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

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

Tonya Eberhart, founder of BrandFace, and Michael Carr, president, and CEO at Michael Carr & Associates talk to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast host Jeff Pfitzer about personal brand development. Tonya and Michael discuss the factors that brought them together, the importance of brand-building, their product BrandFace, and ideas for how to create a strong brand that attracts your ideal customer via differentiation.    Episode Highlights: Tonya Eberhart and Michael Carr talk about how they got their start with personal branding How the concept behind BrandFace took off Where BrandFace came from What BrandFace can do for its clients How Michael’s business benefited from BrandFace Do clients ever fear being pigeonholed by being known for one city?   The areas Michael sells real estate in Put your focus where you want your outcome to be Tonya and Michael give examples of realtors they've branded How they formulate their clients’ personal brands The next step after identifying their client’s brand Content is everywhere you look if you start thinking that way The ideal real estate client The resources, and value, BrandFace offers in their workshop groups BrandFace clients are coming from all over The size of BrandFace’s team How to reach BrandFace if interested in working with them 3 Key Points: The secret of Michael’s success is going all in. BrandFace’s three-step process is: define, develop, and display. People don’t do business with a logo. They do business with a person. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Linkedin: Tonya Eberhart Linkedin: Michael Carr BrandFace: BrandFaceRealEstate.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

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Tristan Ahumada, the Founder of Lab Coat Agents, for episode number 100. Tristan is the authority of building massive online communities, a true professional in providing value to the masses! Episode Highlights:  Jeff meets most of his podcast guests just a few moments before the podcast goes live, but not this time. Tristan and Jeff actually met when Jeff interviewed Tristan on the Real Estate and Content Ninja Podcast. In early 2012, Realtor.com sold Tristan a zip code package that brought him some great online leads. Realtor.com requested to interview Tristan about his process, not knowing that they were located in the same building. After a successful interview with Realtor.com, Tristan and his family were flown into San Francisco to give a speech to 20k people. Initially, Tristan didn’t think that his speech would take him anywhere with Realtor.com, so his wife suggested that he create a Facebook group. Spending an hour behind closed doors, Tristan and Jake came up with the Lab Coat Agents idea. Tristan was looking to give back to the real estate community, one that had very little technological automation. When creating a community, it’s important that you know it’s going to transcend Facebook. Take a step back and decide what you are passionate about, then pick your niche, area, or idea to build the community around. For the first year or two, you’re going to be the only one there to pat yourself on the back and keep yourself going. After deciding on your community, you need to go pick up your domain name and every social media handle that you can. Whether it’s social media posting or having a partner, you must hold yourself accountable for what you want to do. Real estate agents only have 4 or 5 raving fans when they enter the game; building a community is a long-term process. When people see that you are consistently taking time to give them value, they will begin to trust you more and more. The idea of putting money first is not going to get you through the hard times when you don’t want to do what you have to do. Creating a community means bringing value to its members on a daily basis because it’s what you’re already doing. You know someone is forcing something when they try to monetize before they have built the audience. There’s nothing wrong with making money, but make sure you are doing things in the right order. When growing a community outside of Facebook, many people make the mistake of overlooking their email list. It’s important to build multiple communities like Facebook, YouTube, and an email list in case one of them gets shut down. Think of like-minded people that you can bring in to help when you are building your community. Unless you are someone that is famous, rapid growth is very hard to do these days. Instead of measuring KPIs, you should measure your OKRs, that being, your objective and key results. People feel more close-knit in small communities, meaning the opportunity to add value to your members is very high. Rather than creating your own group from scratch, you can become a strategic part of a massive group. A community is just another word for followers, so with that in mind, you can build one on a variety of platforms such as Disciple, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Mighty Network. Disciple is a company out of England that builds apps that also act as your community. 3 Key Points: Lab Coat Agents got its start when Tristan was asked by Realtor.com to give a speech to over 20k people about his automated lead organizing process. People make the mistake of starting more things than they finish. Consistency is vital to success because the first couple of years are going to be very stagnant. Build your email list by asking everyone that joins your Facebook group for their email upon entry. Roughly ⅓ of the people that join will gladly provide their email as long as you use it to provide value. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Tristan Ahumada (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, (310) 356-3715) Disciple Drunk on Social Facebook Group StreetText (sponsor) Followup Boss (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff Pfitzer gets interviewed by Tristan Ahumada, the Founder of Lab Coat Agents. Besides acting as the regular host of this podcast, Jeff is also a Regional Manager at USA Mortgage in St. Louis. Jeff is considered THE video guy in the real estate industry, so pay attention to learn how Jeff uses video to cultivate relationships, which leads to success in business and life! Episode Highlights:  Jeff graduated with a degree in Media Communicates from Webster University in St. Louis. For his final project in 1999, Jeff was required to create a product, ultimately creating the ad campaign for a male sex pill Erecto. Many agents and loan officers want to make that shift into social media without disrupting their real estate businesses. Prior to getting into the mortgage industry, Jeff was the mascot for the St. Louis Cardinals. As a Suite Manager for the Blues, Jeff hated that he did not have any control over his career growth. At his first job in the mortgage industry, Jeff was trained in a Boiler Room environment. Back in 2008, USA Mortgage began to focus on purchases which was the best move they have ever made. In 2015, Jeff noticed a guy in his market that was conducting “coffee talks” on Facebook live. After starting his own Facebook live content before everyone else, Jeff became the video expert in the real estate industry. Jeff figured out that if he could make himself the authority in a certain area, it will only attract more people to his brand. As a very likable person, Jeff has mastered the art of creating relationships, a skill that goes very far in real estate. The ultimate goal for real estate agents is to get their phone to ring with people looking for an agent. By providing agents what they need that they’re not getting elsewhere, Jeff has been able to elevate his status in the industry. Due to COVID, agents have had to find other ways to create more relationships and opportunities for themselves. Most salespeople make the mistake of talking about themselves as soon as they enter the room. By taking interviews with as many people as possible, Jeff has been able to make great content and make people feel special. Jeff unknowingly did what nobody else would and followed through for Tristan, thus opening his door for opportunity. Before getting into real estate, Jeff had ownership in a handful of different businesses that weren’t making him money. Jeff knows that all of his different businesses and content provide value and bring growth to his mortgage business. Now that the world has shifted to digital, businesses can scale at a much faster speed. The best way to utilize the value that is provided by the shift to the digital world is to embrace everything that comes with it. After 6 months of immersing himself in TikTok, Jeff realized the value that it brought to the business world. Clubhouse de-evolved at exactly the right time, giving people something different than the countless webinars that are being conducted. Unlike its other social media counterparts, having followers isn’t the most important aspect of Clubhouse. Originally, Jeff found himself motivated by money, but now it is more about doing it for the love of the game. Jeff is incredibly excited to do small-group mastermind classes because he can get intimate with everyone involved. With so many different activities taking up his time, Jeff has to remain incredibly disciplined to keep a balanced relationship between work and family. If your goal is to build up your brand on social media, know that there is going to be pain and sacrifice along the way. Conferences should be seen as an opportunity to learn from those that have done what you want to do. The biggest mistake made by most entrepreneurs is forgetting to include their family in big decisions. 3 Key Points: After entering the Facebook live arena before most other people, Jeff started to get noticed, getting invited to masterminds and being asked for insight on video content. Now, he is the video guy in the real estate industry. When building new relationships, agents need to focus on 2 things: ask questions and listen better, and figure out how you can deliver value to anybody. Clubhouse provides people with the opportunity to be in a breakout room and the ability to share the knowledge in their heads without having to sell. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Jeff Pfitzer (314) 220-4945, website, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Business Video School  Hacking Marketing Boiler Room RedX (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Dr. Hank Seitz, a mental scientist that is responsible for developing over $4B in real estate sales and running a brokerage of over 450 agents. There is no one better at teaching you how to control your mindset and control your world! Episode Highlights:  Dr. Hank has a Ph.D. in Mental Science and is a practicing behavioral psychologist. As a consultant for Fortune 500 companies all over the world, Dr. Hank has helped create a mass of wealth. With over 20 years in the real estate industry, Dr. Hank and his team have moved over $4B in real estate. According to science, our thoughts create the energy and emotions that construct our individual worlds. People tend to be close-minded when it comes to the potential power of controlling their thoughts. Through Dr. Hank’s consultancy, Fortune 500 companies all over the world have seen measurable success in their numbers. With Dr. Hank’s teachings, he knows that he can help anyone double their business in the next year. Over 90% of leads close that are brought in from Dr. Hank’s programs, which have been developed over 20 years. The people that come to Dr. Hank are anyone that wants to be, do, or have more in their life and business. Too many coaches tend to show their clients how they became successful when in reality we will all have a different path. Dr. Hank does not force any real estate agent to do anything that doesn’t make them feel good. Rather than face reality and look at what’s going on right now, focus on what you want for your life. Success will be painful if that is how we view it to be; how we perceive our duties is a choice. Public speaking is the #1 fear in America, even over death, and can be traced back to our parents telling us not to talk to strangers. There is more to overcoming our fears and limiting beliefs than positive affirmations; your conscious and subconscious minds must agree. Rather than using the word “money,” Dr. Hank elects to use his own word because of the resistance that comes with “money”. The #1 way to build relationships in any business is to do it through referrals, though video content and cold calls do help. By changing the word “nervous” to “excited,” you can change where you stand when it comes to public speaking. When most of the world was stalling and giving into chaos, Dr. Hank’s team had their best year yet. Everything is what we want it to be and we have the choice to not listen to society’s perspectives above our own. Too many people focus on manipulating the outside world to their liking when it’s just an impossible task. Dr. Hank teaches people to have trust in the flow of their stream and to stop swimming against the current. 5 years ago, Dr. Hank found himself paralyzed from the waist down after totaling his car in an accident with a semi-truck. Dr. Hank chose not to believe doctors that declared him permanently disabled and 5 years later he walks as well as he ever did. When you are able to change yourself and your mindset from the inside, you have the ability to change other people. Mental health is a subject that affects everyone, whether they find themselves on the negative or positive side of it. Go to Dr. Hank’s course below to get $200 off, then text or email Dr. Hank about his unique course to get half off that price! 3 Key Points: Our thoughts create emotion, which creates energy, which ultimately creates matter. These are the 3 steps that make up mental science. As a behavioral psychologist, Dr. Hank never pressures any of his clients to do something that they don’t feel good about. Anything that makes us feel bad does not connect with our higher self. By constantly thinking about things that we don’t want, we attract those things. It’s better to focus on the things that we do want, ultimately opening our minds to the possible paths to achieving those things. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Dr. Hank Seitz Website, Course, Phone: (214) 753-7204, Email: drhank@drhank.biz  The GPS Guide to Success (Book) LinkU Webinar (sponsor) RedX (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Judi Fox, a professional LinkedIn Accelerator. She teaches her clients how to build a sustainable business on LinkedIn without needing to post a million times each month. Judi is also a pioneer in combining LinkedIn with Clubhouse, so take notes people! Episode Highlights:  LinkedIn is kind of an outlier as far as social media platforms go in the realm of real estate sales. When Judi graduated college in 1999, she had no idea what she wanted to do and no digital platform to research it. Coming from a family of engineers, Judi earned her degree in Chemical Engineering and began traveling the world for pollution cleanup. After getting her Masters in Environmental and Business Sustainability, Judi knew how to build a truly sustainable business. Many agents don’t really understand what a sustainable business looks like, or how to build one. It took Judi 10 years to explain to others what she was doing that was changing her own life. The exposure algorithms that apply to most social media platforms do not quite correlate to LinkedIn. While networking for her own job after the crash of 2008, Judi first began to help others network. In 2014, Judi had to start her life over, becoming a single mom overnight and forced to move back in with her parents. Think about your LinkedIn profile as a lead-generating website rather than a boring resume. You can use pictures on your LinkedIn profile to show properties and incite emotions. Before you ever make a post on LinkedIn, you should go out and make high-quality comments. The LinkedIn community is centered around high-profile conversations between business professionals. Most real estate agents look to engage and create a conversation with those that see their social media content. As agents build up their visibility on LinkedIn, they need to produce less and less content. Life is going to get in the way, so all you need to do is ramp up to a sustainable business level rather than grow forever. 1 to 2 posts per week on LinkedIn is Judi’s suggestion as a sustainable cadence for agents. If your content is getting 0 to 100 views with no likes or comments, there is more work to do before ramping up your posts. You have to comment on other conversations in order to tell LinkedIn what kind of conversations you want to be a part of. Jeff has traditionally used LinkedIn as a place to park his content that he is posting on other platforms. Even if you only get 10 comments on a post, those comments could be from potential partners. Pick 3 current clients or collaborators, 3 peers, 3 people ahead of you, and 1 fun person when commenting on conversations. Judi comments on Gary V’s conversations because the amount of exposure she gets is equivalent to a personal post. Reflect back on what the original post is about while adding an original thought or opinion of your own. You can turn your high-quality comments into personal posts down the road and also tag the person who made the original post. Tagging 100 people in a post does not work anymore as the LinkedIn algorithm figured it out years ago. Judi takes her clients through a 4-week acceleration program where she teaches them to increase their visibility. As a single mother, Judi does not have time for constant social media attention, yet, people always tell her she is omnipresent. As of January 14th, Judi is the first person to merge running a LinkedIn event and a Clubhouse event at the same time. 3 Key Points: Judi was able to grow her own Environmental Sustainability business through LinkedIn, eventually prompting her to teach others how to do the same. Social proof, testimonials, properties, emotion, and a calendar link are all different ways to make your LinkedIn profile a lead-generating website. Judi’s strategy for commenting on LinkedIn includes 3 current clients, 3 peers, 3 influences or people that she looks up to, and 1 fun person that is associated with her interests. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Judi Fox LinkedIn | Instagram | Website Chelsea Peitz Barry Wolfe Chime (sponsor) LinkU Webinar (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, guest host Tristan Ahumada speaks with David Greene, a very successful real estate agent, real estate investor and author of the book SOLD: Every Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Building a Profitable Business. David has amassed a career’s worth of experience in the real estate industry and uses that knowledge to help others get their careers off the ground! Episode Highlights:  As a police officer, David had no intention of getting into real estate when he bought his first rental property. David was able to learn everything about real estate by owning it himself and left the force to become an agent. After a couple of years of building his business and failing, David is on pace to hit about $90M in 2021. There exists a big gap in mentorship and knowledge in the real estate industry, something that David hopes to battle with his book. Through his books and podcast, David exchanges his personal knowledge and expertise for leads. By providing information on a specific topic to a specific sphere of people, you become the expert to those people. David is attempting to disrupt the downward spiral in the real estate industry by educating agents on how to close deals. Back when he was buying rentals, David would listen to the Bigger Pockets podcast for affirmation. After meeting Hal Elrod and getting introduced to the Bigger Podcast guys, David had to learn how to write for the Bigger Pockets Blog. People that find the right mentor are so much more successful than those who try to do it on their own. David found the top producer in his office and offered to do what they hated in order to learn from them. It’s not just about what you say to your clients, but about how you say it that can make the biggest difference. In his book Sold, David teaches agents how to systematically have conversations with people as well as the technical aspects of the job.   Sold is just part 1 of a 3-part book series that will have something for agents with all levels of experience.   People kept coming to David with questions about application and how to get things off the ground, thus inspiring him to write his new book series. You should not get into the real estate conversation with someone until they inquire about your life. The time to be planting conversational seeds is when someone is studying for their real estate test. Even if you’re first starting out as an agent, you already have a database, you just have to bring it together. David teaches that it is best to start with the people that are already in their sphere before they start door knocking. Agents that produce the most know how to consistently follow up. It’s important to play to your own strengths because what works for some agents may not work for others. The work that you put in today will manifest itself in the business that you do in 6 to 9 months. Once you are comfortable with what works for you, the leads will come easier and faster as you go. CRMs, spreadsheets, and the whiteboard system are 3 strategies that David emphasizes when building relationships. David wants agents to understand that not all leads are the same and each one needs to be approached differently based on that person’s circumstances. Listing presentations and buyers presentations are tools that turn leads into clients. Psychology and knowledge allow agents to get a client to sign a contract and close deals. You have to be able to determine a lead’s motivation before you can know if they are going to be a client. By going to the pain point of the seller, agents can find their motivation, but it’s important to remember that you can’t create that motivation. David takes every opportunity to brand himself as the real estate person to his sphere. When joining a team, assess the exchange of value and where you work best based on your personality. 3 Key Points: Throughout life, the more willing you are to help others, the more willing they will be to help you. You have to earn your way into somebody helping you. It’s important to remember that being an agent is not a W-2 job. Your presence in the office will not result in you getting paid. Make sure your actions actually lead to money. Many agents make the mistake of focusing solely on lead generation and not enough on lead follow-up. Top producers know how to systematically follow up until the buyer or seller is ready to move. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) David Greene Website | Books | Podcast  MCBackup Chime (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor)

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 Kris Reid all the way from Vietnam. Kris has a background in building online computer games and figured out how to use SEO to bring visitors to his site at an elevated level. Now, Kris helps people understand the power of SEO and how it makes life easy! Episode Highlights:  Now more than ever, it’s incredibly important to have a digital presence and an effective website. It’s important to keep a cup-half-full mentality in the wake of the global pandemic. Originally from Brisbon, Australia, Kris has a background in software engineering. After the financial crisis of 2008, Kris decided to build an online game which forced him to learn the ins and outs of SEO. Most businesses and entrepreneurs fail for the simple fact that they don’t bring in enough revenue. Many of the realtors that Kris speaks to leave themselves defenseless by spending their entire marketing budget on Zillow. Eventually, you can use SEO to hone your website down to your specific niche in the market. Through keyword research, Kris and his team help their clients find what people are looking for in their area. In general, content is important, but studies show that over 90% of content on Google gets zero traffic. Realtors can only handle so many leads without hiring more staff, so you must know what success looks like to you every year. Digital marketing kicks the hell out of TV advertising and the best part is that it’s easy to track the numbers. Many times, Kris gets blank stares from the clients that he explains SEO to because they aren’t very technical. Kris and his team help their clients figure out the avatar of their ideal customer and get in the heads of those people. When Kris begins working with a client, he has to be able to explain SEO to a certain point in order to build trust. Cost-per-click posts are the ads on top of a Google search which costs the owner to put there, though they get less than 7% of the clicks. The difference between the 1st-ranked site on Google and the 10th-ranked site is 10x the amount of traffic. Really long key phrases are usually linked to people who know more about what they are looking for. The more specific you can be with your keywords, the smaller the search volume will become, but the higher the percentage of converted leads. People are forced to trust what everyone else is saying about you on Google, so domain authority plays a massive role in your ranking. Establishing a solid domain authority, the amount of backlinks that lead to your page comes down to keyword research. Everyone wants this sexy, aesthetic website, but bringing in traffic is the most important aspect. Your page needs to punch people in the face and tell the visitor exactly what you do on the landing page. Don’t kill a lead by trying to sell on the first connection, provide value and show people that you can help them. The biggest mistake that people make on social media is that they treat it like a website. Make it clear to Google what pages are linked to what keyword so that the pages don’t cannibalize each other. Go to Kris’s website below and Kris will evaluate your website for free! Kris has worked very closely with his team leaders to establish the company goals and what they need to achieve them. 3 Key Points: The power of SEO lies in the fact that it is compounding. Rather than blow your entire marketing budget on Zillow, put half into your website and your leads will eventually skyrocket. Studies show that over 90% of content that can be found on Google gets zero traffic. While content is important, leading people to that content trumps all. The longer the key phrase, the smaller the volume of leads that will come in. At the same time, those leads know more about what they are looking for, so a higher percentage will be converted to sales. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents Website |Facebook| |Facebook Group| |Twitter| |Instagram| Kris Reid Website | Facebook | Twitter | Media Factory| SEO toolset | Search Traffic Study blog 7 Habits of Highly Successful People The Vision Driven Leader Clockwork  mobwarrior.com RedX (sponsor) StreetText (sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Zachary Foust, owner of Loft Realty in Delaware. In only three and a half years, Zach has built a social media following in the millions and established himself as the real estate authority in Delaware! Episode Highlights:  Zach opened Loft Realty in Delaware almost a year ago, but has been a realtor for four years now. Creating content ignites creativity in Zach’s brain because it presents him with an opportunity to solve a puzzle. Before real estate, Zach was raised by two military parents and worked full-time in the Army National Guard, a surround sound company, and as a correctional officer. Zach has been fired and demoted in multiple positions throughout his life because he was not able to focus his attention on those jobs. Jeff is in the mortgage game which tends to be very boring but he has been able to find his passion with the social media side of things. Zach entered his real estate industry as a blank slate and decided to change the person who he was. Through the use of video and live streams, Zach was able to build his foundation as an authority in the real estate game. Though some people might think that Zach’s personality is too loud to break bread with, his exposure makes him the best person to sell their house. Zach has never lost a single agent from his team from being fired because he does not view them as numbers. Though he doesn’t make a salary from his team, Zach is still able to earn as an agent and marketing consultant. An abundance mindset has taken Zach from getting his license to owning a brokerage in less than four years. Agents have a tendency to try to sell themselves over social media which actually has the opposite effect. When you decide to stop going after the sale and start going after the brand, consistency will come to define your success. With a stutter and a squeaky voice, Zach used to hate speaking in front of other people, but consistent training has helped him overcome that fear. By being completely authentic with all of his social media postings over multiple years, 94% of Zach’s sales were non-competitive this year. Know where you are and are not good, where you can provide value, and be authentic to that in your social media content. Make it a focus to get criticized because that means that you are doing something right. Depending on what kind of market you are going after, Zach suggests you start with either Facebook or LinkedIn. TikTok provides a great platform to create content but has proven difficult to get referrals for Zach. There is power in having a strong brand and an audience regardless of what industry you are in at the moment. Tailor your content to the average audience of the platform that you are using and start at ground zero. Being open-minded and having a growth mindset means you believe that you are one connection away from changing your life. Take opportunities to surround yourself with people who have achieved the success that you want to succeed. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they stay with the same group of people their entire lives. 3 Key Points: By not editing his videos and leaving in the bloopers, Zach was able to humanize himself and connect with his audience at a more authentic level. Zach has forced himself to put retention and recruiting at the forefront of his business by vowing to take no salary until his brokerage hits eighty agents. Don’t judge based upon what other people have accomplished or are posting on social media. Be authentic to yourself or failure is imminent. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Zachary Foust | Linktree | LinkedIn | Facebook| YouTube | TikTok |  Instagram LinkU (sponsor) RedX (sponsor) LCA Marketing Center (sponsor)

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 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)

Andrew Greer, a top real estate developer in San Diego, CEO of Thomas Strafford Investments and Co-Founder and CEO at the Better Tomorrow Group, talks to the Lab Coat Agents Podcast host Jeff Pfitzer about owner financing and quality opportunity zones. Andrew will help you understand why it is important for real estate agents to understand these concepts, along with seller carry back when talking to investors and developers. Episode Highlights: How Andrew Greer used sock puppets to grow his brand What are qualified opportunity zones? How to find out about getting involved in qualified opportunity zones What led Andrew down this path of qualified opportunity zones What is the Urban Land Institute? The best strategy that Andrew recommends How an agent can use seller carry backs to their advantage What is seller financing and how does it work? How you should go about working with a real estate attorney The percentage of real estate agents that know their zoning codes Andrew discusses demoing houses and doing videos around them Andrew’s involvement with Air BNB properties What is a longtail keyword? 3 Key Points: Know where the qualified opportunity zones are in the real estate areas that you are investing in. Always hire a real estate attorney. Know your zoning codes. Resources Mentioned: LCA Marketing Center: LCAmarketingcenter.com Lab Coat Agents: LabCoatAgents.com Andrew@Thomas-Strafford.com Facebook: Andrew Thomas Greer 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

General Social Media Strategies That Work  Drunk On Social, The Symposium. Co-Host, Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer go deep into general social media strategies for growing a social media audience. Jeff and Tristan also take the time to share the actual successful strategies they use daily to grow their social media audience which ultimately helped build their brands and grow their business.  Episode Highlights:  We are going deep on these 10 platforms: FB, IG, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin, SnapChat, Club House, YouTube and Reddit.  Today’s episode will focus on general social media strategies.  It’s about connecting with people on a deeper level and then showing them what you do for a living.  We are going to share simple principles about how to stay hip to what is happening and/or improve your social media presence.  Identify what your message is to the people you want to target.  You are the Brand.  Early adopters don’t know if it will work but they go all in so they can learn something from the process and apply it to other social media platforms.  This is Tristan’s strategy for his social media, personal brand and business: STAY = Sell, Teach, Advise and You.  Go all in on 1 social media platform first, before trying to use multiple platforms. Use what you love and attract as many people as you can.  The purple dress and glasses mindset.  Be yourself and don’t worry about what people think.  Jeff’s strategy is to do 4-5 feed post every single week and at least 5-7 stories per day.  With everything that happens over the course of your day, you need to answer the ?, Is this shareable?  Closely follow 5-10 people who inspire or entertain you and then take bits and pieces from them to grow your brand.  We are going to bring in experts and go deep on every single platform. We will keep you aware of what is next with each platform so you can identify how best to use it. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website| Facebook |Facebook Group| Twitter | Instagram | Drunk on Social | Drunk On Social

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Chris Craddock. He is an expert in lead generation, working with investors specifically. Chris has grown his business from $80 Million to $160 Million over the last few years in the Northern Virginia DC area. Founder CEO of Redux group. He has a Platform of REI REVIVE, and he is a co-host of the podcast Uncommon Real-estate. Episode Highlights: It is a challenge for real estate agents to develop and build relations with investors in the pandemic. It is a critical component to keeping your business very high or taking it to the next level.  Chris took the unconventional path to real estate. He went to some of the bigger investor groups and enquired what they do with the dead leads. For Chris, persistence was the key to get his first break.  Chris points out that real estate agents and investors should work together in tandem, but they rarely do so.  Investors are more open to fixed costs than variable costs where on the other hand, real estate agents are more open to variable costs than fixed costs. With agent vs. investor mentality, you have to identify what the seller or homeowner wants. The script should be more about questions, and then you give solutions. Normal conversations for the script: How do you differentiate? What are the common mistakes that agents make? 3 Key Points: Chris answers the questions: Where do you find investors?, Where are the investors getting the leads from?, and What is it that may have caused you to succeed whereas others may have not? It is highly crucial how you approach a lead; Instead of approaching them as standard agents, it is best to approach them as problem-solvers. Chris answers the question: Do you think most agents go in with a standard presumptuous mindset? Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents  |Website| Facebook | | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram | Chris Craddock | Website | | Facebook Group | Instagram    https://www.chriscraddock.com/reirevive   https://www.facebook.com/groups/uncommonrealestate https://www.landvoice.com/pre-foreclosure https://www.propstream.com/ https://www.coleinformation.com/ https://dmv.thereduxgroup.com/

What’s new with FB, Twitter, IG and Clubhouse? Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer discuss what’s new with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Clubhouse. They point out how it can potentially impact your social media strategy and ultimately your business.  Be aware of trends and stay ahead of the changes so you can maximize the opportunities. Episode Highlights:  Today we are going to discuss the latest news from Twitter, Clubhouse, FB, and IG. Twitter is testing an edit or undo button. DRock with Gary V uses twitter to find freelancers.  Twitter today is #4 with monthly visitors. Clubhouse launched a creator accelerator program.  Clubhouse is looking to curate creators so they can have a bigger audience.  Clubhouse will soon add Android users and that could be significant.  Facebook is looking to create a similar product to Clubhouse.  Facebook is going all in on AR & VR.  Facebook is creating websites and landing pages.  NFT’s are Non-Fungible Tokens and you can create something unique to you that can not be replicated. Take a look at how they are using it with art. Instagram wants to capitalize on reels. Instagram recognizes the number of posts, stories, and IG TV’s on your account. Jeff commits to 4 to 5 posts per week in his feed post and 5 to 7 stories per day. Make social media what you want it to be. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents | Website | Facebook |Facebook Group| Twitter | Instagram  Drunk on Social | Drunk On Social Facebook Page Tristan Ahumada | Facebook | YouTube Jeff Pfizer | Instagram | TikTok 

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Kathrin Rein, CEO of Beautiful Miami and a successful real estate agent. Kathrin Rein talks about how she has gone from stand-up comedy and acting in her earlier days to becoming the top solo real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty in the state of Florida for the last two years. Episode Highlights:  Kathrin Rein is from Germany and is based in Miami. Financial freedom has been her goal since she transitioned from stand-up comedy to real estate.  Kathrin Rein sells about 70-100 houses a year.  Her dad passed away when she was 22.   Many comedians are actually in a dark place.  What caused Kathrin Rein to get involved in real estate?  People underestimate the power of knowledge.  Just because you don’t know anyone doesn’t mean you can’t become a real estate agent of choice.  With real estate, there is no ‘right way'.’ There is just your way.   Kathrin Rein has been in real estate since 2011. She is normally on the buying end of the real estate market and she is strong on SOI.   Follow 3-5 people on social media that you are inspired by and emulate them and make it your own.  Perfection is overrated. Take action and be different.  Kathrin has a full-time marketing manager.  Be yourself and identify your personal advantage.   Kathrin Rein owns five houses in Miami and three in the mountains of Georgia.   Kathrin discusses the metrics that she used for vacation rental properties. Kathrin Rein pays her property managers between $350-$500 per month or 10%.   Buy areas that are diamonds in the rough where it is family-friendly, where people would want to spend time, and that you would want to vacation in.  She could retire now if she wanted to live in the mountains of Georgia.  If she stays in Miami, she could retire in 3 years.  You pay the highest taxes on your income, less taxes on your rental income, and even less on your capital gains.  If you make no money on paper for taxes, then you will have trouble getting mortgages.   Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  3 Key Points: Just because you are good looking, that by itself is not an achievement.  Leverage your past life of friends and build deep relationships with people.   Kathrin Rein’s real estate strategy includes relationships with people outside of her industry, her sphere of influence, agent referrals, not being salesy, and being a giver without expecting anything in return.   Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram | Kathrin Rein  | Website | Linkedin | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Meet with Kathrin | Street Text (sponsor) Follow up Boss (sponsor)

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 speaks with Isaiah Colton, co-founder of the Real-Estate Nexus and the head of growth for the Realty Home Advisors brokerage. Isaiah is a lead-generation guru and he shares his expertise that he gained from continuing to solve problems along the way.  Episode Highlights:  Isaiah Colton talks about his journey, experiences, and the challenges that he has overcome in his career. In 2014, he was the VP of sales and marketing for a start-up online marketing company, when he decided he wanted to go out on his own to start a brokerage. Isaiah and his business partner, Mark, developed a small team of 3-4 people in a short amount of time. He got hyper-focused on lead follow-up and lead conversion and ensured client experience was at the forefront of the process. They used the ISA model, which was already around in 2014, but wasn’t quite as popular as it is today. Their first year, their brokerage did 170 transactions and from there the growth continued.  Isaiah had the idea to train more people to do his role and they scaled the ISA model out to 70 ISA agents, doing referrals  and prospecting all over the country. The popularity grew, with agents continuing to join their referral program, and they couldn’t stop the momentum. Within a three-year period, with the broker to broker referral model, they grew to 15 million dollars of revenue. Isaiah woke up one day realizing that he was exhausted and not happy, managing 120 employees. He wanted his company to be a technology-first type company and they sold off the broker to broker referral arm. Isaiah’s passion today is helping real-estate agents have a whole scope of not just generating leads, but converting leads and making sure that the client is happy along the way. Jeff asks on behalf of the listeners, “How can I equate this into my business?” Jeff talks about the in-house ISA company built by Isaiah. At the end of the day, whether you are an agent, broker, or an individual, all you want is to make it rain. You are going to learn today “how to make it rain.” Isaiah talks about the friction points in the real-estate industry that slows it down. Largely there are three buckets – Marketing, Sales, and Service. Take a hard look and ask yourself, “How solid is your marketing plan?” Jeff inquires if marketing means listing. He also points out that agents often don’t have a pitch. Isaiah clarifies that marketing means converting people into your database, generating leads, converting them, and finally building a brand through social media, video marketing, etc. Jeff inquires, “When it comes to actual lead generation with AI, how does that work?” Isaiah shares that if your follow-up is not good, you will pay for something that is not good anyway. Isaiah points out that with the new technology and tools, we have kind of lost the fundamentals. Jeff and Isaiah discuss the importance of being honest and honing your skills. At times, Isaiah has seen people who are good at the front-end but lack customer management and vice versa. If you hyper-focus on marketing, sales, and service with your client at the center and get better at serving clients, you will have abundance. With hard work and focus, wealth will come to you. 3 Key Points: Isaiah talks about the ups and downs that he faced while launching and growing his business. At first, he was excited to grow a business, but later, he learned that “You have to be careful that you do it the right way.”  Isaiah shares about tools and technologies, especially how he has used the AI system backed by a 24/7 sales agent. Isaiah talks about the importance of building value, creating urgency, overcoming objections, follow-up, tracking metrics, and much more.  Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram | Isaiah Colton | Website | Facebook | Real Estate Nexus RedX (sponsor) Street Text (sponsor)

What's Next On Your Favorite Social Media Platform? Instagram, TikToc, Facebook and Twitter are creating new opportunities for users to reach more people and explore futuristic ideas for communication using AR and VR. Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer share what’s new and keep you updated on how these changes could impact your business. Episode Highlights:  Instagram Stories will have drafts coming soon. Automating captions for videos is currently being tested by Instagram. Instagram is focusing on Stories and Reels.  It is really important for Instagram users to make shorter videos and add captions. Facebook just released an infographic of 5 years of VR advances from Oculus.  Virtual Reality (VR) is when you feel like you are in a virtual world.  Augmented Reality (AR) is when you superimpose a virtual piece that can hover on something real.  Facebook introduces a video trailer for Horizons.  Watch the movie Ready Player One to get a glimpse of what companies, like Facebook, are creating. Facebook is also working on creating a virtual workplace where you can wear oculus glasses and meet in a virtual world. Tik Tok launched Playlist so content creators can categorize their content. You can post to YouTube, grab the link, and post it to Twitter.  Twitter is a great place for you to share random thoughts..  Snap a picture of the random thought you posted on Twitter and share it in your Instagram Stories.  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 https://tech.fb.com/ar-vr/ Facebook Outlines Five Years of VR Advances from Oculus [Infographic] https://www.oculus.com/facebook-horizon/ Ready Player One Movie (2018)

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)  

What's new on Clubhouse and FB's Hotline? Clubhouse has adjusted its platform to give influencers the ability to make money. Hotline is Facebook’s attempt to copy Clubhouse. Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer touch base on the recent changes that are being made on multiple platforms and  share what you need to know about what’s coming next.  Episode Highlights: The reason that YouTube has the best content is because out of all the social media platforms, the content creators get paid the best. Other platforms that want to grow and remain relevant, need to take note of what YouTube is doing and pay content creators well. Tristan reviews how Clubhouse’s “first monetization feature” gives creators the opportunity to make money. Jeff wants to build a weekly or bi-weekly Drunk on Social Clubhouse room as an open forum to ask questions. Google is about to change how their algorithm works. There are five things to watch out for that will affect your SEO ranking. Check the ranking of your website page speed at developers.google.com. Yahoo is still among the top most visited websites. TikTok was the number #1 most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2021.  Tristan says TikTok’s video editor is so good that he goes there specifically to edit videos and just saves them as drafts. The new editing feature on TikTok will allow you to toggle an image or text over an area and you can see what it would look like. Facebook announced that they had 5 million emails hacked in 2019 which is why it is important to change your password frequently.. Facebook recently announced the addition of an up and down arrow to sort comments so that you can prioritize the best comments on a specific post.  Facebook also launched their new Clubhouse-like app, Hotline. They are going to have users join in with their twitter accounts to beta-test it at hotline.co.  Social media companies that pick up steam, like Clubhouse and continue to grow, are going to take off if they open up a creator fund that is really strong. Pinterest also announced their creator fund to support creative talent. Howard Tager, one of the founders of Ylopo, has told Jeff to keep his eye on Pinterest, it will remain relevant.  Drunk on Social, The Symposium, is seeking feedback, join our FB group!  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 LastPass Password Manager Hotline

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer, talks to Venus Morris Griffin, who is a successful realtor in Augusta, Georgia. She shares a mind-blowing story about her journey through personal challenges and the ability to beat incredible odds. Episode Highlights:  Venus Griffin has been a real estate agent for almost 10 years. She got her real estate license to help her husband pay off extra bills. Venus grew up in a very dysfunctional family. Her mother was in and out of mental hospitals.  Everyone deals with adversity differently, but Venus’s brother and sister  just could not deal with it. Venus did not know how to break out of her situation, but one thing was certain that she did not want to be like the others who were around her.  She started by finding good role models and looked up to them and tried to emulate what they were doing in their lives. At the age of 14, she was on the verge of homelessness, living with friends, trying to figure out what to do. She decided not to get into any bad habits and focused on getting through high school. She went to college supporting herself with several different jobs. Venus married her husband, and their marriage lasted for 20 years. This is when she thought she got life all figured out. They functioned as a very normal, blue-collar family. Her entire life changed with the birth of her first child. In total they together have 6 children. Venus’s life changed from one phone call that she received from a prostitute. Her husband was seeing a prostitute for several years, and she had evidence to prove it.  She truly believed in saving her marriage and fighting for it.  Venus found out that her husband had been lying about his whole life.  Venus was a stay-at-home mom for 17 years, at that point with 6 children she just did not know what to do but she committed to do whatever she had to take care of them. In 2009 the market crashed and her attorney warned her that it was not a good time for her to start and she needed to have a plan. Initially, she tried everything possible, be it calling people or walking the neighborhood and trying to convince people to hire her to list their house. Slowly and steadily, she started doing 2-3 open houses every Sunday, Venus put forth the extra effort at the open houses and she sold houses, contrary to what research shows, and she would get buyers from it. In the part of her first year, she earned $20,000 and in the second year she made $100,000. For Venus, there has been no turning back since then.  No matter how much work she had to do, she committed to sitting down to dinner with her family every single night. Venus encourages the audience to have a “why” driving the motivation for what you do. Jeff asks Venus, “What advice do you have for agents in today’s world?” Venus talks about how it is important to look at the big picture and build your brand. In the first year, pay someone to do all the busy work.  Venus talks about her book which is about to get launched “Validated – Learning To Matter Through Breaking The Cycle of Abuse.” 3 Key Points: Venus Griffin talks about her journey and the struggles that revolved around it. But she never felt despair; rather she was happy about where she was headed. As she narrates her story, she shares that success is built over time, continually doing the right things, as well as respecting others and lifting others up. Venus shares tips from her own experience for young real-estate agents about how to thrive. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram | Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Venus Griffin | Website | Instagram | Facebook  Chime (sponsor) LinkU (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

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 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     

Apple has new data tracking procedures. Facebook is making big changes in regards to user experience. Snapchat is seeing a global uptick. New learning opportunities to grow your skills are popping up left and right! Tristan Ahumada and Jeff Pfitzer are bringing you the newest information on social media and how it applies to you and your business. Make sure to hit the subscribe button so that you don’t miss anything! Episode Highlights: Is there value to data tracking? Apple has updated opt-in prompts for users data tracking.  Tristan makes the listeners aware of the list of things that will be tracked on their devices.  Linkedin announced the start of Learning Hub, to create opportunities for more comprehensive skills on how to use social media and Linkedin. Udemy is a place where you can learn almost anything, especially in marketing and social media at a very affordable price. Jeff talks about the value of news articles on Linkedin. Linkedin looks different on mobile versus desktop. Jeff and Tristan give instructions for navigating the features on both as well as how to find the learning hub. Facebook adds changes to news feed rankings based on certain factors from their collected research to create a more balanced experience for users. Authenticity is key. Jeff explains how to share your life and win the algorithm game at the same time. Snapchat is at 280 million users! Facebook and Instagram keep copying what they are doing. Tristan explains why and how. If you want to be relevant in ten years, you have to start thinking about marketing to Gen- Z.   Snapchat has a cool thing called Spotlight that they are testing out in 14 countries. They are giving away a million dollars a day to the video that they spotlight for that day. Jeff previews a topic that will be discussed in the future on The Symposium, sharing that they have friends who are getting million dollar deals as a result of TikTok.  Clubhouse uploaded their logo for a third time in their short existence. Why are they choosing this unique strategy? Staying present and having a strategy for cross posting on multiple platforms are two important points of focus to touch more people.  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 Udemy  Snapchat Spotlight https://www.tiktok.com/business/en/ Drue Katoaka

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 

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 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 Jeff Pfitzer talks to Cindy Ertman, CEO, and founder of The Defining Difference, a success-based coaching, and training company. The company is devoted to helping people master the power of intentional choice to create a defining difference in their own lives.  Episode Highlights:  Cindy talks about her life journey. She started her career in college as a real estate agent.  She  shares that she has been working with real estate agents and bringing them success strategies to grow and build their business from marketing to team development. Jeff says coaching in today’s world has become extremely diluted, and in this digital world, everyone is a coach now. How can real estate professionals navigate  which platform or coach is best for them? Google the best coaches, look at their reviews and talk to people, scan testimonials about people's experience and how their lives have been changed. Hire the assistant or hire the next level that supports your business before you need it, and you grow into a very good place. If you are looking into someone’s business, look at the foundation. You have to make a strong foundation for your business to take your business to the next level of success. Cindy recommends a simple exercise - “Plus or Minus” things. It has changed many lives. Plus: the things that you love doing and minus: the things that don’t help you. You have people who are focused and love to do things, and on other hand there are people focused on what they hate doing. How do you focus on the things people love and get them to work on what they hate? Most successful people in real estate are those who can build a relationship. Jeff says that burnout sometimes happens due to too much work or tension with your families because you are perpetually accessible, or you just have rough deals. It is really important to put some boundaries around your business.  Background check candidates and know who has given the reference is the key while hiring a new team member. Jeff recommends establishing your own brand and how you want to be represented on your pages is absolutely critical. Is there any matrix in your income or your revenue that says, “Yes, I can afford this, or you should probably wait with hiring a new person? The matrix is not what the current data tells you, it’s what the future data tells you. Cindy says she loves her team so much that she is just playing and having more fun. She wants her team to come together and create a shared vision and all move towards that vision together. 3 Key Points: Jeff and Cindy talk about team development and how she lifts people to make them successful in their business and life. Cindy discusses how morning practices are a big part of our mental health and keep us in mindset. How do you coach your clients who think they can’t afford it? Cindy explains how she usually starts by walking through the process and identifies the gaps where they are losing people.  Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Cindy Ertman | Website | Facebook | Instagram | info@cindyertman.com Get your free download- 7 Instant Skills to Ignite Your Life, Business, and Income LinkU (Sponsor) RedX  (Sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Aaron Norris, Vice President of market insights for a platform called PropertyRadar. He started flipping houses with his dad as a kid. Aaron is now an MLL specializing in hard money and a licensed real estate broker; He speaks publicly and writes nationally. Tune in to hear about his experiences, the value of data, and how to utilize it to grow your business! Episode Highlights:  At age 19, Aaron moved to New York City and was a professional actor. In between jobs there, he started into Wall Street doing acquisition and multiple financial presentations for a banking firm and enjoyed it.  Aaron is certified in PR and marketing. He went back to California and re-joined the family business. He was in the real estate community creating content for 15 years and then was living a dream doing the technology space. Aaron shares a chocolate and peanut butter analogy: Chocolate is what you bring to business. Peanut butter is the data. Combining them creates magic. Jeff says sales professionals are the most scroll-chasing individuals in the world who actually sit back and execute on strategies that involve data. What are strategies that real estate agents can utilize for data? PropertyRadar is a public record platform for people, mortgage, and property data all in one. As the real estate market is very high, agents have to create deals. You need a real estate investor in your back pocket. iBuyers are not buying hard properties, they are buying the easy ones, and they are competing with realtors.  iBuyers don’t want people’s problems and property problems, so as a real estate agent, you have to understand the game. Institutional investors raise a lot of money thinking that there is going to be distress or a huge wave of closure, but unfortunately, they are most likely going to be sorely disappointed. If you are not  in the builder space, it will be tough as property rates are going up. As long as prices stay inflated, it is always a good time to sell.  Number 211 is a nationwide network that helps the human services hotline. If you dial 211 and ask them for data and different resources for housing, rent utility, etc., you will get more than you ask for. Jeff inquires, “When it comes to acquiring data, how does that work for a real estate or mortgage professional?” There is a subscription-based model of PropertyRadar; Aaron explains how it works and why it is important.    3 Key Points: Aaron shares how he is helping and teaching real estate industries and market professionals how they can do better with data. Marketing means you are talking to the right audience at the right time on the right channel with the right message. Jeff is curious to know, “Where PropertyRadar pulls and estimates a value or equity?” Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Aaron Norris  | LinkedIn |  Website |  https://community.propertyradar.com/ | aaron@propertyradar.com Chime (sponsor) LinkU (Sponsor)

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 Jason Martin – a real-estate leader in the DMV market. Jason has recently released a book titled “This is your captain speaking.” Today’s episode is special because Jeff and Jason are not going to talk about business; instead, they are going to talk about life lessons. Episode Highlights:  After completing college, Jason was a sports anchor for a few years and then he got into real estate in 2003. He runs a team in Washington D.C. It’s always fine to talk about the numbers but there is more to the story that you can’t forget. On a daily basis, Jason focuses on being the best version of himself, as a father, husband, and business leader. Those close to him reap the benefit of his best behavior.  In your professional world, when do you think you are operating at a peak performance?  Jeff shares that he is in his prime when he gets the opportunity to talk about his passions, usually it involves coaching or helping someone. Passion is what excites you and links you to success in business.  Jason looks at businesses as an opportunity to continuously learn something new, apply new skills, build relations, etc.  How can someone find their niche?  What about your business excites you? Jeff and Jason discuss how you can draw energy from the work that you do. Jeff discusses his career journey as well,  the challenges he has faced, and what he learned from his mistakes. Documenting your  thoughts can give you a clear picture of your life and business. Seek deeply to understand the “squeeze” of what a new opportunity is going to cost you and what it is worth to you. Jason stresses the importance of self-awareness. He asks listeners, “How can you be a better version of yourself?”. Mental and physical exercise brings balance to life and business. What practical strategies can you use? In his book, Jason talks about legacy and what one leaves behind. He also talks about work ethics that one should follow and how to open up to real conversations.  Adversity is an opportunity. Jason inspires listeners to challenge themselves and be passionate about life and success. 3 Key Points: Jeff and Jason talk about life and how different choices that you make  reflect on your business.  Jeff talks about his passion in the business realm and how it helps him to grow his business. Jason gives a teaser of his upcoming book, “This is your captain speaking.” It is packed with life lessons that are applicable to business. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Follow Up Boss (Sponsor) JasonMartin  |Facebook | Today You Choose | jason@jasonmartingroup.com | Book  Street Text (Sponsor)

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

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Josh Kalinowski – an ex-professional athlete, he has created a very successful career in real estate and recently wrote a book called “Strike 3”.  Tune in to hear his great story! Episode Highlights:  Josh talks about his clarity of vision and the ups and downs of his career journey. He retired from sports at the age of 26. In 2006, Josh got his realtor license.  Luckily for Josh, his father was a builder. So, all Josh had to do was post sign boards outside houses that his father had built. The book, Strike 3, talks about what Josh has discovered within himself in order to find a greater purpose in life. The last few years, Josh has started to invest in himself and opportunities have come knocking at his door.  How do you build a name for yourself in the real estate industry? In 2008, Josh and his wife had to depend on the tax return money to manage their monthly expenditures; He lost 17 deals that year. Josh decided to stay committed towards his goal until the burn-out. He was working 7-days a week. His family was very supportive.  By 2012, Josh was successfully running his company; they had hired 15 agents.  From 2012 to 2015, Josh’s company went from 12-25 agents, and from 2015 to 2019, they went from 25 agents to 65 agents. At present, they are sitting with 76 agents and 2 offices.  One of the biggest challenges Josh sees with people is they are not willing to submit to authority. The fruits (success) that you are seeing in life- are they the right fruits? Are they growing you? Are they helping you? Josh tells the listeners how the foundations crack if there is no faith.  Faith, Family, Fitness, Finance, and Future are all super important and tied to each other; Your coach should be helping you in each of these areas. Jeff asks, “In this deluded world of coaches, how do you suggest somebody find the right coach?” Josh stresses the importance of hiring the right coach by asking them the right questions. He also shares a couple of real-life lessons and educates the listeners about “How to be better in your business.” “When it comes to average – it is best of the worst or worst of the best,” quotes Josh. Josh talks about the disruptions that are tearing industries apart and tells the listeners the reason why they should go and buy his book – Strike3.  3 Key Points: Josh talks about the downfall in his career and how he rose to his career success. Jeff discusses the key takeaways from Josh’s success. “There is no magic pill that is going to lift you up in the real estate industry; it is all hard work”, says Jeff. Jeff and Josh discuss the benefits of hiring a coach in the real estate industry.   Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Josh Kalinowski | Website | Facebook | Strike 3 | LinkedIn  Free Book from Josh It Takes What It Takes by Trevor Moawad Red X (Sponsor) Street Text (Sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff Pfitzer talks to Michael Reddington - President at InQuasive. He has a background in forensics interrogation. Michael works with people to help them become better listeners, interviewers, and more persuasive.  Episode Highlights:  Michael shares how his life has been a series of accidental job acceptances. He discusses his past success in interviews and interrogation and what motivated him to continue in the field.   He really wanted to understand what it takes to sit down with a complete stranger with completely opposing interests, goals, fears, and motivation and persuade them to share most of the truth in a very stressful situation.  Decades of experience with the world’s leading Non-confrontational Interview and Interrogations Training organization made Michael realize that the very best leaders and interrogators capitalize on the same two core skills – Vision and Influence.  Currently, Michael spends most of his time working with executive and business professionals teaching them “How to apply strategic, ethical, observation and persuasion techniques with discipline listening methods.” Jeff is fascinated and is curious to know about some fun experiences encountered by Michael. Several years ago, Michael received a phone call from a Fortune 500 national company where the President of Consumer Marketing was retiring.  The Fortune 500 company wanted Michael to interrogate their Director based on a fraud rumor. If the rumor turned out to be true, then the company would fire the Director otherwise, give him the VP post.  Using good techniques, taking a report-based approach, Michael interrogated the Director. Ultimately, Michael compelled the Director to confess the frauds.  Michael points out the importance of thinking during any conversation or engagement “How will this one conversation take me closer to my goals?” People have far more motivation to project their own interest than work with us unless there is already a strong relationship, says Michael. People in any type of position or authority or expertise can get really tempted to chase the conversation down, says Michael. Michael shares details about the research that came out in mid-2000 on the topic of “Judging somebody’s trustworthiness, just by looking at somebody’s face.”  Jeff and Michael talk about the psychological tweaks one can make during important conversations. In a home-buying scenario, agents can encounter couples with two different mindsets, depending on where they are and how they feel. Michael talks about opting for a value-based approach for communicating with people.  Michael shares few tips about “How to start a great conversation?” “Our brains are wired to listen for information that confirms what we already believe,'' says Michael. Jeff goes deep into a specific scenario and asks Michael about those agents who want to improve their game. “Focus on the process, and the result takes care of itself”, says Michael. 3 Key Points: Michael talks about his journey, the ups and downs, and how he finally got the Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI) designation. The certification helped him get recruited by the world’s leading Non-Confrontational Interview and Interrogations Training organization.  How can you  create the best possible reputation by building positive client relations?  Michael talks about the 7 automated ways of persuasion.  Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Michael Reddington   | LinkedIn | Website  Books:  Influence, New and Expanded, The Psychology of Persuasion | Pre-suasion: Channeling Attention for Change  | Insight Selling  Chime (Sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Justin Stoddart, host of the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, in which he interviews top business minds in real estate. Justin is the author of The Upstream Model, an international best seller. One of his favorite things to talk about is building a referral business that crushes big tech competitors. You need to hear his insights!   Episode Highlights:  Justin talks about his career journey and personal background. He was raised by entrepreneur parents who introduced him to the world of real estate. After a few initial struggles, Justin realized that he had to be strategic about his business. What does upstream mean in business terminology? Justin targeted those professionals in the marketplace who were dealing with his future clients.  How would you coach someone to approach financial buyers?  Justin explains the difference between financial advisors and real-estate agents.  It is best if you get referred by someone. “All of us are being pressed by big tech platforms; We all need to raise our value proposition,'' says Justin. Justin talks about the white-collar crowd, the financial professionals, and lenders.  When house hunting, people should think about financing first. Justin says this often does not happen. In all professions, everybody covers the WHAT, but you should really think about the WHY behind it. Make a list of all the people that you can coach and make a list of people with whom you can go to coffee or lunch with, this will help you to analyze how big your referral channel is.  Justin recommends adding layers to a business so that it adds value to the customers. How do you get customers to see a difference in you? The Think Bigger Real Estate Show started as part of his value proposition in real-estate. Justin realized that if he can have a conversation with bigger thinkers than him, he can grow as a person.  “You are the sum average of 5 people whom you spend time with”, Justin recalls a famous quote. Be dynamic, don’t be a fixed product, advises Justin. “If you have the hunger, go find the right resources,” suggests Justin. Justin advises listeners to find the people who motivate them. 3 Key Points: What does upstream mean in business terminology? Justin built relations with professionals like architects, interior designers, land developers, real-estate agents who were in relation with his future potential clients. What is one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they approach somebody who has the potential to give good referrals? Why do big tech companies win? It is because they are more convenient, and they reduce complexities. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Justin Stoddart  | Website | Free Training | Facebook | Podcast | Instagram (DM  ebook) | The Upstream Model | Free book  Follow Up Boss (Sponsor)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks to Dan Corkill, founder of Follow Up Boss, one of the biggest and best CRMs in the market; It is a self-funded, profitable company launched in April of 2011. The company is fully remote with a primarily US-based team. You don’t want to miss out on learning the best practices in CRM! Episode Highlights:  Dan shares his life journey and talks about what led him to launch his venture – Follow Up Boss. Initially, when Dan launched Follow Up Boss, they spent the first 6 months building the software’s foundation.  Many people are paying for CRM tools but not utilizing it to their full potential. Follow Up Boss leverages things for realtors. The platform is not just meant for scaling business but also to deliver a first-class client experience.  Why does someone need a CRM? How often do customers use the same agent on their next transaction? You want to build relationships with people as a real estate agent and continually evaluate how to reach more people with those relationships. “With very little money, you can create a database, build relations, use email marketing, create videos, and much more,” says Dan. Jeff talks about a game-changer quote, “Own Attention and Own The Market.” “50% of the sales go to the first person who contacts them” says Jeff. An agent who makes at least 6 follow-ups increases their chances to close the deal to >90%+. This is not possible without a proper system or process in place. Jeff reads two more stats, “91% of clients say they would give a referral, but only 11% of real-estate agents ask for a referral.” “Each year, real-estate agents lose 14% of their customers.”   The features of Follow Up Boss are effective and easy to use. Dan explains what data is required to start the process. What does it mean to bring value to your customer and keep the focus on service to them? Jeff recommends realtors to “Put yourself in the shoes of your buyers over the years, and create videos addressing the FAQs.” The Follow Up Boss CRM can generate leads from anywhere and the company has a dedicated team that helps users to set up. Follow Up Boss has an app for both android and iPhone users.  Dan shares a wonderful piece of advice with listeners about how to best generate leads and reach out to maximum people.    3 Key Points: Dan guides listeners about how to use technology to their advantage. Dan reveals the 3 biggest reasons why a person needs CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Jeff curiously asks Dan, “What makes Follow Up Boss unique?”;“Why are the big boys using it?” Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Dan Corkill   dan@followupboss.com |  LinkedIn Follow Up Boss  Street Text (Sponsor)

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

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff  is interviewing Michael Bernoff, the author of the book called, Average Sucks. He is a neuro-linguistic and language patterns specialist, among many other things. Today’s episode is special because Jeff and Michael are going to reveal the secret about how to get past average!   Episode Highlights:  Michael understands real estate really well because he is an investor. He shares about his background and motivation to succeed. His parents always told him to work hard and be a good person. Michael studied the behavior of humans; His background in psychotherapy analysis and neurolinguistic programming helped him to understand what makes people do the things they do. There are two reasons we procrastinate: 1) We think we are perfectionists and we are actually just procrastinating playing the part of a perfectionist and 2) A language pattern you use wires your brain to respond in a particular way. Your biggest challenge is your average, it dominates every single thing in your life. What happens when we develop an average for ourselves?  What if you stop looking at what others do best and start looking at yourself? Talking about real estate, Jeff inquires, “I would like to know what is one of the biggest objections or the things that you feel like an average real-estate agent needs to overcome to get to another level?” Michael suggests, “In order to get where you want to go, one of the first things you should do is look in the mirror and ask yourself a very simple question - Are you where you want to be?” Michael recommends, “Do not beat yourself and accept you are not where you want to be. If you want to change, you have to like yourself.” In order to step out of the average mindset, people should figure out, “What was their original reason for making money?” Michael explains how he has worked through this question. Jeff  asks, “How do you keep somebody from talking themselves out of what they’re capable of doing?” Michael shares tips on how to redefine what a person’s real average is. What is the one thing you do more than anything in the world all day long?  Jeff and Michael discuss hacking your brain by evaluating what you do automatically and how to change the patterns. Michael has worked with about 50,000 real estate mortgage people, and over the years, the results people have received are amazing. Michael guarantees that participants of the Average Sucks Challenge will get more done in five days than they have in five months. He says, “You will love who you become by the time it ends.” Jeff wonders what the end game is for Michael; He asks, “Why are you giving the Average Sucks Challenge for free? Michael says, “The biggest thing we are fighting is an idea that we had that we thought was a good idea years ago.” He explains how your brain adapts to that idea. What was your original reason for doing the thing that you’re currently doing? It all starts there.    3 Key Points: Michael always wondered, “Why are people dominated by a magnetic force to be who they were yesterday, last month, last year?” So, he dedicated his life to help people break out of that mentality. Michael teaches about psychological triggers and how to move on from your past to what you want. When was the last time you learned how to market yourself? Communication is the most underdeveloped tool that we have and it has the potential to help us reach where we want to go.  Jeff inquires about the challenge that Michael has for everyone- the Average Sucks Challenge. Listeners can login to averagesuckschallenge.com/friends; it is over the phone, no zoom required. Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Michael Bernoff  Facebook | Instagram| YouTube | averagesuckschallenge.com/friends  Chime (Sponsor) LinkU (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)

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks with Tonya Eberhart and Michael Carr, partners in the company called BrandFace. They are the wizards and the experts of branding! Jeff knows there are a lot of self-proclaimed experts, but Tonya and Michael are the real deal. Tune in now! Episode Highlights:  Tonya is the founder of Brandface; She shares how her corporate journey began many years ago. At first, she sold vacuum cleaners door to door, during college. Later, when she learned about radios, she noticed personal branding and how it can make such an impact on a business.  Tonya dragged her clients into the studio one by one, teaching them how to cut their commercials and be the voice of their business. Later, she got into other forms of media like television and newspaper; This was even before the Internet. Gradually, she learned how to help people become the face of their business. People don’t do business with a logo; They do business with a person. Michael was a real estate auctioneer since 1991. He opened a brokerage in his hometown and hired her niece, Tonya, because she owned a full-service marketing company at the time out of Columbus, Ohio. Real-estate agents often forget to inject the personal end of their brand. Some might think that putting a photo is personal enough, but that’s not enough for people, especially in the age that we live in now, says Michael.  Tik Tok has taught many real-estate agents how to express their personal brand and their story through social platforms. Michael points out that we all have a background and the things that helped develop us into the path in life that we have taken. Tonya shares that they have an agent who got her brand identifier as Empowerment Agent. She is a cancer survivor. They have quite a few of those in the program who have learned to embrace that because there are so many people who identify with that. Some real-estate agents who have a photo, a logo, and a clever tagline, think that their branding is complete. Those are branding elements, but they do not constitute a full brand. How do you touch on all elements of branding? As a real-estate agent, it is important to figure out why someone should you over everyone else, recommends Michael. Brandface comes up with brand identifiers for a living. Your marketing cannot stop with your photo or with a catchy tagline, people need to know why it matters to them. As a real-estate agent, your story is exactly what is going to get you to develop that out.  Full brand development is not just the thing that gets people to stop for a second on their social media scroll or something. It’s so much more than that.  Many real-estate agents settle for “Ditto” instead of different.  The reason people don’t always know what to say and they’re gun shy is because they haven’t defined who they are, says Tonya. If you don’t put a little risk in the game, you probably aren’t going to be successful because you are not committed. The greatest brokers are the brokers that want what is best for you.  Facebook and social media platforms are essentially billboards but 10X more powerful than a billboard because you can be in front of them forever. It doesn’t matter what roads they’re driving, as long as they go to the app. If you’re playing the game correctly, they always see you, and that is the name of the game.   3 Key Points: Storytelling is illuminating how you can help your people, your clients, and why that is important to them. Great branding isn’t about being known for your profession, it is about being known for being different in your profession.  A lot of people post their results and facts but they don’t infuse their brand and tell behind the scenes or what obstacles they might have overcome to get there. That’s part of their story. People want to be more personal! Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter BrandFace   | Website  | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook Brandfacescore.com Tonya Eberhart  | LinkedIn | Michael Carr  | LinkedIn |  

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  talks to Yishi Zuo. He is relatively new to real estate but not new to the tech side. Yishi comes with some strong credentials as he attended Business School at MIT a few years back and has a past career at Goldman Sachs. He has built a piece of technology for the real estate world that you will find fascinating!    Episode Highlights:  Yishi started his career in finance, initially joining Goldman Sachs Investment Banking, then worked for an investment firm for a few years. In 2016, Yishi decided to transition into tech entrepreneurship, going off to Business School at MIT Sloan. He started a business while working as a full-time student there. Last year, Yishi moved from Boston back to the West Coast and started exploring other entrepreneurial ventures, which is how he got into real estate.  Open houses are kind of annoying, especially during the sign-in sheet process. It is often difficult when visitors don't sign in, refuse to, or sign in with fake information, says Yishi. Yishi realized that their biggest competition isn't any other competing system. It's actually traditional, like pen, paper, and sign-in sheets. Some agents told us that they had achieved great success while doing $100 giveaways or $500 giveaways, and not every agent does this, says Yishi. In his company, Yishi has structured their system such that you can take your calendar or booking link through Calendly, mixed maps, or hub spot and put it in their system.  Jeff asks Yishi to talk about "What the options the business has and how is it that you are able to do this for free?" Yishi explains that Kagent has a very powerful free tier and how it works. A survey is completed at the end of the open house for every visitor, and as the agent, if you're using the free version, you only get to see the aggregated responses, says Yishi. Jeff says, "As a younger agent or if you are new to the business, one of the techniques that you can use to go out and try to drive your business is going to an experienced agent, either in your market or in your office." Yishi says, "Some agents are in the industry for 30-40 years. They have plenty of referral businesses, and they don't need to hold open houses. They don't need to get lead information. People come to them."  There are many ways and directions where Kagent’s product can go and really help the agents get more leads for better relationships, explains Yishi. Jeff asks, "Where do you see the industry going from a technology perspective or what are you looking at as you look out into the future?" Yishi weighs in with his insights and opinions. The best real estate agents are the best networkers to the best people, says Jeff.   3 Key Points: Yishi talks about two key features that make them different - the paid price survey gets the closing price and the free forever plan.  The younger agents are desperate or really eager for leads; it makes a lot of sense whether you use our product or not to do these open houses because open houses are a great way to meet potential leads, says Yishi. Jeff inquires, "What do you guys suggest to agents that are holding the open house to grab the open house attendee's attention with this?" Yishi replies, 'Every agent is different. Different agents have different tactics". Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Yishi Zuo   | Website | Twitter | yishi@kagent.com Chime (sponsor) RedX (sponsor)

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

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)

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 

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)