CRACKING THE CODE: Social Media Strategies from a Real Estate Powerhouse!

Elisa Barajas, welcome to the Forward One podcast. Gentlemen, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Super grateful to have you here. Love your energy, your passion. It's been very inspiring to watch you grow and evolve in a very short period of time to becoming a top realtor. I appreciate it. So tell us a little bit about how you got into real estate. So my journey to real estate is a little bit different because I actually was in my undergrad, I was actually studying to be a physician's assistant. That was my goal. So much so that I even worked in like labor and delivery at Hoag Hospital. I was in the medical field. That was my journey. And I still admire those in the field. But I've been with my husband for 20 years, and he had always been in real estate. So when I saw what he was doing, he was managing rental properties. He was flipping houses while I was going to school. And then he had said, hey, you should just get your license to list the houses I flip. Simple as that. That world of real estate was just so different. I'm like, well, what am I supposed to do? He's like, I'll tell you what to do. Just get your license. Just list the house. After I graduated, I got my license and I was going to the next step to study. Then I listed a property of his. and I at the time I had represented the buyer on that property and I was like I was sold I was like this is pretty cool like it was just so different but then I on that property I remember I got another another client and then is when I got like my first real check and to be honest it was it was life-changing I'm like this could be something that I could maybe do and you know at the time But when my career was, I wanted something for my family. I wanted to build a career. I didn't, at the time I thought it was medical. But then as I look back, I realized that medical wasn't, it just wasn't for me. I just, so much in the medical field has changed. I wouldn't have seen that coming at the time, but that's how I got into it. And that was when? That was seven years ago. Okay. Oh, wow. I've only been licensed seven years. Wow. So give us a sense of how much business you do on an annual basis now for our audience. So they get a sense of what you've accomplished in seven years. Units, volume. Units, volume. So I go by units because honestly, so I used to focus on volume. I just let it go. I do my job. I work hard. I'm like, I'm just going to focus. So on average, as a solo agent who has recently built a team, which we could talk about that, is I do about 25 a year on my own solo. And it got to the point where it was like I needed help. and thank goodness, you know, I do have a full, I have a admin coordinator. Um, and then I recently brought on an agent and that has been life-changing too. I just feel grateful because I can, you know, I can bring jobs to others and I can bring more help to myself and bring back balance to my family, which is my time with my husband. Um, so it's, yeah, that's kind of where. That's awesome. 20, 25 deals in Southern California. Um, is solo is, is super, super impressive in a very short period of time. And what does your, what does your team look like now? Or when did you take on, uh, cause I know you have an amazing assistant, Danielle. Danielle is amazing. I want everyone to know. Um, when did you, when did you move, uh, from solo agent to when was it time for you to get an assistant and now what's the journey in terms of the team? Great question. So I, you guys are going to hear me refer back to my husband a lot cause he's such a businessman, but he's the one that told me you need an assistant. You need to start letting go of the little things and start focusing on what you're good at is real estate. So he said to me, he's like, get yourself an assistant so you can free up more time and just interview people. So he was the one that encouraged that. So Danielle's been with me for three years now. Before that, I did have another assistant. And as you know, within the business, not everybody's a good fit. I do think that the culture, the vibe, how you mesh well, family is very important. So when I found Danielle, it was just it was life changing. I'm like, this is great. It's perfect for me. We do well together. And the moment I brought on that, the business grew because I was able to free up time on the little things that I don't need to focus on and focus on the clients because the clients need me. I mean, you know how this business is, it could be seven days a week. So I was able to focus on that and then generate more business, which means I was able to give more time to allocate other tasks to other people. So it was really my husband who told me to get an assistant and it was the best thing I ever did. And after that, the assistant brought on more work. That means I needed more help. So then I brought on an agent and that's actually Jasmine and she just joined our team this year. And when you say the assistant brought in more work, you mean you were able to take more leads or? Yeah, take more leads, take more clients, take on more clients, take on more listings. As to before, I'd take them, but I felt like it was underwater. I was always, it was like, I was like, there's no balance here. You just do it. But I was able to have my assistant create the system and like really buckle down on the system. I always say like, yeah, leverage is essential for growth. And the best form of leverage comes from the right people that everyone's working in their unique strength zones and allows you to work on the more dollar productive activities where your focus should be, which is obviously prospecting lead generation relationship building. Right. So I love that. And that's what allows everyone to grow. Absolutely. And if I could give newer agents advice, the moment that you are producing and you feel overwhelmed, get the assistant. If I had done it sooner, I probably would have got it my second year. Um, there's one of the, one of the, one of the things that seems scary about an assistant is people look at, you know, what is that annual salary? Uh, and can I afford that annual salary when really, you know, you're, you're committing to three or four months to make sure it's going to work out. So it's not really, it's not a forever thing necessarily, but I also wanted to mention off of your, both of your points, uh, leverage, leverage really comes in two ways. And so there's, there's people and their systems. And I wonder what, uh, what, what systems do you use to leverage in your business? The systems I use, well, you know, a CRM, a lot of people use CRMs. Um, so, but the problem with, at the time with, with no assistant is you're all over the place. the CM is all over the place. There's no category. There's no what's what, who's who, when is when. I was able to have somebody organize it. And I think that's important because I was so busy that you're letting go of the things that are creating more business. So that system and also what is the generating new leads, because we have to go out and still continue those, the pipeline. And you have to nurture the pipeline. You can't forget about just because you're busy putting out a fire doesn't mean the pipeline is not there you have to continue with that so it was just creating that system and like josh said earlier it's just rinse and repeat when you nail down the system it's like it's golden it really is golden i've like i now that i look back i'm like it's actually easier if you have the system because you just refer right back to it and the right people i think and the right people help create the system yes absolutely process right so they're They typically go hand in hand. Yes. And I always come back to like the fortune is in the follow-up. Like the follow-up and the follow-through are the most important things I would argue we do in our business. That's how you build trust. Do what you say you're going to do. People often have the best of intentions. Yes. Make a promise as an agent to their client. But they're big and they can't. And they end up not following up and following through. Yes. And I think it's also sometimes more than just being so busy is that you meet someone, there's an excitement, and then, you know, the follow-up, you're like, oh, am I bothering them? Sure. The follow-up is there's a reason. There's some reason why people don't do it as well. And when you just get used to the follow-up and hammering, hammering, hammering, that's part of your day. And to that point, I have a couple of questions. And one is, what CRM do you use? I use follow-up boss okay yeah and how long has that been the case has that been I've been using follow-up boss for four years now okay okay and it's serving you well it's serving me well I know that there's many other newer ones out there I mean you guys know this is this like field is forever getting better but I'm again comfortable and I maybe will tap my feet into something different but as of right now it does a job of what I need we need to do and then maybe in the future if I see something that could be fitting for the business then I can I can and you would then from from putting sort of two and two together uh it's also important for an assistant for a hire for the assistant to know how to use the CRM that's absolutely absolutely okay and and does Danielle in essence run your CRM largely she pretty much does run the CRM yeah I mean the The great thing about, but here's what Danielle doesn't do. She does not make the calls. Because one thing that, again, the client wants to hear from the agent. The client wants to hear from us. So she just, which is like the leads, you know, checking in, email, database, birthdays, anniversaries, all of it. But I do the calls because ultimately I feel, and maybe there's going to be a point in my career where I won't be that person, right? As we grow the group. But at this time, that's me. But again, I haven't the time now for the follow up and the personal touches and things like that. And I am going to challenge that because you've already, as you're saying, caught yourself to say that, you know, Danielle or someone akin to Danielle can have some of those conversations for sure. Yeah. And I come back to your client. I always say this. And the theory is one thing. The practice is another. Yes. Is your client is buying the standard you represent. that standard can be presented and be represented by someone else perhaps. Absolutely. And that's the growing of the business is learning that when a client trusts the one that is the face of the company, who you bring, they trust it. And that was one thing I learned as I grew the business as well is that it doesn't always have to be me. If you show how your business is ran, the professionalism, they trust you. Whoever else is in the team, they trust the team. And perhaps that person you hire that ends up taking on some of the responsibilities that you were formerly taking on can perhaps even do it better than you. Yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, there's tasks that Danielle does better than me. Yep. And it's great. You know, you don't know until you let it go. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. That's well said. You know, I like to look at the edges a lot and there are agents that we interview that, you know, have a massive business and they they delegate virtually everything. Um, so we know that can happen. How well that gets done, you know, generally varies across the, across the board. Um, and so I also, we'll also interview people that have a tremendous business and they'll sit here and tell us, you know, well, you know, I have to be at the home inspection cause my client wants me there. And then, you know, there are other great realtors that there's no way with, you know, 10 listings or whatever that they're, that, that they carry at one time that the home inspections and to Josh's point, you know, one of the things that I'll do with a client is, you know, here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I'm going to delegate. And here's why, um, somebody doesn't really want me at their home inspection. I truthfully was not at my own home inspection. People find that hard to believe, but I wasn't because I don't have the attention span to like follow the home inspector around, You know, you'd be like, so one of the questions really is who would be as good or better than me at this particular thing? So absolutely the negotiation, the, you know, closing the client or whatever, that's something that makes a lot of sense to hold on to. And then what are the things that, you know, someone else could actually do better? So somebody who's very attentive that knows building, for example, would be way better at home inspection. And to add on to what you just said is I think setting letting the client know ahead of time oh man it so powerful The moment you tell them by the way here me This is why this person is going to step in This is why this person steps in So when it happens they not going who this Who that Why No one likes surprises. Manage expectations. Absolutely. I've learned to set that up front. So that way, when it comes, they're like, oh, yeah, you told me about that. You know, I was at a this is a it's a it's an odd anecdote, which, you know, sometimes I will do to to to emphasize the point. But I was I was teaching something and someone came up to me after I was teaching. It's an agent that I know and I really like. And she's like, oh, you know, I have a question for you because I know I know you're a lawyer. And she starts with this thing about taking a listing where it's a married couple, but the husband's on title and the wife isn't. And there's this big fight about because they're getting a divorce now. there's this big fight about and you know and I'm going into my she's asking me like how would you treat this you know yes yeah legally or whatever and I'm starting to get into my like lawyer brain and trying to figure this thing out and then all of a sudden I realized that she's spending so much time and energy right and I and all I asked her was okay so let me ask you how many listings do have? And she said, well, you know, I have, I have two, two, are they well priced is always the next thing I want to know. Cause these, these are going to really happen. She said, yeah, I have two good listings are well priced and you know, I'm, I'm, I'm working on this other one. And I said, let me ask you, how would you handle this situation if you had 10 listings? You're right. Where you're like, I have no time for this. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. I totally get that. And it just clicked in my head. Cause I was going down the budget. Yeah. I was going down the money trail with her. I'm like thinking of all the legal thing. I'm like, Whoa, how much time are you spending on it? And you know, how would you handle this if, if you had 10 listings and she had a phenomenal answer, which is like, Hey, you know what? Here's the deal. Um, you and I both think I'd be the best person to represent you on the sale of this house. Um, I'm not a family lawyer. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a family lawyer. Yes. You know, when you get it worked out, you let me know. Yeah. Let me, yeah, absolutely. And then I'll, and then I'll do the thing that I'm great at. Yeah. I'll stay in my lane. Yeah. I'll stay here. Yeah. Family law. If I start doing that, I'll be giving you bad advice anyway. So, so get back to me when you've got this sorted and then we'll, we'll do our thing. By the way, which is one of the reasons why I am so big on having resources, my collaboration with probate attorneys, legal, legal assistants, legal document providers, because like what he just said, the moment, if that were to happen to me, I have the answer right then and there. I say, you know what don't worry about it i'm going to connect you with and now i'm the go-to yeah for everything just be resourceful be resourceful you don't need to have all the answers you just need to know we have it all on the answer so much so that we collaborate make videos with them so that our clients know that that we have legal we have probate attorneys we have legal assistance we have living trust we have it all so they'll call me it may not be real estate related but they know i have the person which means that they'll come back to me when it's done what do you do with because I always like to, every time we do these interviews, we're learning different perspectives. Sure, absolutely. And some of it's the same. And then invariably I'll hear something no matter how many times we've done this. And I'm like, wait a second. So here's my wait a second moment. So you said you create videos with the vendors, which I think is a fabulous idea. But now I need to know like, what do you do with the video? What do you know what what's going on with the video? Great question. So my I have two purposes with the videos that I do with with with other vendors to have more resources. One is for my knowledge to learn more because typically that time for them is consultation time. But I can ask questions on a video and I get to learn. And when it goes online, it's free information for my clients. So they get to gather from a trusted person who's bringing on a trusted individual on camera. And we get to ask questions about whatever the topic is, whatever their field is in. That also allows me a collaboration with that person to earn their business in the future. And it has happened many times before where whoever I'm interviewing, they realize that I allowed an opportunity for them to be on camera that they don't have time for. It's a referral exchange. And I get referrals from them. And it actually happened organically. I was genuinely doing it to get education for my, for the audience, for me and to have him for, and then it turned into, they were calling me on the side and saying, Hey, um, by the way, I actually have this one client and, and now they got to know me as opposed to me knocking on the door. I'm like, here's a basket. I'm another real estate agent in the area, but rather get to know me and, you know, and, and they see that I'm, I'm genuinely wanting to learn from them. And I built more business that way. And so I'll say this to you because thanks for, I mean, as soon as you say it, I'm like, oh, you know, that's so obvious. And I'm, I'm glad I asked the question anyway, because it wasn't obvious to me until you started answering the question. So it's probably wasn't obvious to everybody else. um you know and just for example this this podcast we we began this podcast in order to uh in order to create education and absolutely and give back and the number of relationships that we've built just i was going to say that you're going to build new agents yeah yeah it's it's just great relationships and you know that doesn't mean they're going to like run over and join our brokerage but they get to meet you yeah it's a personality yeah it's not relationships Yeah, absolutely. And, and what happens? What, so, so let me take, let me take Elisa's plan for a minute and like, and like build this thing out for a second and just say, okay. And it's a, it's, it is a great, it's a great idea to do a podcast. I believe, even though, you know, knock on wood, it's amazing. We're out of 850,000 business podcasts. We're in the top 100. That's amazing. It is amazing. Again, not what we intended. It happened through repetition and having phenomenal guests. But, you know, one of the issues is you're like, oh, well, you see so many podcasts stop and start because they'll have a podcast. We have tremendous number of downloads on Spotify and on Apple. But, you know, I look at our YouTube. I'm like, you know, what's going on? Sure, sure. you know, why is there so inconsistent? Yeah. It's, it's, you know, we're, we're getting, we're getting 20, 30,000 downloads on the podcast. We are not getting that on YouTube. So if I were just doing YouTube, I might be discouraged already. But the thing is, I would say this to the audience, forget about, you know, if you get two views or not. Sure. If you, if you create a vendor list of let's say 10 vendors that are very important and you create a video with the 10 vendors and you just post it on your YouTube channel. If it gets three views, it gets three views. You're building a relationship with that vendor, which then can create these cross referrals. You're creating sort of a war chest of, I know about, oh, does Elisa know probate? She doesn't have to. She has this phenomenal interview with this great probate lawyer, you know, and so on and so on. Absolutely. And then also with that said too, is being consistent with those collaborations. I've been doing this on a monthly basis. They expect me to come back next month and we do it all over again. And I provide them the list of questions that we might go over and I let them pick. Oh, well. So coming back to that, you're very strong on social media. So give us a sense of like within what we just discussed and beyond, what does that plan look like? What platforms are you using? How often are you putting out content? What is the goal? What is the purpose? And how are you executing that plan? I love that question. I was just on a panel recently and really what it comes down to is when somebody, as you guys know, when somebody wants to hire a real estate agent, they're going to look you up. Absolutely. You know this. We know this. And so my thought process is if somebody Googles Elisa Barajas, what are they going to find? And I want them to find me everywhere. They're going to find me on Google. They're going to find me on TikTok. They're going to find me on YouTube. And like he just said, it doesn't matter if that account doesn't have a lot of followers, views or anything like that. But what matters is that when they look me up is that I'm everywhere. That's it. It's very simple. And you have to understand different social media platforms have different people on there. Different target audiences. Yes. So with that, so what does the content look like? How often are you posting? Give us a better sense of that? I have all social media platforms. It's as simple as just reposting. Really, it's as simple as that. And I have three, my goal is our three targets, educational, sales pitch, and personal. Because people want to know who you are, what's your family life like? What do you like to do? They love that because can they relate to you? Can they be around you long enough to buy a house, right? Because they're going to be with you long enough. And educational, which is, can I bring on a probate attorney? Can I bring on a living trust, you know, to educate on that 1031 exchange, anything and I think of it all. And that's my goal. And then the sales pitches, I sell real estate, I want people to know that I offer complimentary home staging every time you list with me, I want people to know that we have a full media package with our listings. I own a trailer that I drop off at your house and you can dump all your trash and we'll haul it away for you for free. I want people to know that, but the only way I can tell people is by selling that. So it's a mix of it because I want the audience to see all three. And then what are you doing on the personal? The personal? Oh, and what proportions? Oh, no. Yeah. I don't mind. Yeah. I love sharing that. It's actually, so if you haven't looked me up, I do save animals. I'm a big dog advocate and cat advocate. So I rescue dogs and cats. And if you look me up, you'll notice that I have many of my own. And so I'll share my life with my dogs and my cats and my husband and us riding bikes. And I love to work out. I'll show my workouts on my media. I'll show the rescue organizations I'm involved with. Somehow my husband gets a lot of likes on his phone. They love him. They're like, there he is. So just like a personal life, you know, just a glimpse. How often are you posting content? oh three two to three times a day two to three times wow and so is there that's across all across all platforms okay and tell me just tell me what platforms you're posting on obviously instagram yeah what else youtube linkedin google business page that's another one and is it the same content that you're putting you're just on all platforms like is every piece of content going on every platform it is okay the only one that is going to recently change is the youtube because the long form is coming back it used to remember it wasn't people wanted the short now they want the long vlogging life day in the life sure i get when i do those people love them they love to see me like hear me waking up here's my coffee you know and but it's just it's personal it's just it's more than just selling real estate. People want to see what we're doing. And so three, two to three times a day, seven days a week. And is that very consistent? I would say on the weekends, maybe twice a day. And the during, during the day is about two to three. Yeah. But keep in mind, I, I'm stacking these videos. So I know to the audience, it might look like, wow, you are everywhere all the time, every day, but really it's all planned ahead of time. Multiple videos, editing stacking them up and then we have a list of what goes out on what day how much business to whatever degree you're measuring it are you generating from social media and are you measuring that or is it just sort of part of the brand are you actually getting i know what i could leads yes directly from social media i could measure it because um people have mentioned how they found me or they'll know what I'm doing based on that. I would have to say if I could just split it into two, so may not these percentages be complicated, I would say 70% is media and the remaining percent is returning business. The client has already bought with me, sold with me, and they came back to resell, buy again or refer me to a family or friend So there no active prospecting beyond the repeat referral and the social media You not like making calls knocking on doors Business is generated through repeat and referral and through social media. Yes. I actually just told this to my agent when we were talking because she's in the beginning stages where she's getting businesses through open houses. And I just realized that it's been two years that I've tried to generate new business on purpose, as in like, I got to be at an open house. I'm knock on a door. I haven't done it. Wow. That's, I mean, that's very impressive. Yeah. I want to break it down a little bit and I'll share something with you that you'll, you'll, you'll probably find interesting. Um, so when you're, first of all, what does the, what does the media team look like? Is it just you and your husband, you know, who's, do you set up on a tripod? I mean, what's the actual, what does it actually look like and then who is doing the editing and who's doing the posting and when you say you plan are you using a you know are you using a one of the many you know software planners and that sort of thing so we have two two different types of media we have personal which is our cell phone our tripod our microphones and then we have the media which is like as you know real estate photographers real estate media they have theirs that we do for the listings what I have come to find was for me, it was when I was overthinking it, it was like paralysis by analysis. I wasn't spitting out enough because I was overthinking it, which was who's the perfect media guy? Who's the perfect this? And then I wasn't doing enough. There was a time where I actually had someone come to my house and we were doing media there, just doing a bunch of videos. By the time we could get the schedule going and get him to my house and edit and me get ready. And the whole thing, I finally told Danielle, we're buying a microphone. We're just doing this every day. When you're with me, you're going to record me. We're going to do stuff. And it just blew up. My media just like people were engaging more because it was authentic. It was organic. And I trust me, I see other agents. They have these beautiful videos and they're, you know, filmed, they're in and out and the captures are great. Excuse me. But it wasn't for me. I'm like, I can't spit out enough to get the engagement. So I'm like, I'm just doing it. So we do it ourselves. But keep in mind, we work every day. There's so much to grab. It's, I mean, I, I, there's so much to grab. I'm like, I think it's called content that we create every day. I say like, someone needs to capture this. Am I right? I mean, there's been conversations where I'm like, God, I wish there was a fly on the wall. That was amazing. You know, that consultation was phenomenal. And I wish, so now I'm like, let's just record it. And they may not go on the media, but you can grab snippets. And I mean, those do so great. And so we just, so I have a DJI mic. You can buy it at Best Buy. That's the microphone I have. I love it. And we, um, we've downloaded apps now on our phones to do good editings. What do you use? I, one of them is CapCut. Sure. And I mean, but you got, you got to go all in or, and get the, the, the pro version. You can't, you know, you have to do that. And then we do, we do other ones. Cause now you can, um, you can now edit with DJI. They have their platforms on their media. Pay for that, edit on there. sometimes you can ask chat gpt to edit for you i mean you guys it's it's a wild world out there but if you use it if you use it and let it do its thing for you you spit out way more videos and that's what i've been doing so i feel like agents say it sounds hard because we're so busy it's not it's part of the work i'll tell you it's hard or the work just go account for it account for that, you know, and it's easy. I'll tell you another thing. And that is that with, and I, I'm, I'm at the edge of AI, not, not like, uh, like an AI architect, but in terms of like anybody in real estate, I don't, I, I, you know, I don't find many people in real estate. I haven't found anybody yet. That's further along with AI than me. You know, I'm sure there's plenty out Definitely not. Yeah, I'm sure there's plenty out there. But with the advent of AI, more and more things are going to be, you know, just sort of AI generated. Absolutely. And that is where I think, you know, already you've noticed, you noticed a shift from your highly produced videos to the sort of off the cuff videos. And, you know, why does the off the cuff video do so well? And you just have to be honest about it. And we do a lot of production value here, for sure. And that's intentional. And, you know, the stuff that's not so overly produced is, you've, Elisa's already noticed, does very well. I believe as AI pushes more and more into content, um, and there's all these companies like, oh, you know, we'll, we'll make a thousand videos for you. Just, you know, give us whatever. And, and, and the really original stuff that has some mistakes in it or whatever, like when you get the, when you get the long letter from somebody and there's not one punctuation or grammar error, you just, I'm like, this guy just had AI write me a letter, you know, you might as well put the grammar error back in you know if you yeah if you want to if and that's sort of the analogy to this is that is that the really organic stuff is what is what does it now authenticity how do you build trust yeah you know if someone thinks they're speaking to or looking at a robot that that's not you know what's cool when they meet me in person guess what they kind of know me already yeah i've gotten that they're like you're just like your videos i'm like yeah that's because the videos just follow me around honestly i love it can i sorry i tell people go look at my social media you met me once you that will just tell you all you need to know because it's in here purely authentic yeah they meet me and they're like oh yeah like it's like I know you already and that's real estate's about they gotta like you know you and trust you and if I can get that through video first and think about that think about just another another analogy think about the the years that realtors would have the photo and you're like you know the photo oh you look great It's third. The photo is 30 years old. Like, I don't even know who you are when you're dressed in the door. You know, I'm like, what is this? You know, I tell my husband, the day I don't look like this, please tell me. Right. Because, you know, if you're portraying yourself to be something you're not, then what else are you hiding? What else are you not being authentic and transparent? Right. Yeah. Do you use scheduling software? I would have to say not software. No, like Hootsuite or something like that. I actually don't. I just, so what I do is I manage my schedule by Sunday. I look at what's coming up ahead, which means I sped out the schedule for Danielle and I, you know, the other agents and what I'm doing, what day fits media. We do try month to month because it is also best. We do on a monthly basis and then hyper focus on a weekly basis. And then I'm the day to day because I have things going on day to day. And so that allows me to create more content. If it's in the schedule, it's going to happen. Yeah. Okay. So I fit that in there. And I also want to say, Paul, it just doesn't mean that the professional videos don't have a place. I give so much credit to my media guys who do my real estate. I can't do that. I mean, God, it's different. It's context. It's about what, who's your audience? What are the expectations on that platform in that context? Right. Correct. If you have a podcast, there's an expectation that it's going to be more produced. Absolutely. than shooting a reel on Instagram. Yeah, like we can't shoot this on my phone. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, absolutely. So it's like, there's a room for different media. And so if you're asking what works for me and the authenticity, it's the organic videos that has brought me business because my client already likes me, knows me, and trusts me before they get to meet me in person. And that's where, so the schedule, and going back to that is, the schedule is monthly basis, weekly basis, day-to-day. But there's no scheduling software. There's no software. It's just like, hey, you're just taking the video. You're putting it on TikTok yourself. I'm sorry. If you're asking about that scheduling with the video. Yeah. I think you meant like, how do we coordinate the scheduling of what's going to be filmed? He means when do you post it? Is there a scheduling? Oh, I apologize. Yeah. Is that your question? Sure. The other answer was great to a different question. Yeah. Yeah. So that, yeah, if we're going to hyper focus on like what timeframes they do say that most people look in the early mornings and late at night because the middle of the day are our clients are at work or picking up kids you're still you still are yes posting it yourself yeah through so instagram has an automation scheduling you guys are aware of that okay if you if you tie that into all the other then you can it'll spit out to the others too sure right instagrams yes out onto facebook correct absolutely yeah and then you can yes you can use softwares to download where they can automate all the other all the other ones for you But now you can integrate a lot of the platforms. So one of the things that I'll say, and it's in a way, it's a company that I helped build and I work with a lot, is ClaimYourName.ai. And one of the things I wanted to tell you about that, which is interesting, because we went to a conference and Gary Vee was at the conference. And let's just say there's 5,000 realtors at this conference. And Jerry V's advice was you guys should spend 51% of your time making content. And I sat in the audience. I was like, okay, that is the single worst advice that I've heard for realtors. Because, you know, mostly they're wasting time. You know, if I had an audience of 5,000 realtors and I could say, listen, they're going to do one thing you tell them to do. And there's only one thing. I would say time block two hours and lead generate in earnest period. It'll change everyone's life. Yes. You know, period, full stop. OK, so so but Elisa is different. OK. And and so like Elisa is the one person in the 5000, you know, or the two or three that are in the 5000 audience that like Gary V's advice actually makes sense. So it's cool to have this conversation with you. And you know, I would have to say, I feel when you, because I know what you're talking about. I watch his videos too. I think his main purpose is just to say, make videos. Yeah. He's exaggerating the point. 100%. And look, I come back. And you're right, though, Paul, like that's, you can't put a percentage on that because people will take it very literal. But his driven point is make the video. And social media. I've said it time and time again. amplifies reality. Correct. Elisa does social media based on all the business that she generated before she was super active on social media, the repeat, the past clients to then amplify that. It does not replace the conversation. It amplifies it. You have to have a foundation order in order for social media to actually be effective. And you have to build relationships independent of social media to then amplify those relationships and through social media. So the thing I was going to tell you about, and, and I, I'll, I'm going to have my team, uh, I'm going to have my team run, uh, run an audit for you, which I think you'll, uh, find to be very cool. And so what claim your name does, I found it because I'm, I'm always trying to stay out ahead of the course ahead of Like, not where is the puck right now, where is the puck going? So I got very involved in social media and built a strong following on Instagram. And then as soon as I saw the algorithm shift, I moved away from it. And we still have people. There's a guy on our team that's succeeding at a very high level on Instagram. He gets a lot of business. And my hat's off to him. And he's still on it, working it like you do. look him up character homes jose pratz okay for sure for sure so so when i saw the algorithm shift i thought to myself the influencers are now going to need to get a job uh oh my god you nailed it i like right i was like thinking this is so different yeah because and and i was even even though i built a great instagram presence sure sure i was like if i had only started like six months earlier Sure Well I have a hundred thousand followers It like like I have 170 followers It like I lose as many as I gained It like what is it Is it like is there like some kind of roof on this thing What happening But yes And when you look into the analytics at all you see that when a when a post what they doing is they there they, they learned from TikTok. And so TikTok figured out, it doesn't matter who posts what, It doesn't matter what following you have. It's how well is that video doing? Yeah, always. And then when I have a video that, like, I finally have a video that blows up. When you look into the analytics of it, it's like, it showed it to 95% of people who aren't in my audience. You're like, okay. But that's something to study. Right. So on one hand, it's like, oh, great. So I get some new followers. But what they did is they took your hold over your followers away. They're really moving people from followers to the Discover page. That's the TikTok thing. So I literally, I just started changing my focus. And one of the things that I did was I was trying to hire somebody for my nephew. Some people really do get their business online. Like Plastic Surgeons is a great example. He's a dentist. He needed that online. But they're showing their day-to-day work. Right. Right? Before and after. People want to see you doing the thing before they go in the chair. Yeah, absolutely. Yep. They want to know what they're getting into. They want to know what they're getting into. So for people that aren't going to do the Elisa thing, and the truth is, I'm inspired by Elisa. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to change what I'm doing based on this interview. Like, for real. I appreciate that. Wow. And for people that aren't going to do that, someone, Elisa said it before, someone is still going to Google you for sure. It doesn't matter. You already have the client. The other thing that's happening is how are you surfacing in AI? So what's your service area? Where do you, like neighborhood? Yeah, so Villa Park. Okay. Okay. So, you know, so for example, one of the things the audit will do is say, who are the best realtors in Villa Park? Or I want to list my house. I live in Villa Park. Who should I hide? These are the things. And these agents that crush it are not getting listed. We have a friend who was just on our podcast. He crushes it in this neighborhood. And then we run the audit and it lists like eight agents and he's not one of them. And he's literally the number one agent. So there is this disconnect on what's out there and how you're showing up. So it's not posting content as much as it is making sure like all the registries have the right name, name address, phone number for you, knowing for sure there's something called, you know, there's a lot of technicality to it. And that's why this company does it for you. But I'm going to run the audit for you. Okay. Interested to see it. Yeah. And then, you know, it also has a lot of self-diagnosis stuff. So there's stuff you can do based on, you don't even have to hire them. You know, you can, stuff that you can learn from what it's telling you. But if you want hands off, you know, they'll make sure that you, and it doesn't happen overnight. It's why you engage a company for 12 months to go like, okay, well, you know, here's my, there's something called a Google confidence score that people don't know about, you know, and that's in the back end of Google surfaces that, you know. And so you can watch this thing move and how, and how, you know, the first couple of names are going to be sponsored and people know that too. They don't want to, I don't want to be fed the sponsor. Yes. Yes. I'm going below, you know? Um, so, so you want to be high up on the non-sponsored piece. And one of the things you mentioned is Google business profile, which is the, which is the, it's the, it's the single best source of, of online. We're very consistent with Google business. We use it as if it's like a social media platform. You're the first person in real estate other than me that I've ever heard say that. But that has shifted. So Google business profile and unlike Instagram, you don't have to post once a day on your Google business profile. If you posted something fresh and new on your Google business profile once or twice a week, it's going to take you to the top of the pack. Yeah. We do Google blogs. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. We do Google blogs. Yeah. It's great. And, and you know what? The other thing that I learned too, is like, go with, go with the companies that you want. Like, like anytime Google has a new product, I'm like, okay, I'm trying. Right. Yes. Because, because I want to succeed on Google and, and just some, some stats for you is people like people live in, I live in a bubble, right? So like I use AI for all searches, right? Sure. But the world is still using, uh, Google to search, you know, and 90% of searches are still done with, with traditional search. And then I use Claude a lot. So I'm like, oh, well, I've heard of that too. And now, you know, and you look at what's the remainder, the remainder is still overwhelmingly, you know, like Claude has like this much, you know, the AI pie is only this big and Claude has this much of that AI pie. So, you know, that's why it's important to. to uh and i think it's important that agents not be afraid to just just so when we advance our education because real estate changes we're always being educated about hey by the way contract has changed don't be afraid to tap into like learning about social media it's not we're not you know you don't have to be you know the best at it but to just see how what it can do for you i'm always doing that the moment i see there's going to be a seminar or something i'm i'm there be learning based. I'm always wanting to learn because if I, I always say, if I can learn one new thing to add in my business that could amplify, that can make the business run better, easier, generate more business, why not? You know, take what's useful and leave what's not. Who do you look toward, whether it's someone individually or not, like how do you continue to elevate your business? What are you looking for to inspire growth? Who do you look at? What do you read? Tell me what that looks like. So I'm, I don't remember where I said I heard this or read this, but somebody told me that if you're the smartest one in the room, you're there in the wrong room. So the moment that I became the smartest one in the room, I had to leave because I wasn't growing because I was the one at the top. And I don't say that with a big head. I say that genuinely because I needed to keep learning. And the only way to grow is to be around people that are better than me, more successful than me so inspiring and so that i can learn from them and it's just just the way how you are who you hang out with so that's who inspires me those who are just better and you know just doing where do you seek them out how do you find those people how is that just organic are you proactive about that like i i couldn't agree more i wear it on my wrist environment matters which is about yes the right people honestly organically because i don't i don't scope out like who's better, I just say, gosh, they're so intelligent and I want to learn more. I'm intrigued. And I go where they are. If they're teaching something, I go there, just anything. And I'm very inspired by that. I'm always, just the way that there's, just the way I have an agent being inspired by me, I'm inspired by somebody else. And we just trickle down, right? And so I believe in that. And every time I've left a place because I need to go somewhere where there's better people, then I grew. I grew another step more. And whether it was how to hire another assistant, how to grow the business, how to be financially free, how to do this, it's because I'm able to surround myself with those people who've done it. Why not? What is the goal for you in business over the next three to five years? My goal is to continue buying more rental properties with my husband. I know I didn't speak about him enough, but he's a big part of my business. He's actually a licensed real estate agent himself. He doesn't do real estate the way I do it, but he still flips homes. We have rental properties. My goal towards retirement is to just buy more rental properties, hold on to them and retire off that. That's my goal. I'm going to give you a great script for a mentor because it's worked for me. And especially, first of all, when you ask somebody, hey, could I you know could I I'd like to pick your brain or whatever I would just normally ask uh most people are going to say yes anyway but the script that I have for it is uh how do I earn the right to uh take you out to lunch you know I'm very impressed I saw you speak and you know yeah and there's probably a lot of people want your time what do I need to do to earn the right to you know spend 15 minutes absolutely yeah and that's a good sort of you know putting the at least put it in and that you appreciate their time yeah and the few coming from curiosity and contribution you know it's like what can i do to earn what can i do to create value for you presumptuous and it's showing that you value them and the the you know and i've gone to that one only two or three times and every time i've gone there people have said you know you already have just by by asking the question that way and then i forget who it was one of these great mentors that I have, you know, that I've learned from, maybe it was John Maxwell, I can't remember, who used to have, who used to get to sit down with John Woodward, you know, once every three months or whatever. And he said, when I go in to see John Woodward, I have my, my yellow paper out, you know, we have 20 minutes scheduled and I'm, you know, 10 minutes early and I've got all the questions and I'm like, Hey, John, I would love to catch up with you and talk about everything, but you know, we've got 20 minutes. I'm going to be respectful of that. So let me ask you the questions you know and he's like hey it's been 19 minutes we should wrap up now and and then john woodward is willing to meet with him again in three months uh john wooden uh john wooden it's okay you know what i know we know john would hats off to hats off to our our recent sorry to our recently deceased uh okay agent who was a great agent uh john woodward who worked with us for many years. No wonder I'm trying to find my mind. His energy is here. So this is a intentionally series of quick questions where you're going to give your brief, quick, concise Are they yes-nos or are they No, whatever you want them to do. We're just not going to interrupt. What are the attributes you most admire in others? Honesty. Honesty. What's your idea of perfect happiness? Okay. My idea of perfect happiness is just genuine peace in my life. What's your most fond childhood memory? Without crying. I would have to say my brothers. Nice. What's your greatest fear? Oh my gosh, losing my dogs. I love my dogs so much. What's your greatest achievement? Building my career from scratch. if there's one thing you could change about yourself, what would that be? Just stop being so critical. It's not, I'm, I'm always telling myself it's not enough. It's just, I'm, I'm, I'm getting there. What's your greatest extravagance? Extravagance? Um, I don't know. My squirrel personality. i love it so um we have a lot of uh we have a lot of great hikes i'm right around here and you're fit um i'll go sprint them with josh there we go i'll run the jib show i'll run wait is it josh's sprint maybe not no just kidding so so you do this great climb uh difficult climb you get to the top. And when you hit the peak, you look down and your husband's there, your dogs are there, your, your, your family, your community is all down there below. And you shout one thing to them. What do you shout? You're my everything.