Today on the Listing Agent Lifestyle podcast we have a bit of a different show. I'm down in South Beach this week, and one of the things I got to do was spend a little time with my friend Frank Kern, and it reminded me of being on his podcast, ‘Your Next Million’.
We talked about ‘the self milking cow’. I shared the idea that the struggle or limitation, holding back a lot of entrepreneurs back is that they're trying to be ‘self milking’.
They're trying to do it all; trying to make the milk, meaning come up with the ideas, the money and the strategies, and they're also trying to milk themselves, package it, take it to market, and do the billing and clean up around the shop and farm.
The sooner you realize making the milk is the most important thing you can do, and it's the thing that only you can do, the more success you’ll have. Everything else can be done by farmers, and I'm saying that not in a demeaning way to farmers, because there are people who love to be in support roles or love to do things without having to come up with the milk.
I think when you're the person who can make the milk, one of the creative leaders of an entrepreneurial venture, whether it's a real estate agent, or any kind of business, the problem is we kind of take it for granted. We think that everyone can do it and it almost feels like we shouldn't be able to just do that as it seems too easy. It seems like it’s not work.
That's a limiting belief, and you’ll realize not everyone is you, and that some people, in fact most people, really just want to know exactly what to do and feel like they're making a contribution to a bigger picture.
We had a great conversation and I'm going to let you listen in on that entire conversation this week, and then I’ll be back next week and we'll continue with our regularly scheduled programming.
In the meantime, enjoy this one. I think you're really going to get a lot out of it.
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Transcript: Listing Agent Lifestyle Ep074
Paul: Good morning Dean, how are you?
Dean: I'm so good. How are you?
Paul: I am doing awesome, thank you.
Dean: Three names. Do we go by all three? Paul Anthony Kelly.
Paul: No, just Paul. Just because-
Dean: Two out of three, that's all we need.
Paul: Yeah Paul's fine.
Dean: That's funny. So Paul, where are you calling from?
Paul: I'm in the Los Angeles area right here in California.
Dean: Okay perfect. So what area of LA are you working with primarily?
Paul: North East Los Angeles.
Dean: Okay. Perfect. So welcome, we've got a whole hour here that we can talk all about our Listing Agent Lifestyle, and build a plan, and see what's going on. So what's the background here? What's the Paul Kelly story here?
Paul: Okay, well I've been working this business for I think coming up on 18-20 years, something like that.
Dean: Look at you. Congratulations. You made it.
Paul: Well thank you. Yeah, I guess so. I'm a team, it's me and my wife, we've been working together the whole time. So we do different things in our team, but we've been working, it's been working great for both of us, and we want to get to a point now where we just want to be able multiply ourselves, and I guess the only way to do it, that I see, is doing something like this.
Dean: So let's go through then where you are right now in terms of what's working or what you're doing with all the elements. So when we talk about the Listing Agent Lifestyle the first thing we talk about is getting listings and so where would you put yourself on that scale in terms of-
Paul: On all?
Dean: Yeah.
Paul: Okay. All the scales zero because we don't do any marketing at all. So the only marketing is just us either knocking on people's doors, or calling people, or getting referral calls from somebody. So as far as any marketing money that we spend that's really zero. We never really have done any of that.
Dean: Okay. So how do you get your business right now? What does your business look like in terms of how many transactions do you do and what kind of volume are you doing?
Paul: Sure. Transaction are 15 to 20 a year. We've pretty much be consistent like that for the past, since we started really. That's where we've always been at. And volume honestly I never really worried about volume, for me it's always been about the number of transactions, so I can't tell you what the volume is.
Dean: Right. But you're in a place where you're in a higher price range market.
Paul: Yeah. Our commissions are, let's just say 10 thousand dollars and average.
Dean: Yeah exactly.
Paul: And a lot of times it more so that's where we've been at.
Dean: Okay. So if we look at where the business comes from right now and like when you're saying you're doing some door knocking and things like that, let's say if we were to break down the 20 transactions in the last 12 months where would they have come from?
Paul: I would say 75% would be referrals from past clients sphere of influence.
Dean: Okay perfect. So when we look at it do you keep a running tally of that? If I asked you specifically over the last 12 months how many of the transactions that you did would it have been closer to 15 or closer to 20 in this last 12?
Paul: No, it's like 15.
Dean: Okay. So if you say 15 or 20.
Paul: 15 or 20, so it's really pretty much been around 75% since the last seven, eight years.
Dean: Okay perfect. So that's great.
Paul: That I do have a handle on yes.
Dean: Okay. So if we look at that 75% of the 15, or let's call it 16, if we say some round numbers we can get that 12 of them came from referrals and your sphere of influence. So when we look at this what kind of things are you doing in your, what we would call your after unit, what kind of things are you doing to communicate with that group of people?
Paul: Yeah, it's just quarterly phone calls. That's pretty much about it.
Dean: And how many people is it that you're keeping contact with?
Paul: Yeah, we have really about in an overall number about close to 200 people.
Dean: Okay perfect. All right. And these are all people that you've helped them over your last 20 years is what you're keeping in touch with?
Paul: Sure, yes.
Dean: Okay. So one of the things that we measure is what we call your return on relationship. So we take this meaning from your top 150, which is where everybody has 150 people that know them, if you saw them at the grocery store you'd recognize them by name, and you'd stop and have a conversation with them, that's the core of your after unit and your sphere there. So the way that we measure this what we're looking for is as a percentage of that group how many referrals are we getting. So if you get 12 in the last 12 months out of that 150 people that we would do that measurement that 12 out of 150 is an 8% return on relationship. Meaning you got an 8% return on relationship. Now the gold standard, the thing that we're looking for here is that we should be able to get a 20% annual yield from that group. Now the good news is that you're not really doing anything aside from calling them right?
Paul: Yeah that's about it, you're right.
Dean: The one thing that you're doing. So what we really want to do is start with the world’s most interesting post card where every month we want to start programming these top 150 people that when they hear conversations about real estate that they think about you and they introduce you to the people that they had the conversation with. So if we were to look at dividing these 12 transactions into repeat business, or direct business, meaning they're one of the people and they bought a house or sold a house, versus somebody who referred you to somebody. How would that break down of the last 12? Would it be primarily people on the list doing additional transactions or they refer you to somebody else? What would be the breakdown of that?
Paul: Mostly it's been people who are referring other people for business. So if you want to say a percentage I'll say 60%, maybe even 70% are new clients.
Dean: Okay perfect. That's great. So now we want to have more of that happen. Can you, just as a fun thing here, can you think of the last person that was referred to you and how that came about? Just maybe tell me the story of what happened there.
Paul: About three years ago somebody who was a referral as a matter of fact, he bought his first house and it's beautiful house that he bought, and then he referred us to somebody that ended up listing his house, and now he ended up being a listing and a sale because he sold his house. And this happened this week it was a closing. He sold a house and then bought another house. So yeah, that was just from a referral from somebody that we had helped before.
Dean: And how did that referral take place? Who called you? Did the client call you or did your client call you?
Paul: Okay, well he's my Barber so sitting down he referred a client to us so that's how that happened. He called us yes. He called, yes.
Dean: Yeah so the person that you ended up helping, they called you and said, "Hey, my barber said that you could help me sell my house."
Paul: Actually it was the other way, my barber called me and he said, you got to call this person.
Dean: You got to call this person. Okay perfect. So that's what I call a reactive referral meaning the barber called you, tipped you off that this person is thinking of selling, you should give him a call, I told him about you.
Paul: Yeah, he's a really good person, he's also referred us to somebody else already. Obviously he's connected with a lot of people.
Dean: Well there's the thing, is that illustrates what we're talking about. So when you trace that back now what ended up happening is that he was in the barber chair, and the barber's cutting his hair, and they were talking, and somehow the topic of real estate came up, and they said, "Yeah, we're thinking about selling our house and buying a bigger house." And that barber noticed that the conversation's about real estate, he thought about you, and he probably told the client about you, and then called you and said, "You should give this person a call." So all three of the required things for a referral to take place happened. And I bet that if we went down the list of all the ones that that happens with, that we could trace it to a conversation that they had with the person that did the referring. And so what we really want to do is we want to increase the number of times that those conversations get recognized.
Paul: Go ahead.
Dean: This is where it all comes down to that your top 150, everybody that you're communicating with, they're in conversation all the time. They're talking to people all day every day. And the odds are very high that some of those conversations are about real estate.
Paul: Correct, yes.
Dean: Now on the rare times, 12 times a year, or if we take 70% of that, eight times a year of the referrals that you get, eight times a year people recognize that that conversation's about real estate, they think about you, and they introduce you to the person that they had the conversation with.
Paul: Yes.
Dean: Now I think if we went down the list of them and we looked at it as to whether they call you and say, "I was talking with my friend and they said that you could help me sell my house." Versus your client calling you and saying, "I was just talking to my friend, you should give him a call." Which do you think happens more often in your specific situation?
Paul: Well it happens I think about 50%. It seems about 50% we make the call and then they tell us, or 50% they call us and they tell us that somebody's available for business.
Dean: Yes, perfect. And part of the reason is, yeah, when you're calling everybody that brings you to the top of their mind. So then they start thinking, "Oh yeah, who do I know." And just out of curiosity, what do you say when you are having these quarterly phone calls with people?
Paul: Sure. "Hey Dean, this is Paul Kelly, how are you doing?" And then I would just do some type of just that warm up intro.
Dean: Chit chat.
Paul: "How's the kids doing." et cetera.
Dean: Conversation.
Paul: And then our clients are trained. They know that we're calling and we're friendly, but we also want to ask about business. So they know. "Oh Paul, I don't have anybody that I know about right now, but I always keep you in mind." Then we just talk a bit more. Or they say, "Oh yeah, my neighbor, my son, my daughter, et cetera." So that's how those conversations go.
Dean: Perfect. Okay that's good. And so the reason I ask about that is because that is a system that you're using right now that's yielding an 8% return on relationship. That's how that goes. So what we want to do now is what if we could amplify that so that they are thinking about those conversations even when you're not calling? So now they're having those conversations, what we want to do is we want to really reflexively get it to whereas soon as they hear somebody talking about real estate they automatically think of you and introduce you to the person. And so when we look at the way we do that with the world’s most interesting post card is that we pick your top 150 and we mail them each month a post card that on the one side has just interesting facts and fun stuff. 16 or 18 different little paragraph things that are interesting facts.
Then on the address side of the post card we have a post it note graphic, but we put a note that says, "Hey Paul, just a quick note in case you hear someone talking about selling their house this Spring or putting their house on the market this Spring." Because right now it's Spring market is the time, and so we might be able to say, "Spring market's the time when you're going to start seeing a lot more for sale signs going up as everybody puts their house on the market, if you hear someone talking about selling their house this Spring give me a call or text me and I'll get you a copy of how to sell your house for top dollar fast book to give them." And that way what we're doing is we are giving them the opportunity to be the hero.
Paul: Sure, and I'm sorry.
Dean: Yeah the reason people refer is because it makes them feel good. It's not because they're doing it as a favor for you. That's where a lot of times when we position things like when your position is calling people up to see if they've got any referrals you're working the list for they know you're going to call them and maybe they've got somebody for you. And if they don't they tell you they don't. But what we're looking for is to really make it so that they get to feel like they're the hero. If they're in conversation, somebody talking about, "Yeah, I think we're going to put our house on the market." And you now, as a thoughtful friend, can get them a book that's going to help them. That's going to be a useful thing. You're going to feel good. Just like if they were saying, "We're looking for a great restaurant for Friday night." And if they knew that you have a restaurant that they're going to be able to call you up and get their friend special treatment that's going to feel like something that they would want to do.
So same kind of thing here just in a different scale. So each month we're highlighting a different conversation that they may hear. So it may be that the high probability conversations that they are going to hear could be around somebody selling their house, or somebody buying their first house, or somebody buying a bigger house, or buying an investment property, or looking for a flip project, or looking to buy a vacation home, or whatever. All the conversations are possible and just using those conversations as a stimulus is going to be a really great thing. And so we've seen people immediately raise the number of referrals that you get just by presenceing it and it's highly leveraged because it doesn't take any more effort on your part. You're not having to make those individual calls, this is going out there every month. And so if you take 150 people you may have for $1500 for the whole year to mail the post card every month. It's an amazing thing. You're actually going to make an incredible case study because you've got such a stable business right now.
You're business for all these years, you're yielding the same result year, after year, after year because you're doing the same thing to the same people. So now when we add this we're going to be able to see immediately the impact of it.
Paul: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
Dean: Yeah I'm super excited about that.
Paul: I am too. Look Dean, I knew that I am missing a lot of opportunities on my sphere of influence on my past clients range, and I already proposed myself that Wednesday, no matter what, the first one is going out. Let's say 200, I have 57 addresses or whatever. I have all their information set down, and some of them are not ready yet, and I'm digging through it, but I don't care what I have, if I end up with 57.
Dean: You're right. Yes, and that's smart because a lot of people get blocked by thinking I got to get the whole 150 first before I mail the first one. And I'm saying don't let that time go by. Start with what you have right now and then progress.
Paul: Unfortunately I've been disorganized in my life when it comes to this and I know I need to buckle down and be better organized to make all the systems work.
Dean: Yeah. Perfect. That's great. I think that's going to be an amazing impact right there so I think that you've just given yourself a raise right now and that's going to be a simple repeatable thing that's going to amplify what you're already doing. Because now when you call they're going to comment and say, "Oh yeah, I've been getting your post cards it's great." But now every month they're going to be thinking about it in addition to what's happening there. Now when you get them entered into your data base you want to now create a map layer where you can see on a map where they are, so we can help you with that. Take the addresses and overlay them on a Google Map so that it drops a pin on where your top 150 live. And what we want to add into your mix with this is that every week, I talk about this as we call it Market Maker Monday, so every Monday we get you in the habit of thinking about your week ahead.
Who are you working with right now, who are you going out to show homes to this week, who are you going to see about listing their house this week, those real specific things that you're doing. What we do is now look at your map layer and if you're showing homes in River Run as a sub-division and you look in there and you've got three clients that live in River Run, you can now send an email to those people and say, "Hey Paul, I'm showing houses in River Run this week to a couple from Sacramento, there's only a couple for sale in there, have you heard anybody talking about selling their house? We may be able to match them up with this couple from Sacramento."
Paul: As a matter of fact we are working on that because as we're making our calls we make sure we have all their information. We're getting their email and getting their Facebook information so that we're able to reach out and it's getting easier to send that email to whoever. So yeah, that is something that I'm working on.
Dean: Perfect. Good. Okay think this is going to be a real growth area for you. So that's a great foundation. And the good news is you've got a stable, productive, successful business right now. You're making it. That's what's really cool. So everything that we're going to be able to do is layering on top of that stable base. Okay, so let's talk about getting listings now.
Paul: Awesome.
Dean: Yeah. What are you doing right now to get listings? Or nothing yet? It's all about the-
Paul: In that program I haven't started. What I did do is I know what area, so I have statistics and for example, the area has over 5000 residential homes, but inside that area there're different tracts, so based on what I read from the program I know that I need to tackle tracts first, that would make it specific.
Dean: Yep. So you picked an area, a names part of it, a neighborhood?
Paul: Yeah inside of this area there's different tracts like Wellington Heights, Eastmont, different areas like that. I have a question for you with regard to that. Should I attack first single families or two to four units? What would be your opinion of that?
Dean: Well I think that you want an established thing, the best way to go immediately is to pick something on the front slope of the belt curve of the distribution of prices. So something that would be approaching the median price in the area so that you've got something that could be within reach of first time home buyers, but it's likely to be something that somebody would move up from. Single family is a good start. It's like the bread and butter of the thing. It's the median home, the thing that everybody's looking for. That would be where I would start. And that goes a long way because there's so much opportunity that when you get that listing that you've got more options that a first time buyer might be able to buy that, you've also got the chance that that person is moving up to a bigger house from there, so you've got a transitional price range that we're looking for.
Paul: I got it. Okay. Yeah, this area is more of a first time buyer homes area so maybe I should not attack this area because it's not a move up area, it's really a first time buyer’s area.
Dean: No I'm saying that these home buyers are moving up. Not that it's something that people are moving up to. That the people are moving from this up to a bigger house themselves.
Paul: Then we're right where we want to be then.
Dean: Okay perfect. And what's the price range?
Paul: A single family residence is going to be selling about between 450 to 500.
Dean: Okay perfect. And that's substantial commissions. The good news is that all across the country it costs the same amount of money to mail post cards to 500 thousand dollar homes as it does 105 thousand dollar homes so you've got an advantage in that this is the low end of the market for you whereas somebody in Alabama is looking at this saying, "Wow, I wish that there were 500 thousand dollar median homes in my area." And they're paying the same price to mail the post cards. So you've got a bigger arbitrage delta there, you've got that bigger change.
Paul: Sorry let me make an amendment. The 450 to 500, that's the units. Single family we're starting at 350 to 450, so sorry.
Dean: Yeah no problem. So what we want to start with is to pick 500 or 1000 of these homes, whatever you can budget for investing in taking over that neighborhood, that to be thinking about it as that you're going to commit to it for the long term because the real value of this, and you've got a stable long term business, it's your intention to be in business for three, five, and beyond years from now. So you're taking that approach that is that Eastmont area, for instance, an area that's going to be somewhere that you would really like to be the dominant agent over the next three years.
Paul: Absolutely.
Dean: Yeah so that's the commitment. That's the level that we want to think about this then. You're thinking about this that I'm going to start with, if you can do it, 1000 homes that it may cost you $600 or 0 a month to do that for every month as you go through and look that. It's one transaction you're going to be way ahead of the game right away anyway. So that's a good thing.
Paul: Yes absolutely.
Dean: Okay. And the other areas, if you know that you can parlay that now into 5000 homes ultimately. That there's ultimately 5000 in that whole area made up of these distinct 500 home tracts kind of thing, that's your master plan here is to evolve to that. That's what Tony Kelsey did. He started out with one segment and then when he did the first transaction he doubled the number, and then he doubled it again, and now he's up to 20 thousand homes, the whole area.
Paul: Yeah, that would be the plan for sure. In my mind it's like get all those 5000 single families, then move on to the units, then move on to commercial, move on to vacant land, move on to apartments, just stay right there. Why am I going to drive half an hour to sell a house when I can just drive five minutes and be in my area.
Dean: Exactly. I like the way you think. Now you're attaching the lifestyle elements to the Listing Agents Lifestyle. That's what we talked about. You want daily joy, and abundant time, and financial peace so those are all the things to that. So here's the thing is that this is now just an execution plan. We've already cracked the code, I've already got all the tools for you so you don't need to figure out how to get people to call you, I've already figured that out, we just need to execute the program and stick with it and you are good to go. Do you have any listings right now?
Paul: Yes I do, but not in that area. I have them outside. These are past client sphere of influence type of things, but in this area I don't have any.
Dean: Yeah I gotcha. Part of the thing about the referral is that you can't control where they come from so you do end up being spread out a little more. That's probably exactly what happens. Have you heard us talk about your listing multiplier index? The number-
Paul: Yeah I have heard of it, I have not performed it on myself. I have a feeling that I, I don't know, I know it's more than one, but it's not like a 1.5 or something. I imagine where it's at. Yeah but, I have not run the numbers on myself.
Dean: Okay. And so part of it is now just paying attention and really focusing. Especially when you get listings in the area that you want to continue. A lot of times if you get a listing and you're doing it because it's a client or a referral from a client, but it's not necessarily in an area where you want to establish more business. So I get it that you don't necessarily always do everything that you could do. So that would be something that we would for sure start to think about with the new listings that we get from your getting listings program. Closest there, I like that. When you do things like that do you use info box fliers? Certainly with the listings you have it would make sense for you to try to find the buyer for that.
Paul: Yeah, on the listing, here's a question I have for you Dean. On this listing I was referencing to you that I got from my barber, I did try out the instant info box thing, but nobody signed up, and that happens, I understand that. Here's my question for you. Right now with everything being available so easily online, you get pictures, will people still sign up to get a free online tour?
Dean: Every day.
Paul: Yeah?
Dean: Every day. Yeah we're able to get people to opt in, typically they're even doing right there from their phone and so yeah, we have people do it every day. And the alternate is not everybody's going to opt in for sure, but the ones that do that's what we're looking for is the five star prospects. The ones who are willing to engage in the dialogue. So the option is, because a lot of times people say, "Shouldn't we just have all the stuff available for them there?" And so the reality is that if you're not asking for an opt in then nobody's going to opt in any way. So you haven't lost anything and that's really the thing that we focus on is we want to start now building this list of potential buyers.
Paul: Yes. Got it.
Dean: Yeah. And so much of it depends on how trafficked the area is as to how many people see the info box flier, but we supplement it with things like Facebook ads where we offer the same thing that people can just click download for all the details and it automatically sends their name and email address to you.
Paul: Okay.
Dean: But we definitely want to be able to build a list of buyers so that you've got the ability to find the buyers within your own realm. What's the overriding area that Eastmont is part of? The whole five-
Paul: East Los Angeles.
Dean: East Los Angeles. Okay great. Yeah so if you're looking at this I would put together on the finding buyers side of this, I would start putting together a guide to East Los Angeles house prices so that you can advertise on Facebook, or in print, or everywhere that you can get in front of people to start finding people who are looking for homes in East Los Angeles and are gathering information to see what are the different prices in the different neighborhoods.
Paul: Okay. This would be the third thing to do then. First we're going to get started with these world’s most interesting post cards, then get to getting listings, and then this would be the third step correct?
Dean: Yeah because once you get your listings then we'll start multiplying the listings so that's one of the things that we focus on. Then finding buyers is going to be a really good head start for you for converting the leads that you're generating from the getting listings program. The best thing that you could have as a catalyst is to have a list of people who are looking for homes in Eastmont. That would be really valuable if you had that before you ever got a listing in Eastmont. When somebody responds now you've got a really great asset that's going to be valuable to them.
Paul: Okay. Sorry. Are you saying that I should do this concurrently along with the getting listings program?
Dean: Yes. Yep. But we want to get it set up. A lot of these things are front end loaded so you've got to just go through the process of getting your world’s most interesting post card into orbit. So you get your list together, you set up the post cards, you go through the process of how to mail them, and by the way, we can help you with all of that. We could even do all of that for you. And so once it's set up then it's easy for it to happen every month. Same thing with the getting listings. Once you get all your materials customized and put together, and you've got the newsletter, and the cover letters, and the post cards, and your get top dollar book, and all of that stuff prepared, then it's really easy to just mail each month. It's in orbit now. It's just a little bit of effort and say, "Okay we're ready for the next one." We could even schedule the post cards to go out on the same day each month so you don't even have to do anything to make that happen it just goes out.
And that way now you've got that in set it and forget it mode so it's working in the background while we now go and put together this really nice guide to East Los Angeles which shows in pictures, and maps, and all the different neighborhoods of East Los Angeles and how much the houses are, and pictures of the kinds of houses that are there so that anybody who's thinking about East Los Angeles would have a really great guide that help them get to know the different neighborhoods.
Paul: Okay.
Dean: And then.
Paul: Go ahead.
Dean: And then each week we're going to be sending out an email market watch that gives all of the updates on everything that's happened in East Los Angeles over the last week. Here's all the new listings.
Paul: Okay. Is there a format for that? I don't think I've seen anything about that.
Dean: Yeah, we've got it all. So it's all part of the finding buyers program. And so in the forum we have a, if you do a search on market watch, you'll see that there're different formats that people are using for that weekly email. So the goal is that we're building this list of people who are looking for homes in East Los Angeles and every week you're sending them updates and then we include what we call your super signature. So each week at the bottom of the email it says, "Whenever you're ready here are three ways we can help you. Join us for a daily tour of homes. Come to our home buyer workshop or get a free home loan report." So we're starting the dialogue with people wherever they are.
Paul: Got it.
Dean: How many buyer prospects do you have right now.
Paul: Three.
Dean: Okay. Those are ones that you're working with right now?
Paul: Yes, those are the ones that we're working with right now, yes.
Dean: Okay. Do you have others that you've been in contact with that didn't buy yet, or that maybe have fallen through the cracks, or you were talking with them, and they lost touch?
Paul: Yeah we have those, yes.
Dean: Yeah. So I would say that one of the magic tricks that you may be able to do right now is to gather all those up, look through your desk drawer, your cell phone, and your email inbox, and wherever they were, and gather them all up and just send a nine word email to them.
Paul: Or a nine word text.
Dean: Yeah exactly, or a nine word text and just say, "Hey Paul, are you still looking for a house in East Los Angeles?"
Paul: Got it.
Dean: And that will reengage you with some of those people who maybe you lost touch with.
Paul: Okay. Will do.
Dean: And they could be the start of your weekly market watch. That you could just start now. Because we want to get in the rhythm of doing this, even if you've got three people, we want to get into the weekly rhythm that every Wednesday at noon out goes your weekly market watch.
Paul: Dean, through the getting listings program do we have access also to texting apps to send texts from?
Dean: Yeah.
Paul: But just wasn't sure.
Dean: Yep in gogo agent at the top of your dashboard there's a link to voice touch, and when you click on that voice touch link you can set up a phone number, you can choose one in your area code, so that you've got both recorded messages that you can use, and they can text to that number as well.
Paul: I'm sorry, recorded messages? I would send a recorded voice mail and then they would just get in their response, in their thing?
Dean: No it would be a call in. So if you're saying, when you send out your getting listings post cards will say, "To get the Eastmont report go the Eastmontreport.com." Which would set up the landing page that we've got for you already in gogo agent, and it would say, "Or call this number for a free recorded message."
Paul: Gotcha. I don't do that too much. Okay.
Dean: Yeah. The message would say, "Thanks for calling about the Eastmont report. To get it just leave your name, address, telephone number, and email address if you have one and we'll get your report into the mail."
Paul: Got it. Got it.
Dean: That's what I'm talking about for the recorded messages. And then on the info box flier you say the same thing. "Go to 22greystone.com." Which leads to your instant open house landing page or, "Call this number for a free recorded message." Or, "Text your email to this number and we'll send you the info by email."
Paul: Got it.
Dean: Yeah. So we've got all the tools for you there, it's just a matter of getting into that rhythm. And now the good news is you're conditioned into a rhythm. You have a very rhythmic business. The rhythm of your business is every 90 days we talk to every client. And now we're going to add into that every 90 days we talk to every client and every month we send them the world’s most interesting post card. And every month we mail post cards to the Eastmont neighborhood. And every week we send out a market watch email to all of our buyer prospects who are looking in East Los Angeles. So it's all about that rhythm, and the growing number of people that you are communicating with.
Paul: Yes, I'm excited.
Dean: It's very exciting because you're the ideal, you're at launch pad right now where you're established, you know what to do if you get somebody who wants to buy or sell, so you're not trying to figure that out, you're not green, you're an experienced real estate team.
Paul: Right. Can I ask you a few questions Dean?
Dean: Sure, of course.
Paul: I have been peeking at the world’s most interesting post cards. I went to the profits plus side and I did see that it says, on the back words that the little post thing is at, it says get this report. Where do I get these reports at? The ones that are referenced in the world’s most interesting post card stuff?
Dean: So most of the time we have all of those things for you. So each month we put up the new post card along with whatever report. Or you've got the top dollar fast book that is part of it. So all of those things, each month we post up what we have there.
Paul: Oh okay. Where's that at? I guess I can't see it.
Dean: Yeah, so in the member blog under getting referrals.
Paul: Okay, getting referrals. Got it. Okay. And one more question Dean. I don't know, this might be out of topic, but I'll ask it anyway Dean. You do a lot of conversations in regards to marketing outside of this program. I've been listening to you with Joe for the longest time. When you guys started I remember the book you guys launched.
Dean: Right.
Paul: Amazing things. Things that create attention. What can a realtor do to create that type of attention. You guys are king celebrities in my mind. You're celebrities to me.
Dean: Yeah right. And I get it. But part of that is that we have an audience and we have a platform. So with the pod cast that's really the thing. What my desire for you would be if you wanted to do things like that is what if we just establish you as the Mayor of East Los Angeles for people?
Paul: I understand now.
Dean: That's the kind of thing right.
Paul: Yeah.
Dean: Just like our audience are business owners and we're talking about marketing, which is valuable to them, that what if you adopted East Los Angeles and your audience are home owners? People who are living in East Los Angeles that you and your wife become the advocates for living in East Los Angeles. You're highlighting all the businesses and people that are there to make owning a home and living in East Los Angeles a breeze. Because that's where you want to become a celebrity in that zone there, the boundaries of East Los Angeles. So it's the same kind of thing.
Paul: I get it. You have to build that audience first obviously. Yes, you're absolutely right. Yeah I get that now. I get it. My wife is really the face of our team, I'm more in the background, so we've been doing a lot of videos for the past six months and it is getting some results for us already. And we haven't really been consistent about it. One week we'll do three, the next week we do nothing, then we'll do five, then we do one. But it has been yielding results so we're pretty excited about that as well.
Dean: Yes. And that's the thing. The good news about the world right now is that anybody can have their own reality show. You look at the guys like Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, those guys that are celebrities all over because they're on TV, but the reality is that there's nothing stopping you from doing the same thing in your East Los Angeles neighborhood. Right?
Paul: Right. Exciting.
Dean: That's the great thing about being on Facebook. You look at what those guys are doing even, you look at Josh Altman has his own, on his video on his You Tube channel, he's basically got a similar extension of the reality show that's just his channel doing it. There's nothing stopping you from doing the same thing.
Paul: Okay. Josh Altman, who's that?
Dean: He's one of the guys on Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles.
Paul: Oh I see. Okay, well I guess I'll have to check into that because I don't watch that show.
Dean: And the same thing Ryan Sirhant from the Million Dollar Listing New York. He's got a video blog that every week he puts out a reality show about selling in New York. So I think you've really got this cool opportunity to do that. And if you're thinking long term about really another 20 years in your market place there it just makes so much sense to be famous. And we want to have that building.
Paul: Actually I'm looking at the way that the Gary Dean talks about it. In for the long haul I'm not thinking about the short term dollar right now, I'm looking legacies and just giving everything away and just being there for the community, so I am about that. Both me and my wife we want to be, we are about that.
Dean: Perfect. So I think that's the thing is let's make you celebrities in East Los Angeles, but built on a foundation of starting with the direct response, starting with the core stuff. And then layering the branding, and the celebrity on top of that already established base.
Paul: Absolutely. So my last comment Dean is that really social media versus direct response marketing, or social media and direct response marketing?
Dean: Social media's just a tool, but you've got to have the foundation that you got to be able to direct somebody somewhere. If you're going to get famous then they're going to look you up and then they're going to see, "I can get this guide to East Los Angeles." Or, "I can subscribe to their weekly market watch." I just think you've got so much potential. This has been a really exciting episode for me because you've got everything. You're one of those guys that you've got an established platform, you've got a stable business, you've got a great of sense of where your target audience is, these 5000 homes, this is where we want to be, and so now it's just imagining that those are the only 5000 homes in the world. And not getting distracted by all the other stuff.
Paul: Absolutely. That's been always the issue, I'm looking for the shiny penny somewhere else and I need to focus on that one neighborhood. Yeah. Awesome.
Dean: I love it. Well I can't wait to watch it all unfold. I think what we'll do is it will be great to have some follow up with you once you get everything established and once things start falling into place it would be good to revisit and see what happens in six months.
Paul: Absolutely. I'll go in and keep updating in the forum to let everyone how everything's going and whenever you feel is ready time for me to come back, I'll be happy to come on back.
Dean: Perfect. Awesome. Well that was fun. I look forward to keeping in touch.
Paul: Also Dean, I really appreciate your time. It just means a lot to me so thank you so much for taking time and talking to me today.
Dean: Thanks Paul.
Paul: Okay take care. Bye-bye.
Dean: And there we have it. What a great episode. So much great stuff to work on. It's exciting to see when someone has so much potential and so much enthusiasm to really narrow their focus to a very specific area and realize that there's so much fun and reward that can come from fully maximizing something rather than trying to do a little bit in a lot of different areas. So I can't wait to see how this all plays out. If you want to continue the conversation here go to listingagentlifestyle.com. You can download a copy of the Listing Agent Lifestyle book, and try our Listing Agent Score Card where we go through the elements of the Listing Agent Lifestyle and get a sense of where you stand with each of the eight elements. And you can do that at listingagentscore.com. And if you'd like to be part of this community that we're building of people who are taking this Listing Agent Lifestyle approach to their business, come on over to gogoagent.com. Come on in and take a look around.
All of the programs and everything that we talked about on the pod cast is included and all there for you at gogoagent.com. You get a free 30 day trial, no credit card required. You can come on in, see what we're all about, and then we hope that in that 30 days we'll be able to show you everything that we've got. You'll be able to see it, touch it, feel it, get a sense of whether this is something that might work for you, and at that 30 day mark you may decide, "I'm going to try this for 30 weeks." Give us six months and see what kind of a transformation we can create in your business. So gogoagent.com, look forward to seeing you over there.