert it, that’s a great example. You could have chosen any venue to have this. Instead, he’s further pushing this idea. We support that. Yeah. And that’s what people are going to remember. You know, there’s so many examples that you know, I could give you guys and but you have to really be willing to do it.
I always tell
people especially with comes on video. I don’t believe you can be successful on video without first identifying your brand because what the fuck are you gonna talk about? Right? You’re gonna run out shit to say I can only talk about real estate for so long. Like I’m telling I’m gonna talk about dude want to buy or sell real estate? Fuck no, no one’s gonna listen to that guys, it doesn’t work that way you got to, you have to stay in communication with people because once you have your brand identity, how you build your brand, at least with your database, it’s your consistent communication to the same audience over time. It’s very simple. If you stop talking to them, they’re gonna cheat on you as another real estate agent. It happens every day go on Facebook right now there’s about 4 million Realtors crying because they just logged on and someone named cousin believer and Sue just got a referral from a family member that forgot their real estate. Right? That’s that you don’t you know what the only reason that ever happens to by the way is because blood is thicker. Or blood is was a blood is thicker than relationships Trump All right blood is what the hell’s the saying? I can’t think now I’m struggling with it. You know, I’m talking about right I do my tongue. But yeah, guys, I mean, there’s so many different things you can be doing. But you have to be willing to do them. A lot of people to I see are like very
hesitant to express themselves and really niche down. Sure. And I always tell them and answer that question. Real simple. I go, if you believe you’re the right person for the job, it becomes your obligation to scream it from the rooftops? If not, you’re not the right person for the job. Right? When I think this is that hard look, right, that you mentioned with, I forgot the person’s name, but you know, creating this Johnny’s house charity, and then she has a story, right, she has something impacted. You’ve mentioned the vet use of it. You know, some of these might not be as obvious we might not be event we might not have lost somebody to cancer. So we’ve got to start thinking about what’s our own either struggle, or what are we passionate about? Right? Did we come out of debt quickly? Right out of the gate? Did we have massive debt and brought that back under control? These are? These are hero type stories, right? I think too often, you know, we want to be the hero in the story. And instead, we want to be the guide. Right? So we want to guide somebody else who and make them the hero, right? Champion them. And so we have to understand what are we good at? Who are we good at talking to? You know, what’s kind of our, our, you know, superpower is too strong of a word, but what just comes natural to us, you know, to be able to communicate, and that’s probably a very specific audience. What do you do on the weekends, that’s your brand.
You know, if you’re out there, and if you’re if you’re, if you’re not proud of it, start doing something that’s more exciting, right? If you’re not proud of it, you’re just a miserable human being. I mean, that sucks. Don’t overthink it. It’s much easier than you guys think. But I telling you like this whole real estate agent business is getting shaken up to the ground. And the only way you’re going to compete against the dollars being thrown against your profession is through personal brand and relationship with the people you already know like and trust. Right? You’re not going to outspend them and lead generation guys, tell me I’m telling you the conversation revenue back end with some of these funds, you will never outspend them on lead generation, there’s billions and trillions of dollars being poured into the market to take real estate agents out of the equation. And the only way you’re going to fight back I swear to God is going to be through your personal brand. Well look at look at every industry, look at how you can sell something on Shopify, and compete with Walmart, right in Amazon, where it’s much more convenient. It’s cheaper, it’s guaranteed. You’re only able to do that because of this brand. Right? And it doesn’t like you said I’d like to keep focused on Don’t overthink it. Look, I’ve got two kids. You know, a lot of my weekend is taken up with taking care of the kids, right and making sure that they’re successful, that can be part of the brand too. You don’t always have to be rock climbing, whitewater rafting and elk hunting like we were talking about right before the right and so but if you’re doing those things as well, that can certainly help and start start seeking those out. Yep. I like it, man. What, oh, I think we sort of covered a lot of this stuff here. And it actually gets a lot of time. You know, it’s really one of these. It’s one of these tactics that you have to really sit down and start thinking, Okay, who do I want to focus on? You know, how can I start inserting this brand through a visual way? This is why it helps starting with a logo, or refreshing your current logo because it gives you that foundation, it says okay, here’s my my colors, here’s my font. Here’s my style, and now I can give that to somebody and start inserting that in other parts of my marketing. And it should be something you come back to you should come back to this regularly. Okay, did I make a mistake? Do I not like this market? Is the market too big or too small? Do I am I not strong enough in this area? Should I rebrand or refresh? No problem with doing that you don’t have to like start this and commit to it for 10 years. It’s a process and what you what you can do if you’ve been doing this for if you sold at least 10 houses in the last 12 months just average your clients that’s your brand. Yeah, right. Well, you’re gonna know we had a we had a client she’s been we’ve been creating content for her for like 18 months and she’s finally figured out what her brand is and she’s realized that she’s attracting young black entrepreneurial people love it own and yeah, we’re going all in on and now we’re gonna have a whole brand series just going through it and you can take it one step further by owning that market, right? You’re not doing that for the nation.
It’s for one area Chicago, you know, the riches are in the niches she’ll she’ll go further because there’s not a shortage of people to sell houses to last time I looked over live somewhere unless you’re a bum. Right? Absolutely. So, folks, this is a really, really good stuff. Jason wants to go ahead and tell them how they can reach you more about crowdspring. And then we could get this thing wrapped. Absolutely. So if you go to crowdspring.com, you can see we’ve got, we publish our pricing, it’s actually a fun process, you get to see dozens of designs for your brand submitted, pick the one that you like, and unlimited iterations to move that forward, 100% money back guarantee. And if you want to get your brand reviewed, we do free brand reviews, where we actually give you a 10 page custom report to break down different areas of your brand that we think are either strong or could use some improvement. And we’re happy to provide that to us. If you go to crowdspring.com and reach out to support on there. We’ll send you your customer customer review. Cool thank you and thank you guys for listening to other episode real estate marketing dude podcast. You guys know where to find me real estate marketing do.com Real Estate American radio.com Need help with video you need to get a new logo. You just need to start making some noise. That’s what we’re good at. Let me use my brain and I’ll put you on the map so people stop cheating on you with other real estate agents. It’s never fun. Thanks for watching. Subscribe, follow us on social we’ll see you guys next week. Bye.
Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training and then schedule time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Today we’re going to talk about attraction. How about 4500 leads just through Tik Tok? the person who created that is on the other end of this podcast. And he’s not even in the United States of America. This is the power of content creation and done consistently.
Our guest today, Rob Roper, is also known as the Aussie Mortgage Guy. He teaches financial education to anyone willing to learn and has over 300,000 followers on Tik Tok.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started.
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome to their episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. What we’re doing here today, folks is we’re going to talk about attraction. How about this 4500 leads organically simply just through tick tock, the person who created that is on the other end of this podcast. And he’s not even in the United States of America. This is the power of content creation and done consistently, those of you listening to the show, I’ve been doing this for six years now. And because of that, I get to be guests from all over the world just like this dude. He is a listener on the podcast, he’s implemented a lot of the content that we talked about here amongst other podcasts that he listens to. And that’s how we met. If I don’t have a podcast, we don’t have this conversation. But a podcast is just a form of media no differently than creating content on Tiktok is creating videos consistently. Any and all the above. And if you’re not in the business of content creation, you are going to be out of business, I promise you. That’s what’s happening. And maybe not in Brisbane, Australia, where this guy’s from, but at least here in the States. 100%. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our guest, Rob roper. Hello, mate.
Well done on the Aussie accent buddy. That was perfect.
Thanks for having me on the show, Mike. Yes, sir. Why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about where you’re at? Where you’re from? Yeah, a lot of questions for you. Yeah, so I am a started off as a mortgage broker down in Perth, in Western Australia. And it became very clear to me when I started out as a broker and I was new new to the mortgage broking industry back in May or May or June of 2021. It became very clear to me that the pressure point for a lot of businesses but brokers and real estate agents, in particular, is that how are you going to find your customers and so I went on a bit of a social media journey. And Tik Tok was the platform that I decided I could reach the most virality on. So that’s where I put all my energy into. And then yeah, that’s where I am today. 45 leads down the track, which is converted to a very, very successful business. 4500 leads. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 4500 leaves 4500 leads and your mortgage broken. You just started what? 2021?
Yeah, yeah. music industry. So. So I was licensed in May. And then I started producing content in June. So fresh off the bat. And my background is actually in education. So I’ve been a high school teacher for 10 years. And then during that time, also ran my own tutoring business where I have 15 staff that provide tutoring services from grades one all the way through to grade 12. So I had experience in business and marketing. But yes, new to industry in terms of the mortgage broking world back in 2021. So your teacher you like to teach, I’m guessing what was the content strategy? Most people are like, What the hell do I create? How did you figure it out? What did you end up doing? Well, the very first piece of content I posted, crashed and burned. So that took a nice and nice hit and you didn’t, you didn’t quit? Why didn’t you?
Well, I quit for a couple of days, I have to admit, a couple of days, I thought that maybe this is maybe this isn’t for me. And then I thought you can’t just end on one post. Come on, give it another go. So I thought what are the students in my classroom? What do they often say to me when they reflect on an engaging lesson? And really, it just comes down to? Did they walk away from that little 15 minute block? And did they take away knowledge? And can they remember it? And then I thought, What am I doing? I just need to teach in front of the camera? Yeah, so I set up that I set up the camera in front of the whiteboard in my tutoring center. And I just started teaching for 60 seconds about how in Australia, a credit card limit can negatively impact how much the bank will let you borrow for a home loan. So I just shared that information, did it in a digestible way on the whiteboard. And it was it was so bad that I was unaware of how to how to use the TIC tock app at the time. And so you know, the video ended mid sentence like I didn’t even wrap the video up well, and it went on to get 70,000 views or something like that over the next couple of days. And then I thought geez, if that’s gonna get 70,000 views, maybe I’m onto something here and then that was a little spark which ignited the 60 day challenge that I went on, which was to try and post one piece of content for 60 days. And that’s what you did and then all sudden, it just took off and you’re like what am I doing what’s going on and you’re just go along for the ride yet. Exactly.
There was a mortgage broker over in Canada, named Enrique. And he had, I think he had 14,000 followers on Tiktok, which was, you know, which was impressive. And so without him knowing he became my, he became my target my challenge, right. And over 60 days, I thought, if I can get to his kind of follower level, it’s really proof that maybe I can build out a successful business on this platform. And I think it took me 45 to 50 days, it was around that point, and I got to the 14,000. And then after that, it kind of just, it just kept going. So it probably took six months to get to around 30,000 followers. And then it took another six months to get from 30,000 to 300,000.
You’re doing this quite a bit. So I’m imagining that
you sort of have an idea. Are you saying that after six months of consistency, that’s when most people see results?
Well, big results? I mean, big, big reason. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, look, I think it was within the first week. It was the first six days that I got to 900 followers. And the reason why I remember that is it’s the first point that I received a lead. So somebody actually sent through and said, you know, can you help me? Can you answer my questions, which ended up just like a back and forward direct message exchange, but that that lead actually turned into a conversion. So that drew down, I think it was three months later, you know, by the time we went through the process and sorted the loan out and everything. But for me in terms of when the business became viable and Tiktok, it was a weekend because that’s when I got first lead that turned into business
at at the six month point I was having to so when I had 30,000 followers, I was having to say no, I had to turn away 95% of the leads that were coming in, because I just I couldn’t manage that volume. And it was at that point that I then went, Well, maybe, maybe I’ve unlocked a little a little a little secret here. And and maybe I figured out that communicating to people on Tik Tok is kind of my, my super skill. So why not continue to do that double down on that? Find some of the best mortgage brokers in Australia because remember, I was only six months new to the industry at that point. You know what you’re doing? You’re on let’s stop right here. Let’s stop right there. I just got off the call with somebody.
And a lot of people like are hesitant when they come to do on get on video, they’re like, well, people are going to trust me. Are they really going to believe me? I’ve only haven’t done a deal yet. Listen, if you want to build your authority, the first thing you do is get on video. This is the exact example I just gave you or 25 minutes ago. I said, Look, I’m not a chef. But if I want you to think I was I would shoot seven videos in Sunland to you each day, by the time that you’d be asking me for my recipe. Exactly, exactly. He’s amazing. That’s the power of authority and positioning the fact that I think it’s all psychological. But I think that when people see you on video, because most people are scared shitless to get on it themselves are like, Well, fuck, this guy’s got balls. And I respect that. And he must know what he’s doing.
Yeah, yeah, it is. It is amazing. That was one of the things that blew my mind was how quickly I became perceived as an expert. And sort of Yes, I was, you know, and yes, I was learning I was I was learning all of these new concepts. And, and when you throw yourself into the public eye like that, it actually does increase your accountability, right? And it does make you go, if I am going to talk about this stuff, I need to know what I’m saying. So that was great for that six months journey. But yeah, it was at that point that I was then like, I’m gonna have to find some brokers all over Australia that can deal with this volume. And that’s when I reached out to them, and started creating this trusted finance network. And so now what I primarily do is I get the lead ID and then I transfer that lead out to a mortgage broker that specializes in what that customer is looking for based on their financial information.
The
one who controls the leads, controls everything. And when you have a faucet, you can turn on turn off, you have a lot of leverage. And I want you guys to think about that. Like if you still believe you’re a salesperson chasing a Chuck, I think you’re gonna be the fuck out of this business very soon. Excuse My French but I need to hammer the point down here. And nobody cares about you. You’re not that fucking important guys. I’m sorry. But no one knows what you do for a living. We don’t remember what you do for a living. It is not your their job to remember you have to get out there and constantly let them know what you do for a living. And if people like you trust me, the business will show up. Everyone lives somewhere. So it’s not a matter of time until they’re gonna buy a house. Or if they’re gonna buy a house. It’s a matter of time until they do. And 10 to 15% of our net works at sea as tick tock videos will 10 to 50% of people sell those views. They’re moving this year.
Yeah, yeah, it’s a numbers game. It’s math. Walk me through your content stream
Energy. Because people struggle Yeah, all the time. You got your, you wanted to educate your teacher, I think that’s extremely important. People don’t remember what you do or what you’re talking about in video, they remember how you’re doing it. And the fact that he put himself in his own environment in front of a whiteboard, being a teacher is probably where he became authentic. So, and that has a big deal to do with how you create content. So I want to give you a couple examples on that. It’s not the what you create. It’s not how you’re doing it that people remember and pay attention to. And if you start doing it awkward, well, you don’t get paid attention to. So you have to really find out your content strategy. It’s extremely important. We have people that are going to gym, their gym, they’re out there, like straight arrow, they don’t drink, they’re just they own gyms, and they pay their mortgage brokers. So all their contents done in the gym. He’s always he’s always talking about as a healthy investment. Right? There’s a way that you can communicate, to dial in your brand, you guys. I’m a dude and allows me to swear on my show, but it’s just really who I am. At the end of the day. People don’t remember my boss, Mike Cuevas shows up at 530 When I get home for my kids, from nine until five, I’m the real estate marketing dude. And I speak with my brand, guys. So you have to realize you have a brand. Okay? If you’re running a business, you have a brand or you don’t have a business.
That’s That’s exactly right. My I am Rob ropac shows up. You know, when I go to the high school, still, Rob Roper shows up when I go home. But Rob Lowe, the Ozzie mortgage guy is the guy who shows up on Tik Tok. And he’s the one that you want to have a beer with down at the pub and ask a couple of questions about how to buy a home. And, and being able to create that persona and understand
that that’s who I am on this platform is one of the really big drivers to why they feel like they can trust me, and why they feel like that rapport is there. So that was I’m glad you touched on that mark, because that was the first strategy is you need to build out your persona. And you need to understand who your target market is. And, you know, I think that I think another really good important point is to is to make your persona authentic. If you just create a completely fake person, you’re never going to be able to hold it, you know, consistently do it, you need to make sure that that fake person is actually just a dial up of a particular part of your personality. And then you can create it with an authentic mindset. So yeah, well said. But once you’ve got that persona, it’s then about Well, well, what strategies can I put in place within that 62nd video, in order to try and push it out to as many eyes as possible. And to start with, I had no idea what I was doing. But over the last 12 months, I’ve developed some really clear strategies to and it doesn’t work every time, you’re still gonna have videos that crash and burn. But it increases the likelihood that more people are going to see it and more people are going to engage with it. And then it’s going to get those leads, and then convert them into customers down the track. People always ask what’s the road? What’s the secret? Yes, yeah. Consistency, like there’s no secret. Some videos are gonna suck, and you’re gonna get turned off. You’re gonna get some haters on some video. How many times have you gotten haters on some of your tech talks, and then be like, you’re just like, Fuck off, dude, go pound sand who gives a shit? And people get deterred by that. But when you get your first hater, you got to take that as a badge of honor. Because if people are watching your stuff, you’re not God. You’re not meant to resonate with everybody. And I believe that the more people you turn off, the more dialed your branding strategy. Yes. Yeah, exactly. And the other thing too, is, you know, the most frustrating thing as a content creator with 320,000 followers, is that you can post a video that gets 100 views, but it’s actually the most beautiful thing because it means that when somebody has zero followers, they can post a video that gets 500,000 views. And for me, I prefer to be on a social media platform that can have that type of virality rather than being stuck on a Facebook or an Instagram platform where my engagement stats are representative of my follower size because I feel like you can just plateau very easily. There’s a ton of people talk talk to him about how important it is to like know the platform and beyond it like I just started tick tock because I’m not on tick tock, but I’m not gonna go on tick tock until I engage and start working on tick tock and I’m going through the process myself, I’m late to the game on tick tock, but I’ve been busy and have trans and until I was able to go all in and commit to it. Now I’m there and I just started getting pretty consistent on it. So I want you to coach me a little bit here. Show I want you to walk me through because I think a lot of people are going to be in this position. If you’re not on tick tock and you don’t watch reels then don’t make sure it’s part of your video strategy period. So if you’re not going to create short form video, then don’t be on Tik Tok. Or if you’re not on tick tock don’t try to be because it has to be shit you’re already doing. If you’re on Facebook, you build your content strategy for Facebook. If you’re on Instagram, you build your strategy for Facebook, but the only content strategy or platform that works is the one you use. So you have to you have to know it. It’s not so many people. Oh my my real estate coach told me to go out and get a tick tock account. I have this question every fucking day on average calls it hey, I got this tick tock account. Yeah, I just I was told I could just post until
Talking all sudden I’m gonna get 4500 leads, it doesn’t work that way. It does not work that way you guys, you have to commit to the platform if you want it to commit to you. So walk us through the importance of that. And through your content strategy. Yeah, look, that’s exactly right. So persistence on that is the key. But one of the things that I did at the very start was I had my personal tic tock account, which I had been using for at least six months. So I was consuming and I understood the nuances to the trends. But what I did was I created another account. So a second account, that wasn’t my business account. And it wasn’t my personal account. And I pretended to be a first time homebuyer which I am not anymore. You know, I’ve bought multiple properties in my property journey. And I forget what it’s like to be a first time homebuyer, so I spent a good month, just trying to engage in content that they might like stuff that’s based on like aesthetics, and home decor and that type of content that I thought that they would be into. And once I kind of understood what the videos looked like that they might find interesting, it gave me a better direction in terms of what I could create, that was engaging. So that was one of the first strategies I put in place while I was getting my broking license before I even started creating content. So that was the preparation. But then once I started creating content, I quickly found out that the educational style videos I was producing, gave value to my audience. And that was one of the key things because if they get value, they then want to give it back to you by becoming your customer down the track. But it didn’t show the part of my personality that was engaging and, and memorable. Right? Yeah, value is great. But you’ve got to then come up, come up with content that is either entertaining, or inspiring. And those two types of pieces of content. They’re the ones that show your personality. So you want to make sure that your personality is present, because that’s how you become memorable. I’m honest, tick tock account right here. And I’m looking at his thing and and he’s known as the Aussie mortgage guy, right. And the Aussie mortgage guy that’s personality, it just says he’s a guy. It gives me the incentive. He’s sort of laid back. But the Aussie thing is really tied into, I think, his audience, but he’s posting his content in Australia. I was saying that if you posted the Aussie mortgage guy in the States, because people love the Australian accent so much, they will fucking crush it.
Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, of my 320,000 followers, I think it was the last time I checked was 36% of them were from the States. So it’s, there’s definitely, yeah, there’s definitely people that consume my content over there. And because some of the content I produce is really specific to mortgages within Australia, but then some of the content I produce is just about saving and different savings strategies you can put in place to reach your savings goal. And that type of general global content is what I find people in America are eating up on my channel, and I quite often get somebody going, Oh, I didn’t realize that you could do that with a home loan. And and I say, Oh, actually, I don’t think this relates to, you know, Virginia, or wherever, wherever it is that I can tell you from. So yeah, good. That’s a good strategy, though. I didn’t think about the the whole of the pot in my headline and how that relates to Americans. Yeah, cuz you’re in the weeds.
Alright, so I’m looking at some of your content on here. And like, everyone, overthinks a lot of this stuff, tell me what type of videos I see you’re doing some react stuff? I see you doing just some like you’re just answering questions like is that your strategy? You’ll be you asked you ask a question and you just answer it, it can it really be that simple. It really can be that simple. And to start with, you have to, you know, really, there aren’t too many people who just start out as mortgage brokers and start a tick tock page and become an expert within a couple of weeks, you know, that doesn’t generally happen. Usually, you’ve been a real estate agent, or you’ve been a mortgage broker, you’ve been that for a long period of time. And then you’re like, I want to start a social media channel. So you should already have a very big bank of all of these types of questions that your customers are asking throughout their journey, their customer journey with you, those questions should be what informs your content at the very start. And so for me, now, once you get the ball rolling, the snowball effect, you know, as you get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, you know, I think I wrote this down just before I came on the show, but in the last 28 days, I’ve had 3512 comments. So you know, there’s a lot of questions in those comments. And those questions help inform the type of content that I create that’s specific to what my audience wants to know. So I’m answering questions, I’m finding other engaging pieces of content might be real estate walkthroughs. And that might be a home’s up in America even. But it might be really aesthetically pleasing. Or it might be something that’s interesting about that home or it might be that a real estate agent is showing the value of a home. All then Jouett that video as they’re doing the walkthrough, and I say it’s a $1.5 million home, and then I’ll show that on a 3.5% per annum interest rate. This is what the repayments would look like. You could also go to a site called answer the public.com which you’ll just type in
Like your subject, and they’ll give you a million different questions. And you’re right, like watch those content, like watch the questions that they’re gonna tell you what to create. But once you know what what content you want to create, it’s just a matter of researching what people ask around. And so when you say this is content marketing, you guys now are you just doing Tik Tok? Are you repurposing any of this content? Are you taking these two reels? What are you doing with that? And are you just solely on tick tock? So I would say 95% of my time is spent solely on tick tock. But what I am doing is just repurposing so re downloading the same piece of tick tock content, really downloading it, so it doesn’t have a watermark on it, and then reposting it to an Instagram page. But that Instagram page is probably running it. I think it was 3800 followers. The last time I checked, I checked. So the the engagement on that is is nowhere near that Tiktok what’s the right cadence? I know you’re posting consistently I’m assuming you’re doing every day. But what’s the importance of using hashtags, hashtags, and the tax and the lead end of the tax you write into it? You are limited some characters correct? Yeah, it used to be six months ago, it used to be a lot more limited. So they’ve actually increase the caption substantially. So much so that now when I write a caption, you know, sometimes I put in 15 hashtags, and I’ve never reached the limit. So that’s not a worry anymore. The the text, I don’t think is at the bottom, I don’t think is that important, I usually try and embed a call to action within that text. But it’s my secondary call to action, because I always have a call to action as a sticker within my video, so it’s actually plastered on the video separate from the caption. But within the caption, I do definitely put in all of the hashtags. And I make the hashtags specific to my niche. That’s really important because with tick tock now becoming one of the most you know, it’s, it’s, it’s getting up there with Google in terms of being used as a search engine, you want to make sure that you’re using those hashtags, so that when someone types in mortgage, or someone types in real estate, or your city, that you’re one of the ones that come up there, and you will come up there based on how often your videos use those hashtags. Are you saving the same hashtags for each one? Or what’s the hashtag strategy? I know a lot of people I don’t know the answer to this either. So I’m curious. What how many should you put in there? And then are you always using the same ones? Or do you switch it up? Because the subject matter on in your case is probably like, you know, it’s mortgage questions as finance, finance smart. Right? So yeah, let’s see. Do you have consistent ones you use over and over? And what’s the strategy behind that? Yeah, yeah, so I use probably, like eight or nine or 10 consistent ones every single time. And then I probably add in three or four, which are specific to how that piece of content has changed. For example, if it’s a first time homebuyer, I’m trying to hit I’ll put in there rent free and budget, there’ll be two that I’ll add, right? Because that’s what they’re trying to do. But if I’m looking, if I do a one that’s focused on a property investor, maybe first time mom and dad investor, then I’ll put invest investing, you know, wealth generation, something like that, or even potentially retirement because some of these people are in their 40s in their 50s. And they’re thinking of having that little golden egg for when they retire.
I like it.
I think it’s really good. I think it’s, I’m trying to think what other questions I didn’t ask you yet. How about the actual text? And how important is that, like, you know, on Facebook, you get old, the old or the AI is so smart. You’re gonna read this, if you listen to the Guru’s guys, if you hire a bunch of coaches, and it’s true, this actually I didn’t believe it until I started doing it. But Facebook so smart that their algorithms so smart that they’ll read the text in your text, and it’s very important what you write in to the text of the post, because, yeah, and same thing, it’s, it’ll put it in for the right people. So yeah, the question is, what’s the importance of that? Are you embedding keywords within the text that are also hashtags? Is there like a strategy there? Or are you just taking the subject and how smart is this thing? So I think what you’re trying to do on tick tock, and this is the mentality, for your listeners who are just starting out, it’s the mentality, you want your percentage of the video watched to be as high as possible across a as many people as possible, right? You want that percentage to be high. So if somebody wants watches, seven seconds out of seven seconds, that’s 100%. If they watch 14 seconds out of seven seconds, it means they’ve watched it twice. And that’s 200%. You know, realistically, it’d be great if we could have 400%. Yeah, they’ve watched it four times, that would be the goal. Right? So how can you do something on screen that forces that rewatch? Well, for me, one strategy I’ve used is, let’s say I’m going for a walk with my wife and I come across maybe a landscape or something that’s kind of interesting. I’ll quickly whip out my phone, and I’ll take a video for seven seconds, doesn’t relate to homes. It doesn’t relate to mortgages, it relates to nothing. But then I’m going to overlay a substantial amount of text over the top of that video, so much so that it’s probably going to take them at least 16 to 20
seconds to read all of the text. And as long as that text is Super Value specific, it’s going to force that push out, right. And then and then all of a sudden, it’s 200 300%, it’s going to push it out to more and more people. And what you can even do, if you find a trending audio, you cut that seven second piece of video down to four seconds, find a trending audio, that’s, that’s being pushed out on the tick tock algorithm, which you can do by there’s a search function in the playlist there, you can search for trending audio, cut the trending audio down to four seconds, overlay it. So now it takes 20 seconds, it’s at 500% watch time, I’ve done some of that. And it’s pushed it out to 400 500 600,000 people, that’s a great way to get found if you’re starting a channel, right, right, because you’re just I want to I want you guys to unpack what he just said there. He’s, he’s not using like, he might put a picture everybody’s just using, you’re doing a seven second video, essentially, yeah, with text. So it takes them at least seven seconds to read the text. Right. So that means the retention is there. And then algorithm just says if you get good the 100% retention or 200% retention,
that the video is gonna get you into more people. So that makes a whole lot of sense. What do you like? Now, let’s do the flip side of that, because this gets very pointed. What do you think, though, if, if you’re doing a 92nd video, do those typically not perform as well, because of that? They were no. You see, they still can so they still can now if you do a four second or five second seven second video, tick tock in order to push it out on the algorithm is gonna want to see a lot of that video watched. Right? It understand it’s only seven seconds. So when you create a 92nd piece, they want people to get to at least the 50% mark. So there’s different thresholds in order for them to push that out. Now, tick tock doesn’t want to just on there for you page, they only putting seven second videos, nobody would engage in that in the platform, but also want to experience these longer posts. So I’ve had some longer ones that go for 60 seconds. Usually, I kept my videos at 60 seconds, and then a couple that have gone for three minutes that have reached 500,000. But really, I kept them at 60 seconds, because if you can’t say in 60 seconds, it’s probably not worth saying. Right? So in 60 seconds, and and you know, I’ve had a couple of those reach 1.11 point 5 million views. One of them in particular, I’ve actually pinned it to the top of my tic tock page. It’s just a little bit of a skip me going back and forward with an imaginary homebuyer. So I pretend to be a homebuyer and then they’re talking to the bank. And I usually do a skit where the bank is unable to help them because they only have their products. So obviously speech speak to a mortgage broker because you know, they can find you any product across any bank.
You know, from that 92,000 likes, I think from that one piece of content I got like 250 leads. That’s great.
Yeah, that is unbelievable, guys.
So same eight to nine hashtags. Describe the video. Yeah. Is it better to have a I know, I think I know your answer to this. But I have a question for you is what is your hook at the beginning the video? Yeah, you probably have a formula for it because you got to tease this, like 75% of people regardless of I don’t know the stats on Tik Tok, but I know whatever video they watched, they decided they’re gonna watch it in the first seven seconds 75% of people. So you could use that hook if that hooks not there for that attention. Word it like you’re gonna set yourself up for disaster. So what’s your cadence? What’s your formula behind that? Yeah, so the formula for any video but in particular those educational videos is three words hook problems solution that should be your goal whenever you go into a piece to hook problem solution. So to start off with the hook, you want to like you said realistically you want to try and hook them within three seconds that that should be the goal on tick tock is three second hook but a lot of my hooks do lasts between five and six seconds on a on a 62nd video. But when I’m whenever I’m delivering the hook there’s also the sticker across the top, which in text also outlines the hook and generally what I find it takes me five or six seconds to describe the hook. They’ve read it within three seconds above me anyway so that’s how to get them within the three seconds. So to make sure it’s sticking in text above you as well as while you’re saying it but this was the little strategy with the hook that unlocked it is speak specifically to one person quite often people are like hey guys on tick tock or Hello everyone or hey, you know, homebuyers know you want to speak you know, if you are x you know, or if you if you and your partner are earning $150,000 per year and you want to buy a first home This one’s for you. specific year if your PCs seen if your PCs and looking to buy your first house, pay close attention. Yeah, you’re buying your first house and wondering how much it cost because it’s everything you need to know. Yeah, exactly right. Now, one step further on that one step further. And this was another one that I that I had, that I have found as unlocked even more audience is rather than
If it’s for you ask if you know anyone in that position. Do you know someone who’s looking for that? Do you know someone who’s looking to buy their first time? Because if they know someone, and it’s themselves, Well, yeah, of course, they know someone, it’s them, right. But the luck we’ve had they have a brother or a sister or a friend, a mom or a dad, who’s in that home buying journey means that when you put a call to action within the first, you know, 10 seconds of the video that says, share this video with someone, or share this video with that person, share this video with the person that you’re saving with to buy a home, and you have an arrow explicitly pointing down to the part on the TIC tock app where they share it, it’s going to increase that likelihood because the TIC tock algorithm is looking at the number of likes, the number of shares the number of saves to favorites, the amount of comments how many times somebody tapped the screen to pause the video, what percentage of the video they watched. So if within that first 10 seconds on a 62nd video, you can get a share a pause on the screen, you know, and somebody’s continuing to watch the video and they might have even liked it during that time as well. Boom, you’re 80% of the way there. So good, dude, that is like freaking golden. Let me just repeat that. Gino? Somebody’s trying to buy a house without any money out of pocket.
Yeah, perfect. If so make sure you share this video with them. But here’s how it works. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, how long did that take you? What five seconds, five seconds, you got the call to action, you you tied in the call to action? First, you almost you increase the engagement by doing that, and yeah, well done. Very good. And, and don’t don’t be afraid to do a second call to action later in the in the video. So once you’ve presented that hook, we’re then gonna go into the problem, right? Now you want to highlight a problem that that person you’re speaking to has a high likelihood of experiencing. So for me as a mortgage broker, quite often, it’s that people’s lifestyle, how much they’re spending per month coupled with, you know, the amounts they’re paying on their personal loans is too high comparatively to their income, which decreases their borrowing power. So I’m going to paint a picture. And quite often what I do is I represent that picture being painted by my avatar client and his name is bad, right? So bad that often is in a situation where it’s not quite good enough. So that’s the problem, right? Limited borrowing power. The solution is that I give them some actionable strategies to put in place. For example, if you decrease your living expenses per month by this much, this is how much your borrowing power will increase. So that’s a solution that they can then take away, there’s the value add, they go, Yes, I can put this practice, I can put this into practice in real life. And then the call to action at the end is that
head through to the link in my profile to be connected with one of my mortgage brokers who can support you through this process completely free of charge. Right. So the idea is you call me up, we’ll put this strategy in place for you. We’ll figure out specific to your income because you’re not Beza you don’t earn 150 grand a year, you might earn 135 grand a year, right? specific to your situation, we’ll figure out what is the best plan for you. And so putting in that second call to action at the end is actually the driver towards my profile, which is then going to get to push them down that funnel actually hit the submit button, turn those followers into leads and then those leads actually into customers.
Love it, love it. Alright guys, let’s get this wrapped up tons of content here. We’re just over a half hour mark, but I think you’ve answered every question I have. I’d like you to go ahead and tell everyone how they can reach you. How can they learn more Tom, your handle and all the above and we’ll get this wrapped? Yeah, awesome, mate. So look up, you can reach me on Tik Tok. It’s at trusted dot finance. And what I’ve actually just created over the last couple of months is a tick tock masterclass. So it’s showing people in the real estate industry in the mortgage broking industry, specifically how to build their presence, their brand awareness on tick tock, how to build your following, convert those following into convert those followers into leads, and then those leads actually into customers. So it’s an online tic tock masterclass, that’s separated into six chapters, there’s 64 modules, and all modules are delivered by myself. So they’re all They’re all video modules. None of it’s in a PDF, you know, written format that you got to sit there and read for seven hours by yourself. It’s all delivered by me. And it’s separated. It’s drip fed to students over 25 days. And there’s a, there’s a very important reason for that each chapter is separated by a five day gap because I give you tasks to complete on your Tiktok page that is designed to actually build your following and gain those customers. Yeah, that’s, that’s how it works. I’m really excited to be rolling it out worldwide. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take your course for the next 60 to 90 days. And you could do a live case study on me for somebody that totally understands video understands content creation that will stay consistent. Yeah, I’ll go through your course. We’ll do another podcast and 90 days from the time I start
Buy, or buy time I complete it. And then we’ll do another case study. And then we’ll go right through here and show you guys exactly what we what happened. And we’ll give you the exact results. I’ll create a case study of every single page. And then we can use this as a case study. And then I want to go through this, I want to see how this works. And then when we get done with that will tell you guys what the results were and all of that. And then maybe we can get Rob here to put together a special promo for you guys. And then maybe you guys can follow the same thing, but I’m going to do it with you. So if you’re open to that, I would be open for the challenge. And I’ll take it, I will document it every day. And then we’ll do another podcast and three months from now, it will create a real life case study on the journey of real estate marketing to just starting tick tock, because it’s not my platform. I’m no expert at it. And I’m figuring it out too. So I’ll follow your exact guidelines. And we’ll do it and then we’ll report our results right here. You don’t for that. That’s all down for a man. Absolutely. I launched the course last week, and one of my students who just completed the second chapter, his name’s Patrick, he produced his first piece of content on Monday, and I woke up because he’s in Canada, I woke up to a message on Tik Tok in the morning. He said, I can’t believe it. It’s at 5000 views, I never thought that I would get to the point on my first post. He actually did some posts back in February on his personal account that kind of set it you know, 100 views, 200 views. So he sent me a message saying it’s at 5000 views. 24 hours later, it’s at 140,000 views, and over 2000 likes, and he just simply applied all of that cook problem solution, that educational style format that we discussed on the podcast, like it. Very good, dude. Very well done. Alright, folks, thank you for listening to another episode of real estate marketing. Dude, folks, if you don’t want to do this content on your own, we can edit your scripts, your shorts for you, we do as many as you want per month, we actually shoot them all within an hour with you each and every month, and then you will distribute them. So I don’t want you to use this as an excuse for not getting involved in a short form content. We could do it all for you. And that’s another service that we do at real estate marketing dude. So if you need someone to help kick you in the ass and get you going and just handle the content creation part of it because the thought of turning on your video camera makes you like really jerky. Well, that’s what a real estate marketing dude is for. As long as you’re willing to commit I’m willing to take you on. But you have to commit otherwise, I don’t want to talk to you. So you can visit us at real estate marketing do.com Real Estate markets.com Thank you for listening to our show podcast. Keep the words up, spread this episode, connect with us on all our social channels and now my Tik Tok channel. So if you want to see what I’m doing, tick tock, go ahead and do it. I am starting there. I don’t know what I’m doing. But I’m just gonna create a lot of content I know to work. So that’s it. Appreciate you guys. We’ll see you guys next week. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with the dude and get you rolling into your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Holy shift, what the hell is going on? A lot people are hurting right now in the industry, but this isn’t as bad as you think. Market shifts can be a blessing in disguise, especially if you are willing to adapt.
Phil Duke Jr started as a realtor but took a break during the 2008 market crash. In 2015, he jumped right back in and started his own company a few years later.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started. What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude powered curse, holy shift, what the hell is going on? We got a lot to chat about today. And, you know, we’re seeing it. I mean, I’m seeing it in every aspect a lot. So, in the mortgage side, I know a lot of the mortgage brokers are hurting right now, things have gotten a lot slower. Not as bad as for real estate agents. But folks, this isn’t that bad. In general, if this is your first shift, well, welcome. Welcome to it, take notes and learn a lot because the shifts are sometimes a blessing in disguise. At least they are for the entrepreneurs and the business owners. Because if you’ve been through one of these before, it’s the ones who last and the ones who start doing things differently through a shift are the ones who actually start grabbing market share, building their brands, and those are the ones who actually benefit the most. So if you’re hiding beneath a rock right now, because you’re worried about expenses, well, you’re doing exactly what we want you to do. Keep sitting there, don’t come out of that rock, stay in that closet. And we’re gonna be very worried you might want to get out of the closet by this conversation. But I wanted to bring on a very well rounded guests that I coincidentally met last week over in the wonderful city of Kansas City. I’m still trying to lose the 10 pounds I gained from the barbecue a couple of days Jesus, but he’s pretty well rounded guys. He’s broker donor. His office is doing over 100 deals a month. He has a title company or mortgage company. I mean, and he’s could see everything he’s been here before he’s he understands the shift. And if you want to take notes on anything, you’re gonna take notes from this guy. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our guests. Mr. Phil. Duke. What’s up, dude?
Yeah, man, I’m excited about this. Certainly a hot topic in my arena. And hopefully we can share some nuggets that will help some folks through this time because there’s really nothing to be afraid about. So
yeah, I agree. Why don’t you tell everyone where you’re at? Who the hell are you? Give us a quick little brief rundown and I got all kinds of questions for you.
Yeah, so Phil do Jr. I’m in Northport, Alabama, most people don’t know where that is. But it’s west Central Alabama. Tuscaloosa, Alabama is on the other side of the river. From us here. That’s where the University of Alabama is. We’re pretty good football team for a couple years now. So we’re here in a relatively small market. And, you know, I was one of those people that got in the business. At at a time when the market was on fire back in Oh, six, everything was selling. And then oh, 708 happened. And unfortunately, I didn’t make it through that shift. And so I ended up joining the military and going back to school. And in 2015, I jumped back in the business as a part time agent and went from a part time agent to a top producing agent to a team leader to a broker owner to now having multiple location multiple states and a mortgage company and a title company. And so you know, a lot of things I learned along the way. And you know, I’ve been in one of these before, and I didn’t make it. So this is certainly something that I’m really looking forward to the challenge. And I know what I need to do this time because I didn’t do it the right way the first go around.
Yep. Well, I could guarantee you that your military experience discipline and all that has a lot to do with it today. Let’s start at the very beginning. Let’s tell everyone what you’re not going to do right now. Let’s start with that, like, what are you not going to do right now what I’m seeing is people are like, pulling back. They’re, they’re scared they’re in? They’re not doing anything. And that’s part of the problem. I mean,
yeah, I think I think one thing I’m definitely not doing is I’m not buying into the hype that we’re about to crash and everything’s gonna be over with. The reality of it is every single day, there’s buyers who are making offers on properties and the sellers are accepting them. And it’s going to be that way, no matter how good or how bad it ends up being. And so one thing that I learned, you know, along the way is that the markets always going to be good for somebody, it’s been really good for sellers the last couple of years, hasn’t really been very good for buyers. But it’s either going to be good for sellers or buyers or renters or investors. And so you know, more than ever, you’ve got to have a well rounded approach. Is it going to be bad for sellers? I mean, I don’t think so. If, if you’ve owned a property for more than two or three years, you’re probably sitting at 100 grand or more in equity in your property right now. And several years ago, we used to go out on a listing appointment and just hope that there was enough equity that they could pay us a commission to be able to sell that house. So if if unemployment does go up, and people start moving to areas where cost of living is down, and they need to sell, they’ve got equity in their houses right now that they didn’t have in oh eight and oh nine and 2010. You know, the same buyers that have been complaining about lack of inventory and bidding wars, they’re now able to get in houses, yeah, at a higher interest rate. But there’s not as much competition out there right now. And then, for us, you know, really gearing up going back into buying rental properties. You know, we really haven’t tried going after investors, because it’s been tough for investors out there, I think, we’re going to have a lot of a lot of accidental investors that may be paid top of market value and bidding wars, and they’re going to find themselves transferring to a new city to a new job. And even if they don’t want to be a landlord, they’re gonna need somebody to manage that rental property. So we’re even gearing up to kind of shift that direction too. So. So we’re going to pivot, and it’s going to be good for somebody, and we’re just going to adapt. And we’re also going to mark it more as a big thing we’ve been talking with our agents about, if there’s going to be less sales done it make more sense to mark it harder to get a piece of those lesser amount of sales. So you know, those who market and have a clear message and who have a pipeline full of leads and appointments and people to follow up on are gonna win might be more time in the office, you know, prospecting and following up and less time after their own appointments. But if that’s what we got to do this, what we got to do
crazy that like, a lot of this is a it’s a lot of it’s like, just shift in mindset. But I’ve never realized why all the buyers like to buy when everyone’s buying because that’s usually the worst time to buy in hindsight. But then, and that’s just a quick, easy shift, you know, that folks can have and you have to know how to, let’s unpack a couple of the things he just mentioned. And these are a couple of really, I think, really good tip just to sort of unpack that because everyone’s going to ask the same questions. And they’re at getting asked this, Phil, hey, well, I’m just gonna hold off a little bit because, like, holy shit, did you see the fucking news? Like, wouldn’t you hold off right now? You know, you can easily reverse the way you answer that question be like, Well, that’s exactly why some of the smartest people are actually buying right now. Like, it’s weird that everyone wants to buy when everyone else is buying, but when no one buying when no one’s buying, that’s actually the time you do want to buy because there’s gonna be a lot of motivated sellers. So I’m not saying you buy anything, but I’m saying you do buy the right deal. That’s a different pitch. People are like, what, huh?
Yeah, or, you know, the thing that I would return to that person with is, how do you how do you determine if something is a good deal? Or not? You know, is it a good deal? Because it’s been sent on the market for 60 days, and nobody’s written an offer? Is it a good deal? Because 10 People wrote an offer within 24 hours? I mean, how do you determine what’s really a good deal, and I would also encourage anybody who’s in that buying window, whether they’re an investor or just, you know, buying something personally, don’t you wish you would have bought five years ago with those prices? And I bet we’re gonna be saying the same thing five years from today is when the economy is going to continue cranking out, I mean, you know, billions and billions of dollars of stimulus, just, you know, going through through through the house right now, it’s gonna be more and more inflation prices are going to continue to go up on everything. So I’d rather get in on it now at today’s prices with less competition, then a year from now, two years from now, five years from now. And then understanding also what to do with that money you’ve got, whether that’s, you know, doing a cash out refi to purchase a second property and leverage that property to build wealth. I mean, there’s just all kinds of opportunities out there in the market right now, if you know how to play the game.
He also said a couple other things, guys, if you got that. Property Management, yeah, there’s gonna be some annex accidental downloads and where you’re out in the country is going to be a little bit different. In our market, there’s been a lot of accidental landlords, if you bought in the last two years, you’re already down 20% 13%. But that’s normal for a very overinflated market. Much of rich people problems out here, right, Crimea River, everybody. But I want you to hear what he said is that, like, it’s true, like, you gotta adapt your services. He’s talking about getting a property management company, because if he doesn’t do that, what’s going to happen is he has a chance to lose touch with the seller of that property with an agent who does and then who’s going to get the listing when the time does come, right. So you got to start fishing upstream for that. Back in the crash short sales was our thing. properties don’t stop getting transferred. However, the way people transfer them is what changes and if you don’t defer enchant your message right now you can miss out on that. Another thing that we have to unpack them all for this market more. I’ve seen people that’s used to spend a lot of money on lead generation like teams like some of these big teams, you see these teams that are just crushing it. Well, I’m like, Dude, you’re spending 100 grand a month you better fucking be crushing it on leads on buying leads and opt ins like if you’re not fucking crushing it, you spend 100 grand a month like dude, you should be crushing it, you know, I mean, and I’m like, what? I don’t get it. But I’ve also seen those very teams win the shift. happens because the ROI is change on those numbers, folks, you cannot calculate when there’s a market shift like this, the one thing you can’t calculate is what your lead generation was doing the month prior. And therefore, because those numbers are going to change, just a little blip in consumer sentiment will fuck that up. And you could be a month or two away from losing hundreds of 1000s of dollars. But you said market more. And you’re right, I think you if anything in a shift, I do pull back on lead generation stuff, because I don’t know what that market or those numbers are doing yet. I can’t accurately take an ROI. But the one ROI that is always going to prove to be true is the one that comes from your past clients, friends, family and aunts and uncles. Market more market more get louder when everyone retreats. Talk to me a little bit more about that.
Yeah, I mean, so that’s a big thing that we’ve been talking with our agents, you know, our our business model within our brokerage is we don’t spend money on leads for our agents. But what we do do is we help them put together a marketing strategy, and they’ve got to do the work. So this is what it looks like in our company. Tuesday mornings, every other Tuesday morning, we do a 6am. Okay, I didn’t say that wrong 6am Video Chat, where we’re walking them through what content to create, how to post it as a Facebook ad how to retarget the same people over and over and over. And you know, it only the truly committed show up for that. I mean, it takes a little bit of extra effort for a real estate professional to get up that early in the morning, hop on a video chat. And we just do it for 30 minutes. But they’re out there on a weekly basis, creating video content. And we’re specifically targeting people in the local area where they work and to their sphere of influence. A lot of people don’t know this, but you can take your phone, your contacts list in your phone, you can download that into a spreadsheet, and you can upload that spreadsheet into Facebook Ads Manager, and you can target to people who are already in your phone as contacts. So think about your your sphere of influence whether you got 300 people, 500 people, 1000 people in your phone. And every time they log into Facebook, only those people are seeing your video content over and over and over. And we’re not we’re not preaching doom and gloom, we’re not preaching, you know, date the right marry the house. Yeah, I mean, we’re, we’re just going to keep plugging forward, it’s going to keep being good for somebody. And we’re just going to keep that message out there. So, so I think these are things again, you know, it’s been, I hate to ever say it’s a good thing when the market goes down a little bit. But I have seen a greater separation, even within my group of agents between the ones that really want to make it through this. And the ones who are just going to continue, you know, struggling a little bit, it’s really the committed people, I’ve started rising to the top. And a lot of them their business is better right now than it was six months ago. You know, because they’ve just stayed committed to it. So I think those are just a couple of ways that we’re working on doing it. You know, video CMAs still our number one way of generating listing appointments, we just created a really simple video with little screenshare video, where we like pull up the tax records. And hey, Mike, Phil here with first class real estate, looks like you bought your house for 150 back in 2018. And, and I just want to show you the last three houses that sold in your neighborhood. And here’s one for 240. And here’s one for 250. And here’s one for 260. And then you’re probably not looking to sell right now, but just wanted you to know that, you know, if you were to need to sell right now, even with the way the market is, and it’s not that well, not as bad here as it is in other areas, your house will be worth somewhere between 240 and 260. So again, like we’re not waiting on them to click a home evaluation landing page to ask for that report. We’re just sending it to them whether they wanted it or not. And we put that into a YouTube, I can unlisted video on YouTube, we, we text that out to the husband or wife whoever’s, you know, living in that house. And there we go every six months, you know, we’re touching people in our sphere of influence, just by letting them know what their house is worth. And in a down economy, you know, there’s probably people right now that pay too much for a car as well. I have a lot of friends that pay too much for a camper. They’ve never camped before in their life, but they bought a $40,000 camper they’ve used three times, they’re gonna need to pay some of that debt off. So they might not have planned on selling, but they’ve got 100 grand and equity in their house right now they can still sell that house and they can pay off that camper. So people are going to continue needing you know, real estate and I think it’s just always gonna win for somebody. We just got to continue trying to find those people who who are seriously needing to buy or sell something and they’ll always be there.
So I just want you to help sell my stuff a little bit here. So why video though? Like why why video doesn’t work? I thought.
Yeah, I mean video is the game changer. You know? You can only be I mean even if you were going to come in on, you know today, today’s a Monday, if you were to come in on Monday Ain’t crank crank out, you know, cold calls for eight hours, there’s only so many people you can talk to in an eight hour period. And, and less and less people are even answering the phones anymore. I mean all these robo calls and spam and all that kind of stuff, but you record one video a week, and you put that in a $5 a day ad on Facebook, and you’ve got video playing for you constantly. You too, you know, the kind of an area where I’m spending more of my time on people looking to relocate to your area, want to know what it’s like to live there. And Zillow can’t tell them the best place to walk their dog, or the best park or the best. I’m doing a video this week, the top five boat ramps in Tuscaloosa, people who who have boats they’re looking there, we have a lot of lakes and rivers around here. Outdoor recreation is a big thing here. This is located tell him that but we can in video? And does it take some time to plan it out? script it out? Edit it? Yes, it does. But that video can be creating leads for you and can be in front of people 24/7 365 So I really can’t think of a more valuable tool than that. Yeah, you can do it with a Facebook ad. And it’s okay to have your picture on there and, and have a you know, picture of your business card or whatever. But video just connects on so much of a deeper level. And that’s what people want to see. When I’m when I’m looking up how to do something. I’m on YouTube and YouTube as my number one go to. So, you know, we need to take those same same approaches to what we do in the real estate world.
Agreed. And we’ll take a 15 second commercial break here. You know, you could get your video scripted, edited and distributed at real estate marketing do.com We will help you tell you what to say. We’ll be in the room with you. And then we even help you distribute it whether you want to run ads put into your YouTube channel, whatever it is, it is you don’t need more leads. You need more dudes back to our regular message. I love he said this is so funny. Like please never say date the right marry the house guys like I’m gonna shoot someone if they say that again. Like I can’t stand that I hate it. I hate it data rate, marry the house dude, shoot the messenger. Don’t copy that, like, stop. I hate it. I was so annoying. So when I saw that stuff, most people even what that meant, like consumers, by the way, only, like the real estate industry knew what they meant a lot of people didn’t understand that. But that thing went viral. And that’s so funny. So that folks, great videos, it’s more impactful. So most impactful way to communicate. 90% of communication is done through tonality and body language, which can only be done through video. That’s why people don’t get you out of your head. And if you farm them with video content, they’ll start associating your name with whatever your name is associated with that simple farm with friends and family and Facebook friends. What talk to me about the mortgage side? And what’s going on there. Because we all learn a lot there’s that I listen to the shows Well, and what should they be doing right now? What do you what do you guys do it?
Well, to be honest with you, I mean, it’s this very similar. I mean, that’s a great thing about being in the industry I’m in is the same things we’re doing our real estate company, is exactly what we’re doing for our mortgage business as well. You know, mortgage professionals have been able to get away with just showing up at sales meetings dropping off though nuts. Commenting on Facebook, you know, how awesome that new vehicle was that she bought, or how pretty the view is at the beach. And when you’re on vacation, and, and, you know, mortgage applications are down. And so you know, what we’re doing with our mortgage business very similar. On the real estate side of things is we are creating video funnels, and we’re generating our own buyers, and not just depending on real estate agents to provide us with ready, willing and able able buyer applicants. So has it slowed down? Yes, it has, you know, but again, you know, we can just sit around and wait and hope that it changes and, and keep waiting on referrals to come in from agents or we can go out there and hunt our own business down. And when we get that business, we get a good approval that comes through and we got an applicant that’s ready to go. Well, now we can figure out which agent we want to send that person to. And we can kind of pick and choose which which agents we want to work with. And we like working with agents that are doing the same kind of stuff we are. I think our agents like working with mortgage lenders who are also out there generating their own leads as well. Not just waiting on a handout from one of the agents. I mean,
the mortgage empires where they just take take take take take like hey, got leads for me. Hey, by the way, I got tickets for a Cubs game tonight because you want to roll. Yeah.
Yeah, that’s honestly I mean, to be honest, that’s the main reason why I wanted to get in the mortgage business because I was like, as real estate professionals, we’re the ones doing all the hard work now. Now that I’m in it, you know, there is more that goes on behind the scenes, obviously. But if you can generate the leads, you can figure out the processing and the underwriting and the closing and the font all that kind of stuff.
same marketing plan as a real estate agent.
Yeah, it’s exactly the same. You know, you know, it’s exactly the same marketing, you can literally do the same message, you know, our marketing that has anything to do with REITs that have anything to do with what’s going on the economy, you know, you know, we put out a view magnet video, you know, top five reasons to live in whatever town we want to do. And then just a couple tips that are going to help them throughout their mortgage process. And then you know, you know, hey, click here to see which loan programs you might qualify for. Really, really simple. It’s just mind blowing to me that, that, that so many in the mortgage business are just waiting on agents to just send them a referral, and not going out and generate their own business, you know, they got hundreds of applicants that have applied, but they’re not taking time to go through that database and see, you know, who might be ready right now, who who did end up by retargeting that database. And so those are the kind of things that I think, are going to have to become a normal part of any mortgage lenders arsenal. And we’re lucky here that we know how to do it on the on the real estate side of things. So we’re just doing the exact same thing with our lending team.
And your market to my guess is that, and I’m not saying anything about the South. Right. Not, I’m not saying anything about the South, but I think you’re pretty technologically advanced for the South. Yeah,
I would agree. Yeah. It’s, uh, you know, we have, we have people in our area that, that that requests for us to come by and show them how to do things, just just setting up their CRM, just basic stuff like that, that you would think is just normal, everyday, people would just know how to do it if they’re in the mortgage business or in the real estate business. But yeah, we’re taking you know, everybody else, you know, people around town, there’s still spending 2500 hours a month per billboard,
you’re spending five bucks a day on ads to get the same results.
Yeah, we’re spending $140 in a month, getting the same results is what’s taking them five grand a month with two billboards that they can’t even track and verify where those leads came from. So it is just kind of mind blowing to me. So I would just say, you know, to anybody that’s listening to this watching watching this, you know, those who learn how to market, particularly digitally market video marketing, you’re gonna win in this market that everybody else is gonna get left behind, it’s going to be extremely expensive for them to continue marketing the way they are. And so if you will commit to learn in this digital marketing, this video marketing way of doing business, number one, you’re gonna save money right away, but you’re also gonna get probably a better result than those who are spending far more, and they’re not gonna be able to spend that much and what happens when the billboards go away? Will they remember you six months from now? If you’re not on a billboard anymore? I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think we forget them. Now, videos playing every week. You know, one one video a week can change the game for you doesn’t have to be, you know, if you can do one video a day, that’d be great. That’d be something to work toward. But if you’re kind of new at this, you’re kind of looking for something to do. one video a week in a Facebook campaign can really be a game changer for you.
It’s just a popularity contest. You guys like let’s not overthink it to video. How do you do this blah, blah, don’t don’t worry about the logistics, the popularity contest, someone who does more content more video than someone who doesn’t is just got a lot more attention than they do. And then a certain percentage of the people who give that person their attention, need your services, it’s this is all this is. But you have to remain top of mind. We’re really talking about his brand. The end of the day, your brand is only as large as the number of people that recall it are associated with your line of work, right? So consistently communicate through video, that’s all that’s just one thing. But regardless of whether you’re going to learn to run Facebook ads, or do a video, whatever it is, you got to do something because everyone’s holding back. This is the bet the time the domain. At least for me, I need to get your opinion on this. But the main thing is when you get a market like this and everyone everyone pulls back, so then you just have that much more attention. And you I could tell you straight up, there’s a lot of people pulling back. And that means is a lot less people running ads. That means there’s a lot less people doing videos, that means there’s a lot less people making noise. And when you you won’t see it, maybe instantly, but it’ll come back to you within the next six months. And I think that’s a lot of the risk. Think back at COVID. You remember the people and COVID one of the guys that I was on stage with us, I believe he started in COVID. Right? That’s when he started as tiktoks and all that because he didn’t know what else to do. Now he could have he could have sat there and did nothing but he took time because he knows how to start shooting videos and now he’s got like a million followers or some shit now on Tik Tok and he’s crushing it. Yeah, you got to show up man.
Yeah, it does not do you any good to sit there and do nothing. I mean, do something, you know. And right now, it’s pretty clear to almost everybody out there in the real estate industry right now that video Oh, is where it’s at. So we’ve all got these wonderful cameras in our pockets. You know, I mean, this is, you know, nothing fancy, just iPhone 13. But the camera on this thing is far superior than anything we had five years ago. So just you know, with a, with a selfie stick, and, you know, either a shotgun mic or a wireless clip on mic, you can make really, really good videos that people will be entertained by. And you can become the local real estate celebrity, the local mayor of your town. And if you do that, you’re gonna win. And it’s pretty simple formula. But it does take some planning, it does take some commitment. And ultimately, you know, that is, that’s really the big thing that’s going to decide who makes it and who doesn’t in this market, the truly committed are going to adapt, they’re going to figure out a way to do it, they’re going to do the things they know they already need to be doing. And they’re just going to be committed to do it. And they’re going to come out on the other side of this thing, really, really in a good position. And then when the market does shift, they’ll have all these huge follower base that already knows likes them and trust them because they built up this video viewer audience, and then life is going to be even better for them at that point, I believe.
Yep. Always in the audience. You hit it right on the dot. Love it, man, you got any final end or closing thoughts that you want to give to everybody.
And I would just say you know it, the markets always gonna be good for somebody, it’s either gonna be good for buyer’s or seller’s or renters or investors. So real estate is going to continue to change hands. You know, if somebody’s property went up 100 grand in value in the last two years, and even if it went down by $20,000, they’re still sitting at $80,000 equity. So you know, don’t buy into the the sky is falling, you know, date the rate, marry the house, I mean, let’s speak about what people actually care about. And if you do those kinds of things, and you focus on those things, you’re gonna win and let everybody else you know, you know, complain about you know, the economy and inflation and interest rates and all these kind of things. Just keep your head down, keep doing what you need to do. I’m betting if you’re listening to this watching this, you probably already have a good idea of what you need to be doing what you’ve been needing to do, but maybe you hadn’t didn’t need to do it during the market the way that it was the last two or three years. Just do the things you already know you need to do if you do those things, you’re probably going to be very successful.
Yep, love it man. Just don’t freeze whatever you do. Just freeze remember the closet agent is still the closet agent at the end of the day. So thank you guys for listening other absolute real estate marketing dude folks script that distribute your videos if you’re really struggling with this, not only we do it less expensive in your market but we’ll do a bigger better and better than anyone you probably hire locally because all I do I speak eat bleed video consecration for you. So reach us on our website, real estate marketing do.com and connect with us on our channels. Again, thank you for listening. Thank you for downloading. We appreciate each and every one of you. And we’ll see you guys on next week’s podcast peace. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
I think we need to go back to the basics and I got a really cool story. Last week I was at an event in Kansas City and met a lot of cool people, including my new friend, Andres Bustamante, who is killing it. He’s got a killer story about how he started real estate in college and over game a lot of adversity, and now he is a realtor for a professional soccer player. Check out his website and his Tik Tok and Instagram accounts; andresbustatx.
Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode
How at 19, Andres helped college students as a leasing realtor.
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast, what we’re gonna be chatting about today are I think we need to go back to the basics. And I got a really cool story. I was in Kansas City. Last week doing an event, met a bunch of cool people were things I like about doing these events. And one of them, this guy, this kid, guy, kid, whatever you want to call him. He’s a young realtor. But he’s a killer reminds me a lot of myself. When I started not only are we both Hispanic male. But we hustlers you know, and we both started real estate at a very, very early age. And when you start real estate, just like right out of college, and none of your friends are people, you know, I’ve actually owned or bought a product before, it can be intimidating. I know how I overcame it, he’s got a really killer story, and how he overcame it. But what we’re gonna do is share his story because today, he’s 26 years old, and he is the realtor of a professional soccer team in his market, and he’s crushing it at 26 years old. And this is a relationship based business you guys regardless of what the hell you say, if people like you, they will use you. That’s what it comes down to. But to be like you have to be trusted. So without further ado, we’re gonna go ahead and introduce our guests. He’s going to share his story exactly how he landed this account, where he started the trials, the journeys, and all of the above. And a lot of you guys are going to relate to this. So take notes and pay attention. Without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our guests. Mr. Andres Bosa monk dead and I say, Hey, you
got it, Mike. Thank you, brother.
Why don’t you tell everybody? Who the hell are you? Where are you from? And I got a whole kinds of questions for you.
Perfect. I’m from El Paso, Texas. And really, the real estate side started when I was 19. I just got into the University of Texas at Austin, go Longhorns. And I needed to find a way to pay for college because I didn’t want my parents to pay for college. And I really want it to be like independent from any of that having to rely on someone. I wasn’t going to do an eight to five though I did not like having a boss. Sure. So what better way to make my own schedule and make as much money as possible. Then real estate. I got my license at 19. I started doing leasing, which is when I would find apartments for students. There were a ton of students, I was a part of a lot of groups, I’d find apartments and those apartments would pay me because I brought people over. That’s how I got my foot in the door on the real estate side. My mindset was really look, I’m just going to do leasing. I’m not like worthy of being able to make a sale or any of that sort. Why would people trust a 19 year old? That’s in college? Yeah. Then when I was 21, I had two years of experience under my belt, I got a call from someone that’s like, Hey, I’m this and they’ll let me know that you can help with real estate. And he tells me right away my budgets 1 million to 3 million I said holy shit in my head right away. What started in my head was like, this is not going to happen. I’m not going to be able to close. I’ll just throw it to someone else. I just told them Yeah, I know exactly what to find. And I hung up and I was like I got nervous I was what the hell am I going to do? The thing with that limited mindset and I partnered with one of the best agents that have just giving it to him I said I’m going to learn as much as possible. And you’re going to take care of like handling the transaction with the other realtors Isn’t that all take care of the relationship building. Long story short, we sold a $1.1 million condo and then after that you think okay, I’m this No, no knows a lot about real estate and this and that. But in my head, I would get more clients from referrals from him. But my subconscious mind said no, I can’t do this. You just got a one shot at this and you got it and that’s that. So I didn’t really make any other sales. I kept doing leasing. You know, that was my whole college. I was able to pay for college through leasing. But I only did that one sale, even though I had a ton of opportunities. It was a mindset that really got to me at that time.
So good. I agree. I had similar situation. First of all, congratulations for putting yourself through college. That’s impressive. This is this is this is what the Mexican population breeds right here. Okay, guys, we work hard, right? And this is very simple, right? That that same philosophy is instilled in me as a kid. And if you work hard, it’s going to happen. I don’t know when I don’t know how long it’s gonna take. I don’t know the trials are gonna go through. But if you keep your head down and you keep going forward, it’s going to fucking happen. Okay, so let’s go through Whoo, that’s 19 years old love it. Most people, if you’re listening to this, you’re on the treadmill and you’re young, like, do I think I should get into real estate? Should I not get into real estate? What should I do? Or this is equivalent to you could be 35 years old and go into your first listing presentation, you’re gonna have the damn same for the same reservations as we both had, we first did it. Andres just tells you didn’t have the confidence to go out there. And it’s true. If you don’t sell houses, like, you’re gonna get a million dollar house. You’re like, bro, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. But those people are calling you because they like you. You have a relationship with them. And you learn like I did not go to my first listing presentation because I was scared shitless I went to my first listing presentation. Yes, I didn’t sleep the night before. But I went in there and I didn’t get it. But I got the next one because I wasn’t scared to go ahead and put my head down and just see what happens. And this entire business is mindset. I agree. It’s can this has a lot of ups and downs like peaks and valleys of real estate’s very easy to get burnt out, isn’t it?
Oh, yeah, my gosh, I remember just all the leasing, leasing is the best way to get your foot in the door, because it’s lower stress. And a lot of people don’t take that into account. They want to go all by right away by right away. That leasing is probably the best way because it’s less stress. You have conversations with property managers, you get to see contracts, the Apartment Association contracts, and then these people eventually will become buyers. Most of them are they know people, like the person I helped lease. She leased a $900 a month apartment. She knew someone that was going to buy a million to a $3 million. Condo, yes, huge referral, and it’s a warm lead. It’s not a cold where you’re cold calling, right? Yeah, that’s the beauty of real estate.
Here’s the beauty what he just said, folks, there’s so many times that I’ll give you a really good story. You are always focused on the relationship. So many agents will go out there and be like, Hey, dude, well, you know, a $900 rental what I’m going to make $450. And I’m going to split half of that with my brokerage, I would pay $250, I would pay $250 for the relationship because everyone lives somewhere in 10 to 15% of the population will move this year, but what 100% of them have a referral for you. And when you’re playing the long game in this business, it’s not about spiking the football, when you get paid the commission check you spike the football when you get your first referral or source of business from the one person you sold seven years ago. That’s the long game in this business.
And a lot of a lot of people, it’s pretty interesting. A lot of people see it just transaction wise. Yeah, what does that person bring you and there’s a big dollar amount to what that relationship will bring. It’s a big misconception or like you were saying, Oh, it’s just a $500 check and this and that. What does it bring you in the long run because those relationships are so crucial to nurture on that it can be a hundredfold exponential, to what it will bring.
So there is a back in the short sale days, I had a similar situation, very similar to this. And we used to do a ton of short sales like 3025 35 a month. So we were the number one team not only in Chicago, but in the country. And so we’d get a lot of referrals right and I get a referral from a good friend of mine. That was his old roommate. And this referral ended up being a $15,000 short sale on the south side of Chicago. Have you guys watched the fucking news lately? All right, it hasn’t changed. Okay. Southside Chicago, this is the hood. $18,000 Short Sale. Okay. Mind you a short sale take 90 120 days i We negotiated over $200,000 a debt. It was a tough deal to get done. But we still got it done. We lost money doing the deal. Okay, we made at the end of the day, you had a short sale negotiator to pay. And what do you what do you think 6% 3% on $15,000? How much is that it’s probably like $900 is our commission check half went to our agent. The other half went to the brokerage I think we walked away with a net of 150 bucks. So we lost money on the deal. But why we took it on was because I don’t believe I believe it’s our job to serve others first and foremost. And sometimes you won’t make as much money off of a transaction. But this has happened several times over the course of my career. Three days after the closing, the same seller calls us he failed to tell me that he owned three other properties throughout the time, because he just wanted to get this one off his hair. And right when we close two days, he’s like, Hey, Mike, I want to tell you about this. But yeah, I got a $400,000 condo and Bucktown I got a $2,000 condo up there. And then I got another $300,000 condo up here. Not only did we list those, and none of them were shorts, so they’re easy deals. It’s just a regular transaction. Once you do a ton of short sales, you do regular transaction, you’re like this fucking piece of cake. And so what ended up happening was and then not only that, not only to give us those listings, but he became my number one referral source for the next 12 months and he won our award that year. You guys you don’t behind every sale there’s another transaction and the people that you help in the times that no one else will help them are remembered for the long haul. And that person becomes part of your sales force just like it happened in the story. I just told you just like it just happened and Andres story if You serve people, right? They will return to you. And it’s no differently if you go to a good restaurant or you go back. Yeah, of course not a service. Yeah, if you if you go to a restaurant and then you find a hair and your food, you go back. So agents could fucking put hair on your food and your services and quit being shady. serve everyone the same way quit discriminating over purchase price. I can’t stand that’s the biggest. I hate that when an agent says that. Another one. I’m not showing that house. They’re only offering two and a half percent. I want three. Oh, I actually, if you do that, like stop doing that.
I never look at what anyone offers. Here. Yeah, I’m just like, I’ll just whatever. Yeah, you know. And then it’s how you make people feel. I know you talked about that. It’s so important. How do you make someone feel you know what you do for them? Okay, obviously, that’s important. How do you make them feel?
That’s all they remember. At the end of the day? Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Alright, so you started off in leasing. I like that you probably learned a lot of the landscape, the streets, the back rallies. And, you know, remember, we were selling real estate guys, we’re not selling the freaking houses that we saw the community those houses resided, okay, if you don’t know the community, you’re not going to be good at your job. You don’t need to know the process of real estate that’ll come to you. But you do need to be an expert in your community first, and as long as you can position yourself that way. Everyone will think you’re an expert.
1%
what happened? Let’s get out. You get out of college. And you’re like, What do you major in
international business? I don’t use that at all. My minor. Yeah. I don’t use any of what I majored in. And to tell you the truth, I didn’t really learn much from it.
When I went to college, I learned how to like, do my laundry interact with people of different races and all this stuff, socialize, and I learned how to generate relationships, which is the best skill I ever learned. What I didn’t use was the Boolean class. The wine class, I took a class on frickin geography and weather. I’m like, Dude, you think?
I always thought that was hilarious. Yeah. And I actually talked to my dad yesterday about it. And it’s crazy how we’re both from Mexican backgrounds. But one thing that is very relevant is money is bad. That I was ingrained with that. Now, obviously, I don’t think that but I remember every time Oh, that guy’s rich and Spanish. Bad that. No, that’s not good. The second one, I talked to my dad about this yesterday. And he was like, You should go back to college. And I think college really helped you? Yes. It helped me rebuild relationships become more street smart. But it was like, I told him I didn’t really need College, though, outside of that, and he was like you did trust me. So it’s funny how. It’s way. It’s still different, you know?
Yeah, comes back tenfold. But you didn’t plan on going into real estate, right?
No, I did. And I just needed to find a means to pay for college. And then not having a boss and on my own time,
and when you graduated, what happened? And then how did you transition into and you’re like, dude, I’m gonna do this like full time. This is dope.
I graduated with a lot of uncertainty. I had a full time offer for JLL. And that was my dream quote, unquote, job.
What’s jaoa dol is
Jones Lang LaSalle. It’s one of the biggest commercial real estate apart from CBRE commercial real estate firms. And I had interned with them. Ever since I was a junior. I was like, this is the job I want. But I started reading about mindset books. I read The Power of Now the Miracle Morning, started looking to bigger pockets. And when I graduated college JLL was like we want you to work for us eight to five financial analyst in Houston. Apart from the shitty weather in Houston, I was like, I don’t want to do the eight to five. And I told my parents I’m not going to accept the offer. They were like, are you crazy? You’ve been working two years for this. Me dual stay and
sent you to college. You’re the first.
Yeah, I was like, Oh, shit. So legit. That’s what they told me. And I had a lot of uncertainty. All of my friends were doing eight to five. Nobody else was doing real estate. So I think I read The Power of Now in one day. I was like, Screw it. Fuck what everyone else is doing. Like I don’t want to do that. I’m going to stick to real estate. I stayed with the leasing company. I moved to Austin. I only made one sale. It’s like okay, maybe I keep doing leasing, leasing, after college. If you already have experience, it can get pretty stressful. So I did four months of that. Then I said I need to find a mentor. I need to join another team and stick to sales. Because I hadn’t made any other sale from the time I had graduated. That’s seven months. Listen to a bigger pockets episode do of course it was on that episode. And he said if anyone’s in Austin, hit me up, immediately send them a message. And he said Hey, call me back next week because you got to level those calls out. That’s how you’d bet people call them back the next week we meet up a month later I joined his team and then that’s when it started picking up first month I made a sale, that it took six months to make another sale. But then I started making sales, maybe two that year, like two per month or three per month, as a first year full time. It will take a while man took a while. Yeah,
this is it’s, you know, like there’s a reason why 87% agent’s failed or five years, it’s most of them come into it thinking it’s a sales job, but it’s not. If you’re an entrepreneur, and you’re building a business, even though you might be at a brokerage or part of a team. Ultimately, you’re still an entrepreneur and no one. Like regardless if you join a brokerage or join a team, the worst thing you could do for any of them is make them money. And it’s also the best thing you can do for him. There’s really no lie extra liability to have you on a team because you’re 100% Commission, right? So yeah, you gotta sweat, you got to put in the work. I it took me two and a half years to make real estate marketing to profitable. Right, and we’re on your three, this is a fucking grind goes. Like this is any business as a grind, right?
Oh, yeah. And it was Dude, it was probably relate with that. You’re like, oh, shit, so much uncertainty. But I did have my own time. And I didn’t have a boss. And I knew I knew. And I know I’m going to be very successful. Because I’m putting myself in that alignment. Even though it takes time. I was just like certain of it. And I would do my miracle morning routine. And I was like, Dude, I’m going to be successful. One thing a lot of people have to realize as well about real estate is that our job is threefold. We’re storytellers, which is so crucial. Problem solvers. And we’re educators. Those are the three things I tell any new agent, it’s like, Dude, you have to be great, or start learning how to become great at those things.
Yep. Yeah, the the expertise in running comps and all that no one cares. Like you do that after you get hired, but you don’t get hired unless you have those first three first 100%, you know, and people expect you to be good at that being really good at running comps, or knowing your market doesn’t earn you the deal. The relationship does every time. So I’m here to do tell me. You landed Oh, real quick. Where was that business coming from?
My my business was sphere of influence. The first ones 100%. Yeah. From UT Austin from people that knew me and trusted me. The real business I started get was when I bought bought a home myself and told my story, because I had, I knew I was going to target I knew what my target audience was was house hackers, people that just graduated, that think you have to put 20% down meaning that they’re not educated, that are thinking that they’re going to rent for a long run, people that aren’t educated and with those things, that’s my target audience. And how, what is the best way to get out your target audience and help them by doing it yourself? So I bought a house, I lived in it for free. I had a lot of uncertainty. Can I buy a house? Can I afford it? Are there ways to do this? I just graduated college What the hell’s where am I going to find the money? So I put that story out there. And a long post on Instagram shared my story made it as relatable as possible to the audience. Facts tell story sell. And I didn’t know what to say, Oh, I close know what’s the story behind it told that story. And then that’s when I felt a big pickup. People are like holy shit on this. You did this. I’m not the same position, I can do it. That’s when it really started to pick up. It’s great
to businesses right in front of you guys. And it’s not even that you are relatable. Like your IG friends are just like you, your Facebook friends, they’re just like you and you attract like people. So in 10 years from now, whatever story you’re telling, I guarantee they’re going to be people around your age. People always ask me this question, Mike, I want to sell luxury listings. Well go start hanging out with a bunch of people that own a bunch of expensive s houses. That’s how you start. You have to put yourself in that room. I don’t meet on dress. He’s 26 years old. He’s flying around the country doing events and speaking and stuff. Because he put himself in that room. I don’t meet Andres last week, if he doesn’t put himself in that room. How did Andres get in that room? I believe you join a mastermind you probably invested into that mastermind. You put yourself around other people and you made these relationships. The truth is that most of you guys don’t have the balls to spend money and invest in yourself. That’s it. That’s the sad reality of this you guys. And if you’re not going to believe in yourself, I can promise you that no one else is going to believe in you either.
I can agree on 100% with that.
So we start rolling. You landed a big contract. Let’s get into that. Or big deal. Like you’re like the agent for the soccer team and whatnot. So walk us through the process. Awesome.
The process started when I was in college through doing leasing and meeting the Spanish dude that was friends with my roommate. He started following me on Instagram after he came over for like a week and we’re just hanging out partying, this and that college stuff. Sure. He followed me on Instagram and I post a lot of real estate stuff on Instagram. So All, whenever he thought about real estate I was top of mind even though he was in Spain, which is pretty insane like what the hell a dude from Spain. And one of his really good friends is was a coach for the Qatar national team soccer. That guy was moving to Austin, who was the first person he thought about with real estate me. So it was like undress. This coach from Qatar is moving to Austin to help with a new team. They had just they have just started two years ago, actually 2020. And I want you to help them just get to know the city, I did a great job of telling him about the whole city showing him around, I took a whole day off to show him around. That’s the beauty about being in real estate, you can take those days off, not really take a day off, but you have the luxury to do that. Show them around the whole city, I met the whole family, help them sign on a lease for an apartment was a lease for an apartment. So I knew all about the leasing lingo. And then from there just picked up he introduced me to the other coaches, then some of the players. And that’s how I started helping Austin FC with plenty of there. I think there’s one or two other agents, but they send me a lot of the business to me. I like it.
But look where that seed planted like, let’s just go back, because people want to get that that. Like, you tell someone Hey, I’m the agent of a professional team. Everyone wants that account. But not everyone’s willing to it didn’t you didn’t get it overnight. It wasn’t an accident. You got that? As a matter of fact, what most people would have probably have done is that the second that Coach told you he was leasing an apartment versus buying they probably would have stopped calling him back.
Yeah, that’s true. Actually. It took it took like, four or five days of touring. Sure, six to seven apartments per day. Oh, yeah, I remember that. So grind. When we found the apartment, the the wife actually started crying because she was so happy. That’s how crazy was it? I like it. Folks,
this isn’t theory we’re talking about when you start cementing your relationships, whether they’re renting, and they’re buying, it’s mathematical, because every three to five years in a city living or six to nine and suburban. They’re gonna move. And then what Andreas has said he’s done a great job reminding people on his social account of what he does, he’s probably not doing in a shady salesman, like type way, just probably storytelling on Instagram. And because of that he was top of mind when someone needed a referral. So people always ask, like, hey, how do you attract all this business? Well, I stay present. All right. And if you’re not present, or you’re out of sight, you’re what you’re out of mind. Right? So half of marketing and half of business is just even from the relationship actually, I would say it’s 90% of it. Yes. Staying active, nurturing the relationships infiltrating more creating more, because they all live somewhere? For sure, you know, it’s not like they’re gonna Where do you live in a box? Like who says they live in boxes? Or they’re a bomb? Right? Yeah, you can’t sell them a house. But you will eventually the average person buys three to five houses over the course of their lifetime.
And sometimes they don’t use the same realtor. Most of the times actually.
20 83% of people say they will use the same agent, but only 19 or 29% actually do. Yeah. And the reason for that is they forgot they forgot your number. Most times they forget their name. 80% of people forget their agents name after six months. That’s horrible. It’s horrible. Like, can you can you imagine? That’s like equivalent to the Ritz. You guys ever stayed at the Ritz before you go there? It’s a great it’s quite an experience. But it’s also quite an expensive experience. But everything’s catered to you like you go into the hotel room like Hey, Mr. Cuevas Bobo, they have a little note for you that you won’t forget. You don’t you don’t you don’t forget that. You go to the Holiday Inn across the street, don’t get any of that type of service.
I can assure you, any of my clients will never forget my name. I can assure you of that. Because I know the service that I provide with my team is just like top class. So yeah, it’s it’s pretty crazy. How eight 90%? Will I mean? Well, we’ll use the same Damn, that’s insane.
Yeah, I mean, think about it, like the second most Realtors the second you you transact you, you’re gone. You become best friends with this person because you’re you’re buying or selling. It’s an emotional process. Like you’re talking to these people every other day, right? You develop a friendship like I always ended up parting with my clients because that was sort of my style. And I go out we have dinner like a party like club style, but like go to dinner, have some wine, beer, whatever hanging out we became friends. Because I knew that if I became friends with them that all of them would refer me business a lot more likely than if I did it.
Once for sure. Yeah.
Where do you see the and how are you staying in front of now? Like walk us through your cadence in terms of staying in front of people? How are you doing it? I know you’re doing a lot on Instagram, but what’s your sort of methodology on this?
For birthdays I usually send like a video tailored to them and then I am also part of by referral only So it’s like monthly emails to the clients just reminding them and it’s like a little, little, it’s called a Monday, how Monday game something and then you can earn a prize if you participate. So you know, it’s like something fun. I don’t I didn’t want to do it a weekly I don’t, I don’t want to be the weekly this and that’s to two emails a month. One is on the first week of the first week of the month. And then the other one is like, it’s called the letter from the heart. And it just, it’s a gives like a story. Pretty, pretty awesome stories every month. So I’m part of by referral only. And then all of my Instagram, I usually post like three stories about what I’m doing. documenting my journey. It doesn’t have to be real estate, it can be playing soccer doing this and that because people don’t want to see just clothes just listed. I honestly hate when I see that. Yeah, I’m like, dude, what’s, what story behind it? What did you help accomplish? What were they thinking they could not do? So you’ll never see me posted just close unless it has a story behind it. And also document my journey. Like, what is it through inspection? What did I struggle with? big misconception is that people that just do disclose, they’re like they’re perfect. No, there’s as to be vulnerability so that people can also connect. Because it’s not it’s not. There’s never going to be a perfect transaction. Yep.
If you’re struggling share it.
Yeah, yeah. People love that. Probably all that stuff. Close stuff.
People are so scared to like, voice what’s really happening behind closed doors, being vulnerable is the number one thing you could do for anything in marketing. The more you can play people cry, the more they’ll remember you.
It’s social media, the emails that I send videos for birthdays or gifts for birthdays, events, we have several events a year. Definitely the Christmas parties. Those are a lot of fun.
Let’s do the events. Let’s go through that. Yes, how many and walk me through all those?
Well, some we do like boat parties in the summers and get like a big as boat. It’s a lot of fun. That’s when you really get to meet the clients better. It’s funny. And then Christmas parties. We invite all of our so like I said, I have a team, with my business partners of Well, I haven’t said that before, but 14 agents to office managers. And last year we did 20 and 50. We helped 256 families. Yeah, you’re crushing
weight. Are you the youngest guy on the team?
Yes. Really? Sure. Or we just hired one? I’m not sure. But I believe so. Or we’re the same age. The rest are like 3040 30. Exactly. Yeah. So I’m meant I’m a mentor to like, all those agents. So it’s pretty funny. And at first, that was one thing that really got in my head, I’m like, oh, shoot, what are they going to think and this and that, that I know what I can offer. So now I’m like, I’m totally fine with that. That before it was something that would get in my head,
probably. But why though, that’s just the way society paints the picture. You got to be older and you get wisdom. But that’s not necessarily true. If you’re 26, you could have way more experience than a 35 year old who just got a license, it doesn’t matter.
That’s so true. And I’m actually reading a book, The Four Agreements, but then the next book, it’s about attachments. And I knew that I had an non attachment agreement that I had with myself. And as create crazy when I found that I was writing down my agreements, then I was like, Oh, shit, I know that. My family will always tell me respect your elders. Yes, I will respect an elder. But in my head what I think that would mean and I would have translated it to anyone that’s older than you has more authority. And they’re always right. When I realized that I was like, holy shit. That’s what I delimiting Oh, my God. Yeah, I realized that that was a game. That was like, two months ago, actually. I just was astounded.
So most of the stuff like it seems like a lot of your mindset came from your own self education, whether you’re reading attending these masterminds and whatnot. Would you agree with that? Yes. Repeat those books that you suggest people can should read. Because if you guys aren’t, if you guys want some good reads like he just told you a story, everything that he’s been talking about as a result of what he read in there. And I think he just put it into action. Basically, the principles in there so you guys, the roadmaps always out there. Like, it’s not like, people are like, how am I gonna do it? How am I gonna do it? Well pick up a book, go join a team, follow someone who’s already doing it. But follow someone who’s been there before because there’s no reason why you want to try to create it all on your own. All you want to do is r&d and rip off. Put it in your own way.
Why reinvent the wheel, the book four agreements, mastery of self Power of Now Untethered Soul a Miracle Morning? Holy shit, incredible books, The Four Agreements, be impeccable with your word. Never assume. Don’t take anything personally and always do your best. It’s incredible. It’s such a game you
good? Any other? Final or closing thoughts? Like what? People we’re going through a shift right now. So, I mean, this is everyone’s gonna like, what do I do? What do I do? We’re gonna lose a bunch of agents in the next year. So, which is a good thing for those that are full time. But what should you were in a shift? She got the experience. So what are you going to do right now
I’ve started a cold call, I don’t need to cold call. But I’ve started it because it’s something that gets me out of my comfort zone. And I actually enjoy being able to better respond to objections on my feet. That’s so important as an agent being able to respond to objections on your feet, but I’m going to do is just hit Instagram harder as in putting more posts, I used to do a lot of stories and then a post maybe once or twice every three weeks, but now it’s going to be like twice or three times a week. And I need to get clear on that. And I will get clear on that after actually I met you I really liked all that you had to say. And I know it’s being intentional. So that’s one thing being very intentional on social media and tick tock tick tock is actually something that’s grown insanely, which is weird, but it Yeah, I recommend everyone get that. Then also, with my team, obviously having to do open houses, do all those things. sphere of influence will still be the biggest thing and referrals for me. So touching more more touches with my clients on referral basis, you know? Yeah, I assure you, if anyone calls people you know, you’ll have people that need help with buying or selling or they know people are assured, I surely call them.
The your Soi. Like the industry is horrible in general market st in front of Soi, but it’s the only recession proof marketing model there is because people are still going to move, you know, like, and when they do move, whether it’s a crash of 2007, or it’s going to be whatever happens in 2022 Here, there’s still gonna be life circumstances, some are gonna get sick, some are gonna die, they’re gonna lose their jobs, and we’re getting married, some are gonna have kids. And when those life changes happen, people will move despite what the market does. However, 80% of them are needed the first person they come into contact with, and if you’re not all over, you know, I don’t know what to tell you. I mean, they’re gonna probably cheat on you with another agent. You’re gonna log on to Facebook and see that Andreas here just so well, it’s not you. Yeah, and then you get mad at Andreas but don’t get mad at Andreas get mad at you because it’s not your networks job to remember what you do for a living but it is yours to remind them.
Take Extreme Ownership. Don’t be a little Bish.
I love it, dude. Any closing thoughts?
I would say if you’re a new agent, join a team. That’s the best way to learn as fast as possible. And as soon as possible. Have a morning routine. If you’re an independent contractor. It’s crazy. It’s a double edged sword. Read the Miracle Morning, meditate, do your routine. And that’ll definitely help you exponentially reach your goals. Write your goals down as well. So cliche everyone says that yes, I know. It works for a reason. And that’s why people that are crushing it do those things.
I need to get into the meditating game because everybody I follow and I look up to are meditators accepted. And I’m going to take your advice I’m going to my business partner has been like dude, I meditate every day. I’m like, what’s fucking when you meditate? Like you sit there and like, I don’t want to do that, man. I don’t have time. We got three kids running around. He’s like, No, you have to do it. You have to do it, Mike. So I’m gonna give a world is the
call nap. And the big thing about meditating you using your diaphragm to breathe. Don’t use your like lungs, don’t use your diaphragm. Breathe out through your mouth. It’s a game changer. Like very, very much so it’s helps a lot become present. Because there’s so much shit that goes on all the time in our lives. We’re in our head all the time. You need to calm those thoughts down. Yep.
I love it. Man. Why don’t you go ahead and give everybody your info again so they can follow you either on your IG channel to see exactly how you’re doing it. I highly recommend that guys. Or reach out to you if you guys have a referral that is in the Austin area, reach out to undress and his team and they could definitely take good care of you. Obviously they’re doing it right. And you want to make sure your clients are being taken care of and there’s a lot of people moving to Austin.
Yeah, just any questions feel free to DM me. My Instagram is Andres Boustead, TX and DRGs be usta Tx and that’s the same handle for tick tock, feel free to reach
out. Cool, man, we appreciate you dude. And we appreciate you guys listening to another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. You guys know where to find us if you need help scripting, editing and distributing your videos or you just need us to train your videographer because they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. We could do anything you want and there’s no doubt in my mind this is the number one stop if you’re going to create real estate content whether you need my consulting, training, editing distribution, I don’t care if you want to get on video I got your back and you need to visit our site at real estate marketing do.com real estate marketing dude.com visited take the content download subscribe this podcast visit me on my social handles I don’t care. Start making content start generating attention and you will start attracting clients and you’ll ditch chasing leads I promise you there’s a reason why it works for everything. No person. The only time it doesn’t is that people don’t like you and that’s nothing we can help you with. So, thank you for watching. See you guys next week peace. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Today we are talking about more marketing. And specifically we’re going to talk about how to personalize your marketing and lead generation because no one hires a robot and no one hires you unless they like you. So how the hell do you get more liked, more approachable, more personable, and more importantly, more authentic online?
Kevin Snow is the founder of Time On Target and has been called a sales expert and a technology geek (among other things) by different people over the years; but one thing is for sure…he knows how to help companies take their automation game to the next level
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started. What’s up, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to their soul to the real estate marketing podcast. So what we’re doing today, guess what we’re talking about more marketing. And specifically, this show, we’re going to talk about how to personalize your marketing and lead generation no one uses a robot in that one hires a robot and no one hires you unless they like you. So how the hell do you get more liked and more approachable, more personable, and more importantly, more authentic online? Well, so I get emails all the time from people all over the country. And the thing that got my attention here was that this dude’s a vet. And for me, that’s my soft spot, he got my attention by telling his story, not telling me what he was trying to sell to get on this show. And when we do book people on the show, it’s always because there’s a story behind them. And just for those of you they’re trying to get on here, so that you now know, if you don’t have a story, we’re not calling you back, if you have a story in there somewhere to share. And it has to do with your personal brand. That’s we’re all into. So without further ado, I want to go ahead and introduce our guests, Mr. Kevin snow. What’s up, Kevin?
Hey, Mike, thanks so much for having me on the show. I’m really excited to be here today.
Why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about who the hell you are, where you’re from? And what the hell do you do?
So my name is Kevin snow. I am, as Mike said, I am a veteran, I’m actually still serving in the Minnesota National Guard. I live. Obviously, in Minnesota, I grew up in the upper Midwest, I’ve been here my entire life. And back in 2010, I launched a company called time on target. That was a sales and marketing training company. So I got hired to get on stage and to teach people how to network and how to sell. And then I deployed I went over to Iraq and Kuwait for a year and came back and had absolutely zero clients and zero speaking gigs lined up and nothing in my pipeline, and had that old crap moment of what am I doing with my life. And we did this huge pivot. So the company stopped being a speaking and training firm, that’s now a business development tool for me. And now we’re all focused on helping clients actually figure out how to sell their stuff, and how to make sure that it’s in sync with how their buyers make buying decisions, and then integrating the technology into that. So how do you use email marketing? So you don’t sound like a really horrible marketer? Oh, and how do you use your CRM, so it actually helps you manage your sales process and your pipeline so you can close stuff faster?
One of the things that I can’t stand on the automated a lot of different serums called like action plans or whatever, and they’re so boilerplate, you know, it’s a robot that happens to it. And like, for you guys that are on my list, like if I send you an email, it’s still very on brand. It’s still dude, I barely ever spell all the words correctly, because I don’t check. And that’s just part of my brand, but because I know who my who I am. I just be me. And it works on a demo calls with someone yesterday, or actually someone who signed up with us, and she’s like, Hey, she’s like, You’re
such a fucking dude. I’m like, some clips. While I’m doing my deep dive with her. She’s like, You’re such a fucking dude. I’m like, a man. It’s just who I am and how I roll. I mean, I can fake it today.
I’m just authentic. That’s That’s what people want in today’s day and age. And we had someone on the show recently, Kevin, they said, SEO gal, she’s like, Yeah, 70% of people will look you up. That’s when they visit your website. They actually call you. So once you start getting on interest. And once you guys do associate this with dating, no one goes on a blind date. That’s why online dating sites exist. And when you if you’re like on a dating site or something you’re gonna probably look at see who you’re gonna go date before you actually do it. Right? Well, it’s the same thing. People aren’t gonna go hire someone that makes one of the largest financial investments of their life with Joe Schmo. They’re going to do it with someone they know like and trust and relation and relating to people is the number one thing I believe in real estate, because people don’t hire you unless you they like you.
Yeah, that About Us page or the About Me page on your website. That’s the second most viewed page on websites worldwide. I was working with a client once back when we did some web development. And they’re like, Yeah, we don’t want to About Us page. I’m like, Are you out of your ever loving mind. I’m like, That is a second page that people visit all the time. You have to have a really good one because they don’t buy because you have cool products and cool they buy because they think you’re cool. And they like you. And if you aren’t showing off your personality on that about me page, you know, they’re just gonna be like, Oh, this is just another boring realtor. This is just another boring coach, whatever you do, and they’re gonna go on to the next one, but
Kevin says Some people might not like the real me, I’m not gonna do that. How do you answer that?
So yeah, and I’ll be like, yeah, that Hi, that was me. So when I did the big pivot with my company back in 2012, after after I got back from the deployment, I didn’t want to be the face, I want to not be the product, I wanted to have time on target being the brand. So I did all the stuff to focus on that. And it took me a few years, but then I realized, like, Fuck, no matter what I do, I’m the CEO, I have to be the face of that company. I have to be the one out in front of people building my brand and my image so that people actually engage with me, you know, they don’t go looking for a company, they look go looking for a partner. They’re looking for someone that can actually work with them and help them that they’re going to enjoy spending time and doing stuff with.
So for those who are on your bike right now that are posting memes with your brokerages branding on there, all you’re really doing is building their brand not doing anything for your own. And your face is your brand and real estate Your face is your brand like That’s why video so that’s why it works for everybody is that the only time it doesn’t work is if people don’t like you, but you’re just becoming more marketable as you create more and more content. And yeah, I don’t believe that professional exists anymore. I believe it’s all personable. I think professional is the second question people ask and I don’t even think it’s like is he professional? Their moral asking not so much as the professional as is? Does he know what the fuck he’s doing? Exactly right. And do people care today like I sold sandal I sold real estate and sandals, dude. I had the guy on our show that fucking sold a he’s in the elevator and he painted his toenails, purple. And he gets a $4.8 million listing in San Francisco, right? Yeah,
I meet with clients from around the world. Via zoom. This is what I wear. I wear a t shirt, I wear a bald cap. And I’m comfortable with that. Because I’m sitting in my house and I’m working. When I go on stage now I still now wear a t shirt in a ball cap because now that’s become my brand. That’s when I’m doing lives. I’m doing streaming on YouTube or podcast, it’s always in this. So now when I show up, because I do like wearing button down shirts. I do like getting dressed up on occasion. So now when I wear it out into business events, it doesn’t match anymore. And it literally draws more attention to me but not the right time. Because I was like why are you in a shirt and tie? Like, because I wanted to be there. It’s okay. But it has an imposter. Exactly. He’s not doesn’t have a cap on he’s got a nice button up shirt on, you know, like, what he’s got dress shoes on what the hell is going on with this? So
why do you think so many people that struggle with bringing their persona into their messaging and whatnot. And it’s like in real estate like, I mean, we’re right up there with like attorneys, like you’re talking about just stuffy businesses, when it comes to marketing people like there’s nothing more uncomfortable than reading an attorney’s like marketing piece. I mean, but like, no one’s broken through that clutter. Real estate agents and mortgage people aren’t too far away from that. But the ones that are like super duper, like personable and like, dude, they’re crushing it every single time, why they’re so scared to embrace their real brand.
Because there’s this misperception that’s developed over the as email became a key part of how we did marketing, how we did sales, there became this perception that it had to be professional, it had to have this specific way of communicating. So everyone now tries to write like they’re a, you know, they’re the CEO, you know, if you know, and that’s not the way it should be, you know, our number one email for our my success champion brand that I have with what used to be a client now my business partner, our number one email that has for opens and click throughs. It starts off with it has a subject line of oh my god, I’m so sorry. I’m an ass. Love it. And it’s the second email in a welcoming string for a Facebook group. So someone joins the group, they answer the questions, give us their email, and we send them an email that says, Hey, welcome to the group. Here’s all the rules, blah, blah, blah. And then the second one is, oh, my God, I’m sorry, I’m an ass and it follows up with, you know, I was so excited that you joined the group I was all by wanting to hear about you and tell you all the cool stuff about the group and I’m completely forgot to introduce myself. So here’s three cool things about me you might not know. And like, yeah, and then people will reply, well, like once a week, we will get a reply from someone that says, Oh, my God, Danny, I’m, I don’t think you’re an ass. No, I wasn’t offended at all. I’m like, did you not see the big block at the bottom of the email that says if you don’t want to receive any more of these emails, please click here to unsubscribe but like they treat it like it was a real email like Danny was typing it out on it.
If people are responding to your auto responder, then your email system is right there. Yeah. And you’re on point. If they’re not responding, you should probably do a little bit more work in there. Let’s get into email. Here’s a big issue that real estate agents have like they’re always selling their share. And it’s like, you don’t need to sell you need to serve, you need to remind people what you sell. So, a lot of times, if you see this all the time you got like these companies, and they’ll just tell these real estate, you got to just send these emails, these, these real estate market reports. And like the subject line says, monthly market update, you’re an expert at this. Is that
good? No, there’s a small No, I’m just gonna flat out say, No, you’re all wrong. There is there’s a small percentage of a realtors list that’s actively looking to do something with their house. And they’re the ones who are trying to figure out what’s going on with the market and where they’re at. And if there’s now’s the right time, if you know, should I wait, what’s going on, and then you’re gonna have a section of people that are like, well, you know, we’re probably gonna do something in a couple years. So they’re kind of watching. And then you have a bunch of people in your list, who literally just bought or sold the house, and don’t want to do it again. Because as much as cool as it is moving into a new house, that moving into a new house still entails the whole moving, packing, unpacking, setting up going through closing, going through inspections, and the whole rigmarole. And once you’re done with it, you don’t want to do it again for a while. So, you know, you have to understand who’s in your list, you know, the people who are giving you triggers that yeah, I’m looking at doing something, those are the people that should get your market reports, the people who just bought or sold a house, and they’re not going to do anything, you know, right away, you need to be sending them stuff that’s a value, that’s gonna help them with their current property.
Yeah, the and a lot of times everyone tries to you have a warm and a cold list, you guys, this is like a big problem I have with everybody. And your warm list just needs to say don’t forget to exist, because that’s how you nurture and referrals. And when you nurture with video, you just stay on top of mind, and it’s all attraction, your lead list needs to be sold, you can sell people who asked to be sold. And that a lead list is someone who came in off of like a list of homes or they came in off of something, but don’t ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever send a sales message to your warm database. That’s like sending a sales message to your brother or sister or your wife.
Yep. You know, if something big happens in the market, you know, there’s some huge change with interest rates, or some whole new program gets put out or so there’s something big going on, then push it out to everyone. Hey, I want to make sure you understand this was happening. Here’s what this means for you. Here’s why. Even if you weren’t looking at selling or buying a house, here’s why you might want to now
we had a lot of our clients, we Yeah, you’re exactly right. Like one of our guys. Everyone did the same scripts a lot of our clients were doing as a market and a crash script. And one of our guys got 120,000 views on reels, just from that one piece of content because it was relevant. So yes, anytime it’s relevant information as your house, did your house lose 10% in value, I’m gonna open that one up, because it’s relevant to today’s day and age. But yeah, just in general, just barfing out like market updates and interest rates, I mean, you have a better chance of turning people off than you do nurturing and deepening the relationship. So if
a real estate brokerage or a real estate agent has a really good automation tool for their email, it needs to be linked up to their website. And it needs to be tracking what their contacts are doing. So most automation tools will give you a script that you can put on the header of all your website pages, that will tell the system that hey, one of your contacts just visited this page, one of your contacts just did this and it’ll track their behavior on your site. So then you can tell that, hey, this contact just went and was started looking at our MLS listings on our page, we should probably reach out and do stuff with them so you can see what they’re doing. And that’s how you can really determine if that people who’ve you’ve worked with in the past or you met through a networking event, are ready to actually talk about doing something in real estate that allows now you can reach out with that, hey, love to set up a time and talk to you. So you’re looking at the house on Fifth Avenue, you know, I’d love to set up a showing for you. There’s all kinds of really cool behavioral stuff you can do. If you have it set up. If you’re just blasting out emails to your list. It’s like, you know, throwing throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something’s gonna stick. It’s like, Alright, here’s my message, please, someone answer me. That’s literally what your marketing person is doing for you.
So like, so to put some perspective, you guys are glad you guys are on my list. I’ll email these podcasts episodes every Saturday. And that’s like my nurturing. I’m just adding value. And anytime I create content, I’ll send that out but it’s value added it’s tip added. And then once in a while I’ll try to sell you guys on something but I’ll run like a promo. But if I don’t keep up the nurture the promos less received. You have to do a little bit of the jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, you go for the kills and whatnot once in a while, but you don’t need to do it every single time. And you shouldn’t because it’s not valuable for other people at all. I did talk about work like having an effect About work with your wife every day, what would happen? She would stop talking to me. Well, what do you think happens? You just talk about work with your database every day, they tune you out to and that’s when they cheat on you with another real estate agent. So don’t overthink this shit. Like, it’s common sense. But it’s just relationship nurturing, when you’re Yeah,
exactly. The other thing you really want to be watching with your list to make sure you are hitting the right cadence with them, is paying attention to their engagement rates, you know, who has engaged within the last 30 days who’s engaged within 60, who hasn’t engaged for 90 days, and after the 90 day period, then you really want to put them in some sort of reengagement campaign to try and get them to start clicking and doing stuff again, or just get them out of your list and stop sending them as often content as often. Because it’s actually going to hurt your deliverability if you’re sending a ton of stuff, and no one ever opens it. All they eat. Thank
you. Thank you. Can you say that one more time and give them a reason why because here’s here’s an issue, like people realtor’s. There’s different databases that they’ll have, right and even lenders, and the warmth is like you’re the people you invite to your wedding or funeral. That’s what I’m talking about a nurturing and what Kevin’s talking a lot about our leads and marketing, advertising and prospecting. And if you have people will come to us because we have an email software, people come to us and they want to upload, we have to put a governor on there that they can’t upload more than 500 contacts. And the reason for that just meant to be nurturing. Because they’ll upload 5000 contacts, a bunch of people they’ve never, they have no idea who they are, and then they spam them. And then it kills the deliverability for everybody else. So it’s not about quantity, you guys, it’s about quality.
Exactly. So there’s Mike, you’re exactly right. There’s two different types of email, there’s cold email, where you’re trying to prospect you’ve never met them, they have no clue who you are, and you’re trying to get them into your world and click through and to opt in. So you can get into the permissive world of email, which is where you want to be, it’s a way more profitable place to be for email marketing and sales. But, you know, I work with clients that have lists of 20,000 emails, you know, my biggest client has a few 100,000 emails in his in his list, we don’t sell into to the entire list, we never do the bulk mailer, because all the email providers talk. So Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, still out there, they’re still talking to people. You know, Mike, all the different Microsoft, MSN, they all interact with each other. And they tell each other Hey, so this email, you know, we’re seeing a ton of them, and only 5% of the people are opening them. This must be junk emails, not relevant content, no one wants to see it’s another not even going to put it in the inbox. Or they’re going to see, you know, the other thing that is horrible for your deliverability is if you go online, you see one of those gurus on Facebook, saying, hey, use our email, swipe file and up your opt ins by 100%. Or whatever their line is. They track content, they’re gonna say, Alright, so we’re seeing this exact same content coming from multiple people, it’s probably spam. So you need to that you need to be really careful about how you’re sending to your list and making sure we always send to our most active people first. So they get the email right away. So that then that tells the email providers that oh, you know, they sent out five, 5000 of these and 3500 people opened it, we’re going to make sure all the future ones get delivered. Because this is actually really good content, people want to see it. What is
a good open rate for people to be looking at on a cold email list?
So open rates are really kind of fucked right now. colorful language, sorry.
So no, you’re on this show. It’s all good. This has got a rated rating right next to it. So.
So a few months ago, Apple made a change to their privacy policy and how they interact with emails on all of their devices. So now, the way it used to work was they wouldn’t download your content and load the pixel that’s in emails and tracks opens until you actually open the email. Now, they preload everything. So it’s theoretically possible that if I segmented out my list and sent a block of email to only Apple users, I would get 100% open rate. And maybe a fraction of them even saw it. So it’s really that is really killed the open rate before it wasn’t even really as accurate because every client counts opens differently. So like on Outlook, you can have that preview pane, you know, I scroll through my email list and it automatically opens. Is that an open or is it not? Is it not an open so open rates are really a vanity rate, vanity metric, and now they’re pretty much worthless and we’ve stopped, even really paying attention to them for most of my clients. We now Really focus on the click through rate. So it’s really important when you’re sending out emails, you’re sending them stuff that they actually want to see. So they’ll click through and look at it.
What? What do you like to see on CTRs? Ah, that
is really industry dependent. So like it the click through rate for it is like 29%. So, it really depends on what you do. And it’s really what the goal is, you know, you set the set the standard for what your email list is currently performing at. And then think about Alright, so how do I raise it a percentage point? How do I get that up at 5%? And how do you continue to improve it? So you know, doing the split testing, the AV testing is really key, you know, testing what it what the words are on the button, what the call to action is, you know, which ones get people most engaged, and then making those little incremental changes along the way as how you how you really get your open rates to be in that, you know, you know, industry leading where you have the bulk of people are actually doing it, as opposed to just looking at it reading and saying, Oh, that was cool. And then moving on with their day.
A lot along for a cold email list for people that are prospecting and generating leads, how long should that emails be is a question we get a lot, is there a length of time and then we’ll talk about subject lines and the importance of those next,
so the length of the email, short, three to four paragraphs, if I’m going to do a cold email, and I haven’t done cold email for a while for anyone. But when I do cold email campaigns, you know, we’re really looking at like three to four paragraphs, you know, really short one or two sentence paragraphs, if I have to scroll down the page, I’m going to stop reading, if it’s not someone I know. So it needs to be something people can digest really quickly. As far as how many emails I will usually do, right around five is kind of my my key area that I’ll do I have done up to seven. But five is kind of the number I’ll do, I’ll usually start off with a couple of days right in a row. And then I’ll start slowing down over, you know, extended every couple of days and every three days and you know, on a weekly basis,
and then by an opt in someone who asked for your email and opted into whatever you’re giving them away.
Once they’ve opted in, I’m going to usually have some sort of specific campaign geared towards what they opted in for. So if someone opts into my my stuff about sales process and content, then I’m going to have a five to six email campaign that follows up with them with just further content. And that’s going to come and I’m gonna let them know right away, hey, I’m gonna send you over the next five days, I’m going to send you five more emails with this type of stuff. Yeah, and the first three or four, usually, the first three have no call to action, other than getting them to click through to read other content on my site, or showing them hey, if you like this, you might like this stuff as well here, go download this thing. Email four, and five is where I’ll start actually asking them to, hey, you know, if this makes sense, let’s set up a time to meet and we’ll start trying to get them into my calendar and try to get them to engage more on a one to one basis.
So one of the books that I loved reading, was by Marcus shared and it’s called you ask you answer. And it’s about the biggest thing I learned I read a couple years ago, but was on how he was selling saltwater pools or fiberglass pools or whatever it is, but it was cool is that they would set and they did a study on this, they would send the lead content prior to the actual demo. And it increased sales. It increased their like sales percentages by by a boatload like, and they were just pre selling the person so like, most times, like when agents just immediately if someone asked for a list of homes, they immediately think they have to go into sales mode. What are you looking for? What can I help you with when you’re looking to buy, as opposed to saying, Hey, here’s some things that you want to know, before you buy this house like so if you’re looking in ABC neighborhood, one of the things you’re going to be concerned with is it’s really bad for termites. Here’s a couple of tips that you may want to know about that. Yeah, the next place might the next thing like give them warnings that nobody knows about because that’s valuable. And they’re like, oh shit, but you got to date before you get married. And that’s how emails, how he’s explaining it to he gave you guys a very clear format and then the context of those emails. What’s the subject lines? Talk to me a little bit about that. People always I love subjects I think it’s 90% of the email. But what is your opinion on subject lines? How do you come up with good ones,
they are super important while the open rate is a vanity metric. It’s you still gotta have a open your email. So there has to be something that gets their attention that open that subject line is that first thing they’re gonna see. So like the subject line we use for Donnie for that email. Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I’m gonna ask you know that People are going to open it just because they want to see what the hell’s in the email. Yeah, you know, and whether they know, Don, you’re not doing what, what, why? What did you do, and they want to know, there’s got to be a story. So it’s got to be something that’s relevant to them. And, you know, like, you’re there. One that you said, Has your home value dropped 10% Something that’s really relevant to them, they’re like, Well, who got I, you know, I don’t know what my home value is, has it dropped with the, with the changes over the last month, and it’s it don’t use words like free, it’s got to provide the value, you know, it’s has to tell them exactly what why they need to open this email,
you like emojis and subject lines.
I am not an emotionally person, but they are shown to actually work, you know, people, they, for some reason, email subject lines with emojis do have a higher open rate, I don’t know if it’s because a shift in the demographic who’s getting the business emails and, and that type of stuff. You know, I don’t know if emojis are word for and my mom and dad who are in there, you know, almost ad. But for my, my niece, who is now a teenager, she would totally open an email with a subject line that had emojis, so I get it. Again, it goes back to knowing who your client is and who your list is, you know,
if which goes back into dial in your own authentic way of communicating before you create any of this stuff. Yep. So you just do it over it.
Yeah, you know, if you’re, if you’re emailing to 50 6070 year old, you’re going to communicate in a completely different way. And it can differ a different tone, then if you’re interacting with a 20 or 30 year old, you know, because the both generations communicate differently, they use different words, there’s different expectations about how you should interact. And you have to understand what those norms are. And that’s part of writing your content, is having the right tone of voice so that it matches your personality. But then it’s still it works with the people that’s reading it. You know, if I go up on a stage to speak to a bunch of business owners and I start rapping, when the while that would be humorous and really humiliating. For me, it’s probably not going to be as effective. As if I’m talking to the key things that they want to know and interacting with them on their level. Yep.
Well, I get man, Kevin, any closing thoughts? Do you want to add any final tips and then we tell people where they can find you?
Yeah, the biggest tip is be yourself and your writing your email stuff, don’t try and sound like you’re this really high powered your ad agency copywriter. You know, it needs to sound like how you will sound when you’re actually talking to them in person. And be yourself because you’re going to attract people that want to do work with people like you. You know, if you’re putting on a completely different air, when at business and you’re completely someone else at home and alone, you know, it doesn’t work.
It’s like when the real estate agents have like the glamour shot from the 1980s. And they still have that on their business card. The client shows up to the restaurant, they can’t figure out who the hell’s there because it’s not the same person anymore. Like who the fuck is that? Yeah, it’s not the person I called.
I had a LinkedIn meeting the other couple of weeks ago was someone that I looked at their LinkedIn profile. I’m like, sweet, they jumped on the on the call, and they were actually 20 years older. Now. I’m like, why are you catfishing on LinkedIn?
Like what the hell so and you have a gift I understand for people once you tell them what they can get from you.
I do I have a gift for all your listeners. If they text the words, sell smarter to 612-429-4298 I will send them a list of questions they can use to help map out their clients buying process, and a guide to what content is most effective for each step and their sales cycle
suite. Once you go into also where your website is they will look you up conductor you on social and all that.
Yeah, my website is www dot time, dash hyphen dash target.com. So time on target.com, with hyphens between all of the words.
Love it. Thank you, man. Appreciate your insight. And thank you guys for listening to another episode of real estate marketing dude podcast, because we talked a lot about authentic and being authentic and dialing in your brand. And a lot of you guys are stuck getting on video because you don’t know what that is yet. And it’s impossible to do it consistently over time without first dialing in whatever you’re going to be talking about. But people don’t listen to what you talk about. They remember how you talk about it. So that’s the importance of dialing in your video strategy. And if you need a real estate marketing dude to go ahead and do that for you. Visit our website at real estate marketing do.com We script at a distribute and put you on the map for all of your video content so that people stop forgetting about you but more importantly start relating with you so you can start attracting clients versus chasing them. That is real estate marketing do.com real estate marketing do.com And we’ll see you guys next week peace. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing do.com We make branding and video content creation so Simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Today we are talking with Ryan Dranginis and Chris Wesser about their new service, Bid My Listing. It provides transparency to real estate agents and sellers, allowing realtors to bid on listings, not leads. Sellers get the chance to choose from multiple realtors and decide which is the best fit for them.
Ryan Dranginis, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chris Wesser, Chief Strategy Officer, are part of
an exciting new tool for sellers and agents; Bid My Listing. Be sure to check out their website and social media platforms at BidMyListing.com.
Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode
What is Bid My Listing?
How it benefits both agents and sellers.
How it provides transparency to the selling process.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started.
What’s up ladies and
gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast. What we’re talking about today, folks, as Welcome to the shift should happen. So shift happens during the shift, this will be my second one and my career. And there’s a major and major opportunities always within shifts. So what I like to say market shares are taken. Because when things are going really good, no one really grows except the ones doing all the deals. And when things start going a little better, a little shaky, there’s opportunity for the rest of the people, the most of the people to get in the office or get into the business and make some traction. So we’re story today, interruption is here, guys. This is my neighbor I have on the podcast, but he has a company that is called Bid my listing, which is a new listing service for real estate agents. And they’re making some waves. As a matter of fact, one of my old friends from Chicago sent me a message on Facebook the other day, he’s like this fucking bid, my listing thing is got some traction, I feel bad for the real estate agents out there. And I’m like, well, they’re not trying to take real estate out of the agent out of the deal. They’re trying to work with real estate agents and give sellers a new alternative to selling their property today, because that’s what sellers want. If you guys have been on the show, you’ve realized that we have a couple things going on in the space as well. Owner advocate, we offer seller multiple options, and no one hires you for what the hell you do. They hire you for how you do it. So we’re gonna dig underneath the hood, see what these dudes are up to. And I’m gonna tell you why you should sign up for their service by the end of this because it’s free, and you have nothing to lose, and you might get a listing or two. So I’m gonna be coming with some value today. Without further ado, gentlemen, why don’t we introduce you guys to the show, Ryan and Chris, why don’t you guys go ahead, introduce yourselves. Tell them who the hell you are. And let’s get into it. All right,
awesome, Mike. Number one. Thanks for the intro number two. Thanks for having us on here. You’ve got some cute kids and some good smelling barbecue that I constantly see out there in the street. So nice to be chatting with you here on the pod.
What else do you expect from a bunch of Mexicans?
Good stuff. So I’m the Chief Marketing Officer of Bid my listing. Really excited to be here talking to you and everybody who’s listening in the podcast. We are a place where you can buy listings, not leads, and we can talk a lot more about that. But disruption is the right way to position it. And we’re you know, we’re feeling good about where we are for the shift. So excited to chat here. Thank you for having us.
grisco Reddit. Yeah, sure. Thanks, Mike. Like Ryan, super happy to be here. My name is Chris Weser. I’m the Chief Strategy Officer of bid whitelisting. And my job is to kind of make sure we have world class practices, world class people, so that we can deliver a world class product to the world and really thankful for the team we built. Super excited to have Ryan on board because he’s crushing it. And we’re watching progress happen every single minute, which is cool.
What does what has been my listing and why is Josh Altman all over my Facebook feed?
That is a great question. And number one is all your Facebook feed because we are good at retargeting you. But number two, Josh Altman is the co founder of good my listing. But my listing is a place where real estate agents can find listings, not leads. So that you know our mission is to help people make smart decisions about real estate. And when I say people, we’re talking about home sellers, and we’re talking about real estate agents. So the experience on Bid my listing is pretty simple. I come to bid my listing.com type in my property address in a couple of clicks. As a home seller, I can put my listing up for auction. And as a real estate agent, I can come to bid my listing and see real estate listings that are up for auction in my area. So I can place a bid on that listing, I can specify a payment of cash upfront that I’m willing to offer that home seller for the opportunity to represent the sale of their home, specify my commission amount or listing term. I can talk a little bit about my marketing plan and why I’m the perfect fit to sell that home for that home seller. Click a button and the homeowner gets a chance to review the bids and hopefully selects you as the winning agent and you guys march off happily into the future. Sure.
So I’m a seller. I want to list my house, you guys. They call me you guys. You say, Alright agents, here’s a house who wants to bid on it. And then highest bidder, whoever that necessarily has been or whoever the seller wants to choose to represent them. And this agent would pay for that listing. And now they have a listing. Yep, that’s That’s
exactly it. So Josh Altman, in our co founder, Matt Perlman got together, Matt was actually selling his home, he, he lived up there in a beautiful property and lawn was good friends with Josh, they went out to dinner. And Matt was like, Hey, here’s what’s happening, I got a bunch of agents coming to my property, you know, walk me around my house, tell me how awesome they are sitting in my kitchen table, pitching me on whatever the you know, however, they are the best fit to sell my house. He signed a listing agreement in the agent took off went a different direction. And, you know, try to find a bunch of other listings for for themselves. So Matt got together with Josh and said, hey, the process is broken. The way that we fix this is by providing transparency in the process. So they could bid my listing as almost a digital version of the kitchen table, where the home seller is going to receive bids, and the home seller has the opportunity to select the agent that’s the right fit for them. So not just based on cash, not just based on commission, but based on that agents reputation, and their plan to market that specific property.
So, folks, what I want you guys to get out of the show is that sellers wants something different. The truth is 99.9% of you fucking guys are offering the same damn shit. Hey, I’ll put your lesson in amaryllis, I’ll put a sign in here and I’m gonna sit there and pray for a buyer to come. And then I might have some open houses and kick you out on Sunday. That’s not a marketing plan anymore. And it does not guarantee or warrant five to 6% Commission anymore. Sellers aren’t commission compression is a real thing. In Phoenix, you guys, you could talk to my partner out there, the Commission’s is getting down to 4%, four and a half percent. And you have the appetite is out there. There’s a reason why you have big tech. You have these large funds, these corporations, he’s known as I buyers, you have transactional funding, you have fixed endless companies, you have, you have Wall Street involved in real estates and asset class today, which has a lot of interruption. And companies like this are going about to eat your guys’s lunch. And the reason for that is because they’re doing something different. That’s all anyone wants. The only industry that hasn’t changed in the last 50 fucking years has been the real estate industry the same way you sold the house and 1950s Exact same way you sell houses in 2022. The car industry has changed. I could go buy a frickin car out of a vending machine today. But yeah, when I saw my house, it’s been the same damn thing since our parents bought their first, isn’t it? Has anything changed in the real estate industry? Ever? On the listing side?
Yeah, so I like to think about it. So, Chris, although I’m a Marine, and he’s an army guy, and I don’t like to say nice. But when I initially met with Chris, he has a really good, you know, strategy and has done a lot of research on the market. I’ll let him talk a little bit about the money that’s being spent at the top of the funnel. And kind of how we think about the industry ultimately being able to help agents do what they’re good at, which is connect with home sellers directly and provide an incredible experience during the sale at home.
Chris is sure what the number is saying what your research as it came out to this idea. What do sellers want?
Yeah, so so Like Ryan said, So Matt Perlman, our co founder was selling his house, he realized the interests are not really truly aligned. Right? Number one, number two, you just mentioned the word asset class. No one had ever treated the listing as an asset before Matt, being a serial founder who’s incredibly insightful about things like that said, Wait a minute, my listing shouldn’t be an asset like these people want to go make commission from my house, they should pay me for that opportunity. I should have something up front for that. So we developed Bid my listing. And once we got started about a year ago, and started digging into the numbers, and substantiating sort of where we thought we could be in the market, something popped out at us. And that is today, agents spend about $22 billion a year in marketing to secure listings, right. So they do that through all of the standard channels, that most agents can’t tell you how it works, or why it works, right. They’re there. They’re giving their money to digital marketers and others who are hopefully delivering them leads that hopefully turn into listings. So what we realized is, wait a minute, we can just bring the two parties together directly. The agents can spend that 22 billion through our platform, and they can buy the exact listings that they want, right and with our sort of matching algorithms will be able to match the buyer and the seller and the agents so that you have the best data truly the best agent for you and the homeowner is going to get some cash up front, you know Agent has skin in the game, you get compensated for that asset. And the interests are truly aligned. So that was the theory. What’s really cool and Brian can speak to this better than me. As we’re watching it play out and we’re and we’re pushing, you know, marketing dollars out there into the world ourselves and bringing people in. The value proposition is so overwhelmingly good and the interests are so overwhelmingly aligned, that our that our marketing spend is just more efficient than anything you’re seeing out there in the market because people love it. I love
First off, let’s be honest, 90% of agents who are buying leads, don’t even call back any follow up on them, but they just don’t know what’s wrong with our industry. But, and you guys know this, like you guys will get leads, but you don’t follow up with them. And then the other problem that so many agents have in the online space, at least with digital marketing is they don’t have the either technology, the wherewithal, the skills, the autoresponders, the lead capture tools to actually effectively do it at high scale. And you’re right, it’s very expensive. And that’s why most people don’t do it. They lack skills, or they lack the knowledge. Many, many times and you guys are solving that for agents, because you’re right, an agent that is going to try to go out on Facebook ads and generate, you know, we have some contract costs up to 700 $800 for to acquire a listing contract, you could determine if you really know what you’re doing your cost of acquisition for listing contract, but 99% I just don’t understand what I just said. And it’s right, and then you just end up we just throw we call wishful marketing, right? Yeah. So my own agents on my team is like, Mike, I’m gonna go out there and go farm this area. I’m like, bro, you have 5000 friends on Facebook. Why are you gonna go farm a bunch of strangers? farm that people you know, they all have a referral for you. So we spent you’re right, we spend our money carelessly. I think a lot of the reasons we get paid a lot. And we do close a house. Like shatters 20 grand myself throw one at this. See what happens, right? But no one is approaching adspend in a business mentality. Very few people. Yeah, yeah.
100% agree with you there, Mike. And if you if you can look out your window and see my whiteboard here on the wall. The way that we like to think about it is so you’re looking at a marketing funnel, right? top of the funnel, you have people that are thinking about selling their house, bottom of the funnel, yet people are actually doing something, there’s an entire industry hundreds, if not 1000s of companies that exist in that funnel that are helping real estate agents get those thinkers to the point where they’re doers, the way that we’re approaching the industry is we’re taking that funnel and we’re overlaying a tee on top of it. And we’re saying to agents come to us, we’re going to connect you with those doers. We’re going to connect with home sellers that are ready to transact. And we’re gonna allow you to focus your time and most importantly, your marketing dollars on the thing that matters the most, which is getting in front of those home sellers, knowing your ROI being in complete control of your marketing budget, sitting down on a Monday morning and saying instead of spending the week you know going out and working my farm knocking on doors doing all the things I want to do acquire home sellers. I can sell my calendar not am on Monday morning, I’m logging into my listing. I’m deploying my marketing budget to get seller listings. And it’s you know, it’s that simple
keep turning my mute on here, guys, but what do you guys think that I like it a lot. I think that I’m I’m curious to know what your research shows on and I’m sure Chris sounds like a really really smart dude here. And I’m sure you did some research and you guys did stuff of what sellers want. What do sellers want today from their agents? Do you guys have any color on that?
I’ll take it past that. And on the Chris of the, you know, I mentioned we’re Think of us as the digital version of the kitchen table. So you know right now I can pull up my phone, I can click a button and you and I can have a burrito delivered in the next 10 minutes. I can click another button and Uber picks us up and brings us to downtown Encinitas. You know, the world is used to transparency the world is used to removing friction. So digital products that are removing friction, and that’s what homeowners want. So homeowners want to sit down, they want to treat you know, they want to treat the sell their home like it’s the most one of the most important business transactions in their life and be able to see transparently, I want to see 20 agents who are bidding on my listing I want to see their reputation I want to see their marketing plans. And you know, I want to I want to be able to make a decision smartly. I want to make a decision on my terms and that’s what we’re providing to a home sellers and that’s that’s what’s really resonate and that’s what they’re loving about the platform.
What I like about this is I used to lose a couple of listings to little cousin Billy who just got his license a little prick or Aunt Susie the realtor, you know, every year this happens to agents. This is though such a USP though I could see that occurring. Because with anything you guys you have to first generate attention the first time you get the opportunity pitch your business, whatever it is in any business if you don’t generate the opportunity and I Think what the interrupt is like, hey, I’ll buy your listing or I’ll pay for your listing. Like that’s sexy. Like every seller just say, Wait, what? I’m gonna hire a realtor anyways, they’re gonna charge me five or 6% of your time me, I’m gonna have a way to get my best, the best realtor out all of them, and then they’re gonna pay me to represent me. And then they’re that means that they’re gonna fight for it. So there’s a very famous tagline by LendingTree says when banks compete, you win. It’s very similar, right?
Yes, yes. The tool, Priceline adage says that
Priceline Yeah, when banks compete, you win. Was that Priceline? Travel? Travel? Travel? Yeah.
So but it’s, you know, it’s the same exact thing. It’s, it’s giving homeowners you know, both transparency, flexibility, and they be able to make a decision on their terms. And it’s, you know, one of the stats that we pulled is 75% of people that are selling their home meet with less than two agents? And are they’re basically making a decision, because it’s easy, you know, like, if, without my listing, you know, I’m going to call up the first guy that drops me a postcard, or the first guy that I see on Facebook, or I’m going to go ask you, Mike, across the street. And yeah, you know, refer me to or yourself. So the, we’re helping people make smart decisions, which means, you know, I can pull on my phone and see all the the price of every stock in the US or, you know, whatever I want to see, we’re helping home sellers do the same thing.
I like it. I like it. I just it just, it’s it seems so simple. But yet so effective, you know, and you’re just like, Why isn’t anyone thought about this before? But again, it’s because we’re a bunch of dinosaurs. No one’s ever done anything differently before. And anyone who’s doing anything differently is getting buzz and the buzz is what you need, especially in a shift like this. What do you got? What do you guys think’s gonna happen? With this market? Right here? We’re seeing the shift some places more than others. I’m seeing that all over the country. How do you think this plays in into all of that? I think it’s a positive for you guys.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I’m too I think the you know, there’s inventory constraints across the board. That’s something that we’re, you know, we’re all dealing with the, you know, what we’ve found, in our early days of working with a bunch of different home sellers is this number one, it solves a real problem. So inflation is on the rise, putting cash in the homeowners pocket is a good thing. Number two, it’s a very effective tool for people that are publishing listings at scale. So you know, there’s a shortage of housing across the board, new housing developers, it’s a very efficient way to get their listings to market. So whether you’re architect developer, big builder, there’s a lot of traction there. So you know, I think, whatever direction the market decides to go, we’re gonna be well positioned to receive it.
I like it. Any other things that you guys think you want to add in on here? And where do you guys find most of your sellers at? Is this all online marketing? You guys doing a lot of different channels? How are you finding sellers? What are you targeting? If you’re willing to share any of that?
Yep. So I think an important caveat here is, we’re you know, we’re early days, I’ve been my listening. So we officially launched the platform on June 2, we’ve seen tremendous traction, most of our marketing to date on the home seller side has been primarily direct response, you know, using Facebook, and other digital channels. It’s an incredible for us to have somebody like Josh Altman, as a co founder, he has an incredible sphere of influence that he’s been activating for us, which is, you know, which is great, especially on the agent side, keep an eye out for us agents in the National Association of REALTORS publication that’s coming out here in a couple of days. So we’ll be doing some introductions there. So the important thing on the marketing side is the word network product. So you know, a lot like Tinder, where if there’s not two people that want to date in an area, then the product doesn’t make a lot of sense. For us, we’re a network product. So think of us as an extension of your marketing team. You come to my listing, you sign up, it’s fast, easy, and it’s free. We see a concentration of agents in a zip code, and we go out and turn our marketing laser on that zip code, and we’re acquiring homeowner listings. So and we’ve, you know, I feel like Chris alluded to it. Right now, positioning is Get Paid cash upfront and make a smart decision about selling your home really resonates. So it’s been a real good interaction in the early days.
Yeah, so different. Chris, how about you?
I guess the one thing I would want to add because this is just it’s resonated with everybody I’ve spoken to I spend a lot of time speaking to VC analysts to spend their entire lives studying this industry. And the thing that really really resonates a lot with me is today if you look at NAR, NAR says that agents spend somewhere around 75% of their time hunting for business. And to me, it’s just really, really cool that agents can now spend 99% of their time selling listings that they buy on Bid my listing. Anytime you talk about that with with economists, they just see that as a massively disruptive thing, because it allows the agent to spend the vast majority of their time doing what they’re really good at. And it’s kind of kind of one of my favorite pieces of the entire company’s puzzle.
Like it. Why don’t you guys go ahead and tell them one more time where you could get any other closing thoughts you want to add in here. But make sense, folks, this is very simple. These guys are doing some different setup for their stuff. But regardless, you have to do something different. You don’t get noticed. That’s what this is all about. Differentiation is a good thing in real estate because everyone’s doing the same thing. It’s not that hard to stand out. There’s only one real estate marketing Dude, that’s done on purpose. Right? There’s one other dudes out there. And that’s done for brands. I get it all the time. There’s a reason brand matters. USP matters, differentiation matters. So go ahead at right once you guys close it out.
Awesome. Well, again, thanks for having us, Mike. we’ve chatted about this over beers and excited to be talking about it. You’re on your podcast. For everybody who’s listening, signing up for bid my listing. It’s fast, it’s easy, it’s free. Go to bid my listing.com. Follow us on Instagram. You’ll see alerts come out. When we have listings. If you sign up, you’ll get alerts when there’s listings in your area. But we’re here to make a real change. We’re here to help agents deliver a great experience to home sellers. And we’re excited to be here and look forward to seeing you there. My listening.
Sir, I appreciate you guys. Thanks for coming on to the show. And thank you for listening to another episode of Real Estate Marketing podcast. Folks, if you want to build a personal brands very simple script, edit and distribute your videos and put you on the map. Real estate is not hard. It’s a giant popularity contest. And the more people know who the hell you are the more opportunities that arise because 10 to 15% of them are moving this year and 100% of them have a referral. And the one they always hire is the one they know first and foremost, at least to the tune of 80% So visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing do.com Subscribe and schedule a demo with a dude quit waiting. What are you doing schedule now? Thank you guys for listening and we’ll see you next week peace. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule a time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcasts. We’ll see you next time.
We have a returning guest today and you might have seen him recently. He just launched a viral video called “All the Listings,” a blink 182 remix.
Colin Schindler, better known by his alias the Robed Realtor, ranks in the top 1.5% for transactions in the US. He stars in a Blink-182 parody video which quickly went viral.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them.
Let’s get started What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude
podcast. We got to return guests today and you might have seen him most recently. He just launched a viral video. I believe the title of it is called all the listings and as a blink 182 remix I mean I’ve tried a couple of music videos myself and I don’t have a good voice by any means. And I just completely bombed on him but this fucking guy comes out does it was a legit music the the music sounded well it was good like it was it look, I would listen to that song. I would play it on the radio. So the sound was good. But the production was hands down like awesome. Like it was well worth the amount of time and energy I’m sure you put into that. So without further ado, we’re gonna go ahead and welcome back the robed realtor Mr. Colin Schindler.
Thank you, Mike. Appreciate you having me out again. And you know, kind of staying in touch the last couple of years been a crazy wild ride in between now and then and so it’s great to be back in town. I’m gonna this music video.
I’m going to tee up because you’re on the show we were just talking about before we hopped on here you’re on the show in May of 2020. And we’ll get to the video in a second but what what were we talking about on this show guys is how to embrace your personal brand and screaming from the fucking rooftops quit overthinking. What are they going to think about me? Oh my God, should I really do that? Oh my god, some people might think that I’m unprofessional. Listen, guys, the entire world marketing is about grabbing your inner beast, the inner authenticity from within yourself and just let it rip. You know, have you ever noticed that? It’s not the professional content that gets all the views? It’s the funny shit. It’s the entertainment stuff. It’s the stuff that all has one thing in common and that is authenticity. So when you get in the business of content creation, it works when you’re authentic regardless of it’s funny if it’s serious and resist or it’s not because authenticity is the one thing you cannot outsource you cannot fake or anything so Colin, when you came on the show originally you weren’t talking about this robed realtor. But now if you guys go to his Facebook page, which I highly suggest you should follow him on all your social channels. You have this concept of this robe realtor now who the hell is a robed realtor? What does that even mean? It doesn’t matter. Go look at his branding. Colin, let’s start with the robe realtor first because this ties into the viral video that you just released. So like, robed realtor, most people don’t have the balls to do that. Walk me through it.
Yeah, so you know, maybe you can put a link to the last show. You know, that we did originally when I was first out I was brand new agent seven months into the business. And you know, obviously wanted to stand out how do you compete with the veterans of the industry? How do you how do you gain attraction especially with everybody having something to sell? And using Facebook and Instagram as a personal promotion page? First and foremost, what what do I get to do to stand out so just kind of by happenstance, I pulled my bathrobe out and shot a my first transaction was a listing thankfully, I got very lucky there. Shot a listing video in my bathrobe sipping on coffee. Oh, that
was your Topsis that was your first listing
first listing first transaction first video and he
and he rolls out in a robe like who does that? Nobody. But that’s exactly why you’re one of the top agents in not only state of Wisconsin but in the country with transaction counts right now. See this entire business is based upon popularity attention if you don’t have attention, you don’t have a business. All right, keep going. This is great.
Yeah, so it is crazy to think about and see where it’s transplant transpired. So brand new years and seven months and two years ago, so not even three full years in the business yet. One of the top 1.5 As far as transaction volume and it is solely because I broke that bathrobe out gathered a large large amount of tension. So I kind of fed off that and I kind of kept using that and developed it into my brand my persona of the road Realtor you know it people have stuck with it and it’s been something that I’ve been able to leverage and you know, it’s become my brand. I’ve been able to do other things. I haven’t pigeon holed myself entirely into that. So I think I think that is very important. If you’re brand too, if you are going to pick this image, this persona, niche is very important. But you don’t want to be so specific that you’re not still attracting people. So you don’t want to be so specific that you’re not doing something different anymore. So that is always kind of been where I’ve been at, you know, the road realtor doesn’t necessarily just show up in the bathroom all the time. The road realtor is kind of this mysterious person where I always tell people, other agents, especially my goal with my videos, the content that I put out, when you see that thumbnail on my Instagram, or my Facebook, I literally want you to think, what the fuck is he doing next? Because that’s what attracts the viewership, people aren’t going to watch if you know, he’s going to be in a bathrobe sitting in the bathtub, doing what happened. You know, we’ve seen this one 100 times before. It’s something a little bit different every time and the road realtor is that it’s kind of just a mysterious guy who’s having fun in a bathrobe, or maybe something else.
So what I like about it is that you’re talking about your brand in third person, which is hard for many people. That’s the number one reason like when we get somebody come in and we start working with somebody, nobody knows what the hell their brand is. And the reason for that, guys is because most of you don’t look at yourself as a brand and understandably so like I look at myself as a dad, Father, follower, Christ. I likes the bears. But I don’t realize that that’s my brand. But when people like what he just said, right there, you guys are super important is that people first have to relate to you before they can ever do business with you first, but before they can relate to you or do business with you, they have to remember you. And if there’s two people that I’m going to just come across, and I’m just going to think that just think of conversations I had 10 years ago, and I met two realtors, and one of them calls himself the role real robed realtor, the other one calls himself John Jones. Well, I’m sorry, the robed realtor has my attention. And attention is marketing. And in a popularity contest, like real estate, where 10 to 15% of the people who see your content are moving this year, and 100% of them have a referral for you. The game is very simple. And it’s not theory. It’s based upon mathematics. Colin just had a video that got what are you at 125,000 views right now.
So there’s two different versions, there’s the Facebook version, and there’s the Instagram version, I think both are around that 130,000 mark, so over a quarter million views between
both video and that’s within like a two to three week timeframe. So I mean, if you guys really I know this is a local business, but statistically from those views, like I chase views, I don’t care like views and engagement, you get more views with engagement, so they go hand in hand, but just do the numbers on that 10 to 15% of the people who see that video will be moving 100% of them have a referral. Now, not all 250,000 of them are going to be in Cowen’s market, but it doesn’t matter. Have you gotten calls from out of state
mostly from other realtors. So that that, that 250,000 numbers is a you know, a community of you know, real estate professionals mostly. But as far as people who you know, I’m employed Wisconsin, South Central Wisconsin have my Illinois license as well. So I can service about an hour bubble. There’s some really big metro areas, Madison Milwaukee that I’m able to take care of Rockford, Illinois, where people from around the United States do have folks that are looking in these areas. So while I was you know, I, it didn’t necessarily, I mean, obviously hit my sphere of influence, like crazy. And it is one of those just, you know, extra things, you know, a piece of content that I was able to put out for my sphere to resonate with and laugh at. And, you know, it’s good for this area. But now with having the referral network, yeah, it’s gonna be well, and realtors literally around the country and, and even even, it’s crazy, even the world I received a voice message from someone from Romania the other day, so it’s, it’s cool. And it’s I haven’t necessarily seen because this is pretty fresh. So I haven’t been able to capture an ROI off office yet. But it certainly does not hurt to have other realtors knowing who you are, what you do, where you’re
in that with any videos can be very difficult to determine that ROI. Because these people might, you might get on everybody’s radar, but it might be six to 12 months until you see it. But the point is that you got on their radar first and that’s what always pencils, and what always works. That is really, really cool. Now here I have a couple other questions for you. Because this is what people struggle with on a daily basis. They’re always like, I want to go back to where you said this is the first video you put out. How do you overcome the fact that what are they going to say about me? How do you overcome the your own demons in your head? Because this is what this is what stops everyone from doing what you’re doing? Everyone wants to be where you’re at, but no one has the balls to get there or willing to put in the work to do it. Now if we rewind to his hear what he just got right here, folks. He was on the show two years ago, he was seven months in the road realtor didn’t come out to probably about 18 months ago. Give or take, right? If you’re on the show two years ago, realtor just came out just after that. So maybe maybe just under two years, almost. But yeah, two years to build a local brand is just like, I mean, that’s great. But you only did because you’re doing it differently. So how did you overcome that? Especially as a new realtor? That’s the most impressive part. Most people think they have to be someone they’re not when they start off in this profession, and you’re like, No, I’m somebody I am. And you’re gonna like me or not? How do you overcome that?
So I guess for me, and I want to be honest and upfront for me it is it is a lot easier for me. I did plays and stuff as a little kid. I’m like a golden retriever. I love being around people I love you know, the pets and the you know, Pat’s, and all that kind of stuff. So getting on camera and being in front of people or in front of the screen and having people see my face hear My voice isn’t necessarily something that I’ve ever had the hurdle that I’ve had to jump over. So I’ve been lucky in that regard. What I would have to say, though, to folks, because I do think about this all the time, I consider myself a marketer. First and foremost marketer realtor psychologists like that is that is my order, that is my job description. So marketer first and foremost, and when I think about it with my marketing brain, and I do I truly want to help other people, overcome their fears, and help them get on video and whatnot. When I think about it from a marketing aspect, and all the things that you see on Facebook and Instagram, because like I said, it’s a it’s a platform for self promotion. And, you know, dog pictures and cat pictures, and all that memes and all that other kind of stuff. If you’re afraid to hop on there, because of what people might think people are going to think that for a very, very short amount of time. They don’t have the attention capacity to remember what you did, they’re not going to laugh at you, because you stumbled over a couple of words. They’re not going to remember it. Even releasing some viral videos that I’ve done. Like, they, they get lost in the background. But it is that cumulative effect. People remember that they saw my face. Yeah, people remember that I sell real estate. So just getting over that hurdle. Just realizing that people aren’t gonna remember what you’re saying, or how you’re saying it or what you look like, if you had a little bit of toothpaste in the corner of your mouth. Like, there’s still videos that I do, I do a live video, I’m like shit, like, I go back and watch it. And I’m like, I had like some tooth, I don’t delete it or take it down. Because it’s whatever. One because people don’t catch it. Because they’re too busy to people. If they do catch it, they’re not going to remember. But the cumulative effect of the videos that I’m putting out, they know who I am, they know that I do real estate, they’re gonna call me. So there’s really no reason. If you are one of those people that are apprehensive about getting on camera, it doesn’t matter. It just it matters that you are doing it and that you were there.
Love it. Let’s dial into this video. Blink 182 remix. First off, what does that tell you? About three, four minutes.
Three, just under three minutes, just under three minutes able to get on tick tock and everything to so
did. How long did it take to create script and cost in any order you want.
So first of all, I want to shout out amazing guys that helped me put it together like would not have been able to happen without my buddy Andy, Phil Matt, their production company AP, AP and M media. Because this has truly been an idea that I have had since I got in real estate. It’s been this was truly a passion project. So it was it was really cool that I’ve met these guys within the last year. And some other people that made some of the other connections like being able to borrow a private jet, being able to utilize an airplane hangar for an afternoon. So very lucky to have been able to met these people that can make this thing happen in the last year. As far as writing the song, so it’s been an idea for four years. Finally, like when I sat down and wrote the song. I was sipping on some bourbon and it may be
the best idea maybe.
Yeah, you know, lucid, I’ve got the creative juices flowing a little bit, maybe took two hours to write a song, you know, and it’s like the Pareto principle for the song and anything like 80% of it happened like that. It was that last 20% that you know, takes the hour and a half so sat down write it these guys are in a band as well. So they tracked it they recorded the song I think I spent a couple hours in their recording studio. That’s your voice right? It is my voice it’s definitely you know, Ben blink rate too, is layered and auto tuned and so I’m I am not a horrible singer. You know, I have my my range and
my stone I would listen to it on the radio, but yeah, I
mean, it’s it definitely. I’m not a bad singer either. And it helped to have them kind of cleaning up and stuff so and having all that professionally done made it the production It was, I don’t even want to know how long they went in and edited and taken all that stuff. Because then the next aspect of it took about 12 and a half hours of shooting. So it was a full
one a one day, or do you guys do multiple is
one day. And the video actually almost did not happen. So, you know, that’s the other thing too. Like, I’m not some viral internet star. I mean, this video went viral. Yes, but I’m selling houses like, like we talked about, you know, I did 6770 transactions last year, another 35 or so this year, the video almost didn’t happen. I almost cancelled it because I was flipping a condo selling a bunch of houses. And I was just I was just too overwhelmed. So they talked me back off the ledge. And I was like, okay, we can do this thing, but it has to happen in one day. So yeah, the 12 and a half hour day of shooting and,
and it was a total cost.
So I promised the guys I wouldn’t really talk too much about costs. One of the things that I am going to say though, is if you are looking to do something like this, you know, definitely find and leverage people that are your friends that can make it happen. They were when I met these guys and told them about my dream, they like all pulled up like a sleeve, like on their shirt or like their leg and like they’ll blink ray to tattoos. Like they are absolutely obsessed. So it was a passion project for them as well. So, literally, you know, I would say that I got a really good deal. I pay pennies on the dollar for this because I mean, it’s it’s a 10s of 1000s of dollar production. Yeah, it’s probably
you could like you could that’s probably a five to 10 Yeah, 10,000 approach on a budget. And a lot of times people were like, oh, and I get this all the time, like, oh, what’s my ROI gonna be I’m not going to spend money on video of people who are scared to spend $300 on a video. But the What happens though, it’s not more content that people that that do it. It’s more impact the content you create makes. And a lot of people will come in our candidate Cory ball, who real estate marketing do we want you guys to do we want to do eight videos a month, I’m like, one, you’ll never do that consistently to your burnout. And three, it’s going to be boring to shit. It’s not more content, I would much rather have one viral video than 40 videos. It’s the impact that your content makes guys that really generates the attention. So it makes sense to go all in on a video like that because it pencils it makes sense. But people always think that hey, I’m just gonna go get on video because my real estate coach told me to go get video and check a box doesn’t work that way falls on deaf ears unless you really dial in your message, your brand, your persona, and more importantly your authenticity. I love that dude, that’s really really cool. What are you planning on doing next? And how much content are you creating a month with like rode realtor? Because you can’t do one of these once a month? It’s way too much. So what are you doing? What do you How is your normal monthly robed realtor marketing plan work?
Yeah, so I guess as far as what’s next for me, I’m still waiting for you know, Mark compass, or Travis Barker or Tom DeLonge to reach out and collab on something. So if anybody knows them, that’s listening. Let’s let’s get them in touch. Now, so I would like to do something like this and let you know because it was fun. Like I said, Truly a passion project the the virality of it was a cool extra bonus for sure. So I would like to do something like this probably, you know, once a quarter or once a year I’m doing something this fun, this level of production quality. Other than that, as far as other videos, because because it really is about the consistency it is like you said the impact of the video is the most important thing. So doing my listings and again, like it doesn’t have to be some crazy, super expensive production. You want it to be quality, you want it to be different you want your brand and you to stand out when you’re doing these things, but you know, just getting in front of the camera. So I do a video walkthrough for all my listings and I do try and incorporate a flash of who I am, you know, whether it’s shot, I’ve shot them beers on the porches, I’ve, you know, played played the drums and you know, just kind of doing goofy different stuff. So, continuing to do that for my listings. I’ve been very lucky to have a nice steady stream of listings. That’s all the leverage that
that provides the platform for consistency right there like I was doing Brad McCallum I think that’s Brad’s name brand apologist by all right, alright, McCallum so I had Brett, he Brad’s on the show. And his whole video strategy is just the listings, and he’s just really good on video. He doesn’t he’s not going out. It’s just when he gets listings. He does a video but he’s so him. His wife are so good at capturing attention. And I see that with a lot of yours. You guys don’t have to overthink this whole thing. You know, it’s a lot simpler than you think if you everything you guys do is content. Right? I mean, it’s all content that I seen one where you were like in a listing if I recall and you’re in a bath have, like sort of, like just relaxing in the robe. And then you’re just that was like the intro, I believe. But I just remember the robe Realtor in the bathtub, like being a realtor. And then that’s what I remember of that listing video, which is I just made that connection. that’s top of mind guys.
Yep. Top of Mind. And then, you know, it’s like, well, what if I’m not getting listings? I don’t I don’t have any listings. That’s, that’s great. But I work mostly with buyers, right? Do this, okay, then, you know, I also try and do a market Monday update, you know, I need to be better about it. But getting on every Monday doing a live video talking about what’s going out of the market, or things that I have coming up that I’m excited about, you know, and you do like, you have to talk about yourself, you have to brag about yourself a little bit, you know, you’ve got to be in front of people. So, getting a couple of pieces of content out a week, especially video is kind of Pinnacle, in what I’m trying to continue to do. And then you had that boy buzz recommendation the the last time that I forgot about that. That’s cool. Yes, you know, sitting down, you know, just different stuff because everything is the same. So sitting down with local business owners talking about what they do talking about the community. I’ll be bringing that back here soon to
you’re going to do it in a robe.
Probably not let us unless it’s an establishment that warrants robe I actually did one last year at a medical grade esthetics is when they do facial facial treatments and stuff. And I was I was in my room for that one and I got a cucumber mask treatment, charcoal something or another. So yeah, if the business warrants the robe, that’ll be there. But I was
I could I just picture this like kind of Billboard i 94, from Illinois to Wisconsin and Yoona robes because a lot more lacks relaxing north of the border.
I like it. I like it. But I, I’ve looked into billboards, and I don’t know whether I want a billboard for you know, an actual marketing and ROI return or whether there might be like a little bit of ego kind of involved there. You know, like, look at me on a billboard, I, I truly you need you need to spend money in your business agents, it’s important. Like, you have to spend money to make money if you want to get to the top. But I’m also try, I try and be pretty lean with with some of that spending as well. And especially if you can create this sphere of people, which is the most important aspect of your business, you talk about it on your show all the time, you know, remind these people, you can do that organically, for free, and people will become your biggest advocates and share and tell people about you. Say I, maybe maybe you’ll see me on a billboard the next time here.
Do you buy any leads? On all your sources of business? What do you attribute it to? 60 To 70 transactions. So you don’t have a team? It’s just you and I believe your girlfriend, right?
Fiance now Yonsei, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. We brought I brought her on this year to help kind of run the administrative stuff in the background. But yeah, it’s just been me up until this point. That’s
a lot of transactions, guys. 60 To 7030 to 40 is a lot for an individual agent. Like a lot. I mean, that’s a lot of it. That’s a lot of work. You’re busy, you’re busy.
It’s a hassle. It’s a 24/7 thing, but you’re very lucky to be I’m very lucky to get to do what I do. I’m very passionate about it. It is a career and a hobby for me. So yeah, but yeah, most of that business is coming from my sphere of influence from people who know me and see me, I do pay for some leads here and there. Because I do believe in versus diversifying. I don’t want to get wrapped around but I got I got the Zillow but a very minimal budget in a you know, for me it is more to stay, you know, to appear in search results and things like that. And yeah, but the couple calls that I get here and there maybe they turn into something, maybe they don’t, but it is just one extra platform that I kind of, I feel like you’re gonna be involved in
one of the things I hear all the time is all my database already knows what I’m doing. I’m already doing as much as I can on my job is trust me, I’m getting the most amount of business out of my database. People tell me that all the time. And I go, Okay, how many transactions you do last year to be like 20? Like how many Facebook friends you have, like 1500 ago, dude, you got cheated on like 40 times last year? Absolutely not. You’re not generating enough. None of us are guys. Like you got to embrace that because every single person knows someone that could refer you to each year on your Facebook friend list. And if you have 1000 friends and you didn’t get 1000 referrals will tell you that not everyone knows what the hell you do for a living.
Absolutely. And it goes back and it’s attributed to kind of what we were talking about before. What I said before is people don’t remember the space is so crowded and you talk about all the time they don’t mean to cheat on you. It’s just that other people flooded their their view space with their information, their content and now their their care,
their attention. Everyone’s fighting for the same thing without attention. You will never attract but also without content you’ll never build a brand and if you never build a brand you’re just a salesperson chasing another check. You can’t run a business without it. That’s how important content creation is becoming in real estate it’s everything because you really care what doesn’t matter are you getting hired because of your brokerage or you get hired because you
hire because of me? Yeah, you know, I’m I’m not not taking anything away from my brokerage I wouldn’t be able to do the things that I’ve been able to do without the amazing people I have around me. But yeah, it’s it’s it’s me they they want to work with me which is you know, kind of one of the reasons why I love doing the solo agent thing. People are I built my brand my business on me being me and working with directly with with my clients. So it’d be hard to kind of pass that off to somebody else
so awesome dude. Super pumped to see all your success. It’s been awesome to watch you grow. I see you on social all the time. If I don’t comment a lot, I see you a lot of people see you just know that and keep doing what you’re doing, man. What else anything else you want to add on here? I think I got everything I wanted to get out of you today. But what else you want to share with the audience here?
Yeah, man, I, I just want people to know, like, again, I’m super appreciative of like what I get to do and if you’re not doing it from a place of appreciation, you’re not going to be successful. Anyway, if you do have the I’m firm believer that if you have ill intentions like you might do it and make it happen for a little while but you got to be humbled by what you do, you got to enjoy you got to appreciate it, we got to understand that it’s not just you doing either it is i i do take a lot of pride in what I do and what I’ve been able to create. But I also understand that I wouldn’t be where I am without the people that I’ve had around me to help me out that can make it happen. So I don’t know anything about editing videos I don’t really know anything about editing scripts I’m very fortunate where they kind of just come to me it my brain is more wired in that way. But if you’re not doing video and you’re not doing it because like you don’t know what to say and you’re you’re just not wired that way then here’s my point of view and like last point that I want to say is get you a real estate marketing Dude get you the people around you that you need to have to accomplish your goals because you can’t do it alone.
And there’s another bit of wisdom and you might be too young in your career even know this yet but I will tell you every single agent I’ve ever come across as I’ve had four brokerages, three teams I’ve coached trained hundreds of agents we have millions of people on this podcast what a what never changes whenever changes on any of this shit is where business always always comes from but every single agent who starts making money it’s usually around the three to five year mark telling you it happened to me my head blew up so damn big when I was making 50 100 grand a month 120 grand a month back in the day your head grows so big don’t let that shit get to your head because what happens when you start creating content you start doing well like oh I don’t need that video anymore. I don’t need that thing anymore. And that’s what happened to Colin he’s busy I’m doing 70 Fucking deals on beer I don’t have time to go out and do this video. What if you didn’t do that video you know what I mean? Be humble you guys you guys will get you will make money in this business but when you do be grateful for it and don’t start getting that ego because those are the agents and then they always fall on their face. I was one of them. I could tell you guys from firsthand experience I used to make millions of dollars and I fucking lost it all and went bankrupt and I built myself back up. So I will tell you guys that everyone goes through the ego what he just said was probably the best advice on this whole podcast and those of you that are in that three to five year timeframe right now when you’re starting to get that ego Oh my shit don’t stink anymore. Watch out. We’re gonna shift your thinking your shit is gonna stink really quick. All right, so that was great advice. Love that thank you so much for sharing that caller wants to give everyone a plug. If you guys have any southern Wisconsin business you want someone to take good care of them and make you look at your buck and Rockstar give the Colin your referral business com Go ahead and tell everyone how they can follow you reach you and whatnot.
Absolutely thank you for that. Also Northern Illinois so anywhere in Northern Illinois, I can help them as well they are licensed in both states. So if you guys are looking to connect if you want to send some business my way I’d love to take care of them and have fun with your clients. I would also love to talk to you about what I do if you have any questions you know you got a resource like Mike and I want to be a resource and help other people like they’ve helped me so check me out on Instagram at robed realtor and that’s our OB e d r e a l t o r find me on Facebook and Instagram there find me on Tik Tok as well not as active there. Or you know look me up on Facebook Colin Schindler let’s calm with one owl shoot me a friend request send me a message and let’s connect.
Love it dude. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Thank you guys for listening to another episode of estate marketing dude podcast folks, let us help you script and distribute your videos and if you want short form content, we just released that too. Whether you’re doing long form videos and trying to rank on YouTube or you’re creating short form videos for Tik Tok reels, and all the other things that you want to do. If it’s on video, we can do it and we can do it really fucking Well, so call a dude now at www dot real estate market to do.com real estate market to do.com Thanks for listening and we’ll see you guys next week peace. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
There is a recession coming and what are we going to do? For the last seven years I’ve been telling you about the only recession proof business model. The only recession proof business model in real estate is your database, because people are still going to move.
Ryan Kelly and David Casey help realtors all over the country build their brand and better reach their database. Be sure to check their websites out.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast. What we’re up to today, folks is holy shit, there is a recession coming holy shift. Well, things are happening. What are we going to do? You guys have been listening to the show. For the last seven years, I’ve been telling you about the only recession proof business model, the problem has been like if you guys have been listening in and taking my advice or not. And I told you the only recession proof business model in real estate is your database, because people are still going to move. And unfortunately, we’ve been spoiled over the last two years, because let’s be honest, this business was very, very, very, very, very easy. But it’s about to get real. And it’s about to get hard and the only recession proof business model, when shifts happen. This is my third one, guys, I’ve done this for 20 fucking years, listen to what I’m telling you, okay, is your database they will feed you all the time, the problem about 80% of the population is going to have right now and the real estate agent communities and none of them market their database, quite frankly, most of their database even though they are and now you’re going to be struggling because you never took the time to build that database or nurture it effectively because you’ve been converting so many damn Zillow leads. Instead of building a brand people know like and trust. So what we’re doing today is we brought on two gentlemen, on the KC market, these guys are broker owners, they base their entire brokerage just on referral generation. And there’s two different ways we can attract business or generate business either we chase it in prospecting, which is where about 10% of business comes from, or we could attract it, and generate it and manufacture it. And that comes from the people you already know like and trust or know like and trust you. So they built all that brokerage around database marketing, referral marketing, I thought it’d be a really good episode because this is the recession proof business model folks, what’s gonna happen in the next six months depending on your market is that some people are gonna lose their jobs the recession is coming in that means people are lose jobs, and someone’s gonna need to have a problem for them. They’re going to result to the first person they come into contact with. Most times, it’s someone they know if it’s you or not, I don’t know. But what also is going to happen is the cost of living is going through the roof. The affordability in California just came out yesterday 17% index, that’s insane. That’s why everyone’s getting the hell out of here. So we have a lot of things in the economy that are going to happen and people are going to need help. And I’m not saying doom and gloom because shifts are when you big is when you build your brand and make the most amount of money. If you niche down the only niche that I’m telling everyone to do is their database. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and and welcome our guests Mr. David Casey and Ryan Kelly, with Casey first real estate out of Kansas City what’s let’s go prepare, prepare
own. That introduction man 17% inflation in California is
a 17% consumer affordability index. It’s the lowest it’s ever been in, in the history of the state meaning that only 17% I believe how its rise only 70% of people can actually afford to live here.
She gotta get out of there man. I mean, anybody living in California that’s tough
come to Kansas City.
It’s so tough to Kansas City Can I just Kansas City have palm trees? Was Kansas City have a beach in Santa can ride my bike to you gotta bring your own? If so,
we got oceanfront property in Kansas City.
Yes, just a murky lake that’s what it is
the inside of your garage in the back walls painted and there’s a big ocean there and you guys drink beers and stare at
it all day. Oh, exactly. But if you love sports, partying and barbecue that’s us.
Yeah, Midwest I like it. Yeah guys love what
you said earlier about the recession proof with marketing your database video content is definitely where it’s at. We that’s how we built our brand really off of just past clients referrals and all that other stuff. I remember the first time I was targeted to your Facebook ad Mike and generating leads from your referrals in your Soi. That’s when I connected with Mike but man it’s been it’s been life changing just marketing straight to your database your sphere of influence past clients hell I couldn’t I couldn’t get a sphere of influence person to use me for nothing until I started using video content and marketing to those people.
Just because I started thinking you were somebody that’s what happens and everything right um so you guys don’t have brokerage in Kansas City. And I don’t even know if I just introduce you as David Casey Ryan Kelly. You guys are the broker owners in Kansas City and you guys have how many agents now? We’re approaching
80 agents okay and agents to
your guyses unique selling proposition that you attract your agents within you guys attract everyone you’re not like buying agent leads, you know like knocking on their doors are you people are just showing up. You’re attracting them? Yes. What you attracted Business when you’re in production. So you guys base your whole market on database marketing. So I like it. And that’s basically that your thing, right? It is absolutely, yeah,
no, it’s very correct. I think too. It’s, you know, a lot of new agents, when they get in this industry, they don’t really know where to start. And for us, I like we grew up together. So we have a good chemistry, at least we can almost finish each other sentences most of the time. And, like growing up, we were kind of the partiers in high school. So that always was our big thing. Yeah. I mean, you always do on like, a Friday or Saturday night, you come over to my house, and it’s gonna be poppin. And
sneak the bears in the basement, they’ll tell mom, Oh, it’s right through the window. Well,
Zach, uh huh, and so on. So, you know, like we, we drifted apart after high school, I went military, he went to college and worked at a Ford plant. And then when we came back together and merged as a team in Kansas City, we lean right back on events. I mean, it’s, it’s so underutilized in this industry is like, I would summarize it as like any event based strategy to grow your business. And I just want to reduce the friction between the consumer and myself as a professional and how I can service them. And what better way to break the boundaries is come to my party, have some drinks, and let’s talk shop. I mean, make it very casual and easy. So we built a whole model around that.
And you guys did how many? When you guys were in production? How many events were you doing? A year,
for sure, monthly seminars.
They could have been live video on Facebook, they could have been in person, you know, we did a little bit of transitioning there during COVID. But
we always had something like so we advertise you do weekly open houses, that’s an event if you do it, right, monthly seminars. And then you do quarterly events for the clients and those events like we leveraged on the Ford plant, because Ryan, he worked there for a while it’s a Union deal. So everybody’s pretty tight knit. We want to crack the code on how do we, you know, get embedded in that community and capture most of the business that’s occurring?
Should you not our first year, we were able to extract 1% at a 7500 people that work there, we literally sold 75 of them a home. So a stop of marketing to the database.
Yeah, when you’re, let’s define marketing to the database, because most people in agents are gonna be like, hey, well, I need to fucking talk about real estate, like interest rates and all that, like, what’s the content? You guys are talking about? What what is marketing? My database? Me?
Yeah, if we got really tactical, Ryan jumped on that group, he friended everybody he could. So yeah,
they had their special k cap page went to the members added everybody on Facebook. Now I have once they haven’t been back, I was able to push out that video content and buy them to the events. And yeah, it was awesome.
Well, then also what you can do as well, when they accept your friend request, you can ask them to like your personal Facebook page or your professional, and then run boosted posts to friends and friends of friends. So we get some static billboard style ads, we put like a couple of bucks a day behind it. And just we just knew when they were scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, they’d see our faces popping up for home buying journey here home selling, and that we didn’t expect anybody to click on that or reach out to us because of that, but we want to just do ingrain in their in their head that we are real estate in Kansas City. And so now when we invite him to things, I mean, it’s just It’s butter on toast,
low pressure. Come on sell me.
I think the problem that everybody has is they don’t know how to carry on a conversation without talking about work, when the purpose of carrying out has everything to do with it work. I mean, and it’s like, like I would be like like if you just use this example to show but it’s like if you like don’t talk to your significant other like you’re in good divorce like it just what happens, you know, like, well, if you don’t talk with your database, they’re gonna divorce you too and they’re gonna cheat on you with another realtor. So you can’t not talk to him but how you talk to him is extremely important too because you can’t just always be selling your shit like look I get your in real estate guys like shut the fuck up. I don’t care about interest rates right that’s what people will say and that’s why no one wants to read your interest rate or your market update emails that’s crap content market updates. i There’s a place for I’m sure. But is that something that’s going to really like make your database like you’re gonna get a lot of engagement on that stuff? No, because we just have to nurture and just remind that’s well good you guys are so let’s look at their marketing plans. Let’s take dive deep on this. I’m guessing this is what you guys are teaching tell me if I’m right or not. But yeah, weekly open houses when they’re at the open house, they’re doing a live they’re doing stories are doing pictures, they’re sharing all that shit and reminding their networks and all their channels that there’s an open house. They’re probably circle prospecting in the whole neighborhood notifying all them there’s an open house because your goal is to have them have a couple of conversations a day. The second part as they’re doing these monthly seminars, so there’s the authority, hey, we’re doing monthly seminar. It’s not if they show up, who cares if someone shows up. The fact that you’re doing a seminar already tells me you’re an expert, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing a seminar. Correct. Paul Ryan, do you know how to cook?
I gotta watch something. But yeah, absolutely. You do know how to cook. I can cook straight in the
hamburger fryer.
You know how to play croquet? I do not. Okay, so if you got on and started playing croquet for five videos in a row, I guarantee you everyone thinks you’re a fucking professional croquet player. Oh,
very true percent.
That’s how you know, I’ll tell you this right now, Mike. Whenever Ryan first got in real estate, I said, bro, I promise you two weeks of posting videos every single day, you will become the real estate guy in your market. And this was back in 2017. Because I was doing that in Phoenix, Arizona. I had all my friends in Kansas City hitting me up saying can you sell my house my buddies out? I was in military with him in Alaska, Bro, can you help me out all because I was posting videos every day. And then he did it. And it literally like, overnight.
So we’re chasing attention. You know, when I first realized Facebook was like a big lead source. It’s 2011. And we’re crushing short sales at a time this is like Facebook was still a lot of tax video wasn’t on it yet. But I remember I was did an event in Scottsdale and it like 200 people in the room. And the night before the event. I just did this as a test. Like I said something about short sales. And at that time in the market 33 or 32% of the market was underwater nationwide. Wow. So it was literally one in three people own a house. Fuck I needed your help. That’s why we dominated no one else knew how to do it. We’re the only shop in town. And I realized like holy crap, everyone here live somewhere. Everyone here is moving. It’s just a numbers game. You guys, let’s break down the numbers on the gurus. The gurus tell me when I pick up the phone and cold call whatever guru you’re listening to. The Guru is going to say, Hey, you’re one more know from your next Yes, pick up that phone and call how many of your agents can actually pick up a phone and call because that’s how it still works? It’s the problem is that no one has the balls to do it. And no one wants to do it. Right
Mike work works. And people they’re just afraid to do the work. I mean, if you just lean back on the tried and true method, you will get a piece of business from it. Now are you being as tactical as you could be? Maybe not. But I mean, just grabbing the hammer and swinging, you’re gonna get something? Yeah, for sure.
That’s what prospecting is, it’s the grind, but no one ever last because they burn out. Right? No one wants to rejection. But when we’re talking about marketing or brand, it’s really the same thing. Because that’s a mathematical formula, right? You throw enough shit at the wall, eventually, you got to figure out what the ROI is. And then you know what your numbers are? Well, let’s share the ROI with marketing your database, folks, because it is also mathematical. The number one reason I believe people don’t market their database is because they don’t know how to attach an ROI to it. And therefore they never measure the effectiveness of the content they’re creating.
We are huge on numbers and p&l is and you’re 100% right? When we start started doing that accounting, we look back on what actually work, we’re spending, you know, 1000s of dollars. And it was like a sphere of influence. It’s for employees, it’s our events. It’s our Facebook content. It’s our buyer seminars, it wasn’t postcards, $1,500 on billboards and Zillow and all that other stuff. That’s the ego stuff. I had clients coming in knocking on the door saying just lists me, why the hell am I gonna take that Zillow phone call? Yeah, that’s how I got so
why is it that we feel like we’re accomplishing some just because we’re buying leads, even though we’re not following up with them.
It’s that instant gratification.
It’s crazy. You feel like that’s what you should do.
I think that’s where it really comes down to.
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen even people that we’ve worked with. I won’t name any names, but I have someone that we are working with. And we only shot one video like Oh, then they saw another shiny object and then they went to go buy a bunch of leads. I can guarantee you you’re getting your ass kicked right now. Because the time that that happened, and I’m not like talking shit, I’m just being honest. Like, you’re gonna go and you cannot. When a market shifts like this, the numbers all change. So what’s going to happen? My guess is there’s a shitload of teams getting their ass kicked this month, and next month, the ones that are spending 2030 40k a month on lead gen because what happened is, is that the market has changed. Everyone’s your ROI has changed, because you cannot rely on those exact numbers still, because the virus isn’t sentiment change. So if you’re converting at 20% in the previous market, you’re not doing that anymore, because the sentiment has changed. Therefore, you cannot rely on ROI for direct cold marketing in a shift like this. The ROI for warm referral marketing is very simple guys. 10 to 15% of your people move this year 10 to 15% of the people on your Facebook feed your IG feed your LinkedIn followers, your email list, your direct mail 10 to 15% of people that you walk across in the grocery store. 10 to 15% of the kids parents are the shockers game so your kids soccer games, at the gym that you walk through that you drive by. That’s the number the business has always been right in front of us. Most don’t know it yet. And this recession there’s gonna be a lot of people gonna have to move they don’t know yet. Trust me. So really,
if you’ve got 1000 folks that know you like you and trust you, I mean you’re converting 100 to 150 people.
Well, you’re not converting them. Yeah, because most of them don’t know what you do yet until they do. Yeah, which is why you create content. You know, there’s some
people though that’s there’s 100
to 150 opportunities in there. Yeah.
And when you do, what’s the the numbers? I, I’ve been told this for a long time you get 2000 people in your database, you should have a million dollar business if yes, nurtured effectively,
if they all know what you do correct, because those are the numbers now, here. And here’s the other half, though. But in most people when they market their database, they do it for their direct business. No. Because 100% of the 1000 people you just mentioned, have a referral for you. Yeah, because everybody knows someone who’s moving this year, actually. So when you chase referrals, you naturally attract direct. Right? It’s when you chase sales, you don’t attract anyone, because everyone knows you’re just on a soapbox selling your shit.
Exactly. Yeah. And you know, that’s why we were so heavy on events, because you get so tired of sending that same message out of, hey, I’m in real estate, do you need to buy a house? Do you need to sell your house? I mean, go through your Facebook message thread and see how many times you sent that to the same person. They keep ignoring it. Yeah, they turtle at that point, people actually
do that, like people actually Facebook Messenger and just cold call people, hey, you need to buy out like you guys are doing that. Don’t ever do that again,
you know, don’t ever do that. And that’s why like, I want that random coffee shop interaction where I find somebody who I maybe went to high school with or a past client or a friend of a friend. And they say, Oh, hey, what’s going on? And then it casually comes up that maybe they’re looking to buy a house. And instead of me jumping straight into sales mode of talk to my lender, which I could obviously do, if that’s what they want to do, hey, I’m doing a seminar this week, you should probably tune into it or come by we have some we’re giving away gift cards and friend food bring some friends like it’s gonna be a good time come hang out, learn about real estate. That’s, that’s one of the sales pitch.
It’s good. Well, it’s more about the touches. Like I don’t care if they show up to your event, the facts like oh my god, David’s have an event that guy must be doing something right. Maybe I don’t mind the market yet. But I’ll take a mental note of
that in there every month. So if you miss this month, come next month, no big deal. We’re always doing it low pressure. You know, if you ever read the book, seven levels of communication, they talk about this. And it’s like a layer. It’s exactly okay. And so, you know, it’s Casey.
Yeah, he was, he was like Leawood or the Kansas, Kansas somewhere around
there. And, yeah, we actually did a, like a little one on one with Him with our company. And, man, the nuggets he dropped, it’s all about the invite at the event is cool, you know, bring it all the 100% button, then as a follow up to the people who showed our you couldn’t make it. Yeah,
so let’s do. You’re exactly right. When I was in Chicago, we saved these mega events, the largest one ever had, I think had 850 People show, it’s not bad. And we would run a nightclub out because the nightclubs didn’t have a kitchen to close down. So it’s the cheapest and that would sponsor the liquor. And from my girlfriend at the time worked at Bacardi or some somebody was I had all the ship paid for and I had all of our vendors, but we would have 800 people. And the reason why we would that we did it twice in a row two years in a row. And the reason why we did the events wasn’t for who showed up, it was for all the touches around it. Because I know when we’re doing an event, we sent out direct mail piece, so did all 15 of our agents, then all 15 of our agents send out email pieces, and we ran ads even for the event. And then once we were at the event, we shook hands kiss babies, and then we are done with the event. We sent them back the video from the event of the time that they missed. And then we repurpose the whole damn thing. And you get a bunch of video footage from the event. You get a bunch of testimonials. There’s just so much content there. But you’re right, I would get business from it every damn time. And we would spend about 15k on these things are out of pocket. But it penciled in like 6090 days. Yeah, because of how many connections that you have there. And I would get some of the agents would invite some of their clients. And it was my event. And they didn’t sponsor and I ended up selling their clients shit. They forgot who they were, they just ran in there from a friend of a friend. And I remember what’s one of your events a day, they’re invited from a friend of a friend of a friend and all sudden they became a client. Yeah, this is about attention, folks. This is all this is attention. Attention, attention, attention attention. So let’s get into you guys have an agent accelerator program in your office. And I’m actually going to Kansas City. What am I going against pomp August 4, August, August 4, we’re gonna be having an event in Kansas City. So if you’re in there, you guys can go to that event. If you’re in the area if you want to fly in. That’s cool. But why don’t you what we’re focusing on as a sole agent accelerator program. Walk me through it. How does it work? What do we do? What is Agent accelerator?
Yeah, Agent accelerators. We basically dissected what worked in our business, how we were able to get 30 closings stacked into one month as a team during a pandemic, our tried and true principles. And then we’re bringing in some heavy hitters as well that are growing massive offices running powerful teams, and really getting after it national speakers as well. And they’re going to open up their playbook. We’re going to take you from day one agents to even seasoned vets and show you how you can implement these practices into your business and crush it in your local market. It’s going to be an awesome event. We’re gonna have a lot of content around that as well. So you’re gonna get some free resources from each of the speakers to downloadable PDFs, things you can implement in your business right away. This event is It’s very cheap considering the amount of information and knowledge you’re going to get.
If you don’t get that much value from this event you didn’t show up, you didn’t
show you’re not implementing you weren’t paying attention, you should be able to get at least one piece of business for sure. With some of the tips and tricks that are going to be shown here. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Like get get your tickets, let’s go into some of the topics we’re gonna be chatting about, I want to know specifically on how you guys work the system, like if I’m an agent in Kansas City, I come into your guys, what does your system look like? What are the touches? Let’s break it down.
Yeah, so I mean, it really depends on if you’re brand spanking new. I mean, it’s the basics. It’s like, Do you have a Facebook? Or like, Do you have a friend group? Like, where can we start pulling business from because like you said, we grew our business off of referrals, people that know us, like us, and trust us. And we parlayed that into friends of friends, and then an outer circle of that. So we got to know where you’re starting from first, because not everybody is exactly the same. But bare bones right off the bat, you need a website CRM, you need a funnel that you can capture clients through, I call these mouse traps. We just need to get you into a rhythm. So hook you up on our website, CRM, show you how to run some free Facebook posts online, let’s get some passive buyers rolling through just some Facebook messages people to practice on essentially, what a second race? Yeah, we’re doing scripts, I’m gonna get you inside of a house of vacant home, you’re gonna start doing some home tours, let’s get you comfortable opening doors, showing off properties and demonstrating to your sphere of influence within that first two weeks. Hey, I’m in real estate, I’m taking it serious. I’m excited about it. And I’m here to help.
So you got to force them to create content, in a sense,
absolutely have to will pull out the camera right in front of them, hey, it’s showtime go.
Yeah, like we need to get them out of their own head. And we need to just get them comfortable just being in promotion mode. Because at the end of the day, we’re marketers, this is a contact sport. If you’re gonna stay in your turtle shell and not come out, I’m sorry, it’s gonna be very rough industry for you. Like it’s, it’s gonna be tough.
What’s a better way to learn your scripts and how to talk to people to convert them through video. Like when you do that through video, you learn your pitch, you learn exactly what you’re pitching. And then when you talk to real live people, you’ve already been through it. Like it. So
those are some of the basics, you know, we can start there and then just start building off of that. We got tactical strips, we want scripts, we want you to message certain things to your entire database, you need to have some type of intro to that your Hey, now I’m a real estate agent. A tip for some of these agents too, that work really well. Those Welcome to the Office posts, those ones where you get tons of shares your whole family, you know, bloodline loves it shares it, comments on it, all your high school friends, I mean, some agents will roll in here, not knowing what to do. But they’ll have 400 likes, loves and comments on their posts. that’s those are your raving fans right there. Hit every single one of them up. And you know, it’s not the typical, hey, like if you know anybody or you know, it’s not, it’s not your typical hammer real estate agent, let me know if you want to buy or sell a house. It’s a little more specific. And so the message that we think you should send out right up front, and if you know a better one, I’d love to hear it. But it’s worked out well for us is, hey, with inventory being so low, we have some buyers that are looking to find a home if you know anything off market, please let me know or Nova may looking to sell. It’s some variation of that. But it’s a showcasing the fact that you have some type of buyer pool and be that you’re trying to find off market homes for them going the extra mile. And if they know of anybody to let me know. And you’re not asking for direct business,
one of
our brand new agents are getting contacted Phil on that point.
Um, at that point, I think we just let the conversation unfold. But usually it’s people you already know. So it should be like a friend or like a sister or something like that email phone number, put them in the database. And so we actually have one of our newer agents she got she got three listings from that one. Message blast. And that’s just easy, because it’s,
let’s, let’s do the math on it. Alright, so let’s go back to gerbil. Yeah. Where’s your next? Yes, from your next No? It? Well, it’s 10 to 15% of people are moving directly, but 100% of people have referral for you. So you’re right, what you’ll see naturally is that one out of 10 calls one out of 20 calls will be people probably moving directly in the next few months. Because remember, out of that 10 to 15% Most don’t know they’re moving yet. This year, there’s gonna be life situations that happen. So that’s why that number is always cut in half. But 100% of the people have referral for you. I used to do some similar, but I would just invite them to a party and I would just even if I didn’t have the party. Yes. Yeah. Like I loved the whole reason I had party is just to build a database. I’m like, yo, what’s up, dude and talk to you? Well, hey, what’s your address? What’s your email I’m sending as party. We’re gonna get everyone together and see neighbor, well, then what do you have in a party for? Oh, it’s my real estate company. And then there goes in like that would always work. Well, and because no one ever says no to a party invite. And then when at the party, you’d have to sign in so we would get the direct mail and then we would have a raffle. For so I would get direct mail build a direct mail list everyone signs in with an email list and then all of that shit just gets retargeted for for life essentially, but yeah you just have to have that initial excuse a value and start the conversation off because if you don’t own the data like if you don’t have an email address if you’re not friends with them on Facebook if you don’t have their phone number you can’t market them can you?
No you can’t and I love that that party event because then it parlays into you should be setting an open house right away get some reps in go to or some open houses if you’re uncomfortable see how other agents are doing it they’re probably pretty lazy got three signs out total if that the doors probably shut it
down that would be me right there
make some video content I was I was
just hoping no one will show up I’m like hey no one’s showing up I’m gonna sit out here smoke a hitter and hope no one comes in the wall comes in the door that was me when I was 25 years old.
Our our mega open houses man we would we would door knock and flyer drop the neighborhood promoted. Promoted aggressively.
You got a 60 foot gorilla outside of one of those. Back toss
in the front yard. We’re grilling, cooking hot dogs for people we get 20 to 40 people roll through
that. Neighbors. I’ve seen a lot of people do like Taco events and that would be really fun. Like do like a world WWF event the front yard of an open house. There’s like two guys out there rustling or just have like sumo wrestlers in front of an open house just in the grass. So I’m sumo wrestlers have an open house. What the fuck? Who cares? Like that’s the stuff that people look at me like, What the hell are you doing? Oh my god. Oh, the realtors. The realtors that have that sumo wrestler at the house? Yeah, there’s got to be that one thing that the connection
has to be Yeah, that’s huge. Um, yeah, I mean, I closed my biggest deal from Dornoch or from open houses by doing an air pods giveaway. It was like a $780,000 by
the only the person that one was the unrepresented buyer who’s serious. They want out of a hat and there’s like 30 names and they’re all the same person. I
mean, you could go crazy with this stuff. That’s why I love open houses you can build, you can really hype and even up get a whole neighborhood involved. And if you do it consistent enough, you’re going to become the authority.
So your open houses though you’re making an event out of it. Is it absolutely okay, so let’s go into that a little bit more. It’s not just an open house. Let’s go to some more examples. It’s fun. So you’re creating an event. Okay. I didn’t catch that first time. It’s not just an open house. It’s an event open house. So there’s either like a taco truck or something different.
Absolutely. I mean, like we would do these repetitively. Every week it was there’s a flow Monday, we were following up with open house doing the giveaway, and we do the raffle live. And I’d go give it to him and do a picture. And then we were all into Tuesday kind of game plan for the next one. Wednesday, I’m locking down the open house. This is when homes are sitting a little bit longer, too. And then Thursday or Friday, I’m flyer dropping, I’m doing some type of promotion getting out there in the streets. And then come Friday or the actual day, the open house, whether it’s a Saturday or Sunday, we’re putting a lot of promotion behind it. Oh, well, I miss Friday, I’m shooting some promo videos for the giveaways I’m doing targeted. So short, little like six second video clip, stop by my open house to win this free Amazon gift card.
And you want to win a free Amazon gift card while he goes out to the open house at 123. Charlie?
Exactly. We do some of those, I would target those before Facebook had to open up your real estate ads to 15 miles, you could do them to really condense ratio, or radius and we would do those and just try to get as creative as possible. And just make it fun. Um, and so yeah, like I call it running for mayor. So anytime I do one of those I deploy that strategy as if I’m running for office in that neighborhood. But yeah, that’s just one of the events. That’s just one of them.
And then the monthly seminars are probably like food, are they were they doing these monthly seminars? Your agents, they do them at the office? I think them in their house? What are they do? They do pop by dates? Like what are the
we would do them at the office? The number one trick that we had found had so much success for one of our buyer seminars. I mean, we had our vendors there and they’re like, Hey, guys, we come to these a lot. If no one shows up, no hard feelings, we’ll just hang out, literally had a line out the door. The tactic that we had used was we created an event on Eventbrite monthly seminars for buyers, we would copy that link, and we post it all of our friends on Facebook, man, could you like and share this page, and then they share it on their Facebook page, they would get interactions we’d have like 65 shares, and then you just take that little link, you send it to your database on Well, we use chime technologies at the time but you send it out as a mass text mass email with a little video Hey, we we help so many buyers answer their questions and it’s crazy much points.
Yeah.
And you know, whenever we’re send this out to our friends and all that stuff, we’re never asking them to come. We’re saying can you share this can you promote this and then letting the conversations unravel naturally?
You have 46 shares, you’re gonna have some people you know, it’s like
the end algae I heard Grant Cardone say this once but he’s like you know in sales you have a choice to either be Rambo with the with the 50 Cal blasted down trees in the woods shoot and everything or you can be the predator and and you know people they think they want to be Rambo just shouting asking for the sale like closing them hard when in reality you want to be that person that sneaks up right behind him didn’t even see you all the all the asks all the Hey, do you know this person all that whenever it comes time for that person to make a decision, you never asked him directly, but they’ve you’ve been in contact so casually. Yeah, they’re thinking of you. And now in that aspect, you’re the predator. And and that’s I believe you should be marketing.
So there’s a constant or a consistent theme here. And it’s three words long, it’s the center of attention. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Be the center of attention amongst your database,
we would have that we were so consistent with a follow up and stuff, they would feel bad if they use another realtor, then it’d be like, ah, Ryan, sorry. But you know, my sister, she was a realtor. So I hope there’s no hard feelings. Hey, absolutely. Get it, it happens. Do you know anyone else that would use that? Oh, you’re
nice. You’re nice. I’d be like, what’s what? What did you just do to me? Uh huh.
No, my language,
you know, we had to make one of our core values. First, because man, we went through so many different like struggles with people using other agents or, or not even that, but like, like, just deals falling apart, and just things just going crazy or haywire. So when you’re closing a lot of volume, I mean, you didn’t have anything. And so our motto was relationships first. So any of those situations, it’s like, hey, because nobody wants to feel bad like that, you know, they already feel bad. Like the example rounds us and so if we come out, and we combat, you know, somebody who feels like they don’t want to talk to us right now, because they should have used us but they didn’t. And they don’t want to tell us what they do. And then we come at him. And we’re aggression. We’re aggressive. We’re using aggression as, as our tool in that moment, it’s just not going to create a win at all.
We’re like, hey, congratulations, great house. Who else? You know,
we already took the L, we already took the L on the chin. We don’t need to make it a worse situation. So how can we extract something good out of this, it’s gonna benefit us
because I wouldn’t I would not have that patience. Personally, I had a good friend of mine before. I love Chicago. I had a good friend of mine. Now we’re friends again, but we weren’t for a couple years. And then one of my other like best friends who I trained in real estate, right? backdoored me with my other best friend. And then they didn’t tell me about it until after I saw the closing at $750,000. I was like, bro, you guys first I trained you. I’ve sold you four houses. How did this happen? Behind my back? Yeah. And I remember that day. And I was like, Dude, I got I get I get pissed about that kind of stuff. I don’t know how to do that. Well, how you guys handle it is how you should do it. Yeah,
I mean, do we just go on offense? Like, I want to prove you so wrong. And that decision, I’m going to be this the real estate celebrity now. And the number one thing that I’ve learned in this business is you want to create more people working for you than against you. Like, you got that one person working against you. I mean, you’re taking a loss time since
how do they say like one good review gets shared twice, but a bad review gets shared 10 times or something like that, or as a
post and I think it was in lab coats or maybe real closers the other day have an agent on this exact topic similar and they’re like, I’d like to say the situation was a seller canceled the contract, and they’re a buyer or something, and the agent still went after him for the commission. And they should have they should have just chalked it up and left, you know, but they’re like, No, I worked hard for this money. And I’m like, Dude, the negative publicity just on you putting this on Facebook yet alone. Their database like that one person who talks bad about you will cost you a lot more than it felt good talking about about them.
Exactly. So we just, you know, we we scream internally, when we close the door, we’re like, Buck. All right, we got that out. Okay, let’s just ask how do we extract the when it’s like that agent that goes on a listing appointment? And because instead of that, they don’t want to take a 6% commission they do. Like the buyer or seller wants a 4% and they walk away from it when the vise 95% of the work yeah, that was me to probably just put a sign in the yard, get it under contract and collect your little bit of coins and just move on. Or you’re not gonna get 80% of the work, you’re gonna walk away with nothing. So how do you extract the wind out of anything? What’s your value? What’s your time worth? And there are situations where you should say no, we’re not being disrespected. I have a whole course on that inside of our, our new agent orientation, where I go in depth on that because there are times we should draw the line because people do get a little confused. We say relationships first, you want more people playing for you than against you. But there comes a time where people are just flat out disrespectful.
Yeah, that is well that’s the entire purpose of building a brand when you when you start off in real estate, you’re gonna have some shitty clients I mean, you got to do what you got to do. It’s a grind the first two years you’re gonna have to put in the work to make it but the entire just to put me on the same page or the entire purpose of building up Mirantis so that you work with people, that one come to you, but there if they come to you, that means they’re also more than likely just like you like you’re you should enjoy. That’s what attraction is. You can attract people you don’t get along with it just doesn’t work. It’s just not by the law of attraction like, like, that’s not the way God wrote the rule doesn’t work this way. Like, I could be me. And I’m not gonna attract anyone. I’m not like, because I’m being me. No. So like, I wouldn’t, I will repel attorneys or anyone with a suit on to be honest with you, like, I will repel the shit out of you. You guys aren’t my clientele. But I know that and I’m fine with it. Right? Right. But I also get all the dudes, the bros the chicks, and all that, because that’s part of my brand. And they all live somewhere and some of them are really rich. So that’s fine by me. salutely Yeah,
no, that’s 100% True. I think you got to find your niche, your group. I mean, that’s why whenever we leaned on events and trying to grow our business based off of those activities, we looked at, okay, where’s most of our business coming from and what feels most natural to us, and we just leaned in on it. Now, I don’t necessarily, I don’t gravitate towards like big bikers with a bunch of tattoos. But if they work at the Ford plant in, they fit that niche group. They’re, they’re my guy. Yeah. And like, you know, so it just, it just goes like, what kind of category are you going to market towards? One thing I’ll share with you too, how we infiltrate some neighborhoods. And we did this when we first launched our brokers beautif right before we stepped out of production, but I think if any agent did this in their market, they would crush you just got to do it a couple times. A local neighborhood high price point homes, at least for our area was like five 600,000. Yeah. Which is solid in any market. We said, Hey, we want to do a food truck because they do this pretty often we did a talk. And we said, you know, we want to do it for your neighbors because we sold a couple of houses. One of our past clients was a friend with one of the HOA board members, they let us onto the community page, myself and Ryan, what we did was we promoted the event, say, hey, taco truck, come here Tuesday, whatever time
it was added every member in that. And that HOA page added him on Facebook.
So now we were going to be removed from that group. So we just captured as many friends as we could in that moment. Because now we can retarget them like we discussed earlier in the in this episode. But we did the event blew it out did some video content around it. And literally everybody came up to us and said, Are you guys the new?
What is it? We were the only agents in that
exclusive? Yeah. Are you guys the exclusive
real estate because you had a taco truck? And you did a video?
Yes. And if we would have done that, probably one or two. You know, another time after that, we would have definitely picked up more
luck, I will tell you the number one thing that I took from, you know, social media marketing, doing those video contents, people think you’re a professional.
So not only is the I was gonna, I was gonna ask that question. Not only is the
appointment easier, you get the listing no matter what, if you fuck up, they’re like, You can blame something. And they’re like, No, I mean, Ryan, he, he would never like, I trust Ryan. I trust Ryan like, that’s video and you know, that buyer wasn’t pre qualified or whatever we put the offer in on the house. They’re like, Oh, no, it’s fine, man. And it’s just because they they feel like you are the professional because of all the content that you’ve done. Yeah, can’t go wrong.
No, you’re right. I was gonna say you could probably went into that neighborhood never sold a house in your life. And they were still thought you’re the expert.
Absolutely. That’s the best $600 we ever spent. So does anyone.
There’s an idea I thought about doing that I want to do I just I think a great idea would be to have a junk hauling truck for a neighborhood. Oh, a junk party. I have so much junk that I want to throw out that I can throw on a regular trash and all my neighbors do too. But can you imagine having a just just renting the junk truck and having the neighbor’s pitch and like the junk truck would probably cost you 2500 bucks. Right? Everybody in the neighborhood? Get rid of your junk? I think that would crush it.
I think so too. That’s yeah, that’s actually a really good idea.
Well, you guys test that. I’m just curious. And we’ll do a follow up show on this. Yeah, we’ll try. I’ll get some of my agency. I don’t know if they will. Because I only have three right now. But yeah, I think I think I think they’ll crush it.
I mean, you know, I think getting involved in the community is is is an easy play. It makes a bigger impact. And it shows that you actually care. As much as you’re promoting your business while doing these activities. You’re still doing some bit of good. Yes. Whenever me and Ryan first teamed up together. I said, Dude, we got to do an event and we got to have it not just about real estate. So we partnered up with city Union Mission, the largest nonprofit charity organization in Kansas. Yeah, love it. They gave us a bunch of barrels. We put them at our friends that own restaurants and bars. We didn’t know them really. We just were friends on Facebook. We hit them up in their DMS they can we drop off a barrel. We wrap that barrel around with two logos, the the nonprofit and then our real estate company and we did a coat drive. And then we did a kickoff event for it invited everybody. Everybody in our database came out to it is are at one of the bars. Yeah, no other pub. It’s Sporting Kansas City or football club. It’s soccer here but well yeah, well FC Football Club. And so we came out there and it was a great event good turnout. And then we just kept that going that that. That was a sponsored ad for a year that marketing campaign lasted for six months. They’re like,
Wow, you guys are experts at branding and marketing and attention. And it’s duplicatable. Right? Like as long as you have. I will say this the only time it doesn’t work is when you’re doing this in front of a bunch of people you’ve never met. Is that fair?
Yeah, that’s very fair. Because I tried this in Arizona and it kind of fell on deaf ears. Yeah, I didn’t have a sphere of influence. I didn’t have a database I was building that’s my
problem here. I don’t have the database I have to do lead gen here. But um, you know, my whole my whole business model is very similar you guys out here is that I just blow up brands and then do all the marketing for him. Same thing like you guys are teach given them a system that you have, and they’re really, it. It’s all the same thing. There’s you guys there’s so many ways to generate buzz around your brand. And that’s the key is like you just got to be in front of people. And it’s about reminding people what you do versus telling them
exactly how people who stay consistent going fearless. We have agents that come in first 90 days are closing 10 Plus homes.
What do you think so it’s
what the phone call for sale
by owners to like you’re just crushing like these prospecting type leads as well.
That’s great. All right, final question. Let’s get this wrapped up. We went a little bit over but this is a really good conversation. He doesn’t get a lot out of this. What do you prediction with the market? What would you be doing right now there’s a shift obviously happening I my my opinion, I’d like to get what your guys’s is, what is? What do you drop? What do you keep? What do you do?
All that, dude, okay, this is my take on it. This has always been my take. I love it. If you if you are failing to step foot in this market and really take accountability of your daily actions and prospecting, you are probably living in your own internal recession, and you have been half past five to seven to 10 years, we’ve been in the greatest economic climate for real estate up to this point. And it’s still good because low inventory prices are still rising, there’s still opportunities out there. There’s just buzz going around of other sectors getting demolished crypto, the stock markets, but agents have been in a recession their whole entire career if they haven’t been taking action. That’s why 87% fail. So I think that if you’re putting in these steps that we’ve talked about in this podcast, if you’re if you’re actually implementing to the degree in which you know you should be, you’re going to be just fine, the people who are willing to work, it’s going to keep working, but to those that are just going to keep listening to the narrative of the market is going to crash, whether it crashes or it doesn’t. It’s still there’s people that win in both both climates. So I think it’s all dictated on on you. And what I told Ryan, once he had a slow November, I think I got off the phone with them, or we were on the phone calls. He was crying. He kind of he was
like, Dude, this market is going down my buyers and I don’t have anything and
there’s no subpoena Karen. Yeah, I
get off the phone with him. Well, I just call me back on an offer. And he did say he said, Ryan, the market is not slow, you’re slow. And then the agent she calls and she says so sorry, I didn’t get back with your offer. I had three listing appointments. I’ve got this buyer, I’m shopping. It’s just been a hectic day, I called David back and I’m like, shit did You’re right. I’m just not doing the necessary things to bring the business in.
So that’s my take on it. I mean, regardless, I’m pretty committed to this industry. Obviously, we run a brokerage, we got a bunch of agents, we’ve survived through COVID been in a great market. But at this at the end of the day, 87% fail in this business. And why is that? And it’s not because of a recession. It’s because their lack of effort, since he is huge. So that’s my take on it. Now obviously, there’s headlines going around, and it’s going to be a little bit more difficult to sell homes. Whenever interest rates go up, things start to happen. And we’ll find out what that’s going to look like in a couple of months. You
gotta be a financial advisor at this point, because a lot of people have 100 $200,000 in equity in their current home. So I man, people don’t have 20k that they’re just flipping into another house. They’ve got some serious cash. Is it a good idea to buy at a way higher interest rate? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the better idea is to take that HELOC out on your current home go buy some investment properties. I don’t foresee the market taking a huge decline on prices. I just see the buyer market dwindling a little bit. People holding off stuff like that, but that’s what I see. Yeah,
you guys will be pretty safe in the Midwest case either. You guys gotta get good inbound. I’m estimating a 10 to 20% shift here in SoCal. And I needed it went up 40% Last year, like oh, you know, I mean, like, it’s crazy. And that’s I think you’re sending but a lot of the inbound markets like to Texas, I think is going to be they’ll see a little shift, but all that but the demand is still there, right? So a lot of is gonna be demand and folks just remember you have to correct before you crash. So we don’t want who’s saying there’s going to be a crash. We’ll know right now, but I can tell you once it starts correcting over 1015 20 years out there. We’re crashing. So to be to be tuned, stay, stay tuned to be seen. Awesome show guys. Why don’t you guys go ahead and tell everybody if you guys tell him about the event again, one more time in case you guys guys like what we talked about today coming to this event, this is what we’re talking about the recession proof business model and whatnot. You guys could go out and tee it up, Tom, we’re gonna get tickets.
Yeah, we have an Eventbrite link out and a Facebook event page that’s posted. So we’ll share that with you guys. So you can promote that on this link. But it’s going to be in Kansas City at the Stoney Creek hotel. It’s right next to Bass Pro in independence.
We got it. Yes, Bass Pro and the Kansas City areas get checked out. Yeah, so
gonna be an awesome event. I think you guys are gonna take a lot from it. It’s 10am to 4pm. So it’s an all day, we got some special guests flying in, including Mike are going to be dropping some knowledge. I guarantee you’re going to walk away with a few things you can implement immediately and grow your business.
Oh, man, I appreciate you guys appreciate you for listening to another episode of The Marketing you’d podcast if you need any help. If you’re looking to script edit, build your personal brand, do anything with video, whether it’s coaching, consulting, or you need us to do all the work for you. You’re not going to find a better or more comprehensive video marketing company. Because this is all I do. Dude, I did it for 20 years, so call us www dot real estate marketing.com Thank you for listening to show follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. And guess what I just shot my first 12 short videos, which means I’m gonna be on Tik Tok. And I’m gonna start blowing that up. I’m going all in on short form content right now. And you could follow me I only have like seven Tik Tok followers. So become the eighth, ninth and 10th right now. And you’re gonna see me grow that page to a large audience is my goal in the next six months. So appreciate you guys listening and see you guys next week. Have a good day and don’t chase shiny objects Chase relationships, so it’s all about peace. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule a time to speak with the dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
You know, if you’re gonna get into the business of content creation, the whole reason to create a video is because I want as many people to see it as possible. But it’s not just about shooting the video, you got to distribute it. And then when you’re done distributing it, then you need to multipurpose it.
Zac Shull specializes in repurposing content to maximize its effect on your audience. Be sure to check out his Facebook group.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas to real estate marketing. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast book. So we’re chatting about today is repurposing content creation. Gee, what a what a surprise. I’m gonna show no, but we’re gonna dial in repurposing because we have so many people that I’ll just create videos and let them die to newsfeed. And I’m always like, what’s the point of that? You know, if you’re gonna get into the business of content creation, the whole reason like why create a video is because I want as many people to see it as possible. Right? That’s usually why people take a video, you do videos to get more people to see it. But when you don’t spend the time, it’s not just about shooting the video, you got to distribute it, you have to distribute it. And then when you’re done distribute it, then you need to multipurpose it. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today. How do you get more out of doing less? And how do you squeeze the most amount of content out of your videos? How do you squeeze the most amount of content out everything you’re doing? Right? And it’s all through multi purposing? So we wanted to bring on a guest today. This is what he does. He does a lot of this multi purposing for different coaches and people within the industry and what he does is he multipurpose is a lot of a lot of the content that a lot of these people are creating so they get the most mileage out of it. So we’re gonna go through exactly get some tips from him on what he’s doing, how he’s doing it and why we’re going to be doing it. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our guests. Mr. Zack Shoal. What’s up, dude? Hey, Mike, what’s up, man? I appreciate you having me on. Absolutely. Zack, why don’t you go ahead and tell our our peeps a little bit about who the fuck you are? And what you do, and let’s get into this. Sure, man, that’s not a fucking problem. So.
So I actually have my own podcast and Mike was just on, I really appreciate that. It’s called coaches and content. And basically, we teach people how to get clients through content. And a lot of that’s to repurposing. So that’s on YouTube, all podcast platforms. And then we also we help you produce your own podcast, you know, YouTube and audio. And then we repurpose your long form content in the short content for Tiktok, Instagram, reels, Facebook, all that, because like Mike just said, you know, what, you make one piece of content, you put it out there, and then that’s gone, you have to reuse it as many times as possible, you know, you want to make the most for doing the less, right. So that’s what we do is we help you produce content, whether we coach you, or recorded for you or whatever. And then we take one piece of content, and we stretch it out, you know, 100 different ways. what do what do you think that? Let’s start from the beginning here? And what are most people doing? Right now? Because most people, at least in my world, you’re doing more on the podcast, but we’re both creating content. I do more video sighs I create videos for people and we multipurpose those videos. You’re doing this in podcast, but what most people that do, like what most people are lack of what do they don’t do?
Yeah, I think that it’s like what you said before they make a piece of content, put it out there. And then that’s it. And it’s like you’re spending all this time and effort. So why not maximize your efforts? So I think that’s the thing is they think that you can just post it once and that’s it. When that’s not the case, you know, you can repost it different ways, different different times. And I think people also don’t realize that you can make one clip and post it on all platforms, you know, link, you know, LinkedIn, Instagram, real tick tock Facebook, even YouTube has YouTube shorts now. So I don’t think people realize that you can make one piece of content and put it across all the platforms that are out there, because some people are on different platforms. Some people are on here, some people are there.
So and I always try to tell people, you know, I, for me, personally, my own personal brand is my strategy. And so I try to teach people is I start with Facebook Live. So I’ll do like a five to seven minute Facebook Live. So that goes on Facebook Live. I’ll download the whole thing. Put that on YouTube. Right, and then I’ll turn the audio into a podcast so that now it’s now it’s on the podcast. So you have Facebook Live YouTube, audio of the podcast, and then you could take out you know, but the five to seven minute video, you can pull out to 32nd clips from that one Facebook Live. And that right there is what four different ways to share one video. On top of that, what you could do is which I don’t do but if you had a website and a blog, you could transcribe the words from the video into a blog, turn that into a blog and then post a video and the audio on your blog. And then you can email that to your list. You could post that on social media. So the other thing too is you do a Facebook Live once and then you put it out
On YouTube, so a week later, you can repost the same video, but you just drive everyone to YouTube instead. So you’re basically promoting the same video, then a couple days later, you could post that 32nd clip that you made, and drive people back to YouTube again. So it’s really like, I tried to do everything with purpose, because it takes a lot of time and effort to make content, you know, especially if you’re paying an editor, especially if you’re super busy, do you really want to do everything with purpose and not waste your time. So that’s really a great way to do it. That’s kind of how you can repurpose something multiple times. I’m in the process of doing just that, like with this podcast, like I stopped. The podcast is killing my YouTube channels, I stopped publishing my podcasts on my YouTube channel. And I’m not using the video, I’m using just the audio for the last eight months, because I’ve been so damn busy. And I’m breaking my own rule like, now I’m in the process of cutting up my podcast and meteorite until like the 15 to 3045 second clips, and then that is going to be a lot of my reels. And that’s going to be a lot of my tiktoks. Right, because I don’t have time to I just don’t have time right now, guys. I’m just like, super busy. And I don’t have time to create content, but I know I need to do it. And I haven’t really gotten into my short form game yet. But that’s how I’m going to do it is it’s all going to be repurpose stuff, right? Because everything will be repurposed on stuff that we’ve had, we have so many different clips to use, we’re just putting the process together right now to be able to do that and have it sort of done in the background for me, so don’t have to think too much of it. But you’re right, this show right here that we’re shooting is probably gonna be like 30 minutes.
I could probably create. So here’s what I could do with this podcast right here, you guys, I’ll create the show. There’s a video format. If I wanted to take this video and upload it to YouTube, I could do it. There’s one. The second thing I could do is I could take this 30 minute podcast and cut it up into 30 to 62nd clips. And I could probably get what do you usually get out of these? Like five? The seven? Yeah, if you if you wanted to, I generally do like two or three. But yeah, you could do you could do a lot. I mean, a lot. Yeah. So there’s another five pieces of content, I can take those and distribute them over the next 30 days. I can take this video, and then I do put my podcast back on my website. So there’s another piece of content there. I transcribe the podcasts that I put all the words on the website.
What else can we do? I mean, you could even if you transcribe it, if it’s a video of just you, you know, you could turn that into a piece of email content, you know, a lot of people right, like long form email content, if more so coaches and stuff but you know, you could turn it into a piece of email content. I see a lot of people do that as well. So why is would you agree that content in general, like this whole word content is now finally coming in, in the real estate industry pretty mainstream. But five or six years ago, no one’s talking about creating content.
Nobody. No one’s really talked to ever about credit card. They’re always like chase a chase lineage I am journey object chase a chase leads. Chase leads convert, oh, you’re one more no way for your next Yes, shut the fuck up.
Like seriously, no one’s talked about creating content. We’re like one of the last businesses in the world to get the content creation. But concentration isn’t anything new. You guys, this has been going around for the last 40 years. Content marketing. Real estate has just never taken it on as much as they are starting to embrace it now. And let’s get through what content can be for real estate agents. So what is the content? What can you What would you tell a real estate agent, a mortgage broker and investor? Who is just doing a daily? They’re working every other day? What can they be creating content on? What if they don’t have a podcast? Well, first, I think you made a good point about the real estate industry, I think that people are just so set in their ways. And so you know, they’re grinding every day, they’re putting their head down there in the trenches. So it just didn’t think about it. But I think the people who started making content early on, you know, like Chris Demacia, I used to work with Krista and she started doing video really super early on, you know, kind of like how you started your podcast super early on. So I think the people who adapted it early on are ahead of the pack. And now people are kind of catching up because they see that it works.
As far as content creation, I mean, it really depends on the person. You know, we used to think that tick tock was just people dancing, and like acting up and looking stupid, but that’s not really the case anymore. It’s all type of content on there. So I always tell people, you have to be who you are. So like, I’m not going to dance. I know you’re not going to dance. So if you’re not going to dance, don’t make that kind of content. Don’t force it because people can tell like, if it’s not really you good, but I think really, you know, like you’re the real estate marketing dude. So you have your brand, you know, like kind of what you’re going to do. So I think it really starts with there is who you are, what you do, you know how comfortable you are sharing your life. Like, you know, I see you post up with your kids all the time. You know, some people aren’t as comfortable doing that. So I think that’s you have to start there first. It’s kind of like branding and marketing. You know, you really want to brand yourself first. You know like Kanye, you know, Tonya and Michael for brand face. Say that all the time. Start with branding first and marketing. So they got to figure out
who you are what you do first, then you can start, Zack, I’m just a real estate agent. No one wants to hear from me. Well, if you’re just a real estate agent and you’re already messing up, because why would anyone do business with someone who’s just a real estate agent? Like, right? I’m boring right answer. Yeah. Yeah. Like that’s, that’s boring. Like there’s a million realtors out there. If you want to stand out, Well, you better figure out who you are real quick, because there’s so many other realtors out there. You know, you really got to dig deep. And it’s okay to be you. You guys like, Zack, you’ve done a lot of content creation for a lot of influencer type people, right? Yeah. And you’ve done a lot of the backgrounds and
you know, at any of the people that you’ve worked with in the past, have you ever has any of them ever been non authentic?
The one that the more authentic you are, the farther you go, you’re a prime example of that, Krista is a great example of that. You know, when she would do videos where she would just wake up in the morning, she didn’t have her makeup done, and I never heard on.
Yeah, she doesn’t give a shit. Yeah, shouldn’t give a shit. And she was saying it on camera. Like I don’t care. This is the real me. Let’s talk about that really quick. So I think I’ve done a couple podcasts
with Krista and like for this is breakdown the let’s break down why that’s so effective. So women in general, like how many women are going to one? Get on Facebook? Better yet? Get on video? Right out of bed. Right? But how many women can relate to that? All of them? Yeah, like 100% of women can relate to not being done up at 630 in the morning when they wake up.
But 99.9% of women don’t have the balls to go out and do it on video. And the one who does they love
right? Because they’re like that’s so just like me. Oh my god. She’s just like, I wish I’d had their fucking guts. Right? Sounds like Miss Piggy. Yeah, I did something Miss Piggy there. I’m gonna try that again.
Goats. But isn’t that the truth though? Like when you see somebody do something that you wish you had the balls to do yourself? You love that?
Yeah, and I think that goes back to the know like and trust factor where they see like, wow, if she’s willing to be on camera with no makeup, you know her hair looking all crazy. You know, I want to do business with her because she’s She must be pretty trustworthy, you would think right? No one hired anyone. They no one ever hired someone they weren’t comfortable with themselves. Right? Like we have you ever like like, would you go hire some dude that you’re like, dude, this guy sucks. Like I don’t want even talk to this guy, yet alone, get in a car with him and drive around and look for a house for the next two years. Two months. Right? You have somebody who’s like kind of shady or like, you just get a bad vibe from them then Yeah, absolutely. You don’t want to do business with them. But you guys this all comes back to content. What we’re talking about here is that your content isn’t supposed to sell your shit supposed to remind people how you sell your shit.
There’s a big difference. Yeah, because if you do, if it is super salesy, then the opposite happens, where they’re like, it’s kind of like realtors are only posts like their listings. Like you, we get it, you know, you sold a house, you have a house for sale, whatever, but nobody cares. I mean, unless they really love the house. But chances are, you know, most people aren’t gonna see that anyway. So the more salesy you are, the more you turn people off, that’s for sure. Here’s the number one most salesy message going around on social media right now, folks, when my parents bought their first house, their interest rate was 14%. To have interest rates at 6% isn’t such a big deal. Like we should really look in hindsight, we’re looking at this all wrong, folks. That’s that’s a sales message. Okay, that’s not what this is about. Well, when your parents house was also at 18%, let’s remind everyone that the fucking loans was only $200,000. And today, those loans are a million dollars. So the properties back then are were worth what they are today. And it’s always come down to total monthly payment. And what a lot of people are doing right now I see on social is driving me nuts is they’re just like, oh, the interest rates, nevermind the interest rates, you know, what people are really worried about right now. They’re worried about the damn gas prices, they’re worried about if they’re gonna get laid off. The interest rates are one of the last things on their mind. But we’re we’re out there creating content talking about hey, oh, the interest rates, the interest rates, don’t be scared to buy, you’re just selling your shit. I guarantee you the person who’s out there right now and talking about, hey, you should probably think twice about buying right now. And wait 30 days and see what the markets gonna do is the Glass Joe fucks up anything else? And if it does, maybe there, you’re gonna have a better deal in the future. Right? So it’s not so much about?
Like, that’s real. That’s real advice. Yeah, I think when you make content you really have to think about you got to realize it’s not about you. I know we’re realtors. You know, it’s all about them. But it’s not about you. It’s the people you make the content for. So rather than being salesy, think about oh, how can I help people? So like you just said, you might want to educate people on what’s going on instead of trying to be salesy and say, Oh, it’s not that bad. You know, whatever. No, you want to teach them, educate them.
And what’s going on serve them, you know, it’s a three either educating entertaining and engaging content, you want to do those three. And that’s really what goes a long way. And that also goes back to the know like and trust factor is, people feel like they know you, they like you and trust you when you’re giving out free vital information, right?
Or you’re muted, and you have to do a lot of it nowadays.
Like you can’t just
like that’s the thing. And that’s where this multipurpose thing comes across. Like, this show right here will cut this thing up into what six or eight different clips, those six, eight different clips. And here’s the other thing with content, at least with videos you guys are creating right now. videos that I’ve created, I’m gonna I’m gonna start recycling all my videos, because no one remembers them. This is one thing that people have already posted that video. No one remembers it, dude. Like you could create, you could do like six months worth of content, and then recycle that six months worth of content again, and I guarantee you like probably no one will ever notice on Facebook. Oh, you did that. We already saw that that one time? Like, do you remember what your best friend posted three days ago? No. Do you remember? What year? Are you married? No. You have a girlfriend? Yeah. Do you know what your girlfriend posted last night? No.
I don’t care. Well, multi purposing content also gives you guys more content to go out there because we do have to be everywhere all the time. So it’s, it’s good to have a lot of a lot of little jabs out there is what I’m getting at guys. Versus
Yeah, I also try to tell people, you know, you want to mix it up, because you make a good point. Like I could post something today, and maybe only 10 People see it anyway. But I try to tell people mix it up between evergreen content and topical stuff, that at the Evergreen stuff you can just recycle. So if you do if you do a video now about mortgage rates, you know, obviously in six months might not be able to use that video. But if you do something about like, first time home buying tips or home staging tips, that’s something that you could reuse multiple times. So you kind of want to mix it in with, you know, relevant stuff. And then evergreen and evergreen for people that don’t know, it’s something that’s timeless, you know, like something factual, or a piece of advice that will never go out of style, like they can always continuously use. So I would always tell people to mix it up. What do you believe are the best types of content to multipurpose podcast is given for sure.
What other types of content? Can we multipurpose? Yeah, so I always say, you know, what, YouTube, I think the sweet spot is kind of like three to seven minutes. So I always I would say make a video. And the other thing I think people don’t realize is like, right now we’re on Zoom, you know, I use stream yard Facebook Live, like you don’t necessarily need like this crazy setup anymore. You know, you can use green screen if you want. But even that, like you don’t need a crazy setup, you don’t need a crazy camera crew, like, as long as you have decent internet and a good, you know, good camera or computer. Like you can record stuff through zoom. So that’s what I do, I use stream yard or zoom. So I would use that to record like a three to seven minute informative educational video. And then I’ve cut clips from that, so that you’re making one long, it’s all about the long form content, right, you make one piece of long form content, and then you can cut pieces up from that. So if you do three tips, three home staging tips, you could literally take all three tips and cut them up into three separate videos as well. And then the context of that would be it’s three separate tips that you can use instead of the whole long form video where it’s three tips. If that. Does that make sense? Yep. Like you could take make one video about three tips, and then cut that up into three pieces. And then it’s one individual tip. And you would just have to edit it a certain way and write the captions in certain ways, or the context makes sense. Yep. See, there’s a lot of stuff you guys that we have out there.
I don’t think that
if you’re in like, here’s what’s happening, I think that right now, you guys have an option opportunity. Let’s face it, like last three, four or five years in the market. I’ve been nuts. People haven’t had to work much to get business. Let’s be honest. It the business has been very easy guys. Business was everywhere, people are just coming to us. But as the shift comes in, you’re gonna have a couple decisions to make one of those decisions to make and what are you gonna spend your money on? Or what do you spend your energy on? And, you know, one of those things is you got to consider nowadays is content, and not so much on how you’re going to create it, anything you do is content, right? You don’t have to if you’re not going to get on video, or you have a face made for radio,
even though I don’t believe anyone does, but you might feel that way inside. Well, then great. You need to do something on audio, or you’re gonna have to create a lot of social content, but everybody is in the business of creating content nowadays. And the faster you get to doing it, it’s not going to happen overnight. But you’re going to start realizing as you learn, it’s learning how I learned how Zack learned here. Like when you first started creating content, it took me like a year and a half to get to understand it. You know, like back it was like 2013 2014 I was like, How can I create business? Just talking I’m not talking about
Real Estate, it was just mind boggling to me. I was always like, wait, what do you mean, I could do a video on a neighborhood and it’s gonna lead to real estate business? Don’t I have to be talking about real estate?
And then I realized it’s just a giant popularity contest? Because no, the more you talk about work, the less people listen.
It’s not about what you talk about. It’s like that it contains one of the three which How do you put the three E’s
educational, entertaining and engaging energy, energy, educational, entertaining, and engaging. So let’s get that let’s give them some examples. Some tangible stuff that you’ll walk away with.
Education mentioned the community ones, sorry to cut you off. But I think they’re doing you know, doing community video that the prime example of that, you know, as long as you’re entertaining, you know, as long as you kind of make it fun and not boring, but I think that’s a great, that’s educational, entertaining, and engaging is go out in the community making these videos, those are one of the best videos I could do, you could do as our community tours, anything on site. But the reason why a lot of people don’t do them is because they take time to do and people don’t want to spend an hour doing a video. I don’t get it. But it is what it is. Yeah, you know, it’s getting so expensive to run ads. And people are not responding to ads like they used to, because we’re so inundated with ads. So I don’t really I mean, I believe in it somewhat. But like running, just running Facebook ads is not as effective as it was, you know, running Google Ads super expensive job with content, you can really attract people rather than chasing them. And it’s significantly lot less cheaper than running ads, it just takes more time, like you were saying,
you either I forget what girl I was listening to. But
it’s like when you start out in real estate, you don’t have a lot of money, but you have a lot of time.
So at that those types of people, you know, you had to put in the sweat equity to get there, right. But you have other people make a lot of money in real estate, and they don’t have a lot of time, but they have the money to pay someone to still get it done for them. So you got to look at which route you’re in. I still believe though that regardless of what you do with content creation, you have to learn it yourself. Otherwise, it’ll never work. And you have to do it yourself. It’s something that you can’t outsource 100% ever because you can’t outsource authenticity. And you know, like, as we could create content for people, we do it all the time, we’ll create well script, whether it was through your videos, but if you’re not into it, it doesn’t work as like you have to mentally be into it to that’s why your content strategy, you have to be excited about what you’re creating. If you’re not it doesn’t last. But I do know that if you’re not creating, you’re not going to last because somebody else is marketing your network. Somebody else is infiltrating you right now. And the only thing we have left and this entire business, I believe, is content creation and your personal brand. You don’t have a brand unless you’re creating content.
Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, it’s not for everyone. And so you definitely have to enjoy it.
But I think more people would enjoy it than they realize. I think there’s a lot of people out there who are scared to do it. And they don’t realize how fun it is, you know, the the best part is, you have the best job you come up with the ideas, you edit it and stuff, but the best part of it is coming up with the ideas and filming it being on camera. And then, you know, if you’re just starting out, I also agree you should learn how to do it, just so that you know and just so you know, people can’t bullshit you with another video company. You might hire them and they might bullshit you and say it cost this much it takes this long. When you do the process yourself. You kind of get a better understanding of how it works, but it’s fun. That’s the big thing to it. I don’t think people realize that they’re scared, but what do you have to lose? You know, besides making yourself look like an ass but who cares? anywheres Yeah, dude, if you’re not scared to show up to a listing appointment, you’re not scared to get on video. It’s just new. Like my first listing appointment. I was shitting bricks. I was like, Holy fuck, I gotta go get a listing. I was 24 years old. And I was like, Dude, this guy’s not gonna take me seriously I don’t even own real estate.
Didn’t I did not go to the listing appointment though. I didn’t get it. But I didn’t go to I did not show up. I still I still went up to bat. You know? And that’s what the same thing is with video. The first time I shot a video I was like, whoa, this weird, dude. I don’t want to do this. This is This is creepy. You know, I’m kind of doing dude, what do I think I’m like Steven Spielberg are some just some dude in Chicago like, you know, shoot a fucking video. What are you talking about, bro?
But you it’s not hard. It’s just new. You have to be willing to be uncomfortable if you’re not constantly, like, if I’m not constantly uncomfortable. I’m fucking not growing. Yeah, comfort comes from the comfort from the discomfort. Yeah, I’ve been uncomfortable as fuck for the last five years.
But I thrive in it. I love it. It’s because I’m always pushing the envelope folks, and you have to be willing to do what others won’t otherwise someone else will do it for you. So video and content creation is just one of those things. If it’s not video, it’s something else. It’s podcasts. If it’s not podcasts, it’s become a real expert become a tick tock expert. Whatever it is. It doesn’t matter but you have to get on this you guys I’m not I’m singing I’m
I don’t need the alarm. We’re not We’re not fucking around over here. Yeah, I’m sounding the alarm is it? I mean, it’s here. It’s here. Like I’m in the process of building my own personal brand and my first couple of videos like I didn’t want to do it. You know, I went, I’m in Philly. So I was at a public park, and I had to get the balls to do a live in the park. Once I hit record, I forgot about everyone around me. I did the video and I get people commenting to me all the time. Like, I love that video you did, blah, blah, blah. So you just have to put yourself out there like you really don’t have what do you have to lose? You really don’t want your pride. You’re scared like put, you know, set all that shit aside and like, just go out there and do it. Because like you said, someone else is doing it in your market. And they’re building their brand and they’re becoming the go to agent in their in their market. And you’re not so who’s really winning in the end? Yep. And a lot of them are working with real estate marketing dude, just throwing it out there, guys just want to throw it out there. Hey, Zack, why don’t you any other final thoughts? You want to mention here?
I think the other thing is, you know, tick tock really changed the landscape and of everything. So the point and shoot style is really what’s big right now. So it’s not really no excuse not to do it you have if you have a cell phone and you have Wi Fi, there’s no excuse not to do it. And tick tock, you can even edit the video in the app or real Instagram real you can edit in the app. So just take baby steps. And it doesn’t have to be anything crazy. You just have to start like that’s what I try to tell people is just start and you’ll figure it out along the way. I agree fail forward. It’s the best way to do it. You learn the hard way. But that’s the only way you learn if everything was easy, you wouldn’t learn anything. And then you just skate through life. But no one wants to skate through life. I want to I want to explore it. I want to fall face first and then I want to figure it out. Zach, why don’t you go ahead and tell everyone your info if you guys want to reach out to him? Sure, yeah, so you can check out my website at Zach show.com. So ZACS Hu ll.com. You can learn more there how we can help your business video editing podcasts producing YouTube page producing. Then I also have my own podcasts called coaches and content that’s on YouTube all podcast platforms. Mike was gracious enough to be on there that episode will be out soon. But we cover a lot of digital marketing live for entrepreneurs and agents, a little bit of lifestyle stuff but it’s all about value and how to help small businesses grow you know whether it’s social media, video editing, sales, whatever. So check out coaches and content oh man appreciate you Zack appreciate you guys listening to another episode of The Marketing dude podcast books if you want to start creating content whether it’s you just need consulting services coaching help, or you want to actually do the work for you script editing, distribute whatever it is regarding video content creation blogging, inner multi purposing we can definitely help you with that and I would love to have the conversation. But regardless of what that is, you have to have the conversation with it’s with me it was Zach it was somebody else it doesn’t matter. Get out there and start getting on video use his time right now to start creating content, come up with a content plan and content strategy that you remain consistent on and watch what happens in the next six months. I mean, there’s a reason why everybody who does video successful everyone who creates content is successful I’ve yet to see someone who’s done any type of content creation consistently for minimum time of three months. Tell me it doesn’t work if you if I’ve never seen it. I’ve never seen anyone create content for three months say Mike this doesn’t work. Like I’ve never seen it and folks, it’s going to work just do it. Double down this is the time to do it. Folks, visit us i real estate marketing do.com That’s real estate marketing do.com and book demo with a dude I’ll get on the call sure exactly what we can help you with there’s coaching services or all the above. And we will see you on next week’s episode. Peace everyone.
Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Today we are talking about how we work on our business, quite often real estate’s a very easy business to literally become a slave to. People think that we can just choose our own hours, we don’t choose our own hours our clients do. And if their clients are choosing our hours for us, that means you have none. So what we have to really do is work very smart.
Jess Lenouvel is the creator of The Listings Lab and has helped thousands of real estate agents manage their time and business to start attracting clients and not chase them.
Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode
How to prepare your business for a market correction
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast. What we’re gonna be chatting about today, folks is, well, let’s be honest, we’re getting to we’re seeing a correction. And during the correction, it’s time to sort of revamp, look at our businesses, our systems, look at all the stuff that we’re actually doing and get ready for it. And one of those things is on how we work on our business, quite often real estate’s a very easy business to, you know, literally like become a slave to like, you can just you don’t own a business people think that we can just like, it’s great, we choose our own hours, we don’t choose our own hours our clients do. And if their clients are choosing our hours for us, that means you have none. So what we have to really do is work very smart. This is something I’m passionate about, I used to always be someone that always stuck working in the business stuck in a hamster wheel. And once I started really studying business, and this isn’t even a real estate thing, it’s a business thing, right? Working on it is more important than working in it, otherwise, you’ll never grow it. So that’s going to be the concept of today. And we have a an author here who just released a book. And it’s doing very, very well number one on both Canada and the United States. So without further ado, she’s going to talk about the concepts of those books. And if you are feeling like you’re running on a hamster wheel, I think you get a lot out of today. So let’s welcome our guests. He’s been on the show before so you guys may know her already. But if not, let’s go just Len Neville
Lenovo. That was really close lead Nerville
I told her. I told you I was gonna butcher your name. But she’s corrected me. But just go ahead and tell everyone who the hell are you?
I am Jess I have been in the real estate space for a long time. I grew up in the industry, got my license at 21. My mom’s been an agent for 35 year odd years, somewhere in and around there. And yeah, I built a multi seven figure team myself and then transitioned out of selling into helping agents scale their businesses through programs. And murder may 17, I released a book called more money less hustle, becoming a seven figure real estate agent, which is it’s out and it’s doing well. And I’m glad I’m grateful and I’m glad and it was a it was a really fun. It was a really fun one to two, I say Right. But to be honest, I didn’t write it. I dictated it. Because it literally just was more of like a stream of consciousness thing than it was something that I like very meticulously kind of sat down and wrote. I never grew up thinking I was gonna write a book. It wasn’t a goal of mine. I got frustrated with a lot of what was out there. And, yeah, I got I got frustrated with what was out there. Because I think that a lot of it is a lot of what is being taught out there is still that hustle grind, you know, crushing it mentality, which is not what I think leads to happy agents. And
it’s a hamster wheel. Like we said, like the business sucks. I I moved to San Diego, so I so I can stop selling real estate, because if I would have stuck in Chicago, I would have still been doing it and I hated it. That’s why I created real estate marketing. I love the marketing side of it. But I am burnt out man, I’m 17 years in the business I’m done. Doesn’t mean I don’t like to be in the business I got I sort of miss it in a sense. But yeah, because it’s so grinding. So let’s get into the principles of the book. Obviously. You’re good on time management and all that. And that’s probably what the number one skill. I think any real estate agent needs a master. But how do we go out and make more money? Less hustle? What do you what do you what are we doing here? What a real estate agents doing wrong?
Yeah, so I mean, the way that I wrote the book is I broke it down into six different pillars, but the ones that are going to really buy back time, like obviously marketing is in there and but but the things that are gonna buy back time are your outs, your automation, your automation operations, outsourcing that side of it, and also the team and hiring aspect of it. And so many agents build teams the wrong way. And we’ve all been trained in like the same way from the very beginning where, you know, you become the bottleneck, and then you hire an assistant or you become the bottleneck and then you hire your first agent. And there’s a step missing in there, because that training and that concept was developed in the 70s in the 80s We have this concept now, which is automation. Right? So Tim Ferriss teaches, you know, eliminate, automate, outsource, it’s the perfect way of going about it, can it be eliminated, can it be automated and then last resort, can it be outsourced, there’s so many agents out there, right now we’re paying a full time salary $50,000 A year or $20, an hour, whatever you’re paying to someone, for them to do repetitive tasks that a piece of software can do for $500 a year. And so not only is it time inefficient, but it’s also money inefficient. So you know, a lot of what this book really is really geared towards is figuring out, what is it that you want? What do you want the business to look like? What do you want your life to look like? What do you want the day to day to look like? And how do we reverse engineer it? But there are certain principles that are going to show up no matter what, which the first one is a task? Got it? Because I think so many agents are misaligned, when it comes to Well, why would I pay someone $30? To do it when I can just do it? Well, it’s because you’re valuing money over time. And if you took that $30 An hour task, and you gave it to someone else paid someone $30 to do it, and you replaced it with $1,000 An hour task, then you’re ahead. And for most people, what they don’t realize is I can do an audit of their time, and look at the value assign an approximate value for the different tasks that they’re doing on a day to day basis. And I can tell them how much money they’re making.
Interesting. So like, we don’t put a value on our time. And that’s really well said, and what do you say to someone, though, that’s like, Hey, I’m just starting in real estate, I’m broke, I don’t know where my next commission is going to be. I don’t know, when I’m gonna get paid. I’m living a life of peaks and valleys. What do we say to them?
You need to be consistent with your marketing. Because really, at the end of the day, like there are like you don’t run a business if you don’t have clients. So there’s like, there’s layers of this right. And and the people are asking me all the time right now is who Who is this book for? Is it for that seasoned agent? Who’s going who’s like, on their way to seven figures? Or is it for a new agent? And my answer is kind of both. And I’m not saying that because I want to sell more books, even though I want to sell more books? The answer is, is that someone who is at half a million, a million, you know, in that range, they’re going to take very different things out of this book than a new agent? Well, sure, the new agent is going to look at the overall the overall, you know, strategies, and how not to make mistakes. Whereas the more seasoned agent, or the or the agent who is at a higher level is going to be reworking things that are not set up the way that they should be in their existing business. So it’s kind of twofold. But usually what I’ll say is like, you know, the marketing piece is going to be piece number one, because I think that in order for you to have a real sustainable business, it really has to it has to be marketing first. So the way that we have the book laid out, is pillar one is marketing. Pillar two is mindset. So it’s how are you actually thinking about your business? Are you are you thinking about the business? Like from a, from like, the mindset of of a successful person? I think so often, what happens is we think of our businesses as small businesses, and so they remain small businesses. Right, so that we then we have clients and signature system, which actually creates better services better late, essentially, the product that you’re selling, and I think that a lot of agents forget, and this is what you know, one of the things that I get quoted on most, you don’t sell real estate, you sell services, and you consult on the sale of real estate. Yep. And so you your your product, which is your service package has to be dialed in and has to be has to be repeatable. So that becomes kind of that next step. Then we’ve got sales conversations or sales conversions, which is, you know, if you’re you can be the best marketer in the world. If you can’t get in front of someone and get that person to that next step. It doesn’t matter what’s going to what, like, it doesn’t matter. Right. Are you actually good at getting someone to that next step?
Let’s stop it right there. back some of these things. Yeah. So first off MT non money making activities let me give you one all you guys trying to edit your own videos, to hire real estate marketing, dude, that is a complete waste of time and you’re not going to be good at it. He didn’t. He was just like, I’m not gonna do anything. That’s why we have editors. But stop editing your own videos and hire me Okay, dammit. But that’s true. You gotta get rid of all those tasks that can be beyond there. But you just said something. It’s really important. You’re right. We’re not salespeople. We’re service people. And you don’t have a service though. If you don’t have anything that is duplicatable and what people often don’t ever think about in real estate at all is what is your process look like? Like what’s your process to working with buyers and sellers? Do you have a consistent gift? Are there systems in place most people don’t they run around with their head cut off and there is nothing duplicatable, which means you’re just a salesperson chasing the check. And if you can’t deliver that service that people remember you don’t have a business like there’s a reason like when you go into a hotel that the beds are all made the same way. Yeah, folded the same way. Right? Yeah. There’s a reason when you go into a restaurant that the food tastes the same. Imagine going into like your favorite restaurant or McDonald’s even McDonald’s is giving me time to different Yeah, well, that’s what happens in real estate. Like you got to have systems I used to have systems for everything I had. When I had a referral. I had a little card I’d send out those automated $10 gift card. I would have a nice to meet you. Thanks for closing gift was the same each and every time. When a clear to close came in the business I had a clear to close gift that I would send the people. I had systems and little customer service touches in a systemized way that we all duplicated. And you’re right you can’t run a business because you can’t have a brand without something that’s duplicatable. And what is duplicatable and your business does your process, people often overlook that. So I’m glad that you touched on that.
There’s a whole section on it on signature systems and how it is connected to each and every piece. If you don’t have a really solid signature process or signature system, then you won’t get as many repeats, you won’t get any referrals, you won’t actually handle as many clients, right? It’s connected. And it usually becomes the bottleneck. I say to people all the time, if I dropped 100 deals on you what would happen? And they’re like, oh, everything would fall apart. Yeah. And it’s like, well, then we need we need systems, we need processes, and we need to make sure that everything in your business is repeatable.
Yep, I like it. I like it. Alright, marketing, let’s unpack that a little bit. What do you see, there’s marketing. And then there’s lead generation, there’s a difference.
100%. Right, I like to break it down. I like to break it down between lead generation, nurture, and then conversion. Because I think that all three of them are very, are three separate things. And when we do like I do this audit, sometimes with businesses where we look at the six different levers that you can pull to grow from a business growth perspective. And lead gen is literally just how many people are coming into your world. And almost 100% of the time when I talk to an agent, I’m like, what, like, what, like, where’s the challenge in your business? I need more leads. I’m like, Do you need more leads? Or do you need more clients? Yes. And they’re like, Well, isn’t that the same thing? No, no, not necessarily. Right? And so the conversation happens, it’s okay, so there’s the lead gen part of it, which I’m kind of, of the mind that like, most people can generate leads. That’s not the hardest part of it. Right?
And you could, you know, you could buy him, you could generate them, you know,
a lot of ways to bring them in. But the magic actually happens in the nurture and the conversion stages, which is how do you get someone and what we teach is the psychological journey from stranger to client. So you know, how do you get someone to touch and touch all of the points that they need to build that elusive know, like and trust, and to be able to have them become from a cold lead to an inbound client, for that person to be reaching out to you to say, hey, you know what, I’d like to have a conversation. I’d like to hear about what you like, I’d like to hear about your services. Yep. Know that that piece is your nurture piece. That’s the piece that most agents don’t have at all. They go straight from lead gen to I’m going to try to call and convert Yeah.
100% There is no, this is all branding, guys. It’s like your personal brand. Let me paint a picture for people. So we have this mortgage broker and I’m rebranding, this is funny, you guys will like this. And I’m rebranding him. And this is what he wants to start is very slim. He wants to get on video, right? He wants to go out and do video do a video but he doesn’t like his brand, which means doesn’t like his process or what he stands for. And his brand is like the mortgage planner. He’s like, like, I’m not a mortgage planner at all, like at all. Like I don’t I don’t plan anything. I’m totally unorganized. Like it doesn’t fit me and therefore he can’t get out of here. That’s what’s holding him back. Yeah, so after you get to know me know, this guy’s like he ends up being a Star Wars nerd. So we rebrand him made the rate be with you is his tagline now, right? And it’s all like Star Wars and he calls himself the Rebel Alliance mortgage team. And now how we’re gonna adapt that into his process is that he has everything done through a Star Wars theme. That’s what people are gonna remember guys, even the way he communicates. So we’re bouncing off ideas, and we’re defining process and all that stuff right now. And you know, like, he Jabba the Hutt is gonna cut the fat out of the loan process, right? Like there’s all kinds of different ways that you can go ahead and create that experience that we’re talking about that people will actually remember. And like There’s who are who are you going to remember more? And who are you going to refer more? Because your services marketing? Yeah. Right. And
that’s what the people most important part is important part. It’s
people remember how you made them feel that’s like, you know, we all hear that st all the time. This is how, like, no one will remember the guy that gets refinanced from Quicken Loans, but they’re gonna remember the Star Wars Darth Vader refinance process forever. And there are a lot more, that’s just how this you take
the edge off of it totally right, like money is stressful real estate is stressful. Yep. And the more streamlined it is, the more the more enjoyable it is. And the more people this is all about human to human connection people buy from humans. Yep. And so a lot of this comes down to you know, are you What does that psychological journey look like? Are you taking them from stranger to client in as much of an automated way as possible? And then is there consistency? Once you get in front of that person or someone on your team gets in front of that person? Are they going through all of this marketing, and then all of a sudden, they’re like, this doesn’t feel the same? Yeah, or this isn’t what I thought that I was signing up for, or I met this person in real life. And like, I just didn’t like them. Because their marketing did was not authentic to who they actually are.
And know what that sort of reminds me of is like, when you show up to a restaurant and meet a client, you’re like, that’s not who I saw in the picture of your day.
And real estate agents love that. Right? It’s like the glamour shot from the agent. That’s what we’re known for. And, and I think that it all it all comes down to like video for one. Anybody who says to Me, I’m completely opposed to doing video. Well, I can’t help you. Yeah, because really like how in today’s day and age, how can you build human connection with someone if you can’t see them on video?
Yep. I agree. It’s not longer optional. It’s necessary.
Yep. Yep. So So there’s, there’s, there’s all of these pieces. Plus Lena, we teach the, we teach the social media stuff, which is like the you know how to do it without throwing a bunch of money behind it. And then we also teach the paid traffic part of it, which is, you know, how to how to do it at scale. And then, you know, there’s, there’s elements of the personal side of it. Sometimes people will say, I’m a very private person. And I’m like, you get to be very private, if you want. But we need to have personal elements. I don’t need you to necessarily talk to me about like your childhood trauma. But I do need to have some personal elements about how much you love your dog. Yeah, right. Like I need.
We don’t we don’t care about we don’t care about your foot fetish. But we need to know that your family man, right,
exactly, exactly. Like Like, what are your values? What matters to you, like, give us something to work with? You get to be incredibly
private, but just, I might turn some people off if I do that.
Well, good. Good, because, you know, I wouldn’t you rather have 1000 people who absolutely love you than 100,000 people who really don’t care. Yeah, who could take or leave you? Right? And that’s really what it comes down to.
I agree. I like let’s get back in the mindset, thing of it. I don’t even mean we’re sort of chatting through it. It’s just how we’re looking at our business. How does that? Yeah, you guys can see some of these ideas that we’re we’re just chatting here. You know, I mean, yeah, this is, but this is a stuff like what’s cool about what I always like about real estate is that everyone’s different, which means every single service should be different, but we don’t see that. That’s why like, I can call myself a dude. And I just started a team here. Give me a year from now, I’ll be glad to report my numbers. But it’s all marketing because I know there’s no other real estate dudes in San Diego. It’s a perfect market to launch it. Dude, Brandon is very coastal. Right? Yeah, so the dude process so that’s what I’m working through right now is I’m putting together like systems and how to dude sell real estate. Yeah, cuz I’m not going to be the one selling real estate. But I have to create a process for agents to follow because none of them have one. But
I need to have consistency. And the scalability of your business is partially based on Is there a repeatable process? And if somebody comes in and works with Sally, well, your dude so like, maybe there’s not a Sally on your team, but it’s the same idea. We could have dude, okay, okay. Okay. So so someone works with Sally versus someone works with Mike, they need to have you know, the personality may not be exactly the same. The conversations may not be exactly the same, but the process needs to be
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. 100% I like it. Let’s get into a little bit on the listing lab stuff because I know you concentrate a lot on listings, and that’s like your, your core and bread and butter. Yeah, and I think like, like right now it’s gonna be all listings, like the market shifted in 45 days. It’s so crazy that people are like, just 60 days ago. Oh, yeah, real estate. So easy money, many, many, many, many offers. And then now everyone’s like, holy shit, what just happened? Yeah, and people are scared. Right? You guys These are the best times to be in real estate these are when you take over Yeah, it’s the best like this these are so this is when you double down on this shit.
I have been talking for years about like the moment where all the people who shouldn’t be selling real estate will get out. And I’m really hoping that this is the moment
that happened 10 years ago happens every 10 years that’s a real estate cycle guys
and the who are the people who are running real businesses and who are scaling real businesses and who are taking it seriously and treating it the way that it needs to be treated. Those are the people who are going to not only last but also thrive during this period of time. You know, we’re coming from an 8020 rule to a 95 five rule
think it’s gonna go that deep ah, I’m kind of hoping so. Yeah. Yeah, you guys when there’s a shift, this is like the time that you get noticed like 100% We have a new product we just called listing or owner advocate and all it is is a seller process system. Right? We have five or six different ways we sell listings, like we you know, so we fix them this program, we have a trade in or buyer Move Up program, we have a sale leaseback program. And that’s a process guys, the reason why we created as because it’s a process that can be duplicatable, that sellers will remember, but each individual will treat it differently. Yeah. And it’s okay to have a personal brand. But you also have to have that process.
Yep. And it has to be customized to you to your market and to the people that you’re trying to work with.
What do you what are your predictions coming up with this market right now? What do you think’s gonna happen? I’m curious, you have a lot of experience.
What I what I think is going to happen with the market.
What do you think sure going on?
I really think that you know, it also depends on where I don’t think that we’re gonna see necessarily exactly the same trends right across North America. I think we’re gonna see micro pockets. I think that I mean, even just look at the you live in California, the excess that has happened a little bit, right, a lot.
There’s a lot of people right now actually, that are trying to rush the list because they know they missed the wave, you’re seeing listings popping up like crazy, there’s no inventory. Now people are like, Oh, it’s listless, listless list is because
everyone’s going to Austin, Texas, or Nashville, or, you know. And so, you know, a lot of it is just going to come down to like those micro pockets. And the people who are really going to do the best are going to be the people who can interpret the data and not just regurgitate it. I think there’s so many agents out there that are that are spewing out infographics that are taking something that their their brokerage provided them and throwing it out there as without any interpretation of the data without any information on what does this actually mean for you. And people don’t understand it. And people don’t understand what it means. And the more that we can actually set yourself up as the authority that can interpret the data that understands the data, and that has a process that can lead you through the process in this specific market is going to make a really big difference.
How many people were just posting, I mean, just um, guys, this is only 6090 days ago, the markets never going to go down. It will never go down in percentages, this market is never going to crash or it’s not going to crash, it’s going to correct. And we will I mean, it’s got to correct before it crashes. So we can’t say it’s not gonna crash? We don’t know. But I don’t think I don’t I don’t see. And I think you’re right on with the pockets, because people are still going to be moving to Florida, Texas, and all those markets and that migration wave with what’s happening, just because the cost of living costs everywhere going through the roof. So yeah, I totally agree with that. Interesting, what else you want to chat on? On this, Jess? What else what other insights you want to share with Damian?
I think that the number one lesson that I’m hoping people are getting from the book is that we only get to do this once. And the number one regret, I dedicated the book to my mom, because I think that she really ingrain this in me from when I was very small. The number one regret for people at the end of their life is that they work too much. And that they didn’t spend enough time with their friends and family that they didn’t experience things. They didn’t travel enough, whatever that looks like they didn’t they spent too much time focused only on the earning of money. Now most agents will or you know, a lot of agents will grow to a certain point until they’re quote unquote, successful, they’re gonna do 250 $300,000. And they’re gonna get stuck, because that becomes the bottleneck of the business. And it’s actually the most painful place to be in your business because you are considered successful, but you’re not successful enough that you actually have enough, I would say enough room to properly leverage and when you’re not properly properly leveraged, you wear all the hats in your business, and the business relies on you getting up every day and putting one foot in front of the other. The idea of freedom or why people get into real estate in the first place is unlimited income. Being able to set your own schedule and being able to help people 99% of agents know ever hit all three of those, because they’re actually not setting up their businesses with them in some of the ways that we’ve already talked about. So the reason I wrote this is because there are so many are, there’s this huge generation of burnt out agents who are the, you know, the crushing it era, right? Tons and tons of burnt out agents and burnout, I think a lot of the time people misunderstand it. And they think, Oh, well, I’ll just go on vacation for a week, burnout takes years to actually properly recover from. And so if you, you keep trying to push and you keep trying to move through, and keep doing things the same way that you’ve always done that done them, at some point, you become the thing that breaks, and you leave, you’re either have to get out, or you have to you have to rejig the entire business, which is what this is all about. It’s about setting up your business so that you have the trifecta of why we get into the business in the first place. And you can have that path out of production, if you want, you can have that, you know, multi seven figure business. And when I when I’m throwing numbers around like this, you do not have to be a genius to build a seven figure business, you just have to take the right steps, put the right processes in place. And then, you know, make sure that you’re holding those boundaries really solidly, because there’s a lot of people who build teams, and then they essentially become the personal assistant to everyone on the team, which is the opposite of what we’re talking about. So it really just all comes down to what are you building? And why like, what’s the end point? And have you actually reverse engineered every single thing in your business backwards from there?
Yep. Yeah, I mean, you’re on that person. Seven, five years ago, you know, I used your system. I didn’t have quite a system I got out, I just quit. And I started over, which is where we’re at today. So very well said, You guys get this book. Why don’t you go ahead and tell them really quick again, about where they get it. And all your info, and then we’ll get this wrapped up?
Yeah, cool. So it’s called more money less hustle. If you’re watching a video of any sort, this is what it looks like. And becoming the seven figure real estate agent. It’s available on amazon.ca and amazon.com. It’s, you know, physical book and Kindle. Hopefully soon, I’m going to record the audio book in about 10 days. So that’ll also be coming out in a couple of months. But yeah, I’m excited. I’m excited about it. And so far, the feedback has been amazing.
Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing. Folks. This isn’t always about selling houses. It’s about running a business. You guys need help with that. Check out this book. Get it the call, just check out our other stuff. She’s got a really cool service and listening labs and you guys can listen labs.com I believe is the website for that. But yeah, we appreciate guys watching another episode or listening to another episode of real estate marketing dude, check us out. Leave us some reviews, follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and call me. Let us help you script and edit these videos. This isn’t rocket science. We take all that grunt work out and she started teed me up for this because editing your own videos and distributing them and really creating content is a waste of your time. It’s not a money making activity. And it is something that you should outsource to real estate marketing dude. If you guys are interested in that, please visit our website at real estate marketing do.com or estate marketing do.com And we’ll see you guys next week. Thank you. Bye. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
We’re chatting about Google My Business today, and you guys have probably heard of this. I’ve been hearing nothing but success stories of people all over the place that are using Google My Business and getting listings, getting buyers, getting clients, and it makes a lot of sense. The problem is I don’t really know how it works. So we’re bringing on a returning guest who’s been on here if you guys followed the show, we talked about how to dominate your sphere of influence through Facebook groups and stay in touch with them.
Will Penney has been a real estate professional since 1988, Will has overseen the purchase and sale of more than $250,000,000 worth of real estate in Stow, OH and its surrounding communities. Be sure to check out his website for more information.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing. This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started. What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of real estate marketing, dude, podcasts, what we’re chatting about today is going to be something that I’ve been hearing quite a little bit of buzz about. But I’ll be honest with you, I have no idea how it works. So anytime that happens, we bring on guests that are experts in different areas of different aspects of real estate marketing, and then we have them, school us on what we need to know about it. And what we’re chatting about today is going to be Google My Business. And you guys have probably heard this, and I’ve been hearing nothing but success stories of people all over the place that are using Google My Business and getting listings, getting buyers getting clients. And it makes a lot of sense. The problem is I don’t really know how it works. Exactly. So we’re bringing on a returning guest who’s been on here if you guys followed a show, we talked about how to generate dominate your sphere of influence through Facebook groups and stay in touch of them. That was Mr. Will Penny and will Penny is back with another piece of content that he’s having a lot of success on. So my kids get it on the show was become a good friend. And he knows his stuff. And he’s just sort of tells it how it is. He’s blunt. He tells it and doesn’t BS people. So I appreciate that and appreciate you coming back on the show. We’ll How you doing buddy?
I’m glad to be back man. I always appreciate listen to your podcast. And you’re right, we have become good friends. I like the relationship we have. So I started listening to your podcast because you all you talk about is relationship marketing, through video and other you know, other tools and our business is about 70% referrals. My little team of five we do about 200 deals a year. We’re just south of Cleveland, Ohio. I’ve been a realtor since 1988 34 years ago when I was 1953. Now so dinosaur on oldest shit. I look about my hair. But anyway, that my 35th year in the business and we just cut Zillow out completely I paid them $40 a month now for a crap zip code just so I can keep my premiere agent profile. Because we got 557 reviews on Zillow on Zillow. About two years ago, I predicted that Zillow would eventually shut down their find an agent page. And the reason is, is that they’re going to the FLEX program throughout the country where they’re charging referral fees, especially now that they got out of the eye buyer world because that was a complete debacle. Richard Barton missed the mark there. So anyway, I think that’s his name, isn’t it Rich Barton,
some, the guy who started the Travelocity,
whatever. So anyway, I figured that they would end up shutting down the Find an agent page, because you can’t get you can’t ensure that you’re gonna get referral fees. If you allow a if you allow consumers to search for agents, it kind of makes sense. They haven’t done it yet, but they’re gonna. So I had all my Zillow reviews, because we’ve been all in for reviews for a long time. I’ve done a bunch of interviews on how to get 500 reviews on Zillow, but I don’t have anybody review me on Zillow now. So two years ago, I started looking into Google, you can have a Google profile for free. It’s starting to get saturated. So the key is that you need to have a lot of reviews, you need to respond to the reviews. So I just started having my clients review me on Google, then, about a year and a half ago, I, I was made aware of their GLS program, Google Local Services. And basically it’s a Google Pay paid ad. So they promote you, you have to get background check. They do. You know they check to make sure you got insurance to check to make sure you’ve got no weird history. And then they give you a nice little green checkmark saying Google verified and then you have to pay a budget. You can pick the budget, but then they promote you. If someone puts in top real estate agents or top Realtors near me, you show up, you show up. So
this is Google My Business.
It’s just Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. Google Local Services is a sponsored ad program. They actually have a program called GLS Google Local Services. And you can Google that. And anyway, you can get you can you you can set up your own profile, but then they set up another one for you for the GLS program because that’s all paid it’s not ordered.
So Well, let me unwind this a little bit. You got pissed off at Zillow two years ago, because you saw what was coming down the pipe there. You’re going to flex programming and you had a lot of your social proof on Zillow 500 Plus Reviews. So two years ago, you just started figuring out I gotta find somewhere else for my reviews because Zillow is gonna backdoor me. And then you sort of just ended up getting more listings doing this, right.
Yeah, because where many listings you generate a
month off your Google My Business? And I want to go from the end of the back?
Oh, at least one. Great. And that’s you pay for that?
Is there any ad costs involved? Yeah.
So my, my spend is 1200 a month. So you figure my average commission check even in Ohio is about 6700. And the cool thing is because it’s social proof, by the time they call you, they’ve they’ve checked you out, I mean, you’re you’re attracting the type of consumer that values trust, and they value. They value a referral from hundreds of people versus aunt Matilda.
So how do you? How many reviews do you have up right now? And Google?
I think 212 212.
And that’s after the last two years of doing it, right?
Yeah, but we, we’ve made getting reviews part of our process since 2010, when I joined Zillow. So we had a warning to everyone, my little public service announcement, my RSA realtor service announcement, do not ask for reviews, unless you get your process under control. Because if you’re not answering your phone, or you only text or you like to just respond to emails, or if you, if you, if you delay, like how long it takes for someone to be able to get a hold of you, because you’re spending six hours a day watching Instagram reels and you can’t get anything else done, then don’t ask for reviews because the truth will come out, and you won’t like that. So we found that asking for reviews for us is the same as having a body cam as a police officer, you you tend to you tend to pay attention to what you’re doing. Because everyone’s watching. And when you ask for reviews, they’re gonna tell you No, they’ll either not give you one because they don’t want to be confrontational, or they’re gonna give you a really good one because they love you. So the key is to provide excellent service set expectations, communicate, be accessible. It’s not that hard. And then, you know, getting reviews on Google is probably in my opinion, the best place to be right now.
I get so how many reviews and but you’re paying $1,200 a month to get promoted. So when people search tourister that’s the local business thing. So they’re they’re pumping you out in the front, right?
Yeah. So what happens is you get you get impressions. So you, you bid for it. It’s all auction based, just like Zillow. And I say, and basically you can trust Google. I mean, maybe I’m naively trusting them. But you know, they, they want you to get you the most value for your money. That’s how they’ve remained where they are. So I just have it set up so that they get to choose how much I want to bid so that they give me the best possible value. I’m trusting. I mean, it’s a little wizard of oz easy for me, because I don’t know what it’s all tied to. But I don’t know what’s behind the curtain. But so far, you know, most of the weeks I don’t hit my budget.
Yeah. So I got to, let’s get into how to ask and how to get testimonials. Because this is always a problem with people. I still have it, I don’t think I have it. I know it’s in my home office. I still have. I have a binder, it’s a paper binder, and it was like this thick. So if you guys can’t see this, it’s about three inches, I’m making a three inch space between my fingers. I used to get all my I used to get I used to get all my testimonies on paper, and I used to ask them and then write them down. And then I would put the listing sheet next to it. And I would have this like binder ended up being like 15 pounds. And I would go to my listing presentations and I just dropped the binder on it costs $15 to create because there’s that many papers. And I put the binder on the listing table or on the table and be like alright, so here’s a bunch of my client reviews and all that. And some people would have me leave it but most people would never didn’t want to take like a 15 pound book of testimonials. But I’d have their phone number, their pictures and the listing sheet of the property they purchased. And I had to do that early on because I was young. And I was like 27 and my prime and real estate 2829 30. But even then people still are like, Hey, you got to still prove yourself like you got to do what other people say about you is more powerful than what you’ll ever say about yourself. And that’s why your reviews page is the number one visited page on your site. It is on mine. And there’s a reason why every website has a reviews page. It’s because of what other people say about you and regardless of what people are thinking about when they’re making a decision on on a purchasing decision. One of the thoughts that goes past their mind is like, well, what’s everyone else saying about him? And that’s what reviews are for. So like, you have to get reviews nowadays. The problem is, is that people get so excited about getting a commission that they forget to insert this into their process. And they don’t get the review. Because if you wait too long, are you ever gonna get the review? Will you get the testimonial three weeks after closing?
No, no, I text them the day they get the keys. But here’s another major problem. And it goes back to what you do for a living. You know, retargeting if you don’t even have the energy or the motivation or drive to ask your client to do you a solid and give you a review, yet probably don’t have a system in place to stay in touch with them. You don’t I mean, it’s all tied together. Because the average we are paying no lead generation costs right now. Last summer when I was on talking about my Facebook group. And that business that I have, we we were still spending 1800 bucks a month on Zillow. Well, I can them two months ago, because they were they have flex in our area. They were taking my $1,800 they guaranteed me 2.6 leads a month.
What’s What’s that? Like? For 1800? bucks?
Yeah, what’s that? 607 100 bucks a lead? I mean, I would walk a whole neighborhood for you for 1600 bucks for two hours and get you two leads. You don’t I mean, it’s like, it makes no sense. You, the value is just horrible. So I just cut them out. But the reason I was able to cut them out, is because over 70% of our business is referrals from past clients, you know, then we have client events. We do some mailings. You know, that kind of stuff. I’m I’m starting to do more. I’m starting to do more videos. By the way, there’s a guy locally, Joe Tato, who is a client of yours, that kid is crushing it on YouTube, thanks to you. He I think that he’s, he’s, I think he puts he attributes you to his success more, more so than I think anybody so I just want to throw that out to you. Yeah, he’s right in my market.
Yeah, good. Good. You guys hear that? Like people get to know who you are when you work with us. It’s pretty nice.
Anyway, the reviews were I used to have that same book. I mean, the thing that people agents don’t understand now they go around griping about how hard this business is. They forget that. And I know you’re a lot younger than me, I’m 53. But, you know, when I started for the first 10 years of my career, we had no internet. I mean, I got realtor.com in 1997. So that was nine years after I’d been licensed. So we would have to present offers face to face. Well, you know, when I was 25, and I don’t say this to brag, I’m just trying to set some perspective on how easy it is. Now, we didn’t have a Google back then I had the exact same binder as you did, I had the mylar folders. And I would get someone to write me a letter or a card. And I’d stick the car, you know, the greeting card or the letter in there, I go pick it up from them, and say, Can I stop by four o’clock on Tuesday and grab a reference letter from you. If you don’t have a chance to do it, I’ll wait while you do it. And I go pick it up, stick it in there. And I bring that over. That’s your credit report. That is the that’s the currency of your business is what other people think about you we didn’t have there was no social proof, you would have to just get letters, or greeting cards talking about how amazing you are, and you had to get a ton of them. Now, you know, with all of the platforms, you can get reviews, I’ve just found that for real estate reviews, people aren’t going to Yelp because they think about food. Although Yelp is trying to promote themselves as a general platform, it’s still food. There was a time where I was on Angie’s List, and I had 34 reviews or something like that. And I was getting two listings a month for a while. But that kind of burned out. Google seems to be the place to go to get reviews, but you need to back up and make sure that you’re providing the kind of service that is going to make them want anyone other than a family member want to give you five star review. You got to you got to step all the way back and fix your business. Yep. And it doesn’t take that much, you know. So you just have to answer your phone be available. Everyone says, oh, it’s I can’t answer my phone. I don’t know who it is. Well, you know, for years we used to do that. The only reason you can’t do that now is because if you look at the screen time on your phone, and I’m just as guilty. The reason we become inefficient is because we spend so much time watching crap online.
Yep, everyone’s on their phone nowadays. Walk me through your guyses process and how you’re, you’re getting these like at what point in the transaction so that people can start making it part of their systems like you this is a checklist item guys so like when you’re at the final walk through, maybe you inserted at that time or at the closing, maybe you get your testimony deadtime. But I used to always have a certain time that I would ask for the testimony or get it so that it became habit. And if you don’t get into the habit, you stop asking for it. And if you don’t ask for it upfront, you’re not going to get it later.
If it’s a buyer, when you give them the keys, say, by the way, would you do me? Can I get weird with you for a second? What? Hey, remember, before I mentioned that, I’m going to ask you for a view, at the initial consultation, I tell my buyers and sellers by the way, if you ever decide to hate me, then the quickest way to ruin my life and make me lose three nights sleep is give me a bad review.
That’s a great way to put it. So I said that say that one more time at like, cons that’s just like a close to that’s a really close. Yeah, walk me through the
beginning of the relationship on the listing appointment, I talked to them about how relationships are important. And I say, if you think I’m full of crap, Google me. And you’ll see that everything we do revolves around reviews, and our review of our reviews are the byproducts of excellent relationships. So if you if I, if I dropped the ball, I’m telling you right now, the way you get me back, is by giving me a bad review. If you really want to ruin my day or my week, give me a one star review. You know, just go do that. And I can’t do anything about it to remove it. So that’s what keeps me on my toes for 34 years. That’s why we do over a million dollars in GCI with a tiny little team. You know, that’s how we have a, we have a recession proof business. Because we’ve created energy around our tiny little shitty brand in Northeast Ohio. And, you know, at least 150 to 200 people a year find us. So I tell them about I tell them at the beginning of the relationship, the way you’re going to reward me is I’m going to ask you for a review at the end. So think about the service that we’re providing. I’m confident that we’re going to do a good job. But if at any point during the process, you feel like I’m not responsive, or you know, you I’ve ghosted you, whatever, it won’t be on purpose, I just asked you to please tell me because I will correct it, we are completely focused on you having a good experience. And I don’t want to guess what a good experience is for you. So I tell them about it at the beginning. And then at the end, I say, hey, remember I said I was gonna ask you for a review. Do you mind if we jump on Google right now and you just give me a quick review. And then if I’ve got a seller who’s closing, then I just text I call them don’t ever just text them. People want to feel important. Right? If you call them up, and I say, Hey, Mike, just want to let you know, the deed just recorded. And you say, Oh, that’s great. Well, thanks, dude. I really hope that you had a good experience with me. We really tried hard. I hope you feel like I proved myself to you. Oh, yeah, you did. Awesome. Well, hey, do you I hate to be weird, but do you mind? I said, I know, I’m an older guy. But reviews are important. Do you mind if I text you a link and you give me your five star review on Google? They’re like, No, go ahead. I’m like, Cool. And then I go into my my notes, my notes on my phone, and I just copy and paste that into a text. And I’ll read you, I’ll read you my read you what it is. Hang on, this will take just one second or you
pull that up. And then like, if you guys are getting to get a video testimony, then you have to do it when you’re in person. Because very same thing is like, Oh, if you get a video testimonial, do it at the closing table or at the final walkthrough. It’s when they’re all pumped and all jazz and it takes three seconds. He’s already given the keys. Yeah,
yeah, I get. I get a 32nd 45 second video and we use that for retargeting. So here’s I’ve got two texts that I saved in my notes. The first one says, Would you mind this is after a phone call. So you have to set them up at the beginning of the relationship and let them and give them the power that they can that they get to grade you. It really makes a huge difference. Yes. Then at the end, you say you call them and ask them for don’t cheat and just send them a text. If you’re just texting clients to say, hey, we just closed if you’re using that as your main form of communication. I’m here to tell you, you’re wrong. It’s a belly to belly business. And certain things should not be texted and emailed. You need to call them that’s what they’ll remember. So then I say would you know can I text you a link to review? Yeah, of course. And it says would you mind clicking this link to give me a good review on Google reviews are really important to me only takes a minute. Thanks again for letting me work for you then the link then if they say yes on the phone. Then I have another one. It says here it is only takes a few minutes to write something up. Thanks again really appreciate it. Reviews are very important in my world happy face, and then the link. That’s it. And we’ve got 212 And then every once in a while have a count if you’ve got a team listening to this. I have contests if I want to get to a new like to get to 200 we had like 187 and I I’m one of our team meetings, I said, All right, we got to get to 13, we got to get 13 reviews in the next week, I’m gonna give 25 I’m gonna Venmo 25 bucks to the to each review you get for the next 13 till we get to 200. And so I made a fun little thing with it for my agents, my four agents, and they all went out and started busting it to get reviews.
I like it, it seems simple, but most people won’t do it. And the reason is, because most people aren’t running a business, your salesperson, Jason Chuck, and you got to start thinking about these things in your business. Because your brand is going to be very important going forward, especially with this shift coming up, people are start looking at new things, the business is going to be as easy it was the last few years. And as we see the economy shift, as we see the recession coming into taking place, as of right now may 2022. How people are going to be a lot more. What’s the word cautious of who they decide to hire, they’re gonna look into it a little bit more, especially as the market shifts, it’s not easy anymore. And when it does people second guessed to you. So the more content and more reviews you have the better for you. Quite frankly, I just saw stat today from the Tom Ferry conference. francesi posted it and he said 40% of the licensed agents in the United States didn’t do one deal last year. Yeah. 40% How many agents are there? There’s like 1.2 million or something like that. 1.5. What is it?
In 2008. In Northeast Ohio, we had at the Akron area Board of Realtors, we had 2500 and something agents at the end of 2009, it dropped to 12 130. So here, what happens is if you look at the average income of a real estate agent, and they’re getting a check every, say, three weeks, and then as this market, you know, it’s harder to get offers accepted, you’re trying five, six times just to get one commission check now. And you’re buying leads. And then what happens is, the reason these agents get out is because their checks get too far apart. And then they have to get another job. So think about that. Now what can you do to secure your position in this industry, it’s a recession proof industry, this ball of energy during the worst market we ever had. And my market was better in 2009. And California trust me, because we don’t have the highs and lows. We lost 50% of the realtors. But we only lost 20% of the transactions. We went from about 5000 transactions to 4000. So we only so what happens is I went from selling 80 homes to 39 in one year. So even though I was like doing great, we I sold 39 homes in 2009. I went from making about I made about 200 grand a year throughout the 2000s. And then I made 87,000 gross and nine I thought my world was over we had two kids in private schools. Luckily cost of living here’s low 2010 was the first year I ever netted over 300 grand my account I went in there when everyone was losing their jobs. He’s like, do you know you netted 304,000 bucks. That’s what you’re paying taxes on? I’m like, Oh, no kidding. But it’s because we we only lost 20% of the transactions, but half the realtors. So the agents that are listening to this that are serious about their business, now is the time for you to be strengthening, developing and nurturing relationships.
Yep. And make sure you get your damn reviews on every single deal. You close.
Yeah, because people like you just said when the market tightens, they’re not just calling their wife’s friend. You know, I found in 2009 If they were moving out of state or chasing a job or whatever, they were calling them the well known agents, we had the top 10 agents in our county, you know, 12 130 that year, we went from? Well, the top 10 agents sold 14% of the real estate. So the good news is when these markets correct, the top agents get pushed to the top. The bottom agents stay where they are because they don’t rely on you know, they usually have a part time job or a spouse, the middle of the agents get just whacked. So now’s the time for you to be thinking about what you know, getting reviews, staying in touch with your people posting videos every day so that people don’t forget about you. This is the time to do it to to shore up your business before we have this big change. In my opinion.
I agree. I’m never gonna say it all the time. I don’t spike the football on this closing, I spoke my football and the third closing from the original closing rather than the referral and repeat client. So you only get that through building off the deals you’re doing today because today’s transactions are just future stepping stones to tomorrow’s. So you got to play a long game in this business. Appreciate it dude, this is awesome. Why don’t you tell our listeners about where they can find you? Will and I actually have a new tagline for you if you got a second. I was just looking because every penny counts.
You’re so good. Here’s your What did you bump your head? What did you did?
Because every penny counts. I just thought of it.
No one’s ever thought of that before
we fight for every penny, you do that you were penny loafers. Ah some brandings some branding content here for
you both C and N E Y. Yes.
Well, why don’t you tell everyone where they can find you website? You guys right as market. Look them up to
any great it’s p e n n e y real estate.com. You can look me up on Facebook at well Penny p e n n EY or you can you can find me on Instagram at Penny p e n n EY underscore group exp. That’s our Instagram thing. Don’t be prepared to be unimpressed. I mean, I do. I do what I can most of my business. I stay in my lane. I go, I get my past clients to refer me and I get the reviews to leverage the past clients to get the arm’s length people that don’t know me. So that’s Does that make sense? Yep. So that’s what that’s what we do. And hopefully it’ll be enough.
Appreciate it man, thank you for coming back on and sharing this stuff. Wills made his whole career he said 35 years not chasing leads but nurturing and developing and maintaining relationships. And everybody else I know successful in this business has is also successful in relationship development. So what we’re saying here guys is like there’s not a secret to the sauce, just follow the system, build more relationships, and you’ll start selling more houses. So appreciate you guys listen to another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you have any questions, please feel free to visit our website, especially if you want to get on video, we help you script that and distribute all of your video content so that you could get put on the map and nurture those relationships. So people stop forgetting that you’re in real estate. So very simple concept, create a lot of content. But if we’re on the right people, then people will come to you because a percentage of them are moving each and every year. It’s that simple. So you guys know where to find us if you wanna do that real estate marketing do.com And subscribe to our channel and leave us some reviews. So he goes on next week’s episode and thanks for listening to another one. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Will video work for me in my market? That’s a question we get quite often and the answer is always the same. YES, but there are some things you need for it to be successful.
In this week’s episode Mortgage Lender Rebecca Foote walks through how video transformed her brand into a local like celebrity in a short time. The key with video is approaching it as an attention generating thing as opposed to a lead generating thing.
Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode
You must be authentic on camera. Finding a video strategy you are excited about will be the difference between you smiling on video vs looking uncomfortable.
You must be consistent. Doing just one video isn’t going to transform you into the town talk. You need to be consistent at it over time.
You must make sure you distribute them. Shooting videos is just half the battle you need to /put them in front of the right people. Distributing your videos is equally as important.
We have a very interesting individual on today’s show, who’s transacting business in Texas, but he lives in Denver. What we’re seeing in the big, you know, from the 10,000 foot view is you see all these ibuyers and tech companies are trying to automate the process to get agents out of the way as well. So why can’t we just fight back and automate our own processes? Well, you need to learn how to embrace technology and do all of that. We have the perfect guest that’s going to walk through how he’s doing this and how he’s literally not living in the state that he’s licensed in, and he’s transacting because he’s running a business. Our guest today, Chris Bello, helps people buy and sell real estate anywhere. Be sure to check out his website where he hosts a lot of useful resources for getting your sh*t together.
Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode
How to become more efficient
How to run a business when you’re doing a lot of things at once
What type of automation you need for a successful business
So how do you track new business, you constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing dude. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started. What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing, dude, podcast. What we’re gonna be chatting about today, folks, is how to become more efficient? How the hell do you run a business do a lot of things at once? What type of automation do you need? And how do you actually run this? So we have a very interesting individual on today’s show, who’s transacting business in Texas, but he lives in Denver. It’s pretty weird. How do you do something like that. And what we’re seeing in the big, you know, from the 10,000 foot view is you see all these ibuyers these tech companies are trying to automate the process to get agents out of the way as well. So why can’t we just fight back and automate our own processes? Well, you need to learn how to embrace technology and do all of that. And we have the perfect guest that’s going to walk through how he’s doing this and how he’s literally not living in the state that he’s licensed in, and he’s transacting because he running a business. So we’re gonna find out how he’s doing it. Without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our guests, Mr. Chris Bello. What’s up, Chris?
What’s up, Mike? So great to be here. Thank you for for the time.
Yeah, why don’t you tell everybody a little bit about who you are. And then we’re gonna get into and how you’re actually doing this. So go ahead and take the floor real quick.
Absolutely. So I just introduced myself typically as a real estate expert, and a top podcast host. And like we were talking about before we hit record, I knew going into real estate that I didn’t want to brand myself as a local realtor, because I read The Four Hour Workweek years ago, and I had this dream of laptop lifestyle, live anywhere travel around the world not have to be stuck in one market. And for that very reason. That is how I am actually living this vision that I had years ago, closing deals in another state. People asked why my fiance and I moved to Denver, and we’re like, you know, we visited in 2020. And we loved it. And we’re just like, What the hell? Let’s sell the house and move right. So we did it because we wanted to not because of a job opportunity, or because the markets hot or anything like that. And so, systems processes and vision more importantly, allowed us to get here.
And you didn’t really think twice about it. You weren’t worried about leaving and how long were you in licensed in Texas.
I was licensed in Texas for a few years, I guess I still technically am about three years now. And I’d been in Texas in Houston my whole life. So really, I see the memes go around, you know, leaving your home tab, Your hometown is a hack for growth, for development for getting outside your comfort zone. So that was in the back of my mind as well. And I was like, you know, I’ve just been here for so long. I want something new and you know, impulsive, impulsive, Chris decided to pull the trigger, and we just moved very shortly thereafter.
And how long have you been licensed in general, none in total, when you in.
So I actually in 2018, I joined a wholesale company. That’s where I got into real estate. So I wasn’t licensed just yet. I was teetering with the idea of do I even get license is going to open me up to so much regulation, the wholesale podcast say to just do it and not get your license. Some people say to get it for more MLS access. And then it wasn’t until a year in 2019 is when I got my license because I’m like, Man, I’m losing out on all these easy listing opportunities that the sellers are not taking our cash offers. And it just allowed me more flexibility with the strategies in the the ways that I help my clients. So that
makes sense. So you’re coming at it from a wholesaling, lead generation seller listing agent type of way. And then you’re looking at how do I create leads and not be there. Whereas a lot of realtors come in the opposite way. They look at how they sell houses versus Chase. How they develop leads first and you can’t take it’s like putting the cart before the horse
or whatnot. You know about this marketing stuff, right? We’re really marketers at the end of the day,
it makes a lot of sense. So I’m assuming that you chase after listings,
yes, listings equals leverage as the Millionaire Real Estate Agent, you know, these books and the knowledge out there really plant those seeds so that you create your business in a way where it surrounds those ideas. So I always remember listings equals leverage listings equals leverage. Yep. And I’ve always focused on that mostly, I still help buyers too. But it’s obviously a little more challenging from afar.
So So you got in the business, you’re starting as a wholesaler, you’re looking for different listings, you’re looking for motivated sellers and all that. And then during that time, figured out you’re like, shit, only 8% of these deals are working for me. So what am I doing with the other 92%? Like I should get licensed and start collecting referral fees or maybe even run a team? Is that fair?
Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. Well, I kept seeing what the company I was working with had me doing business development, so I kept talking to real estate agents over and over again multiple times a month. Hey, you should bring us those You know, houses that smell like cat pee that you don’t want to list, get you 6%. And then I’d see some of the deals that we did. And I’m like, dang, these people just brought us the lead. I did everything else. And they’re making a 6% commission on many of these. While you know, I was making a certain percentage of the wholesale fee, which I guess, on average is probably 10 to $15,000, depending on the market. That was what ours was in Houston. And so it just became quickly apparent that I’m losing out on a lot of opportunities by not being licensed and by not helping clients to the fullest capacity.
And today, are you still wholesaling? Are you mainly we’re in real estate agent,
I’ve been mostly doing the real estate agent hat. Another nugget that I picked up before is that the MLS is really the ultimate buyer’s list. And you know, some buyers, I saw it from the wholesaling side, it ebbs and flows, you know, they’re buying now they’re not buying, your best buyers may not be buying when you have that property that you want to move, and you’re like, Man, you got to sell it to some other wholesaler, and then they can’t find a buyer and it just falls through becomes a lot more difficult than if you just slap it up on the market and have the ultimate buyers list. So honestly, I’ve been doing more of the retail side, but I do get off market lead sometimes. And I know investors nationwide where I’m just like, hey, do you work this part of Ohio? I’m just gonna send you the lead. And if something closes, like throw me a little bit of the assignment fee as a thank you.
Sure. So this is great. But the only way that something like this works is when you control your own lead generation, because you can’t do it without that. So let’s get into that. What are you doing in? Everyone’s always, this is what I never understood is wholesalers investors rehabbers never have a listing problem. But then real estate agents do like despite market conditions, and now we just said like real estate agents, why don’t you just go copy what the investors do? Because they’re chasing people who want to sell their houses, and they’re always successful? Why don’t you guys just do the same thing? So walk me through when you figured this out? And then let’s see what you’re doing.
Yeah, so like you talked about earlier, I came at it from a different perspective, I always came at it from that investor mindset, you know, we buy houses. And where I’m going with this is that a lot of times wholesalers will have those signs up that say we buy houses, we buy houses, a lot of them don’t buy houses, they assign contracts, which again, the outward facing, you know, the home seller has no idea what the hell that means. Right? Right. Like, hey, you buy houses, I’m going to call you I want to sell my house. So flipping that on its head, I started marketing myself as I can help you buy or sell real estate anywhere. I don’t need to explain to people well, I really don’t. I’m not licensed in all the states, I find someone who’s an expert in your market and I connect you to them. It’s just not a nice little elevator pitch that you can put in one sentence on your bio for social media. Yep. So coming at it from that angle, has helped people come to me first, if they have any real estate questions, I don’t want them to be like, Oh, Chris, I didn’t know you could help me in Florida, because then I already lost the opportunity. If they have a question on hey, I’m selling my house. I kind of want to live near near this like plant? Do you think that’s a problem? Should I pick that house or more nestled in the neighborhood, you know, generic real estate more or less, you can give some information and some helpful tips. Much like wholesaler say we buy houses in any condition, they just mark it that way. And as people come to you first, like you also mentioned earlier, he or she who controls the lead and gets that person to contact them first gets to control what happens. So that’s really been the conversation I’ve been having. And of course, I can amplify that because I also have a podcast and entrepreneurship and mindset and all of that. So, you know, over a million downloads as of last year, I believe and that’s been a call to action is hey, if you ever need help buying or selling, I hope you enjoy these 350 episodes I’ve done for you think about me because I can help you buy or sell anywhere.
Yep. And that’s like a popular check great content. Well, yeah, your content helps convert all the business you’re doing.
Yeah, you email list and just follow up and remind people what you do.
I like it. So let’s get into the how are we targeting? What areas are you focusing in mainly in terms of like lead acquisition and sellers? Where are you seeing in around the country now? So you can pretty much use in any market? I’m sure you’re Yeah, picking different areas? Let’s go. Let’s start with that. And why?
For sure, for sure. So it’s been a little more of a chicken in the egg scenario, because sometimes people are like, Hey, I got a great agent for you in a certain market. I’m like, okay, I can see the demographics sort of who’s listening to my podcast, the majority of my listeners are in the United States, but I have some people you know, internationally as well. So it has been a little bit challenging to narrow down because I’m not doing Facebook ads or targeting certain cities or markets or anything like that. It’s all been organic, and attraction marketing. And I’m sure that you see this too. I see a few new followers every day. I have no idea where they found me was it me on another podcast or a podcast that I made myself two years ago. It’s all kind of a compound effect, I guess where people are coming into my world. They’re signing up on my email list or downloading my freebie. And then occasionally, I’ll just send little reminders and a PS at the bottom like hey, by the way, I can help you buy or sell real estate. If you have any questions, reply to this email or schedule a call. So to answer your question, it’s been a little bit challenging to predict. You know, I may have a free man who says, Hey, my Brother wants to buy a house in Seattle? Can you help with that? Heck, yeah, send me this, send him my link, and we’ll schedule a call, connect them to an agent out there, they close the deal. And I get a nice little referral commission like two months later. So it’s been a little more like, you see the meme of Professor X or max man, like, how do you lead generate? And he’s just like thinking about it. That’s kind of been the strategy just through content and goodwill. So it’s not quite predictable. But it’s been all over the place. And I guess I’m just working on how do I scale that up and make it a little more predictable, where I know where I’m gonna make four months from now, instead of like, man, no one’s hit me up in a month, like what’s going on?
And all of these are coming from the podcast, a lot of
them from the podcasts, I mean, a lot of business groups as well, you know, like the RNA group with Ed, my let Andy for Sela. So I’m connecting with people nationwide all the time, as well as the podcasts, you know, you and I may be talking tomorrow I may be talking to someone on the other side of the world is like, Hey, I’m actually moving to the US. This happened. I met someone in Dubai years ago, she hit me up like, Hey, Chris, my husband and I are going to move to Houston, Houston and Dubai are kind of connected with oil and gas. And I’m like, wow, who would have known that someone I met five years ago is going to hit me up when she’s moving to Houston to buy a house. Things like that, you know, planting those seeds over a long enough period of time. So not all from the podcast, but networking at scale.
Interesting. So you’re just you’re you’re a real estate expert, and you’re hitting people, are you running ads, or traffic for any of this stuff? Now, are you just everything here is organic,
everything’s been organic. I’d like to get into the ad platform. I was talking with my business group yesterday. And I was joking with them that I’ve definitely spent my share of Facebook ad money into the black hole. Like, I don’t know, if I click the right buttons, or maybe I just don’t target the right people. You know, there’s three hour videos on YouTube on how to properly do Facebook ads. So it’s been something that I never quite dialed in. But I just feel like once I get the messaging, right, a little bit more than I have that offer that sticks. Because, you know, you’ve probably seen this too, with other real estate agents, you ask them, What do you do? Or who do you help? And it’s very difficult to differentiate yourself sometimes, like, what’s the difference between me and the other 10 people who are local agents within a half mile of me, right? I mean, that gets a little difficult. So I’ve been trying to brand myself a little bit differently of, hey, I don’t just help you here, I help you anywhere. Whenever you want to move to another state with the great resignation, all these things happening. People are moving all across the country, they need an expert who can be there for everything, not just for moving two blocks away? Sure.
And how long when did you start the podcast? And then how many episodes are you publishing? And then how long until you actually saw it? People come out of it and get some fruit out of it.
Yeah, so I started in October 2017. And it wasn’t even about kind of what it is now. It was just documenting the journey. It was documenting me fumbling through ideas. I had quit a corporate job, you know, I was just sharing what I was working on. And being honest, as honest as I could be, and having cool guests on the show. And it kind of goes back to that whole planting seeds and giving out the best possible content knowing that you’ll eventually get it back somehow. Right. That’s what I did with my it’s crazy. You started in 2017 as well.
I started in 2014. Okay, but I didn’t have a goal. I didn’t have a business side done. I just knew if I built an audience, I would monetize it someday. Right? Yeah, same thing here. The similar amount of downloads and all of that, but it was an advertiser, just consistent communication, that same audience over time. And although like our business side didn’t really formulate till three years ago, the podcasts, most of the people who buy our shit will come in right off the podcast. From that, and it just it’s very, so you guys that we’re talking about is building an audience and you can’t, when you have an audience, you’ll monetize it. And an audience is just a bunch of people that listen to what you say. So right. You can monetize. If you understand the concept of building an audience, you can monetize whatever it is that you sell, so that you could go into like the campaign industry and start creating camping tips are gonna give you a good idea. So I had a guy met with yesterday, schedule a demo with me. He happens to be in San Diego, and I didn’t think I was going to take the guy on I was like, you know, in San Diego, we don’t take on clients, we partner with them and they join our team or something like that. So I don’t think I’m like I told him shut up. But like I, you know, I’m not taking on clients in San Diego, but you can join our team. So this guy ends up having like, he started showing me his old YouTube channel and this guy has like a YouTube channel and he’s a cologne guy. He would just go out and write colognes and do all this stuff with colognes. And I look at his channel, he’s got 10,000 views 5000 views, and he didn’t realize that he was like, he stopped. Like he was just on the verge of greatness and he got into youth work on he stopped too soon. I’m like, bro, if you would have fucking kept going. You’re literally you’re you’re gonna make it like 40 grand a day or week on all these ads monetized because it’s so much organic traffic and on cologne affiliate offers totally so at the end of the 100% at the end of the call. I’m like he’s like you know what, I think you’re right. I’m like, bro, whether you’re gonna sell real estate or cologne. You have to do something that people are gonna listen or pay attention to you on. Yeah, and if you he just became like the smelling realtor that would crush it first because everyone would be like you would, there’s so many ways to market it, but I go, the point is, is that your passion is in this cologne thing that you that you’d liked and you had somebody because I think you’re onto something, man, I think you’re on a seven because people like I haven’t talked to in six years are still tagging me as this clone guy. I’m like, Well, yeah, that’s what it is, dude. So he just had like, this night, this light bulb type moment. And he built an audience of people who like lung. Very cool.
He had no idea this way here is like no idea. A lot of people, they’re waiting to find that perfect idea, like, which niche Should I pick? Which channel should I create. And the takeaway that I like to say is just like, start creating content, your audience may change, you’re not going to know what the heck you want to do. But if you make 200 episodes, I bet you’re gonna start figuring out what you like, and what you don’t like, and the people who have listened to you along the way. Whether you sell insurance or real estate or something else, they’re going to want to support you because people do business with people they know like and trust. And listening to all of someone’s podcasts is a great way to know like and trust someone. Yeah.
Yeah. It’s very, very, very cool. A lot of both. Let’s be devil’s advocate, though, and talk about why people don’t do it is because it’s not instant gratification. Yeah, it’s not like it’s an uphill battle. You know, like, I’m think I think the Lord, I started the podcast, you know, like, it was like my savior, my saving grace, if you will, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know at that time either.
Ignorance is seriously a pro tip. I guess if you don’t know what you don’t know. And you just get started, you have no idea how much work it is. And then you’re like, Well, what the hell I already did 20 episodes, I may as well do 50 and then 100. But a lot of people I think I heard a stat that most people never make it past 20 episodes. They just realize how much work it is with recording and editing and lighting and the right mic and then syndicating it pushing it out marketing it emails, I can see why a lot of people don’t don’t make it because instant gratification is what we we expect two day delivery on Amazon. And now we got to wait six months to get more than 10 lessons a month like what the heck
yeah, absolutely. That’s exactly the reason why a lot. How did you know about the audience aspect of it back then because you were just wholesaling. And you’re investing in and and just like the you took a passion and obviously you have a passion for real estate. And you wouldn’t have been able to do this without the passion, though, I’m assuming.
Right? So real estate became the vehicle to earn the income and to actually make the money without worrying about how do I monetize my podcast? Because that’s always a question we see in Facebook groups, right? How do you monetize your podcast? Who’s monetize their podcasts? I’m kind of in talks with a potential sponsor, but even then, it’s been like, man, do I really want to throw ads on the show? And it’s not really enough? Is the juice worth the squeeze type thing? And to answer the question in terms of monetizing the podcast, too, I didn’t know about the audience who was going to be I just started talking about stuff that I love to do. And then I interviewed, you know, my CPA, and I interviewed someone that someone else told me the interview, and then when they were ready to buy houses, they came to me, it was so cool. Both of those worked out in such a way I can think of two examples right off the top of my head of guests that I interviewed in my market in Houston, Texas while I was still there. And CPA was literally like, hey, we just walked through this open house you want to write the offer for us, is like a $350,000 house. The price points are a little lower in Houston, but um, bought the house, I had only gone there once after we wrote up the contract, and we were under contract, and another person to said, Hey, Chris, I can’t think of anyone else I’d reach out to you know, my husband, I want to buy a house, we’d love for you to help us. And literally five to six showings later, we’re under contract on the house as well. So when you add value to other people, especially those who don’t have a podcast of their own, it kind of opens that reciprocity loop where they’re like, man, Chris did this thing for me. Or Mike did this thing for me. I got exposure to the audience. They may have gotten business from their interview on my show, right? So how do they give that back by referring people to me or working with me directly? So the audience really consists of people who have a day job to people who’ve quit their job because of my podcast, to real estate agents and more. It’s been it’s a bit diverse, but I don’t hate that about it. Right. I get to connect with really cool people across the world that do all kinds of things. So I learned a lot.
I like it. The I had some I was gonna say I totally lost my train of thought.
My bad. rambles. No, you’re
all good. Oh, good. But yeah, I did I agree. So I like what you said I’m if you catch up, but I’ll just revamp it. Re set me he basically he already had a job. So he wasn’t like starting the podcast, with the intention of where it is today. He started a podcast, he had a passion and it was substituting what he was already doing, which was already doing real estate and as a result of that he picked up some direct business. So if you guys listen to the show, you hear us talk a lot about agents that do videos to do business owner videos. Well, it’s the same exact strategy. You do these business owner interviews and you’re creating television commercials for future referral sources and then they come back to Send you referrals and repeat business, but it’s not immediate gratification you’re serving first, so that you can sell something. Secondly, not for not the other way around. And that’s always a very good strategy for any local based business is to promote other people that share your same client, which are people who live in the community in real estate 100%. But yeah, that was what I was gonna say is compare that made me the business owner interview strategy. What other what else would you suggest? Because this is it, maybe it’s not a podcast folks could be a video series, it could be you just have to create we’re talking about creating content, whatever form shape or form that is. So what other stuff? What if somebody doesn’t have a voice? Right? If someone doesn’t have one of these microphone voices like this, and they’re scared to get on the podcast, and they don’t know what to do, because you don’t sound this good? That’s just a mic folks.
Like yeah, the mic really makes a big difference when you invest in the microphone. even that expensive. Mine was like, I don’t know. 100 bucks. 120 bucks. And I’ve been using the same microphone since I started years ago. You know, $80 webcam and a little $50 Ring Light. That’s really the starter kit, and I didn’t even get the ring light till 300 episodes in.
But you got a ring light, bro. Yeah, maybe more advanced than me.
I got it from BestBuy was like 50 bucks. You know, it’s nothing fancy. I don’t have all the lighting setup. I’m not an audio video expert. But to answer the question for those struggling Well, first, you got to overcome the fear of hearing your voice most people listen to they’re like, I hate the sound of my voice. I don’t want to do it. I’m not gonna listen back on my podcasts. But after a while you start to actually get better. If I listen to episodes one through five. I’m sure this is the case with you. I’m like, dang, I was super monotone. That was always feedback I got when I did Toastmasters years ago, years ago is great job, Chris. But you know, you’re so monotone I would just be. So this is what I’m going to be talking about today. But you develop your personality as you start to make more and more content. And I initially just started with audio. I didn’t even do video. It wasn’t until I think I heard maybe Gary Vee talks about it like, Hell, if you’re gonna do audio, just turn the camera on. Now you got a video for YouTube. And if you’re doing long form content, like you and I talking for 40 minutes or an hour, I can slice it into reels though it on tick tock, I can syndicate it any which way that I like. But if I only have audio now I’m like, Well, man, I gotta just do a headliner clip, because I don’t have any video that I can share with this. So for those who are afraid, I could say start with audio alone, if you don’t want to see yourself on camera. But if possible, throw the camera on, record the audio. And you’ll get a lot further faster. Because you can share your content on so many more platforms. And you can have virtual assistants do all the post editing, you don’t have to do it all on your own. Yep. Because that’s where people fail, they try to do everything right off the bat, post on all the platforms, game over, right? If you think about it, tick tock Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn. I mean, if you haven’t done any content before, and you try to do all those things, you’re overwhelmed, be so overwhelmed, if you just pick one platform and get very good at that. And then add the second thing, once you become competent. That’s how you start to stack things. You know, the podcast turns into YouTube and you start doing blog posts, then you start publishing on LinkedIn, those little LinkedIn published articles to it doesn’t all start that way, it starts one thing at a time for most people.
And you got to get in the habit of it to like people, you don’t just start creating content, but you get better at it. And, folks, we talked about thing a couple of weeks ago on the show here, but you it’s no longer optional. You have to create content nowadays, if you either can sell your shirt or you create content, you have to be at the center of some kind of conversation. And I’d much rather do the latter. I hate selling my stuff. I’d much rather add value to people’s businesses and be the first they think of when they think of real estate versus me trying to like, you know, dude, you need to sell your house right now, right now sell your house like I hate that approach. It’s just never been my style. And it’s not most people’s styles either. Doesn’t mean you’re bad at business or better estate, it just means you got to find out the right way for you to do it. And it’s a giant popularity contest.
Yeah. And the quality of leads is unmatched. Right. It’s not me begging someone for their business. It’s literally the examples I shared. Chris, we see a house we like you want to write the offer on it. Like, I’m not gonna go with another agent, like you’re the person I thought of, and I want to work with, it’s not Hey, will you cut your commission or this person has been doing it two more years than you? So you know, can you answer this question on the spot and it doesn’t happen when people approach you from content. And that’s what I love. It’s called attraction marketing, you’re attracting people to you. And they’ve already made up their mind that they want to work with you by the time they reach out to you, which is very different than me picking up the phone and calling all my relatives and family members and asking Hey, who do you know who needs to sell real estate? It just takes up way more energy from me as well where I’m like, I don’t want people calling me for random stuff. So I’m not going to do that to them.
Yeah, I think the stat was like 70 to 80% of people when they reach out and schedule some with you their minds already made basically made up they’ve already found you online they already found you but the more content you have increases those chances of them calling because when they’re first fishing around people are like do I like this guy? Do I not and they will check out some of your video is not for necessarily the content you’re talking about. But it’s for how you portray yourself. If they could see themselves working with you, like people do judge you and judge a book by its cover whether you want to say that’s politically correct or not well, so be it. It’s the way the fucking life works the way the world works, dude. So yeah, deal with it, birds of a feather flock together. So yes, people are gonna look you up, people are going to judge you, they’re going to have a preconception of you, it’s gonna be based on what you look like how you’re talking what you’re wearing. I mean, that’s just the way people go, just how life works. So the more content you have, the more way that you get people out there. Think of it as like your dating profile. When you’re getting hired for business, a good dating profile is going to have pictures of you and your bikini, and your workout gear, showing your traits, your hobbies, the stuff you do on the weekends, pictures with you and your kids, maybe. And a bad dating profile is going to have your glamour shot from when you were still in high school and it’s all fuzzy. Yeah, or it’s like a Polaroid or something. Right? So same exact thing. Like the, the, the, the person who’s gonna get the most dates is gonna have a killer profile, they’re gonna see him in their swimsuit to their frickin, you know, church, whatever. And then the person that doesn’t even have a dating profile and polaroid photo, you’re like, is this guy even fucking real? What the fuck is this? My column, this guy might go on a date with this fucking creep, right? It just doesn’t work. So it’s sketchy. Yeah. So you got to look at yourself, like look at your own brand. That’s what content does, folks, it really allows people to get to know you so that they can make the decision on whether you’re worth talking to or hiring or working with.
Once the consistency makes a statement. I remember there was another agent in my office in Houston. And every time you mentioned, you have a podcast, you probably see this as well. People are like, oh, like, you know, the circles we run in everyone has a podcast, it seems but the average person does not have a podcast, but they listen to them. So they always asked me like, Hey, can you send it to me? I’ll definitely check it out. And then I remember like a day or two later, this guy’s like, Damn, you got over 300 episodes, like, you got a podcast podcast, not just like, oh, I have a podcast with two episodes that I made three years ago. So that speaks to the consistency look, I’ve done. So it’s a year for three or a week for three years. That is something that sets me apart from the person who gave up after episode three, right? Do you want that person as your realtor who can’t even commit to more than three episodes? Or someone like this? Who’s gonna show up no matter what,
you’re more legit. And the eyes are like, well, this guy’s gotta be legit. Exactly. You’re gonna hire the guy with 350 episodes. Not the guy doesn’t have one.
Right? So it’s just another differentiator of like, Oh, does your agent have a podcast? Yes or no? Well, I have over a million downloads like that must mean something. Right? It’s kind of like the new Amazon bestseller that everyone was flexing before. And now it’s like, I got a podcast with over a million downloads
like it. Well, that’s why people follow people have a lot of followers on social media. Same thing. Yeah. So yep. I like it, dude. Dude, I think you’ve frickin nailed it. You teed it off pretty well, why don’t you any other closing tips you want to mention? But if not, why don’t you tell people where they can find you to learn more about what you’re doing? Then all of that. My closing thoughts guys are you got to create content? It’s what I say every week on the show, like content creation is necessary for all different types of purposes. But ultimately, I think it’s how you compete. I think it’s your only unique selling proposition and it becomes your unfair advantage for competition because there’s only one like you. And that’s no one can compete against it.
Definitely. So my only last takeaway would kind of align with obviously the content consistency, all those things. You don’t have to see the full staircase to take the first step right. I still sometimes I’m like, Man, should I niche down? Am I still too generic? Am I talking about random things. But whether it’s podcasting, or real estate, or anything else, I highly recommend having processes and systems and checklists. I literally have checklists for everything. And that’s how I’ve been able to close deals out of state 100%. I don’t miss anything. I’m not relying on memory. Same thing with my podcast, I can tag people who were my virtual assistants in the Philippines, to create YouTube thumbnails and edit my video. So really, I’m like the puppet master in a way where I want to work on the business, not in it. And I have people who are doing the various components for me. So a lot of people ask, How do you do at all? How do you do the podcast? Which video software? Should I get to edit podcasts? And I’m like, You’re asking the wrong questions. You got to ask who not how, which is a great book, by the way if you guys haven’t read it, so dial in your systems, your processes, get some checklists in place, and that’s how you can automate and delegate in order to elevate in your business and in your life. But for those looking to connect with me, I am pretty active on Instagram, at least on my stories, I post a lot. My handle is Chris Bello, underscore B E LL. O. And if you go to Chris bellow.com, that’s where you can check out my podcast and download my free complete life tracker is what I’m calling it’s just a cool Excel sheet that tracks all your goals and your business goals. How many pages you read a day. I like to nerd out about stuff like this as you guys can tell. But thank you so much, Mike. It’s been great getting to chat with you and get to know you a little bit. Today,
Yeah, appreciate you having on and we appreciate you folks listening to another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast, folks, follow us on leave us some reviews files on Facebook Instagram, connect with us on subscribe on our YouTube channel. But if you have any additional questions about how you start building your content or your brand with video, well you’re in the right spot. Real estate marketing dude scripts edits and distributes video content for anyone in the real estate industry across the country. And we basically put your brand on autopilot for you, we put you on the map so that people stop forgetting you’re in real estate and they stop hiring or cheated on you with people like me that are marketing them because you’re not so that’s all this is great. A lot of content people will come to you the only time it doesn’t work as if people don’t like you. But that’s nothing we can help you with and you’re in the wrong damn business. So we appreciate you guys listening. We’ll see you guys next week’s episode and talk to you then like thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing do.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
The thing with real estate is, how do you market your business? I don’t believe we’re in a sales business. I believe we’re in a service business. Our guest today is gonna lay up what she’s doing. One of the things that is her claim to fame is that she does things differently. She’s not scared to put it out there. She’s authentic. She’s real. She’s raw. She just tells it how it is, and that’s what we need more of in this business. We don’t want any more fake fake fake fake fake it till you make it type of brand new marketing and all that. We want real and authentic shit. So we’re gonna let her school us today about secret to her success and how she’s gotten over $700 million in sales.
Maria is a real estate agent, executive and expert, innovative entrepreneur, investor, speaker, visionary, trainer, thought leader and philanthropist with over 25 years of experience.
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing dude. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust most importantly, refer. But remember it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them let’s get started
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast. Folks what we’re going to be doing today people have been asking me Hey, dude, why don’t you have more women on once you have more women on? Why do you always have all these dudes? Why are you having a sausage party podcast? Well, we’re gonna bring on a killer women today that is going to share with you her secrets of success. Not only is she own her own office right now, but she’s been in real estate for 28 years, I thought I was the only person who could say I’ve been in this business for 20 years. Well, she’s got
no 18 years of real estate 11 years in marketing. So marketing sales,
love it. That will this is what we’re gonna chat about is like, you know, the thing with real estate is like, how do you market your business? And I don’t believe we’re in a sales business. I believe we’re in a service business. And I’ve always been known to like, do things differently, stand out, Chase attention, don’t chase leads, stuff like that, man, she’s gonna lay up what she’s doing. One of the things that sort of has her claim to fame is that she does things differently. She’s not scared to put it out there. She’s authentic. She’s real. She’s raw. She just tells it how it is. And that’s what we need more of in this business. We don’t want any more fake fake fake fake fake it till you make it type of brand new marketing and all that. We want real and authentic shit. So we’re gonna let her school us today about secret to her success and how she’s gotten over $700 million in sales in her career. It’s a lot of business guys. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce our guests. Mrs. Madea Quattrone did I say that correct?
You did. So Italy, though? We would say quick, Joan,
I was gonna ask you’re either Italian or you’re Hispanic. And I was gonna guess one or the other. But cut Oh, no. Okay, cut there. Oh, no. Tell us everybody. Tell everyone who you are, where you’re asking
me my slide here. Thanks for having me on the show today. I appreciate you and your time. So yeah, I mean, real estate is all about marketing, I don’t care actually what business you’re in people who need to know who you are. They need to know who you are, and what you do, and how you can help them. So first things are, you know, you start with the basic things, you can start with marketing, marketing yourself, just by picking up the phone and talking to people. Mark, this is how I started. I started by picking up the phone and talking to people, and going to networking events and marketing myself at networking events, doing the simple things consistently over and over and over again, following up with that person that you met the night before, at the at the networking event. Right, doing those putting those little touches, I always remember something special about that person. Whether is, hey, their kids go into Howard or, you know, they, whatever they do for for fun, they they got a lot or whatever it is, there’s always something in the conversation. I remember and I always revert back to that, as I’m getting to know somebody. So the basic principles of marketing are get people to know who you are. And you can start simply by picking up the phone and by meeting people face to face. How can you do that now even more authentically, right now video? Getting on video giving. So what can we offer? I will just do real estate things. I talked about being inspirational.
Everyone thinks we have to talk about real estate though. What do you mean? Do you mean I could do a video and not talk about interest rates houses are just sold or how many fucking houses I sold last month or how much money I made. I could actually do that and generate business and real estate you got to be kidding me.
Right, so our core value one of our core values here at M QA is to be the solution. That’s my personal core value and top of integrity and a lot of other things but for this talk today be the solution. And so I started this podcast called The the solution because here’s why. It was March 20 2020 The governor shutdown boom, boom, boom real estate here. Couldn’t go out of the house to go sell real estate or go to networking. So I’m like, Oh my gosh, what are we gonna do? Guess what everybody’s eyes were social media. Yep. everybody’s eyes were in social media. Social media went down from like, 20% like that during the day that 80% Everybody’s on social. Yeah, guess what? All my colleagues around here. Nobody was on social say nothing. Yes. Well, I said it To be the leader, and I’m going to step up, and I’m going to be the solution. Because our clients have hired us over the years, especially, we sell expired listings. Why? Because we’re the solution for them, because they haven’t been successful in the past for a variety of reasons. And hey, y’all, it’s not always the agent. And I don’t actually blame anybody. But I come up with the solution on how we’re going to do it. So it’s March 20. I’m like, oh, no, F. At WTF. Freaking out. Yep. So
it’s about that time really quick. Yeah. And I said it here on the show, we said the same thing we go listen, this is when you double down on brand, because this is when everyone’s gonna be glued to social. And I’ll be like, we lost a lot of our clients at that time, because we’re creating videos, but the fear went through the industry so quick, that the truth is, is that all you guys who are still listening to my show that quit, you just made a major mistake, because you just lost a shitload of attention. Everyone who doubled down on video during that time, literally had a 4x from the year prior. Because it’s all attention based guys. And you have to remain present. It’s not about what you create. It’s about that you’re consistent in presence. And I agree with you, I agree that I think this whole business is just about having conversations, constantly and constantly reminding people where you’re at and who you are. And when the networking goes away. How do you have those conversations, you go to social and you do it on video, because those videos are still playing while you’re sleeping. And they’re always working for you. But whether it’s video or whether it’s not what we’re getting at, folks, is that you have to be present. Alright, look, if you Maria, are you married? I am if you stop talking to your significant other for the next month, what’s going to happen to your relationship?
Don’t very much it’s good.
I have nothing at all. You know,
you’ve been zero is gonna happen. So guys, what do you think go for like a debt? Not even like a half a day without talking? Maybe like a day? But no, I mean, come on. You have to talk to people. Until
Why do agents agents stop talking to their databases? Like when I moved out to California five years ago, I was shocked at like the way that I saw some agents actually treat their clients and how they interact with them. And folks, like you don’t spike the football on a transaction a day of the closing table, you spiked the football on the transaction, the day you get your third referral from that person you had at the closing table five years prior. And we’re not playing the short game. We’re playing the long game here. You have to remain present since like Maria, let me ask a couple questions. You have a bro, how many agents are in your brokerage? There’s about 15. So 15. Besides you I know you’re probably the top of your killer, who’s the other top agent besides you? What’s your volume like?
So we run our office like a team. So we work together. So Dara is my listing partner. So she does a lot of the listings now. Probably, I’d say the lion’s share. And then we’re grooming some other agents to step up into the listing because we believe in listing listing listing listing, I get buyers organically. So I’m trying to focus on you know, we opened up another business, I’m also building that so and we’re recruiting people into our company so that we can help them grow. So I’ve actually stepped in a little bit more of a sales manager role training. A little bit on the recruiting side, I have like a help on that actually. And we also have a scholarship program. So we’re bringing new people that have never been in the real estate industry, we specifically look to bring in women and minorities. And we have a program for them. It’s called the M QA scholarship program. And it is from the moment that they we agreed to we’re going to be partnering up together until they finished the boot camp, we offer this entire package. So schooling mentorship during schooling. And then we have a two week program called rise in Real Estate Academy that is here on site that they go through. And then after that, they are position to have the basic knowledge in order to conduct the buyer Strategy Session, show houses and basically write the offer but to get the offer training is going on going because that takes a while to figure out so we we gear them up, they actually are making calls on day two. In our program, we used to do it a little bit later, but we found that quicker is better. We want people to get used to talking to people that’s why I lead with you have to talk to people I we could do all the marketing in the world and if we didn’t talk to anybody, right it’s a waste of money, waste of time. So like going back for a moment to you know, 2020 the podcast was born be the solution because As I couldn’t go anywhere, so I didn’t see any people. I was heavily involved in sales at the time. And I was figuring out what we’re going to do for who knows how long in our case, it was 10 weeks. And every day for No, three days a week, I went live on Facebook. And I never did that before in my life. And I had been interviewed over the last two years about 150 people, which, you know, for somebody who’s not there, like full time gig, kind of a lot of good amount of people to get good at listening. Yeah, so there’s more things that happened because of podcasts. So then what do we do with the videos, right? So I’ll make a video about, hey, this week might be the solution messages. And during the times the hardship that we went through many people with being sick family members, sick people dying, people are really on a ledge, right? So I came up with every week with an inspirational thing to talk about, of it. And I talked about, you know, family, and I talked about perseverance and, you know, just continuing to go on, you know, to keep going keep going in all different topics, but like geared around being inspirational, and
it’s all based around. So a lot to unpack here, guys. Let me just so here’s, here’s what she’s walking you through is you one creating content to have conversations. Okay, so we’re talking about content creation, and being consistent with that. And even though someone might not necessarily be talking back to you, when you’re creating videos, you’re still having conversations, because someone on the other end of those is listening, even though you’re not responding back. However, it’s very hard to do anything in longevity consistently without first determining what the hell you’re doing, or what your strategy is. So she comes up with a concept called be the solution be the solution be the solution. And basically, every bit of contact content that she creates, has a theme associated with based upon being a solution. So the problem that a lot of people have when they’re coming up with their content strategy, as the real estate coach will tell them go out shoot videos, and then they’ll go out shoot videos, but they don’t really have any purpose or meaning, or do anything to enhance the brand. It’s just a way to start a checkbox, check the box, because your coach told you to do. So she’s taken it up a step, because the truth is, if you’re going to create content you better well, we might as well make it impactful. And Maria, I’m guessing we just met about 20 minutes ago. So we haven’t talked before. But I’m guessing that she’s an avid reader of inspirational stories, she probably reads a bunch of biographies. But a bunch of different people have gone from zero to hero, my guess is that Maria probably was a zero back in the day. And now she’s a hero. And she has a work ethic from somewhere some way shape, or form. I’m not sure where that came from. But you can tell by her personality today, it means something. And folks, each of you have the same thing. It might not be the solution. But it is something that makes you unique, because God’s only made one of you. And that’s very damn cool. Right? Everybody has a personal brand. The problem is that nobody’s ever no one embraces it, because you’re so worried about what everyone else is gonna say about you. Maria here doesn’t give a shit what everyone else says about you. Maria knows how to inspire change. And she’s marching to the tune of her own drum. And because of that fearless ability to create content, Marie, I’m gonna go out on a limb. People were probably reaching out to you at this time in 2020. Being like, these are the private messages you guys get when you start creating content. I got them. I’ve been getting them all week, I’ll share with you what I’m doing now. But Maria, thanks for you know, I really needed to hear that today. Thank you so much for just sending that message over. Hey, Maria. Hey, guess what, you know what I was even thinking about my kids learning center and how I can improve that. But just because you did that video, thank you so much for for doing that video, you know, I’m stressed out, I’m worried about losing my time. So tell me what happened when you start creating these videos
I got so what happens not only just creating the videos, but then we send them to not only post them on Facebook, and do the lives on Facebook, which are separate. That’s different. Also sending it out to our database of 14,000 people or so. So what happens is the people, some of them may not respond, but I know who opened it. And a lot of people did respond to it, especially during that time saying, This is awesome. Thank you so much. You know, I’m inspired by you, and I can’t you know, thank you for stepping up all kinds of things like that direct messages, text, put post on the Facebook, you know, video, but a lot of it. A lot of it was you know, privately, and even people telling me when I’m around and about like I see yourself, you’re everywhere, blah, blah, blah. So one thing though, that I want to mention is really important. So one of the things that we talk about here at M QA is that the money’s in the database all the time. All of it, it’s a goldmine. And when people, agents join up company, they it’s plug and play their plug in right in right into our database to follow up boss and all the other systems you use. And they’re calling people that already know us. Because guess what they’ve gotten. If they’d been in a database for three years, or close to three years, they probably receive 140 ish videos from me. So what happens? Mike is, I’ll be at my office, and there’s people coming for settlements, and the really cool Maria. Yeah, I watched, I’ve seen all your videos.
Are you like who? Who are you?
I’m always I’m always very gracious. And I say thank you so much for the opportunity for us to work with you and your family. And so they know already the brand. So when anybody ever calls, I say 9.8 out of 10, maybe 9.9 out of 10 times that people are nice on the phone. Because they’re like, oh, yeah, that’s Marine, we’re not ready yet. Or maybe we’ll sell this or we got investors, you know, oh, did they have this or that or whatever. So you’re using this as a platform to sell your brand without selling it by giving the community information. So it could be a market update monthly, it could be solution oriented, like these are be the solution podcasts and talking about motivational or inspirational either or both, by the way, not just as free servation as well,
you were saying you guys is without a brand, you’re just a salesperson chasing the next Chuck. And there’s nothing different between you and somebody else. But the only way you could create a brand is through consistent communication to the same audience over time, because of Maria, when Mia, those same people that are having settlements in your office equally walk right past, you not know who the hell you are, the difference is in brand. And that brand brand brand brand brand is the only thing we have to compete against every everybody else. People aren’t like in your market. They’re not like hiring a real estate agent. They’re hiring Maria Maria’s team because of what her brand, or what they believe her brand can do for them, which is probably stress free real estate transactions. But she doesn’t get the opportunity to have that conversation without first being top of mind or creating content. And you hit it right on the head. What she’s telling about is the database, it she’s 100%, right 10 to 15% of the people who see your content will be moving this year, and 100% of them have a referral for you. It’s just a matter whether they’re going to share your name or not. And the more memorable, the more authority you have, the more bigger your brand is, the more likely you are to be introduced to those conversations. And that’s called attraction, guys, which is what it is, but you can’t get there without first creating content. And content takes a lot of different shapes or forms. We’re talking about video right now. But content creation has been around since the dinosaurs ruled the earth. Back then remember, back in the days, it was just direct mail, I started off with direct mail, I used to farm my database, I still do find my database. And I just say Don’t forget to exist, it’s not about the content that I care so much about, it’s more about keeping my face in front of them. And a value added way that hey, don’t forget I’m in real estate, oh, by the way, is something you can add value with to deduct your daily day.
Indeed, so when the other thing that’s really important when you are working within the database, and let’s just say that’s how you’re working your business, is that you can create in most database, at least in our follow up campaigns. And the follow up campaigns in our case are mostly 80% video. So you may be a seller who’s going to sell and three months from now. And we want to inform you of different things that you should think about maybe when selling your home or the marketing that we do or you know, how to increase your home’s value for a little bit of money. Or if you’re a buyer, you know why buying now is critical, versus you know, what’s going on and also what’s going on in the marketplace and what to expect over the next five years in regards to the market normalizing but it’s still gonna grow over the next five years 19 20% which is a healthy growth after, you know, this year, which are probably more like 79. Who knows. But if we’re at three to four, that’s normal. But if you’re not, if you’re a renter, you’re out of the game. So videos about all these different things and putting people on these proper, what we call action plans. And so here’s another touch and another touch and you’re educating them. And you were there’s no ask involved. No, it’s rare that we do an ask and the only answer usually that there is, is would you like an updated market analysis for your home? Yeah.
Or do you know anyone else that needs my help?
Yes, on the phone, we usually do that usually get on the phone. We ask that question,
why through your guys’s touchpoints and the different channels you guys are using overall. So let’s just say I’m a new agent. I’m in the Philadelphia area. I’m like one to two years in business, but I’m only doing six to 12 sides a year and I can’t break it up. I’m listening to one of the gurus, they’re telling me that I need to pick up the phone and call a bunch of people I’ve never met before or go knock on some stranger’s doors, or go buy very expensive leads. What do I do in your system?
In our system, if you joined our company? Yeah,
walk me through it. I’m gonna see all the touch points.
While the campaign is happening, there’s, we have about 20 different campaigns that run because they still in what type of opportunity, they are past client, active client. Buyer, short term buyer, long term investor, multifamily industrial buyer, commercial development buyer, commercial development seller. So that’s we have a lot, a lot more than the normal people do. Because we do do commercial real estate as well.
What about just past client, like stay in touch type stuff, let’s pretend I’m not buying or selling? And because we got to be top of mind first, right? Otherwise, we don’t get the tab that a conversations about being a commercial buyer and investor any that still have to remain present? How are they staying in front of their databases that are generating the calls to become and talk about commercial property or selling the listing or something like that?
Well, we have we do inside sales. So we call into the database every day. And like I said, they get these weekly, those videos or weekly, they go to everybody. So that is an overall company message that goes out, then you have the action, then you have the action plan, segment it per the source of business. So those action plans are running. So every time we have a new person come in to our world in art, we put them in a database, and they go into a bucket. And the bucket works the opportunity until they’re ready. And in the meantime, the agents will touch base when they’re told to touch base for the action plans and tasks and follow up boss.
And it’s probably like a text, a phone call talks an email, what’s the combo of touches Video,
Video, an email, and then our text when we do texts? There’s not there’s no automatic, it’s texting for specific reason. Like we’ll have a day we’ll do you know, we might do 50 tax to sellers saying Would you like an updated Mark analysis? But that’s not we’re not blasting anybody with anything like that. It’s good one. It’s yeah, you have to be careful with that kind of stuff.
Yep. I like it. I like it a lot. So you’re creating with your team, you’re sort of creating the core content from the top and then syndicating it down to and then your agents are curating it to their networks and their databases, but you’re centralizing the branding and the communication as a team, which is really smart. And that probably is what keeps them consistent.
Yeah, so everybody uses everybody uses the same thing. So we have one buyer presentation, one listing presentation. Everything is the same. Everybody uses the same. That’s why our agency runs as one big team office. I don’t believe in having 50 different agents doing 50 different things. That’s problematic.
And I have a brand doing that. It’d be like McDonald’s having 20 different types of cheeseburgers. People go there for some cheeseburger.
You’ll see some brokerage that has brokerages I won’t name any names that have every person can have their own type of
sign 99.9% of
them. Yeah, and but even though to the brands is x, x Yeah, initials. Yep. And then there’s a pink one, a yellow one a black and white one was at least with REMAX right, we just have we do say brand specific and that’s important. People know that REMAX brand even though we our own our own brand here in Philadelphia Maria Quattrone associates you know there’s nothing not too bad to be on the back of a giant Yeah,
I agree. What um, so let’s go let’s go what’s coming down the pipe? I think you’re 100% right on what’s gonna happen with client generation going forward? There’s a lot of changes happening Do you believe Yeah, let me second the young packs I see already dirty. What’s gonna happen like how are agents gonna find their clients because before is more like there’s so many different ways to find clients but remember guys What worked 10 years ago doesn’t work anymore, or as good as it used to so probably Maria around same time we both got in I started oh two. I was told to cold call a lot and that’s how I got my first few sales but cold calling today isn’t quite what it was back then. At the same time, we didn’t have text back then today you do. So what are gonna be the sources of business with all of this stuff coming down the pipe, you have ibuyers bleeding, the drowning the airwaves about how realtors are a big waste of money. You have commission compression that is for real, it’s happening. You have a lot of alternatives and selling, depending on where you’re at in the market, maybe not so much in Philly Metro, but the eye buyers, the open doors, offer pads and all of those these world, they’re gonna be in every market guys, like trust me, we see all the shit coming down the pipe, and we know exactly what’s coming. There’s a reason why we’re adapting now to be ready for those messages. So what what is an agent gonna do going forward? Where do they hang their hat?
Build a personality brand? Yes, I agree. Feel content, build a personality brand. Make sure everybody knows what you do. Spend your money and time. Do you know what we call? Dedicated, dedicated, intentional, intentional content. So you’re spending four hours, six hours a week, blocked out three could be three hours, where you’re building intentional content, you’re building an arsenal content, hire a VA, to edit your podcast, start a podcast, I could teach people how to do that. Starting a podcast. Right? What other things can you do to build your brand? Everybody who’s an entrepreneur should have a podcast? Would you agree, Mike?
Yeah, I think everyone needs to have content like it, whether if it’s gonna be a podcast, it’s gonna be a video series. It could be a blog, it could be a meme series, but you have to have content. If you don’t have content. No one knows who the hell you are.
It’s so easy to do with so you don’t even have to have original ideas anymore.
No, you just you follow Maria’s feed and just copy what she’s doing and put your own spin on it guys, like,
go into one of these large Facebook groups or with all the complainers and see what they’re complaining about and do a video.
That’s actually probably that’s how you get the solution content? No, because that’s a good idea.
You guys, not because it’s like more thought. It’s a little more thoughtful. And it’s not real estate related. So it’s for all humans, not just people in the industry. But we do produce content for agent attraction now as well as consumer attraction. Yep. So we have videos for both. And then we have videos just for everybody.
Yep. You have to, and like, let’s just get you like inspiration, we’ll get out of your brain just we give some people some other things to think about. If you’re like a health nut, like give me workout tips, like, you know, like, if you could be a lender and you can be super into fitness, well, you probably have a healthy way to finance a house. But you could still give like, give me your protein shake recipes in the morning, nobody cares. But you’re always going to attract the same people. And that’s where you have to build an audience. Because regardless of what you’re talking about 10 to 15% of the people who do listen to what you’re saying are moving, and all of them have referral for you. So it’s just a numbers game. The guru’s tell us to go out there though, and just chase like prospecting calls. And you guys, this is just a different way of looking at our business comes to you. So let’s go with something everyone’s familiar with. If I hire guru coach, they’re gonna come up to me and say, You’re one more know away from your next Yes, just keep hammering that phone, Mike, just keep hammering. And that’s true. Like, if I throw enough shit at the wall, something’s going to eventually stick. When you’re talking about content creation, though there still is a number or mathematical formula there. And it’s the numbers I’ve been saying earlier. If you’re out and creating content, if you’re creating a video, that means 10 to 15% of the people who see your video on your Facebook, feed your IG feed your LinkedIn feed your email list, your YouTube channel, whatever it is 10 to 15% of people who see that content they’re moving this year. That’s a mathematical fact, it’s not nothing that we can change. Most don’t know it yet. Some will die, some will be relocated some of this and we’ll do that. We don’t know when a move happens, life situation happens. And they raised their hand and 88% of the people who meet with the first agent, that’s who they end up hiring. That’s why this stuff matters. But that’s not why I’m marketing it. I’m marketing my database because 100% of them have referral for me. So let me give you another example. I just onboarding an agent onto our team. Traditional sales agents, what I typically see always selling, selling, selling spending $2,000 A month sending postcards to a bunch of strangers. I’m like, bro, I would rather just gift 20 People $100 each have a gift and you’ll end up with three or four deals. Why are we trying to talk to strangers? Why don’t we just nurture the people you already have? And they’ll give you direct business. But he goes, Mike, I don’t want us. I’m not going to put these people on my email list or my direct mail list because they don’t have any money. I go, Dude, you’re missing the entire point. We’re not staying in front of them for their direct business. We’re staying in front of them for their referral business because everybody has a referral for us. You’ll just happen to get their direct business as a byproduct of that and that is straight mindset. If I’m constantly messaging people with the intent of selling them something it’s very hard to stay consistent with my messaging. But if I’m constantly messaging people adding value like Maria is, with the concept of I’ll be the solution and giving friendly advice. It doesn’t matter because of the audience that she’s built. What she just told you guys was 14,000 people in her database. 1400 of them are moving each and every year 1400 1800 of them, and then probably about 20, well, all 14 of them have referral. So it’s not about reaching and hitting masses and masses of people as much as it’s about resonating. And really owning that core 200 250 people that you already know, like, trust and love you they invite to your wedding or funeral, or that you did say hello to the grocery store. Strangers
you want to do is to get to be the news to get in front of the news. So, you know, when the LA Times I think it was today or yesterday, there was some BS about the world’s ending real estate’s gonna crash blah, blah, blah,
big bus script you could do right now is look is the Philadelphia real estate market going to crash?
Right? So you want to get in front of it. You want to last week when the Feds announced a rate hike? Immediately, I did a video about it. The video was the Fed just announced the rate hike the first time and 22 years it’s been half a point. What does this mean? Hey, it’s we’re in a courtroom with M QA blah, blah, blah. What does this mean to you? Well, guess what? The last time this happened was the.com. And it was 22 years ago. And you know what happened? Interest rates 3%. And you know what happened after that happened? Interest rates came down. Yep. So the part of the world went into recession, but the rest of it, real estate actually raised in value. Right. So I did this video, but I did it immediately. You have to be an action taker. You have to be an action taker, you cannot wait, you have to get on in front of it. So, uh, you know, you want to get your market update out, you could do a weekly minute update. About you could do it about whatever’s going on. Open up the Wall Street Journal. Look down the page, look in the real estate section. For ideas. Put it in Google, you can go to answer the public.com. See what topics that they like that they want to know more information about. Go there. Do the video. If you use you can use big view. You put it right in the teleprompter. Write it up, put it in teleprompter, put it on your you can put it on your computer, you can put it on your iPhone or whatever phone he has. Put it up there, put your ring light on. That’s it. You got a video done. Take it upload it you can either put it to Jarvis AI now or if you rev.com translate the thing make sure you got captions on. Because most people we know that 70% of people watch the video with the video with the sound off. We also know that one minute of video equals 1.8 million words. The impact of it is 1.8 million words. It has on somebody the 400 that 400% greater impact than 1.8 million words.
I like it. Yes, folks. Dude, you guys got a great content. I mean, I don’t know it’s not a nice way to put it. You’re in the best industry to create content in. Everyone’s always interested in some way shape or form of it. It doesn’t always have to be real estate either guys, like if you don’t wanna talk about risk, they don’t most of our clients don’t ever talk about real estate. But you can if you want and it just matters on what you’re passionate about. What matters is that you’re passionate. If you’re not passionate about whatever you’re talking about, it doesn’t work when you’re on video and you’re smiling it always works I don’t care what damn business you’re in. We’re gonna Why don’t you go ahead and tell everybody if they want to learn more where they can find you and all of that we’ll get this thing laid up.
Absolutely, they can find me at the the solution podcast or so by MQ on Instagram. And my name Maria Quattron on Facebook. And you can reach me if you want to give us a call 215-607-3535 for your Philadelphia Metro market connection
if you’re a badass woman in the Philadelphia area because it sounds like this is a woman only team correct
no we do have men to take on man well
if you’re a man that can keep up with these women Okay? Which I don’t think you can they’re probably run fucking circles around you call her up and maybe she’s looking for some more team members in that area and obviously she has 1400
people so if you want to have business we have it for you. If you’re hungry, you can easily turn your first year business year you can make six figures no doubt and I’ll back that up with money.
Love it, love it. Love it and thank you folks for listening another episode folks if you need help getting on video we script at it and distribute your content. Put you on the map tell you what to say teach you how to do it and then multipurpose it to your channel and everything else that you can imagine for it. This is not rocket Science I believe it’s a popularity contest and if you want to create get more popular, start creating more content videos just the most impactful way that you can do that and we can certainly create a done for you for a solution for you on that just visit our website at real estate marketing do.com real estate marketing do.com and connect with those aren’t channels. Thank you for leaving your reviews, keep them coming and reach out to us. If you have any interest about how any of this stuff works. Reach out to Maria, please feel free to reach out to us schedule a demo, visit my website. I’ll follow you around the internet until you do and we’ll go from there. Appreciate you guys listening. We will see you on next week’s episode peace Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing do.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling into your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
What we’re gonna be chatting about on today’s episode, is what is content. Unfortunately, if you’re not creating content, you’re not going to have a business in the future. In my opinion, there is no more important marketing mechanism, activity or anything, than to create content. Because if you’re trying to message anyone without creating content, all you’re really doing is selling your shit and you’re landing on deaf ears. Content Creation is how you remain relevant amongst your audience, your databases, and how you keep the conversation going.
Our guest today happens to be from Chicago, but certainly not all good content marketers come from Chicago ;). Her name is Mrs. Sarah Noel Block, and she has a company called Tiny Marketing. What she does is she focuses on content creation within the real estate space.
So how do you track new business, you constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas to real estate marketing. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started.
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast, where we’re talking about today is something near and dear to my heart. Basically, the whole reason why I started to create this show about six weeks ago, and I’ll lay the context over what we’re going to be covering are six weeks ago, I mean, six fucking years ago, not six weeks, six years ago. But I’m going to lay the coverage about when I actually came up with the name real estate marketing dude, I was actually at a conference for Copyblogger in Denver and Copyblogger. Back in the day is Brian Clark’s company, you probably know who he is. Brian Clark is Copyblogger used to be the number one blogging content marketing company, I think in the world, he’s from training, they’re at the forefront number. And at that conference, I was sitting at this conference, and it was at that conference that I saw, I forget who was speaking on stage, but I’m like, You know what, I’m going to call my company. And I’m going to call my podcast, real estate marketing dude, because I was sold on content marketing, but I wasn’t sold on what my brand or identity was, until I came back from that conference. So folks, what we’re gonna be chatting about on today’s episode, is what is content. And unfortunately, if you’re not creating content, you’re not going to have a business in the future. In my opinion, there is no more important marketing mechanism, activity or anything, then to create content. Because if you’re trying to message anyone without creating content, all you’re really doing is selling your shit. And you’re landing on deaf ears. Content Creation is how you remain relevant amongst your audience, your databases, and how you keep the conversation going. Because when you disappear, you become a closet agent. And that’s when they start cheating on you with guys like me and everybody else. And that’s what is going to happen. The eye buyers today are are aiming for your clients. Big tech is aiming for your clients, and everyone is aiming for your clients except you. If you’re not creating content, you’re gonna lose touch, not stay in touch with them. And this is going to be a very good episode. So we’re gonna go ahead and introduce our guest today. She happens to be from Chicago, but certainly not all good content marketers come from Chicago, if you don’t know. But her name is Mrs. Sarah Noel block, and she has a company called tidy marketing. And what she does is she focuses on content creation within the real estate space. So Sarah, go ahead and say hello, tell us a little bit about yourself. And let’s get into this.
Yeah, so I started working with real estate companies about 10 years ago to create their content. And I haven’t looked back basically, I reached out to landlord ology, the because I was a real estate investor. And I said, Hey, do you guys need content? They did. So they hired me in it spun from there. I was working full time in marketing. And I built my business on the side as I was, as I was doing content for real estate service and SaaS companies. And now here I am two years later. Do you want to do it full time?
And you’re mainly creating content for the real estate industry? Those that correct? Yes. Okay. So we’re going to start this off really easy, guys, we’re gonna first define what content is. If you guys ever listened to the show for a while, you guys, if you don’t know what the hell we do, yet, we create video content for you. So that everybody knows who the hell you are in your local community. But video content is just one form of content. There’s a lot of content to create. Everything you do is content. Like everything you do even when you go on showings, that’s content. So once you to find in your terms, what the hell’s content for the real estate people?
Yes, for the real estate people, it is how you educate and build trust with your audience. Man, I would say I think it’s like 70% of the sales process is done before they ever reach out to somebody in sales. And all of that is done through content marketing, because you’re teaching them how to solve their problem. And you’re building trust by showing them you know how to solve that problem. It pretty much feeds all of your marketing.
Can you go back and spend some time on this? 70 to 80% of people have already decided whether they’re going to buy your shit, is that what you’re saying?
I am saying they have at least decided between you and one other company on if they’re going to buy your shit. And then they’ll reach out to you and that’ll be the deciding factor on who they go with.
So when a consumer is out there, just sort of I don’t know just play in the real estate agents, agencies and say I’m going back into Chicago. I never sold real estate Chicago so I don’t know any real estate agents in Chicago. And I’m thinking about moving back home to go closer to my parents. Let them watch the grandkids grow up. And I’ve sort of went on YouTube, I saw some one guy might like a little bit, I see another agent, I might like a little bit. What would I do next? As a consumer? Typically, they check out their websites and make a check out their YouTube channel, like what am I going to do?
Oh, you’re gonna do a deep dive, you’re gonna go to Google. And you’re going to start researching that person. See what social media they’re on? Are they active on it? See what what’s going on on their website? Are they regularly updating it? Do they have new houses listed on there? What do they tell me about their process for buying and selling? And that’s, that’s where it’s gonna go next. Just like everybody else in the world. They’re gonna go to Google and see what you have.
Right, folks? Did you guys, let’s get out of real estate for a second? I don’t know. What’s your favorite thing to do, Sarah? Like, what’s your favorite thing to buy?
Oh, my favorite thing to buy? Yeah,
to buy or do and spend money on?
Yeah, probably. Buy hiking,
hiking before you go on. Alright, so let’s just say that you came out to Southern California, you’re going out the San Diego area. And there’s a lot of really good hiking around here. What would you do first? Well, I
was actually there last summer. And I hiked up the federal volcano that you have over there.
I haven’t been there yet. But I know you’re talking about I even know the name of it. But I know you’re talking about
hiking boots, I would make sure that I have the right hiking boots.
And did you research it a little bit? And did you course,
you know, I’m on Google trying to figure out like, when what are the best hiking boots for mountain climbing because I’m in the flatlands of Chicago? Oh, I know hiking is normally through a forest. So I need to know what the right hiking boots.
You know, we call you guys out here now or they call us back home? They call it they call you guys Flatlanders Oh, the
giant mountain
Flatlanders? No, she’s, she’s exactly right, you guys, like think about it, you’re gonna be making one of the largest financial investments if you’re buying and if you’re selling, you’re unloading one of your largest financial investments, you’re not going to do that with John Doe, the stranger that you just met. At some, like randomly walking down the street, you’re gonna do it someone you know, like and trust. But most importantly, I would say trust. What, walk me through, I’m sure you’ve done all kinds of research here. Do you have like a pattern that you’ve actually noticed or research of what consumers do specifically, when they’re thinking about hiring a buyer’s agent or a listing agent?
Yeah, they start, they start by looking at, like, the questions to the problems that they’re having. Like, let’s say they’ve worked with a realtor before. And they were actually I had a customer interview for one of my clients just this morning. So I’m gonna use their example. They were working with a realtor. And they were super aggressive towards their, towards the buyers lender, like mean to them. And this person was see seed on those emails and saw how it was and just didn’t like it didn’t like the vibe. So then he started doing some research for outside realtors. And the first thing he did was, you know, Google realtors in the area and what he wanted, what he did was he looked at their videos to see what kind of vibe they had. And you start to feel like you know, someone when you watched enough of their videos, yes, you get a feel for their personality. And that’s, that’s why he did and ended up a good experience, obviously, otherwise, I wouldn’t have interviewed him for this particular thing.
Well, that’s what most people you sort of hit on the head, like folks are not hiring you because you have a license in your pocket that allows you to legally collect money on a house you sold. They’re hiring you because they feel comfortable, or they personally like you, like birds of a feather flock together. Guys, and people end up working with people that are really just like them, or somehow they relate to them. Because those are the people who remain on top of mine, aren’t they?
Yeah, and really, you just you want to spend time with people you like. So you’re not going to hire somebody that you really just don’t have a good vibe with.
If you’re sitting on the treadmill or you’re sitting on the peloton, right now, think about the last 10 clients that you’ve literally helped buy or sell real estate. And then I want you to look and realize that why you’ve become friends with all of them isn’t because that’s a coincidence. It’s because we all tracked like people People are always like, why am I drink a beer with my client again? That’s because that’s what I attracted right? Why am I like partying with this guy? Like I just sold this guy millionaire house why are we like a club right now? Well, that because that’s who you attract guys. What what is let’s go through some other forms of content. We know video guys, we don’t need to harp on video even though if you want to we will. I want this to be about you. Not me. But what other types
of content written right now? Um because they’re all looking like my clients are all looking to get found in Google faster. So we’re doing a lot of either the show notes to go along with the videos or full blogs and community pages, so that they can get found for those problems that they’re trying to solve. So, using the example from this customer interview I had this morning, he found her initially because he wanted an expert in his location. He, he was a real estate investor, and he had never actually lived in this house that he wanted to sell. So he’s looking for an expert in Sacramento. And that’s how we ended up finding her is because she did a lot of blogs on Sacramento area and the community. So he was able to find her because of that SEO juice.
It was a long tailed. And can you explain what longtail means?
Yeah, long tailed means like it. You’re not looking at Sacramento realtors, that’s a short tailed keyword. longtail would be like a longer question like realtors that are experts in x x neighborhood in Sacramento. And then your content will show up because you’re creating a community page for that particular neighborhood. For example,
when I was practicing in Chicago still and you guys could look at the website if you like it’s it’s botched now because I took down all my it’s all messed up. But I still have content on there. It’s called Chicago real estate dude. My number one performing piece that attracted a lot of clients was I’ll give you I got ton of stories. One was Chicago closing costs, I ranked number one, I actually had the snippet back in the day. So I actually ranked where I got the snippet in Chicago closing costs, Buyer Closing costs, and Chicago seller closing costs. were my top three pieces of performing content. I had my blog up to 10,000 Organic hits a month, guys, 10,000. It’s insane. I even ranked against realtor.com and homes.com and Zillow on neighborhood tours, terms like Buck town homes for sale and stuff like that. But it was because of how much content we were creating. And I knew how to SEO, the back end of them. But the thing that most people fail by is they think that if you’re gonna go out and create a piece of content, like a blog, they’re like, I want to get 100,000 hits. Sorry about that, is it?
No and vote one, it’s not going to happen overnight. And no, it’s not about that. It’s about getting the right heads. So yeah, people obsess over traffic. And the traffic count doesn’t matter if the wrong people are going to your website, what you want is the right traffic going to your website and the right people finding you. And part of that is creating content that might be let’s call it controversial, not really controversial, but shows your voice and who you really are shows your personality. Because you want as we were talking about before attracting the right people attracting people you would be friends with, you also want to repel the wrong people. So by showing your personality in that content, you’re already like pushing off the people that you wouldn’t really vibe with anyway.
Yep, I do it every day on the show. Like people like you swear too much. Great. We’re probably not gonna. Honestly, we’re probably not gonna hang out anyway. So let’s talk about a controversial topic. So we’re doing a scripting class. If you guys were members and clients of ours, you guys would be on this class on Wednesday. But what it’s going to be on there’s relative content that’s performing well on YouTube. And what she meant by controversial this is controversial. Is the San Diego real estate market headed for a crash? That’s going to be the topic of conversation, because that’s what’s performing well on YouTube. Now real estate agents are gonna be like, Oh, my God, that’s, you’re gonna say the markets going for a crash? It’s always supposed to go up. I thought. No, guys, you want controversial stuff? Because that’s what people get pay attention to.
Yeah. Clickable people are like, Well, is it click?
Yep. 100%. What other types of written content and blogs do you see? neighborhood? You mentioned? A couple of neighborhood pages?
Yeah. Yeah. And it depends on what type of buyer you’re trying to attract. So if you’re, I mean, I think in any industry, if you niche down, you’re better off and you’re, it’s easier to attract people. So let’s say your bread and butter is real estate investors, you’d want to write content all around real estate investing, and maybe how to automate being a landlord how to find properties. When you are a long distance landlord, items like that. Basically, you want to create, like a content cluster, where you have a specific content piece that’s really long like a guide, and then a lot of little branches that come out from it that are subtopics from within there. And by connecting all of those, that’s how you rank higher in Google.
So internal internally linking and all that.
Yeah, connecting the dots. their internal linking helps with SEO. And it also helps your customers that are on your website find the content that they need.
And why do you think more people don’t? I know from the blogging, but why do you have more people that do it sounds easy.
Because it’s not, it takes a lot of time. It’s, it’s time consuming. And at least my clients, they all have small teams, they either have a fractional team, where they have like a team of freelancers that will work with them, or they have one like one internal person that helps with their marketing, or it’s just them. Yeah. And that’s really hard. When you’re creating content, it’s time consuming, it takes about eight hours to create a blog post, that’s going to rank and that’s, that’s where people struggle. But if you create systems to be able to consistently create your content, it becomes a lot easier. And it’s kind of like a snowball effect, because you can play off of the other pieces.
So it’s something that you do over time. And I think a lot of people just are instant gratification salespeople where they need to see something work right now. But they won’t put the time into it’s how much videos you guys. Like I tell people all the time video, always pencils, it always works. It always has an insane ROI. But just sometimes it might take six months for you to build that brand, especially if you’re a newer agent. Or it might take one month, you just don’t know. But it always works. As long as you do it and you stay consistent with it.
Consistency is key it when I was building my business, the first thing I thought is I need to build my personal brand beyond my corporate life. So I mean, it only took six months to create enough of a following that I had a full roster of clients. And it was just a combination of showing up regularly on social media with video and with written content and then PR being able to connect with like podcasts like this. There’s a dog in my yard right now just walking by my window. That’s not my dog.
Make sure make sure it’s not a coyote first
confuse his Dog Mattis. Where was I? Oh, Pr Pr partnerships like being on podcast guest blogging and in publications that your audience is reading and answering questions on Haro help a report a Reporter Out. Those were the first things that I did when I was trying to build my brand. And then from there, I created like episodic content, where just kind of roles like a podcast, a live stream show. It’s the easiest way to show up consistently because you have that routine down.
Yep. Well, most times, like I don’t know what I was listening to this weekend, but I think it was a church to be honest with you. She said 21 wants to do something for 21 days, it becomes a habit. I’ve heard. Like I just literally had that happen in church, my son Okay, here. Yeah,
yeah. Okay. So that’s why I’m muting myself.
So like 21 days you do something and becomes a habit. And I think what a lot of people don’t realize or see, even today is that a lot of people don’t realize that. This isn’t hard. It’s just new for most people. And where a lot of agents traditionally, would spend that one to three hours or four hours a month, prospecting or doing something to generate business. They just don’t look at their business today, the same way or content creation around the same day content creation, you guys is modern day prospecting. It just doesn’t come with immediate gratification.
No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. But like, okay, let’s say you set up a system where you’re like, Okay, I commit to creating one, one video a month. And you start from there, repurpose that, start editing it down into micro videos, see if you can use it on social media, repurposing it on there, take that audio, make it a podcast, you could hire a freelance writer and have them write a blog post based off of the highlights of that video. You can really Snowball from just one piece of core content.
Let’s go into multi purposing. Tell me how you typically do it. What do you how do you multipurpose content and walk us through that a little bit more?
Yeah, I’m a huge fan of doing that. So I have a live stream show every two weeks. And my process for that is I take that live stream. And I’ll break it down. So it becomes a series. I’ll interview an expert. And we have three learning objectives in that conversation during the interview. I’ll break it down so then it’s a three part series. So then I’m already creating this episodic content which is pretty bingeable Because If you’re like, Okay, well what happens next click Next. And then from that series, I’ll take that and convert the audio file from there into a podcast. So those are three extra podcast episodes. And then I’ll take those learning objectives that I had in the initial interview. And I’ll break that down into a longer form guide that’s written. And then do the content cluster thing that I was talking about where we take the little sections of each of those guides and create a, a blog post from it. And then obviously, you have your social media from all of those pieces, that’s like 12 pieces already, and an email for each of those pieces. So if you already like 20x Step,
there you go, well done. I think I see a lot of agents or even mortgage people that when they create a piece of content, they’ll just sort of let it die in the newsfeed. They don’t multipurpose it at all. And I’m like, What the hell is the point of that? Like, well, you don’t you know, you could recycle. And here’s the thing to like, love some people that don’t have. Here’s another good tip, guys, there’s like, let’s just say you’re doing a video. And the videos you created six months ago, I could promise you that nobody has ever remembered about them. You can just repurpose them and just repost them they’re gonna think it’s brand new. Sure, brand new video, people overthink this stuff so much. It’s about being present. Yes, it is. It’s
about showing up in the feeds. And no, people are not going to remember social media has like a 24 hour lifecycle, so repost use, I, what I like to do is the first time I post something, I post it live and natively, and then I’ll put it into my social media automation and just recycle it from there.
Yep, I agree. What do you I mean, if you were to pick different types of content for people in the real estate industry, what would you rank them? In? If they’re like what type to create? Podcasts I get a lot of people say podcasts, podcasts or video or blogs or just sharing cool shit stories reels, tick tock, which is what do you see?
That is a good question. Um, do I have to pick like one that the top there’s a couple, I would, I would say, showing that you can solve their problem is the most important thing. And they’re going to find you probably you’ll, you’ll hit the most pieces of the no luck. Try the know, like trust factor with video first. So I would start there. Because they get to know who you are, and they get to learn something from you. And then I would go with written next because you’ll get more SEO juice from it, you do get a decent amount from from video as long as you’re doing like some good Show Notes Pages, some in depth descriptions on YouTube. But blogs are a good way to really get that impact from from those longtail SEO. So I’m gonna go with that next.
And then for longtail you like like the areas are like neighborhoods, areas, places community. What other types of long form content are you seeing? Yeah,
that does really well. And around your buyers specific issues. So I do a lot around landlords and acquiring new properties and processes for managing multiple properties when you’re a real estate investor. So it depends who your target audiences. But if you’re like direct to consumer, typical homebuyer, yeah, those community guides do really well. And any content that helps people understand the process of buying and selling a little bit better. Because that might be brand new, or they might not have sold a house and bought a new one in 20 years. And they need to relearn that process.
What about listings? Everyone’s always like, what do I do for listings? What do I do for listings? I tell them, sir, hang around people who own houses. But what do I do? What kind of content am I going to pick up for listings?
Yeah, I always had a good luck with telling the stories with it that connect people. So so many times you’ll read these listings, and it’s just like four bedrooms, two baths, blah, blah, blah. But I would bring in stories like the basement used to be a speakeasy or some some interesting fact about the house or the neighborhood that draws people in. Like my house. Like 10 years ago, the basement was an ice cream shop in the 1950s. So when I was at Um, when I was renting it out, that was when like, I had a story about that. And there,
that’s cool. So oh, well, a lot of times agents was like just listed just sold. I said this on the show recently, there’s a meme going around, of how real estate agents market their business. And it’s like if a if a doctor was a real estate agent, and it shows a doctor saying, holy and all these, like $100 bills, but I just perform heart surgery. And it’s like, folks, people, like, you gotta have to HGTV your sales process, you don’t need to like, tell me about how much money you made today. And said, Tell me about the story of the person you help. Like, it’s so easy. It’s right in front of us. Yes. But yet people like go the opposite way with it. I’m like, What are you guys doing?
Yes, that’s another thing that I meant to bring up is you can build trust by bringing in your customer stories into into the conversation. Like one of my clients, I wrote a story about how the customer had, he was a first time home buyer and a veteran. So like the story that went along with that, because it was it complicated the process. And it was really interesting, we got a lot of engagement on that. But bringing in stories and customer perspectives, testimonials are always great.
Another one you guys can try is like say what the market conditions the way they are. Tell the success story of the sale. So be like this seller, this house, like we had a house in our neighborhood sold a million dollars over list price, like what the fuck who does that million dollars, over a million over list last. And like that I would I would have wrote, I would have wrote a story of something along the lines like this property literally sold. And that’s not every day that a property sells a million dollars over list price, but this one did. And if you guys circulate the people who are going to be reading that are potential people who might be selling, they’re excited to learn that their house is worth more than what it really is today. So showing case studies of properties have sold, I also seen the flip side work well of I need a buyer but tell you the story of the buyer who’s searching for a house in the area, that there’s just nothing available for but both of them have a story in common guys, is what I’m getting at story content.
Yeah, if you think about it, like as a story, the customer, they always think of themselves as the hero of the story. So you need to make sure that they are front and center in that content and can picture themselves in that place. Like, oh, shit, that was that was me. I had, like, I’ll talk about an example one of my clients had from a couple years ago, when real estate was a little bit harder. It was it was less about like you couldn’t sell a house. And he had an offer and and it flopped just didn’t go through at the end. And how the real estate agent had backup offers ready because she knew that it was likely going to happen. And she got them to match the original offer stories like that, because you’re like, I was there if that happened to me. And that sucked. And but she was able to solve it and get the same amount of money. Yep. Yep.
I mean, that’s what it’s all about you guys at the end of the day is demonstrating your involvement in the transaction through the form of story. More people will follow it. But demonstration of what you do not a brag reel of what you do, there’s nothing more bigger return off than somebody being like I’ve made a bunch of money today, at least in today’s world, people don’t like that anymore. That’s just the way it is guys. Any other closing thoughts here that you want to mention anything with content, that closing words of advice for some of these people? Yeah.
If you just start with one thing that you’re willing to commit to, on a regular basis, it will work out if you just set that routine, even if it’s a small routine. And just like my business, a tiny, tiny little habit that you have in creating content, it will add up over time and it will be helpful even if you feel like it’s not moving the needle now it will
I agree. Why don’t you tell them where they can find you website in case you guys need help with your content creation services? I’m sure you can help understand what you do.
Yes, so I work with real estate service and Sass companies in creating their content marketing. And you can find me at Sarah Noel block.com and anywhere on social Sarah Noel block.
Appreciate it, Sarah. Excellent show. And thank you guys for listening to this episode of the real estate marketing podcast what you guys have to realize if you get anything out of this show today, just realize everything you’re doing this content. At the very bare minimum you should be taking pictures of cool kitchens, views, baths, bedrooms, kitchens, the bare minimum because every time you do you’re reminding everyone what you do for a living, so don’t overthink this thing, but if you want to step it up, once you start doing things on video, what happens is you get more eyeballs and with more eyeballs because more conversations with more conversations comes more clients and business down the road. So it doesn’t happen overnight. But it does happen and it does happen every time unless people don’t like you. Sara, would you agree that’s the only time this thing doesn’t work.
That’s true, people might not like you. And there’s nothing that either Ross can help you with that folks,
you might be in the wrong damn business. But as long as you’re still listening to show chances are that’s very seldom. So what I want you to do next is go to real estate marketing do.com and schedule a demo with me if you do want to talk about getting this content on video, we script we edit, we distribute and we put you on the map in your area. We do everything all I need from you is two to four hours a month, and the rest will be done for you. That’s www dot real estate marketing.com Thanks for listening other episode and make sure you subscribe to our show channel, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and we appreciate you guys listening. See you guys next week. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rollin in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Today, we have somebody in studio, we’re not in studio on Zoom, that just started doing video maybe three, four months ago, consistently. He’s done it in an area that let’s just say most people aren’t doing video, and because he was sort of sticking out like a sore thumb, he just shot right up. One of the questions we get is like, how do I use video if I’m going into a new market? Well, we’re going to show you that’s exactly what we’re doing here.
Our guest today is Stan Hartzheim is an experienced Mortgage Loan Originator who has a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry with Certification as a Divorce Lending Professional as well as expertise utilizing FHA, VA, USDA, and specialty loan programs. Skilled in Divorce Law, Mortgage Lending, Sales, Budgeting, Customer Service, Contractors, and Nonprofit Management.
So how do you track new business? You constantly don’t have to chase it. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing dude. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. What we’re doing today, folks, is we have somebody in studio, we’re not in studio on Zoom.
That just started doing video maybe three, four months ago, consistently. And he’s done it in an area that let’s just say most people aren’t doing video. And because he was sort of sticking out like a sore thumb, he started just like, shot right up. This is somebody one of the questions we get is like, how do I use video if I’m going into a new market? Well, we’re going to show you that’s exactly what we’re doing here. Before I introduce our guests today, we’re gonna discuss like what his journey was. But more importantly, this is a mortgage brokers isn’t a real estate agent. It’s a mortgage broker, who for the last X amount of years worked primarily in the Denver market, Denver, Colorado, just recently has relocated moved over to just north of where he’s at into Cheyenne, Wyoming, and now is building his brand within the Cheyenne Wyoming market and seen and trying to almost like starting over again, right? He’s got to create new realtor relationships, you got to create a new sphere of influence, doesn’t mean he’s not doing business in Denver, but he just starts he knows he needs to start building his brand there as well. So we’re gonna share his story see exactly sort of how it works with the man Stan right here. And without further ado, we’re gonna introduce Stan the Man to the show. Stan, how are you today, sir? I’m doing great, Mike. Thanks for having me on. Why don’t you just do a quick intro to everybody first last name what you’ve been doing for the last 20 years of your life? And who the hell are you?
Yeah, so my name is Stan hearts I’m I run a team called wh Home Loans team with a company out of Dallas, Texas called southwest funding. And I’ve been in the mortgage business since 2017. kind of creeping up on people, like you said down in the Denver market and building my brand down there building out a little bit of a team have our operations staff still in an office down in Aurora, Colorado,
had an opportunity to move up to the wide open spaces, just outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming on a little ranch yet, and man couldn’t couldn’t be happier. We got 10 acres of land, got a beautiful, sprawling ranch house and a lot of wind, wind. And your and you guys were just you’re just moving mainly for lifestyle, right? You just want to get more space. But you’re got obviously you’re gonna bring your mortgage business up there. And what were one of your biggest concerns you had before going into a new market?
You know, I think like, look like anybody when you’re starting out in the new market. It’s like starting out a new business. And so there’s some trepidation of how do I grow that business? How do I grow the brand? I think my biggest fear, however, knowing that Cheyenne was a little bit of a smaller town than Denver, obviously was, I grew up in a small town. So I kind of get it. There’s some relationships there that have been going on since you know, elementary school or middle school. And when you come into that new market, how do you win over that business? You’re anytime you build a business, you’re stepping into relationship with people, and sometimes that means stepping between them in their existing relationship? I’m hate to say it, but that’s the reality. And how do you do that? If somebody has been friends since middle school? Right. So that was kind of my challenge coming into a smaller market? Yeah, that makes I mean, that’s pretty much with everybody. We get a lot of people that hey, I’m in a new market. I don’t have a spare because I don’t have that will video work. We will be anywhere from you there. So Stan has been Stan is in full disclosure stands one of our clients, and we want to share a story because
Stan started doing video about four months ago, I believe right about now and you just recently got we’re not like creating 30 videos a month, right? We’re just doing two videos, keeping it simple. But you just recently got picked up from the new station. I hear. Tell me about that.
Well,
it’s been a variety of things have happened in the last few months. We started doing these videos, not not mortgage related. I talked about mortgages all stinking day long. So I thought it’d be a lot of fun to share my journey of learning about Cheyenne and the surrounding state of Wyoming with as many people as I could. Right away when I got here I found out that this
Cities a little misunderstood. It’s it’s not just cowboys. And
you know, it’s there’s a lot I guess I’ll let me rephrase that there’s a lot to do here, a lot of people don’t realize it’s very beautiful, it’s close to the mountains, just like Denver is are on the other side of the mountain Salt Lake City. And we wanted to just kind of spread the word like this is a growing community that has a great infrastructure and a lot of really friendly people. So we started doing videos just to capture our journey around town. You know, as we met, people are winning and visited establishments, learned about the neighborhoods kind of started to zero in on where we wanted to live. We thought why not record this and have Mike and his team make it look good for us. The name of the show is actually in Stan’s model like we had to. And I almost did the same thing. And I wish I would have I’m doing it now. But five years ago, and I moved to San Diego, I didn’t know if I was going to sell real estate, I didn’t know what the hell is gonna happen. I was literally starting over a brand new career in foreign land, foreign territory, I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen. I didn’t want to sell real estate. But I did have in the back of my mind that if I was the only story I’d be able to tell would be that of a transplant. And at that time, I was going to create a show called San Diego transplant and I was gonna do was just still myself being a tourist, you know, and just discovering while I learned the city, which is what Stan is doing right now. So in his case, we ended up building a show called why not? Like why not Wyoming? And it all ties in with the branding and on that, but Stan’s not talking about mortgages on these videos, are you? Well, not yet. I try to avoid it.
You know, I love that we came up with the name, why not? I don’t know if the listeners will be able to tell. But I got a fairly dry sense of humor. And using that reverse psychology works really well. For me, I think it becomes a little bit of a funnier thing. But yeah, we try to avoid talking about mortgages, we’ll do a bunch of stuff that is mortgage related.
You know, what is interest rates and PMI, and so on. We teach classes up here in town, and we’ll probably record some of those and get you guys to edit it. You know, it’s been a lot of fun where we’ve caught on, like you mentioned, the news stations have have reached out to us. There’s there’s two big companies that run before local news stations. And they’ve been reaching out and asking us, hey, you know, do you want to get on our show? Do you want to advertise with us? You know, you seem like you’re doing pretty good with video. The other thing that’s happened that kind of came out of left field for me, because I don’t think I’m some sort of trending superstar. But
you are, oh, all of a sudden, like people are like, Hey YouTube guy, would you do our product? Would you do this or that we’ll you know, we’ll give you a free product, we’ll we’ll sponsor this or that. I didn’t see that coming in a million years, I’ll be honest. So that’s been kind of fun and interesting to see the variety of people that are interested in what we have to say. And you’re coming from a position of value. And that’s what like, I think a lot of times, and maybe even now you’re starting to see it. But before we even started doing this, I don’t know if you’d call this conversation. Like we don’t have to talk about mortgages. And as a matter of fact, and last, we talked about mortgages and more attention you’re gonna get, because when you when you guys start creating videos, you start creating content, what you’re really doing is you’re just creating conversations, you cannot create conversations without creating content first, right. And
I want to give you guys a different analogy, especially for all your mortgage brokers out there, or even brokerage owners. And this is what this should click because a lot of times, like Mike, I just don’t get it. I don’t get how me doing a video on a business or me doing a neighborhood tour, this can lead the business, and I’m going to share with you how. So let’s get out of the real estate business Dan, and I’m going to share with you
a very important lesson I learned from taking one of the Digital Marketer courses, so I gotta give credit where credit’s due. I started studying Ryan Deiss Digital Marketer, which is a very high end, or very advanced called Digital Marketing Company. They are the guys that do traffic and conversion and all these other things. Long story short, I’ll never forget this. And this is the way my mind works because of one of the I don’t know where I saw this was one of the training courses I bought, I was taking one of the lessons. And Ryan Deiss who’s one of the CO owners of the company, back in the day before they became all famous and all that they had to they were just an online digital marketer company, right. And they brought on a roofing client, the roofing client at the time. And in Texas. How long do you think a roof lasts in a house in Texas then
I have to guess it lasts a while 2025 the severe weather that we have up here that’s for sure. 2025 years, which means that the person that they sell their roof to either most likely transacts the house or dies before they need a new roof which means there is no repeat business. Right? It’s not and it’s not in that type of business. It’s not like you get a ton of referrals. Like it’s not like roofers are like through show me a roofer. It’s sort of like a plumber, right? You’re like hey, can plumber he’s a plumber is an electrician, nothing bad about that. But I’m just saying it’s not like a super duper, duper highly referral business where everyone’s like, Oh, sending the roofer business. So
when you need them, you just need them when you need them. Right and you don’t really have any loyalty towards a person that doesn’t maybe you know someone maybe you don’t, but it’s almost like a guy
Hello page type business you thought you sir, find the first company you see, and that sounds good, and then you roll with it. So the point is, is that they had to come up with a marketing plan online for this company. And here’s what they ended up doing. So they knew they had to go a roundabout way and think outside the box. What they did was they created a gutter cleaning service. And in the gutter cleaning service, let’s just say the going rates were $99 to get your gutters clean, they charged 25 except all their gutter cleaners were experts at identifying roofing issues.
What do you think happened next in?
Well, I can imagine they started to identify a lot of faulty roofs or roofs with problems on a percent of their sales went through the roof, but they had to create a gutter cleaning service to identify the roof issues, right. So they had the forward thing. See when I’m looking at a lender, in your case, having video that’s exactly what it is. The video is your gutter cleaning service to start having more conversations. This is true for a broker owner that’s trying to recruit this is true for a lender that’s trying to build more relationships. This is true for anybody. See, what we’re doing is we’re not creating content and videos to sell our shit. We’re creating, we’re creating content and videos to have more conversations to build trust that will eventually lead to us selling our shit.
Right? And that’s just that’s just the reality of it. Right? And I want you Let’s go through sort of what’s happening in your market because I wanted to have you on the show. Because
when you have the opportunity to do something different and stick out or stand out. That’s the Holy Grail. Everyone’s always asking us, okay, I want to get leads. I want to get this. I want to get that, folks. Warren Buffett once famously said, when zig zag or they zag Zig. That’s exactly what this business is. Because everyone can trip over a mortgage broker on the street, everyone could trip over a real estate agent on the street. And what really makes someone hire you
9.9 times out of 10 it’s brand and personal relationship. And if they envision themselves to working with you, would you agree with that, Stan? Yeah, I agree. And I think that is the great unknown about video. I didn’t certainly know that even six or eight months ago, how much people get to know you through that video exposure. I mean, people, people walk up to me now, like, they’ve known me for years. And maybe I’ve met him once before, maybe I haven’t. So the other thing that happens, just intuitively, I at least for me, as I started to create things that I say kind of routinely as part of my video making process, right and, and we went on a road trip, I decided that the best way for me to do these tours, especially in a great big state, like Wyoming was a road trip around. And so I started just telling people in my video just kind of just naturally Hey, jump in the car, let’s go we’re going on a trip, you know, and now it just opens up like a crazy funny line when I bumped into someone at a coffee house, Hey, come on up. And let’s go we’re going for a ride, you know, like, let’s talk for a minute. And it just kind of it transitioned from video to real life really intuitively. What happened? The smaller the town, the easier it is, believe it or not, because think about it, like you come to San Diego is a lot of people are doing video you go to Chicago, New York or a major city. And then you’re not so much you don’t have as much attention on there. Even though there’s more people, even those a bigger population. But you don’t have as much attention because you’re just one of many. Whereas in Cheyenne, you’re one of only how many other mortgage brokers in the Cheyenne market are doing video.
You know, there’s a few people doing some real short, you know, the short, short recordings or whatever that they throw on Facebook, or maybe you know, some some reels kind of stuff, but I don’t think anybody’s doing YouTube. There’s one real estate agent that is doing some YouTube stuff, but it’s negligible. So you gotta go way up north, there’s a there’s a Gallup north, it’s doing a really good job with YouTube videos and short, short shorts, recordings. But that’s it. I mean, in the whole state, there’s like two of us. That’s why you got the news.
I love it. So why don’t you share with everybody, you know, are you nervous when you got started? What did you think, like, come through that because most people are usually like, hey, I want to do it. But everyone wants to just be done with it. But very few people actually will take action and go through and actually do it. I never understood why.
But my gosh, Mike i i can tell you exactly why. You know, it started out with this goes back years. I’ll be honest, this goes back to one of my first jobs when I had to do some phone, some phone work. I worked for a large hospital in Colorado, and I had to do some phone work and I’d always think Man, I hate the way I sound on the phone. And someone told me you know what, whatever you sound like is what you sound like you talk all the dang time you never shut up. So just get over it right and then I started to contemplate doing videos
Last year and I’m like, Man, I got a face for radio bro. I don’t know if I should be doing these videos and then people are like, whatever you look however you look man, you just, you know, you walk around all day you’re not hiding under a rug. So get out there and do it. That was it. And and then the follow up to that it’s just, you know, scripting like, do I am I gonna sound like a robot? Or am I gonna sound natural, I’m gonna look natural. How’s this gonna come together? And I would say the first couple of videos were pretty brutal. I’m not gonna lie. I won’t sugarcoat it. I stumbled over the lines, I think we recorded you know, the first one was a eight minute video, I think we recorded an hour and 20 minutes worth of stuff and just kept kind of getting through it. It wasn’t, it wasn’t embarrassing, because I knew somebody was going to clean it up first, I guess. But it was it was kind of brutal. But after that one, I would say literally, the very next video got 100 times easier. And then from there, they’ve gotten easier and easier. I still feel like I tried to read the script, or I tried to, you know, make it real polished or professional. And I’m getting over that, you know, I,
you know, maybe your listeners will go check out my channel, we just did a brutal, brutal, brutal pub tour. And there was no scripting like, I’m like, Okay, I’m gonna go visit these 13 places, I’m probably going to get drunk while I do it. And I’m gonna have to try all this stuff that I learned about each of these stops, because I’m doing a little history tour with it. And you know, my brand has to teach people something. So I might as well tell them about these breweries. And you know, by the time we got to the end, did I drop an F bomb? Yeah, I did.
I did, and that others did a great job of leaving it in there for me. So that was fun.
You just got to have fun with it. And you know, that’s what I’m learning and the nerves will go away. Have you ever, like hung out with somebody that you just can’t be yourself around?
A couple times, I got a brother in law that
was trying to impress him, right. So I tried to live live large, and it’s just, it’s uncomfortable. You know what I mean? It’s, it’s no differently like that on video. Like, when you’re creating content, you’re just speaking to one person at a time. And you’re right, like, you should I always tell people, you can’t be nervous about the act of shooting video. Because if you are, why you’re you control it, like you could just delete it or not post that video or not do it, you can just reshoot it, right? So the whole act of of shooting and and all that stuff is just mindset. None of this stuff is hard. Like if you truly, and I always say this on the show is like if you surely believe you’re the right person for the job, whether you’re a lender or a real estate agent, it actually becomes your obligation to let the world know about it. And if not, that’s very selfish and shady. And if you don’t agree with that, then you’re not the right person for the job. So there’s either one or the other. There’s no in between on this. So you have to really look at that for yourselves. And everyone always says I’m the right person for the job. Well, if you’re the right person for the job, why the hell are you so scared to tell the world about it? That’s when it comes down to you guys. And it’s not that creating content or video and all that stuff is hard. It’s just something you’re not used to. But I’m gonna go on a limb and stand Do you remember your first loan application? Or actually, let’s do your first million dollar loan application. Within the first year or two? Were you fucking nervous?
I can remember doing both. My first loan application was was utterly ridiculous in the in the day and age of technology.
I wanted to be that personal touch right? So I grabbed my old paper 1003 and ran over to the people’s house and wrote down all the information and I was nervous as heck. And I thought, Geez, what if I forget some piece of pertinent information? Or what if I don’t, you know, get this right or I don’t explain something right. And then I realized when I got back to the office, that that was the stupidest thing to be worried about, because it was a simple phone call to get the rest of the information that I maybe forgot like this. That’s how I feel about video and just you maybe you do record, you know, rerecord it or you delete something and start over, but it’s not the end of the world if it’s not perfect on the first try. And that’s kind of how that loan application when I remember the first time my first time I had showings, I was 22 years old, and I got the client from cold calling. So I would just do whatever it took back then. But I was working in the city of Chicago, I just moved back up from Carbondale where I went to college and I didn’t know my way around the city of Chicago. So and we didn’t have at that time we didn’t have phones that had Mapquest on him. We had to go to Mapquest online and then print out the instructions, and then print this shit out. Like I would have outside brains, I would bring the Mapquest and I’d have a sheet of paper like this. And if we’re looking at six properties, I would have six sheets of paper, I’d have the listing sheet on top and then beneath it would be the Mapquest instruction because I had no fucking idea where it’s going. And I had to go out there and fake it till you make it with these clients. So like so what’s this neighborhood like? I’m like a. And as a matter of fact, the day before the showings, I went out and I drove the route, just so I didn’t look like an idiot with them in the car with me.
Right and you had this is like the type of stuff that I didn’t like see
often be like, Hey, I’m not gonna go any showings because I don’t know what the neighborhood is, which is no differently. So I’m not going to shoot this video because I don’t know what I’m going to look like. Like folks get over yourself. No one is. And we’re not that important, like, I’m not that important stands out to important, the only one who thinks that we’re that important ourselves. That’s right. And I think that’s true as so many things, Mike, you know, we started teaching these classes in front of rooms full of people, and I can tell you even now I get nervous before we’re going to go do it. But for me to sit back and say, No way, I’m too afraid I’m not going to do it. The only person I’m hurting is myself, I’m just shoot yourself in the foot with that mentality. So you know, get out of your comfort zone and go do something new. So let’s, let’s go into your video strategy. Totally agree. So when we started out with Stan, he started out doing a lot of stuff. Like there’s different types of content you could create for different reasons. When we saw standard channel, or we’re standing the opportunity, we just know that there’s no one else in Cheyenne doing enchance, a big city, relatively speaking to the area, it’s a city, right, any city gets searched on YouTube. And because Dan was the first one there, that’s why we’re able to pop his channel and say, pop his channel, he’s generating lots of 1000s of views on the videos. And that’s what led to him getting picked up by the news and all that stuff. But now that you’ve built out the channel, and you have that street club, the video that he was doing, he’s referencing here is really funny. It was about what, eight minutes long, nine minutes long, give or take. Yeah. And the longer you did, you did a brew tour on site. So you guys had like the city was putting on like a Abreu history tour. Right. So I’m curious, because I haven’t talked to you about this. But what people don’t realize is the act of shooting, the video turns into relationship building itself, as well as other additional content you could be doing on stories and all this other stuff. So I’m curious to know, like, you’re walking around on this tour, how many people were on the tour?
You know, it didn’t really have like a point, a starting point, you know, and then get to the end line, it was kind of jump in the middle, you know, go at your own pace sort of thing. So, I mean, there were, I don’t know, hundreds of people doing the tour, but there wasn’t a group of 100 are going from place to place to place, right. So and some people are going backwards to the direction we were going. So we kind of kept bumping into a few people here and there that we’d see over and over at different stops. But yeah, so it was a little bit unique in that way, just because everybody was kind of doing their own thing. How many conversations did just the fact that you had a video camera in your tripod with you start throughout the day? Oh, I mean, we had 13 stops, there had to been 40 kind of I mean, it was three at every every stop probably. And, you know, a half a dozen of those 40 or so conversations were probably people like oh, no, don’t get me on camera. And I’m like, don’t worry about it. You’re gonna be on camera? Yeah.
Then I’ll get input when you’re having a conversation. So what are you doing these videos for? What are you doing this for? And then he’s creating an excuse to start? Well, I’m actually a mortgage broker. And what we do is we go around here and you have that conversation, which is totally different than just going up and be like, Hey, do you need a loan? Oh, by the way, my name is Stan. That’s like asking a girl to get in the bed the first time you meet them, guys. This is not what you do. Right? You don’t you can’t just ask for business. Before you even know someone, you have to earn it.
And you only earn it came out of that too is meeting meeting people and having those conversations but then also meeting either the management or owners of the establishments we were at everybody was jazzed, right? Like they’re like, hey, when you know, When can you come back and let’s talk more about my business. I’m like, I’d love to come back and talk more about your business. That was a really powerful part of that tour as well. So I was going right there. Perfect. So like what we should do, we’ll just turn this into a coaching session, as long as we’re here. What I want you to do and what you should do now is that yes, you had 10 bars, okay, now you could go to all 10 of those bars and do a business owner interview on them that gives you 10 More videos to do. See what’s going to happen on the business owner interviews is that those owners are going to share that video around with their friends, family, aunts and uncles and all of those owners lips somewhere. All of those owners have a referral for Stan over the next 12 months. It’s just a matter of if they’re gonna give it to him. We’ve seen a guy this is a funny story status is funny. This is what happens with business owner interviews. So we have a dude in Northwest Arkansas and he went out and he did this business owner interview for some kind of like it was in their market it was like the new swanky hotspot right? This dude sort of The Bachelor so he was taking a chick there on a date and he went there on it he takes his girl on a date after he did the business owner interview with the owner right so here he comes he’s got it he’s got this girl on his on his arm he’s trying to he’s trying to impress her and all that pulls up to the restaurant the owner steps aside everybody come here come here I got the best table in the whole restaurant for you right here you got the perfect view brings them a bottle of wine on the house and all that the chicks like holy shit, this guy was this guy. And this is what’s funny about the story is the guy goes you know later on and they start doing business together. And and he goes like this he goes see
I’d like to say something because Hey, Jay,
it’s funny that, you know, my wife’s cousin is a real estate agent. And, you know, traditionally we’re always using her, but you are now my real estate agent now. Right? So he literally, we’re just talking about how do you step over prior relationships, and you do it through adding value to other people’s lives, you guys know, right. And there’s just so much leverage. With video, you can do that. If you’re in a market like that, just imagine going out and networking with all the different businesses in that market and let them sell your stuff, right. But you have to give to receive, you should always try to give it’s written in the Bible, those who give, give, give, give, get it in return in some way, shape, or form. It’s just the way we’re supposed to be, in my opinion. Unfortunately, a lot of us always have our hands out.
And when we have our hands out, nothing really lands in them to do that. That’s right. So I want you guys to think about coming from a value or if you’re thinking about video come from a position of value and contribution as opposed to because it’s not about the content that you’re creating. It’s not about what you’re doing on video, it’s about how you’re doing it. And how you’re leveraging it. Tell me really quick as a prior to Denver, what are your ratios? versus how much of your business comes from real estate agents? How much your business comes from your own sphere of influence? Where does most of you originate from? And what would you say your largest sources are, um, you know, Don, in our Denver market, I was I was pretty blessed to get in early in my career with a bunch of doctors, nurses and surgeons, and surgical techs. So I got a lot of business out of the hospital environment. Wellness, I’ll get into why, but that just I fell into the right niche. And so I was really fortunate to be able to start building up my business by giving out referrals, I wasn’t necessarily hounding real estate agents for their referrals, as much as I was saying, Hey, do you want to partner up? You know, I might, I might not give you as many as you give me or, or maybe I will, who knows. So I would say my business down there over the last, you know, five years or four years that I was in that market has been 60%, self generated 40% referrals, and of those referrals, you know, 3030 35% Of that number, that total number was from real estate agents. So we did pretty well within that niche. Up here in Cheyenne, it’s a little different. Everybody starts out at the real estate agent level.
It feels like I mean, I’m still getting another lay of the land. We’ve only been up here since December. But
the banking industry is very strong here, right? A small town people are familiar with their bank, they’ve been banking there for a long time. So we have to overcome the stigma of going outside of the bank for a mortgage, and the relationship that that person then might have with their real estate agent friend that they’ve known since they were 12.
You know, we we’ve really, I spent a lot of time last year, you’ll remember some conversations, my eyebrows, like what does it mean to brand yourself like I have a logo was that my brand, like trying to make a brand. And what I found out is when we created this show, in large part thanks to you, Mike, you got me off of that topic and said, hey, it doesn’t matter what that branding piece looks like that logo, you have a brand that fits your personality and who you are. And what I realized, that I love doing was teaching people stuff. And that’s how the whole video series has come together, we were taking people on a ride to teach them about our local area about a local business. And that has translated from the show being called Why not Wyoming to why not university right? We got why not you and we’re doing these whole series of classes around town. And when I go talk to the Board of Realtors, it’s it’s really interesting people know that I am there when I stand up to talk, I’m going to tell them about some new educational opportunity that’s going to grow their business. Yeah, and that has been our value add that I don’t think I would have put my finger on without you kind of steering my show in a direction and then allowing my personality to come out. If I was just doing mortgage related content. I just be up there droning on and on. Most people
whether regardless of what business you’re in, even me like I’ll do a video on how to do video. It’s the least engaged stuff I post I swear, like and it’ll be really good content. It’s like our training content. Like I’ll do a video on how to script a video through story. And that’ll be you’re gonna copy all great video good video, but truth is, is that that doesn’t generate a shitload of views and attention a lot of times, same with real estate. However, I do create a lot of it because there’s different content for different reasons. You see, like if you guys want to go to my website, you can go to www dot real estate marketing do.com And what you’re gonna see on the website is a bunch of content. Every page on the site has a video and the reason why I created all that
stuff over the last five, six years is because when people visit our site, they’re not questioning whether or not I know what I’m doing. It’s sort of self evident. They’re questioning how I’m doing it. And if they like me, Can you envision yourself working with a dude? Can you not envision yourself working with a dude? And truth as you guys get my personality, if you listen to my show, you know, I’m not the most perfect human being I sit every day. However, I’m 100% authentic. And what what what people really want is just a trust, and you cannot outsource authenticity, you cannot.
You just can’t do it. And when people I believe when people look at a lender, or an agent, or financial planner, or anybody, the first thing that comes through their mind, and people always say you don’t judge a book by its cover, you’re shady. If you do that, well, I’m sorry, that’s just the way God made you. Everyone’s going to judge a book by its cover. It’s just the way that it is guys. Right? That’s just the reality of it. And when you look at somebody, I could like, look at somebody, like, I could tell I’m gonna get along with that guy. Right? You get that same feeling, right? I could, I’ve liked that person’s Mojo, I’m gonna, I’m gonna I want to drink a beer with that guy, I want to hang out with a guy. You just know who your tribe is. There’s a reason why elephants hang out with elephants. Like I’ve never seen an elephant and a cat hanging out and watching a movie together. It’s because we’re naturally attracted to people that are like us, whether way way shape or form they may be there might be personality that might be erased, that might be in skin color that might be in whatever it is. But whatever it is, understand that you’re the only one like it out there. And when you embrace your own individuality, and your uniqueness and your authenticity, and you scream it from the rooftops, and you’re damn proud about it, that’s what people are attracted to. No differently than what Stan is doing now and Wyoming no differently than what I’ve done on the show for the last six years. Some people are gonna like it. A lot of people aren’t.
I love when a lot of people aren’t, because if you don’t have haters on your shit, you’re not doing it right. You’re not meant to be perfect. It doesn’t exist. God’s the only perfect beam that exists in the world. And you’re not him. Don’t even try to compete. What you can do is embrace what you are, whom you are, how you do it, and scream that from the rooftops. And I believe that you’ll be rewarded through people just like you because that’s who you will track. There’s not a shortage of business.
There is everyone I look everyone I look at, like literally, everyone lives somewhere unless I check.
So it’s not a matter of if they’re going to move, it’s really a matter of when they’re gonna move folks. Statistically, in Chicago, when I was practicing in the city was three to five years in the suburbs was four to seven. I knew my numbers because I knew if I just stayed in front of people, everything we’re talking about when it comes to branding, content creation, the more people who know what you are, the more opportunities that open up. But it is mathematical not theory.
If 100 people see your content, 10 to 15 of them are moving this year.
The question is, are they going to use you when they do?
The more you’re on top of mind, the more likely that happens? Right? So this isn’t rocket science. This is relationship building.
This is leveraging content. And this is all based upon your personal brand.
Stan, what are you going to do with? Have you tried any events with real estate agents yet on the video stuff, if you taught a I think your next move is a teacher scripting class, you have the social St Cloud scribe to do it now. And you could literally just launch an education series towards real estate agents. You could partner with real estate agents and do different neighborhood tours. You could partner with real estate agents and do different construction tours. Because you’re not a real estate agent. Your job is not to sell those properties. It’s their job. But you still share the same client.
Yeah, I think some or all of that is in the works. You know, we we launched our educational series for real estate agents. In fact, we’re doing a class this evening. It’s going to be tailored at mortgages, mortgage one on one workshop, because we had to start somewhere. I would love to start at the beginning of the year. And then goal planning and you know, Vision boarding and all kinds of fun, cool, ethereal stuff like that. But here we are in May. So we thought we’re gonna start with some mortgage stuff. So people remember what we do. And then next month, we’ve already announced our June class is going to be on social media and some video stuff. So exactly what you said. But we have been reaching out to there’s a few people that like I said, are doing some of the short, you know, forum video stuff that have been doing some neighborhood tours, we want to put that on steroids. So I’ve been reaching out to them because they’re already fairly comfortable with that given area or that neighborhood. So we’re gonna go back and kind of recreate some of their neighborhood tours, but we’re gonna put it on steroids with a little more viewership. You know, a little bit better quality, so on and so forth. And then
yeah, just continuing to do what we do with the business owners. I think that’s that’s really our kind of our strategy for the next you know, two to three months is continue getting these videos, these people on video that are owning businesses. You know, like you mentioned earlier, when you
When you do an interview of the business owner, they let you, you know, take them in or they share it or whatever I found even on our on our beer tour, I asked every single manager of every, every all 13 places we went, I was like, Hey, do you mind if I share this, like, I’m gonna take you in this? And they were like, Yeah, that’s fine. But what I found is you can’t always take a business page, but you can check in at their location, which achieves kind of the same results. So I just, I’m gonna go back. And you know, we’ve already pushed that video out, but I’m gonna go back and repost it and just check myself in at these various different locations, even with the video we already have created, and then that way, they’ll get a double dose when we go back and do their interview. So yep, I would go, definitely, I would go back and think of diners, drives and drives, but recreate that for Cheyenne, and hit up all these different pubs and bars. And I bet you that well, I mean, I know what’s gonna happen, but do it. And then maybe we’ll have you back on the show. And you can tell people what happened. We Awesome. Hey, I wanted to say one other thing when you were talking about not being perfect, too.
You know, what a true statement. And And yet, the imperfections are the things that people are drawn to quite often. When I look at the commentary that comes through my videos, it’s, it’s funny how often somebody, you know, it’s easy to get defensive. And so I’ll read a comment where somebody’s like, Hey, you didn’t pronounce that, right? That’s not how we say that, or whatever. And I could be like, hey, what a jerk. Why are you all up in my grill over this? I didn’t even know like I say in the in the video I’m visiting, how the heck did I know that? But instead, I’m like, hey, thanks so much for educating me. That is awesome. Man, I will absolutely remember that now for the rest of my life, you know? And if you take that approach that yeah, we’re not perfect. And people are going to call you out for that. But it was that that even got the engagement started. And if you don’t get defensive, and you just stick with the engagement, man, all of a sudden, you’re having three or four more conversations that you wouldn’t have had otherwise, you know, if everything had gone perfectly, so embrace those imperfections. That’s a great point, I think Jay Baer wrote a book called Hug Your Haters, addressing how to hug on haters, and then how you flip those into, you know, conversion, because you’ll be amazed a lot of people will go out there and yeah, they’ll hate and then you’ll just address it. And then they’ll before you know it, they’ll be you guys will be best friends. Right? You’ll just see some of those people you get, you will get some keyword keyboard warriors out there, no doubt. But that’s good. Like, there’s everybody who said the same, but there’s no such any PR is good PR year and all the time. And who cares? If people are talking, then it’s working. That’s all that matters. So any other closing thoughts, Dan, that you have any tips for people advice for people, I think you want to mention, I will just go back to where I started, which is what my mentors told me your voice is, you know what it is you sound how you sound and you look how you look. And unless you’re living under a rug. Don’t be afraid to put that on a recording or on a video because it is who you are. And the more you act like who you are, the better the results are going to be. Love it. Stan, if you folks are in the Wyoming area, but you’re licensed in other states to maybe an agent wants to reach out to you or something. Why don’t you go ahead and tell people how they can reach you, they could connect with you go ahead and tell them what channel you have. And they could follow you on there if they want to check out some of your content.
For comment, yeah, for sure. If you want to see the comment, it’s why not? Wyoming wy And O T question mark, Wyoming. That’s our YouTube channel, we [email protected] l h loans.com. That’s our website. And you can always call me direct. If you have any questions about how to implement some of this stuff or what my experience has been. I’d love to answer it. 720-883-8452 Appreciate it. Stan. Keep it up, dude. Stay the course excited to see what happens in the next three to six months with this. You’re doing everything right. Just keep doing it. Folks, thank you. And don’t you stop listening to this podcast if folks if you need any help. And you like what you heard here today on Stan story, feel free to reach out to us. We’d like partnering with different mortgage brokers, investors, lenders, real estate agents, broker owners, recruiters, you name it in their local markets. And this is all we do. We script that and distribute videos but more importantly, we give you the right strategy that should fit your brand so that you’re actually not looking awkward on video you’re actually excited to get on video and that all dials and dials in with the picking up the right strategy, which is my expertise. So appreciate guys listening. Feel free to reach us you can visit real estate marketing do.com Real Estate market.com leave us a review here connect with me on Facebook, Instagram and check out our channel real estate marketing do it on YouTube. And so make sure you subscribe but we will see you guys next week. Have a great day. Stan, thank you so much. And we’ll talk to you guys next week. Bye. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing do.com We make branding and video content creation
Simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
A lot of times people say, I’m brand new to this market, How am I going to start, I don’t know anyone here and we hear that quite a bit on the show. Our guest today can be a huge inspiration to you all because he was from a different country. In 2008, he came to the States over from Scotland, and he started from scratch, like how I moved to San Diego and I just got my license. Again, I say this on the show, because I’m gonna start recruiting all you guys. When I got to San Diego, I told myself, I’m not gonna sell real estate I was burnt out. Five years later, here I am, I got my license back. I’m not going to get into the sell, sell, sell, sell, but I am going to build other people’s brands and create content for him and all the above. And no matter what you do with this business, you’ll never escape it once you get into it. But there’s so many different facets of it and I found his story really interesting, because a lot of people will say, Oh, real estate is not for me, but this guy comes over from another country goes into Denver, and he starts just selling houses, and he does very well. Listen up because I think you guys are gonna get a lot out of this episode!
So how do you attract new business? You constantly don’t have to chase. Hi, I’m Mike Cuevas a real estate marketing dude. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing dude, podcast. Look at this, folks, two weeks in a row. If you listened last week, I had an episode where I called myself out for not being consistent on our podcast schedule. And it’s something I teach and preach. And then even you know, me, the guy who talks about this all time, I’ve messed up, and I said, I was gonna let it happen again. And I promise you that. So I started loading up on shows. And what I’m doing is I’m, I reached out to a bunch of groups out men, I’m like, Hey, let me get some shows. Because I know a lot of the groups I’m in we have a lot of friends in the business and industry. We’re just killers all over the country. We have a lot of masterminds with you on the back end. And what we wanted to do today was bring one of them on, and he’s got a really cool story. You know, a lot of times people say, I’m brand new to this market, I How am I going to start I don’t know anyone here and we hear that quite a bit on the show, we get people that write in and whatnot. But this guy was from a different country. Okay, in 2008, he came to the States over from Scotland, and he started from scratch, like, you know, what, I moved to San Diego. And I just got my license. Again, I say this on the show, because I’m gonna start recruiting all you guys. But when I got to San Diego, I told myself, I’m not gonna sell real estate I was burnt out. But five years later, here I am, I got my license back. And I’m not going to get into the sell, sell, sell, sell. But I am going to build other people’s brands and create content for him and all the above. And no matter what you do with this business, you’ll never escape it once you get into it. But there’s so many different facets of it. And I found his story really interesting, because a lot of people will say, Oh, real estate is not for me, but this guy comes over from another country goes into Denver, and he starts just selling houses, and he does very well. And I think you guys are gonna get a lot out of it. So I’ve known you for a while. How long? I don’t know how many years, maybe five, seven years. And I haven’t seen in a couple years since COVID and whatnot. So but we’re gonna do a show back then I believe. So why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself to the audience here. And let’s get right on into this because I think all you guys are going to get a lot of good learning lessons of how to start from scratch. So if you’re struggling today, if you’re just stuck, you don’t know something’s not working. You don’t like interest rates your buyers are stopping to buy because their payment is no longer affordable, or vice versa. Look, we all start from somewhere so this is going to kick you in the ass. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and introduce Denver realtor Yun Graham. What’s up, dude?
Hey, Mike. Great to be on the show. COVID has been kind to you, you’re looking great. I’ve had as I said, I’ve not been I’ve not seen you for a couple of years. So I’ve seen a lot of weight, like nine parent, I’ve not seen you in person. But obviously I’ve seen we’ve seen each other online and stuff like that. So yeah, it’s great to be on with you. I think, you know, I love to do this. I love to kind of maybe share my perspective on things my perspective not just on, on real estate, but the opportunities that we have and that we’re blessed with in this country. So I think that’s really part of my story as well. You know, swam over from Scotland 1415 years ago. But I got here, you know, these American girls, Mike, they’re too hard to turn down. So
look, especially with an accent like that. A bunch of a bunch of women coming into the call
Union on YouTube video. Well, it’s interesting if you if you put close captioning on when I’ve been talking, it can come up with some pretty interesting phrases and words that follow me but yes, so moved over in 2008. My wife’s a Colorado girl. So we met actually Mike in San Diego, in 2004. She was out there. So we met in 2004. married a year later spent a couple years in Scotland where I think we’re laughing that we were both drug dealers before we got into real estate. I was selling pharmaceuticals. Yeah, then moved over. You know, with my eyes wide open, but no, in the worst financial market we’ve seen in you know, 80 years. So to be honest with you, Mike, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I wanted to get back into maybe selling pharmaceuticals or doing medical devices but you know, in 2008 Nobody was hiring everybody was laying off. I So I came over with this, you know, charming accent and I would just get a job. And it just, it didn’t work like that. So I really had to pivot. I
did you have any real estate experience when you came over?
Absolutely. Well, actually, we own a little property back home in Scotland. So we have a little slot that we still have to this day in my hometown. That was the only kind of experience I had. I know I liked it and kind of like, always had a mystique around it in terms of what it might, you know, what am I end up with? But no, absolutely no real estate? So first job in the United States, I was selling Yellow Pages. And, you know, I think what that told me, Mike, is, Yellow Pages is definitely not the future. I was trying to tell small business owners it was, but I’ll tell you, I went and knocked doors for close to 18 months, small businesses in Denver and down in Colorado Springs, we went down there. And I and I looked back on that time in my life. And I was like, Why the hell was I doing it, because I don’t know about you, Mike. But I’m a firm believer that every everything happens for a reason you’re doing something, there’s a reason behind it, you might not know then, but you’ll figure that out. And when it taught me really was how to build relationships make. Because what I would do is obviously, build the relationship with a small business owner and do a great job for them and provide value. And then they would, in turn, tell their friend who was another small business owner about me. And I can always remember him, he would come in on a Friday afternoon, and we’d have to cold call for four hours straight. And we would pick up pick up a yellow book and call through that. And I didn’t do it, I refuse to do it. Because that was not my intent. I was not a cold call guy. I was at relationship guy and I was always the one that had the most appointments for the next week was closing the most amount of business. So there was something behind that. And I was part of a little networking group that had a realtor in it. And he said, You know, I think I think you’re looking for something else. I think you use theirs and I said look, I am in America I’m in the Wonder opportunity. I’m all ears What are you thinking? He says you should get in real estate. I think you’d be really good at it. You know, you can you can you know the world is your oyster in real estate you really are you know, it’s like that you’re your own boss you’ve got the fleet you know, it’s a throughout the comments of it’s flexible. It’s like yeah, right. Bullshit flexibility in your first two three years there’s absolutely none. So yeah, I in 2010 I got quit quit the Yellow Pages studied at home for two weeks, because I didn’t have the money back then to attend the courses. I just bought the books the the real estate books, studied when in a class for a week summer test, got a license and just came out the gate and realize that Mike, I think, you know, back then I had no experience I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have a mentor but I knew that I would learn over time but I could outwork anybody like work was not the work ethic part was not polling to me so if you if you had the experience but didn’t have the work ethic, I was going to beat you on work you know work ethic so the first full full year in real estate and you know what it was like back then and Mike it was a it’s insane to think about that. Basically nine out of every 10 homes are in short sale or foreclosure back then that’s what I cut my teeth on. I was selling condos in Denver for 12 $15,000 I was making a couple 100 bucks which was a fortune to me on a commission check and you know that first year I just hit No no days off at nine years weakness so 36 homes in my first year and I did not have any kind of idea of if that was good or not because I thought it’s really good. If I sell 36 homes in my first year with no experience the average realtor must be selling 100 homes he know that make that’s what that’s what I believe because I didn’t I know
what do you notice searches today? Or even that it’s never changed? Like five to 766 homes the average size a realtor sells and I don’t know how you can make a living off of that.
No and I you know I I sold her a lot of homes, but they were you know, I think my average price back when I started was around $80,000. So that’s kind of what my average price point was. But I just didn’t look back because I loved that I loved I didn’t Thanks, I was working Mike, I think I found something. And we talked about this just offline about, the longer you get into the business, it becomes, you know, it does become a little bit of a grind but the that that first year, I was just on cloud nine, because I, you know, I was making some money, not a lot of money, but I was providing for my family and I found something that I found. It just came naturally to me. And the other big thing that I really want to reiterate to the listeners, if you’re if you’re, if you’re born in this country, if you’re born in the United States of America, you won the lotto, you won you got you got the Charlie Wonka golden ticket, because there is nowhere else. And I’ve said this so many times, there is nowhere else in the world with so much opportunity. And gobble I came, I came here as an immigrant with with nothing like, I didn’t have some trust funds with my parents like I, you know, my parents went through a divorce right before we moved over. And I just wake up every day. No, you know, sometimes a little bit different Susie, artistically, but I know that I’m a kid in a candy store, we can up in America, because the opportunity is off the charts. And I’m living proof of that I did, I had no connection to anybody in Denver. Anybody in the metro area, my wife is from a small small town in Colorado, 100, people she didn’t know grew up in the city. So I had to create these relationships and create the business on my own. And I’m living proof that it may sound corny, but the American dream is, is alive. And well. And I’m telling you that right now, if we just focus on what is good out there, good things happen. And I just like I grew up in Scotland, it’s not like some third world country, you know that I have a lot of friends that have come from, to the United States. But the opportunity is nowhere near anything like we have here. So it was just like, it was fascinating to me that I really put the work in, I learned, you know how to do things my own way, because nobody was nobody, I had nobody to show me I just had to figure it out. But that was a good thing for me. Because I figured out my you know, my flow for things my that the way I handled things. And you know, I, I sold the most homes ever in a first year in Denver and just continue to build my business from there.
Let me unpack a couple of things that you said. First off, thank you for recognizing that I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with so many people today where they talk shit about our country, but our country is the biggest opportunity that exists and it’s, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear someone appreciate that. So thank you for that. Thank you for all those who have served and everybody else who fights for it every single day. But listen, you have the exact same story as me as myself. So this has some similarities here. I didn’t come from Scotland, but I did come from Carbondale at Carbondale, Illinois, which is probably the armpit of America when it comes to colleges. And I remember one day, I was doing a kickstand, and I was 22 years old getting blacked out. And then the next day, a week later, literally, I was walking down Michigan Avenue and my first suit being like what the fuck happens now. And I was 22 years old at that time, and I started at a company called I think was called it was called home touch. And home touch was a buyer agency only. And if you guys are familiar with Chicago, you see it on the news water tower mall used to have a kiosk in the very bottom level of the mall, which is a tourist trap or tourists Central. And in the kiosk, we’d have a bunch of just different listings and properties there. And we would just stand at this kiosk and just strike conversations with people because people would stop by to say, Hey, what’s going on with that listing? Right? Or, Oh, how much does this thing go and then you just start a relationship. The very first house I sold was to an attorney, I had nothing in common with like this guy and me. I still stay friends with him over the years. Like we’re totally opposite of the political side, everything. We have nothing in common. He’s an attorney. I’m a dude. But I always knew the power of relationships. Because when I was in college, I was like, the guy who had all the parties. I had all the bar bartenders, I always knew how to grease people to get in. Like I had everything I was a shit in college. Then I got to the real world. And I’m like, damn, I started over I was nobody. The one thing and the one thing I learned is that everyone always has a common ground and in business, regardless of what the common ground is. If you can find it early enough in a conversation, you’ll earn the chance to have that conversation. All right. So this dude was in a fraternity and I just got out of one. And that’s how I struck it. We bonded talking about frat hazing, frat parties and all this crap. We ended up selling them a $420,000 condo for sale ever did came right off the floor of water tower Mall. That gentleman I continued to nurture the relationship with him over time. I’ve even till the time I left Chicago, 17 years, 18 years I, I known this guy, I can’t tell you how many people he’s referred me to over the course of time, he’s had me over his house for dinner, all of that different stuff. This entire business is based upon relationships. You guys, it’s not based upon lead generation, it’s not based upon that auto responder you don’t know how to use. It’s not based upon the AI technology that the Guru’s are pumping down your damn throats right now that you’re never going to learn how to use what it is going to be based off. And what it always has, since the dinosaurs ruled the earth has been based upon relationships because 88% of people close with the first agent they meet with. And if you do all the stats, you can look up and see where people choose their agents from it’s not any of the places I mentioned, it comes from people they know you personally met, or that you’re referred to. And that’s where over 80% of business comes from each and every year. So to have a guy, how old were you when you came over? I mean, I still have a 29 year old dude, come over to the States probably has stars in his eyes, like holy shit, this is great. Probably like a kid in a candy store, like you said, and you just didn’t know anybody, but you focus on building relationships. And, folks, that’s what the business is. If you’re sitting here, trying to think that you’re in sales.
You’re in the wrong damn business. In my opinion, I don’t believe we saw I don’t think you can sell anyone anything without first having a relationship. So there’s a good book that demonstrates this. It was called cocktails, the name of it. It was written by the dude that sold the most used cars in one year. And his name is Joe Girardi I believe. I’m blanking on what the name of the book is. But the whole point of this book was this guy sold like 346 Used Cars in one year. Okay, this wasn’t a condo building where you get 346 listings with one developer, he did individual likes. So it’s not like he had a bulk sale, he did individual car sales one at a time. And how he did it was he came up with this thing he calls Gerards rule of 250. And he goes, every single person knows 250 people that they can refer you to every person does. So he goes when I this is like the Centerstone of our philosophy today’s like he goes when I sold someone a car, I didn’t spike the football. When I sold him the car, I spiked the football and I got the third or fourth or fifth referral from them. Because once he sold him the car, he instantly went, Hey, if this person can refer me their friends and family, this is a used car salesman guys. Okay, we’re talking about selling real estate, the biggest investment ever, this guy’s did the same concept with used cars is this guy, if I could get into there, people have 250 people, and then they could introduce me into the 250 people. And that’s how this guy rolled. He just kept leveraging relationship off relationship, a relationship or relationship? Because you know, how many times do you get turned down on a referral when you go to a listing presentation? Never? How many times you get turned down? When you go up? And you get a cold call, like, Hey, I’ve got this lead, I’m gonna go over, you know who the hell it is? They’re interviewing five other agents? Well,
it’s just it’s a different, it’s a completely different proposition. And it’s, it’s a different process as well. And it never seems to go as well. Even if you get the listing, which you don’t always get obviously. And because it’s a it’s a completely different set of parameters you’re working to. So yeah, like, you hit the nail on the head, it’s, I’ll tell you what, there was a period for about six months in 2017, where a lender and I partner together because a lender was like, we need to, you know, we need we could grow exponentially, and we wanted to do, we bought leads, and had a team like five agents that were cold calling and calling and calling and calling and calling and I was miserable. It was just so authentic to who I am as a person. And like, we got rid of it. And I sat the team down, I said, I’m gonna teach you how to grow, how to grow by repeat and referral business. And I’m going to teach you how to develop relationships. And we teach how to be authentic, and we teach you ultimately how to provide more value than you’re ever going to receive and payment. And, you know, talking about books, the, the the one, the one book that changed my life was the Go Giver. And that just taught me all about it’s, it’s about providing value before you ever ask for anything in return ever. And you’ve got to provide way more value than you expect in return. So that was just something that, you know, I was given in my first year in real estate as well. And it just hit home to me it just was like, it was just like, it was like I was looking in the mirror reading this book. And I think the big thing Yeah, you look not everybody has, you know, an outgoing personality. There are introverts out there that succeed in real estate but they maybe do it differently but for me, my personality is is extroverted. So it’s very much you know, high energy, high Passion, people see that I can care because of where my heart lies. Leave it I’m very transparent. So that’s just the stick who I am. And that’s how I mesh well with and that’s where we would get really good results. So let’s go back
to the let’s get out of real estate for a second, let’s go back to the phone sales. Like you knew this, this is not a real estate thing you guys this is any business, any referral business, anything that you’re self employed or and then you’re in charge of and you’re the brand or you’re in charge of going out there and getting direct sales like referrals is where it’s always at. How did you like us? So you when you would go on your phone sales, the same thing as what I’m talking about with the used car salesman? You would focus not necessarily on the sale, but on the relationship?
Well, yeah, I so like, how do you
probably have, you probably have a system in your head that you’re like, Alright, here’s how I build relationships where you like, Alright, first thing I do is I make them laugh. Second thing I do is I do this, like you probably have something that you It’s you guys, it’s like dating,
it’s, it’s more about finding common ground. Because we would go in our office with these little cubicles, and we’d sit in, and I would hear the guys that had been doing it forever, like 30 years selling Yellow Page ads, right. And they were, they were polished and I put it near quotations and I would hear them on the phone talking to prospects. I’m like, What the fuck? Like, honestly, this biggest chill cheeseball bullshit I’ve ever heard. And like, how can you it’s like, so scripted. Yeah. And it was just like, so sleazy. And unlike, I just, it just wasn’t me. And the thing is, it was all about just being authentic to who I am. Like, you get what you see with me. And yeah, I’m there, I’m always thinking about how I can help people. And that was the big thing for me as my my internal cues were when I was listening to people, it was always I was looking for something, I was listening to an opportunity where I could make an impact in their life, make their life better by introducing them to somebody or something that was going to help them in their journey. And these are the conversations that I love to have. Because I want to surround myself with people that want to achieve the ones that are high achievers that want to make a difference in the world. And I like as this like young kid from Scotland coming over and having these clients when I was selling these 2030 $40,000 condos, I was always looking, I was always, you know, sending a little handwritten note every time I met somebody and just build and build and build in. And that that was that was something within me. And when I when I hear kids nowadays get into real estate, and they’re, you know, the Instagram kids that are grown up in real estate know that want the private jet and the Ferrari before they’ve even sold a home. Yes. And you know, I get the I get a lot of people calling me and asking to meet me just to they’re going to get in real estate. And you know, I won’t help people, but I’m selective. And I tell them, I say the word of advice, the advice I give to you is, for the next three years, you’re going to work seven days a week, you’re going to work 80 to 90 hour, hours a week. And if you’re still in real estate, after those two to three years, come back and talk to me, because I guarantee you’ll probably give up after the first three to six months, because it’s too hard or you’re not good enough business. And you’ve got like I’m a firm believer, Mike, that you got to earn your stripes, you just don’t get like I’ve never had anything handed to me. And it’s just the way I am. It’s like if you don’t earn your stripes, you’re never going to understand what the what the roadmap is like and what the struggle is. And, and you can’t look back on that and have perspective. Because I’ll tell you right now, when I started in real estate, me and I had, you know, nothing. And it was like, I can remember multiple times over that first two years, hoping and praying a closing was going to happen. So I could get that extra three or $400 to pay our mortgage. And it was like, that’s given me a perspective. You know, I can look back on that and say, there was a grind, and there was their stripes. And like I just think, you know, I know we’re going kind of off on a tangent here but there’s just been a loss of that. You know, you know everything everything wants to come too easy.
Well the you said it earlier to you said I failed forward essentially. You don’t the best like I look at I take your perspective too. I’ve gone through a transformation the last 567 years myself bankrupt when here but they’re all that you know went up and went down from you know, I’ve been there done that. But truthfully, guys is you can’t unless you like learn lessons. The hard painful way you don’t actually learn them is what I found out and there’s something great about being humbled and coming from very humble beginnings because it is how you you’ll look back. I do Do believe that, you know, I used to read these books all the time. And you always read the books about the millionaire, right? And he’s just successful. But if every single one of the books has the same story, if you guys ever really pay attention, someone goes out and does really well, then they lose it all. And then they build their ship back up, right? It never fails. And it’s because you’ll make mistakes. If this business isn’t too easy. The truth is like you have to you have to fail. I believe that to you, if you don’t get burned. You never learn. And it’s made me personally with everything. I’ve gone through way better person, way better businessman. I know what to look out for. But in this business, you need to suffer through that. It’s just how it is because you’re right. It just won’t. You’ll never learn and if you never learn, you’ll never be able to do it. So I same thing. First Three Years, I didn’t have a life. Yeah, I just sat there and work. I was crying. I was like, What the hell am I gonna survive? Like, just like a little kid stuck in the city? Like, what the hell am I gonna do? Yeah, but you just have to hustle. And it’s same story, dude. It’s like directly the exact same story. It just went through building relationships, building relationships.
And I can remember, but my daughter was, you know, I’ve got a 12 year old and a 10 year old, no, but my daughter who’s 12, she was six months when I got in real estate. And you know, when she was one, between one and two years old, she would pick my cell phone up and be like, Dad, dad, because that’s all she knew, that she just she she grew up, I grew up with me just being on if she saw me, I was on my phone. And, you know, I look back on that time. And then I miss a lot of time with it when when the kids were little, yes. But do you know what they now have is they have an unbelievable understanding of work ethic and how how, you know, hard to work with things and things don’t just come to you. And, you know, I think that that’s where I’m at, in my real estate career is now is, is trading dollars for time, because, you know, I do want to, you know, my my philosophy, Mike is you get one shot at this, this isn’t a dress rehearsal, you got to go out and knock it out of the park in all facets of your life. And, you know, number one, the most important thing to me is my family and my kids. And if I’m, if I’m not putting a lot of time and energy and resources into them, and I’m feeling there’s a.so Ultimately, that’s the goal. And I’ve been lucky enough to use real estate as that vehicle. You know, to get there and to get to a point where, you know, I’m able to trade the doors for time.
So the one of the when I worked in my first job, because you’re like this, the girl, the gal girl, she’s from England, or she’s from Ireland. Before we got on the show here, I’m like, oh, that Irish kilt on your brand. He’s like, I’m not Irish. I’m Scottish guys. Like, oops, sorry, my bad gotta keep it in mind. But the but the your accents the same. And her name was Andrea. Andrea was a top salesperson. They’re much like you very similar story she must have. She was only in the States for a few years. But she was a top salesperson there. And when she used to use use her accent to her advantage, because it’s adorable. Like she’s like, Oh, how are you doing? Like, you know how you’re doing it. Now people probably say it all time. I love your accent love your accent. But she use it to her advantage because she knew that’s what made her different. Right? And I look back at it and mindset or and I look back and look at that. That’s how she she crushed it on the floor. Like she would just crush it. You pick up a client every time she was out there. So you know, but she embraced her authenticity, she embraced her personality. I’m sure for someone coming over here. You might be a little insecure about your accent maybe. Right? Or maybe not. Maybe Maybe you got too many women that just started putting themselves out there dreamy over here. But a funny
couple of things. When I go back to Scotland, my friends give me so much shit because they think they see I’ve got an American accent now. So it’s changed dramatically. And I’ll tell you why. Because I was never insecure about my accent. But I had, I had been given a referral in my first year in real estate and I picked up the phone and called them and the wife was on the phone with me. And after about 30 seconds she said stop. This is not going to work you in because I can’t understand a word you’re seeing. And I caught like offended. I was like, Do you know what I said? I said I’m speaking English. Like I’m not I’m speaking the same language. And it’s funny because they’re great clients to this day. They were one of my first clients and we joke about every time I see them I’m say I say Can you understand me now? But it of course it is it’s an icebreaker with anybody because they’re they’re, you know, they’re interested. We have questions like query formance. It’s a query from an Ireland and I’m like, well I’m not from Ireland from Scotland and of course I use it to my advantage but it It’s it’s it’s something that, you know, I thought was going to be a hindrance rather than a help when I first started in real estate but no, I’ve definitely been.
We deal with this all the time with video, we’ll create content for people and the big oh my god, I look stupid. I’m too fat. I’m this I’m that. And like, folks, get over yourself, like, no one cares about that stuff except yourself and like, and people can see it when you’re faking it too. So regardless of what it is, yes, be yourself. Like, that’s how video works. If you try to do it too scripted, or you try to do it too polished or too perfect. It doesn’t it doesn’t do too well. Right? Yeah. So you got to you got to take the stuff in. Alright, so tell me how you’re doing it. Now. Let’s fast forward to today. You’re running basically all referral based? Are you doing any type of lead generation or anything like that?
No, no, any. Like, I’m not buying any leads. There’s no, you know, Zillow or anything like that. I’ll tell you, the thing is that the struggle for me, Mike over the years has been to recruit and retain good people. And I think that’s one of the things that, you know, I think the majority of people that get the real estate license, just have this, you know, imaginary outlook on things, everything’s just gonna be driving around showing these million dollar homes and making big fat checks. Well, that’s not reality. And the other reality is, I have no business acumen or experience. And we’re thrown in to become business owners, basically, when we get our real estate license, and we have no experience on that we don’t know how to hire, we don’t know how to, you know, retain people, we don’t know how to recruit. We don’t know how to run a p&l, I didn’t even know what the hell a p&l was when I got my real estate license. And that in that caused trouble in the early days, because I didn’t know how to save for tax or anything. But I think the big thing for me is, the word of advice is get if you’re getting into real estate, or you’re struggling in real estate, then get with somebody that knows how to do it and actually treat it like a business, not treat it like a hobby, not treat it like you know, you’re just selling a lot of real estate, but you don’t know what you’re doing after that. Run it as a business. And the where I’m at right now is I’ve had agents come and go with me over the years, like lots of agents, I’ve never been able to really retain them. And I’ve not known really how to recruit properly, and also hire great admins or great operations directors or whatever like that. But now I’ve kind of I’m getting there, I’m still I’m still not where I want to be. But we’ve got I’ve got another agent that works with me full time. I’ve got director operations who we hired in January, which has been fantastic, because I realized I didn’t need an it wasn’t an assistant that I needed. It was more operations, just to run the show. Then we have a transaction coordinator and we’re about to hire on for marketing because I my previous marketing girl just, it’s just having her second baby. So we’re looking for that. But I’m trying to get the foundation, really solid and then recruit some more agents, nothing crazy because I don’t I don’t want to be a babysitter because you know, there’s other things I want to do in life. But yeah, that’s where we’re at right now. And our goal this year, which we’re on our way to doing is 100 sales and 100 million volume. So that’s kind of where we’re, that’s where we’re talking towards
congrats and that’s not a big team that’s nice and lean and mean but you’re doing a lot of times I see a lot of like, I’ll be honest, you guys I used to have a brokerage I used to have a team. And the bigger the team, the bigger the brokerage i for brokerages, I had up to 70 agents, I had 68 headaches. When I had a team of 27 people I had 24 headaches. So team leaders don’t have production sense sometimes lean and mean is the way to go. Don’t let your ego float you all the way to headache Ville. So it’s like we both been down that path. Yeah, but dude, this is really great. Let’s get this all wrapped up. What I here’s what I get out of this, you guys. You hear it from me every week. I didn’t know we’re gonna talk about when we got on here. We’re like, let’s just roll with it. And record Yeah, but it came down like you see a guy like you and super successful is gonna do 100 deals this year. But he’s gonna do it off of relationships. And I have yet to meet someone in this business, even the lead generating people, because they’ll pay for those relationships, but they still have to be good at building them even if your lead gen, because you won’t get the client until they start building trust, which is only happens when you have relationship. So focus on that, folks, if you guys heard some of the stuff he had, if you’re just starting out that first couple years in the business, it’s not a walk in the park. This is a business this isn’t a job. And that’s why there’s an 87% failure rate in real estate industry is HGTV makes it look really fun on the outside but what you get when you start off, man, this is a grind. You’re starting a business any new business is a grind guys, it’s not the real estate business. You’re an entrepreneur and every business is a grind but I agree with con Hoadley that’s
the thing Mike is you there’s no better place to be able to do it. That’s what I keep going back to building a business, there’s no better place to be able to do it. Because we are afforded the most incredible opportunity. Like, in America, whatever the hell you want to do, you can do it. And like, it’s not easy. It’s not going to be a walk in the park. But you can do it, and surround yourself with great people, people that you can look up to, but the understand it’s about, as you said, about the value of relationships, and always looking at more value in every relationship that you have every single you know, back to just the basics a been with your wife, like, you know that that’s what I’ve learned about learn that there’s, there’s no hair like it, Mike, and I know you get this and all you preach that but yeah, we’re lucky to have the opportunities that we do
have it, folks, if any of you guys in the Denver area or you want to maybe you just say you’re looking for somebody, you need some more agents
like definitely we could do with at least a couple right now. So yeah, I would love you know, if anybody has any questions just reach out to me or wants to in Denver that wants to sit down and get lunch or have a coffee. Like, you know, i The other thing, my real estate’s given me everything, everything I have in life, every opportunity that my family have has come from real estate. So I want to give back as much as I can, you know,
why don’t you tell them how they can reach you and we’ll get this rep.
Yeah, so best way to reach me is cell is 303619 4400. An email is my first name un. Graham, my last name group denver.com.
Love it, man. Great to see you in person. Okay, now that events are back we see you at one of these. I’ll be I’ll be out to San Diego soon. Awesome. And folks, thank you for listening another episode of real estate marketing dude, if you don’t know what we do yet we help you nurture those relationships, build more relationships by putting your videos in front of those very people so that you build a personal brand that people know like trust and more importantly refer and return to when they need to buy or sell real estate or get a loan whether your mortgage broker So visit our website at real estate market to do.com. Just visit it just once Just once I can follow you around over the internet until we get a call until we start scheduling and until you start getting on video. It’s very hard to build a brand without creating content. If two options, create a lot of content, nurture people with it or you make a whole lot of phone calls to people you already know just keep taking them out to dinner every other week. You have two options which one you want to do. I like the other. So appreciate you guys listening to other episode check out our channels, Facebook IG, and YouTube make sure you subscribe and we’ll see you guys in next week’s episode push. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling into your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
I always tell people you’ve got to be consistent. It’s not just consistent in the videos you create or the content you create, but it’s consistent in everything you do in life. Consistency is when you get results. I want to first start off by just apologizing to you guys, because I broke my own rule. And if you are an avid listener of the show, you realize that I haven’t published in two or three weeks out of the last five. I’ve never done that throughout the history of the show. I totally regretted it, but I’ll be honest with you, I got a little burnt out. I didn’t have enough time to go out there and create the show, I had a guest cancel and I should have went out and created it. But consistency is what’s gotten the show to be what it is.
I made a mistake. I realized something I was doing wrong in my own business and I broke my own golden rule. I had to come back, hit myself in the head and start being brilliant at the basics. What we’re going to be chatting about today is the importance of consistency. I’m going to go through and show you guys on how I broke my own rule relating to consistency and why it’s important.
Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode
The power of consistency
Step by step how to get started (or re-started) on being consistent
This podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust, most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living.
It’s your job to remind them. Let’s get started. What’s up ladies and gentlemen, welcome to their episode of the real estate marketing
goad podcast, folks, what we’re going to be chatting about today is it’s just me, me and you, one on one, I made a mistake. And I had, I realized something I was doing wrong in my own business. And I broke my own golden rule. And I had to come back, hit myself in the head and go back and start being brilliant at the basics, excuse me. And what we’re going to be chatting about today is the importance of consistency. So what we’re going to start versus I’m going to go through and show you guys on how I broke my own rule. For those you guys that know me, I always tell people, you got to be consistent, you’ve got to be consistent. It’s not just consistent in the videos you create or the content you create. But it’s consistent in everything you do in life consistency, is when you get results. If I wanted to, I’ll give you a perfect example. So I probably lost about 10 to 15 pounds in the last two months give or take. And the only reason was is because I was being consistent in my diet. I was being consistent with the peloton was a however you say it. And I was always just kept showing on up. And no matter when you’re building a brand, it really does require the exact same thing. And I want to first start off by just apologizing to you guys, because I broke my own rule. And if you are an avid listener of the show, you realize that I haven’t published in two, I think actually went two or three weeks out of the last five, I’ve missed a show. I’ve never done that throughout the history of the show. And although I was just I totally regretted it, I just you know, I’ll be honest with you, I got a little burnt out, I didn’t have enough time to go out there and create the show I had a guest cancel and I should have went out and created it. But consistency is what’s gotten the show to be what it is. In January of this year, we surpassed over 1 million downloads on this show on this podcast. Thank you guys for your reviews your comments, and you just started sharing the word and how we got there was through being consistent. See, I started the podcast in 2014. And it was zero audience zero anything but what I kept doing was showing up and publishing one a week no matter what. I never skipped a beat. I didn’t run ads to this podcast. Once I didn’t sit there and promote the podcast, I sort of talked about it nonchalantly. But it’s not like we’re running traffic here or anything like that. What we do is we share valuable content to all of you guys, people, investors, real estate agents, mortgage brokers in all the above. And because we keep consistently sharing these dis podcast, this is a form of media that has helped develop the real estate marketing dude brand. As a matter of fact, I would even go out on a limb and say if I didn’t create this podcast in 2014, I would be a dead man standing right now. Because this podcast alone is responsible for much of our client generation from real estate marketing dudes video services. So you would think naturally that I’d be motivated to never miss a beat being that I attribute so much of our success to this podcast. But the truth is, is that look, life gets in the way. And everything we’re doing is content. So I’m going to call myself out on this podcast. And we’re going to make fun of myself today. And we’re going to talk about how I broke all the rules and the results it had to my business. And it is no differently than when you’re out there creating content and you forget to do something, and you just don’t end up doing it at all. So I want to give you several different examples because my website traffic over the last three weeks has dropped significantly. Now the reason for that is because I wasn’t publishing consistently. And the truth is, I’m probably gonna lose a couple of subscribers, I’m probably going to lose a couple of followers, because when you’re creating a brand consistent communication to the same audience, over time is how you do it. So we’re gonna go step by step, I’m gonna show you how this podcast through consistency work. I’m gonna show you how video through consistency works. But nothing works unless you’re consistent. So do not ever do what I just did, by not publishing a couple of weeks in a row because that’s the worst thing you can do for your business. And there is more than enough time in the day to find it and get this type of content created. So let’s talk about why consistency is so important. And when we’re building a brand, whether you’re doing it on video, or you’re doing a podcast like this, it’s all about creating content, right? This podcast is a form of audio content I no longer publish the videos on so Social media and Facebook and all that, although I probably should, but we got too busy. But I am still trying to be as consistent, I promise you, I won’t miss another episode. But every Saturday we publish this content. Now, as a result of that, because we’re consistently adding value, it’s people, I remain on top of mind. You know, when when you’re creating content with video, you’re putting your face in front of people. And that’s the difference between a podcast and a video series.
If I’m in the real estate business, I am not starting a podcast, the only reason I have a podcast is because we can serve nationally real estate agents, lenders, and all all these other people and people were teaching and sharing tactical attraction, marketing tips, video marketing tips, all kinds of tips that people would want to listen to. However, if I was a real estate agent or a lender in a local market, it’s gonna be very hard to develop a content strategy just in the form of a podcast, which is just audio, and actually have a lot of success with it. You have to remember that, you know, you guys are the brand. Ultimately, as long as you’re in control of your own business, you’re not working a job, you’re running a business. And how you run a business is you have to always be promoting that business. And that’s what content creation really does. See, when you’re creating content, you’re doing it consistently, you’re not doing it for lead generation, but you are doing it for attention generation. And I still believe that real estate is one giant, popularity contest, because the vast majority of business comes from people that we already know, not from complete strangers. However, if we’re out of sight, if we’re out of mind, guess what? We might get cheated on that weekend. So I want to ask you guys a question. And I want to ask you, how do you? How do people remember that you’re in the business, whatever the trade is? And I don’t want you to say, Oh, everybody already knows I’m in business. Because my next follow up question, I’m asking me, Okay, how many people have cheated on you, with another real estate agent or lender in the past 12 months? And the answer is, for most people is going to be quite a few. We have to remember that it’s not your databases job or your community’s job to send you business, but it is your job to remind them to send you business. And that alone should motivate you with being consistent in whatever type of content creation you’re doing. In content creation today is absolutely necessary, regardless of what business you’re in. Look at from this point of view. We’re all selling the same stuff. I did a video the other day at an event and I was asking people, Hey, what’s the difference between you? And your competition? So if you’re a real estate agent, what’s the difference between you and your nearest competitor? And nine times out of 10? I get the exact same answer. The exact same answer is, well, I, I care about my clients. Well, no shit, you have a fiduciary duty to Him, you have to care about them. Otherwise, you’re in violation of that, like caring about your clients is expected. I hear all the time people say, Hey, Mike, I have a great, I have great service, I picked up the phone. Well, no shit, isn’t that your job? You see people don’t, that’s not a selling point, that’s not a unique selling proposition that you’re going to do a good job, or that you care. That’s called something that you should have naturally, right? And I hear this all the time. And it’s crazy to me that people can’t differentiate what the hell they’re selling. And the truth is that we all have access to the MLS. So we are selling the same stuff, we have access to the same properties, or the same loans as any other person out there. So what really makes us different from one person to the next? What is it that gets people to pick us or me over anybody else? Why would you guys want to hire me the real estate marketing due to do all your video content creation, versus hire a videographer or someone local? Or some other company like viral marketing? For example? What’s the difference? Well, the difference is, is that people hire me because they personally like me. They personally trust me, they personally feel connected to me that we would relate. I’ve never once done business with anyone that has not liked me before. But how do they even know who the hell I am? If I don’t know who they are? Well, I do that through content creation. Those of you who have been listened to the show, and trust me, guys, I get a lot of people like Mike, you swear to Butch and I don’t swear as much as I have, okay, calming down, I’m getting older and get a little bit more mature. But it’s just who I am at the end of the day, and I’ve embraced my brand. And I recognize that that’s just the way God made me, Okay, I am who I am. And I’m not going to change for anybody. I’m gonna shoot from the hip. I’m gonna do it, how I do it. And some people might like that some people might not. But when you’re in the business of content, creation, the authenticity of your brand, and also being consistent with it is the key to making it work. See, I’m not creating this podcast right now to because I feel like going out and creating this podcast right now. I’m creating this podcast right now because I know I have to publish a video or podcast this week, and it’s going out and you guys are gonna listen to it. Okay, but I’m also Creating that podcast because I know a certain percentage of people who listen to it will schedule a demo with me in the following week to see how we work. So the question I have for you is, what are you doing that’s consistent in your business that
keeps you at the forefront? What makes somebody actually send you business and the importance of consistency is not to sit here and teach and preach it to you. But it’s because you don’t know when the next deal is going to come. You can’t control the conversations that are being had by the people, you know, what you can control is how many of them actually know who the hell you are and what you do when the term real estate or lending is brought to mind. And that’s why consistency is so important. So we all know the, you know, the story of the we heard this since we were kids, right? The story of the tortoise versus the hare. And who won the race. The tortoise won the race, even though he was much slower. He wasn’t as fast he didn’t take any shortcuts, he just kept on trucking along at the same pace remained consistent throughout the race. And the consistency actually earned him the win of that race. So when you’re out there, creating content, and you’re trying to build your brand by you only do it by being consistent. Because when people see you keep popping up each and every week, or each and every month and you do it consistently well guess what? People start to remember who the hell you are. Now, I want to play this out. And this is usually when people understand this. And we all know what the concept of direct mail farming is right? Direct Mail farming. This has been a real estate marketing strategy, since the dinosaurs ruled the earth. And real estate was first created back in the Garden of Eden with back in Genesis, right. So the you know, the farming strategy, how it works is you would typically, you know, you’re a real estate agent, you pick a neighborhood, usually it’s your own neighborhood or neighborhood you’re trying to form and you pick 400 doors, 500 doors, and guess what, you send them a postcard once a month, right? You go out and you send them a postcard once a month, and then you sign up and you’re like, this is a long term thing, right? You send someone a postcard just one postcard and never send him another postcard, guess what, it’s not going to work, you’re not going to make any money, it’s not gonna be a return on investment. But people who farm will tell you that after 12 months, as long as they’re doing it consistently, the first year farming might lead to like one to two listings, maybe three. The second year farming ends up being three to five, the third year farming, the same neighbor ends up being seven plus. And it’s usually after three years that people start to see results from their farming efforts. And the question is, is why is that? Well, it’s because each and every month, you’ve shown up on their doorstep. And with direct mail, 100% of people are going to receive it now whether they pick up that postcard and throw it in the trash. Who cares, they still acknowledge that you existed. And if you told me 36 times over three years, once a month, with a hard piece of marketing in the form of a postcard? Well, I would automatically probably I’m more likely to assume that the person that is sending me those postcards is that, quote unquote, neighborhood Pro. Now, if I were to go into month 14, of the same campaign, and let’s just say oh, I want to go on vacation, because I gotta take my kids, get him to Mexico. And you know, I’m going to take two months off or three months off this campaign. Well, guess what, you just fucked up the whole thing. Because you weren’t consistent. Right? I can’t go 13 months a postcard take off for months and then restart up and expect the same results. I need to be the tortoise and I need to go the entire way through. And that’s how I see the results. Now, folks, this is with direct mail. And yes, it does still work, but it’s going to take a lot of time. And direct mail is the most expensive form of media that you’ll get but is highly effective. And what happens in real estate, when you’re going after a direct mail farm, who you’re really marketing to are people you don’t know. Well, in real estate, you can’t get referrals from people you don’t know if you ever referred anyone anything that you haven’t visited or experienced yourself. Hell no, you have it. Have you ever referred anyone? Anything that you don’t know personally? No, you haven’t. You can only refer things you personally know like or trust. But it’s impossible to be referred when you’re not even thought about. So, I want you to think into the psychology of being consistent with your brand and constantly appearing because it is the exact same thing when you’re direct mail farming. Now, let’s switch over to video and show you how this works.
For a local business. None of this stuff that I like to share with people is ever based off of theory I like to base everything I do off of mathematics. I like to see a return on investment. And the reason why marketing your database with video has worked with every single freaking person I’ve ever done it with over the last 15 years of my life, it’s a lot of people guys, is because each and every one of us has a database or a network of people that know like trust and love us. And the truth is that those people are the largest referral sources of our business. But quite often we’re too scared to convert with or converse with them, and remind them how we do business, which means it makes it impossible for them to refer us business. When you’re building a brand, with video, the reason why I’d rather keep my content in front of people I know versus strangers is because strangers don’t refer you business. But people you know, do. And 100% of the people that you know, this year, this is 100% of the people that are on your Facebook feed 100% of people that follow you on Instagram 100% of the emails you have 100% of the people you walk across in the grocery store, or you see when you drop your kids off at school, know someone over the next 12 months if they can refer you to everyone knows someone they can refer you to. But you have to remain top of mind you have to be referral in order to get that business, right. So what happens when you stop creating your content? Well, the same thing happens when I just stopped doing my podcast. My demos were down. Do you think that was a coincidence? No. I’ve been doing this for seven years, I could tell you exactly when my demos go up. And I fucked up. I messed up. I didn’t publish the podcast for two months, that’s probably going to cost me you know, three to $1,000. And opportunity maybe? Who knows? I’ll never know. But it’s because I broke the golden rule of consistency. So when you’re consistent, folks, people don’t let me get ours. Let me put it this way. People don’t remember. And if you think everyone knows your real estate agent or a lender, you’re sadly mistaken, I used to think the same thing. The truth is, is that you’re not that cool, people don’t think about you 24/7. And the same way you don’t know what half of your friends do for work is the same reason how they don’t know what you do for work unless you constantly remind them. I can’t tell you how many agents I come across when we work with that fail to just remind everyone in their network, their social feeds that aren’t consistent with marketing or branding. And then they wonder why they’re not getting the results. Folks, this business is a giant popularity contest. And the key to it is consistency. I can’t say this about every other business. But I can tell you that in real estate, everyone who is consistent when it comes to content creation, or anything in life always does well. So let’s play this out. And let’s see how it works. If I have a video email list of 200 people, okay, and I say video email, because I video, email, everything. I don’t write text based emails to nurturing campaigns anymore, I always send a video with the vast vast majority of them. If you guys are on my email list, you’ll see that if you want to see the videos on email list, just go to my website, sign up for our one of our things, and there’ll be on that email list and you’ll see exactly how we do it. But if I’m, if I’m an agent, I want to send out two videos a month, in 12 months, that will be 24 videos 24 pieces of content sent over to the two to 300 people that I know or invite to my wedding or funeral. Will you do more business? Well, mathematically, out of the 200 people that are receiving those messages, only about 40% of them are gonna open it. So let’s dwindle that down to roughly about 80 people that are seeing your content consistently each and every time. Now, no one’s gonna get 100% reach on email, but it’s got it’s a numbers game. So of those 80 people, eight to 12 of them will be moving. But all 80 of them have a referral for me. And when we’re building a brand based upon consistency and content creation, and that’s how we’re doing it. Well, you have to be everywhere all the time, because you don’t know when the next referral opportunities coming. And I’m not sending people on this email, list my content to sell them a house I’m selling, I’m sending them the people my email is content, to remind them that they can introduce me to their friends and family. And then as a result of that, I might get some direct business for the people that are also moving because it is also true that 10 to 15% of the people that see your content will be moving each and every year and 100% of them have a referral for you. So what I’m getting at folks is this is a numbers game. Now that’s just email. That’s just one channel. Now let’s take that same concept and apply it to Facebook. You might have I see agents have let’s just say you have 1000 friends on Facebook, okay, well, not all 1000 of them are going to see your content, probably only about 150 280 of them will see your content organically.
That means you’re missing 80% plus of your potential referral sources are business. So the more active you are in social the more you’re seen, the more results you get. Have you ever noticed an agent or lender that’s super active on some Should that doesn’t do business? I haven’t. There’s nothing crazy, they’re doing like some of the agents, Oh, I get a ton of business from Facebook. Well, they’re also always posting on Facebook, they’re being consistent on Facebook or Instagram or Tiktok, whatever they may be into. See, consistency is what leads to that. Because when somebody’s thinking about either A, making a move themselves getting a loan or getting a mortgage or refinance, or they’re having a conversation, or let’s say they’re, they’re doing it themselves, well over 80% of people are gonna close with the first person they meet with the first person they meet with is always or there’s a direct correlation with it happens to be the first person they call, the first person they call is the first person they think of, which is where consistency is so important, because if you’re not the first person people think of when they think of real estate, or mortgage or whatever business you’re in, it’s impossible to get a referral from them, isn’t it? See what a furl happens, which is, the reason why I’m talking about referrals, guys is that the vast majority of business, over 80% of our business comes from referrals, repeat clients, or people we already know or that we personally meet. That’s a mathematical fact, that’s over 80% of business comes from those sources, doesn’t come from strangers. It doesn’t come from Zillow doesn’t come from autoresponders, or tech, or websites or any of that. This is a relationship based business, which tells me that the number one thing and the number one goal for any of my agents for anyone I work with is I want to make sure every single person in the world knows who the hell you are, and more importantly, what you do. But the only way I can make that happen is when you’re everywhere all the time, and you’re consistent. So back to social, if you have 24 pieces of content to month, over 12 months, how many people how many views is that create if you’re doing videos, now divide the views 10 to 15% of people who saw it will be moving this year 100% of people have a referral for you. Now you take that same concept, you apply it to Instagram, you apply it to LinkedIn, wherever else your social profiles are at, because when you’re creating content, you also must distribute it just like you must distribute your postcards. When you’re farming a neighborhood, you can’t just print them out and send them out. It’s no differently with video creation, you can just create the video and then that distributor promote it. Number one mistake I see all the time. Oh, I did this video, but I’m getting results we’ll do that’s because you put it on your business page and the business page only put sends out to 3% of the 100 likes you got folks. Content Creation works for everyone, but especially in real estate, because you’re the brand. You see, I’m creating this content, teaching you a lesson that I messed up on. Okay, and I hope you get a lot out of it. Because I won’t let this lesson happen to me again. But the next time you log on to Facebook or social or you’re at a dinner and you sort of hear oh, they used another agent or lender. It’s not their fault that they’re not addict or not mean they don’t they’re not bad people. You’re a bad marketer. It’s not their job to remember what you do, it’s your job to remind them. And the only way that happens is to remain consistent each and every month. So that you don’t just do what I just did. Right? You don’t want to miss a podcast, you don’t want to miss an episode because truthfully, you never know when the next referral or direct business opportunity has. But what I do know is that when I’m consistent, I increase my chances of my name being brought into a conversation or being thought of first and that’s why I attract. So when people ask me, Hey, I want to run an attraction based business, I always tell them, it’s very simple, be consistent. If it’s not on video, then you gotta be consistent in some other way on social, but it’s got to be consistent visually. What people say is more powerful than what they hear. Or what people see. I mean, it’s more powerful than sometimes what they hear. When it comes to me if you think about how videos interacted is that the majority of video is, you could see me, you could read my body language, you can see my todo and you, I’m using it right here.
And that’s what makes it impactful. So folks, don’t overthink the model with creating content and doing it but whatever you’re gonna do in your business, there’s advertising and there’s marketing. When I’m talking about today’s marketing, I’m not talking about prospecting, cold calling or any of that. But even if you are going after those sources for business, you still have to be consistent, don’t you? I can’t just call five people day, I need to call 10 people a day for 20 days in a row. And if I discipline myself to do that, of course I would get some results. I can’t just go knock on one door sporadically throughout the month, I need to knock on 50 doors a day and create a system to do it. Well. If you want to build your brand and run an attraction based business, you have to do the same thing. You can’t create content sporadically. You have to do it consistently. And as long as you’re consistent. You’ll win that race just like the tortoise did. I really hope you guys got something out of this video today because any additional questions please feel free to reach out to me I’d love to help you build your brand, stay consistent and not do what I did. We script at it and distribute videos for people all over the country and we could handle yours as well. And if you need help with being you know getting on camera being consistent on video, take our coaching hires for our services or visit our website and start consuming more of this content and I will never let another podcast week go where I don’t show up and break my own rule. Appreciate you guys have a good one. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing do.com We make branding and video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We’ll see you next time.
