Transcript

0:01
All right, what's up, faithful agents?
0:03
Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast.
0:06
I'm so glad you're here.
0:07
We're gonna have a great conversation today with David Denning, but before we do, let me give you my Christian dad joke of the week.
0:15
The Ark was built in three stories, and the top story had a window to let light in.
0:20
But how did they get light to the bottom two stories?
0:23
This is so cheesy.
0:25
They used floodlights.
0:27
Whomp, whomp, that's fantastic.
0:29
um Oh man, David, sometimes it just that's fantastic.
0:36
All right.
0:38
Well, that's pretty funny.
0:40
Yeah, that actually is legitimately funny.
0:41
So we've got David Denning here from Jumpstart Go.
0:44
We're going to be talking about how he built his business and how we can build our business on relationships and social media.
0:51
So let's dive right in.
0:52
David, thank you for being here, buddy.
0:54
But man, talk to me.
0:55
How do you build your business on social media?
0:58
We get that question all the time.
0:59
Talk to us.
1:00
Teach us how to do that.
1:01
Absolutely.
1:02
And so that's really how we, from the very beginning, built and scaled our business.
1:08
We worked primarily with insurance industry, but before that worked with real estate, insurance, tech, startups, all kinds.
1:14
And a lot of these principles really apply across different industries on that side.
1:18
So what we found is one of the best ways of growing through relationships and trust and bringing people to you today is going where the people have already gathered for...
1:28
two and a half hours on average a day anyways on social and building where people are consuming and they're honestly their eyes are at throughout the day is usually on the phones versus hopefully on the road in front of them if they're driving.
1:41
But with that said, right?
1:43
Like this is just a modern application, especially from the real estate side that you're talking about of like, hey, pre-internet, how do we build our business?
1:48
We went on the community, we built relationships with businesses in the area, we did events, our clients have spread word of mouth, we've been involved in our churches, nonprofits.
1:56
which we were talking about earlier.
1:58
And um we shake hands, kiss babies, and over time become pillar of the community that trust and everybody knows to send people to Garrett for real estate, for example.
2:07
And you know, you sit back and you've built all these relationships, right?
2:10
And now this is just a modern application of that same thing.
2:12
How do I go do that same thing through social, really all over my area, all over the country if I wanted to, if I do business across the country without even getting my pajamas, which.
2:21
My wife wakes me, we're real close to the office because it's more professional.
2:24
But you know, I have done a lot of pajamas and all the way from Thailand, right?
2:27
And so, so with that social, we knew that it was a huge opportunity.
2:32
We bootstrapped our business.
2:33
It wasn't like starting a lot of capital.
2:34
So it was also a great option that way too.
2:36
And we started tapping in.
2:38
I'll be honest, at the very, very beginning, maybe didn't pick the easiest or the best channels that we now have learned some lessons from.
2:46
Our very first client actually came off Reddit.
2:50
Interesting.
2:51
Okay.
2:51
Yeah.
2:52
it was nuts.
2:53
And I was like, wait, people will come offline having never met you and do business with you and stuff.
2:58
And so that was interesting as we built up some trust and some connections there and then people came and talked to work with us.
3:04
Now, a much easier, better way than Reddit today ah is we've leveraged social such as Facebook.
3:11
We've used Facebook primarily as our core platform.
3:15
Not because I find it the sexiest, most amazing, most fun platform out there.
3:19
Let's be honest, it's not.
3:21
uh Maybe a little negative for my taste, right?
3:24
Like I like TikTok, but it is so great for building business connections and ultimately getting in conversations with people, which is my goal, right?
3:31
I want to talk with people, whether they're prospects, referral partners, uh colleagues in the industry, and social's built for that.
3:38
So Facebook is primarily where we focus, not only because it's got three plus billion people on it, Not only because it doesn't require as much content So it's not like you have to be a full-time content creator to really do awesome on social In fact, it requires very little which for insurance agents, they don't like to make a lot So it works great for them on that side and it has unique advantages like Facebook groups that the other ones don't have where people are already segmented out by interest location hobbies faith all these things that is like well, that's exactly my audience That's exactly what I as referral partners.
4:10
This is exactly my location area that has everybody in this area in it.
4:14
And so I can go to those, just like in the past, you'd maybe go to a BNI event, you'd go to a chamber of commerce event, you'd go to some school, you know, fundraising event, and you'd go where the people were at.
4:25
Now I can just do that on Facebook groups.
4:28
So we started using social and just like everybody, it's not like we came from like having all this knowledge on social, we tested and put stuff in place and improved skill sets, which I know we had talked about earlier too.
4:39
And for us, that was like when things like Facebook Live first came out.
4:43
We were like, okay, this is new.
4:45
we just like everybody kind of scared of talking in front of people, but hey, let's do 30 Facebook lives in 30 days.
4:50
And that's what we did.
4:52
They were, were they all about business?
4:53
No, some of them about Halloween costumes or whatever and stuff we were wearing.
4:56
And so, you know, we just, we just challenged ourselves to do that.
4:59
And it was crazy.
5:00
People would pop in the comments, hey, I haven't seen you in a while.
5:02
Oh, that's so great.
5:03
I love your videos.
5:04
Hey, actually, I didn't know that you helped people with growing their business on social, like would love to reach out and talk.
5:09
it's like, oh.
5:10
People are watching, people are paying attention.
5:12
Okay, okay, this is great.
5:13
And so we continue down that path.
5:15
Now, the biggest movers for us, we teach initially, like one of the easiest things to do is leverage existing groups and stuff there as well.
5:23
But one of the most powerful methods for us, especially for long term and especially when you have maybe longer sales cycles like real estate where I want to be in front, I want to be top of mind, I want to be constantly in front.
5:34
And I like to be the go-to person.
5:37
And as a part of it is Facebook groups and having your own.
5:40
So we started our own Facebook group and we kept the name very simple, which I encourage and actually teach too, because it makes it easier for people to find your group.
5:47
We called it Marketing for Insurance Agents.
5:50
What we do, who is for it?
5:51
We kept it simple.
5:53
We kept it very, very simple.
5:55
And that actually played well because Facebook actually would start recommending it to other agents to come in and join.
6:00
And so we just grew organically.
6:02
This was no, we weren't running ads to this, anything like that.
6:04
We think we got to the first 15,000 people in that group before we ever.
6:08
ran anything there, right, as far as any sort of ads and stuff.
6:11
So we just grew organically through this group.
6:13
And what this group do, I'll be honest, at that point, I didn't even know much about insurance industry.
6:17
We've done this with industries for marketing, but I didn't know a lot about this particular one.
6:20
And so we would pick up knowledge from the discussions of agents in the group and what they're asking, talking about.
6:25
They told us their pain points and what they needed.
6:27
And we listened and, you know, we realized, hey, a lot of them are spending all day long calling leads with no one answering.
6:34
If you take out lead costs, really not making any money.
6:36
It's like, OK, this is a pain point.
6:37
and we know we can help teach and show them how to grow on social, which happened through that group.
6:42
So through leveraging the group, trainings, building a relationship with that, being in front of them, you we got to do a million plus a year just from that one Facebook group by itself, right?
6:52
And uh so, and that's been partly what we've taught.
6:55
What we do ourselves is through content connections, relationships through social and uh developing those out.
7:02
Okay, so so cool and lots of things in there, right?
7:04
And I wrote down multiple things, but so a couple questions for you.
7:07
And I'll start with this one, right?
7:09
Because we get this question a lot.
7:10
I think about this a lot is from a uh must do perspective.
7:16
does a real estate agent, does a mortgage lender, does an insurance agent have to do social?
7:21
And let me couch it with someone like you, someone like me, who's trying to reach a broad audience that lives in a bunch of different areas.
7:29
Cool, if someone from Australia gets engaged in what I'm doing, fantastic.
7:33
But if I'm in Virginia, which I am, and I'm just thinking about only selling houses, and someone in Australia loves me, doesn't matter, right?
7:41
That doesn't help my business at all.
7:43
So is this, David, we'll start there just broadly, is this?
7:46
this a strategy that has to happen for every agent or is social media optional?
7:52
um I would say it's good questions and a couple different things there.
7:56
So the the last question, you know, is this something that is optional or really has to be done almost and I'm gonna say it has to be done almost at this point um Especially because we look at majority of buyers both in insurance and I would think in real estate as well Millennial all the way up into their late 40s at this point to Gen Z's if you're not on social you don't exist This is also where they're consuming things, where they're getting recommended things, where they're building trust with things.
8:24
They grew up with it, especially Gen Z grew up with influencers and people that are watching on socials.
8:29
And so it is where people are both spending time and where they're connecting off of.
8:33
So if you don't have any socials and they go research you, go look you up and there's nothing there, it's like this person's a ghost or there's like really nothing to go off here.
8:41
Right.
8:41
So social is not only powerful, but it's great for that social proof as well.
8:46
And so.
8:47
I would say it's not super optional today.
8:49
Does it have to be your main marketing channel?
8:51
Does it have to be like, I'm going heavy on this?
8:54
It doesn't require a lot of time.
8:56
So it should be something that's at least there partly, even if you have a mother primary channel, but it's gonna be something that's gonna be a super profitable um and piece of your growth for your business, no matter if it's the core principle or not.
9:15
And with that, uh On that side, even if you're hyper local For example, it's no problem.
9:23
You can be very localized with what I do on social to where yeah I'm not getting an audience of Australians Australians coming through right and and that's part of what we would focus on as well as like, okay I want to make sure like if I'm leveraging the group side, I'm gonna leverage groups in my city county um and an area on there's that for neighborhoods and things like this if I'm working just within that, you know area of zip codes and city and stuff there.
9:48
No problem.
9:48
We have plenty of clients that they prefer to work face to face, so they're working local and that's what they focus on, right?
9:53
They're not getting people from across the country necessarily connecting with them, right?
9:56
Because when we also are building audiences, we build audiences that are either fall into our prospect, our deal client profile, or fall into potential referral partners or centers of influence or fall into our clients or even past prospects we've talked to.
10:10
And those are really the core.
10:11
If they're not in those core, then...
10:13
probably not gonna accept them as a friend or reach out to them.
10:15
Like it's not really, you know, falls into that.
10:18
It's great if someone in Australia finds me, but like I said, it's not the core audience.
10:21
I'm focusing to the audience I want to build.
10:24
And it's the thing, yes, with social, can get very focused to my exact client, location, all these things on that side as well.
10:31
That's good.
10:31
Yeah, I mean it's and for anybody in Australia listening I have no idea if there are we love you anyways I'm just saying I don't need you to buy a house for me right now if you want to move to Virginia We can help you out, but I think Yeah, right, that's right that you know that'd an interesting problem to solve uh So I mean, love, you know, what I've and I'm not a huge social person.
10:54
I'm trying to understand it better.
10:55
I love that you talked about, right.
10:56
It's essentially the new community square.
10:58
That's where they are.
10:59
That's where they're having conversations.
11:00
We need to engage in those conversations.
11:03
The a couple of things.
11:05
So one, I love that you're talking about these these Facebook groups, right.
11:08
And being super intentional, it could say, you know, young men buying homes in 757, which is my area code, right.
11:16
That's a weird name of a group.
11:17
So don't name it that.
11:18
But right.
11:19
Something that you could just be hype specific to this is who it's for.
11:23
I love the name of your group, right?
11:25
Marketing for insurance agents.
11:26
They need to look at the name of the group and immediately know is this for me?
11:29
Is it not?
11:30
And I've helped a lot of agents create affinity groups and one of them was, hey, what do you do?
11:34
Well, I go for walks a lot and I'm a young mom and that's what I do.
11:37
Mom's on the move in the 803 is what it was called, right?
11:40
And so, hey, you know pretty quickly who this is for and who it's not for and you're going to join.
11:45
You're not going to join.
11:45
That's OK if you want to be specific to talk to your audience.
11:49
But you talked about your core platform of Facebook, right?
11:53
I think one of the challenges may be for the social media world, especially for those who just don't wanna do it.
11:59
It's like, I have to do Instagram and YouTube and TikTok and LinkedIn and X and all the things.
12:05
So when you say core platform, what does that mean?
12:08
And are you uh suggesting should agents really focus on one main space of social, try to do well there and not necessarily worry about the other things?
12:19
Absolutely.
12:19
We are huge proponents of focusing on one platform, growing and scaling success on that results on that versus this idea of omnipresence.
12:28
And then I got to do multiple platforms.
12:30
Each platform works differently.
12:32
Each algorithm is different.
12:34
You're adding twice the amount of work.
12:36
It's not take the same thing I did and throw it everywhere and it's going to work great everywhere.
12:40
They're all different.
12:42
And so I'm not looking to add additional work.
12:44
And so therefore less chance of success because I've spread all that instead of focusing on one and growing it before ever looking at additional one.
12:52
I don't really like unless they're doing if they're doing less than seven figures a year of them doing more than one.
12:59
Like it should be focused to one.
13:01
And then you can scale to additional ones if you want to that point.
13:04
And even then only pick a second one.
13:06
not a bunch of other ones, right?
13:08
So it's just easier to stay focused and get results.
13:11
It'd be like, yeah, I do real estate and I do insurance and I sell Mary Kay and I do like, they're all different.
13:18
Like you're pulling away your opportunities for success with just focusing on a single one if you're trying to do a lot.
13:25
do love the point of, it feels like at least to me that Facebook, so I'll be a test case for you, right?
13:32
So Facebook, I've got this book coming out, so I've been trying to pay more attention to social, and recently we said, okay, I'm gonna really focus on Instagram, because I don't really get TikTok.
13:41
It doesn't mean I don't post there.
13:43
You know, I have Facebook, but it's just different.
13:45
Like, I like the visual, all the things, right?
13:48
But, and then we did the YouTube shorts and things like that.
13:50
I don't know why I said the YouTube shorts, like I'm an old man.
13:53
But, you know, so.
13:55
yeah.
13:55
Facebook, right, right.
13:56
We dial up our Internet and we're in the for me, Facebook, like I have the most friends.
14:02
I already have a Facebook group.
14:03
That's where the faithful agent started.
14:05
Right.
14:06
We've got these pieces.
14:07
But I've thought that probably more people live on Instagram.
14:13
And so I should try to be there.
14:14
Now, that's been harder to build.
14:16
Right.
14:16
You can't go in there and just type in this is what's going on.
14:20
I mean, there's the stores, there's all the pieces that go along with that.
14:23
And so.
14:24
And I don't have the opportunity, like you said, to build a group.
14:28
can brand myself, but there's not really an opportunity to do that.
14:31
So someone like me who is niche, right, is I'm serving the Christian agent population, is Facebook a space to live, right?
14:40
Someone who is, I'm in California and I sell homes to whatever, this particular neighborhood, is Instagram in that scenario more like a vanity metric.
14:50
Great, you've got...
14:51
10,000 followers, that's awesome.
14:53
None of them live where you are.
14:54
They're not your ideal client, to your point.
14:56
Good for you, it makes you feel better.
14:58
You could have a Facebook group of 200 people and sell 10 homes a year just from that.
15:03
And so if we're going to niche down, is Facebook the place that you would do that for someone who is going to be hyper local?
15:13
So it also depends on your goals and what the purpose is, right?
15:16
know, Instagram does attract a lot of that real estate audience because a lot of people, it's very visual based.
15:25
Instagram is a visual.
15:27
Very much platform.
15:28
That's how it started.
15:29
That's what it continues still to be right But it has shifted from what used to be just high quality images and this beauty and life is perfect or ever on Instagram and but it was great, know real estate agents could show off properties and walk throughs all kinds of awesome things on there, right and it has moved very much more towards the video content and short-form video content with like reels for example on instagram, and so you can absolutely grow on instagram you can absolutely uh Accomplish a lot depending on what your goals are there It just tends to be more video based now and being able to do a good bit of this video It's not just I can do one piece of content a week and that's gonna work great It's got to be consistent and good quality video because low quality video on a visual based platform is gonna work so well so I do need to do quality and The my one of my downsides with like if this is gonna be what I'm pursuing is just it's not as easy getting in conversations With people especially community-based conversations with people through Instagram now Can I get people commenting on stuff reaching out move in DMS and set up stuff?
16:32
Absolutely, right?
16:33
Especially if I'm getting individual agents paying attention there I just if my goal is to get in front of people have discussions connections and setting up appointments and stuff like something like a Facebook group is great it also shows like a level of authority and social proof and stuff through that.
16:48
So there's pros and cons.
16:50
They're both owned by Metta.
16:51
So there are some similarities between them.
16:53
Facebook likes both of them.
16:55
ah But I wouldn't try to...
16:57
Heavily grow on both at the same time I'd focus on one if you want to do Facebook and start seeding some content over to Instagram So as I start focusing more over there, I've already got content maybe a bit of an audience now I'm starting to grow there.
17:10
That's fine But but yeah, they are they are a little bit different at the end of the day my my whole purpose of for us for social is getting in connections or relationships and moving those to Appointments where I'm talking on a phone or zoom whether it's a referral or a prospect, that's my end goal is to have a conversation and then yeah, things come out of the conversation, right?
17:34
If my goal is just to get in front of and apply teaching and be seen as a subject matter expert, then it doesn't necessarily matter if I'm on a platform that makes it easy for them to talk back with me or set up appointments, because that's not necessarily a goal.
17:45
That's like LinkedIn.
17:46
LinkedIn, I can put out content, subject matter expert, but it's gonna be where people spend two and a half hours a day and are going there for fun and connecting.
17:53
No, it's more like a corporate world.
17:56
It's great subject matter expert.
17:57
and looking for jobs or finding jobs, kind of LinkedIn's thing.
18:01
But if I'm looking for day-to-day communications and getting in front of people and building those relationships, I do like stuff like Facebook groups, for example.
18:10
Well, that's so good too.
18:11
mean, again, uh the Facebook, right, the Facebook idea and as an encouragement to our agents, uh the Facebook idea, right, you create a Facebook group, for example, for your local market, whatever it is you're trying to do.
18:23
not only are you just identifying who those people are, now you have an easy way to communicate with them, right?
18:28
mean, Facebook, Album, all the things, I don't understand all that, but necessarily, but now you know who they are, they've self-selected, right?
18:34
You've either invited them and they've chosen to come in or they've sought you out or whatever it is, because they're searching for it.
18:39
And now they get to be part of that group and you are the leader of the group.
18:43
Now you know who you can have conversations with, right?
18:45
They have raised their, it's like a for sale by owner in our world, but raising their hands and I'm trying to sell my home.
18:51
And then the problem is now our industry tax that poor person to try to get them to sell with them.
18:56
This is a similar idea.
18:57
They raise their hand and say, this is me.
18:59
You know, I'm whatever homes for sale in Newport News, Virginia.
19:03
Well, hey, if I'm going to join that group, I probably have a reason to be there.
19:07
So now I can create engagement with that person.
19:10
Right.
19:10
So I'm going to ask you two things.
19:12
The first part of this is going to be what does that engagement look like?
19:15
Right.
19:15
Because a lot of most of the time when we don't take action, it's because I don't know what to do.
19:20
Right.
19:21
I don't even know how to take that action.
19:22
So what is my action, and then they gotta actually do the action, that's a problem too, but like, what do I even do?
19:27
I start a Facebook group because I can connect those people there, what do I do with that, right?
19:32
That's number one.
19:32
But number two, I love what you said, you have an end game in mind.
19:36
What's the end goal?
19:37
Most of us do things on social, I was doing this for a long time, and it was, if someone asked me, what is your end goal?
19:43
I don't know, I'm just posting, because I think I'm supposed to post, right?
19:46
That's not a good way to build a business either.
19:48
Your end game is how do I get into relationship with them, right?
19:51
So, love that part.
19:53
one, what do you do with your group?
19:55
Part two, how do you take that group and then move them into an actual relationship?
20:00
So yeah, talk to us about that.
20:02
So first thing I'm gonna caveat is I'm not recommending that the first step be go build a Facebook group.
20:08
ah Facebook groups do take a lot of time and effort and it's not the quickest, easiest thing.
20:15
to focus on.
20:16
I'd highly encourage leveraging existing Facebook groups that are already active with people and things going on to your advantage.
20:23
Building one, the first 200, first thousand people is the most work and it's primarily coming from you.
20:29
And the way social media works too is unless I'm keeping it active and people constantly involved with it and seeing and interacting with it, then over time Facebook stops showing them stuff from that group.
20:39
So they can be in the group but not seeing my content I'm doing there.
20:42
So unless I'm really committed to that, it wouldn't be the first thing I recommend, even with our own clients.
20:46
I'm not like don't go off the bat, start to build a Facebook group.
20:49
It's more of a later down the road, longer term solution there.
20:52
I like leveraging existing groups.
20:54
And this is where I come in, just like real estate agents know how to provide value, do connections with people.
20:58
It's the same thing here.
20:59
I'll come into a group, I'll connect with the admin and like, hey, how can I bring value to this group?
21:03
What's helpful?
21:05
Is it like more connecting you with others that would be valuable as guests here, do content and me doing content with you, me just to help moderate the group, like me just like.
21:15
like what kind of content do you like in here?
21:17
What kind of conversations would you like to be encouraged?
21:20
And then I can come in, I can provide value and be like, listen, I've had agents come in to groups of their target audience, person would be like, listen, I like you, I've seen what you're doing, I trust you after having some conversation with you, I just want you to be the sole insurance agent for the group.
21:33
Here's admin privileges, you can boot out any other agents if they get in, I just want you to be the insurance agent.
21:37
And this agent runs this entire group, does hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from this one group for free, because he's the only group there.
21:43
So it's relationship still, There's a lot of ways for me to come in and just leverage a group that already exists for me Everybody's got groups for their neighborhoods or cities by cell groups all these things Those already have my target audience and stuff there.
21:55
I can go leverage that stuff without having to go build one from scratch That's why I wanted to pre preemptively because I'm not gonna like tell people are like, my gosh building a group is gonna take my whole life and it's like It's yeah, not the first thing.
22:07
So but yes Yeah, it's good.
22:09
Okay, so now you're in this group, right?
22:11
I love that idea of reach out to the admin.
22:13
You're in the group.
22:13
You're engaging with the group.
22:15
You're trying to provide value the way that they suggested.
22:17
Now, how do I turn that person into an actual relationship potential business?
22:23
So.
22:24
This is where I might bring in little bit of social media teaching when you talk about the algorithm and some of these things.
22:28
um I do think this is to be probably one of the most helpful, hopefully good takeaways from today, as I usually find to a lot of people, it's kind of a light bulb moment.
22:36
So I always talk about like how social media is just a tool.
22:40
It's a tool you can use for business, for example, growing and like any tool, I have to understand how it works if I really want to get results out of it.
22:49
Kind like if I hold a chainsaw by the chain, not the handle, the trees don't get cut down and my fingers get something back on, right?
22:54
Like understanding at least at a basic level how it works so I don't spend a lot of time for no results, which is not what I'm encouraging.
23:00
I'm encouraging very strategic uses of it.
23:02
So, uh Garrett, how do you think Facebook makes money?
23:06
selling ads to people?
23:09
Yeah, I mean broadly, yeah.
23:11
Yep.
23:11
why it's free for us to use.
23:12
make their money off of people paying to get in front of people, right?
23:15
Through ads.
23:16
It's actually worth billions of dollars a company for it ever made one penny.
23:19
I tried telling investors that when we started, but apparently it works for Facebook.
23:22
I think that might be a racket.
23:23
I don't know.
23:24
So, but yeah.
23:25
publicly traded.
23:26
It is a business.
23:27
A business's goal is to make money for the business, right?
23:30
And if they don't, they'll get fired and replaced.
23:32
So Facebook, Meta, has taken its primary products, Facebook and Instagram, for example, and designed them to make as much money as possible.
23:38
Same with other social media platforms, for example.
23:41
And so if they're...
23:42
And this is where it comes out like business page or personal profiles, which is an important thing to understand here is a lot of people like, business pages where I do my business and personal where I do my personal.
23:51
I think real estate agents get this a little bit better because they understand that, hey, I'm my business.
23:55
I'm the face and so they understand the personal aspect a little bit better because if Facebook makes us money through ads Does it have any incentive for me to go use a business page and get all the free business I want and people find me come to me without ever paying them for any ads?
24:08
No Yeah.
24:09
lose money and go out of business, right?
24:11
So they limit reach on business pages to 1 % or less meaning even if I have a thousand people I've spent time and energy and money building for a business page I'm lucky if ten people of that thousand see anything I do So it's like shouting into the wind I sense like having a nice restaurant in the middle of the desert Doesn't matter if the food's amazing if no one knows it's there So it's good to have business page, but it's not where I spend my time and strategies because no one's gonna see it anyways So the personal profile Facebook has the opposite incentive, right?
24:36
It wants people connecting engaging watching videos commenting.
24:40
It doesn't care if it's puppies or politics.
24:41
The content itself doesn't really matter to Facebook as much as what makes it money.
24:45
Does it keep people on Facebook and for longer?
24:48
Well, the longer they're there, the more ads they serve, the more money they make.
24:50
They like that, they reward that.
24:52
That's why engagement is so critical on social platforms and like Facebook, for example, because it's what keeps people there.
24:58
There's a reason it's addictive.
24:59
There's a reason it hits dopamine, because that keeps people there and they can make more money.
25:04
Now, they reward that.
25:06
Whereas if it causes people to leave the platform, they got bored, they want somewhere else.
25:10
Facebook can't make money till they come back to serve them ads.
25:13
So they don't like that.
25:14
They punish that.
25:15
And this is where if I understand why the things work the way they do, certain things will make sense of, I get why this is going to work well for me or hey, I get why this isn't.
25:23
So a common example is using links and post.
25:26
If I'm using a link to my website, to my landing page to book a time with me, a call to get a quote or to a video made on YouTube explaining the home buying process, whatever that is, I'm essentially doing the same thing as walking in a starbucks saying hey everybody don't buy any coffee here come over next door it's better over here right starbucks not a big fan wouldn't recommend it and neither is facebook of costing themselves money they're not going to push a post and stuff with links because people are going to click it and leave facebook that would be stupid and so what they do is they reduce the reach to very little or to nobody and this is where i see people doing social without understanding it as a tool and they're like man i'm doing so much good work i'm putting out so much good content i'm doing so much great stuff why is no one coming through and it's because they're doing what doesn't work whereas if i know Instead I won't use the link and I'll say hey there are home our home buying guide that we put together Just write me below if you like more info on that or a copy right instead of using a link now They write me and Facebook says you engagement show this to more people and then they write me and then they write me and then more people get Seen and it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy almost off of that I say instead of oh, here's your link.
26:30
I say oh Bob love to give you that.
26:32
Let me shoot that over to you and messenger I'll get that over to you now.
26:34
I'm in a private conversation with Bob Hey, are you actually looking at burn buying a home in the next six months you work?
26:39
Hey, let's hop on a call.
26:40
I'd love to ask some questions talk about that now I've got an appointment out of this versus no one's seeing it So this is really it comes into understanding how the things work, right?
26:48
And that's why we teach that as well because like I'm not gonna tell people to blindly do things It makes more sense if I understand it So I'm coming back to like leveraging groups and everything like just like you talked about I don't have to talk about real estate all the time.
27:01
They know I'm a real estate agent and like, you know, will come to me.
27:04
I want to build this relationship.
27:06
It's the same thing with groups and some of the ways they work too with the algorithm.
27:10
It has what's called affinity.
27:12
Okay.
27:13
And this is where Facebook, once again, wants to encourage these connections, people staying on here.
27:16
So if I'm going in a group, it doesn't even have to be a group about.
27:20
real estate or about home buying or about insurance and saying I'm in a local group and it's about the schools in the area and for parents, right?
27:27
Good group for people looking to buy homes and move and upscale or whatever.
27:31
But I'm in there and they're talking about schools or book fairs coming up or something like that, whatever.
27:37
I'm discussing with Barbara and we're talking back and forth, right?
27:40
Am I connected?
27:41
If I'm not connected with Barbara, she's not a friend of mine.
27:43
But because I engaged with her back and forth, Facebook says, hey, David and Barbara talked a little bit.
27:48
You know what?
27:49
I bet Barbara probably wants to see some David's stuff on her feed when she logs in.
27:53
Now, as I do a post, hey, know, three tips for home buyers in the home buying process, wherever, and it comes across her feed, like, David, I didn't know you were a real estate agent.
28:01
We were talking the other day in that group.
28:02
I'm actually looking to buy a house myself.
28:04
I'd love to talk with you.
28:05
So I didn't even have to talk about in that group to still end up in front of her.
28:08
Right.
28:08
And this is affinity on social and it's very much a part of the algorithm on this.
28:13
But that's one way.
28:14
The other way is, yes, I'm engaging over certain topics in the groups.
28:18
I can introduce topics in these groups.
28:20
or if the group is already around that specific topic or ever, then yeah, of course, if it's my target audience and stuff there.
28:27
And so I love to start discussing things a little bit and then move into private messenger because that's where I can continue a conversation and move it to a phone call or appointment.
28:34
I love guides and leading with value.
28:36
Real estate agents do this all the time, a guide for the school systems there, local parks, things for families to do, right?
28:41
These are nice things that I can now move over to discussions and stuff off of this.
28:45
I talked to the admin, hey, we're doing a little walkthrough on three tips for new homeowners.
28:50
something be helpful for your community?
28:52
would?
28:52
Hey, let's both hop on and I'll make you look good as that admin.
28:55
I'll talk, man, are we so lucky to have this admin leading this group here?
28:58
And I'll do a bit of training for the group and stuff like that.
29:00
And that provides value to him for the group, but also gets me in front of all that audience.
29:04
There's lots of ways to provide value and get in front of these audiences and these discussions and conversations, even if it's not my group, right?
29:13
Does that make sense?
29:14
Yeah, that's super smart.
29:15
mean, I love...
29:16
I love it too.
29:17
So again, with the book launch, I hired a marketing consultant.
29:21
I didn't know what I was doing.
29:22
I didn't realize how hard it was to sell a book.
29:25
And a lot of what she drilled in at the beginning was what's the strategy?
29:30
What's the end game?
29:31
And honestly, again, and I think this is most of us fall, this is why this is so good, David, I think this is most of us fall.
29:37
I said, I don't know.
29:38
I'm posting and I'm hoping to get more followers or friend requests or whatever that was.
29:46
I want this, I want that, and it's just, that's just such the tip of the iceberg that those things almost, they matter, but they almost don't matter, right?
29:54
There's something so much deeper going on here.
29:57
What's your strategy?
29:58
How are you, like you said, how are you utilizing the tool?
30:01
Just like the Facebook group, how do I make you admin look good?
30:04
Facebook, I don't care about Facebook looking good, but it's their game.
30:08
They own the game board.
30:10
I gotta play their game, and if I don't, then we're not gonna.
30:14
You know, they're not going to show you anymore.
30:16
And so it makes sense, right?
30:18
I love the concept.
30:20
No, please, go ahead, buddy.
30:21
Jump in.
30:22
So I wanted to fall up on this and this applies both if I was doing my own group or leveraging as this group.
30:26
And so one of the things I mentioned with building your own group is just a lot of work.
30:30
And then especially I've got to be really focused on beginning getting people in there that are fits and engagement.
30:35
And when all that has to come from me originally, that's a lot.
30:38
Now, with that said, we all know different, different.
30:44
businesses that are great synergies with our businesses, like insurance, real estate, morgeline officers, title offices, all these things that really go well together, right?
30:53
And so I can actually grab some referral partners of mine, or this actually a great way to set up referral partner relationships, is hey, I'm actually gonna have a group for this community, and that's valuable around whatever focus topic or just the area and things to do or whatever and stuff on there.
31:09
And I would love a couple partners to help me with this, that we're all synergistic together.
31:14
So I've almost made my own little B &I and we're all running this and they're all contributing to this group content.
31:19
let's all hit our email list and get everybody into this group from our audience stuff together.
31:23
And so this is a perfect way to do and control something like this with a core referral group that you've basically created that works to all of your benefits out of this as well.
31:33
So I could definitely do this to make building a group easier if I was gonna do that or even leveraging existing groups if me and my good referral partner on the real on the insurance side.
31:44
or real estate side and a loan officer, we go in a group together and we're active in this group providing value and we just know we're going to be referring and working together of whatever business comes through this.
31:53
This is the way we can come in almost like a power team, basically take over and be the go-to ones in that group.
31:59
I would just want to encourage like you guys are already building these relationships anyways, like this is another way that you can leverage these relationships and referral partners you have.
32:08
Really smart, love that.
32:09
Again, it's the understanding of what the game is.
32:13
It's the strategy behind it, right?
32:15
It's, know, anybody, no matter whether social, no matter it's cold calling, no matter it's working my referral, right?
32:21
We get burned out when we're doing activity and it's not producing anything.
32:26
We don't often ask, myself included, right?
32:29
When it came to social media, we don't often ask, do I even understand how this game is played?
32:34
Activity in itself is fine, right?
32:37
But activity without strategy is going to lead to failure, which is going to lead to burnout because you're doing stuff, you don't know why it's not working, right?
32:46
You're in the gym and you're lifting and you don't feel like you're getting better or more fit or whatever.
32:50
Well, because you still eat donuts and I'm talking about myself, but you're still eating donuts because you just misunderstand how this works, right?
32:57
So you got to start there.
32:58
And I love what you're talking about, David.
33:00
You got to start there.
33:01
And even this in the context of relationships, right?
33:04
Someone like me who doesn't even love social, but I'm the relational guy.
33:07
This is a way to create new relationships or even deepen the ones that already have.
33:12
so social is supposed to be that right?
33:14
It's social.
33:15
And why would I not want to understand the game?
33:17
So more of my friends, more of my clients, more of my agent partners could see what I'm posting.
33:22
I'm not going on there for fun.
33:24
It's not that fun.
33:25
Most of the time I'm going on there because I have something to say or I want to impact somebody or whatever it is.
33:30
understanding the way the game works, right, is massively valuable.
33:35
So that's I mean, I literally have an entire page and a half of notes, man.
33:38
So that's incredibly helpful.
33:40
David, I'm going to leave him on this cliffhanger, right?
33:42
We're going to have to have you back so we can talk more.
33:44
But man, if they want to learn more about what you're doing, if they want to learn more and connect with you, whatever, man, how do they go about doing that?
33:51
um So probably the easiest ways.
33:53
One is if you look me up on Facebook, David Denning.
33:56
You'll see me there.
33:57
I'm smiling, waving, wherever it'll say, you know, jumpstart go, wherever.
34:01
If you send a friend request, absolutely, shoot me a message.
34:04
I see all my messages, even if we're not friends.
34:06
Like it'll still come through.
34:07
I still see them all day long.
34:09
And so it's easy to connect.
34:10
I use social a lot.
34:11
I live on it.
34:12
I see it.
34:12
I will respond.
34:13
And we definitely, I love connecting with people.
34:15
So absolutely reach out.
34:16
I always encourage it.
34:17
And then um our website, jumpsartgonow.com.
34:21
Is great to find out a little bit more about us what kind of stuff goes on?
34:26
But if if the Facebook group is called marketing for insurance agents it is Insurance agents in there now what they'll say there's a lot of crossover between Real estate and insurance and there's a lot of value from having good real estate agents to understand relationships and coming into a community on this of honestly a lot of insurance agents Which is what we talked about having you with on our podcast, which definitely go check that out um Is they want to connect the real estate agents and loan office?
34:53
I'm like, how do I bring value?
34:54
How do I make these connections?
34:55
So having those as part of the community would be great.
34:57
So if people want to check out the uh marketing for insurance agents group and they want to say, I'm a real estate agent looking to connect with more referrals.
35:05
I saw you on Garrett's podcast, or whatever, then yeah, I'd actually love to have some amazing real estate agents as a part of that community.
35:12
And yeah, you've got amazing real estate or insurance agents all across the country that could be great referral partners for you or help you out with events and all kinds of things.
35:20
So I think those are probably the easiest ways to get connected.
35:24
love it man, that's awesome.
35:25
agents, if you're looking for a really good insurance partner, why would you not want someone who's getting coached by someone who just gets it like David, right?
35:32
So if you're looking for an insurance partner, maybe that's a great place to go too, to say, David, who do you know that's in X, Y, and Z?
35:38
I need a good partner, right?
35:39
David and I are actually gonna be talking about that.
35:41
So uh man, David's such good, valuable information man, social media being such a beast that people feel like I gotta be on, I just don't know what to do.
35:49
This breaks it down in a really, really helpful way, brother.
35:52
So I appreciate your heart, sharing that, your wisdom in that, it's helpful for me, right?
35:57
I'm gonna go literally message you on your marketing for insurance agents, because you're the admin, and ask how I can add value, because I need to practice these things, right?
36:07
I wanna take action within the first 24 hours of hearing something or I know I'm gonna do nothing about it, man.
36:12
So be on the lookout for that DM, buddy.
36:14
I appreciate you so much.
36:15
Faithful agents, we love you, we appreciate you.
36:17
I hope this has been beneficial to you.
36:19
We'll see you next week.
36:21
David, nice.