Lab Coat Agents Podcast (Tristan Ahumada, Jeff Pfitzer & Nick Baldwin)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff is looking forward to learning from  Richelle Delia, who is a chemical engineer who has now shifted to the real-estate world.  She is the co-founder of a platform called Housing Joint Venture, where she helps professionals explore income property ownership as a safety net to diversify or create wealth. There is a lot to learn today!  Episode Highlights:  Richelle says her profile is not as disjointed as it sounds; it is actually a very cohesive story. She studied chemical engineering. She completed undergrad and her Ph.D. Her dad told her that one should have their own financial resiliency.  Initially, she didn't have big real estate goals. Her idea was to earn money as a professional engineer and buy a few houses along the way. She imagined having about  10 houses by the time she retired. After completing grad school, her job was to look behind a microscope at water building materials, roofing shingles, insulation, all the materials used to make a building. She achieved professional growth early in her career and had 14 units within two years of starting her first-yard sale. Since she had reached her goal early, she had to re-evaluate her plans. She changed her vision and launched Housing Joint Venture. Jeff curiously asks, "How did you manage finance and then paying for rehab?" Richelle shares detailed excerpts about how she got commercial financing. Richelle highlights how climate change disrupts the supply and demand chain and ultimately increases building costs. Shining light on the state of our ecosystem, Richelle says "We are seeing severe weather patterns, more fire, more flooding." "We can't harvest, so when the demand increases, prices go up."  "With increase in digitization, labor cost is going up", says Richelle. She further adds, "We are all in a digital environment. We like to make money via podcast as opposed to with our hands. That means labor costs are much more expensive, and because it's hard to get people to want to do that work, it's just hard to find actual labor and skilled laborers." Jeff asks Richelle's prediction on the costs of material. Richelle says baby boomers are living longer, which is an absolute blessing. The flip side of that means that they are staying in their properties longer. So, where there normally would have been a turnover, selling and purchasing a property that's not happening at the pace that we normally would have liked to have seen it. Landlords are business owners, and when supply rates go up, you pass those additional costs on to the end consumer, hence the rent goes up. We all are trying to figure out where there is opportunity and where the leading-edge is. How do you handle the second-guessing and emotional drivers?  Richelle loves the concept of buying and holding property. She adds her valuable insights on ultimate net worth, cashflow, and upward trajectories. After hearing about the return on investments and business value achievement, Jeff asks, "Is that real estate what coaches specify when they talk about investment? Or is that what they're teaching?" Everybody wants to get rich very quickly, and they haven't done the proper diligence beforehand. She gives suggestions on how to make sure you know what you are looking for and maximize your time doing so. Jeff asks, "What would be the two or three things that you would recommend educating realtors about?" People don't necessarily appreciate what depreciation is and its ability to drive down your adjusted gross income. You can differentiate yourself by really offering a whole perspective that no one else has and no one else is talking about. Richelle's firm takes existing properties, renovates them, and then puts them on the market. They are not into affordable housing space but their renovated houses are budget friendly. She says their duty is to help other people learn how they can do well, and that's how they decided to focus on the education side of the business.   3 Key Points: Richelle Delia is going to educate buyers and potential investors about how they can be better investors. Jeff asks Richelle about the whole material science thing and what is happening in the world today? He says that building prices are going through the roof, and it is like 3-4 times the cost.  Richelle shares her opinion about what is going on in the world of building materials and what might happen.  Realtors listening to the podcast will learn about KPI, ROI, cash on cash, and cash flow.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Richelle Delia  | Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | Housing JV Facebook | Housing JV LinkedIn

The real estate community spends a lot of time talking about the brokerages that are becoming tech companies. Meanwhile, many tech companies are gradually turning into brokerages, dipping into agent commissions and adding title, mortgage and escrow services to their offerings. How will this trend impact realtors? What can we do to compete with the iBuyer model? Is there a way to steer consumers away from the portals and bring them into our ecosystems? Howard Tager is the Cofounder and CEO of Ylopo, a next-generation digital marketing solution for real estate professionals. The platform is designed to help agents and loan officers build a brand and find more clients. Prior to Ylopo, Howard served as the Founder and CEO of TigerLead Solutions, a real estate tech company built to attract, cultivate and close home buyer and seller leads, until its acquisition in 2012. Today, Howard joins Tristan and Jeff to discuss how tech companies are becoming brokerages, taking commission splits and adding affiliated services to their offerings in order to grow. He explains why it’s dangerous for agents to rely solely on portal leads and why it’s crucial to build your own database and then keep those consumers in YOUR ecosystem. Listen in for Howard’s advice on competing with iBuyers and learn how to develop a strong digital marketing plan and differentiate yourself with a unique selling proposition. Key Takeaways Howard’s background as an entrepreneur building transformative businesses How integration differentiates Ylopo from other real estate tech solutions How brokerages are becoming tech companies to keep and recruit agents Why tech companies are taking commission splits + offering affiliate services The value in building a database and keeping consumers in your ecosystem The danger in building your business solely on portal leads Why real estate agents are more like legal professionals than salespeople How realtors can serve consumers with a strong digital marketing plan Why it’s crucial for agents to differentiate themselves with a USP How agents can compete against iBuyers with hyperlocal marketing How realtors can leverage the instant buyer tactic to generate seller leads Howard’s advice around focusing your efforts at the top of the funnel The potential for banks and big brands to become real estate brokerages Howard’s prediction that marketing will heat up among recognized brands Howard’s insight on what Gary Keller is doing right and what he’s missing Connect with Howard Tager Ylopo Connect with Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group Resources 2018 NAR Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends Report Howard’s Video on Real Estate Lead Generation & Nurture

Today’s episode of the Lab Coat Agents is a continuation of the previous conversation with Jesse Dau and Jackson Wilkey. If you did not listen to the last episode, stop, go listen to it first, then come back and meet us here. The content today will be a lot more granular on what we started to discuss last week, which was all of the technical on building and growing and sustaining a very powerful YouTube channel!    Episode Highlights: Jackson says we need to discuss how this whole evolution started with the styles of videos we did and the titles, descriptions, and metadata.  A lot of people only think of YouTube for long-form video, but there is so much more to it using platforms like tube buddy, says Jeff. The keywords don’t play a significant giant role in the ranking of the video, it’s more the title. If you are going to property tours in listing videos to a supplier to please your clients, build a separate channel for that. It will crush your YouTube channel. Jackson and Jesse walk the listeners through their process that they go through to determine what the best title is, and then the description that follows to go with it.  You have to figure out what people are searching for first and then fill in from there. Once you understand content marketing which is answering the questions of the consumers, it’ll change your entire game, says Jackson. Jesse says the other thing that can be frustrating to agents is that everybody correlates success with views and subscribers, but we always correlate success with closed deals.  The whole goal of social media algorithms is to find people most intrigued to watch your content and to get them on the platform. “YouTube is so smart, the algorithms are amazing. If you put some money behind this, it’s going to blast out to the people that really want to see it, and we can amplify these things like 10X overnight”, says Jesse. Organically, through content marketing, no matter what the platform is, if you act like yourself and answer consumers' questions with your marketing, that is when your video starts getting out in front of people. Jeff asks, “Should be sharing videos everywhere?, How do know when to put money behind it or run ads?” Figure out what people are searching for, and then go make the content around that. There are basically a bunch of people who aren't licensed real estate agents but who are TikTok professionals; They just have a million followers because they’re good creators. The longer videos on YouTube are getting suggested more as long as you can keep them on watching it for a good amount of time.  “We are living on a platform where people make massive decisions- that's where they go and consume content and they spend a lot of time watching the same video because they cannot get enough information from it”, says Jackson. We need to understand that we have all different platforms, that is why there is only one Facebook, one Instagram, and one YouTube- they all serve their purpose. Jesse points out that as a content creator, you can’t just take the same content and put it on different platforms and expect the same results everywhere.  Drunk on social media teaches a lot of good stuff, and everything does have its place, it’s just all about how you use it. 3 Key Points: The description box underneath when you upload a video that is the golden ticket to ranking a video. The whole goal of social media algorithms is to find people most intrigued to watch your content and to get them on the platform.  Jesse shares how they get paid on their YouTube closings. They have closed over 140 transactions for 84 million this year alone in 2020-2021, and last year it was 50 million. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Jesse Dau & Jackson Wilkey | https://www.channeljunkies.com/ | https://www.tubebuddy.com/ Jackson@realagentnow.com Jesse@realagentnow.com

Hal Elrod, International Best-Selling Author of The Miracle Morning and The Miracle Equation, talks to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast hosts Nick Baldwin and Jeff Pfitzer about the 6 habits and routines that successful people practice daily, and how you can get started towards achieving your goals with them. Hal, who has almost died twice, shares his amazing story of overcoming debt and mental and physical stresses to growing his business and improving his daily practices.  Episode Highlights:  Jeff Pfitzer introduces Hal Elrod’s accomplishments.  How Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning came about What are the six practices of successful people?  The epiphanies Hal had after discovering the six practices of successful people Why Hal continues to do the miracle morning after all the success he has already achieved  Hal discusses the words “miracle” and “faith”  If you waste your morning you are just playing catch-up for the rest of the day What is Hal’s favorite of the six practices?   Have a deep and meaningful “why” for your actions The actions you must take to fulfill your ‘why,’ and when to do them Your success is inevitable with unwavering faith and putting the time and effort in Why people feel a sense of urgency to want everything right now  Life isn’t about where you want to go, it is about where you are at right now 3 Key Points: The Miracle Morning was written in three years, has sold over 1.7 million copies, been translated into 37 languages, has over 2,000 5-star reviews on Amazon.com, and has been read in 70 countries. The 6 Practice for Successful people include: meditation, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and journaling.  You have to take responsibility for your life, for everything around you and everything inside you.  Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Hal Elrod: halelrod.com  Linkedin  Twitter “The Miracle Morning”: miraclemorning.com   Books   Facebook Community Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Stacey Brown Randall, an author and host of Roadmap to Grow Your Business podcast. They discuss how to generate more referrals without asking. Stacey’s advice emphasizes the importance of cultivating authentic relationships and getting rid of referral gimmicks that no longer work.  Episode Highlights:  Stacey describes her background. She comes from a family of entrepreneurs. We learn about Stacey’s earlier business ventures. Stacey defines a referral. The first thing a referral has is a personal connection. You are being connected to a prospect by someone else. The second thing is that the referral has always identified a need. There are three characters in the referral triangle. There's you as a solution provider. Then there's the referral source that knows, likes, and trusts you. Most people are going to refer you in an email. In an introduction, the identified need is often missing Understanding the difference between a referral, word of mouth buzz, an introduction, and a warm lead is key. Stacey suggests thinking about referrals as a long game. There are three referral sources: clients, sphere of influence, and friends & family. The bulk of your referrals that come from friends and family will come early on.  Stacey discusses how seasoned agents receive referrals from their past clients and their sphere of influence. New agents receive referrals from friends and family. Maintaining an authentic relationship is key. Identify who should be referring to you. Then start the process of developing the relationship with them. Understand how to plant referral seeds. Learn how to have casual conversations about referrals and how they build business without asking for a referral specifically. Stacey is against the idea that you should be asking people directly for referrals. Referrals shouldn't just be slammed into prospecting or marketing. People make seeking referrals too gimmicky. Create a year-long referral plan for how you're going to be memorable and meaningful and stay top of mind with your referral sources. Give your referral sources a memorable experience. It's not about the quantity of touches, it's about the quality. Stacey suggests not putting your logo on gifts to your referral sources. Remember that hundreds of success stories have come before you. You just have to decide if this is for you. 3 Key Points: Referrals only come from relationships. Focus on maintaining meaningful connections with your referral sources. Reconsider asking for referrals directly.   Create a referral plan that focuses on relationships with referral sources. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Stacey Brown Randall website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube Generating Business Referrals Without Asking (book) Roadmap to Grow Your Business (podcast) Referral Quiz Referrals Without Asking (Facebook group) Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Chris Prefontaine, Founder of Smart Real Estate Coach, real estate investor, and author. Learn how real estate agents can create a secondary income by becoming a niche expert, and new solution provider for clients who need financial options when buying or selling homes. This is a fascinating episode with lots of great takeaways. Episode Highlights:  Chris Prefontaine started his career building homes in the 90’s. He then practiced real estate, then pivoted after the market crashed to become an investor and coach. He no longer operates as a realtor. Chris buys and sells his own properties exclusively. Almost all of his exits are rent-to-own. They make sure that their mortgage-ready date coincides with the terms they have with the seller. There's an enormous pool of buyers who can't walk into a bank and get pre-qualified. This is who they serve. They have a 2-10% drop out rate vs. a 2-10% finance rate. Most dropouts happen due to life events and most of those are quite amicable. If that happens, they sell the property conventionally with a realtor. Or, if the term allows it, they just do another rent-to-own. Coming out of the '08 crash Chris wanted to buy without using money or credit. His wife had the idea to help people who needed to recover their credit. They carry 50-60 rent-to-owns at the same time. Mostly they find buyers online. The important thing once you find buyers is the pre-qualification process. They must understand that they are acting as if they own the property. The buyers will come if you are priced right and meeting your monthly, and you're fair on your sale price. What does it mean to buy and sell a property on terms? These are often properties that have expired. Maybe they're over-leveraged or they can't afford to pay a commission. You can buy it either on a lease-purchase or owner financing. Not many agents know how to do this skill-level wise. First Jeff and Chris talk through a Lease Purchase deal. If the seller has a home worth $300k and they owe $250k, you guarantee them the $50k cash out. Here's how it works: At the end of 36 months you pay them their $50k, you pay off the underlying debt. That accrues to them. They carry the note. Make the deal contingent on finding the tenant-buyer first. Then 30 days after the tenant-buyer occupies, the company takes over the mortgage payment. They're collecting higher rent from the tenant-buyer. You're relieved of maintenance, repairs, and your mortgage payment. Go into the home and ask what's best for the seller. With this strategy, there aren’t too many sellers you can’t help. Another example: They took many properties in 2013-2014 that were in theory over-leveraged. They pushed the term way out, 9-10 years so they have time to have that principal paid down. That usually takes care of it. You can target free-and-clear owners. There are plenty of people that want to do this for estate reasons, tax reasons, and cash reasons. They want to push the term out if it's free and clear. Payday #1 is the non-refundable down payment from your buyer. Payday #2 is the monthly spread. Payday #3 is the back-end markup in price and principal paydown. They average around $78k per deal. They have students as low as $45k per deal and as high as $200k. Their average price point is the $280k-$680k range. Jeff and Chris talk through a Free and Clear deal.  If you have a home that's free and clear and $200k and higher you can structure an owner financing deal, with principal-only payments, four-year term or better, and you get a six-figure deal on all three paydays. Free and clear are more profitable than lease purchases. So many people are tied ego-wise to price. They'll give people fair market value as long as they get their terms. To get recession-resistant they push their terms out longer. As a real estate agent, you need to open up more options for sellers. Their contract will be with you, with your right to assign it or sublet it. You might as well wealth-build. There's a lot of free stuff online to help you become a real estate entrepreneur. Find a niche that will help your business online. Then find someone you can relate to.  Follow that and integrate it into your business for three years. Invest in a platform, get into it, and commit to it. You'll expand how many deals you can do. In those, you'll create wealth, not just one pay-off. If you acquire twelve of these, you're looking at potentially $500k in income. A new investor should prioritize the lease/purchase. A twist to that is a one pay-day model where you reassign the renter-buyer to the original seller. You've got to have the right forms. If you're not using the right forms, then you're just setting yourself for a lawsuit or a headache. If you don't have a personal assistant, you need one, even if it's just eight hours a week. The personal assistant will take care of your forms and with light follow-up. Put aside some time to learn in the morning or evening. A lot of their system is automated. They've grown their online course through social proof. If they do deals with their students, there's revenue sharing. It's important to show students what might go wrong and how they might pivot. Get as close as you can to recession-resistant. Diversifying is a cool way to become resistant. Learn where to find out more about Chris and Smart Real Estate Coach. 3 Key Points: You can structure deals with terms that create a win for sellers, a win for renter/buyers, and a win for yourself. When you’re in real estate, you should get into real estate investing to build your wealth and to diversify your income streams. There truly aren’t too many sellers you can’t help. You can provide out-of-the-box solutions to financial problems. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Smart Real Estate Coach website, YouTube, Facebook Real Estate on Your Terms (book) -- Get a free copy when you mention this podcast! The New Rules of Real Estate Investing (book) Email questions to chris@smartrealestatecoach.com Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents, Jeff talks to Fred Vallaeys. He is an absolute pioneer in the PPC world and is now the CEO of Optmyzr. Optmyzr is a PPC management platform. Fred is an author of a book called ‘Digital Marketing in AI World: Future-Proofing Your PPC Agency’. He is writing another book as well. Tune in to hear from him. Episode Highlights: The most exciting thing in the world, like technology, gets invented in Silicon Valley. At the age of 15, from Fred’s perspective, computers and everything exciting in the world was happening there. Fred’s first interaction on the Internet was his dad sitting him down and asking him, “What is it you want to achieve? Let’s write down the steps that we are going to need to take.” When Fred’s dad moved to California, he worked in a computing company doing servers. Hospitals and banks used it and where transactions were mission-critical.  Jeff asks Fred, you were one of the first 500 employees of Google so, tell us how you got to Google and then tell us a bit of the culture that it was back then and is it still like that today that you know of? Fred went through an interview process with Matt Cutts, whom most people recognize as the Google SEO guy. He was looking to build the SEO spam team, and he needed some help. Fred dabbled in PPC advertising back in 1998, and Google was the only place to do pay-per-click and keyword advertising. Fred became an eBay affiliate for 21st-century car insurance, and he started buying ads and various keywords for the businesses. Finally, he figured out what clicks he could get cheaply and with a decent conversion rate to make money on the spread. While the engineers at Google were building products, Fred put products into practice and shared what needed to be better. There is a big divide between what the engineers theoretically built and how you put it into practice. Jeff asks what evolution looks like for the PPC world and ad words and how it applies to the real estate world. Fred was one of the original team members on the Ad Word editor team, and he was on the team that acquired Persian, which is now known as Google Analytics.  Google’s mission is to have long-term loyal searchers, and the way that you get that is by consistently being good at answering questions, says Fred. Jeff asks as a realtor if I want to grow my Google presence and start working my way towards ads, what is the best piece of advice that you can give somebody to simplify that process so they can get into Google?  Jeff asks, what are some of the more significant mistakes you see people making as they get into this PPC world?  Google knows a lot about users through previous searches they have done, through previous behaviors, and what kind of websites they read. In our world, there is a sea of sameness. A lot of people are doing the same stuff. They are using a lot of the same tools, the same automation, and styles of marketing. So, Jeff asks, what do you recommend for someone to be more effective than the masses?  Jeff inquires, how would you compare an Optmyzr to something like a tube buddy that helps you tubers optimize and use proper keywords?  Optimyzr knows what you want to achieve and will help you achieve more results in less time. If you’re a realtor you want to dabble in PPC, it’s a good place to get your beginnings, says Fred.   3 Key Points: Fred was one of the original team members on the Ad Word editor team, and he was on the team that acquired Persian, which is now known as Google Analytics.  One of the bigger problems advertisers have is keeping ads In Sync with the ever-changing inventory, which can be challenging. Optmyzr  has tools like Campaign Automator and a big realtor for realty companies, says Fred. You should have your Google cookies running on your Google tracking code so that you can automatically start to retarget customers as they go and do other things, and it is not very complicated, suggest Fred. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Fred Vallaeys   | https://www.optmyzr.com/ | https://twitter.com/siliconvallaeys Chime (Sponsor) Red X (Sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Barry Habib, the best prognosticator of the existing Real Estate and Mortgage industry. He is the CEO of the MBS Highway and three times Crystal Ball Award Winner by Zillow and Pulsenomics for giving the most accurate Real Estate forecasts out of 150 of the top economists in the United States.  Episode Highlights: Jeff asks Barry to tell the listeners about his entrepreneurial journey, industry experience, and the challenges he has faced. Barry wrote a book called, Money in the Streets, which was the number one Amazon bestseller. It is a wonderful book with regards to finding real estate opportunities. There are so many opportunities to help clients identify. In the market now, “You have to win the home, you don’t just buy it.” Barry produced Criss Angel in Las Vegas and Rock of Ages on Broadway, as lead producer and managing partner, which became worldwide. He was in the mortgage sector for many years and had his own company which he built and sold. He was ranked as the top producer in the United States several times and he was named “Mortgage Professional of the Year” in 2019.  Barry talks about the importance of identifying and addressing points of friction in business. Barry states that you win trust in two ways: 1) Not being afraid to tell everything that is bad and 2) Having true knowledge. If we learn to establish trust quickly, we will have more transactions, we'll be happier in our relationships, and we will be more successful in general. Barry says a real estate agent should be like an advisor, willing to present the good and the bad. He says to put yourself in the position of the buyer when you think about what they would want and need to know. The demand side of the industry is new households being formed and the supply side is households being completed by builders.  The first time home buyer is a critical element in supply and demand. They don’t replace inventory.  According to Zillow, the median age of the first-time home buyer is 33 years old. Looking at birth rates, over the next five years, there is going to be an even greater influx of first-time home buyers who will be depleting the inventory. In regards to affordability, he says it's important to understand the actual math behind it because the media does not get it right. We are in the seventh most affordable housing market on record. The most recent existing home sales report showed the median home price rose 16%; It also showed that hourly earnings rose by 5%. The median home price is not appreciation, that is the mix of homes. Since there is not as much inventory on the lower end, less people are buying on the lower end. For homes above 1 million dollars, sales increased by 80%. The increase above that level moved the median home price up. With incomes going up over 6% and interest rates staying relatively the same, sale prices could go up 10, 15, 20, 25%. Barry emphasizes fulfillment in the journey of seeking one’s goals. The monetary benefit will come but the factor of truly being able to help others is the source of actual fulfillment. “The feeling that we get from helping is better than the check.” 3 Key Points: Barry states that establishing trust is the foundation for being  successful in anything. Focusing on letting go of our fears, let go of our insecurities, getting out of our own heads, and truly seeking the customers’ best interest in advising them is the key to success in real estate.  To understand the affordability and sustainability of the current housing market, we have to look beyond the repeated misconceptions of the media and into the real data and math.   Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram | Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Barry Habib | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | Website RedX (sponsor) LinkU (sponsor)  

On today's episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff is talking with Aaron Novello from Southeast Florida. Aaron has grown multiple businesses outside of real estate. He shares his experience and how to be successful by working hard. Aaron has experienced what a lot of real estate agents in today's world haven't experienced, which was the years 2007 and 2008. Jeff and Aaron roleplay some of the buying and selling scenarios.    Episode Highlights: Aaron got started in residential resale in 2006. His family of origin is people who are very kind and good people doing the best they can under the given set of circumstances and the information that they had at their disposal. Aaron read books about wealth, and they tend to gravitate towards real estate. So, he soon figured, what better way to learn about the investment vehicle of real estate than to go out and get his license and help people buy and sell.  During his last semester at the University of Florida, Aaron had only had 9 credits.He got his real estate license and started to help people transact. And in 2007, he was on his way to doing about 50 deals. Aaron explains how he systematically and obsessively went about acquiring skills. While everything else was imploding and contracting, Aaron grew his business by 25%, year over year. Aaron has had the good fortune of not only still being in the field and actively selling real estate, but he is also on the sidelines coaching and training others who do so. For him, the challenge has been more from an emotional perspective because there has been a lot of pent-up anxiety from buyers of fear of missing out. There are two emotions that dominate any market. One is fear, but the other is greed; and sellers have been exceptionally greedy over the last 12, 18, maybe 24 months, says Aaron. Since the last 12 to 18 months, sellers have been able to be unreasonable, stubborn, and aggressive in terms of looking out for their best interest, and the marketplace has rewarded them for that. Aaron goes with three major factors in the marketplace that are beginning to shift and change in hopes that doing so can help a seller see why their neighbor had a different experience than perhaps they were going to have.  Aaron says that the market is very much about skills. And if any listener or anybody who is listening to this really pounds into your brain that when times get tough, only the skilled get paid.  We have a choice to make, and the choice is yours. We can either not sell the property now because perhaps your expectation is a little bit different than market conditions. The second option is you anticipate instead of reacting; because that's what leaders do. They anticipate, instead of reacting, you look at these market dynamics we put on a market, extract the capital and then you provide for your family in the way that you want, and you get out of this environment, explains Aaron. Aaron says that if he can get his skills to such a degree that if an opportunity presents itself, there is an 80 to 90% chance he can capitalize on that opportunity, it is then that he has created security for himself and his family, and he personally feels like it's his duty and obligation to protect his family. Money is not in the service, it's in the selling of the service. They expect you to know about contracts, they expect you to pick up the phone. They expect you to work in their best interest, says Aaron. Aaron suggests that real estate is totally a skill that's acquirable. It does require a certain level of obsession and discipline at the same time. It's not something that is reserved for only certain members of the population. It is reserved for those that deserve it because nature doesn't reward need, it rewards deserve.  The buy side is increasingly becoming less and less valued and they are being compensated less and less to do that activity. Aaron thinks himself as a prodigious provider of data because that is what these systems need. Aaron talks about life events creating shifts and the opportunity in them. What is the reason that you are compelled to put up with friction to put up with inconvenience? If it's not strong enough, then you are probably not going to put all of your time, energy and effort into that. When you do hard things, your life becomes easier. When you do easy things, your life becomes hard. So even though it's a little uncomfortable and people perceive it as perhaps confrontational, it's just straightforward, just like any other professional. Real estate is a sales job. It's no different than selling books, door-to-door knives, subscriptions over the phone, telemarketing where you are selling magazines, says Aaron. On his team Aaron has people who don't have any business background and no sales experience getting into a direct sales business, and nobody sits them down. He suggests that as a real estate agent you need to speak to people on a regular basis. You also need to have the skill of prequalifying to make sure people have the means and the motivation to actually do something. Then schedule an appointment, meet with them and give them a compelling reason to choose you versus somebody else. Then you have to go and show the property.  Jeff is in the real estate space, but he has shifted to teaching social media, teaching video, teaching these things. And it is the exact same conversations, everything is very parallel to what Aaron is talking about here. If a marketplace contracts 20%, that means you need to be 30% better to grow, says Aaron.  People have a tendency to play down. They play with people that are either at their level or below because it makes themselves feel better. Warren Buffett says, when the tide goes out, you can see who's wearing pants or not. And he also says that, if you're the absolute best at what you do from a skill perspective, you're always going to be in demand. The best coaches are always in demand. The best Asian stories are in demand. The best doctors are always in demand. Systems are made stronger by stress, and all this is a stress test. This is an opportunity to just make yourself stronger physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. 3 Key Points: Aaron discusses the effect of 40-year high inflation and loss of 5000 points in the stock market. Jeff talks a little bit about that psychology with agents. He says as a podcast listener, AKA Real estate agent if you are not equipped with the relevant skills, Aaron is what your competition looks like potentially, and that's going to put you out of business. You are going to lose opportunities.  Aaron answers how long should a real-estate agent role play? If someone is already doing that, what are two or three other skills that they need to pick up and focus on over the next seven months left in this year?     Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Power ISA (Sponsor) Z Buyer (Sponsor)   Aaron Novello https://aaronnovello.com/ https://www.instagram.com/aaronnovello/ https://www.tiktok.com/@aaronnovello?lang=en

“If you live in the world with an open palm … the universe can put more in. If you live with a closed fist, and you’re scared, and there’s limited resources—I can’t put any more into a closed fist, can I? An open palm, I can place more in. If you approach everything like that, it’s amazing what happens.” Hosting events helps real estate professionals stay in front of their sphere and build a brand in the community. It gives agents a reason to reach out to their database with something to give and provides value to the attendees, the venue, the vendor-partners, and the agents themselves. But what goes into the planning and execution of an epic event? And how do you make sure that all of the stakeholders involved have a positive experience? Dan Baltzer leads the Pinnacle Team of 45 agents with Realty Group in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Today, he joins Tristan and Jeff to explain how he leverages events to grow his real estate business. He offers insight on planning a megaevent, from conducting early site visits to communicating with invitees to mapping out traffic patterns. Dan shares the details of his team’s upcoming Avengers movie experience, discussing how it has grown since last year and how he thinks about engaging different age groups at a single event. Listen in for Dan’s advice on approaching vendor-partners in the community to help offset the cost and learn why the experience you provide is the most important aspect of hosting an event! Key Takeaways How events help you stay in front of your sphere + build your brand How events give agents a reason to reach out to their database Dan’s insight on why the experience you provide is most important How Dan is leveraging automation to reduce the no-show rate The agent’s primary role in delivering the experience at events Why Dan does a site visit at the venue in advance of an event How Dan drives traffic to vendor-partners at Pinnacle events The four groups Dan considers to be stakeholders at a given event The details of the Pinnacle Team’s upcoming Avengers movie event How Dan and his agents follow up with attendees after an event Dan’s advice on engaging different age groups at a single event How to approach vendor-partners to offset the cost of an event Connect with Dan Baltzer Pinnacle Team Dan on Facebook Dan on Club Wealth Email dan.baltzer@pinnaclerealtymn.com Connect with Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group Resources Realty Group Dan’s Movie Event Video CallAction Zapier

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Mike Cuevas, a former realtor who is now a content creation and marketing expert. Mike shares why content is the future of marketing, why it’s important to build an authentic brand, and how to define your video strategy. This episode will give you a new perspective on how content leads to conversions. Episode Highlights:  Mike is no longer selling real estate. He sold from 2002-2019. He never sold through prospecting. He has always focused on content creation. In 2002 he started compiling a list of people he knew and then started a direct mail campaign to farm them. This helped him generate business. Mike speaks to the importance of being memorable regardless of which marketing strategies you’re using. He rebranded three times in his career. When he felt burned out on selling homes, he shifted to marketing. Mike speaks to the importance of feeling confident and excited about what you do. Authenticity is all about finding who you naturally connect with. Mike tells us about the "dude" aspect of who he is that has carried across his various brands. Nobody hires you for what you do, they hire you for how you do it. When you ask how to build a better relationship, the answer is to stay in better communication. Everyone has a brand. Your brand is your spitting image. The seller will hire the person they relate with more. Building your own brand is a recession-proof business model. Build your brand by communicating consistently to the same audience over time through various channels. The only thing that keeps your name at the front is consistent communication. When we create media, it's about reminding our network that we're in real estate. The difference between being a salesperson and a business owner is how you view your database. The first thing Mike does with clients is to help them figure out a video strategy. Ask if you want to create a community or talk about real estate as you plan your video strategy. You don't have to talk about real estate in your videos. Your branding will remind them that you are in real estate. You're the digital mayor of your town. Become the real estate expert.   Video gives you authority. There's no magic formula for social media other than engaging and consistently posting. Video combines tone, body language, and authenticity. It is an incredibly effective way to communicate. Find your content pillars and then it will become easy to talk on camera. One of Mike's services, Flip This Agent, is a complete rebranding service. Mike’s company scripts, edits, and distributes your videos for you.  Content is the future of marketing. Many people will hire a videographer to create videos but don't give them the story or create an end goal. Videographers need guidance. While you can implement these strategies yourself, Jeff is finding that many people prefer to hire a service. Mike describes his virtual presentation service. You can leverage education-based content to attract leads. People go to your website to see if they like you. For this reason, Mike has a video on every page of his site. In the eyes of the public, the realtor who has more content is better qualified. 3 Key Points: Creating content allows you to build and maintain relationships through regular communication.  Video is an extremely effective way to communicate. When you create video content, you give yourself authority.  Your content does not have to be about real estate to remind people that you are in real estate.   Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Real Estate Marketing Dude website, YouTube, Instagram, podcast Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Jay Steinback and Amanda Alejandro, CEO and Founder of The Realty Shop in the St. Louis market. They have done some amazing things to grow and innovate. They launched both The Realty Shop and Realty Shots to fill the gaps in the traditional brokerage model. Tune in to hear their valuable insights! Episode Highlights:  Jay and Amanda share their stories and tell the listeners about their growth. The new service that they are launching is called Realty Ready. Amanda has been a licensed realtor since 2008, and she started the company in 2018. The business is Amanda’s full-time career, and she likes to create full-time opportunities for others.  Jeff reminds people, in 2008 – It was the year of the big stock market crash, and everyone was running away from the real estate industry. When everyone was jumping out of the real estate, Amanda decided to take the challenge and get her real estate license.  Jeff inquiries about commission and what’s best for the business?- “As an agent, when people are looking at where they need to go, what is the best suggestion you would give?”  Amanda says that 90% of the sales that come from their brokerage are provided by the company.  Jay reiterates that looking at the brand and determining how it is providing value to its consumer is very important. What are the 3 most important components that I should be looking for in interviewing brokerages? The majority of  brokers  that Jay and Amanda encounter are always missing communication. They are literally lost in transitions and most brokers don’t know how to generate the business. Work-life balance is important, and agents should really think about that. Jay shares his concern that, “There are amazing agents who get zero support from their brokerage firms.” Our client is the consumer, and with a technology-driven culture, agents have a fight to offer value to clients. Jay says that their conversion rate over Zillow is over 70%. Amanda and Jay talk about their excellent customer experience and the Alpha, Delta, and Omega systems. From the mindset of brokers who are trying to find their own systems, what are the objections? For every 4 agents they  speak to, they ask 1 to come on-board.  At Realty Shots, there is no lone wolf; they all are a team. Jay says, “We are all stronger together.” Amanda and Jay share where they are going next and what they potentially see coming.                              3 Key Points: Amanda took 15 years of her realtor experience, merged it with Jay’s corporate background, and they both achieved profitable business growth. Their office is accredited amongst the Top 50 offices in St Louis. Amanda has secured ranking as the Top No.5 agent in St Louis. Jeff asks, “I am a team leader or broker who wants to run a shop; how should I be prepared?” For the past 3 years Amanda and Jay have been watching where Zillow is going. They say that Zillow is focused on one thing – home buyer and seller. Amanda says Zillow is solving a problem giving the consumer what they want.  Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram | Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter The Realty Shop | 314-372-0324 | Facebook Realty Shots Photography  Realty Ready RedX (sponsor) RedX Promo

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Tristan Ahumada speaks with April Hunter, an Atlanta, Georgia broker with one assistant, whose business is thriving on expireds. They discuss the exact system April uses to capture expired listings. You’ll also hear about the specific tools April uses to achieve her amazing results.  Episode Highlights:  When April Hunter started her real estate career, she didn’t even know what an expired listing was. When she did learn what they were, she began practicing scripts nightly in bed. Using scripts and a dialer changed her life. April preaches the importance of practice. She practiced and practiced until she became confident. If you want to succeed, you need to practice at an extremely high level. Practice will differentiate you from the amateurs. From 8:30-11:30 M-F she dials expireds and follows up using Espresso Agent. She types notes in the dialer as she is speaking to them. Get your scripts. Practice your scripts. Make the calls. Take the notes. Follow up. You’ll need to keep your hands free. Use a simple headset from Amazon or AirPods. Mornings are better for her to call. Weekends are awesome. April and Tristan role-play a simple script. She asks at the end of the call if she can do some homework and call them back. April does not go to appointments if she does not pre-qualify. She asks directly, "When we get together, if everything was good and you feel confident I am the right agent to sell your property, are you going to hire me when we meet?" It's all in the approach and tonality. When you're on the phone make sure you have the best number for them and get their email address. April sends an intro video so sellers can put a face with a name. She also asks if they are interviewing other agents. She asks them where they'll be moving when they sell this property. Another question is, “What pricing are you thinking you would like to list your property for realistically?” April knows she's going to hear “no” more often than “yes”. She also knows that someone on the other end needs her help. She understands that they're not mad at her. They're mad at the situation. In her intro video, April will recap what they said and let them know she's excited to meet with them. She'll usually include an attachment of references. Try to keep it under 30 seconds. At the closing table, she gets a client testimonial on video. If you start off bubbly, happy, and matter-of-fact, your clients will be willing to do video. April shares where you can find her online and reminds us which tools she uses in her amazing system.  3 Key Points: When calling expireds, get some great scripts and then practice, practice, practice. Consider the power of using video throughout the process, from your introduction to the closing table. Remember not to take rejection personally. The sellers know nothing about you. Believe in yourself, knowing that you can help people sell their home. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com April Hunter website, Facebook, Instagram espressoagent.com/labcoatagents Bomb Bomb Realty Juggler Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

Lab Coat Agents, Welcome to our first episode of Drunk On Social, The Symposium. Co-Host, Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer introduce us to what we can expect from the Symposium, which will be 100% focused on social media and how to best use the platforms to take your business to new levels! Episode Highlights:  Drunk on social will help you elevate your social media game, improve your social media presence, and help you grow your brand. The Symposium is going to go deep on all things social media. Our focus and passion has shifted to be out ahead in the social media world. Tristan is focused on FB and pivoting over to YouTube. Jeff focuses on 5 platforms: FB, IG, TikTok, YouTube and Linkedin, primarily focusing on short term content and building an organic audience. Go deep on 1 platform first and then grow and build your audience from there. Tristan is shifting things to Re-Stream, Streamyard, and ecamm live where you can take the same piece of content and break it down into smaller pieces of content for other platforms. We are going to pivot every time something changes in social media and introduce you to all new platforms.. We want engagement from our audience and input on how you are using social media to stay out in front of the platform changes. We are going to introduce you to experts in particular social media outlets, so you can hear how they are leveraging that platform to grow their business. Go all in on Google, Google reviews, SEO and purchase Google and Youtube ads. Social Media value is usually based on MAU’s (Monthly active users). How is Social Media relevant to your business? We are going to talk to people who are actually building their audience organically and are specialists in a specific social media platform. As a business person, you need to understand the things you have available at your fingertips to stay ahead of social media changes and understand how to use them to grow your business. Check out our private FB group: Drunk on Social! Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook |Facebook Group| Twitter | Instagram | Drunk on Social | Drunk On Social Visual Capitalist Restream: Multistream to 30+ Platforms Simultaneously StreamYard ecamm

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Wayne Mullins, who is the Founder and CEO of Ugly Mug Marketing. He has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and businesses across diverse industries. Tune in to hear his valuable insights! Episode Highlights:  Initially, Wayne was terrible at sales, but he was determined to succeed. Much to the dismay of family members, Wayne decided to leave his corporate job and start his own company, Lawn and Landscape, which he took from startup to selling it off in three years at age 26.  Wayne and Jeff discuss the time frame between his corporate job and the Ugly Mug Marketing start-up. Jeff inquired, “What was the reason to sell off Lawn and Landscape so early?” The key to all great marketing is standing out from the crowded marketplace and being different, not just playing follow the leader. People think about marketing and advertising as the same but advertising is a component of marketing. What percentage of your marketing budget is allocated to attracting and what percentage is allocated to retention of clients? Wayne talks about relationship building and shares his knowledge about digital and social media.  The real difference between a friend and a client is trust. A natural progression occurs for buyers when they go through their decision process.   Be intentional to target clients and share posts or comments to make targeted clients feel good. Meaningful content can turn strangers to friends and therefore creates opportunities to build trust. Jeff mentions that many companies and people focus on products or resources rather than creating audiences.  Lean into your strengths and refrain from copying. The real deal is, “What is the asset that you need to build to grow your audience?” When you think strategically about digital marketing, you should be clear about who you are going to be later and what audience you can serve best. We tend to believe that our business is different from others. Wayne talks about what approaches apply to target all types of audiences. People love experiences and connections. The old fundamentals are valuable in building relationships with clients. There is often too much responsibility placed on one campaign. You have to think sequentially.  It is good to look around to see what people are doing, but it’s also essential to figure out what they are making in the process or what is behind the actions. What are you doing to exceed those expectations? 3 Key Points: Wayne talks about his career journey and the processes he has gone through to get to where he is today as the Founder and CEO of Ugly Mug Marketing. Standing out from the crowd is the key or marketing. Exceed expectations and create evangelists for your business by taking good care of your clients. Jeff asks, “As a realtor or agent, why would I hire an agency?” Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer  Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Wayne Mullins  | Website | Facebook | WHY US  Chime (sponsor) Follow Up Boss     

Roland Frasier, gifted entrepreneur, lawyer, realtor, and co-founder or principal of three fast-growing companies, talks to hosts Jeff Pfitzer and Tristan Ahumada on this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast. Frasier has scaled or sold over 24 businesses for more than 7 figures. Frasier describes how you can create better opportunities by building a better network.    Episode Highlights:  Frasier mentions a video he made about how to upgrade your hotel stay. Frasier’s real estate journey began when he read a book called Nothing Down at age 16. From there, a career that spans real estate, accounting, law, and business took off.  How would Frasier advise a young version of himself? Upleveling your network will uplevel your opportunities. Frasier outlines the types of different people he would seek out to build a strong network. Frasier describes a strong contact as someone who he can call or text directly instead of going through their business. He emphasizes building a personal relationship.  They discuss challenges in building software companies and software teams. The first thing to do is to put yourself in the flow of opportunity. Frasier describes how he entered the world of software by taking a cold trip to Silicon Valley and meeting as many people as he could. What can you do to benefit your contact so it behooves them to stay in touch with you? They discuss building out a team. If you’ve got a superpower, identify it and then hire people with different superpowers. Ask what will get you to your goal the fastest. Frasier describes how he would get an agent with a one-million-dollar goal to reach that goal using specific strategies.  Frasier shares a strategy for meeting the people you need to know. They discuss brokerage dynamics and commission splits. They discuss how Frasier’s deal with Tony Robbins came about because an employee nurtured the relationship.  Frasier details how he built a relationship with his business partners from nothing. Paid access entitles you to access and that’s it.  Roland Frasier won a contest hoping he’d impress someone, not knowing what specific opportunities might await.  Frasier shares how continuing to provide value to his mastermind group has benefited him.  Frasier talks about how he participated for the first time in a product launch with no list.  They discuss why it’s important to invest in mastermind sessions and meetups in your field.  Frasier names the contacts he would like to network with next. Roland Frasier provides several book recommendations.   3 Key Points:   Spend your time upleveling your network to uplevel your opportunities.   Be intentional about your time and find ways to put yourself in the flow of opportunities. Start with a goal, then ask yourself how to make reaching that goal easier.   Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Roland Frasier: Website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn Digital Marketer Rival  Plattr Roland Fraiser’s hotel upgrade strategy Nothing Down (book) Real Estate Worldwide The Closing Table Big Block Realty Business Mastery seminar with Tony Robbins Robert Kiyosaki Four Seasons Palo Alto Lab Coat Agents Live Jesse Itzler Traffic and Conversion Summit  Business Adventures (book) The Goal (book) Awaken The Giant Within (book) Measure What Matters (book) Richard Branson’s book recommendations  Black Box Thinking (book)   Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Karina Pacific joins host Jeff Pfittzer to share how she has overcome so many things from her past and how she is applying them today. She talks about mistakes that she made as a new real estate agent, how she uses networking and things that she loves to grow her business, and how we treat leases because they can turn into millions of dollars in due time. Tune in now! Episode Highlights: Karina introduces herself. She was born and raised in Mexico in a little beach town. HSe now lives and does real estate in Manhattan Beach. In 1985, Karina came to America by a miracle of God, and was raised pretty much parentless because she had a single mother who was working all of the time. Karina experienced abuse, neglect, and many hardships. All of the lacks have strengthened her to who she is now. Curiosity and faith saved Karina. She is intuitively a positive person.  Jeff talks about how it is easy to find trouble and easy to give up when you come from a hard upbringing and past. Are you just dealt a bad hand?  Jeff asks Karina to give advice to real estate agents who are tempted to give up in these times that are harder. Hard times help define people but human nature likes what is comfortable. How do you break out of the mediocre? Jeff asks Karina to share her plan for the next 12 months with the challenging changes in the economy. She discusses her company's business plan and pillars. How do you make it with raising interest rates, low inventory, and recessionary times? Karina talks about how the charitable part of her business loops back to sales. Karina shares stories of mistakes that she has made to help other agents. She also talks about strengths and weaknesses and interviewing teams. What do your habits say about what kind of professional you are? It took Karina ten years to really find her home in real estate. She was not afraid of moving around and she suggests, “You have to find your people.”    Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor)   https://karinapacific.com/ https://www.instagram.com/karinapacifichomes/?hl=en Karina Pacific - 310-529-4292 https://www.instagram.com/karinapacifichomes/?hl=en

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with John Pyke, a talent genius who has assessed, coached, and hired over one million clients. They discuss how to make the best hires in real estate using John’s strong model for success. If you have goals for growing your business by adding talent in 2020, you this week’s show is a must-listen. Episode Highlights:  John Pyke, at a young age, started working for the largest sales training company in the world. In that role, he saw that there was no causal link between the sales training and an increase in sales. He wanted to find out what the 20% of top performers had that the 80% of lower performers didn't have. Self-awareness is the foundation of all personal growth. A seven-year research study evaluating over 200,000 people in 23 different countries found that there are only two common characteristics of the most successful people. Only 9% of this group of 200,000 achieved all of their performance objectives in a given year. You need self-awareness and authenticity to succeed. The more authentic that we are, according to how we're gifted, the higher the level of performance because we don't have to try to be someone that we're not. In order to achieve your goals and to scale quickly, you have to build a team. There's an art and a science to even simple things like writing an ad to attract the right people for your team. When writing an ad, using the right keywords is critical. If you use the wrong keyword, you're out of luck. No one will find your ad. The second thing that is really important is the amount of money you're offering. The niche you want to go after are people that are interested in making at least $80,000. The thing the highest performers shared in common was a high economic motivation. When you're placing an ad, less is more. Make your ad stand out by making it really short, very succinct and impactful. The most important thing is for each person to know what their unique selling propositions are and also to be able to articulate them. If you're placing an ad, video is critical. It's a differentiator. ZipRecruiter and WizeHire will allow you to embed video in your ads. These tools push your jobs out to many different job boards to give you maximum reach. Hire fast and fire fast. If you drag your feet and call it being selective, your candidate will get another offer. Taking a long time is off-putting to the candidate. Streamline your recruitment process so it is very quick. When you fire fast, you're actually doing that person a favor. Another option is to move them to another place in the company where they can thrive. Personality instruments have limitations. Over 100 years of collecting data, they've found that if you use just a personality instrument alone for hiring, you have only a slightly better chance of making a good hire than just looking at a person's resume alone. People are much more complex than just their personality. Personality assessments are the least important of the dimensions John uses in recruiting. John uses a three-dimensional profile. Why do you do what you do? What motivates or drives you? They have a tool that measure's someone's economic drive. The second most important driver is achievement drive. The third tool measures innate talent. It's about getting the right people in the right seat. John feels that references are very difficult. If you go down that road, try to get in touch with other people that worked with or surrounded that individual. You should not discount anyone. You can't rely on a resume. Advanced analytics and science are the only way to move the needle from just guessing in hiring. As entrepreneurs, we need to protect our confidence above all. 60% of candidates that go on an interview have a negative experience in the interview. John recommends asking candidates to come prepared with questions. Begin with their questions. When it comes to interviewing and hiring, every other company around you is your competitor. 99% of their clients use John’s “done for you” hiring program. They handle everything except interviewing the candidate. They handle the ad copy and publish the ad to all the different job boards. They evaluate and assess all candidates that apply. Then they cherry-pick only the best of the best. 3 Key Points: Self-awareness and authenticity are defining characteristics of top performers. When building your team, how you write the ad matters. Use the right keywords, offer the right compensation, and use recruiting tools that will extend your reach. Data shows us that the traditional hiring process amounts to a lot of guessing. Never discount anyone and use the best data and science available to evaluate candidates. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com John Pyke LinkedIn, Facebook The Talent Genius website Receive John’s book, The Talent Genius, for free by emailing him at john@thetalentgenius.com What’s Your Genius? (book) ZipRecruiter WizeHire Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer interviews a billion-dollar agent and million-dollar agent maker, Keri Shull. Keri’s team is on pace to do over 800 units worth over $500M in volume, and next year is projected to do over $1.2B! Episode Highlights:  Keri’s team is projected to do over $1.2B in volume in 2021. Entering the workforce out of Penn State in 2003, Keri chose real estate over being the Oscar-Meyer Weiner girl. Marketing was not a strong suit of Keri’s back in the beginning and she had to learn fast when she moved from Oregon to Arlington, a place where she knew no one. While Keri was able to close 19 contracts her first year, her husband Dan was able to do over $21M in his first year. Keri is aiming for 100% growth every year, even at the massive volume level that they move right now. Being a team leader allowed Keri to hold herself accountable for the environment that she created and the people that she surrounded herself with. Keri focused on who, not how, when building her team which led to massive growth. Realtors have trouble building teams and letting go of the day-to-day because they do not trust others enough to delegate those tasks. If you have trouble delegating tasks, put yourself in a room with people that have already done it successfully. Offering minimum wage to your team will bring in minimum wage talent. There is no one-size-fits-all method to grow a real estate business, so don’t listen to any coach that tells you so. Make a list of all your weekly tasks and circle the things that you aren’t good at or don’t like; create the job responsibilities off of those tasks. When you’re small, you’re forced to blend jobs together as opposed to hiring for one specific job. Comp plans being set up wrong from the beginning for the buyer’s agent or seller’s agent is one of the most common problems. In order to hit her goal of $1.2B, Keri needs to close 1,751 contracts. Use your average and history with 1st-year agent success, and hire based on those numbers. A large part of being successful hinges on answering the phone the first time that a prospect calls. Make sure to account for all the time it takes for your ISAs to both call new prospects and perform follow-ups. Keri is already hiring to reach her goals for next year, sitting at 60 agents now and looking to be at 75 by next year. Adjust your language to treat agents as partners or no one will take them seriously and they will never grow into what you need them to be. Keri has set up her lead agent to NET over $1M this year and that motivates people to join her team for the long-run. People are shocked to hear how large the marketing department is for Keri’s team. Recruiting and training are huge areas of emphasis to make sure their agents are problem-solvers instantly. Keri’s reality check approach trains agents to prepare clients for the market using real numbers. Many successful agents have a poor work-life balance. 3 Key Points: Everything changed for Keri when she attended a junk-email event and began to network with top performers. The reality of the market is this: you can either delegate tasks to partners or you can have no time outside of your job for your family. In the real estate industry, it’s safe to have a hiring plan with a projected 50/50 success rate. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Keri Shull (Website Coaching Instagram) 5 Tips for Work-Life Balance (website) Followup Boss (sponsor) Chime (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer and guest Bryan Bowles discuss transaction coordination. When faced with the challenge of hiring transaction coordinators and creating a workflow, Bryan developed Transactly to simplify the journey for both agent and client. Learn how transaction coordination can maximize your efficiency to help you scale your business. Episode Highlights:  Bryan Bowles became a realtor in 2006. He used to be an equities trader and then became a top listing agent in St. Louis. In 2012 he couldn’t juggle two jobs and took the leap to launch his own brokerage.  He led a flourishing brokerage during a difficult time in realty. When he asked what else he could provide his clients, that lead to Transactly. He created a dashboard and a service for his agents. Agents can use the technology themselves to be more efficient or they can use one of their transaction coordinators to be more efficient. Bryan has often asked how to scale things up. When he was a producing agent, he wanted his commission to go up, so he started delegating things. Many agents struggle getting past that plateau into the next step. Often you don’t need to spend more time generating leads, you need to spend more time in front of your existing network. Transaction coordinators help with the tasks you’d like to delegate. Bryan credits focus for making him a top-producing agent. He worked listings exclusively and focused on the grind of FSBOs. Focus on your lead source and work on it consistently every day.  Hire when it hurts. He judges a lot by how well someone writes when hiring. An email or a cover letter is more than a resume or even industry experience sometimes. Jeff asks what advice Bryan would give to realtors juggling two jobs. There’s always going to be risk involved. He started Worth Clark as a platform for agents. It was a flat-fee agent model. Another gap he saw was property management. He built a large property management company and sold it last year. Client experience and efficiency go hand-in-hand. A transaction coordinator handles all the non-revenue generating tasks for you to a degree. Once under contract they take all the documents, make sure they meet requirements, chase down signatures, and organize them. Transactly builds out a custom timeline. As the transaction coordinator proceeds through the timeline they keep the agents updated and have the option to keep the clients updated as well.  There are multiple points in the process when the transaction coordinator can come in. They don't get involved with presenting offers or negotiating Most of their transaction coordinators are licensed. It's hard to get agents to commit to the onboarding process although it would only take 30 minutes. Bryan explains how to sign up for Transactly. Bryan describes the backend of the Tranactly dashboard. Transactly is nationwide but they do not have a transaction coordinator in every state yet. 3 Key Points:   Focus allows you to thrive as an agent.   Transaction coordination can help you run your business more efficiently, which will also improve your client experience.   Transactly provides technology that will improve your efficiency and/or transaction coordinators that can assist you from contract to close.  Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Bryan Bowles LinkedIn, Facebook, Email: bryan@transactly.com Transactly website, Facebook Worth Clark Realty The E-Myth (book) Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Tony Giordano, a national speaker, author, and coach about moving from online presence to online influence. Tony is passionate about helping agents stay relevant today, tomorrow, and well into the future by understanding how to connect with social media. This conversation will change how you approach marketing yourself online.   Episode Highlights:  Tony shares how he entered the real estate business. He made his first million in the mortgage business at age 26. This business completely changed his life. Anything that has to do with the housing economy has no limit except yourself. He lost everything in the 2008-2009 crash. Within 30 days of becoming an agent he received a life-changing referral. Tony is online and he knows how to market himself. Do we market ourselves to our community? Are we giving back? Tony engaged Facebook and Instagram very early on. He Googled all the biggest agents in his surrounding area. For every 20 that he Googled, 19/20 had gorgeous websites.  These websites told stories. Websites get listings. Websites are the modern-day first impression. The majority of sales people are being taught online brand awareness, social media marketing, online lead generation by technology professionals. He gives examples of how technology professionals give misguided advice on how to use social media. In addition to your Facebook business page, a real estate agent or a salesperson from any industry, should have a minimum of 2,000 friends on their personal friend page of Facebook also. Be careful who you’re learning from. Are your mentors still in the trenches doing and seeing what used to work and now what works better? Social media is a 365 day-a-year drip campaign. Social media networks are the place to build relationships today. Tony blocks time to engage on social media. He has conversations online and follows them up with friend requests. Social media has made it so simple to get into conversation with other humans. Why are we choosing to do anything cold when online networks make everything boiling hot? Lead generation is simply asking enough people every day if they know anybody looking to buy or sell a house and getting at least twenty people to respond yes or no to you. For every ten people that you see comment on a friend of yours or a connection of yours post, you're not connected or friends with 8/10 on average. Make sure everything about you online is public. You have got to get in front of the camera. Authenticity sells. Just start livestreaming and as you start doing it for things you like to do it on, it will create a habit.   3 Key Points: Websites are the modern-day first impression and they get listings. It’s a huge problem that agents are being taught brand awareness by techies. Social media is the place to build relationships.   Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Tony Giordano website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter Rise Group Coaching The Social Agent (book)   Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Jess Lenouvel of The Listings Lab. Jess outlines her three keys for scaling a six figure business into a seven figure one. This episode is packed with tactical strategies that will accelerate your growth.  Episode Highlights:  Jess Lenouvel grew up in the industry with her mother who was a realtor. She got her license at 21. She started The Listings Lab four years ago. They're helping hundreds of people go from six to seven figures. Real estate loves the DISC profile but Jess prefers the Kolbe. Jess is frequently asked why she left behind a successful real estate career. It was a huge risk. She realized it wasn't about the money anymore. She felt that she hit her limit. She also wanted to be location independent. This was a quality of life choice. Relevancy is about figuring out who you're talking to and understanding them on a human level. Address the pain points that are getting people to move. Moving is always a lifestyle play. They give agents a list of questions that will give them everything they need to know to create targeted messaging. Know how to ask relevant questions. Omnipresence is showing up in front of your ideal client with consistency and frequency, with a message that’s relevant to them. Your authority content consists of mini trainings and teaching things your ideal client doesn't know. Process/solution content is about creating a unique methodology that addresses the pains and problems of your specific clients. You want a methodology people can relate to that will get people where they want to go. Social proof consists of case studies, testimonials, and PR. Recognize the importance of the media and leverage it. Become a relatable celebrity. You want to be an approachable local influencer. No one goes to social media with the intent to buy a home. You have to give people a reason to follow you even when they're not buying or selling. Omnipresence is automated followup. We build trust online through consistency and serving before we sell. Omnipresence allows you to take the hustle out of your business. Intimacy is about community, connection, and conversation. Creating comfort with your audience comes through showing up as you are. Vulnerability creates trust and conversation. You know you're winning when people tell you they feel like they know you when you've never met. Jess has multiple programs to help agents at different levels in their careers. 3 Key Points: Relevancy is about figuring out who you're talking to and understanding them on a human level. Omnipresence is getting in front of people and building trust. Intimacy is about helping people you don’t know feel connected to you. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Jess Lenouvel (Instagram) The Listings Lab (website) The Listings Lab Method for Real Estate Agents (Facebook group)  

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff is talking  with Jessica and Justin Ball. They are  discussing the aspects and the components of their book - Succession Planning for Real Estate Agents. They share about how a retiree can help an agent who is new to the industry by teaching them their ways of working and letting them take over the business. The core of their book is about how an agent who is thinking about retirement begins to identify a successor, or if you are a younger growing agent, how you sit down and have a respectful conversation with an agent who is near retirement. Tune in now.   Episode highlights: Jessica had a 10-year career in law enforcement and was a federal law enforcement officer. She made the jump into real estate when she decided to start a family.  Jessica has formally done several succession plans with other agents, and just as they were going through those, they realized there was a lack of information out there. They were taking notes, doing interviews and compiling it all together, and then decided to share it with everyone else because money was being left on the table for the retiring agents.  Justin is an academic by trade and by nature. He got his real estate license, and now he is a commercial agent. They are working through a succession plan with the number one Re/Max commercial broker in the St. Louis region and one of the top commercial agents in the United States. Justin was an unlicensed professional for five years, and as a licensed professional, it's been several months at this point. The Jessica Ball team with Re/Max Traders Unlimited. Jessica has two other residential agents and an unlicensed administrator assistant office manager who are doing amazing work. There are 65,000 active realtors today who do not plan to be selling real estate in less than two years from now. In their home state of Illinois, there are more than 7000 Realtors over the age of 60, probably closer to 70. In a lot of the cases, they have almost 2500 realtors who will not be selling real estate in Illinois in the next 24 months, says Justin. There are agents who want to let go of the business, and they are going to give it to someone who they can trust to take care of their sphere and their clients that they have been working with for years and years and years. There are also new agents in the industry, they are buying Zip Codes and trying all the fancy stuff, spending all this money to try to get leads- there is huge opportunity if they can really work out a deal with a seasoned agent who is wanting to exit the industry and literally that agent is going to put a stamp of approval on you. The majority of the time people experience agents who are generally flattered and that opens the door for a great conversation. Through their book, Jessica and Justin teach about 3 kinds of structures and contracts for building the succession plan. They typically tend to find that the best time frame is to have a few years to make that trust transition and to expose your sphere of influence to your successor. They have found what works best is not only paying those referral fees on clients but including a one-and two-year incentive bonus. Given the average home price in our market, $5000 is a big incentive. “We are at a market where the average home sale price is roughly $150,000”, says Justin. Jessica is doing her own advertising and marketing. She says that is why a CRM is important, a database where she knows these people here.  At the end of those three years, the successor takes ownership of that database at that point in that sphere of influence. The part of the motivation to really keep in touch with the retirees, a sphere of influence, is knowing that you have the potential to build lifetime clients and referrals of referrals. Jessica went through those succession plans. Justin and Jessica started to write components of the book about what assets a real estate agent has. There are advertising contracts and magazines and billboards and right down the line of assets that people don't really take the time to think about their value and how necessary they are to support your business.  One of these other kinds of intangible assets is a seat in some networking groups. Some agents have been in these groups for 10-15 years and so having the successor step into that role takes time to really gain the trust of that referral network in that group.  With a commercial agency it is not necessarily the book of business like it is with traditional residential. They explain the difference. 3 Key Points: Justin dug deep into the National Association of Realtors profile of real estate agents and there are 300,000 Realtors in the United States over the age of 60 and while there are 10s of thousands of new Realtors joining each year. The average age of agents is going up, and it's just over 56 years old, and they ask this fascinating question on the realtor profile: Do you plan to be selling real estate in the next 24 months and all of the groups? About 20% said they did not. Jessica and Justin discuss if the younger agents are paying the retiree on all their deals, or is it only specifically referred deals? As per Jessica, an agent probably can't come out of nowhere. They need to be present and involved in their brokerage. They either need to show that they are there, and they care about the industry and that they are involved in the longevity of it because that is going to be important for the person who is retiring.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter PowerISA (Sponsor) RedX (Sponsor) Jessica & Justin Ball:  https://resuccession.com/ https://jessicaballhomes.com/ https://www.facebook.com/JessicaBallHomes/

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff talks to Sunil Saxena from the DC market. Sunil is a doctor turned real estate investor, home builder, renovator, general contractor, and bestselling author. He has 20 years of experience in the real estate industry and is an active user of Tik Tok. Episode Highlights:  Sunil talks about his transition from a doctor to a real estate investor. He is an Indian and graduated from medical school. He practiced in DC for about eight years and got really tired of the grind. He then decided to transition to real estate. Sunil says that only one insurance company is left that would ensure physicians as emergency physicians, and our premium went out four times that year. So, they were paying 4X on our malpractice insurance. There is no room at all to change the billing, so that it’s kind of like an artificial thing that the insurance companies and the government have created.  Jeff asks, “How far were you into your doctor career when you said I’m going to shift, and I assume this shift was – I am going to Tik Toking and keep being a doctor while I invest until I build up enough of an income or revenue stream that I can break away is that what you did?” Sunil couldn’t just leave medicine 100% and just jump over real estate. He was working in the ER and kind of built this business from the side. You don’t have to have money to become a real estate investor. You can build a capital base. But when you start doing rehabs and actually invest in real estate, you need some capital level. Jeff inquiries about Sunil’s strategy and recommendation to the young potential real estate investor on how to become successful in business.  Managing contractors is a job in itself, getting them to show up sometimes, going there and actually managing them to get the job done is also a task. He asks Sunil’s advice for finding the right contractors. Sunil has 200+ units in development right now with condos. They would overwhelm 11 plumbers with all the work. Talking about his career progression Sunil says, there are three types of rehabs: 1) You are just operating footprint. 2) Expanding the footprint -that’s adding a family room or kitchen or adding square footage in some way. 3)  You scrap the house completely, and then build something new.  Simple rehabs can be like relatively quickly. You can get started in them, but if you want to graduate to Level 4 and 5 which are bigger projects, you need that experience to be able to do this. Sharing about his TikTok journey, Sunil says, they hired a full-time social media person because their end game with social media is raising capital. If they get more capital, they can raise more projects. That is how they monetize it. Sunil shares how he is using Instagram in comparison to TikTok. Sunil talks about exotic cars and social media content. Jeff says, “As an owner, you are doing something with cars that most of the world is not, which is getting into an appreciating situation versus a depreciating one.” 3 Key Points:  Sunil builds condos.  Material costs have gone up 10% this year in the last six months, so he will go sell that condo for 10% more. In medicine, you can’t do that. The insurance companies tell you what you can charge. Talking about his recent projects, Sunil says they are doing between 6-to-50-unit buildings in DC. Last week they purchased a 36 unit building to turn into 36 luxury condos.  While providing details of TikTok, Sunil shares insightful details about the benefits of the platform.  Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Sunil Saxena |  Website | Instagram | TikTok  RedX (sponsor) Street Text (Sponsor)

On today's episode, Jeff is going to talk to Ryan Rodenbeck. This has become a common topic in the real estate world- thriving in a shifting market. How in the hell are you going to not only thrive, but how are you going to be able to keep your head above water? How are you going to be able to survive as we continue to head into recessionary times as we head into the unknown. They are also going to talk about independent brokers.  Episode Highlights: Ryan came into the real-estate business because he was an investor when he was 26-27 years old and tried to sell a property investment property.  Ryan considered himself as a good salesperson. So, he used the techniques that he had used in two properties and trained other agents to follow his approach with the leads.  Life happens and you are going to lose people. So, you always have to have a recruitment method and you have to stay focused on that or you will not grow, says Ryan. Ryan takes a lot of agents that come from teams that want to do their own thing. Then a lot of teams are universal, but a lot of the teams don't really have a pay system or a guided system for Asians to do their own thing, but Ryan does.   If you have a team with 20 to 40 agents that are almost exclusively working on your leads that are very profitable. Personally, Jeff hates leads and as a leader, he has just stayed away from that. Jeff looks for independent people who want to grow their own business. Jeff has built systems to help those people thrive.  Ryan doesn't have any ISA; they use Zillow flex.  The biggest thing with Ryan and his company is their leadership infrastructure. Ryan suggests that you don't have to invent your own technology when you can get the best in class from everyone else. The key is how you marry these technologies together. When you are working with independent tech companies who service real estate, that is all that they do and they are really freaking good at it, says Jeff. In his company Ryan has a culture committee that meets once every two months, that decides what kind of parties they are going to throw, what kind of charities they are going to represent that month. If you are a top producing agent and you are trying to lead in, grow a company, it really doesn't work. You have to put a priority, says Ryan. Post starting his business Ryan did a strategic planning, about four or five years ago, and his goal was in three years to grow to 100 agents at a time.  Jeff asks agents to hire good mentors because not only are they going to lift you up in the bad times, but they are also going to be that inspiration. They are going to guide you. They are going to use their experience to help you not make the same mistakes that they did. That's the key.  If you have a listing, you have to work for it, says Ryan. Ryan says that as a real estate agent it is important how you are marketing your home. How were you talking to buyers? How are you setting expectations? Number of things can happen at any point in Austin. It's going to drive demand like just two days ago Apple announced they are going to build 600,000 square feet of office, says Ryan. If you want to time the market, we have to have these talking points, this information in this data to be able to teach our agents how to handle unreasonable objections. Ryan says as a real-estate agent make sure that you are watching and listening to other podcasts.  If you are incapable of generating your own leads to your spirit influence or through the raw force of nature's open house, then you need to join a brokerage or team that will provide it to you into those skills until those skills are earned or adapted, says Ryan. 3 Key Points: Ryan talks about his journey and how in 2015, he became a top producing agent and decided to hire a team and become a real brokerage Ryan and Jeff talk about culture, and they say that as a real estate agent that is something that you can have it whether you are in a big box, you ran into your small shop, it doesn't matter it's all kind of dependent upon the leadership and it's somewhat cliche. Jeff explains why as a real estate agent you need to be working on dialing in your sales skills.     Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor) Street Text (sponsor) Ryan Rodenbeck: https://www.realtyhack.com/ https://www.spyglassrealty.com/ https://www.youtube.com/realtyhack

Social Media Companies Competing For Ears? Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer discuss the rise of audio platforms and give insight into how social media companies are creating new experiences to compete in this space.  Today’s conversation focuses on Clubhouse, FB, Twitter and Youtube. Episode Highlights:  Clubhouse launched in April 2020 and only has 9 employees. Financial companies originally evaluated the value of Clubhouse at 100 million but in a short period of time that evaluation has grown to over 1 Billion dollars. There are 6 million registered users on Clubhouse and it is only available on iPhones.  2 million registered users actively use Clubhouse weekly. Facebook is creating something similar to Clubhouse.  Facebook currently has Rooms and is going to initially let you start a room that will essentially operate like Clubhouse.  Messenger Rooms was originally created by Facebook to compete with Zoom and Google hangouts.  Spaces on Twitter is a new way to have audio conversations on Twitter.  AR is Augmented Reality and you need to check out Facebook's Human Computer interaction at the wrist video.  Facebook is working on a kids version of Instagram.  Youtube is the future of TV. Instagram is much more diversified than any other platform with stories, reels, feed and IGTV.  Youtube is rolling out shorts with simple edits.  Users of Youtube expect longer videos.  Twitter is launching a new test for iphone to enable Youtube clips to be played in the stream. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook |Facebook Group| Twitter | Instagram Drunk on Social | Drunk On Social Tech@Facebook - Human-Computer Interaction at the Wrist DOS FB page link to social media platforms monthly active users

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer and guest Aaron Fragnito discuss the world of real estate investing. Hear about Aaron’s journey from being a New Jersey real estate agent specializing in distressed properties to growing a business that now manages a ten-figure portfolio of private real estate holdings for investors. This episode will give you several great ideas if you want to start investing in real estate in 2020.  Episode Highlights:  Aaron Fragnito became licensed in 2010 and initially worked with distressed properties. His license allowed him to develop a real estate investment company which is his passion. Aaron shares how he found his business partner and first investors. He buys some properties to hold and others to flip. Wholesaling is a great way to make cash. They did about 60 wholesales last year. Wholesaling is completely different from being a realtor. In wholesaling, it’s all about finding the right numbers for investors. They do direct mail marketing and auctions and they try to get a new deal every week. You can turn around neighborhoods over time where there are many abandoned properties. It took Aaron years to understand auctions and do well with them. The more units you have paying in, the better. Anything six units or over they will probably syndicate. He flips single-family homes and condos. They just bought a property for 60k, put about 50k into it, and it appraised for over 200k. They will pocket about 20-30k tax-free. They discuss tax strategy. A 1031 tax exchange is their exit strategy for all their big buy and holds.  1031 is something you have to understand as a realtor if you want to get into the investment side. Once you sell the property you have 90 days to identify the property you're going to buy after the sale of your original building and then you have 180 days after that to close on the real estate. Every property they get is a new LLC. Every loan they get is a commercial loan. By going to credit unions you can get more flexibility but may pay more for the money. Your bank relationship is everything. Once you have a good relationship it gets a lot easier. Aaron’s company uses mailers to find motivated sellers. He built his buyer's list through real estate networking events. On the investment side of the business, it's repeat buyers. Syndication is when you pool capital together and the investors in your LLC don't have a voting right. In syndication, real estate is a tool that you use to put their capital to work. Aaron started by being a realtor that was selling properties to investors with cash. To this day, he works with many of these investors. Refinancing is an exit strategy. Syndication gets you into an arena where very few people are playing. Relationships are critical. Don't let the guys who are doing huge syndications scare you. 3 Key Points:   Wholesaling is completely different from being a realtor. It’s working for yourself and finding the right deals for investors.   Hold properties that are 6+ units. Flip condos and single-family homes.   Syndication is an investment strategy in which you pool the capital with several investors to make a larger overall investment. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com   Aaron Fragnito LinkedIn, Facebook   People’s Capital Group New Jersey Real Estate Network meetup    Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group  

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Hans Struzyna, a successful realtor, podcaster, and Olympian from the Bay area. After competing in the 2016 Olympics on the rowing team, Hans used the tools that he had developed from a career as a top-level athlete to achieve success in the real estate game! Episode Highlights:  Originally from Seattle, an area filled with bodies of water, Hans found his way into rowing at a young age. Over 12 years of rowing, Hans went from taking lessons at age 14 to the Olympics at age 26. A good work ethic and natural ability helped Hans find success throughout his college and Olympic team rowing career. About 14 months before the Olympics in Rio, Hans had to stop working to focus on training, leaving him with some financial troubles. Hans always held an interest in real estate, eventually getting guidance from an Airbnb host. Starting as an ISA just over 4 years ago, Hans began shadowing his mentor and was able to close 9 deals. Foreclosures and short sales proved to be the low hanging fruit where Hans was able to cut his teeth. Hans sought out a successful team that was doing high volume sales so that he could learn from the best. In his first year in the business, Hans closed just under $5M in his 9 deals. This year, Hans’s 4th year in business, is on track to hit $27M with a goal of hitting $30M. California’s housing shortage makes the Bay area an interesting market to become highly successful in. Hans attributes his success in the application of his real estate education to his time spent rowing. There’s more competition in the large coastal cities because of the surplus of agents and the shortage of houses. In the 19 square miles of San Francisco, there are over 8k agents on the MLS. You do not have to do all the new stuff at once, such as podcasting, social media, etc., but focus on one thing at a time. Commit to consistently posting your choice of content and ignore any other metric along the way. No one was born with discipline or success; they have figured out how to grow into these attributes along the way. Decide what it means to be an awesome agent to your clients and how to do that for the long-term. Become an expert at your craft and you will be able to separate yourself from most other realtors. Hans made it a point to commit to the broker’s tour to understand the area that he was competing in. To get on this podcast, a huge podcast at that, Hans had the backbone to flat out ask. Travis Chappell taught Hans how to leverage his podcast to get in front of people that he wants to have a conversation with. Always be open to getting on other people’s podcasts as it will get you in front of a different audience. Ask yourself how to provide value to the host of the podcast while also getting what you want. Successful people are willing to share their knowledge if you are able to craft the right message to get their attention. Research the best way that you can bring value to those that you want to get in the room with. The biggest problem with most asks, is that there is almost always an agenda connected with them. Give away the knowledge that you have; that is the best way to give value to your clients. If you are having trouble getting in touch with successful people, figure out a different approach. 3 Key Points: Joining a successful team isn’t enough. Young agents need to be willing to learn from a multitude of successful people and piece together what they learn to become their own successful people. Hans has been able to use his rowing experience in his real estate business by continuing to learn, implement, and execute new knowledge. Due to continuously evolving technology, agents need to do more than just push paper, or else they will be replaced someday. Become an expert in your craft. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Hans Struzyna: Instagram | Website | Podcast Travis Chappell: Build Your Network Podcast Followup Boss (sponsor) Chime (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer, along with co host Johnny Mo, speak with Austin Armstrong, CEO of Socialty Pro, about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Google. Austin has been able to utilize TikTok to expand his SEO expertise into just about every industry! Episode Highlights:  Austin started his social media marketing journey on MySpace, working his way from an intern all the way to CEO of his own company. Starting in the behavioral health space, Socialty Pro has expanded in recent months because of the current state of the world. Since the pandemic has taken over the world, businesses all over the world have had to make the choice of pausing or seizing the opportunity. Search Engine Optimization, at its core, is content creation to optimize your website for the people that are looking for you. Austin reverse-engineers what the top real estate agents have been doing with online marketing for years. Learn from what successful agents have done; there’s no need to reinvent the wheel with digital marketing. YouTube is the second most used search engine in the world behind Google, making it a great way to help people find your business. With links to articles and relevant information on your website, YouTube videos can help drive traffic, while the opposite is also true. The more time that is spent on your website, the higher rank Google will give you, so traffic and simplicity are both important. Educating around the top 25-50 questions with various forms of content will give you usable material for a long time. It’s important to transcribe your videos with a top-notch transcription service because Google’s algorithm takes those into account. YouTube’s auto-transcription software is not always accurate, so looking outward is usually better. No one can seem to agree on the impact of manually-transcribed videos on Google’s algorithm. There are a plethora of website builders available, but Austin recommends Squarespace, WordPress, and Wix for those looking to get their feet wet. Websites with templates tend to be heavier and can slow down user experience when there is a high amount of traffic. At the end of the day, providing the resources that users are looking for in the simplest way possible will outweigh the sexiness of a website. Having multiple pages on your website is better than having a one-page website, but stay away from keyword stuffing. While keyword stuffing can bring short-term success, when Google finds out, your site will be penalized. After retargeting, business leaders should focus on education, such as voice search and virtual workspaces. Austin has been on TikTok for about a year, mostly observing for 6-8 months, eventually testing different content until he found traction. TikTok’s algorithm learns based on the content that you create, so it’s important to focus on your niche. A video on Alt Text on images took off and brought Austin almost 30,000 new followers on TikTok. Austin used video responses to build and nurture his know-like-and-trust factor to those that commented on his viral video. When it comes to recording vs. uploading videos to TikTok, Austin has seen better results when directly recording. Using the TikTok Monetization Program, going live, a funnel to a website audit, and consulting have allowed Austin to monetize his TikTok. Bringing previous users back to your site via retargeting links does not play a huge part in the ranking process. Optimizing for Google should be your top priority, as Google provides 95% of your traffic. 3 Key Points: Over the last 6 months, many businesses and individuals have seized the opportunity to jump ahead in social media marketing, resulting in booming success for Austin and his company. Through the use of top-notch transcription services, such as Rev.com, you can turn videos into blogs and other written forms of content and increase your SEO. The best way to beat Google and YouTube SEO algorithms is to focus on the searcher’s intent and present them with the information that they are most interested in finding. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Austin Armstrong: (Socialty Pro, Email, TikTok, Instagram)  Ubersuggest.io Rev.com Squarespace WordPress Wix RedX (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor)

During today’s episode, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Bill Kurzeja, owner and founder of Professional Success South. In this episode, Bill teaches us how to gain confidence as real estate professionals so that we can demonstrate that confidence in business. Listen to hear great insights into how knowledge creates confidence and confidence creates trust.  Episode Highlights:  In high school, Bill Kurzeja felt shy and awkward. He became a mechanic in the military and that forced him out of his shell. He applied the discipline he learned in the military to the automotive industry. Fifteen years later he wanted to make a change. He found his passion was training, coaching, and leading people. We gain confidence through our knowledge. Bill and Jeff discuss Bill's success as a runner and his journey to become a triathlete. Bill hired a coach to help him train for triathlons. Physical activity brings him mental clarity. Being healthy is foundational to building success in the rest of your life. You can be driven by competition with yourself. We are never too old to accomplish what we put our minds to. We shy away from the term "sales" but in reality, we're selling ourselves all the time. You gain confidence by learning how to communicate and how to listen. In real estate, you need to learn everything about the neighborhood you're selling in. You need to know everything you can about the area to speak with confidence. You should know the market data but that won't differentiate you. Realtors should own how they communicate with their clients. Many salespeople want to talk about themselves. It's important to make your client the focus. Practice and use roleplay to get comfortable with new conversations. Own the focus that it's not about you, it's about them. Help people you’re talking with to feel safe. The anatomy of a sale begins with the interview. Take your time to learn what the people you are talking with are looking for and determine their needs. You don't get opportunities to sell houses unless you sell yourself. Sell yourself in the beginning just by being yourself. When you promise something, deliver right away. Set the proper expectations from the beginning in the way you communicate. Bill shares how he approaches realtors who don’t see themselves as sales professionals. You just want to be their go-to all for all things real estate. You can't ever stop getting better. You must continue improving. Follow your passions. When you do something you love and enjoy, you get to be who you are. You can deliver content about your passions. 3 Key Points:   As you acquire knowledge you can acquire confidence.   Having confidence will allow you to own the way you communicate with clients.   Remember it’s not about you. Always focus on the people you’re serving. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Bill Kurzeja Facebook, Instagram Professional Success South website, Facebook, Instagram Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Lyndsay Phillips. She is the founder and owner of a business called, Smooth Sailing Business Growth. She is a content marketing expert for real estate ambassadors. Tune in to hear about the powerful strategies you could implement to grow your business! Episode Highlights:   The real estate industry is expanding very fast; it has boomed over the past couple of years and now you have  to do things differently in order to differentiate yourself. Lyndsay started by helping those who were struggling with marketing to grow their authorities. Jeff inquires about Lyndsay’s work culture. He is also curious to know about her shift from VA to Content Marketing.   With the growth in competition, you do have to take steps to create more relationships. Lyndsay says all these things can be accomplished with social media and content marketing.  You have to stand out as serving and helping people, being the source of credibility and authority in a space so that people can trust you. Jeff stresses  the importance of using social media to its full advantage. Proper content marketing and branding efforts help any business owner to propel. Jeff explains how he has seen the fruits of his labor on the social media front.  Jeff and Lyndsay discuss how to consistently share content from their personal and professional lives on social media.  How do you convince realtors to share excerpts from their personal life on social media and how? When someone posts any incident from their personal life, people tend to resonate.  The 10 touch systems works; Lyndsay advises to pick out 10 ideal clients and find out more about them, especially their friend circle. You can also search for clients via hashtags. When you are talking to your real-estate investor, how do you quantify their avatar on social media? The point is you want to share your expertise whether through podcast, blog, vlogs or social, webinars or e-books; At the end of the day, you want to share your expertise. What ways can you share your knowledge to help others in an attractive way? When it comes to selecting the right platform to post content, you have to lean into your own strengths. How can podcasting help real-estate agents? Lyndsay explains how to launch, produce, promote, and leverage podcasts to help businesses gain more leads, increase visibility, boost authority, and grow. 3 Key Points: Lyndsay narrates her career journey and how she targeted clients who were real state ambassadors. Social media is for having conversations, building relationships, and generating sales. Lyndsay explains how to consistently use content marketing to grow your business. Jeff asks Lyndsay, “What advice would you give a realtor when they are struggling to even understand what it means to find an ideal audience?” Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Lyndsay Phillips  LinkedIn | Website Real Estate Investors Marketing Content Distribution Platform  Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Borino, an expert on expired and FSBOs who has an inspiring journey in real estate. He shares some of the success secrets he teaches in his course and how they can help you achieve the life you desire. Episode Highlights:  Borino was born and raised in an acting family in Czechoslovakia. When he was blacklisted as a college student, Borino left his country and eventually came to Los Angeles. His real estate journey began when he saw an ad for free real estate classes, but he did not succeed immediately. At one point he was sleeping in his 1981 Cadillac DeVille.  The work of Tony Robbins had a huge impact on him. Once he began to uncover his limiting beliefs, his circumstances changed quickly. Develop the right mindset, put systems in place, and take massive action. Borino recommends several books on mindset and marketing. He began to study psychology because he wasn’t good at sales. Being able to develop genuine connections through conversation is by far the most important currency you can develop. He started with expired listings, zeroing in on people who were already in the process. Teaching his Expired Plus system became his full-time job around 2004. Borino explains why he moved from LA to DC. Jeff asks what about the secret sauce to working expireds and FISBOs. Borino wanted listings quickly and he didn’t want to spend a ton of money on marketing or follow up. There wasn’t a lot of competent competition. He says these are easy leads and easy listings to get. They are the only two leads you can pull right away. Shift your mindset if you want to execute on these leads. When you are confident, competent, and pleasant, most people will be pretty nice. Go in believing it will work. Expired Plus is a multi-channel approach. Call, text, email, mail them if you can, visit if you can. The first objective is to determine if the property has been relisted. An in-person visit is the most time-consuming but it has the most impact. Don’t confuse drip campaigns with follow up. Impact happens during communication and conversation. Anything that doesn’t feel robotic or automated is good. Most of your competition will give up way too soon. It generally requires 5-15 follow up touches. If you are real, helpful, and authentic you will succeed. Don’t overthink it. The FSBO approach is all about how you can help. Come from a place of contribution.  Just relate to them and you’re going to attract them back. Borino used to role-play and practice every day.  Practice the first few seconds of a conversation. You have to be willing to be uncomfortable to get good. If you stay with it, there’s a payoff at the end. Start from wherever you are. If Borino figured it out, so can you. It doesn’t require massive amounts of anything. It’s doable.   3 Key Points:   Develop the ability to create genuine connections through conversation.   Expireds are easy leads and easy listings. Start from where you are and don’t give up. Everyone has the capacity to do this. Resources Mentioned:  Awaken the Giant Within (book)  Think and Grow Rich (book)  Outwitting the Devil (book)  Frank Kern   Jay Abraham  Expired Plus  Lab Coat Agents Podcast Episode 27 with Nikki Klein  Borino’s YouTube channel  Real Estate Rockstar Agents Facebook group

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff talks to Allan Dalton. He has 50 years of real estate experience. He will soon be inducted into a Real-Estate Hall of Fame, chief executive officer of Real Living Real-estate, a Senior Vice President with multiple platforms, and experience in the real estate space. In addition, Allan has authored a book called ‘How To Develop a 6 Figure Income in Real Estate’.    Episode Highlights: When Allan was at Murphy Realty, he created all the national marketing systems for brands like Century 21 and Better Homes & Gardens. Allan explains what happened with the Boston Celtics and what happened with his basketball future. What about realtor.com? Iinitially, many realtors and brokers hated realtor.com, but the consumer didn't. The consumer loves the site.  Allan almost enjoyed and rejoiced over all the attacks because of his sports and competitive background. It felt like he was in battle, and it was invigorating.  There is no correlation between artificial intelligence and work ethic. Still, we are in an instant gratification and transaction-driven industry. According to Allan, we are competing with disruptors that will invest billions of dollars in taking over the first part of contact with the consumer. Allan points out that we don't have an image problem. We have a value problem because many consumers perceive a real estate transaction as a feat inflated defense that they have to subsidize. The key to the future is developing relationships with people you don't know yet, and so we've got to shift that focus, says Allan. If you don't influence the outcome, you just facilitate a transaction that is predicated in predetermined conditions based on what the market is going to determine. In the industry, when we self-identify as a listing agent, we strip out all value. We make ourselves bold, vulnerable to disruption. We make ourselves for artificial intelligence.  Realtors have to figure out, or they have to strategize to position themselves to where they are going to be the ones getting in front of the buyer, says Jeff. Everybody will have to continue to pay for referrals or pay to be a preferred agent or whatever to get leads from the Internet because no one's efforts will translate that.  The industry does not fully grasp the difference between serving the community and representing the community, says Allan. The greatest opportunity to prevent listing side disruption is to go beyond the Google search and do world-class community videos.  Data and information have the lowest level of value in the information age, and knowledge and wisdom have the greatest value. No one has more knowledge of the community. Allan suggests we have to do something that people can’t experience on the Internet, and no one at Google has been driving around the community for 20 years.  People have to understand the difference between social networking, social media, and social media marketing.  Most realtors look to sell more homes, but Allan's focus is on selling homes for more.  Allan suggests you have got to be the person who has encyclopedia knowledge, and that collapses into the most mesmerizing, correct, accurate rendering.  Marketing is first determining the unmet needs of the marketplace and then creating goods and services to respond to those needs effectively.   3 Key Points: Allan has seen and been a part of some massive things. Allan shares one of his most proud accomplishments related to real estate. The industry has to move from search engine optimization to what Allan calls seek engine optimization because hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be invested in persuading home sellers to now select their agent based on rating reviews. Allan suggests every person should ask themselves two questions:  1) "What do I do now that my competition does, but that I do better?” and 2) “What do I do that no one else does?"    Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Allan Dalton  allandalton@hsfranchise.com https://www.realliving.com/pages/executive-biographies https://www.rismedia.com/2021/02/27/hall-of-fame-allan-dalton-collaborative-environment/ Julie Vanderblue https://www.vanderblue.com/town-profiles/ RedX (Sponsor) Street Text  (Sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks with Jonathan Martinez and Andrew Coca, two real estate agents turned software tech geeks that are on a mission to make the consumer and real estate agent interaction seamless.. These guys have built a platform that some of you may have heard about already called Showingly. Tune in to hear about their all-in-one solution! Episode Highlights:  Jonathan and Andrew were in accounting and the CPA world. They used that as a leverage to start working for some startups in New York City. Andrew says, being a realtor or growing a team seemed like the easiest thing to do in terms of not having to think too hard with opportunity waiting for you.  He further adds, “I think coming into this world, it was like people weren't necessarily thinking too creatively, but they had so much more focus, purpose, and precision than all of these kinds of loopy entrepreneurs had in the Northeast.”  Jonathan says they were in production until around the time COVID hit (about 3-4 years) and then it started to become considered a conflict of interest.  If you had a gun to your head and someone said you have to accomplish your 10-year goal in three weeks. What would you do? You always see people at events or speakers, and they talk about how successful they were in their industry, and they left to go do X; whatever it is to build a company or coach or whatever. Jeff says the question here is “If you were so successful.. Why would you walk away from that? Why would you leave? Why wouldn't you just scale a team to run itself and then move over to another venture? What's your guys answer to that?”  Jeff says, “I don't think it is a bad thing necessarily when you are in the real estate space. Selling something to the real estate world and not competing with them. But then on this side of the coin, there's something to be said for still having a hand in the cookie jar.”  During the pandemic when the business suffered Jonathan and Andrew leaned on the self-development business principle. Jonathan and Andrew talk about their journey and how they sailed through the pandemic. For them it wasn't fun and it wasn't easy, but now they have a great team of 35 and growing. Andrew explains what Showingly is; It is the comprehensive solution for an agent to quarterback their entire business. The vision of showingly is to be able to get a platform to manage your entire business and not have to go into any other platform. You can stop paying for them all and you can run everything right here. Jeff curiously asks, “What piece of the software, technology or what drove you to want to create this? Was it all just you were sitting there one day and thought why couldn't there be an all-in-one solution?  Unlike companies that sell leads or that try to take your listing data and use it against you, we take the data for agents, and Showingly makes it valuable for them, connecting them exclusively to their consumers and their clients so that they can connect with anyone else or be sold to anyone else, says Jonathan. Andrew explains where technology is lacking for agents to have one single identity point of social media.  Jonathan says,” We have some really brilliant people on the data team and one thing that we have been able to do that many people have not been able to do is percentiles in a very easy to understand way because it is one thing to know that I have sold $3 million; It is another thing to know that place means the 89th percentile in my MLS.”   3 Key Points: Jonathan and Andrew share their experience as  realtors, what led them to vacate real estate, and what led them to where they are now. Agents should be focused on their relationships. They can't focus on the relationships, though, when they are worried about their overdue tasks on their CRM or worried about world class marketing materials so as to get some business.  There is no united technology front that professionals present to consumers and it is so complicated that you might have 1000 agents in a market, and you might have 25 different client facing search apps. That or websites that are presented to a consumer, so none of them are going to remember any of these at that scale.    Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Showingly | Facebook | andrew@showingly.com | jonathan@showingly.com 

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff talks to Dustin Heiner, founder of ‘Master Passive Income. If you take advantage of the opportunity right in front of you, you have an option to sell real estate, which gives you access to properties and the ability to do more than be the listing or buyer’s agent. Wouldn’t you like to be successfully unemployed?   Episode Highlights: Jeff asks Dustin, why are you different? Why does what you teach work better than probably all other experts? Dustin started ‘Master Passive Income' after he became successfully unemployed. When he was 37 years old, he quit his job because he had enough rental properties, cash flow, and 30 plus properties.  Everyone needs to realize that your value is not in your job. It’s in you. Your boss is only paying you just enough to keep you working without quitting, but not so much that it takes money off their table. What is the tipping point? How many properties or passive income, or how much ROI do you need to have to get to that point where you could say I’m quitting my job? Dustin talks about how he got into buying properties. How did he afford a down payment? How did he go about scaling and building up enough reserves consistently to be able to put down payments?  What about  strategies related to niching down to the specific area in the town or the city? Does it matter if it’s a beat-up part of town versus a higher-end? Is there a certain rent price point to be looking for? How do you establish all of this stuff?  People do not adequately watch videos on having a good property manager. If you don’t have a property manager who will manage your property, you don’t have a business. What are the specifications to be  looking for in  a property manager?  The property manager customer is the landlord, the product is the property, and the tenant is just paying for that. So their customer is not the tenant. But, on the other hand, I am their tenant, so they’re looking to benefit me, says Dustin. We ask questions that lead to helping property managers answer in a way that we want to hear their prior experience.  What are the three best markets to invest in right now? There are many other ways to make passive income. Dustin says that real estate is by far the best. Every business he created is a passive income style business from this point forward. Get your finances together, get yourself in a position where you can qualify to buy property, but the most important thing is if you want to follow a strategy, think passive, suggests Jeff.  3 Key Points: Dustin shares his story about how he got over the hurdle of not wanting to work anymore and how he became successfully employed as an investor. Every piece of property you buy is another piece of inventory you put into your business, and that’s how you scale the business. For a realtor who is brand new at investing, What is the most critical thing to focus on before buying a property? Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Dustin Heiner | https://www.masterpassiveincome.com/freecourse          Get Free Course by texting Rental to 33777 https://www.youtube.com/user/triune51 https://successfullyunemployed.co/podcast RedX (sponsor) Street Text  (Sponsor)

On today's episode, Jeff talks to Garrett Maroon, owner of Maroon Group Real Estate and host of the Serving Not Selling Podcast. He shares how he built a referral business that generates over 100 transactions per year.  Garrett's system is easy to implement, requires little money, and no cold calls yet generates consistent business no matter what the rest of the market is doing.  Tune in and follow his lead to build a solid referral business in your market. Episode Highlights: Garrett shares how initially he was against the idea of joining real-estate but then after months of exploring this field he said yes to it. Garrett's encouragement to agents is one of his favorite quotes from Charles Kettering is the only time you can't afford to fail is the last time you try. The world is different, people interact differently. Garrett explains why it is important to understand and adapt. Garrett explains how he shifted that mindset of becoming a real estate agent versus a friend. Garrett talks about the research he did on consumer psychology.  Garrett talks about the importance of building relationships even though they may not be a potential client.  If you are an agent who struggles to talk about your business, you probably should say it more often and if you are an agent who has no problem talking about yourself and your business, you probably should say it less. Consistency is everything. It's not about perfection, about consistency. “You can have the perfect post. But it doesn't matter if you're not going to follow it up with a bunch of other posts,” says Jeff. For his clients, every quarter Garrett has the same rhythm of personal touches. He shares the cadence of the quarters. You just have to think about how you can actually consistently care for people. That is how you win in the real estate industry. Garrett talks about the future generation, the millennials and how they are reluctant to answer their phones. He shares how you can get a better hold of them. Garrett explains how he has a systemic approach towards building relationships.  The old school people teach agents to abuse their various vendors, which as per Garrett is not the right way to do it.  3 Key Points: Garrett talks about his database of clients, how he started with just 40 people and how he was able to organically grow it.  Garrett shares sales pitches and how he indirectly approaches people and lets them know that he is a real-estate agent.  If you have the old school mindset, you need to change it again. You are going to get left behind. It's just not going to work, says Jeff.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor)   Garrett Maroon: text 804-878-2200 https://www.businessbyrelationships.com/ https://servingnotselling.buzzsprout.com/

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Jack Bosch of Orbit Investments about how he has flipped over 4000 transactions. Learn about Jack’s unique niche and how he found a smart system for flipping land that led him to financial freedom. Episode Highlights:  Jack Bosch is a German immigrant. He and his wife have been in real estate since 2002. He flips land like other people flip houses. They have mastered the technique of finding people who truly don't want their land anymore. The profits from flipping land have allowed him to invest in a large portfolio of single-family homes and multi-family units. They stumbled across land flipping when looking at tax liens and tax deeds. Jack can run this business from anywhere. During the crash, margins were smaller but they were still making money. There's not very much competition in this niche. Most realtors don't know how to list land. They focus on infill lots and lots in the path of growth. In their listings, the first photo will usually be of a key place that the land is nearby to emphasize convenience and location. Prior to the crash, they would buy a large number of properties and then hold large auctions and sell them all in one day. After the crash, they discovered that they could sell the properties online. This allowed them to scale and also allowed their students to replicate the process. They like seller financing. They started with 70/30 cash/owner financing. In a recession, that flips. Jack describes how they approached people differently during the recession. He began to offer incentives to people for paying off their loans early. If you discount the price enough, you will always have cash offers. Jack loves the cash flow that seller financing offers because of how stable that income becomes. Jack shares how he handles defaults. Generally, when he calls people that haven't been paying, he asks what they can afford. He will often lower the interest rate, stretch out the loan, and keep them there for a win/win. They foreclosed on 5-10% of them at that time and then resold them at the lower price. It's important to remember that they had already made their money back with the down payment on most of these properties. Learn how Jack's system works by listening to the first ten episodes of his podcast, Forever Cash Real Estate. He figured out how to reach out to people before their property hit auctions. They knew they could develop criteria about who they wanted to reach and could reach them through county records. Their hypothesis was that if they sent the right people a letter, they would be calling back in droves and be willing to give them the property for almost nothing. Most of Jack's students are people that are frustrated doing what they're doing. Many of these students have real estate licenses. The majority of them do start part-time like Jack did. 3 Key Points: Most real estate agents don't know how to position land. When you flip land and offer seller financing, you create cash flow.   There’s a ton of opportunity in the land flipping niche and very little competition.  Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Jack Bosch LinkedIn Land Profit Fun website Forever Cash Real Estate Podcast Land Profit Generator Real Estate Group Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, hosts Tristan Ahumada and Nick Baldwin speak with Brendan Kane, a social media master. He has built a social media presence for a plethora of celebrities, including the likes of Taylor Swift and Michael Strahan. With his books One Million Followers and Hook Point he is able to show everyone how to build their social media following to heights they never thought possible! Episode Highlights:  Brendan has amassed over 2.5M followers.  Coming up with new and fresh content can be a pain point for real estate agents. Real estate agents aren’t just competing with each other, they are competing with Lebron James for attention. Most people make the mistake of doing too much or too little when creating content to capture people’s attention. Quotes related to your specific vertical are great ways to grab users’ attention. There are so many different parts of a video that go into making it successful, but video has a higher ceiling than a picture. Quotes help get people to stop in their feed and bring the audience into your world. Most people lose because they aren’t winning those first 3 seconds that pull people into the rest of the story. On social media, real estate agents are competing with every piece of content out there, not just other agents. Agents are hesitant to put content out because of a fear of failure or losing money. Each listing presents an opportunity for an agent to test a different variable each time and ultimately, an opportunity to learn which ones work. Dark posts make it so your posts aren’t going directly to your live feed, meaning you can test multiple pieces of content at the same time. Brendan directs his followers to read his new book, Hook Point, first when trying to build a large social media audience. The more that the budget in the daily ad set is increased, the more is paid for the auction, so it costs more to reach the same amount of people. The way that agents contextualize their content, how they perceive the world, is where most agents fail. There are 6 different ways that people can perceive the world, and each person has their base perspective. Brendan sees the world from a logical standpoint but uses multiple perspectives to portray the world in front of him to others. Pixar is able to pull everybody into its movies by including every personality type. An agent’s ability to perceive the world through the eyes of their clients will determine how successful they are in selling houses. The first pillar when defining a hook point is getting them to stop in the first 3 seconds. The second pillar of a hook point is using a story to keep that attention once you have grabbed it. The third pillar of a hook point is authenticity, and this will determine if anyone believes what you are putting out there. Brendan focuses on providing the most value that he can in whatever form possible. Take the hook point of a specific property, such as the backyard, basement, etc., and promote that to the buyer and those around them. Your cost in the auction will drop if you can get people to organically engage with your content. Different platforms are centered around different concepts and means to grow. Instagram stories took over the main feature that Snapchat was able to offer. Getting reach in the algorithms, distribution of content, and ads are the three ways that agents can use to grow their Instagram audience. 3 Key Points: Quotes can be utilized as an effective tool to grab an audience’s attention, helping people relate to the content that you are putting out. Thinker, Persister, Harmoniser, Imaginer, Rebel, and Promoter are the 6 personality types according to PCM. Each social media platform presents a different opportunity to provide value and whatever platform you choose should be based on your end-goal. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Brendan Kane (website, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn) One Million Followers (Website, Book) Hook Point (Masterclass, book)  Chime (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor)  

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, some very good friends of the show are back…Brandface! Tonya Eberhart and Michael Carr are talking about how their business is shifting and how they are attracting new clients. This is so relevant for every single listener. Don’t miss it! Episode Highlights: Jeff introduces Tonya and Michael from Brandface, whom many of the audience are familiar with. Tonya is the founder of Brandface. She entered the radio industry in 1988 in the sales side. She was getting doors slammed in her face. She realized that she needed to change the way that she presented herself. What are the things that successful people have in their industry? Tonya talks about how she studied it and started leading others to do the same.  Michael has a background in real estate. He opened up a brokerage in his hometown and realized that his marketing was not good, which is when he met Tonya who told him he didn’t need marketing…he needed branding. His team is north of Atlanta, Georgia with 26 agents  and he is the COO of Brandface, LLC. There is a big myth out there that people are going to help you build your brand. Tonya says there is a big difference between building a brand and promoting a brand. What makes you unique in your space? What does it mean to your customers? Tonya talks about taglines and stories and how she pulls out the important character traits and experiences to highlight as well as loop that back to why the customers should care.  Michael says you do have to differentiate yourself and he clarifies that you can do that even if you are just getting started. Jeff asks Michael and Tonya how they guide agents into their shining star points. ‘What would you like to be known for?’ is one of questions Tonya asks clients to get them thinking about how they will build their brand. What is the meaning behind finding how to be seen differently, changing your presentation? Michael shares some personal experiences and stories about niche and reputation. What about the agent who doesn’t have the experience and connections? Jeff and Michael discuss limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are the number one distraction from getting to where you want to go. Michael shares how he personally overcame his limiting beliefs. You have life experiences that are relatable to others as well as different education. People do business with you because of what you express in your story and brand.  Tonya shares an example of a brand they have developed that doesn’t really have anything to do with their experience level or what they have done in the past. How do you brand without boxing yourself in? Brandface recently did an episode on Social Genius by Drunk on Social - make sure to check it out! “It is not even about virality anymore, it is about dialing in”, says Jeff. Michael and Tonya agree and share their advice.  Michael loves the podcast space but he says it is not about millions of listeners. The focus is on community.   You can make just as much money with a small sphere of influence…Michael explains how. Tonya discusses the shift from mass media to “me media” and how Social Media has evolved too. Michael talks about the importance of network and a story with a client who had a  community of 130 people across the nation that generated 15 million dollars in sales, half of her total sales. How are you monetizing your influence no matter what the size? Michael and Tonya share ideas to strategize. Jeff talks about the importance of podcasting and connection. Tonya and Michael weigh in with their opinions.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor) https://brandfacestar.com/  

David Culen, Operating Principal at Keller Williams Pacific Estates in Southern California talks to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast host, Jeff Pfitzer, about building real estate brokerages from scratch, necessary leadership skills, cultivating strong relationships, and leveling the abilities of his entire team. This is the ideal episode for anyone who is a team leader, a single agent, or anyone who is considering starting or changing brokerage firms. Episode Highlights: How David Culen got started in the real estate business How the economic crash of 2008 affected David’s business The career shift David made How can you build a great brokerage from the ground up? Hire people that are better than you at something and have the time to do it   The advice David would give to a young or struggling agent looking for a brokerage   What successful agents should look for when looking to work with a new brokerage How to talk to an agent that just wants the highest split 3 Key Points: People want to connect with you if they believe you can take them where they want to go. Find your niche and something that is unique. Make that your value proposition and own it. Clarity is power. Know what you want from your career before you choose a brokerage and mentor. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Lac Coat Agents Live: https://labcoatagentslive.com/ David Culen: Twitter  Linkedin  Facebook  Instagram Kwpacificestates.com Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff talks to McCall Jones. She owns a company called CharisThere are 54 different forms of charisma styles that somebody can be. There are ways that people sabotage themselves on video, are you? How do you create a persuasive video that grabs attention and builds trust with your audience? Tune in to hear from McCall.    Episode Highlights:  McCall has 20 years of performance experience. She started her professional singing career when she was eight years old. When she was eight, she went from doing talent shows to doing crowds of 35,000 people in a couple of months. McCall had a dad who wouldn't speak to her for days at a time if she messed up on stage.  When McCall was building this Charisma-style system, she looked at what gives people the ability to make people pay attention, trust, and  act. There are three ways to move somebody to action. There are only three ways to get somebody to trust you, and there are six ways to get somebody to pay attention to you. There are different emotions and different intensity levels that every single person has, but each one of those emotions and intensity levels remains within a specific charisma style. What is the concept of finding your voice? When people try to find their voice, they repeat and repeat, and suddenly the thing that they measure of success is comfortability. When people get comfortable, they start to measure their success in the number of the videos published instead of what each individual video does for their business.  McCall suggests that you don't get caught up in how many views your videos get but get caught up in how long they watch, which Jeff can attest to is very hard because he produces many videos. When you tell your friends to take your advice, and they do it, you're not asking them to buy something. But if they do it, that means your authority's file is great. It is hard to build trust in one touch, but we always have ways to do that. The longer you have viewers in your universe, the more videos they watch, and the more likely they will develop that prosocial relationship, which means that they know you. There are six different entertainment styles. Three are hourly focused and less intense, and three are person-focused and more intense. When you meet a stranger or go to a different table at a networking event, you should shift into the higher intensity version of your entertainment style. Every time you meet somebody and sense that something is off, it means they are out of their charisma style. Nothing on camera makes you feel awkward, but what you are doing on the camera makes you feel awkward.   3 Key Points: There are no good or bad Charisma styles. There is only a right and a wrong for every single person. So if I tried to be you, it would be wrong for me, and it would be wrong for you if you tried to be me, says McCall. Light, lift, and compassion styles are three ways to move people to action. If somebody likes you in real life, they should like you on video, and if they don't like you in real life, they shouldn't like you on video, and it all depends on the skill you are using.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter McCall Jones | Instagram | Website | https://charisma.style/ Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor)  

During today’s episode, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with money expert Chris Naugle, co-founder and CEO of The Flip Out Academy, and founder of The Money School. Listen in as Chris introduces his strategy for paying yourself first, and why now is the perfect opportunity to get your finances together so you’re prepared for the future.  Episode Highlights:  Chris Naugle shares how his personal journey involved a professional snowboarding career, work as a financial advisor, and real estate investing before he became a money guru.  His journey really began when he found out he was over-leveraged and lacked the knowledge he needed. Chris shares more about his history with snowboarding. When Chris was a financial advisor, he was taught how to be a great salesman and how to manage money in a way that made the most money for the firms. He started investing his money that way. We are taught to give up control of our money.  Wealthy people know how to move money the way a bank does. Wealthy people change where their money goes first. Pay yourself first and put it in a place where it never stops working. Then pay everyone else. Chris teaches us about the principle of uninterrupted compound interest. The Rockefellers discovered that the strongest financial institution where they could put their money was large mutually-owned insurance companies. When you put money into these insurance companies' general accounts, you get the returns guaranteed by the insurance company at a rate of 4% as well as dividends. Chris shares how you can get your money into these general accounts. You can use a whole life plan as a gateway into the insurance company's general account returns. When you put your money into this vehicle, you immediately can take your money back out. Chris shares how you can learn more about this as a banking strategy. Chris shares the limits of these benefits. 3 Key Points:   We are taught to give up control of our money and can take back that control.    Pay yourself first and put it in a place where it never stops working. Then pay everyone else after.   We need to learn how wealthy people move and manage their money then replicate their strategies.  Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.comChris Nagle website, Instagram Bauer Financial website The Money Multiplier video Mapping Out The Millionaire Mystery free book The Private Money Guide free book Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

If you are a leader in the industry, a broker, a broker owner, if you want to grow a team, Jeff says the best advice he can give you today is to learn from someone who has recruited over 1,200 agents in 4 years. Cory Rosier, nicknamed “One Speed”  joins the show today to share some of his secrets and strategies, what he does that makes him so successful. Tune in now!   Episode Highlights: Jeff introduces Cory Rosier who is with Big Block Realty based out of San Diego, CA. Cory talks about how he got into real estate and what led him to where he is today. He is originally from Syracuse, NY.  To get to CA, Cory had an internship his senior year of high school, afterward he sold everything he had and moved in with his aunt and uncle there. He ended up meeting his business partner there as well and started with mortgages in 2003. Cory talks about how he learned a lot when he chose to diversify in the 07-08 downfall when he was bouncing around in different things. Jeff asked Cory how he ended up getting back into real estate through his friends and Big Block Realty.  Big Block was an independent brokerage; They actually have franchises now which is fairly recent. The corporate office has a little 0ver 1,000 agents that closed about 6,000 transactions last year and they have 10 franchises right now. Jeff mentions that as a part of the podcast he is going to start a “Broker Blitz” to let brokers highlight themselves.  When Cory started in 2014, Big Block had 250-275 agents doing around 600-700 transactions. Jeff talks about how the word “recruitment” cna carry such a negative connotation for many and asks Cory for his take on it as he has mastered recruitment so well. Cory explains how when agents switch to different brokerages, they often do so in a high stress situation; With that understanding, he placed value on that big important move they are making for themselves. Cory talks about relationship building as opposed to just trying to promote your brokerage and talking about how great your brokerage might be. What about personality assessments? Jeff says that one thing many good coaches have in common is understanding the people you help on a personal level and approaching them as such. The questions that you ask are always important. Cory says to ask them as open-ended as possible. He also talks about how body language plays a role. Why is mirroring important and how does it work over the phone? Jeff and Cory discuss the different types of DiSC personality. Jeff asks Cory what has helped him to get to where he is now with understanding and managing people.  Narratives change with different generations and styles of communication. Jeff asks Cory how he tailors his approach. Jeff talks about the importance of being a good listener. You have to stop over talking  people. Cory reiterates to not keep saying how great you are and instead listen to their needs before sharing how you can help.  How do you grab attention away from a screen?  How have manners and dynamics shifted around the use of phones?  Cory had a lot to do with 3-4x of the growth in the brokerage. Jeff asks him what he does to create so many conversations.  Culture matters. Cory explains how he has seen that play out and explains how to find out what else matters for people. Do you get our feelings hurt easily? Jeff and Cory talk about looking at the bigger picture rather than getting caught up in the emotions of people coming and going and seek to support them. Cory talks about his company, Sweet Assist, how it works, and who it is best suited for.  The goal of it is to be the one spot for running the back end of your brokerage efficiently. There are ways to customize it for different needs as well.      Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor)   Cory Rosier: https://sweetassist.com/ cory@sweetassist.com Cory@Bigblockrealty.com

Episode Highlights: Rory explains selling the previous company prior to Brand Builders and how his friend, Lewis Howes inspired the start of this company. Brand Builders works with a wide variety of clients. They have worked with  New York Times best-selling authors. The majority of their clients are in professional services of some type- entrepreneurs, independent consultants, business owners, coaches, trainers, real estate agents, etc. Rory shares the mission of Brand Builders to be helping people find their uniqueness and differentiate themselves from that perspective rather than through the filter of what others are doing.  What is the podcast Rory is running for Success Magazine? Success Line Podcast is free coaching calls with Rory. Info for how to apply is provided in the Resources Mentioned section.  How do you break through the noise with your brand? Rory’s wife is the CEO of BrandBuilders and led a year long, nationwide research study on trends in personal branding. Rory shares some data points that have not been released yet. Are you more likely to trust someone who has an established personal brand? Rory shares how they can stratify and segment data based on generations.  82% of Americans agree that companies are more influential if their founder or executives have a personal brand that they know about, trust, and follow. Rory talks about the example of Glenn Sanford and eXp realty. Tristan reiterates the importance of one on one focus and ability to relate to brands especially on social media. Rory talks about struggling with sharing the little intimate details of his personal life on social media. He frames a new perspective by asking -Who is your favorite celebrity? If you could have full access to an entire day of their life, what would you say? Although we aren’t celebrities, people want to know the person behind what they see. A revenue building engine is an automated digital ecosystem around personal brand that pumps content out into the universe without taking a person’s time. How does Brand Builders create a content marketing strategy? Rory explains how they focus on creating fans not just purchasers and making a difference. Do you spend a lot of your mental energy on choosing the right hashtags, constructing your home page for opt-ins, and conversions? There is nothing wrong with any of that. Rory gives some advice to spend more time focusing on trust. When are people ready to buy? How do you create systems that capture them? Rory shares how he utilizes his feed versus his story on Instagram. The problem is never giving away too much and then they won’t buy. The problem is you didn't give away enough and they aren't coming back. What is one of the best prospecting mechanisms on social media? Where do you find your uniqueness?   Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/labcoatagents Lab Coat Agents Twitter: https://twitter.com/LabCoatAgents Lab Coat Agents Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/labcoatagents/ Rory Vaden | https://www.roryvaden.com | Success Line: www.success.com/successlineguest | Success Room Instagram Live | https://freebrandcall.com/rv/  Drunk on Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/136264191062786/ Drunk on Social Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/groups/136264191062786/ Jeff Pfitzer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffpfitzer/ Jeff Pfizer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffpfitzer?lang=en Tristan Ahumada Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/labcoatagents Tristan Ahumada YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ6o6B5JPEBP57hu9VdzT4Q RedX (sponsor) Chime (sponsor)

On today's episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff is going to talk to Joshua Moore, the ‘Ginger Marketer’, who carved out a niche around Tik Tok to help real estate agents. He will share how you can use Tik Tok to grow your business. Tune in for all of the details! Episode Highlights: Joshua is from the UK, but he predominantly focuses on the US market. He says that there is a slightly different setup in the UK versus the US.  During the lockdown, Joshua planned to use Tik Tok, and he was learning how to use the app, like how to go live and add text, and he was just sharing that on his platform. Joshua launched the business and at the end of 2020, they broke six figures within the first 4-5 months, and that was just from pure Tik Tok coaching. You are doing yourself a disservice if you are focusing on the wrong things, and you are probably leaving a lot of money on the table as well, which isn't the best thing to do, says Joshua. The Tik Tok today is a lot of edutainment, a lot of education, and many other things. When many agents even think about getting started on Tik Tok, a big mistake they make is they think that they need to hire a video marketing team.  Tik Tok is not about dancing anymore. It's evolved into a lot more. So you get doctors, brands that are kind of taken over and come into Tik Tok, and they rely on user-generated content. Joshua says that Tik Tok is an app built on connections, being yourself, and being real, and that's what will be authentic. This is where we can kind of bridge between who people think you are and how you are polished on the other channels.  Tik Tok is an experience that you have never experienced before, but it's a real experience as well, where you can learn, you can laugh, and you can make friends and connections, and you can build a community. People take two to three hours to shoot a 15-second video, and they will never post it because they have the paralysis about perfection. How do you get past that? There are a few reasons why people comment. What are they? People who are using Google are also using YouTube, which is the second biggest search engine in the world. How does it affect your strategy? Most of the time, people aren't looking or listening to what you are saying. They are not looking at what you are doing or how your hair is because they don't know if that's right or wrong. Joshua talks about what real estate and local experts should be focused on, and common mistakes. Every post you push out should have a purpose, and that purpose should be to bring value. You should be clear about your goal. When you start taking yourself too seriously, you tense up, and then you are not real. You are scripted and it's like a robot is speaking. Who is it you're trying to speak to? That is the question that you need to ask yourself before you hear the post button every single time. Tik Tok is such an untapped organic platform right now that many real estate agents are scared off. What if you could break through that? You just need to push through whatever kind of mental barriers you have in front of yourself, and you just need to forget about it, and you can start posting and doing on Tik Tok, says Joshua. 3 Key Points: Tik Tok is something that's developed into an addiction in a good way. Joshua thinks that the average person spends over about 19.2 hours on Tik Tok per week, but it's a platform where you can create your freedom, unlike any other channel. There is a lot of psychology that creates Tik Tok, especially the emotions. When working with real estate students, Joshua really focuses on four core emotions: love, anxiety, anger, and curiosity. Jeff likes Tik Tok because it is the foundation of his social media brand. He explains the things that you can do to create advanced videos.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter RedX (Sponsor) Power ISA (Sponsor) https://www.facebook.com/groups/realestatetiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@gingermarketer?lang=en

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff talks to Benson Juarez. He is from Denver, Colorado. A licensed realtor, investor, and co-owner of a platform called Privy. Privy is a platform that helps investors locate and find investment deals. Tune in for his great insights!   Episode Highlights:  Benson went to school for technology computer information systems; He learned how to code and system design, but he was an entrepreneur at heart. He went into the military and was activated after 9/11. Benson would have three or four days off in the middle of the week. One of the original gurus back in the day was teaching people how to invest in real estate, and it really got him interested in business. He finally got licensed as a real estate agent, and then through all that whole process, he really figured out about the business.  For Benson, it was really solving a problem for themselves so that they could scale their business and not spend so much time behind a computer manually pulling comps, building CMAS, sending these properties to their clients, and then convincing the people who are completely detached from the process.  Jeff asks, “You mentioned you were slinging mortgages. You started to do a few deals while you were still in the military, but how did that evolve and what led you to the first business and then what led to this one?”  From thinking outside the box, he had just created a system where they are delivering value way above the average company. The serious investors are not investing in their own market, they are finding the right market to invest in, and it is actually quite doable from hundreds and thousands of miles away.  Many of the strategies that investors are doing right now are based on after repair value. What about long-distance real estate investing? Lenders, property managers, real estate agents, are the four-core people who are your boots on the ground in that market.  You want to find an investor-friendly agent who understands how to do those types of transactions specifically. Jeff has been in the mortgage business side for 20-21 years. He has plenty of experience reading comps and reviewing appraisals and all that sort of thing.  Jeff asks Benson, “What kind of advice do you have for somebody who is an inexperienced investor?” Benson explains that Privy levels the playing field, so agents and investors are on the same page. It allows the investor and the agent to speak the same language more. Where are the money-driven activities located? Benson says they really help people focus on what is important.    3 Key Points: Benson says that the foundation of their platform is MLS data. They went directly to MLS and told them that they wanted to build an automated platform that would help them identify properties that were below market. Furthermore, they could leverage their data to basically comp every property out in the market 24/7 to find opportunities for ourselves and for our clients.  When you look on the map, you can see fix and flip opportunities in an area, and you can see all the before and after as real data that you can use to educate yourself on how to do deals in that local market. Benson explains that their ideal client is a real estate agent who is either working with investors now or they want to work with investors, and they are looking for a better way of providing deal flow for their clients. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Benson Juarez | https://www.getprivynow.com/ | benson@teamprivy.com RedX (sponsor) Issuu Start for free or Premium Account 50% off with promo code: labcoat  

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jenny Wemert, Team Leader/Realtor at Wemert Group Realty in Orlando, Florida, talks to host Jeff Pfitzer. Find out how Jenny has built a long-term staff of reliable team members, the elements that have contributed to her strong company culture, and what it takes to put people first.  Episode Highlights:  Jenny Wemert shares her upbringing and background  What brought Jenny towards creating a team  The advice Jenny would give to a struggling agent looking to scale and leverage    How Jenny goes about hiring staff members Jenny Wemert talks about the team she has created  What does ‘Ubuntu” mean?   Jenny shares the story behind “we-mates”  What are the strongest tactical pieces of her business? The best place to go for leads Learn to be the best agent you can by joining a top-tier team  The overall advice Jenny Wemert has for growing or joining a team  3 Key Points: The skills Jenny would look for in an assistant if she was starting all over would be in graphic design, a good writer, video production, websites, social media, and technology.  “Ubuntu” is an African proverb that says “I am because we are.”  We-mates are what teammates at Wemert Group Realty call themselves.  Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Jenny Wemert: Linkedin Wemert Group Realty: wemertgrouprealty.com Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff talks to Pieter Limburg. Pieter became fascinated with radio frequency identification technology. He shares his experience in the technology world and how you can use it for networking, data ethics, and 3D printing.    Episode Highlights:  Pieter loves technology because it is practical. It frees him up for the things that he loves to do instead of the things that he has to do.  Online and offline have to be the same experience. If you have a card online, why can’t you get it offline as you get offline support for something that you buy online and all those things? Pieter left Shapeways 3D printing company in 2018 and launched his own venture MOBILO.  Jeff inquires, “When you were with Shapeways, and you were kind of looking ahead and trying to figure out where you want to go... You said you did something for yourself. Where did the vision come from to create what you have now created?” For consumer products, you just have to keep throwing things against the wall and see if it sticks. Time and time again, you might have to throw 1000 things at the wall before you find something.  Jeff says he goes to a lot of events and people ask him all the time - “Can I have your business card?” Jeff says “Yeah, it is called Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.. go find me.” Ryan Serhant mentioned his strategy of staying in touch in his book - follow up, follow through, and follow back. The business card is not only practical, it definitely is an icon of a representation of your business of who you are.  The digital business card is fairly simple: tap the card, it drops the contact, then you can save it to your phone, says Jeff. Pieter points out, “From two of my friends who I used to test this card, they gave feedback that I don’t want to share my social media details, what I really want is their contact details. I want to build out of my database, warm everybody up with an email every now and then, and make sure that I am top of their mind when they are ready to pull the trigger or looking for something that they think that I can help them with.”  Jeff inquires about the digital business card versus the social profile hub. Are these separate tools? When you are sitting down with a new client, new buyer, or a new listing, you are going to sit down with a listing agreement or a buyer’s agreement, says Jeff. Pieter explains the framework of MOBILO.Some people don’t like to bring a big stack of business cards; A group of people have asked them to develop something that doesn’t require a business card, but it is always with them.  3 Key Points: If you are not really adding value to a product, you are not able to charge a fair price for it, says Pieter. He further adds that if you cannot charge your fair price, you will always end up competing against other products that are similar, and therefore you won’t make money. If you program an RFID chip in a certain way, the only thing you have to do is to tap it on your phone, and it can trigger some sort of response. So, Pieter thought that it is a business card with a chip inside tapping on your phone, and he can share his contact details. It is a lot fancier than a paper business card. It does have a QR code on the back. The QR code and the tap RFID function do the same thing. This is compatible across not just Apple but also Android and whatnot.  We have built some of the cool things of office CRM that are way too complicated as well as the big Salesforce environments of this world into this business card, says Pieter.  Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Pieter Limburg MobiloCard| Facebook |  LinkedIn | Instagram | pieter@mobilocard.com Chime (sponsor) Follow up Boss (sponsor)

Steve Wayne, Founder and CEO of ProspectNow in San Francisco, talks to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast host Jeff Pfitzer. Steve has a background in mechanical engineering and software development but found his way into a real estate career. Learn about how he created technology solutions for lead generation, and his formation of ProspectNow, a data-driven platform that enhances prospecting.    Episode Highlights:    Steve Wayne shares his background  How ProspectNow got started  At what point in his process did the ‘light bulb moment’ occur?  What sparked Steve’s entrepreneurial spirit  How ProspectNow can help real estate agents get more listings  What Steve Wayne says to somebody that is afraid of dialing in to a type  The best agents make the best use of the best tools  The forms of digital marketing ProspectNow is marketing to ProspectNow is invested in the success of the real estate agent    3 Key Points: Technology is only a friend of the agent.  If you buy the properties that ProspectNow tells you to, they are about twice as likely to sell.  To build a machine-learning model properly, you have to know your data and the model will tell you what is most predictive.    Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Steve Wayne: Linkedin  Twitter ProspectNow: prospectnow.com   Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Tyler Kemp, a digital marketing entrepreneur, a social media expert, and the creator of the platform LeadRoll. With so many social media gurus out there today, it’s hard to know who to trust, but Tyler’s FIRE formula will help you know what’s real! Episode Highlights:  There’s so much opportunity out there that gets muddied up with the sheer amount of information that is available. Tyler actually started out wearing a bunch of hats in the real estate digital marketing sector. In the mortgage loan business, Tyler and his partner were doing over $120M a year in volume. After helping multiple businesses grow substantially, Tyler launched LeadRoll where he works with hundreds of different types of businesses. Real estate tends to be pretty far ahead of other industries when it comes to digital marketing techniques. You have to learn how to own attention through sales and marketing so that you can own the market. When people tell you that you are doing things wrong, power through with the knowledge that what you are doing is good for long-term success. Tyler thinks that the biggest land mine in the real estate industry in the last year is all-in-one solutions for marketing. Advertising for marketing and lead-generation tools constantly promise results but seldom deliver. Real estate agents should build their businesses like a startup or a marketing agency to establish the pillars of a sustainable company. Know where you’re going to get your next deal and build a machine around converting those leads. Tyler suggests that you start by being a serious skeptic and questioning your own marketing strategy. There exists a large gap in knowledge between marketing experts and sales experts. Tyler does not think that putting out social media content is the real problem that anyone has, rather they need to bring in leads. Whereas the sales game is all about chasing, marketing is more of an attraction-based strategy. Knowing as much information as possible about the lead that you are chasing makes you that much more likely to convert it. Though Tyler used to be all about automation, now he believes that the best thing you can be is human. Intimacy can be scaled by working with professionals or building out your own team, but there is no easy way. It’s incredibly difficult to scale your outbound efforts in an intimate way without working with professionals who have done it. Jeff knows first-hand that a lack of authenticity in your social media content will lead to a disconnect with your audience. You have to believe that your social media posts are working in order to keep doing it over the long-term. Be careful about putting your own self-worth into any of the content that you put out there. Know where all of your marketing activities fit in the bigger picture for your business; don’t waste money or time. When building his successful personal brand on social media, Jeff has not been able to automate anything. Everyone chases the immediate answer and when they don’t get it, they give up and that will never bring success. Those who are willing to follow Tyler’s advice will reach that ultimate goal of building a sustainable business. Frequency, intimacy, relevancy, and efficiency make up LeadRoll’s FIRE formula that separates them from their competition. Tyler is looking to take his clients to the next level, as in way into the 7-figure revenue level. 3 Key Points: It’s only getting harder and harder to be successful in the real estate industry, and that’s why it’s vital to be revolutionary in the space of digital marketing compared to other industries. Regardless of the onslaught of marketing and lead-generation tool advertising, there is no perfect solution for $100 a month. Tyler has an entire staff that hand writes custom first lines for all of their emails in an attempt to scale intimacy on a large level. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Tyler Kemp LeadRoll | RollSocial | LinkedIn Chime (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor) LCA Marketing Center (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Brent Bowers, an expert land investor that spent 8 years in the Army after the real estate market crashed in 2008. Eventually, he found his way back to real estate, but this time, he began investing in land. Listen to hear how you can generate passive income through buying and selling land. Episode Highlights:  Jeff does not know a lot of real estate investors that focus on land rather than structures. In 2007, Brent purchased his first house and turned it into a rental property after getting his real estate license. After the crash of 2008, Brent found himself struggling to sell real estate and ultimately joined the Army. In 2013, Brent re-entered the real estate industry when he started a wholesaling business. Investing in land can act as a side business because of the small amount of customer service that is required. Land is potentially a better investment than renting when comparing the difference in stress and risk levels. Ford is able to figure out a way to make sure buyers can afford that monthly payment because they have no debt on the truck, just like Brent with his land. When buying land, there is a lack of risk because so many realtors are focused solely on property investment. In 2015, Brent reached out to 687 land-owners whose land was not buildable or inaccessible. Brent was able to buy his first land plot, roughly 12,000 sq. feet, for only $285, and sell it for $5,000 in less than a week. It only took one phone call for Brent to find out how easy it was to fix his land plot that was considered unbuildable. All it takes is calling the county to find out who is behind on their land tax payments to get a list of potential sellers. There will always be hurdles and challenges, but there are plenty of ways to work around them, all it takes is the effort. By making the monthly payments affordable, Brent is able to sell land to just about anyone who is looking. In the beginning, Brent was all about flipping the land as quickly as he could, but now has switched to mortgage-based financing options. In-fill, recreational, and agricultural are the 3 types of land that Brent is buying and selling. One out of every 12 or 13 properties that Brent sells goes into default, but it is usually already profitable. It’s incredibly easy to re-sell a piece of land that a buyer has defaulted on because all the content is already there. Based on KPIs, Brent has mostly stopped buying land in his county and focuses on places where land is cheap. Plenty of people let land go when they realize all the necessary steps that it takes to alter the land. Signs, referrals, and retargeting ads on Facebook are the KPIs that Brent focuses on when selling land. Because every county collects taxes on their land, they also have a tax-delinquent list and a tax-lien list. In June of 2020, Brent began his own coaching platform that gives systemized steps on how to buy and sell land as he does. It only takes 18 days to get through the course, so cash flow is possible after only 60 days. 3 Key Points: When the market crashed in 2008, Brent decided to let go of his real estate license and join the Army, being sent off to Afghanistan shortly thereafter. Most agents avoid buying and investing in land simply because they do not know how to make money off of it. Brent focuses on counties that have incredibly cheap land, usually sticking to an hour or more away from Walmarts and McDonalds. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Brent Bowers The Land Sharks, Instagram, Facebook ListSource AgentPro247 PropStream Chime (sponsor) LinkU (sponsor)

On This Episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Hal Elrod, International Best-Selling Author of The Miracle Morning and The Miracle Equation, talks about the 6 habits and routines that successful people practice daily and how you can get started towards achieving your goals with them. Hal, who has almost died twice, shares his amazing story of overcoming debt and mental and physical stresses to growing his business and improving his daily practices.    Episode Highlights:  Jeff Pfitzer introduces Hal Elrod’s accomplishments.  How did Hal Elrod’s The Miracle Morning come about? What are the six practices of successful people?  What epiphanies did Hal Elrod have after discovering the six practices of successful people? Why does Hal continue to do the miracle morning after all the success he has already achieved?   Hal discusses the words “miracle” and “faith.”  If you waste your morning you are just playing catch-up for the rest of the day.  What is Hal’s favorite of the six practices?   Have a deep and meaningful “why” for your actions.  What are the actions you must take to fulfill your ‘why,’ and when will you do them?  Your success is inevitable with unwavering faith and putting the time and effort in.  Why do people feel a sense of urgency to want everything right now?  Life isn’t about where you want to go, it is about where you are at right now.   3 Key Points: The Miracle Morning was written in three years, has sold over 1.7 million copies, been translated into 37 languages, has had over 2000 5-star reviews on Amazon.com, and has been read in 70 countries. The 6 Practice for Successful people include: meditation, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and journaling.  You have to take responsibility for your life, for everything around you and everything inside you.    Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Hal Elrod: halelrod.com  Linkedin Twitter “The Miracle Morning”: miraclemorning.com

Even before Tami Edwards got into the real estate business, she knew that creating opportunities meant becoming the It Girl in her local community. Her family was struggling in the aftermath of the market crash, and even though it was terrifying, Tami put herself in situations where she could meet and build relationships with local VIPs. When she became a realtor, Tami had already branded herself as a local celebrity, and her reputation—combined with a willingness to hustle—accelerated Tami’s success. Tami Edwards is the co-owner of Team Bjorkman Real Estate, a top-performing team serving the Santa Clarita, San Fernando, Conejo and Antelope Valleys. Tami’s real estate career began in 2013, and in her first year, she sold 66 homes. Tami became partner at the firm in 2014, and she is on track to do 200-plus transactions this year. Tami is also the cohost of SCV Today, a local talk show she created to promote local nonprofit organizations. Today, Tami joins Jeff to share her journey from rock bottom to real estate. She explains the steps she took to rub elbows with the ‘right people’ in her community and how the relationships she built led to the opportunity at SCV Today. Tami discusses her friendship with Mike Bjorkman, offering insight around how he finally convinced her to join his real estate team and how much she hustled that first year. She also describes her all-in social media strategy and her status as the go-to local expert in the community. Listen in as Tami reminds us that the only barriers are the ones we place on ourselves and learn how to follow her lead and become a local celebrity in YOUR town! Key Takeaways How Tami and her family lost everything after the market crash Tami’s motivation to take a receptionist job at the local paper Tami’s genius move to become the face of the Chamber of Commerce How Tami landed the opportunity to do her own talk show How Tami built her show while her family was homeless Tami’s insight around how thoughts become things How Tami’s talk show led to her friendship with Mike Bjorkman How Mike finally convinced Tami to come work with him Tami’s first year in real estate working 10 hours/day to sell 66 homes Why it’s crucial for real estate brokers to invest in good people Tami’s advice for realtors to go all-in on social media Tami’s status as the go-to local expert in her community Connect with Tami Edwards Team Bjorkman Real Estate Tami on Facebook Call (661) 373-5595 Connect with Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group Resources Closing Table Mastermind

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Cory Lee, an entrepreneur, speaker, trainer, and leadership expert. Cory speaks about the importance of investing in yourself, how to become influential, and why he wants to be world-famous.  Episode Highlights:  Cory Lee is originally from Mississippi. In a five year period, he built and sold several gyms and physical therapy clinics. Early in his life he had a hard time with a lack of confidence and needed to build his confidence to be a successful entrepreneur. Cory shares about his upbringing and how his mother and grandmother raised him. Letting your gifts and talents shine isn't arrogance, it's awareness. The world needs your gifts and your talents. Have a vision and direction to guide you in your business. They wanted to create a culture of change within their community. Cory speaks to the importance of adding value to each individual customer. Investing in your own growth is important to the success of your business. Many people don't realize that they may not reach success without taking the risk of investing in a coach. Investing in yourself is one of the best things you can do. Successful people are constantly learning and they never reach the peak. If you're the smartest person in the room, you need to find a new room. Millionaires are often nice people and they will often give away information if people ask. Your comfort zone is not really comfortable. It's familiar. Most successful people want to give back because somebody gave to them. Becoming an influencer is about becoming the type of leader that other people willfully follow because of who you are and what you represent. Comparison limits us from becoming influential. Compare yourself to your potential. Stop comparing yourself to your current results. Think of at least one thing you could do today that would move the needle towards your goal. Write down five tasks that will lead you to your goal and for the next fourteen days in a row, do at least one of those tasks. First, you need to find out where you want to go. People tend to spend their time on things that are unimportant. Write down all of your tasks and responsibilities. Ask what is required. Ask where you'll get the greatest return. Ask what is more rewarding to you. As you accomplish goals, you create habits. Become aware of the habits that are getting in your way.  It's not about self-judgment, it's about awareness. How you overcome your failures will define you. Choose your attitude. Your attitude is your choice. Give people your time and attention. Exceed people's expectations. Don't be attached to outcomes. Be attached to your participation. Any time you're doing anything, you're trading your time. Be intentional with your time. 3 Key Points: Successful people invest in themselves and look for opportunities to learn.  As you accomplish your goals, you will form an awareness around your habits. Don’t be afraid of reaching out to successful people. They’re often willing to help.  Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents website, Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram Cory Lee website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube John Maxwell coaching resources: website, 3 R’s  

Steve Heroux, Founder at Victory Selling in San Diego, talks to host Jeff Pfitzer on this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast. Steve is a nationally-renowned speaker and an authority on sales success, development, and performance. Steve trains talent across multiple business segments, and pushes his clients to make the leap towards 6-figure sales results. Steve Heroux discusses sales integrity and creating a balanced life in the process.    Episode Highlights:  Steve Heroux shares his background in sales, going from a self-proclaimed introvert to selling knives Why Steve left his successful job to become a trainer  Steve talks about sales jargon that tries to be all things to all people The tips that Steve recommends to become better at real estate sales The difference between coaching and training, according to Steve Heroux What can be learned from Steve’s training?  It takes the average person 22 years to make 6-figures   Study the habits of successful people to become a great salesperson  What people may be doing wrong if they find they can’t break through to the next level  The best way to do follow-up and nurturing of clients Identify who you are, and have discipline  The go-to book that Steve Heroux recommends    3 Key Points: Put your happiness above just making money.  There is a difference between sales and marketing.  12% of salespeople get to 6-figures+.   Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Steve Heroux: Linkedin    Facebook   Instagram Victory Selling:  Website  Email Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group  

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer has an epic conversation with Jeff Fargo, national strategic advisor for digital strategy at North American Title. Jeff has so much experience with social media and shares great ideas for using LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and how to maximize them as an agent. Episode Highlights:  Jeff Fargo’s family had a real estate portfolio in upstate New York. He was doing organic advertising on MySpace to get people to check out their apartments. He's been active on Facebook for about thirteen years. In title, he leverages the digital presence realtors must have. Periscope is owned by Twitter. Videos go live for 24 hours then disappear. Jeff had real-time conversations with people all over the world using Periscope, showing tours of homes in the Las Vegas area. Facebook jumped onto this concept with Facebook Live. Jeff estimates that he's done 1500-2000 videos with realtors in town. If you are not digitally savvy, you're just not going to reach your maximum potential to help as many people as you want to help. The cheapest real estate right now on social media is Tik Tok. Jeff thinks people miss the point of Tik Tok for a few reasons. The first is that many Tik Toks are simply for entertainment value. The point is to stay relevant to your audience. Video is the way to go. There's no better way other than face-to-face conversations. You need to have somebody in your arsenal who can advise you and let you know what you should be doing on a daily basis to leverage your brand on social media. A good title rep should be savvy with social media. A title rep should become an extension of the marketing arm of a realtor. Most realtors feel that they're too boring to do video. People overthink what they’re doing on video. The worst video you can ever post is the one you don't post. Interview your title rep. If you're not vetting your title reps, you should go seek reviews. You can be connected to 30,000 people on LinkedIn. That's huge. Just keep posting good relevant content. The first way to gain a following on LinkedIn is organic advertising. Share a message. Use a different video than the one you used anywhere else. Use proper hashtags. Go after second-level connections. Paid advertising on LinkedIn will let you right into someone's InMail. It's space a lot of realtors aren't playing in. People love how-to videos on YouTube. Tell a story on YouTube in a series of videos. YouTube videos will pop up in Google search. Hire someone to do YouTube SEO. Be empathetic with your audience. Ask where your audience is, what they want to hear, and then hit them with the right message. Focus in on your community, your town, your city, and deliver content. Jeff recommends creating a blooper reel of your mistakes. People love bloopers. He's a big fan of Instagram Stories. People know who he is and the values he subscribes to and he loves putting that on Instagram with hashtags. A good title rep will be able to give you good hashtags. Your content should build or defend your brand. Stories are where you should share your life. They discuss sharing your kids in your content. Realtors should embrace Tik Tok because there are not a lot of people doing it right now. Jeff uses Tik Tok to create fun memories with his kids. This industry is based on relationships. Form and keep those relationships. Keeping up with people after the transaction is over is critical. Follow up is the most important part of everything you are doing. Your title reps are business partners that can help you elevate your business. 3 Key Points: A good title rep should be savvy with social media. Video is second only to face-to-face conversations in its power to connect. Create a video strategy in 2020 that will send a focused message to a targeted audience. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Jeff Fargo Instagram, Facebook Social Storm Rev The Power of Positivity  Client Giant Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

On today's episode, Jeff is talking with Jess Lenouvel; She is helping real estate professionals go from 6 figures to 7 figures. Jess has recently launched a book called "More Money, Less Hustle." She wanted to emphasize the fact that, you can have all the things that you got into real estate for- the unlimited income, the freedom of schedule, being able to help lots of people without having it be a tradeoff of life or business. Tune in!   Episode Highlights: When Jess starts coaching, she does an initial exercise with her clients. She asks them to envision where they want to be ultimately and then she brainstorms and guides how to make every decision and essentially reverse engineer all of the steps of the client's business back from that point.  Jess talks about her journey and what made her shift to the Bahamas.  Jess is currently staying at Eleuthera, and she says one of the really cool things about this island is that if you go inland a little bit, there is a lot of red soil.  Jess talks about the real-estate market in Eleuthera and how much it costs to own a house there as compared to Miami. Many people say that that regret working too much and as per Jess in real estate specifically that is exacerbated or exponentially more.  According to Jeff everybody wants more money, and they don't want to have to work for it, and that doesn't exist.  As per Jess the most painful place in a real estate business to be in the 250 to 500 range because you are successful and but a lot of the time you are wearing all the hats. With new agents there is a lot of shiny object syndrome because they don't know what's going to be a game changer and what's not, says Jess. Jess explains when we have ultimate vision and we have reversed engineered it, we know what the ultimate thing looks like and it makes it a lot easier to say yes or no. One of Jess's coaches has always used this analogy that you have two accounts. You have your ego account, and you have your bank account, and you can't fill both at the same time. For the newer agent who is in the infancy stage, like trying to get to the 6-figure, even though there is going to be an element of working harder there's also still ways to be efficient, says Jess.  Jess explains how it is just a matter of making sure that you are prioritizing the things that are going to be the highest leverage activities in your business first. Outsourcing allows a person to be more efficient from a time standpoint and from a financial standpoint. Everything requires some minds that work right, because we are where we are, because in most cases those are the limitations of what we can see, says Jess. There are so many people out there who are true entrepreneurs and visionaries and are so good at the real estate human side of things that they are spending so many hours doing paperwork. That really at the end of the day that's draining them and it's taking away from the energy and the time that they have towards actually working on the business. As you get on the business and you get to that point of more money, less hassle, the whole point is you're spending more time, which is less time in the grand scheme of things, but focusing on money making activity, says Jeff.  At the end of the day every single message has to be curated towards you in your market and the demographic that you want to attract and no marketing, says Jess. There are a lot of things in your business that you can outsource, but you cannot outsource the voice and the actual content. If you don't have relevance online you are basically going to make yourself irrelevant in this business in the next 10 years, says Jeff. Really good marketing is just being able to articulate what's in the back of your ideal client's head better than they can and you couldn't do that. They will automatically credit you with the solution and you will have that business immediately.  It doesn't matter whether or not you are the biggest, you know, most outgoing visionary in the world. You can in your business still be the face in the Brand and the voice and be the operations manager, says Jess. The idea of rest is you work hard and then you rest, says Jess.   3 Key Points: Jess says as per her teachings the goal is to get to multiple seven figures because then you have the ability to leverage and stay in your zone of genius.  There are people who have quit their 9 to 5 career and got into real estate to make a six figure income. Jess suggests how she helps. Your brand is not just the visual side of your brand. You can have a terrible visual brand and still be super, super successful. The brand is what people say about you and what the stories that they remember about you when you are not in the room.    Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor) Street Text (sponsor) Jess Lenouvel: https://www.amazon.com/More-Money-Less-Hustle-Becoming-ebook/dp/B09PZLBPJW https://www.instagram.com/jesslenouvel/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheListingsLab

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Austin Allison, Founder of a platform called Pacaso. Through Pacaso, Austin works to help homeowners achieve that dream of owning a second home through joint ownership! Episode Highlights:  Austin hails from the Midwest, Cincinnati to be specific, but now he lives in Napa. With a carpenter for a father, Austin grew up around real estate and eventually bought his first property at the age of 17. At the age of 18, Austin got his real estate license, selling real estate all through college while he studied architecture and real estate development. Dotloop was founded because of Austin’s frustrations with the document signing process in real estate at the time. Austin fell in love with Italy when visiting the country, eventually opting to live there for 3 months and learn Italian. After getting his pilot’s license, Austin realized how much goes into flying a plane besides the actual flying. Setting the goal of running a marathon in the 2 hours and 30-minute range taught Austin what it meant to really pour himself into a goal. Many highly-successful professionals have accomplished incredibly intense physical feats. Though Austin sold Dotloop to Zillow and has no affiliation anymore, Austin both understands the tension and success that surround Zillow. Austin found great inspiration from Zillow’s mission and the team that has been built to accomplish that mission. Jeff believes that if agents find themselves threatened by Zillow, they need to take a look in the mirror. At the age of only 35, Austin has started his second startup to help consumers buy their second home, Pacaso. Following his passion has led Austin to all the success that he has achieved to this point and he advises others to do the same. Since purchasing their second home at Lake Tahoe, Austin and his wife have built a whole new life. Pacaso was inspired by the widespread desire to own a second home by homeowners who can’t afford it. Some people can’t justify owning a second home when they only use it 10% of the time. Pacaso forms an LLC, buys a home under that LLC, and handles all the maintenance and details. All buyers get their own app to reserve time at the home by distributing requests fairly, making sure no single person takes all the good days. Pacaso properties are not intended for investors, only those that look to own and occupy properties for their own enjoyment. Renters tend to treat houses differently than owners, thinking mostly about the short-term, and that’s why renters are prohibited. 90-95% of homeowners who have purchased a second home do not put it up for rent. Every home is split into 8 shares of interest, not allowing more than 50% to be purchased by any 1 party. If you choose to sell your share of the home, other owners get the first shot at buying your share before hitting the market. Pacaso keeps agent partners in their respective markets in the case that buyers and sellers are unrepresented. With its sell down tool, Picasso empowers agents to win listings that would have otherwise been unavailable. Agents can use the sell down tool to email their network and post to their online communities. For those in a second home destination, Pacaso will eventually make its way to that market. Partnering with the real estate industry has given Austin the opportunity to enrich people’s lives. 3 Key Points: As a young man, Austin grew up immersed in the real estate game. He purchased his first property at the age of 17 before fixing it up with his father and flipping it. Pacaso deals with both buyers and agents to purchase new listings or listings from the website under a specific LLC and sells the remaining half of the home within 60 days. Because Pacaso acts as a manager to take care of the home, when it comes time to sell, the seller receives 100% of the profits. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Austin Allison Pacaso, Instagram, Facebook Dotloop Followup Boss (sponsor) Chime (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with the Owner of Carrot, Trevor Mauch. Carrot specializes in helping entrepreneurs, real estate agents included, generate online leads so that they can focus on the activities and work that truly give them energy and freedom! Episode Highlights:  Carrot helps entrepreneurs, mainly real estate agents, save energy by generating online leads. A ton of investor clients are real estate agents, which led Carrot to expand and explode into the real estate market. Marketing makes it hard for entrepreneurs to get freedom and can make them feel trapped. Trevor’s parents showed him that you can create your own job, but that didn’t mean he wanted to. One of Trevor’s college professors taught Business Law through real estate, and that led Trevor to enter the real estate game. Conversion-rate optimization helped Trevor turn all those leads from his website into business. Income still comes into Trevor’s blog and he hasn’t even touched it in over 7 years. Advertising, course creation, and publishing were all business opportunities that came out of Trevor’s website. Not doing the work that gave him energy made a lot of money, but inevitably led to burnout. Trevor restructured his business and life so that he could do the work and activities that give him energy. You don’t have to let limiting beliefs hold you back from building a business that you truly enjoy and gives you real freedom. List out everything that you don’t like about your business right now; find the opposite of those things. Entrepreneurs tend to glorify the grind, but that’s not the real dream. Without vision, the grind is just grinding for grinding sake. Create structure around your business so that you can delegate those draining tasks while doing what gives you energy. This is how you’ll know when you’ve found those activities that will give you energy. It’s going to be hard to give away the activities that don’t give you energy but do make a lot of money. Falling asleep at the wheel with his family in the car in the mountains forced Trevor to change his mindset about grinding. The hamster wheel marketing method will work, but as soon as you get off, it will slow down. The evergreen method of marketing allows work that you do today to continue to bring in money for years to come. Consistency and predictability are the goals when creating organic long-term marketing content. Evergreen content for real estate agents should be very clear about your “why” and the value that you bring to your clients. You must be as specific as possible with your locations and niches on your location-page content. To become an authority, create videos where you say 500-800 words, turn the transcript into an article, and post them together. Turn hamster wheel content into evergreen content on your website, and earn for years. 3 Key Points: Being an entrepreneur means creating your own job, but it could also mean an unbalanced work-life balance. Trevor saw this first-hand with his entrepreneurial parents. True freedom is being able to leave your business for a month without checking in at all and knowing that it is growing the entire time. Entrepreneurs can be quick to give up, usually opting into the hamster wheel method of marketing. If they invest their time into the evergreen method, entrepreneurs can build a pool of content that will work on its own for years and years. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Trevor Mauch (website), (Instagram) Carrot (Website, Authority Builder) StreetText (sponsor) Chime (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Dewey Golub, a real estate professional who owns multiple businesses and enjoys a fun, active lifestyle. Dewey shares about the choices he made to create a business that is self-sustaining so that he can prioritize travel and enjoy spending time with his family. Episode Highlights:  Dewey Golub began his career in marine biology. He was a divemaster that got into yachting and went from yachting to real estate. His main business is residential real estate but he also has a single-family investment business and a Matterport services company. Dewey tells the story of how he found his Matterport producer on Upwork.  Dewey shares how he spends his year skiing and traveling with his family.  When they travel, Dewey generally works for a few hours before his family gets up. Then in the middle of the day he'll take calls. He will then work for a few hours at night. Some real estate agents don't have the resources to live this kind of lifestyle. Other agents have the resources to enjoy this kind of lifestyle but don't have the time. Dewey started his real estate team because he was having his first child and wanted more freedom. A team can function as a communal leverage system. His team doesn't work for him, he works for them. He feels that his team could only feel negative about him if the team wasn't delivering on the promises they made. When Dewey built his team he started with a coach. He hired an admin first.  His next hire was a buyer's agent he found on Craigslist.  A lot of agents have a hard time letting go and giving tasks to other people. Sometimes you need to be disciplined as a leader and cut people loose when they're not a fit for your team. If you want to retain agents, create opportunities. Not everyone is built the same or wants to do the same thing. Dewey talks about how he approached the first few weeks of the pandemic. Dewey reflects on what he has learned about culture from studying teams around the nation. People with similar values gravitate towards each other. Not everyone wants to buy a Matterport, but everyone will have a need for that technology. He feels passionate about how to use content as the new lead generation and marketing platform in real estate. The opportunity to invest in real estate is right at your fingertips. 3 Key Points: If you want to create a self-sustaining business, you need a team of like-minded individuals to support you.  The key to retaining agents is to create opportunities. People with similar values gravitate towards each other. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents website, Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram Dewey Golub Facebook, Instagram Email dewey@foundpropertiesgroup.com  Found Properties website, Facebook, Instagram

On today's episode, Jeff is talking to Blair Ballin. They are going to talk about some of the things Blair is doing with Social Media using a Facebook group and how he has overcome the crashes in 2007 and 2008 and the COVID year of 2020. He shares how his mindset is what allowed him to have some of the best years of his career. Tune in, you’ll be glad that you did.    Episode Highlights: Blair Ballin is a realtor in Phoenix, AZ. At the beginning it was a slow start for Blair then 2007 came and the market began to crash. He talks about his personal joruney. Blair started doing BPO's that transformed into a very good time of selling homes. Then came short sales he didn't know how to do at all at first and he went through a very difficult time. It was probably the roughest patch of his life, both personal and business.  Blair was fortunate to come across a couple different mentors and coaches which at that time transformed things for him. Now his book is doing fairly well, he has a Facebook group, and uploads Tik Tok videos and Instagram posts.  Blair shares that in the real estate space, the reality is realtors are the only ones that control what they do; the market is irrelevant because people always buy and sell.  Blair has tried to grow a team with different structures and it has never worked out. He explains the reasons he believes that is. As Blair continued to grow as a business owner, he realized the needed change. He really wanted to help other agents grow their business and help more people. He just needed to know the right things to do to have those right people on the team and not just hire someone because he felt bad for them. Blair talks about his ordeal with covid, how realtors were afraid to visit houses, how customers refused to go to anybody's houses and how amidst all this he had to figure out the salary part.  During the pandemic, Blair realized that there were probably going to be very few realtors who were actually transacting. There was still a ton of business to be had and just like when foreclosures happen not taking advantage of the marketplace but knowing what is in the marketplace to take advantage of.  Due to his early strategies, business boomed during the pandemic and he was able to purchase his dream home.  Blair talks about the benefits of Facebook Groups and what motivated him to create one. After 2 years of creating the group it has now close to 15,000 members. Blair is very selective of who he lets in.  Blair decided instead of being very specific to a city which will probably segregate who is going to join and not join based upon that, he kind of kept it broad based and kind of neutral so that he could control the narrative of what areas to cover.  Many other Facebook group owners will create their own duties and descriptions;  Blair didn't want to put that on anyone else and he wanted it to all be in his control. Blair discusses how his Facebook Group is expanding and how he is getting business for the group.  Facebook groups are the best CRM that exist. Most people sign up for a CRM because it comes with their  brokerage but Blair share the importance of having your own that you always keep no matter what changes may happen in your future. From his Facebook Group Blair has closed a dozen or so deals from it with another half dozen like pending.  3 Key Points: Every time Blair had a setback in the business, he used to blame himself. He taught himself to try his best, speak more positively to himself and fix his mindset.  Blair talks about the Covid 19 and how it disrupted the market. He shares what he did to overcome it. Usually what you spend time on, if you continue to do it, will pay off, whether it's open houses, running ads or whatever that continued effort is, that will deliver results, says Blair.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor) Street Text (sponsor)   Blair Ballin: https://www.blairballin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/559301274502463 https://www.facebook.com/Living-North-Phoenix-2297390503813850 https://www.facebook.com/BlairBallinRealtor https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082584225597

Your mind is not your friend. It’s a Drunk Monkey, predicting failure before you’ve even arrived at the listing presentation or dialed the FSBO. Is there a way to hit the mute button on that Drunk Monkey and its negative forecast? How much more could you accomplish with a quiet mind? What would it mean for your business if you could show up as the best version of yourself? Matthew Ferry has 25 years of experience coaching top performers in the real estate industry and on Wall Street to achieve Enlightened Prosperity. His books and seminars leverage his proven methodology, The Rapid Enlightenment Process, to support clients in realizing profound states of joy and success in work and life. Matthew’s most recent release is Quiet Mind Epic Life: Escape the Status Quo & Experience Enlightened Prosperity Now. Today, he joins Tristan to explain why it’s important for entrepreneurs to cultivate a quiet mind. He discusses why our survival mind dominates, even when we’re not in a survival state, and describes how a quiet mind can help us see opportunity others do not. Listen in for Matthew’s 4-step process to achieve rapid enlightenment and learn his top practices for achieving a quiet mind. Key Takeaways Why Matthew chooses to serve the high-conscious go-getter Why it’s important for entrepreneurs to cultivate a quiet mind Matthew’s 4-step process to rapid enlightenment See unconscious reflex of Drunk Monkey Correct + heal hidden motives to survive Connect with enlightened perspectives (all is well) Develop skill set of recontextualization How a quiet mind helps you identify opportunity others do not The relationship between a quiet mind and an enlightened state Why the survival mind dominates when we’re not in a survival state Matthew’s work with leaders in real estate and on Wall Street Two practices for cultivating a quiet mind Admit that mind not friend Embrace/celebrate failure How to respond when the Drunk Monkey forecasts the negative How to commit to a thriving + enlightened life Connect with Matthew Ferry Matthew’s Website Quiet Mind Epic Life: Escape the Status Quo & Experience Enlightened Prosperity Now by Matthew Ferry Epic Life Live Connect with Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group Resources The American Institute of Stress Earl Nightingale Mike Ferry Real Estate Coaching Billions on Showtime

Misti Bruton, Broker, and Realtor at AVO Realty in Austin Texas talks to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast host Jeff Pfitzer about her successful, ever-evolving career in real estate in the Central Texas area. Learn firsthand from Misti Bruton how she has been able to balance growth and profitability cycles, delegate and ease into her strengths as a team leader, and how she has been able to add an average of a dozen new real estate agents every month. Episode Highlights: Misti Bruton discusses how she got started in real estate What temporarily took Misti Bruton out of the real estate business and what brought her back Misti’s hiring process The size of Misti’s team What Misti attributes to her brokerage’s massive growth   What is required of realtors that don’t have a deal pending How to balance growth and profitability How Misti Bruton is able to add 12 new agents a month What being a good leader in the face of adversity means to Misti What it takes to lose money without losing faith If you aren’t ready to be a team leader, find a great team Align yourself with positive people doing things you want to do 3 Key Points: From the 15th to the 15th of each month, Misti requires each agent to have at least one deal pending in escrow. If not, they go into a boost program that walks them through what they need to do to get a deal pending. For accountability, Misti uses morning huddles, daily commitment for excellence sheets, weekly Wednesday happy hour two-hour call nights, Monday sales training, and CRM databases. If you can’t put a recruiter on salary, you can hire one on commission dependent on their production. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Lab Coat Agents Live: labcoatagentslive.com Misti Bruton: Linkedin  Facebook AVO Realty: greatertexashomes.com Email: Misti@AVOrealty.com Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

Mike Bernier and his partner, Long Doan, started with an agent team of eight back in 2014. Four years later, they have grown the team to 375! So, what is their secret? How do they go about recruiting realtors? Today, Mike joins Tristan and Jeff to share his seven-step process for attracting agents to the Realty Group team. He describes the turning point when he and Long realized they either had to downsize or scale and explains their intention to be a disruptor, providing the brokerage they’d always wanted. Listen in as Mike speaks to his understanding of agent pain points and learn how a smooth onboarding process can serve to amplify your recruiting efforts! Key Takeaways How Mike leverages mastermind groups to learn and grow his business The turning point when Mike realized he had to either downsize or scale How Mike and Long found a different way to thrive in a changing market How understanding agent needs has made Mike’s team grow and thrive Why Mike has a dedicated platforms assistant to help agents with tech The 7-step recruiting process that took Mike’s team to 375 in 4 years Articulate your WHY Identify ideal agent Determine value prop Create custom audiences Target on all platforms Tighten onboarding process Increase social proof The script Mike’s VA uses to make 2 to 3 networking appointments/day How a smooth onboarding process can magnify your recruiting efforts Mike’s robust, automated 30-day onboarding process for new agents Connect with Mike Bernier Realty Group Call (651) 587-2396 Connect with Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group Resources Closing Table Mastermind Sam Khorramian Club Wealth The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber CallAction Brokerkit Christine Hass

On today’s episode of “Lab Coat Agents Podcast” Jeff talks to guest Jenn Lim (Author of Book called ‘Beyond Happiness’), she shares how we can find more happiness and harmony so that we can be both successful and happy in life. They discuss how happiness is not all about highs; it is also about understanding our lowest points, too. Tune in for this valuable insight on leadership!   Episode Highlights: Jeff says that it's always a challenge to keep everyone happy & humming, concurrently. Jenn and Tony Hsieh (Ex CEO of Zappos) launched the ‘Delivering Happiness’ book in 2010 and from that point in time they realized there was a demand for happiness in the world.  ‘Delivering Happiness’ company essentially helps organizations, teams, governments, hospitals, and any workplaces to understand how you apply scientific happiness to your people. All the research that's been going on with scientific happiness says it is actually those that are happier, that are more successful. There's actual data and research of people wanting to understand what we can actually focus on, so that we're not thinking about what's wrong with us. But we can think about what's actually right with us, and focus on those things in a more positive way.  Jeff asks Jenn, how do you articulate the whole money and happiness thing? If money's not making you happy, you're not spending it the right way. It means you are spending it meaningfully for yourself and the people you love. If you really are doing this for the people you love, including yourself, then do you have that  prioritization in your time on a day-to-day basis in place? How can we refocus our energy, refocus our time to make sure we can wake-up every morning feeling solid, that we're aligned by that? Understand your own personal highs & lows, to have a more accurate picture of who you are as a human being and how you want to live and how you want to spend your time. The most important thing that we need to do right now, especially after COVID, is to set these schedules and rituals. Everyone wants to be treated as a human being not just as an employee or as a worker. When you are having a conversation and holding up the mirror, you don't have to be the mechanic. Jenn says, to her, beyond happiness means being more real about all the different layers and sides of who we are. If we're truly realistic about what our other sides are, not just the highs, but the lows, not just the strengths, but the shadows, then that's where meaningful happiness comes in.  Ask yourself three questions, first: “Where does your energy lie?” That's a question for your purpose. Second: “Where're your talents?” The third thing is impact- “What is it that you, as a human being, want to make an impact on the world?” Once you as a leader have the purpose and values together, the next thing is to start with yourself and then go through it with five leaders in your company and just see the results.  Three Key Points: As we grow and build, just don't forget to nurture your own greenhouse as well. We all get to know ourselves best in terms of doing the deep dive, answering the hard questions like, “What's most meaningful to us and are we living our life that way? We all like to focus on the positive sides or the positive things that happen in our life; But we also need to be real about what's not going well. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Jenn Lim     | https://jennlim.com/ | Book - Beyond Happiness: https://www.deliveringhappiness.com/jenn-lim Street Text  (Sponsor) Follow Up Boss (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Nick Baldwin speaks with Mike McCann, the  #1 agent in Philadelphia, about culture, systems, work-life balance, and the school of hard knocks. Mike is an incredible example of someone who values building trust through cooperation. His success will inspire you to think about how you can serve others with a positive attitude.    Episode Highlights:  Mike McCann was born and raised in Philadelphia. After working a series of different jobs, he became a realtor at age 27. He had no training, but taught himself. He learned how to be a great realtor by attending events, watching top agents, and reading as much as he could.  By his third year, he did ninety transactions and became the #1 realtor in Philly. Going to events is crucial to building your business. He said to himself that he wanted the best reputation in the marketplace among the real estate community. He also wanted to be known as the most educated realtor. He went beyond his own marketplace for knowledge and inspiration. He has always prioritized giving back. When you’re building your business, you’ve got to try to get along with the agent on the other side of the deal.  He responds quickly and thoroughly. He provides tools to the other agent to help them close the deal. The key to success is your reputation among the real estate industry. Ego can get in the way. Be positive with your clients and the other agents throughout the process. Mike’s team values family first and then business. If you don’t have an assistant, you are one. Mike provides his system for taking the risk out of hiring an assistant. Mike shares his criteria for hiring assistants and agents. Hiring correctly is the most important thing. Mike describes a regular day in his office. No matter how good you are, you need to meet people. Mike stresses the law of averages. He likes to have 3-4 appointments each day. He was always ahead of his market. He hired an assistant before people hired assistants. He had a website before most agents had websites. Mike describes how he stopped working weekends to prioritize family time. Facebook has been an incredible source of referrals and direct business. Mike is grateful every day. He has learned to compartmentalize negative things and turn the other cheek. Helping people helps you more than the people you’re helping. Nick and Mike share the books they’re currently reading. Compare yourself to yourself. There’s no one definition of success.   3 Key Points: Cooperation is essential to building your reputation and your business. If you don’t have an assistant, you are one. Choose to be grateful every day.    Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Mike McCann website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube  The One Thing (book) The Millionaire Real Estate Agent (book) Edison: Inventing the Century (book) Objections (book) Fanatical Prospecting (book)   Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

Today on the podcast, learn how to go deep in authenticity as Jeff interviews Rachel Adams Lee who shares her journey with her real estate career and key strategies to being more effective and efficient on Social while also being real. People want to know who you are and people work with those who they feel like they can relate to. Don’t miss this one! Episode Highlights: What if you’re not thinking about the potential engagement and connections because you’re so focused on who is liking and commenting? Rachel has some really good advice. Rachel grew up in a really small town called Lake County. She shares a little bit about the rural town. Rachel has been in real estate for eleven years. The business runs in her family and she always said she would never do it. She was managing a small boutique real estate  Struggles in her personal life made her realize that she wanted more but she didn’t know what it looked like. When Rachel went to a conference called Bold, a quote rocked her world, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” She talks about how she had been in such a scarcity mindset. She then decided she was going to do an accelerated program and jump into real estate. Through grit and determination, Rachel pushed through four months of now sales and went on to sell 39 homes her first year, 109 her second, then 123 and found herself hitting Wall Street Journal’s top 1,000 agents in the country. Rachel committed to learning Social Media on her own before it was as big as it is now  and the referrals have grown and grown. The first year brought 7 referrals;  Last year,  they had 131 referrals come through Social Media.  If you feel the pressures of always being everything to everybody on Social, Rachel has advice for you. How do you know the difference between Social Media experts and eloquent speakers with microphones? What is the mindset? Jeff asks Rachel to talk people through the innovation and going from trying to show perfection to actually being honest. Rachel recommends to pick a platform and then pick 5 things that you will talk about on Social. People stick around because of who you are and how you make them feel. Her two goals are to either educate or entertain. What does the algorithm actually mean? Rachel breaks it down and shares how she uses ‘Google Keep’ to have her next posts ready to go. Have you heard of hashtag expert? Rachel shares how she uses it as well as her ratio To business versus personal content. Do you have a professional/creator account on Instagram? How do you evaluate what is working and not? She has shifted passions to share personal things and build real connections with people over the things she is actually experiencing in her life. A lot of people struggle with creativity. Jeff asks Rachel to share about the idea of being ‘on the ready’ for content. Rachel shares how her and her husband got marriage coaching around healthy boundaries with cell phones. If you’re so concerned about just getting Social content but missing your life, it is time to change. You don’t owe anybody anything in a certain timeline. Capture the content but you don’t have to share it at that moment. Rachel got into real estate to be financially free and to spend more time with the people you love. What about mom guilt? How can you be fully present?  The point of Social Media is to have engagement. Rachel gives the top 3 things to dial t in. What are the 3 questions your audience will be asking? Rachel has a rule of 5:5:5. She explains how it works and what her real estate team does every month to wake up the algorithm, get engagement, and grow referrals. For her posting on Social gives her energy rather than draining. If she feels like she ‘has to post’ she doesn’t. What can you do to be more effective and efficient?

Spotify and Facebook are now interacting in new ways that could directly impact how you reach your audience. Facebook is adding new features and exploring opportunities for content creators  to make money. Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer have some interesting statistics and insights this week to help you think strategically about your social media marketing and advertising!  Episode Highlights: Spotify is a big deal. Tristan has been testing out ads on Spotify for his real estate business and will share results in the near future.  Spotify just became friends with Facebook. Now, Spotify music and podcasts will natively play in your Facebook app .  Keeping users on the platform is the main goal for social media companies. Jeff mentions for example, “If you put a YouTube link on Facebook, it will probably be suppressed because Facebook doesn’t want you to leave the platform.” Facebook is adding a feature for newsletters and starting with journalists who cover  minorities. They are hoping to open it up to create a more diverse news experience. Linkedin continues to see record engagement with overall sessions up 29%. YouTube just reported a 49% jump in ad revenue.That is 6 billion in revenue from quarter 1 of 2020 to 2021. The second most visited website is YouTube with 35 billion monthly visitors. YouTube users watch 1 billion hours of video per day compared to Netflix users who watch 400 million.  Tristan and Jeff discuss success on YouTube and what it takes to create a real presence and how to utilize playlists.  Twitter has a ‘super follower’ button coming out, which will be a paid feature with expanded access. Twitter has risen to 199 million daily active users and posts are up 28% year over year for the first quarter of 2021. Pinterest is in the news for ramping up of it’s search functionality. People are currently turning there to search for things like vacation destinations. Pinterest already has a massive loyal following, so make sure you keep your eye on what they are doing.  Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook |Facebook Group| Twitter | Instagram  Drunk on Social | Drunk On Social  Jeff Pfitzer | Instagram | TikTok Tristan Ahumada  | Facebook | YouTube Mark Rober   

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Will Penney, a realtor who has been in the business since 1988. Will has a team of six agents and is handling over 200 units per year. One of the strategies that he employs in his successful business is Facebook groups. Tune in for his wealth of wisdom.  Episode Highlights:  Will got into real estate thinking he would get rich for all the wrong reasons because he was 19. He started at a large national brand, Century 21, with his nickname, “a flash in the pan Penney.” No one would help him at 19 years old.  He sold 17 houses in his first year, and then by the time he was 24, he achieved the Century 21 Centurion Award, which is 60 transactions. In 2001, Will started Penney Real Estate independent brokerage, and he has been independent ever since by design. He spent every waking moment trying to stay relevant. Will hired his wife full-time in 2017. She has been with him for 13 years. Will made another great hire in 2013 with a listing manager who got licensed as well. He has created a situation where they don’t have any interest in going anywhere else to get a better commission split because they are salaried.  Will would do open houses for other people. For him, it is all about communication, caring, doing what you say you are going to do, showing up on time, and being accountable.  Jeff asks Will, “What do you say when somebody says how long you have been in the business? How old are you? How many homes go back?”  Will would sit down and tell a young agent – “You need to pick a couple of things, really hone their skills, and really get good at it. Communication is the biggest thing for young agents.” As a young realtor  on a team, ask how you can bring value, do something for them that makes them want to keep you around. Then you get to pick their brain, learn from them and become as great or better than them. The agents selling ten homes a year never develop the muscle to stay in touch with people. A lot of the team leaders, the only thing they have to offer is the leads. They don’t have a lot of structure in their team, says Jeff. In real estate, it is a race. It is always who is going to bring the next shiny object or the next value. So, whether it is a team of six or well over 100, the same strategies apply to be a leader. It doesn’t matter what your title; when you have that title, you have to work harder. There are two reasons Will gives for why they sell so many houses: relationships and social proof. So, if you are an agent out there, you need to become a Google local services agent, and you need to get reviews there.  The three products that Facebook has are personal pages, business pages, and groups. Every major corporation, every university in the United States, uses Facebook groups to communicate with their students, employees, and customers.  Will explains, “If I call you every day, you’re going to call the cops. If I text you every day, you’re going to block me. I can’t email you every day, I can’t show up every day, I can’t put a gift on your front doorstep every day. I can’t mail you every day. There’s nothing I can do every day except a Facebook group.”  Having a group as a realtor or loan officer to get your arms around your sphere of influence daily is probably one of the absolute best things you can do, says Will. If you are using a Facebook page to communicate with your friends about your real estate business, posts you are putting on there are repellent. In this market, we were generally posting things about how many showings we had, how many offers we got, how much over list sold. You have to make it your job to like everyone’s post and to have the algorithm recognize you gradually.  Facebook groups are designed to have large numbers of people engaging about common interests and making sure that you see every one of their posts to keep you on the platform so they can show you more ads. You have to make posts, check people’s responses, and then you have to engage with them. Will’s team friend requests clients and invites them into the group as part of our business process.  Have a Facebook group with  consistent content and treat it like a client event or a social event. Actually engage with the people for 10 or 15 minutes a day; That is all it takes your referral business over time is going to skyrocket.    3 Key Points: Jeff asks Will, “19-years old and closed 17 transactions in the first year. How did you even do that? What did you do to get to that?”  Jeff curiously asks Will what he is going to teach kids who are in their low 20s? What to say or how to respond? Would he advise kids to just wing it? Will has got a Facebook group to help other agents. He has 122 agents there. They also have an amazing Facebook group for their clients, which is like a daily client event.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Will Penney | https://socialorchard.com/ | Penny Real Estate Friends & Family Group Page | http://www.penneyrealestate.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/socialorchard RedX (sponsor) Street Text (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer is excited to talk about marketing, advertising, video, and branding with guests Dan Schepleng – Founder of Kapowza; a creative agency company. Dan is going to challenge the way you think about what you could be creating. You are going to want to follow this guy and this company because they are doing some pretty amazing things!   Episode Highlights:  Dan launched Kapowza 6 years ago and pretty soon hired other talented people. Kapowza is a Baltimore creative agency delivering work in video, digital, and print. How do you simplify storyboarding and figure out what a message needs to be? How does it play out with an individual versus a team? How do you advertise myself? How do you market yourself? How do you brand yourself?  For real estate agents looking for marketing, think about budget and what you’re comfortable with suggests Dan.  If you are comfortable with writing, then have a blog. If you’re witty and interesting, use a Twitter account. If you are good with photos, add an Instagram account. There are ways to market yourself for free, and it’s just kind of a matter of figuring out what you’re comfortable with and honestly which you would enjoy. Because if you enjoy it, you’ll keep doing it.  What do you think is wrong with real estate advertising? Dan and Jeff discuss their insights. If someone wants to hire Kapowza, how does the process start? There are a million ways that Kapowza works with people. It’s not just big-budget commercials. They don’t do as many big-budget commercials as people think just because they are big line items. Most brands are only doing them once a year, and it is kind of a big event.  Marketing and advertising starts with what is realistic? What makes sense to you? How can we do what we do best?  As a real estate agent, you have the ability to shift the way your audience thinks about you and it is up to you to deliver that message. This is exactly what Kapowza does. Jeff asks Dan to tell the audience a bit of the other commercial that his company is well known for - the one where the kids are drinking coffee.  Talking about the cost of advertisements, Dan says it depends on what the goals are, because a commercial can cost $10,000 or it can cost $200,000, it could be one day, it could be 10 days. It’s always just a matter of what the goal is. Real estate professionals are self-proclaimed for the most part, and it’s a lot of learning as you go and creating your own stuff. Some are amazing and others are just a bunch of followers, but it’s the beauty of the real world which is very innovative. Jeff points out that unlike most industries, the real-estate industry accepts and evolves quickly, and it is like the innovator of all industries with everybody following later.  3 Key Points: Dan shares about Kapowza, a creative agency that is more about making an emotional connection. Whether it is funny or heartfelt, they make a connection with the brand and its audience through storytelling. What is a good starter question for an agent to get the creative process flowing? The real estate industry, especially the last five or ten years, has seen so much outside competition with large companies, realtors have to be able to market on the same level.    Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfizer  | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Dan Schepleng  | Website | dan@kapowza.co https://www.northroprealty.com/ Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor)

Kyle Whissel, CEO/Team Leader at Whissel Realty Group brokered by eXp Realty, talks to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast host Jeff Pfitzer about how to use video to generate business, not just views and likes. Kyle Whissel shares how he nailed interest in video with multiple content segments, an expanded team, and managed to be the first in San Diego to become number one for both volume and units in real estate. Episode Highlights: How Kyle Whissel first got started in real estate At what point did Kyle evolve the game of real estate with video? The strategies and ideas behind the videos How doing videos with business owners has benefitted Kyle’s business Is there a consistent interviewer for the videos? How videos should begin in order to grab people’s attention immediately Should you cover your area on a macro or micro level? The types of video segments Kyle Whissel is creating How Kyle finds the content to turn into videos Why you should be taking quality, consistent content seriously Get good quality likes by inviting the people that reacted to your videos to like your page Answer the comments on your videos and ask them a question in return Start a community group and create engagement by asking questions The best advice Kyle Whissel can give to beginners How to keep from getting discouraged 3 Key Points: Kyle Whissel hired two videographers, 40 hours a week each, averaging a video a day on average, with 5-7 videos spun off of each of them. People don’t just want to see real estate videos. Give them other content that they care about. Food, fashion, fitness, and family are the four types of content that people consistently consume. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Lab Coat Agents Live: labcoatagentslive.com Kyle Whissel: Linkedin  YouTube  Instagram Whissel Realty: Whisselrealty.com Media Mayor Mastermind: MediaMayorMastermind.com Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

For brokers with a strong work ethic, the coming downturn is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, Marc King sees the shift as an opportunity to attract top producers and gobble up market share, capitalizing on the moment to generate lifelong wealth. Marc is a 20-year veteran of the real estate business and current Team Leader and Market Share Developer of Keller Williams Realty Chesterfield. Today, Marc joins Tristan, Nick and Jeff to offer insight around the coming shift and discuss hiring talent in a downturn. He explains why skill is more important than speed and how top producers will seize the moment to gain market share. Marc also speaks to the value of building your database, investing in your real estate business differently in a down market, and developing the willingness to adapt and change. Listen in for Marc’s advice on attracting talent through time, leverage and opportunity—and learn how you can make use of new tech to WIN despite the downturn! Key Takeaways Marc’s advice on doubling your lead gen in a market shift Why skill is more important than speed in a down market Marc’s insight on attracting talent rather than chasing it How top producers will seize the moment to gain market share How it will take twice the activity for the same closing numbers The value of becoming a local expert who knows your market How to approach investing in your business in a downturn The significance of being willing to adapt and change Marc’s tips on how to approach hiring in a down market How to turn an office around by creating opportunity for others How the predictive analytics of emerging tech will help agents Why building your database is more important than ever Connect with Marc King Marc on LinkedIn Marc on Facebook Marc at Keller Williams Connect with Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group Resources KW MAPS Coaching Jeff Glover & Associates LCA Events LCA1

Today on the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff interviews  the author of best selling books, 1 Million Followers and Hook Point, Brendan Kane on how to find, engage, and grow your social media audience. He has helped people like Taylor Swift, Katie Perry, and Rihanna. You don’t want to miss this! Episode Highlights: What is the amount of time that you have to hook someone into your content? Brendan shares the mistakes content creators make in trying to hook their audience. Where are brands failing when it comes to social media? Where do adjustments need to be made? There is a real physics to delivering a message. Brendan shares his Hook Point Formula. The days of click bait are really over...you have to earn and maintain the attention to stop the scroll. What is the actual blueprint to a successful hook point and therefore successful marketing? Most brands are connecting with less than 30% of their target audience. Why? Most brands are connecting with less than 30% of their target audience. Why? Communication = Math. There are 6 main ways that audiences interact with the world and process content. Jeff asks Brendan, “How do you best lead into videos in a way that attracts attention?” Influencers connect on a one to one basis and feel like friends. The best content creators make it an active experience. Brendan gives examples of verbal and non-verbal attention grabbing techniques. Tristan points out how the media, like the news, grabs attention. Brendan weighs in about sustainability and trust issues. What are some things that entrepreneurs should be paying attention to when they are looking to grow their influence on social media? Brendan outlines The “Common Sense” Model for brands and why it doesn’t work. He then outlines his Predictive Viral Content Model that merges creative with scientific Methodology and why it does work. Where do you start with the behind the scenes research that is needed to be successful? As an example for real estate agents, what would it look like for them to “stop the Scroll”? Brendan explains how to make your content digestible for the general audience and how the algorithm prioritizes content.  Resources Mentioned: https://hookpoint.com Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/labcoatagents Lab Coat Agents Twitter: https://twitter.com/LabCoatAgents Lab Coat Agents Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/labcoatagents/   

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Mike Berland, founder and CEO of Research Data and Analytics from Decode_M. He is an expert on how consumers and decision-makers think and behave; He is also the  author of the  book called, Maximum Momentum: How to get it, How to keep it. Episode Highlights:  Data: How do you dissect it? How do you use it to your advantage?  Jeff and Mike discuss the pandemic and how everyone is going to come out from this. Mike talks about his life journey and how he learned valuable lessons from working in political campaign trails and applied it to business. When data became more and more available, he took his polling expertise and went into analytics.  Decoding data into momentum is what helps people to feel that they are moving forward.   The five key drivers of momentum are disruption, innovation, polarization, stickiness, and social impact. Residential real estate has been the hardest topic for the past year as everybody was quarantining and started talking about their home. People are now much more interested in improving their homes to make them more comfortable than they ever were before. Decode_M analyzes how they can meet their consumer’s needs through the momentum mindset. Pre pandemic, clients were hyper-focused on amenities and aesthetics. Post pandemic, statistics show trends of people moving from urban to suburban situations. Space is at a premium and priority factors have shifted. In Mike’s research, he has found that people are willing to pay more for things that they believe have momentum.  Social media plays a huge role in real estate and you cannot over promote yourself on the platforms. The real estate industry is a confidence industry that values knowledge, expertise, and relationships, which are all keys to this business. In residential real estate, it is usually even more emotional than it is transactional. Understand your target, the objective, and be flexible to embrace what will help you succeed in your business and what forces can knock you out of business Jeff says we have to shift the way we think about how we are marketing properties; Think about focusing on safety, outdoor space, and things that today have become the most important to consumers. Moon shot is a vision that’s out in the future that inspires people and motivates them to achieve it.  What should be done in business to maximize success with a potential moon shot?  Communicating to people about both safety and making long-term decisions is critical. 3 Key Points: Mike talks about using artificial intelligence and different data types to collect and analyze how customers behave and work with their potential. Momentum in business applies to brands, products, and people. The five key drivers of momentum are: disruption, innovation, polarization, stickiness, and social impact. Jeff asks Mike, “How do you believe that last year will change many things for many industries and how 2020 is reshaping our future? Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Mike Berland |Website | Team |  LinkedIn | Book StreetText (sponsor) Follow Up Boss 

Lab Coat Agents already has a reputation as the go-to resource for real estate agents, brokers and vendors, providing a forum to help the community learn from each other and grow their business. Founders Tristan Ahumada and Nick Baldwin are all about sharing what they pick up from the brilliant minds in the industry, supporting ambitious entrepreneurs in maximizing lead generation and conversion. And now they are joining forces with Jeff Pfitzer to ‘explore the science of real estate’ in podcast format, allowing you to take that information with you and learn on-the-go. Today, Nick, Jeff and Tristan discuss their vision for the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, discussing the value in being exposed to millionaire real estate agents and making time to invest in your business. They share their intention to bring you straightforward conversations with agents of all shapes and sizes about how they grow their business on a day-to-day basis. Listen in for a preview of the high-profile guests already scheduled to appear in the weeks to come, including several inspiring figures from the world of real estate and beyond. Key Takeaways The value in being exposed to the brilliant minds in real estate Why you need to think like a millionaire before you can net $1M How to look at the podcast as an investment in your business The show’s intent to feature conversations with diverse agents A preview of the high-profile guests already scheduled to appear How the show will go beyond real estate to inspire and motivate Connect with Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group Resources Dean Jackson Sharran Srivatsaa Hal Elrod Erin Brockovich Mike Bernier Gary Vaynerchuk Billy Gene Jesse Itzler

Most real estate professionals and agents do not take the competitive advantage that they have with their license and the data they have access to for  investing in real estate.  On today’s episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer is talking  with Jake Harris about how to make commercial real estate more profitable and easier to manage. Jake is the author of a book called Catching Knives - A Guide to Investing in Distressed Commercial Real Estate. You won’t want to miss this one!   Episode Highlights:  Jake kind of grew up on a construction site. He got into the army, and when he was getting out of the army, somebody gave him the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, and it was a lightbulb moment. Now, he has been a professional investor for the last 20 years. Jake was a bartender at a country club because that is where rich people hang out. He asked their advice and said, “I am 23, ready to grab the tiger by its tail, and I want to build skyscrapers. What should I do? And they said, “work for a contractor.”  Jake worked in commercial construction as an estimator superintendent and as a project manager, did many projects, and started flipping houses.  In the early 2000s down in Phoenix, Jake met Robert Kiyosaki, and he hung out with him at his studio. Robert warned him to be cautious of greed. Robert was from Hawaii, but he moved to Arizona. Jake talks about the journey and what he learned.  The book’s momentum created real revenue for Robert and allowed him to start investing. And then, as a millionaire, he was able to continue to assemble good teams around him and continue to double and triple and quadruple down on real estate. For Jake, part of writing his book was to showcase or show people like it is not as complex or more difficult to do a commercial deal as it is to do residential. All the other areas of Jake’s life were bankrupt, but real estate was the thing that he still was meant to do. He shares how he needed to focus on all those other aspects to become kind of a whole life millionaire. Jake even put one quote on the back of his book from Baron Rothschild, “The best time to be buying real estate is when there is blood in the streets, even if it’s your own blood.” In the commercial real estate world, putting together the financial systems is not about how good the individual is but about putting together a team because it is a team effort. What is interesting about commercial real estate and real estate as a whole is you get a free option. There are ways to do $100 million deals with no money, and you only need a goal to find out how to do that.  In commercial real estate, you can tie a piece of property up in escrow. When you are in escrow and tied up controlling it, you have a very intensive time trying to figure out all the things that could go wrong with this deal. Many brokers want to close deals similar to a real estate agent who sees the transactions going on, but very few own real estate. They all want to be the sponsors, and they know how to structure it.  Reonomy is a commercial real estate database that tracks all the mortgage holders and owners of the particular asset types. Jake shares his view point on where he thinks the market will go. He also talks about the market shift. He shares his opinion on what is coming, and should investors wait because prices are so inflated right now. Jake thinks there are opportunities in infill housing that already has the infrastructure built in because of the people buying houses in square footage and rent by bedrooms.  3 Key Points: Jake focused a lot more on the commercial space, building a hotel on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, converting an office building to apartments, doing new ground-up construction on apartments in East Austin and other markets. Systems are great for those that want repeatable and predictable success. Jake had a goal to become a millionaire before 30, and he achieved that, but goals are great for those who want one-time success. For people looking to get from residential to multifamily, it has some very similar mechanisms of fixing up a kitchen, a bathroom, or whatever, and that becomes a very easy place for people to transition to on the small scale multifamily. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Jake Harris  | Instagram | https://www.reonomy.com/ https://www.catchknives.com/ https://www.catchknives.com/course/ - Course 50% off by using the code word Jeff

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Ruth Krishnan, one of the top 10 agents in the San Francisco market, and one of the top 65 agents in the country. Oh yeah, and she started as an agent during the financial crisis of 2008! Listen to hear Ruth explain why you shouldn’t be afraid of setting large, audacious goals and why you should revisit them throughout the year. Episode Highlights:  Even though Ruth is one of the top agents in the country, she still enjoys learning from other agents. In today’s episode, there is no specific agenda other than for Ruth to share the information in her head. Growing up as 1 of 9 kids in a small town in Missouri, Ruth was motivated to attain a better life. Ruth decided to get into real estate in 2008, a time when everyone was trying to get out of the business. Starting as a single agent, Ruth was pretty much left to learn everything by herself and the first 2 years were incredibly challenging. There were hard times that left Ruth with no money at the end of the year despite working 60-hour weeks. Starting as a real estate agent during the pandemic is not all that different from starting during an economic crash. It’s important to formulate a business plan at the beginning of the year and revisit it often throughout the year. Don’t be afraid to think big; you might not reach your goal but you will get farther if you aim farther. Ruth has allowed the fear of failure to force her into thinking too small, usually landing exactly on the number that she plans on. Setting an audacious goal is daunting, but not hitting that audacious goal is not the same as failure. Our brains have a way of finding a way to do what we previously thought was impossible. People think that they are not wired to hit these crazy-high numbers, but there are ways to trip those wires. Ruth has set up accountability partners in every area of her life to make sure that she crushes her goals. At the beginning of her career, Ruth made an effort to connect with agents in her realm to add value to each other. It’s important to Ruth to always be the dumbest person in the room so that she is constantly learning from others. Groups of like-minded professionals in your market are great places to both gain and give value. When partaking in a group, it’s important to surround yourself with collaborative people who all have something to offer. It’s natural to be intimidated by agents that are always winning awards, but get closer to their level and they will view you as their peer. Many agents make the mistake of getting stuck in their own brokerage, not branching out to collaborate with other agents. Successful people aren’t afraid to share their knowledge because they know that for the most part, no one is going to act on that knowledge. After a crazy year, many agents find themselves either trying to maintain momentum or dig themselves out of a hole. With San Francisco on the verge of another shutdown and many people moving away from the city, the future of that market is uncertain. 70% of Ruth’s team’s business has come from online appointments while the other sources of her business have gone down. Investments in content and her own website for the last 10 years helped Ruth smooth over the transition to online this past year. Moving forward, Ruth is focused on investing money in her areas of weakness. It’s always going to be scary reinvesting in the business, so try to take it month by month and crush those numbers. Your reasons for reinvesting in your business are unique to you and don’t have to be the same as big agents. 3 Key Points: Like many agents, Ruth stumbled into real estate, looking for a fresh start after her interior design agency fell apart when she was 5 months pregnant. Set goals that seem almost unachievable, because regardless of whether you hit that goal or not, you will crush your previous year’s numbers. It’s vital to your growth as an entrepreneur to surround yourself with people that are doing better than you. This way, you are always learning. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Ruth Krishnan (Website, Instagram, Facebook) RedX (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor)

Josh Team, President at Keller Williams Realty talks to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast hosts Tristan Ahumada and Nick Baldwin about the future of real estate. Josh discusses the impact that disruptors like Open Door, Zillow, and Realtor.com are having on the industry, how brokerages like Keller Williams are using technology to assist agents with responding to this shift, and ways the industry can work for everyone involved. Episode Highlights: How Josh Team sees the world of real estate changing for agents The impact of discount brokerages on the real estate market The potential impact on commissions with this market shift Why brokerages are focused on leveraging technology for their agents How agents can think outside of the box to compete with companies like Zillow On-demand information works in other industries, like pizza delivery and streaming services, and can be applied to real estate Are agents buying leads or are they buying transactions? How localized real estate marketing can benefit agents Why Josh thinks agents push so hard on promoting a brokerage brand When the Real Estate industry continues to share and push each other to higher standards, then agents and consumers, across the board, can benefit Josh Team discusses Keller Williams, iBuyer program 3 Key Points: How many people want to buy and sell homes, and how the economy is doing, have more impact on the demand in the industry than technology. The key to adjusting to every business shift is identifying ways to maintain or improve overall profitability. Take the superpower of the agent, and marry that with a curated one-to-one technology experience, and the industry wins. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Linkedin: Josh Team Keller Williams: Josh Team  

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents, Jeff talks to Alicia Jarrett. She is a very successful investor in real estate; Doing deals on a yacht in Croatia and the Ski hills in France are the things that caught Jeff’s eye. So many realtors spend so much time working our lives away, and we need to figure out how to get out of the business and operate from wherever we are. Want to invest in properties but concerned about what and where? This episode is for you; tune in now.   Episode Highlights: Alicia says that they are all about lifestyle because they only get one shot at this thing called life, and it better be a good one.  Australia is quite limited in real estate. You can do the strategies, but access to information is deficient compared to the US because the US is a land of opportunity and land of data on anything and everything, explains Alicia. Alicia says that they went to a couple of different information sessions online and in-person to check out other markets and what people were doing. When Alicia started they did great on quite a few deals and found it very easy, but then the market changed within a couple of months. They started to see things getting off-market, and having property became very difficult because everybody wanted to fix and flip houses. Alicia’s main goal was that as long as they have a laptop and a phone, they should be able to operate this business from anywhere in the world, which is still their goal. The point of entry into the market in Australia is massive. No matter what strategy you’re doing to buy a property, you need a lot of money, and then to develop that property, you need a lot of money because the cost of contractors is very high, says Alicia. Jeff asks, “If someone lives in a market where there are not many opportunities available to invest, but one still wants to invest, what are the steps or processes to follow?” The conversion rate when you are trying to get off-market is about every thousand that you reach out to, you might get one property back, and to know what you’re doing and you have got your blind offer strategy down the path. We have done a lot of training on building relationships with our sellers and buyers because it’s about trust, particularly for landowners who have been sitting on a property for a long time, says Alicia. Jeff asks, “Except Florida, are there any other states where you put more effort or see more opportunity?” Jeff says that we all understand marketing to sell a property or maybe marketing to self promote but marketing to find a property… What does that look like for you?  These days, we are dealing with sellers who are in their 90s, and our youngest seller has been 19 and also we are working online and offline together to create the best customer experience. Many real estate investors are great at doing the deal, but they’re not so good at writing their business strategy and plan. No matter what asset class people are in real estate,if you don’t know how to do something, don’t do it, get someone else to do it, says Alicia. 3 Key Points: The average real estate price in Melbourne is 1.2 million just for a house, and vacant land is rare. A lot of people buy an old house, knock it down, and that becomes their vacant land, says Alicia. Alicia says that they want people with old property for more than ten years and still sitting in the family and doing nothing. They pull that data, and they want to ensure that there is enough data for us to do deals.  As a real estate investor, we break up marketing into two categories, acquisition, and disposition. Marketing is all about the number of touchpoints you can have to build relationships, says Alicia. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Alicia Jarrett  |888-538-5478 | Alicia@superchargedoffers.com RedX (sponsor) Street Text (sponsor)

New opportunities are on the horizon! Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer have important updates to share on what’s new with your favorite social media company and what you could be doing to improve your content creation. Tune in to hear their thoughts on how to maximize google, repurpose content, and how to start trending on the social media platform that you are focusing on.    Episode Highlights: Clubhouse is only a year old and is valued at 4 billion dollars. Tristan mentions the trend of people being drawn towards audio.  Clubhouse released a statement about where they will focus their funding going forward. Pay attention to your favorite social media company to see how much they invest in creator programs. Jeff explains how he is creating a brand on TikTok and the opportunity it is generating with a specific targeted audience.  Tristan shares that his wife, Janice, encouraged him to invest time in Clubhouse and he reveals the opportunities he has already experienced.  Reddit just announced that they are coming out with a Clubhouse clone called Reddit talk. Facebook is adding tools to their audio rooms to allow you to clip segments of content for posting, setting them apart from Clubhouse. Snapchat has often been the innovator and Facebook and Instagram frequently copy what they are doing.  You might say it is Facebook's modus operandi to copy features because they are doing the same thing with TikTok and now Clubhouse. The future has yet to be tapped on Clubhouse and there are going to be  major opportunities for business to consumer hence agent to consumer. Why is it important to start your own room in Clubhouse?” Child health experts are strongly advising against the creation of Facebook for kids. Tristan and Jeff weigh in with their opinions. Apple has decided to allow Parlor to come back to the app store. Highlights from YouTube’s recently released video that goes over how their video recommendation system works to help people understand what they need to be doing. Jeff asks, “when you find the latest trending stories, where do you get that from?” Resources Mentioned:   Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook |Facebook Group| Twitter | Instagram    Drunk on Social | Drunk On Social  Jeff Pfitzer | Instagram | TikTok Tristan Ahumada  | Facebook | YouTube Chase Tucker: Peloton Reddit Talk

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Driving for Dollars Founder Zack Boothe. Zack used to be a window cleaner before he grew a YouTube channel to millions of followers. From there, he entered the real estate investing game and never turned back, earning millions of dollars every year with his unique technique while teaching others to do the same!   Episode Highlights:  Zack was raised with a great work ethic and even had his first job when he was only 11-years-old. The window-cleaning business was Zack’s first business, which he grew to three trucks through some viral videos on YouTube. Eventually, Zack realized that his window-cleaning business wasn’t giving him financial freedom. Content creation for the window-cleaning business was just to add value to the team and audience. Books, podcasts, and other resources allowed Zack to educate himself on wholesaling. After his first sale, Zack realized that 2 types of sellers exist in the real estate game. As a real estate investor, it’s important to get to the seller before the agent gets there so you can negotiate your own finances. Agents should seek out other wholesalers purely because of the number of leads that they have access to. There are endless ways to make money on properties that would usually be described as undesirable. Signs of neglect are the desirable characteristics in Zack’s system for buying houses. The Deal Machine App has made Zack’s list-making technique exponentially easier and cheaper. Adding houses that have any physical signs of neglect increased the number of deals that Zack could get close in a month. Start with postcards because anyone that reaches out to you will be a very motivated seller. Texting and cold-calling are very similar techniques and will bring you just a handful of answers. Learn to recognize the hesitation in someone’s voice over the phone because those are the potential sales. Real estate agents have a unique opportunity to move these properties onto the market quicker because that is what is best for the seller. You cannot presume what people think because you don’t know where the opportunity lies. Zack started giving away exactly what he wanted to receive when he took on students. The giving strategy is a long game and expecting overnight success will only lead to disappointment. Cutting corners for immediate gratification will always come back to bite you in the end. Tackling the problems in life always comes with a long-term strategy. The whole process starts with finding the discounted property. Zack is going to go to a new market with $1K and try to turn it into $40K in 40 days on his YouTube channel. COVID hasn’t stopped Zack or his investors from doing deals. The market is out of your control, so all you can do is constantly work towards bettering and educating yourself. 3 Key Points: Zack created YouTube videos to educate his team and audience. The viral videos and subsequent revenue from those were just a result of the value that was being given out to the world. Through years of testing, Zack has been able to create a real estate investment system based on one simple principle: investment opportunities lie in the signs of neglect.  When Zack took on students, he was able to learn from all the mistakes that he didn’t even know he was making. Giving out what he wanted to receive helped him grow and hit his goals. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Zack Boothe (Website), (YouTube), (Facebook) Free DFD Mastery Seller Scripts DFD Cheat Sheet Deal Machine App - Use Discount Code PIN Window Cleaning Ventures - YouTube Follow Up Boss StreetText

Today on the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff and Tristan will share an interview with London Lazerson; Heis a TikTok and Social Media influencer with a HUGE following of over 8.5 million on TikTok and over 600 million views just in 2021. He gives great advice on how to get started on TikTok; You don’t want to miss it!   London is hitting up to 9 million followers on TikTok. Tristan asks him how he went from just under 4 million to here within less than a year? London got 1.5 million followers in thirty days. He explains the grind that allowed to achieve it. Ever wonder what the ROI is on TikTok? What is the opportunity? London discusses the creator fund versus bigger monetization. If you’re a small business with not much marketing budget, London has advice for you, too. Big businesses need help on Social and are looking for it! Lots of ideas but not sure where to start? London weighs in his advice for posting and figuring out what works for you and the algorithm. London is testing to find the next viral trend. How does he do it? How do you manage burnout when it comes to constantly creating? What does structure look like? Tristan asks how London shoots content two days a week and how he handles posting. London makes recommendations for what to use for video editing and how to do it. Jeff mentions Business Video School, a sponsor to this podcast, who teaches editing skills that you need for Social. For a real estate agent, who wants to start making videos to get their name out there, should it be a separate account or their same personal account? For the biggest brands nowadays it’s more about the founder or the president because people want that personal feel. London shares that once you’re willing to market you have to be willing to cold DM. He explains his success in that area. In scheduling, how do you guard against lacking passion? Is TikTok experiencing a temporary high or will it remain a popular lucrative platform in the future? London shares stats about TikTok that highlight where the opportunity is. Everybody wants to consume TikTok and it bleeds everywhere, that speaks levels to  what TikTok has done to change culture.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor)   London Lazerson: https://www.TikTok.com/@londonlaz? https://bio.link/londonlaz/ https://www.instagram.com/londonlaz/ https://www.facebook.com/london.lazerson https://twitter.com/londonlaz https://www.linkedin.com/in/londonlazerson/

Coming out of a year that has been difficult and going into a year that could potentially be even more difficult, agents should have a lens to think of other ways to create wealth, especially for the long term. How should you invest in your future now? Tune in today to hear Jeff talk with Lauren Rosin. She has been in the business for over 20 years and has a ton of knowledge and experience to share. Episode Highlights: Lauren Rosin introduces herself. She grew up in Brooklyn, NY. When she was about to turn 20 she left to attend school in Arizona and was waiting tables to make money. Her neighbor told her when she graduated to call mortgage leads. As Lauren grew in her knowledge of finance she also educated herself on taxes and strategy. Lauren shares how she got her real estate license and started out. As a realtor, you have more options than most to find good deals. Lauren now runs a large team in Scottsdale, AZ and San Diego. When Lauren interviews real estate agents she asks if they get into the business to have more time. If that is their main reason she tells them that they are in the wrong business. She discusses how the recent strong market has created weak realtors and many need retraining. Are you struggling in your real estate business? What are you doing or not doing to succeed in the business? Write down everything you’re doing and evaluate it honestly then make a calendar to set up a plan for success. What about plugging into a team with real systems and processes? Jeff says,  “If someone is relatively new to the business, who should they be calling every single day?” What about specializing? Lauren gives some examples of focus. How can you make a mark on a community and become known? Niching down may be a cliche statement this year but it also may be a really important concept, too. Jeff and Lauren discuss. What if you’re hiring for your team? Lauren says to stop hiring out of desperation and talks about how you can ask better questions. Lauren shares her process for interviewing and hiring. What are “must ask” questions during an interview? Lauren’s sales manager taught her to stop setting other people’s goals. How many realtors invest in real estate? The answer might shock you. Lauren shares how she built her business by teaching people to buy rental properties and manage them. Jeff and Lauren discuss the objections about the market and investing. How are you going to plan for the future?   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor) lauren@laurenrosin.com https://www.instagram.com/laurenrosin/?hl=en https://www.rosinteamsd.com/splash-page

On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff talks to Brad McCallum. About a year and a half ago, Brad started to get a little bit of hype and interest around the videos that they were doing, but he didn’t quite feel like he deserved it yet. Today Jeff and Brad are going to talk about video, building a brand, and growing a massive, successful business! Episode Highlights:  Brad sold $71 million personally last year. He creates really cool high-end listing videos and then also shares behind the scenes through short form Instagram stories.   Brad thinks the biggest thing that prevents the bottom 98 is “Need.” So, for him it is that need that helps reach that percent even when they grow past the point of having a financial need. All coaches are now talking about the importance of agents growing personal brands. Brad had the good fortune of getting into the field of personal branding a little bit ahead of time. It was just because he was a new agent and didn’t have the bad fortune of already making ~$400,000 a year. Jeff has been in the business 20 plus years and Brad has only been in less than five, but they still found the same path through innovation.   Agents that get tripped up on the idea that they have to be in the top one or two percent to get an audience, to get people to care about them, to get people to like them, follow them, use them, work with them- Tthat is just a fallacy.  When you are short on money, and you don’t have enough clients, and you are wondering what to do, there is a need to develop new strategies in your business; But when you have enough, where is that motivation that you will find in your life to create a need where there really isn’t one? The necessity to get in front of the camera is not going to make or break you. There are other ways you can do it. You are just creating a disadvantage for yourself. You can create an advantage for yourself by getting over that fear in a sustainable business plan that is above any antiquated plan.  Brad had only had an absolute frenzy of business for the last six to nine months. He shares what that has looked like for him.  Brad has so many more homes to sell right now at a time when most agents don’t have inventory.  Agents, when it’s a buyer’s market, don’t invest into listing and marketing and that stuff, and they don’t do it because they believe it’s going to be a poor ROI. To project our true selves onto the screen, we truly do have to absolutely amplify our personal traits. When you are on camera, it sucks 50% of your energy and your intent out of that conversation, no matter what you do.We want people to feel how we feel about them. But the problem is the camera doesn’t allow us to do that, and when we add in that level of self-doubt, that self-awareness that we are in front of a camera, that just pulls away that extra little bit of our real selves.  3 Key Points: Brad talks about his business in general and how it is built around the whole video concept.  Brad shares how he has built his business in a recession in Calgary. They have only had a market that has been low on inventory for five and a half months.  None of the fame part or the influence part matters for Brad, all of this has been a vehicle for him to provide for his family with a big life and a better future.    Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Street Text (Sponsor) zBuyer (Sponsor) Brad McCallum  | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, hosts Tristan Ahumada and Nick Baldwin speak with Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First. In his book, Mike challenges the myth that profit comes last. Learn about his brilliant behavioral cash management system that enables you to pay yourself first and achieve greater organizational efficiency. This conversation will change how you look at business profitability and how you can create more wealth.   Episode Highlights:  People are focusing too much on gross commission without considering what they’re actually bringing home. The words we use around profitability often associate profit with being last or at the end. There’s a lot of emphasis being placed on hustle and grind. The goal instead should be efficiency. How can you drive better results by leveraging what you have? Leveraging is the new hustle. There are always resources around you that can be leveraged. Tristan asks which step in Clockwork is the hardest to implement. Mike explains how every company has a big promise it makes to customers. Once a company figures out that big promise, they can focus on their core competency in fulfilling that promise. In Profit First, Mike describes five foundational accounts. The first account is the income account, which is a depository only. The second account is the profit account, which functions as a reward for investing in a business. The third account is for owner’s compensation. The fourth account is for taxes. The fifth account is operating expenses. Sales minus profit equals expenses. Profit First describes a behavioral cash management system.  Take profit first. Then your money will tell you what you have left to run the business. There’s a difference between making money and taking money. Money does facilitate happiness to a certain degree because it amplifies our ability to do things. It makes things more accessible. Setting up behavioral intercepts is easier than changing habits. Mike describes examples of small behavioral intercepts he uses in his personal life. He’s clear on the outcomes and impact he wants to have. Whatever we feel called to in the moment that drives us, that's purpose, and I think that's a tool to be leveraged. They discuss how Profit First can be analogous to personal health case studies. Questions dictate outcomes. Mike encourages people to ask absurd questions and challenge standard notions. Thinking outside the box is how you’ll outpace your industry. They discuss a case study in Profit First about cost reduction.  Mike describes a case study about increasing margins.  You need to hire a personal assistant yesterday. They discuss opportunity costs associated with administrative tasks. Mike’s next book will be Fix This Next.  Once you pinpoint your challenge, then you can go for resources. Mike recommends some useful books.    3 Key Points: People hesitate to pay themselves first because they’ve been conditioned to think they have to work harder and hustle. When a company identifies the biggest promise it is making, then it can focus on the core competency that helps them deliver that promise. Setting up behavioral intercepts is easier than changing habits.   Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Mike Michalowicz website, Twitter, Facebook, podcast, Instagram, YouTube Profit First (book) Clockwork (book) The Pumpkin Plan (book) The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (book) Fix This Next (book) If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (book) Never Lose a Customer Again (book) The E Myth (book)   Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

Attracting leads is a whole lot more fun (and profitable!) than chasing them. But many real estate agents struggle with designing a lead gen system that works for the long term. Dean Jackson is the father of postcard farming, and he has created a method for getting prospects to raise their hands year after year. Today, Dean joins Tristan to discuss how his early days of cold calling inspired him to develop a postcard farming system. He shares the progression of his marketing strategy, from getting his name out there to getting prospects names to come in. Dean explains why he shifted from targeting clients in the market to sell NOW to cast a wider net in a particular neighborhood. Listen in for insight on how providing a free report on home prices leads to long-term success and learn why there is big opportunity in real estate for savvy agents who understand marketing! Key Takeaways How Dean was inspired by Claude Hopkins’ customer-centric approach to marketing Dean’s advice on building a business that fits naturally with your likes/tendencies How the hamster wheel of cold calling led Dean to create a postcard farming system Dean’s shift from getting his name out there to getting prospects names to come in How Dean leverages self-interest to attract clients in the market to sell NOW Why providing a free report on home prices has proven to be most successful How Dean supplements his postcard farming system with social media marketing The case study demonstrating the longevity of Dean’s free report strategy How Dean amplifies the impact of his postcards with ‘breaking news’ videos Why Dean sees big opportunity in real estate despite the likely market shift Connect with Dean Jackson GoGoAgent Connect with Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group Resources My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins Strategic Coach

Michael LaFido, Founder at Luxury Listing Specialist Certification (LUXE), Realtor, and Author, talks to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast host Jeff Pfitzer. Michael LaFido discusses how he went from being a part-time real estate agent to becoming a luxury listing specialist. Learn how to break into gaining trophy listings, resources for growing in the high-end market, and the nuggets of knowledge that have expanded Michael LaFido’s business.  Episode Highlights:  Michael LaFido shares his upbringing and background What Michael was doing when he was working part-time early on in his life Michael’s advice for part-time agents looking to expand The biggest factor that contributed to Michael LaFido’s success  How Michael handles by-owner situations and gets the word out How did Michael LaFido elevate to becoming the luxury listing specialist?  The categories most homes fall into How agents can use trophy listings to gain credibility Michael is a big believer in content marketing  Don’t “what-if” yourself to the death of your real estate career YouTube is one of the primary search sources for Google  How long do you really want to hold onto a listing?  Getting an appraisal upfront is an investment Ways to understand the luxury market better  The educational value Michael LaFido provides  Have three social media platforms that you are consistent and competent in 3 Key Points: You can’t be shy in real estate. Think like a marketer, not an agent.  Think like how the prospect thinks: what is in it for them?  Michael LaFido’s steps to success are having a strong mental foundation, and having the tools and resources.  Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Michael LaFido: Linkedin  Email Luxury Listing Specialist: Website     Facebook   YouTube   Video Blog   LLS Gear Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During today’s episode, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Coach Micheal Burt, a championship basketball coach who pivoted to a highly successful career in corporate coaching. In this episode, Coach Burt will teach you how to become a person of interest to take your business to the next level.   Episode Highlights:  Coach Micheal Burt began coaching basketball teams in his teens. He spent a decade building a national championship program. He began reading mindset books at a young age and was highly influenced by the work of Stephen Covey. He realized he could coach every day and fulfill his financial goals by pivoting to business coaching. The average American might not understand why they should invest in coaching. The success of coaching depends not on the mentor, but on the mentee. If you want to learn something, it's your responsibility to extract as much value as you can. Coach Burt would never show up to a coaching session without being prepared to extract information. He makes up his mind what he's going to get from a coach and gets that thing. A good coach will help you find and feel your missing structures. His life's work is about helping people get to the next level. To get better at things, you must practice and put in the work. When you're at a conference, put yourself in the position to learn something. You could see Coach Burt speak, but it's hard for him to change your behavior unless he spends time with you. You need to have an affinity with the person coaching you. Ask who gets your attention and what they do. Look at who else your coach has coached. People of interest have credibility indicators. If people don't know how good you are, then you're a secret. You can't sell a secret. Coach Burt helps people tell their stories, explain their value, write books, make videos, and host events. Coach Burt uses the books he's written as business cards. Put things out in the market that indicate you're doing big things in the world. Coach Burt watched his wife's confidence increase when she wrote a book. People of interest have specific knowledge. People of interest have impeccable skills. Make an effort. Most agents do not prospect enough. You need to be prospecting a minimum of two hours a day. To be a person of interest you need confidence. His book Single Digit Millionaire is about how to find your primary skill so you can make more money with that skill. Once you figure out what your primary skill is, then figure out who will pay you the most for those skills. Define your audience and then figure out what it is they want and need. 3 Key Points:   If you want to learn something, it's your responsibility to extract as much value as you can from the teacher, mentor, or course.   People of interest tell their stories, explain their value, write books, make videos, and host events.   You need to be a specialist, not just a realtor. Define your audience and meet their needs. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Coach Burt website, YouTube, Instagram Take advantage of Coach Burt’s free top-selling books at coachburt.com. Single Digit Millionaire (book) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (book) Person of Interest (book) The Accountable Church (book) Small Towns and Big Dreams (book) Living with a Monster (book) Monster Publishing Retreat Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Stephen Wible, a Marine Corps veteran with extensive experience in real estate who is now the Director of Business Development for Credit Suite. Stephen is an expert on the subject of business credit. This episode will teach you how you can build business credit that is not tied to your social security number.  Episode Highlights:  Stephen Wible is originally from Philadelphia. He was in the Marine Corps, then started a printing company which he later sold. He then became a real estate investor and a realtor, then found his position at Credit Suite. Business credit is credit that's tied to your business and not to you personally. With business credit, your business can generate credit in the business name that you do not personally guarantee or sign for. If you're a real estate agent and don't have an LLC or an S corp, you should get one. When naming your LLC, you never want to pigeonhole yourself. Lenders and creditors have what is known as high-risk industries and real estate is one of them. If you put real estate in the title of your company, you will be pigeon-holed as high-risk right away. Make your LLC name as vanilla as possible. If you're getting paid personally from your broker, deposit everything in the LLC. You have to have a mind shift. It's the company's money and you need to then pay yourself.  Decide whether you want to have credit for that company. If you want credit for that company, there are some steps you need to take. The business credit world is looking for fraud. They start with your email address. They are looking to see if you have an email address set up for your business. The second thing they will catch is virtual phone numbers. Your number needs to be listed with the national 411 database. If you're not listed with the national 411 database you're not considered a legitimate business by lenders and you are denied. The third thing is the address. A lot of real estate investors like to use P.O. boxes. That is a big red flag when borrowing money. Go with either your home, a virtual office, or a commercial building. A commercial building would be the best, virtual is next, your home is ok. Everything else fails. If you can pass those tests you'll get approved quickly. You'll be approved for $1k initially and you could build up to $50k-$100k within six months. Why not get that car in the company name? Typically you will even get better terms. Your limits will be higher. When you're audited, you can hand the IRS all your business credit statements and show them all of your expenses. Talk to your accountant about how you can make business credit work for your particular situation. Most business credit lenders are only going to look at your business, not your personal finances. They will be looking at the credibility issues. Have a business bank account. Do not run it through your personal account. You are a business the day you open your business bank account. Your bank actually gives you a credit score based on that bank account. You'll go to Net 30 lenders first. With Net 30, you get approved for credit with someone and then they give you Net 30 terms. You have thirty days to pay after receiving an invoice. Once you begin paying, they'll begin reporting that to business credit reporting agencies. Once you have three tradelines, Duns & Bradstreet will generate a paydex which is like your FICO score. In the business credit world, if you have nothing reporting, Experian reports that you are borderline bankrupt. Having tradelines changes how other businesses and vendors see you. The first thing liability insurance companies due is to pull your business credit report. All the things that you need to run your business day to day, you can buy utilizing business credit and never touch your personal credit. 35% of your score is utilization. Steve shares how someone took his utilization on his personal cards, transferred them to the business cards that he knows do not report on his personal credit, and now his utilization went down to nothing. He now has six-figure credit available personally and another six-figure credit available business-wise. Business credit is fast-moving and changes constantly, thus Steve’s book is outdated. Updated information is available for free at www.creditsuite.com  This strategy is scalable. You can open five LLCs and build a credit profile for all five of them. This is not a replacement for bad personal credit. This is one of those vehicles that will give you more opportunities to invest in more real estate. Steven used business credit to get into flipping properties. If you don't have the cash and you always wanted to get into flipping properties, if you have a strong business credit profile and you have high-limit credit with the type of companies you need it with, you could rehab a property without putting any money out of your pocket. He would get estimates from vendors and then negotiate so he could make a profit on construction. Business credit is reported based on your address, not your social security number. Sam's Club will give you a traveling MasterCard with a $25k limit in the business name not tied to you personally. This is valuable information that you have the opportunity to get for free. 3 Key Points: With business credit, you can generate credit in the name of the business that you do not personally guarantee or sign for.  Once you open a business bank account, you’ll want to establish tradelines that will legitimize your business in the eyes of other vendors.  Business credit can be leveraged to pursue opportunities in real estate.  Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.comBusiness Credit (book) Credit Suite website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, podcast Contact Steve at info@creditsuite.com or stephen@creditsuite.com Grasshopper Ring Central Quill Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

On today's episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff is going to talk to Cody Tuma, a team leader broker out of the state of Oregon. In five years of his real estate business, he has found a platform called OfferForm - A tool to streamline the collection of offer information while simultaneously providing buyer education. Don’t miss his interview with valuable insights.   Episode Highlights: Cody was in college and did some e-commerce businesses and never really thought that real estate would be on his radar. Cody got his real estate license just kind of on the side as a side gig and sold his brother's house and made like $10,000 on his first paycheck. As a real estate agent, Cody always treated himself as a business or a business owner and always thought about what he could do to bring more business. The biggest thing that Cody wanted to do was set up the appointment and meet leads actually in person, because as soon as you meet the lead in person there is more of that relationship aspect of things. Many people get into the real estate business thinking to themselves that if it's family time, I am not answering my phone, but this is not the reality to get success, you need to control your schedule, says Jeff. Cody used lion desk and it was great all-in-one compassing CRM, but the follow up system that he used then is kind of been modified to what he is using now, but it's still kind of based on the core principles. Few years ago, Cody got into the expired listings and the sale by owners, and he has similar automation set up for these. Cody has a setup in the system to where it will remind him to personally send a text or an e-mail or phone call to past client because with those people, he wants it to be as personalized as possible.  If you are not closing five to ten deals a month, there is time in the day to work on the stuff to get disciplined enough, says Jeff. The originative of OfferForm was two years ago when the real estate market was just on absolute fire. OfferForm was born out of a need out of necessity in Cody's business. There were so many data points that Cody was gathering on the offers and he had spent so much back and forth over text or phone calls on gathering up the data that he needed for the offers. Cody talks about some of the things that he is doing to stay in touch with his past customers. Cody just sent OfferForm to his buyers and they got him all the information that he needed to write the offer and if it's going to be a competitive situation then they included some questions. Cody mentioned creating evergreen videos. He talks about what that is and how he is using it to scale his business? Evergreen video is a video that can be recorded like one time and repurposed throughout like indefinitely. Evergreen video content is something that Cody can just keep reusing over and over again that allows him to scale without having to recreate that video every single time. Cody uses chime as main system, and it gives him the ease of use and the flexibility and power that he needs from the power agent's point of view. With the commercial property that Cody had purchased, he was actually able to mitigate majority of his tax liability for 2021. 3 Key Points: Cody shares what led him to build out his own platform which is OfferForm. Cody's success especially with the online leads was making sure that he had a system in place to handle those online leads and a big part of that was a good CRM. For those with hefty tax liabilities, Cody would encourage them to look into purchasing some of the larger assets to where they can take a cost segregation study and then do bonus depreciation to deduct a lot of tax liabilities.   https://www.offerform.com/ cody@offerform.com https://www.instagram.com/codytuma/

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Jack Tompkins, the owner of The Pineapple Consulting Firm, where he helps business leaders simplify their data to grow their companies!  Episode Highlights:  Currently living in Charlotte, NC, Jack knows what it’s like to live in a booming real estate market. Jack grew up in the corporate world as an analyst in the homeowner’s insurance sector. With a desire to help the little guy by using his analytical skills, Jack started his own consulting firm. As a young man, Jack learned quite a bit about data work and financials through Hartford Insurance’s leadership development program. By taking data from the P&L and putting it in charts and graphs, Jack is able to help business owners understand what is happening in their business. Clients come to Jack to convert their data into something that anyone can digest, thus saving them time. Tracking prices will help real estate agents keep a finger on the pulse of the market at all times. Data is going to help agents decide which market movements are random and which ones are trends to act on. Customer Relationship Management (CRMs) can be consolidated to make data less messy. By showing home buyers trends over time around homes that they are interested in, you can give them something to grab onto. Compared to the chart from the MLS, Jack’s visuals bring numbers to life by creating a geographic map. Most agents don’t think about a client’s perspective when they are presented with complicated data. No matter how old you are, your eyes will always be drawn to visuals over words and numbers. By plotting data points on a range, agents can give sellers a visual of where the price point should be. The more you can simplify the data, the easier it will be to have the price conversation with sellers. Make things easier on yourself by making things easier on the client; clean up the messy data. Converting data from the CRM into a simple visual is going to save you boatloads of time. You can set up indicators through whatever CRM you use that will help you prioritize your tasks as time goes. Jack’s firm can help agents add a personal touch to their businesses by complementing their CRMs. Right now, Jack has one real estate client that uses his services to project the financial future of different markets for investor presentation. Clients usually approach Jack with their ideas and he is able to mold the data to their needs. There really is no secret to Jack’s methods, just the use of Excel and Tableau. As Jack moves into the real estate industry, his goal is to help those who want to make their client conversations easier. To see if Jack’s services can help you, you can set up a consultation through his website. Dissecting and displaying the data may be boring to most but it is absolutely necessary in today’s world. 3 Key Points: Early in his career, Jack worked as a product manager in the world of homeowner’s insurance where he learned how to digest a massive amount of data. A combination of price tracking, CRM consolidation, and gut instinct helps agents prepare to respond to trends in the market. Jack’s company, The Pineapple Consulting Firm, takes mountains of complicated data and essentially dumbs it down for anyone to view and digest. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Jack Tompkins (LinkedIn) Pineapple Consulting Firm (website, Facebook) Tableau MortgageCoach LinkU (sponsor) RedX (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Avery Carl, who bought her first vacation property at the age of twenty-six on just a $37k per year salary. Now, she’s a millionaire in her early thirties by taking her first-class ticket into the real estate market provided by her knowledge as an agent! Episode Highlights:  Avery grew up wanting to be a rockstar and worked in the marketing side of the music industry for a few years after school. It didn’t take long for Avery to figure out that she was a terrible employee and bought a rental property in Tennessee to start a side business. In the Smoky Mountains, Avery discovered a decades-old vacation rental property gold mine. With a husband that mirrored a terrible client, Avery got her real estate license and began building her empire. In less than six years, Avery went from one rental property to a portfolio worth multiple millions. When it comes to short-term rentals, focus on areas that are weekend spots just outside of your metro area. Every town has something to offer as far as great real estate investments, you just have to find it. True-vacation markets run the risk of not being able to convert short-term rentals into long-term in case of emergency. Many agents make the mistake of automatically referring out vacation markets that are more than an hour away. Agents who do not have the time to drive three hours to a property can hire showing agents. Online data is available for all agents, though Avery found her ideal locations via in-person experience. Depending on asset class and the distance an agent is willing, agents can choose the best investing locations for them. In vacation areas, during times of distress, you will see people sell off their investment properties and vacation homes before things get to their primary home. Mature vacation rental markets have normalized renting privately-owned properties over hotels. Avery recommends a mix of Airbnb and VRBO as platforms to market short-term rentals for investors. Financing options include putting 20% down with a normal loan, 10% down vacation-home loan, and Host Financial specialty loans. Host Financial lends on the potential income of short-term rental properties for both individuals and LLCs. Managers for short-term rentals charge about 25% of gross income which is much higher than long-term rentals. Most people that Avery knows in the short-term rental space self manage in order to build a solid portfolio. Fixing mishaps in your property is the same whether you are two miles away or two thousand miles away. Expectations for repairs are ASAP for emergencies and whenever help can get out for other problems. Expressing the income as a percentage of the purchase price is the deciding metric that Avery uses to evaluate a property. Utilize the Enemy Method and look on rental platforms to see what other properties charge in the same neighborhood. Get as many data points as you possibly can in order to make the best property evaluation possible. Management companies are willing to share data and metrics about properties in their area because they want you to hire them. Many agents live commission to commission, making it important to set up a source of secondary income. 3 Key Points: Investing in real estate is almost like insider trading for agents because they can build a passive stream of income with the knowledge that they’ve acquired through their work. In mature markets, it’s a norm that people rent private properties rather than hotels, as compared to a young market that does not accommodate short-term rentals. In order to self-manage, investors will have to communicate via their platform of choice and will not get as many late-night calls as is commonly assumed. Avery suggests establishing relationships with local repair services. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents | Website| Facebook |Facebook Group| Twitter | Instagram | Avery Carl  | Website| Facebook | The Short Term FB Group | Host Financial Chime (sponsor) LinkU (sponsor) LCA Marketing Center (sponsor)

On today's episode, host Jeff Pfitzer talks with Cheri Benjamin  about her life and journey of how she got into Real Estate. She is now a member of a new platform called ‘Closing the Gap’; It is about bridging the generational divide. Cheri regards every agent she meets as a new or existing leader. She emphasizes how if you are just entering the industry, you are a leader and that is the mindset you must have. Tune in now.   Episode Highlights: Cheri owns a brokerage firm and their headquarters is in Atlanta;  They have around 400 agents. They are in Georgia, Florida, Maryland, DC, and Virginia and they are in the midst of expansion.  What a lot of people aren't realizing is, over the next couple of years, you are going to see a lot of contraction, and especially in the mortgage business and it's going to happen in the real estate business, says Jeff. Real Estate is a business where you are growing your vendors or your partners.  You do need to find people with the right mindset and have the partnership mentality, because that is the key, says Jeff. Cheri talks through different types of deals and how you should be approaching them. What happens if you advise your client to shop? Cheri's sister’s brokerage called Cole Realty Group, started this with Zillow. A lot of people don't realize that the panel speaker is actually a Zillow coach. “Less than 5% of agents are black and brown in the entire United States”, Cheri states. Jeff was at the National Association of Real Estate brokers. He loved it.  We just have a lot to catch up with all of that lack of education. What about marketing events? Cheri' shares about a friend of hers  and his approach to them. Cheri had a team of 46, and that is a lot to manage. It's much easier for her to have a brokerage of 400 than a team of 46- It's all leverage. What does leverage and at the brokerage level? Cheri's biggest year in growth was from her New Year's resolution. She always made her New Year's resolution in October because that is part of her business planning and her life planning, and everything else.  Diversity in all forms is beautiful; That is how we learn, and that is how we grow. 3 Key Points: The Real Estate industry is very old school and there are a lot of old school leaders teaching new school agents the wrong way. Jeff and Cheri discuss the differences. The politics behind business and politics behind Real Estate affects investment and communities.  Right before COVID hit, Cheri bought this company. It was a lot to take on, but they have grown it. She shares about the journey.   Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor)  Street Text (Sponsor) Cheri@villagepremier.com https://www.instagram.com/cheribenjamin/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/cheriballen    

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Tristan Ahumada, Nick Baldwin, and Eric Sachs, of The Breakthrough Broker, interview best-selling author Hal Elrod. Hal shares ideas on how to increase your income by starting with a consistent morning routine that you choose and commit to. You will be inspired. Episode Highlights:  The practice of the miracle morning turned Hal's life around in 2008, during the recession. He decided to figure out how to work on himself to grow his business. Within two months he had doubled his income and it felt like a miracle. SAVERS is the acronym Hal uses in his book. The acronym stands for silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing. Hal didn't invent these timeless practices. He realized the world's most fulfilled people have sworn by these practices for centuries. Nobody was doing all six of these practices. Hal is currently fighting cancer and facing the effects of treatment. When we overcome adversity, we can then help others overcome it. He has been asking himself how his miracle morning is different now from how it was in 2008. Affirmations are often misunderstood. Affirm what you are committed to. Affirm why it's crucial that you follow through with your commitment. The purpose of affirmation is repetition. Don’t forget the fundamentals. People often ask if they can do the miracle morning routine at different times of day. Yes, these practices work at any time of day. But the maximum benefit comes from doing them in the morning, when you optimize who you are and take that into your day. There's a compound effect to doing it all together. The Miracle Morning is customizable. You can do it in any duration. Most people do a one-hour miracle morning. The order is also customizable. Silence allows you to calm your nervous system. Affirmations will get you fired up. Visualizations will help you plan for how to achieve the end result. You've got to visualize yourself engaged in the activity today that will move you in the direction of the long-term vision. Visualization can be a type of rehearsal. When you think about your bedtime routine, remember that the first thought you have in the morning is usually the last thought you had before bed. The secret is to feel good first. Make a vow that you're going to experience joy in everything that you do. We need to feel peaceful and grateful even as we're going through these difficult times. Mediocrity is not as comparative as people may think.  Mediocrity is accepting less than we want, than we're capable of, and that we deserve. When we settle for mediocrity, we unconsciously give permission to those around us to do the same. The greatest gift that we can give to another person is to fulfill our potential. Hal discusses his cancer diagnosis and why he decided to pursue chemotherapy to beat difficult odds. When he was twenty years old he created the miracle equation to try to break a company sales record. He shared it with colleagues and it worked for them. First, he had unwavering faith that he would beat cancer. The second decision you must make is to maintain extraordinary effort. Extraordinary effort is consistency. Do one thing every day that moves you in the direction of your mission. Maintain unwavering faith with a written statement that you read every single day with conviction. Hal shares his miracle mantra. Focus on the faith and the commitment you have instead of the fear. The faith fuels the effort and the effort fuels the faith. Hal shares his view on sleep. Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep but tell yourself no matter how many hours you're getting, you're going to wake up energized and enthused. 3 Key Points: The Miracle Morning combines six time-tested practices that have been adopted by highly successful individuals.  The Miracle Equation combines unwavering faith with extraordinary effort.  You can focus on faith instead of fear to create miracles in your life.  Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Breakthrough Broker Hal Elrod website, Podcast, Youtube Bedtime affirmations   The Miracle Morning (book) The Miracle Equation (book) Love, Medicine, and Miracles (book) Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Adrian Fisher, Founder of Property Simple. They discuss how you can simplify the big job of content creation and marketing yourself online through Adrian’s robust automation system. This episode is a must-listen if you feel overwhelmed about using social media to build your business. Episode Highlights:  Adrian begins with a fun story about a friendship that changed his life. Adrian shares how he ended up working remotely and building websites in Argentina. He participated in Chile's first government-backed startup incubator and built a payment system. Within eighteen months, they became the second-largest property portal using targeted ads on social media. Adrian saw an opportunity to leverage this strategy in the United States when his father became a realtor. Adrian describes his ideal customer. They came up with a collections feature that can showcase very specific categories, such as houses with pools all located in a certain zip code. Your average solo agent doesn't have the time for a lot of content marketing. Property Simple allows agents to have a decent online presence. You stay in front of people when the buy cycle is long with content marketing. Adrian’s first piece of advice is to not overthink it and just get started. He discusses the importance of being authentic and looking your best. Use brand alignment to make sure your content matches across platforms. Use anchor content to generate micro-content. Building your brand on social media takes 2-3 years. Property Simple takes care of all the social content, some types of video, and ads. They have a built in CRM to capture leads. Remember to project happiness and optimism. People want to do business with positive people. 3 Key Points: An automated social media service can be an ideal solution for the average agent who doesn’t have much time to create content. Just get started with content creation and don’t overthink it.  Remember that if you create great anchor content, that content can be re-purposed across channels. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Adrian Fisher Facebook, LinkedIn Property Simple website Positioning (book) Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with wholesaler Cody Hofhine. Cody shares his strategy for connecting wholesale investors with cash buyers to generate more deals. Listen for a ton of impactful marketing and business development advice. Episode Highlights:  Cody is not a licensed real estate professional. Cody started as a sales rep for vinyl fencing and found a mentor in a colleague in that field. This led him to being a salesperson for homeowner insurance and founded his own insurance agency. He found his way into wholesaling homes, asked someone to mentor him, and he was told no because he didn’t want more competitors.  Cody started self-educating with podcasts and other resources, and within 40 days he got his first deal that paid him $24,000. Lab Coat Agents works from a place of abundance not scarcity, and Jeff points out that the person who turned down Cody as mentor is probably working from a scarcity mindset. Cody has an unstoppable drive and was willing to take imperfect action to get started. While transitioning from homeowners insurance sales to wholesaling, Cody began delegating a lot of his insurance work to others so he could focus on wholesaling. Within the first 6 months, Cody was doing a quarter million dollars in revenue, and within 18 months he had had his first million dollar year. For Cody, the key has been effective marketing. Cody made his marketing headlines match the main message he was hearing from existing clients. Licensed realtors can do a similar thing by asking people what they liked about the realtor they hired and taking that data and using it in your own marketing. Put your marketing in layman’s terms that people can understand and that meets your customer where they are. Cody suggests finding wholesalers at investment clubs and match-making them with cash buyers, found through the Real Estate Investor Association. Use Facebook groups to find wholesalers.  Nothing about entrepreneurship is easy, but it is simple. Cody is confident that everyone knows at least 7-10 real estate agents, but those aren’t the contacts a person needs when they are in a distressed situation and need to sell their home or don’t have the money to fix a distressed home. Most marketing communicates its whole message in the photo, which prevents people from actually reading what your message is because they already know they’re being sold to. Cody’s own marketing is just black text on a white background so that people are forced to actually read his message to know what it is. Only take advice from people you are willing to trade places with. Your income will never outpace your personal development. 3 Key Points: Be willing to take imperfect action rather than taking no action. Focus on marketing and meet your potential clients where they are. Work on your personal development and income will follow. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Cody Hofhine (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Website)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Erin Bradley, author of Pursuing Freedom. Bradley’s rags-to-riches story provides many strategies for those who like to serve and build referrals. Learn her techniques for building a deep referral network that will make you unforgettable.    Episode Highlights:    Bradley was frustrated and deeply in debt when she had the idea to build a referral directory of trusted local service providers. Even when her business was at rock bottom, she found a way to pay for a coach. There’s nothing more valuable than coaching and accountability. Bradley first invested in coaching to conquer her fear of sales and to help scale her business. She needed coaching again to help her transition into her current training and coaching role. Providing a comprehensive resource list to your clients can keep you top of mind. Always leave every phone call and meeting with an action item. People want to talk about themselves. Approach conversations with curiosity so you can identify where to serve. Find the action item and follow up.  Call your database and start filling up your resource list. Vet the people on your list as you build your tribe. You’re creating a living document. Any time you feel a lull in your business, you can recreate this process. Market your yellow pages. Tag vendors when you go out with them or work with them. The biggest roadblock for someone not meeting their volume goals is simply activity. The more they see you, the more they’re going to remember you. People need to know that business will have its ups and downs. Lenders should also be consistent with past client followup. People falsely believe that everyone else is implementing strategies like this. They're not. What is the depth of your relationship with the people who are making it on to your list? Teach others to build their business by referral. You’re missing the boat if you’re simply handing out a list. Be a resource to everyone you meet.   3 Key Points: Build your referral network by providing value to the people on your vendor list. Consider the depth of your relationship with the people making it on to your vendor list. Teach others how to build their business by referral.    Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Erin Bradley on Facebook Pursuing Freedom (book) Pursuing Freedom Podcast Pursuing Freedom Episode 56 Pursuing Freedom website, Instagram The Go Giver (book) The Seven Levels of Communication (book) Build Your Tribe printable list   Connect with Lab Coat Agents: Lab Coat Agents on Facebook Lab Coat Agents on Twitter Lab Coat Agents on Instagram Lab Coat Agents Facebook Group

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer grills the Founder of Berman Media PD, Michelle Berman, about how real estate agents can use Instagram to establish their authority. Michelle built her business through DM engagement and now she teaches agents how to grow their Instagram presence and bring in more leads! Episode Highlights:  Instagram is the future of social media and because of that, business owners and marketers everywhere need to become proficient with it. Customer relations in a social media space was a very under-explored area, inspiring Michelle to dive in completely. Michelle saw many problems with the money to results ratio that she was seeing at her marketing firm, thus leading to the creation of Berman Media PD. Michelle’s swimming career took her from California all the way to Rutgers University. The whirlwind of emotional experiences that Michelle experienced during 9/11 led to her acceptance into a journalism program dedicated to honoring the 10th anniversary. Learning how to navigate social media platforms in an appropriate, professional, and effective manner influenced Michelle’s career choice. Michelle’s professional portfolio gave her the confidence to go out on her own, learning from her mistakes as she went. In 2018, social media influencing took a massive hit, so Michelle decided to reach out to a coach to help guide her through. In many corporate industries, age and experience can be a handicap, but Michelle uses that to her advantage. Michelle believes that people approach Instagram from a strictly professional perspective instead of putting their clients into the equation. The Instagram Power Method Program takes real estate agents through a transformational journey that helps them find what makes them different. Base your content on your clients’ pain points; show them that you can fix their problems. Most businesses know that they need to use social media but just don’t know how to do it effectively. Michelle specializes in working with real estate agents and loan officers to replace their marketing strategies with tactical Instagram marketing techniques. Content creation, and how to use that content effectively, is what clients will learn when working with Michelle. Michelle breaks down the top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, and bottom-of-funnel lead system, and where social media sits in that system. Younger generations are using Instagram as a search engine, not just for mindless content. Find out where your ideal clients live on social media and figure out a way to live there through the use of hashtags for engagement. Every single person that uses Instagram to market is using it for their own individual purpose. Somebody who already understands the power and necessity of Instagram is the kind of student that Michelle loves to work with. Implore these strategies and you will see that you are no longer spending so much time chasing your business. Real estate agents feel that if they work in a niche and specialize, it will stop people from reaching out to them. Michelle’s program teaches students how to niche down, strategically brand correctly, and how to create leads through engagement. The opportunity to change people’s lives for the better motivates Michelle to educate her students every day. Go all-in on social media marketing right now because you’ll be there in two years anyway. You should trust yourself enough to niche down and know that it will make you more successful. Identify your ideal clients and where they are coming from so that you can start engaging in that world and building trust. 3 Key Points: Instagram is the future of social media marketing, allowing real estate agents to find the world that their ideal clients live in and engage with that world. Michelle sells herself on the fact that she has built her entire career on making connections in her DMs and her ability to teach others how to do the same. While most people think of Instagram as a source of mindless content, younger generations are actually using it more and more as a search engine. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Michelle Berman: Instagram | Email | Website Chime (sponsor) LCA Marketing Center (sponsor) Adobe Photoshop and Design Canva

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Brad McCallum from Calgary, Canada about how video marketing has changed his life and career. With only 3 years of real estate experience under his belt, Brad has already found incredible success and wants to share his methods with you! Episode Highlights:  Getting into real estate in his late 30s, Brad has only been a real estate agent for 3 years. Before becoming a real estate agent, Brad managed a contracting business through an economic depression. At the same time that his business was in trouble, Brad discovered a deadly tumor on his face. Brad was forced to take action quickly to get rid of his tumor or else he risked it becoming cancerous. While everyone else was cold calling, bench plastering, and all the other old strategies, Brad decided to leverage modern technology. After getting his real estate license, Brad realized that the general public’s opinion of real estate agents was not correct. Good looks and a sexy/cinematic style play into the intimidation factor that Brad’s videos create. Initially, Brad decided to go into video because he believed it would help sell the home while also marketing himself and the home at the same time. You don’t need to buy professional camera equipment to create effective videos, but that’s exactly what Brad did. When he started, Brad’s onscreen presence was nothing close to what it was today, but he knew he had to take the first step. No one starts out as a pro, but consistent incremental steps can take you a long way in 6 months. If you can maximize what makes you unique as a human being, your videos will set you apart. Being genuine and transparent rather than preaching success will get to the client’s heart, the place that they buy from. When on camera, energy tends to be cut in half, so it’s important to remember that you cannot go too big, but you can go too small. Brad’s goal is to intimidate every other agent in his market, while hoping for success for agents outside of his market. Those that become conscious of people watching them film alter their actions and body language without knowing it. You should be willing to go big enough to embarrass yourself in front of others if it allows you to take care of those that depend on you. There have been multiple videos of Brad’s that have moved Jeff emotionally, and Brad attributes that effect to his ability to innovate rather than create. Brad explains the motivations behind some of his videos and the messages that he was hoping to send. The goal is to make clients see you as more than a realtor and more as someone that they can relate to. You have to be able to differentiate yourself from your competition beyond telling your clients that you care about them. There is only more competition coming with Zillow becoming a brokerage and Facebook constantly altering its advertising. Google is starting to offer to put YouTube video searches in its search results. Recently, knocking on the wrong door for a lead that he got over Instagram led to Brad getting a client that recognized him and his brand. Because of the high quality of his videos, Brad has become a media partner to high-end contracting businesses. You should learn how to do the basics of video creation yourself or else you risk outsourcing your personal brand. Figure out how to find the right videographer that will know how to portray you as the realtor in the right light. In the beginning, your quality doesn’t matter, what matters is that you start getting in front of the camera. 3 Key Points: With his contracting business on the downslope of economic depression and a tumor growing on his face, Brad decided to alter his path and get his real estate license. Brad believes that video gives agents the opportunity to build their brands in an organic way that will set them apart from their competition. After 3 years as a real estate agent, Brad has gone from 20 deals in his first year to 50 deals this year and a place in the top 0.05% of RE/MAX agents worldwide. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Brad McCallum (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Podcast) BrandBuilders Facebook Group Drunk on Social Facebook Group Followup Boss (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor)

    Today there is so much noise. You turn on your laptop or open Social Media apps and there are more messages being thrown at us than we can keep up with. On this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff talks with a good friend of his and is a part of the Lab Coat Agents, Alex Rivlin, who also authored the book, “Static”. How do you focus on really being present where you are? Tune in! Episode Highlights: Alex Rivlin is the guest on the podcast today. He is a good friend of Jeff’s and the author of a book called Static. Alex operates a team in real estate but he has been an entrepreneur for many years. He lives in Las Vegas with his girlfriend and two children. At 18, he started his first business in auto repair. He exited that business at 26 when he got into insurance. He then spun that off into a technology company, still with insurance where he grew to 165 employees in 3 years. When Alex exited that business he was looking to solve a new problem and help as many people as possible.  Alex shares the reason that he got into real estate specifically. He shares the stats in Las Vegas for real estate agents- 82% of agents don’t renew their license for the second year.  What is it that sets apart the people that could make it? Alex first looked into developing and as he was researching and analyzing he decided he could make more of an impact in the real estate side. Success has different definitions for everybody. Alex has a passion to help people achieve what that is for them whether more money, harmony within the areas of your life, passive income, etc. Alex owns some portion of five different companies and is happy to show people the paths he has followed. Jeff talks about why people often shift to real estate. He also talks about the difference between balance and harmony. Do you feel like balance is elusive? Alex has advice about reaching for happiness. “If you’re chasing happiness, it is an issue”, he says. How do you focus on really being present?  Society creates our narrative and we try to measure up with it but what if it is not what's right for you and your life and family? Create your own narrative, be proud of it and own it. Jeff asks Alex to touch on tactical things that many people struggle with.  When you compare the highlight reels with your behind the scenes, it's not good and it is often not what it seems. Alex shares a personal story about worry and being the person he thought everyone else expected him to be. He also shares how he navigated out of self-doubt. What is the difference between self-doubt, negative self talk, and areas of improvement? How does Social Media work along with good harmony and perspective? Alex talks about the questions he asks himself before going through with his plans, posts, etc. “Fake it till you make it” is one of Alex’s least favorite things. He recommends to throw that to the trash and instead, be authentic; Be who you are. You have the aptitude and ability to do fulfilling things.  Alex talks about an American socialist, Charles Cooley and how a quote of his really summarizes self identity. You don’t need to be what you think others are wanting you to be. In Alex’s book he goes through how the brain works and how influences shape us. Advice comes from a personal lens and personal experiences. It is important to be aware of that and consider if you should take or leave it. Static goes deep in all aspects of life, the best tools you can gain are those that help you sort through.  Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) Chime (Sponsor) Z buyer (sponsor) Alex Rivlin:  Paperback book STATIC by Alex Rivlin on Amazon https://www.instagram.com/alex_rivlin/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/alex.rivlin.1