Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / How this Loan Officer Closed $16 Million in Referrals from Agent Classes

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How this Loan Officer Closed $16 Million in Referrals from Agent Classes · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
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the real estate agents is essential for success.
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However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge.
0:11
With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it
0:15
can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections.
0:20
Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read.
0:25
Chris has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals.
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And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships
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with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business.
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To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy
0:45
of the case study today.
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You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million
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in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too.
0:56
Don't miss out.
0:57
Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
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Hey, everybody, what's up, Jeff Zimfer?
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Time for another episode of the Mortgage Marketing Radio Podcast coming at you fast and
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furious in this episode.
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Before we do, I want to remind you that this episode is brought to you by my agent classes,
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my agent classes.
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The online turnkey done with you platform for you to predictably and consistently get
1:27
in front of maximum agents in minimum time.
1:31
What am I talking about?
1:32
I'm talking about you leading with an educational platform in your local market, becoming the
1:36
leader, attracting agents to you instead of chasing agents, how, by hosting educational
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classes online or in person and imagine hosting a class once a month, turnkey where everything
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and SMS and text, the video tutorial of training you how to teach the class, the custom marketing
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flyer with your headshot logo on it, everything, turnkey, push button, ready to go, and you
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can get in front of agents consistently every single month like clockwork, sift and sword,
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you choose which agents you want to work with or not, you don't chase agents, they come
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to you, works like gangbusters, it's called my agent classes, you want to learn more about
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it?
2:16
I am taking a few very select people and having a conversation to see if this is a fit for
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you.
2:22
You've heard the testimonials and stories by now so that you know this works.
2:24
You know that the top producers in the country consistently use agent classes to grow their
2:28
business and get more agent referrals.
2:31
Now the question is do you want to do the same?
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What are you going to do about it?
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Here's what you do.
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I want you to go to myagentclass.com.
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Link is in the show notes but go to myagentclass.com and what you can do is grab a 30-minute conversation
2:44
with me where we'll get acquainted, learn more about each other and see if this is
2:47
the right fit for you, join our group of elite performers where we meet every single week
2:52
and hold each other accountable, not only do we talk about realtor marketing and getting
2:55
more referrals but we talk about digital marketing, the hybrid loan officer and YouTube
3:00
and Instagram and Facebook and video marketing.
3:02
You name it, we talk about it, we do it, we implement and maybe it's right for you, myagentclass.com.
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Okay so this week I've got special guest who, here's the beauty of social media, right?
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I was able to connect with this gentleman Chris Madden out in Syracuse, New York, who
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his Instagram feed came across my Instagram feed and I was noticing the content he was doing
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and then by the way the content was really good, really clear and concise and what I noticed
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also was that he, as I clicked through and went to his bio, he had this cool thing called
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the Grow or Plateau Academy and I was like what is that?
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So I dug a little further, what I found out is Chris and I are cut from the same cloth,
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right?
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You know I'm a big believer in doing classes, you know I'm a big believer in combining
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the online with the offline, the hybrid loan officer, you've heard me here talk about
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leveraging classes as the way to quickest way, to quickly and easily get more agent referrals.
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Well I love it when I find a loan officer who's out in the wild and doing this and we don't
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even know each other, right?
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So just once again proves my point.
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So he and I have this conversation about how he gets, I think his volume is 20 million
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a year, I think he said 80% or the dominant amount of that comes from these workshops that
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he does.
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So he's going to break down how he does this workshop once a month, what he talks about,
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how he gets butts in the seats, the results it's had and his whole system for doing this
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to basically turn on and off the spicket for getting real estate agent conversations and
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referrals and where social media plays a role in that and so forth.
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So hopefully you like this episode and we put the links to all the stuff we talk about
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in the show notes.
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If you want to check out more about my special guest Chris Madden.
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So right now let's get into this week's show.
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Chris Madden welcome to the show.
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Cool thanks for having me, appreciate it.
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It's a pleasure.
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You know that's one of the great things about social media today is you know I heard somebody
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say it's networking at scale and it certainly is for you and I because I came across you
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on Instagram.
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I'm not sure what the context of what of that was.
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Do you recall how we connected originally?
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I think actually you just followed me and I saw that you follow me and I was like oh this
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is really cool.
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So I sent you a DM and just kind of like hey appreciate the follow, I love your podcast
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and that's how we kind of like and linked up.
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Yeah, somehow you came across my feed on Instagram and I was looking at your content
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and I'm like wow this is pretty good man, guys doing some stuff and so I think what
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happened was I just yeah DMed you or you saw me follow you whatever next thing you know
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here you are on the dang podcast right?
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Yeah, it's super cool because I mean being in you know Syracuse New York we're not a
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super big city so it's kind of it's nice social media has kind of made the world a lot
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smaller.
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Hey man I spent the first part of my life my some of my formidable formidable years
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in Buffalo.
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So far I know what winter and snow is all about.
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It's a little chilly yeah.
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I moved from there to New England and Maine and I finally got out of there and moved to
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San Diego.
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Yes.
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There you go.
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I haven't seen this snowflake in a while that.
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Only when I drive to it choose to go you know.
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Yeah enough about that let's talk about Chris Madden for those that don't know give us
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the quick background or bio how long you been in the biz.
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Yeah so graduate college I got into actually digital marketing so that's kind of where
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the I kind of always mean to you know Instagram and Facebook but was in social media marketing
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for a while got into throwing loans my wife's family owned mortgage company here in Syracuse
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so I kind of just like I'll undo that help them with their marketing and kind of I had
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investment properties and always kind of like numbers and kind of analyzing deals and
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that kind of thing and I ended up getting licensed and been doing it for almost six years
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now.
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Wow six years nice man congratulations.
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Yeah thank you.
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And give us a sense 2020 like what do you what does that look like for you for units in
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volume.
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Yeah so volume wise I'll probably push in about 20 million now I average low size here
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in Syracuse is it's smaller you know we're not in the 250 range our average low size is
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probably between 141 50.
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But yeah it's going well it's it's 2020 is great 2021 is probably going to be even better
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so yeah so you're yeah the average low size you're you're making a lot of donuts over
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there.
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What you do it's a volume thing here in our right right I'm through the factory okay what's
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so what's your main source of business real referrals and it's slowly getting to the
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point where Instagram is actually becoming another referral source for me I'll get DMs
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once in a while from different people that I've never even come contact with but primarily
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it's it's real referrals.
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Okay I want to let's let's take the DM thing for a moment we're going to come back to
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the realtor piece in just a moment but tell me then how that happens because some people
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listen and some believe some don't don't believe and it's not like it's a flood it's not
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like it's rain and deals from Instagram right but how does that happen for you.
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So what I do I just pump out content right like I might be talking to a classroom with
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no one in it but you know a virtual or in-person classroom no no no I'm talking about just
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like like hypothetically right like it's okay it's a content someone might see it someone
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might not right so you know I just try and pump out content as much as I can you know
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our market things get busy right I had a challenge but I want to do 30 pieces of content
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30 days it didn't really happen but for me it's been consistency just making sure I
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try and get time to do that pump out content and then the way I think people have kind
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of been DMing me is they'll see a piece of content that I did you know shoot spring maybe
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March or April and they had a question on it and they'll just ask question hey I saw
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this piece of content where you're talking about you know PMI like what is that why need
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it that kind of thing I just kind of shoot a message back and forth and it might not
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current turn it into a deal might not turn it into anything but it's at least a hand I
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shook so it's a virtual handshake yeah exactly it's like we started it's like you know
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scaling the new modern version of networking at scale yeah and then it goes past like even
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even like realtors do the same thing where I've pumped out pieces of content and they you know
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they like the way I explain certain things and I've had realtors DM me asking to have lunch
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and you know on the lower side that's like we're like bagging that bunch of people that's
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kind of nice to have too so very interesting so reverse prospecting you're attracting agents
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instead of chasing agents exactly have you used Instagram then as a tool to find target
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engage and drive conversations with agents from your side like you talk about maybe like
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doing like a live stream or that kind of thing that we've done together or how about how
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have you used Instagram perhaps to drive real estate agent relationships oh sure so what
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I usually like to try and do is if I put out a piece of content there's sometimes where
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I'll go to the realtor's office and we'll do a piece of content together I might tag
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them in it I mentioned the live stream that we'll do together how about prior to that are
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you using are you doing like for example I you know I've talked others who use Instagram kind
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of like a CRM where you're gonna comment and engage on realtors content prior to a phone call
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yep so I do that a lot so prior to even like reaching out to see if they want to grab lunch
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comment on their stuff I'll like their stuff maybe they became a top producer in the month of
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June I'll shoot them at DM saying hey congrats on you we're a top producer in the month of June
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that's great congratulations I'm happy for you I'll keep comments here on their stuff and then
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as time maybe a couple weeks go by I'm like hey you want to like meet up for lunch because at
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that point there's we kind of get a sense of my personality and kind of like who I am just
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through my content and through my stories like you know you can kind of tell that I'm married I
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have a daughter and I have a dog through looking at my stories and that kind of thing so it kind of
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makes like a cold call like a lot warmer so there you have a sense of who I am as a person before
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we even have lunch before we leave for coffee or whatever is that your primary strategy for
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you know creating agent awareness and relationships that's one of my strategies I'd probably say my
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primary source of kind of shaking realtor's hands is through that grower plant grower plateau
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academy that I have from where I do get into actually like teaching them how to use social media
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to develop their personal brand that's probably my number one all right so let's then make that pivot
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I'm just to grabbing a couple things on my screen here I definitely want to talk about that because
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that is one of the things that really I was drawn to you right when I saw that you do this thing
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it's called grow or plateau academy explain what that is so yeah so kind of leaning on my
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digital background digital marketing background I just found that a lot of realtor's maybe
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aren't using social media correctly or they don't know how to use it and they want to they're
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just not sure where to start so I started doing it pre-COVID kind of designing it with a lady here
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in Syracuse who actually puts online courses together but kind of outlined it and you know as
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things do just kind of get busy it's kind of like one of those like half-built bridges that like I
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just didn't like really finish and I finally the light bulb really clicked for me during COVID
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last year when everything was shut down and you know that's when really social media for me at
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least in our area was like oh my god now I'm forced to do that right so that was the light bulb for
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me to really get this you know in action and we finished it last April ish and what I do is
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I kind of reach out to different brokerages here in Syracuse we're around the area have a couple
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we have a GSA R here in Syracuse greater association of realtors where I teach classes at it's
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designed to have you know 10 10 realtors in the room at the same time it's meant to be interactive
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so there's you know I'll teach you know a section maybe it's you know what are the core values
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and then you break out into doing an activity an exercise well it's not just me
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lecturing you for an hour hour and a half it's you know it's a team kind of thing we're like
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your bounce ideas off each other um but that's been you know that's been probably my primary
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source of you know shaking the real earth's hand and getting to know them and are you doing
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that class or those classes by yourself or do you say you have somebody that teams up with you
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know if I do them by myself um right now I do them by myself um I do have some ideas about
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you know bringing in some maybe some speakers of that kind of thing I also would love to maybe
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get it certified for like CE credits um which is you know in New York state with some
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lot of hopes we have to jump through here but um ultimately I'd love to have like you know
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some marketing people that are really great in Syracuse being our proximity to New York City
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that are really great in marketing very knowledgeable that I'd love to have on for speakers
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yeah so I'm on the website here and we'll put a link in the show notes but it's grow or plateau
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academy.com um and I'm looking at what you call the workshop it says learn the ropes in under two
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hours so that's kind of like the main workshop that you drive people to yeah that's like the
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really the flagship right now um that's really the main course that um that I kind of teach right
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now really it's part one is like creating your personal brand and then you know you're doing
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those exercises and that kind of thing and then part two is okay now let's start creating content
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let's do um you know body text headlines let's get into like what is what's a good piece of content
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for um well how do you find pieces of content how do you even come up with stuff because that's
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another thing that I've run into it was like you know really there's telling me like well I don't
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really know what's the post right and like I tell them like anything can be content like any if you
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are shopping in a grocery store and you have like a weird situation happens to you that kind of
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humanizes you right like something goofy something silly like that that happens in your life or in
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your family like that's piece of content um educational content that's kind of what I focus on um
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I try and educate both borrowers and realtors so um you know there's I always even talk about ways
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you can um try and find pieces of content to uh educate people on so like going to Google and
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just like typing in like I'm in question comment real estate questions you know probably come
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with like 20 a list of 20 or 50 right and yes put on and just go up so this initial workshop right um
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by the way does it have a name? No I just call it the workshop right now um personal branding
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workshop kind of what I call it right now yeah so it's roughly two hours right and you're
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gonna share with them some of the fundamental building blocks of right personal branding um
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you unique value proposition core values etc a content strategy all that so that takes about two
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hours what happens after that um tell us about how you're you know using that audience to the next step
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what does that look like? So what I do is I put um all the realtors that show up to that course
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I'll put them in a CRF for myself um and what I do and what I found is they actually the course
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gives them enough information to kind of do it on their own but they're gonna need kind of me
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for help right like they're gonna need me as a resource so that's kind of gets them back to like
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contacting me again to be like hey Chris I had an idea to do you know xyz uh what do you think?
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so those are the kind of conversations I had after the course where like you know maybe they're not
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comfortable going on camera and I notice that they haven't posted a video of themselves
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I'll might reach I'll reach out and say hey you know I noticed that you haven't like you know
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jumped on camera anything like that I'd love to do a you know a video with you it kind of breaks
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the ice it makes it easier when you have more people on camera it looks a bit less awkward too so
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I'll do that to be kind of like for something to do it um because as soon as I do that and you see
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kind of like the comments and the engagement that they're getting kind of light bulb I see like
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go off from your head like my god I shouldn't be doing this forever do you get a decent uh uptake
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you know what I mean acceptance rate on that offer to do the video with them yes yeah absolutely
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because I've noticed that a lot of people like are really uncomfortable on camera and it took me a
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while to get comfortable on camera sometimes I'm not um you know and a couple of the first live
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streams I did I did it with like three or four people on the on the thing where I just kind of
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moderated it to kind of just get my feet wet so it's kind of like what I'm kind of educating
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the realtors to do is just get your get your feet wet like bring on a home inspector that you work
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with and like oh just don't talk for days you know like bring on an attorney that you that
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that will talk and like I do just asking questions you act like a talk show host exactly you know
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100% right you are you are the host um that's the easy way to get started um I mean what that's
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what this is right I don't work or anything I just show up and let you guys talk yeah like there's
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no notes it's super organic it like you don't sound like kind of like a robot you're just like
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cabinet conversation um back to the CRM for a moment um how do you because I'm because obviously
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you don't get 100% right if you get 10 people show up you're not converting all 10 of them not all
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10 are taking your next step offer so what do you do then like to I'm a big advocate by the way a
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huge fan of building your own realtor database we all should be doing that but what are you
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sending them how you staying top of mine otherwise um it'll be um I'll send like a video myself right
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so I use a program called bama that I'll embed like a video of maybe it's like a tip right like
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an Instagram tip so I'll send them an email or maybe it's a text message whatever however they
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like to be communicated but I'll send them you know monthly or biweekly just a piece of content
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that might be specific to like Facebook like hey here's a new trend um that's working on Facebook
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for this realtor in this market or it might be like here's an Instagram tip of how to do like a real
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or something like that so that's kind of a highlight trying to stay like kind of top of mine typically
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you sharing the tip yes yep so do you doing a quick little video one to three minutes whatever
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saying hey what's up it's crazy hey here's a hot tip that you know will help you do xyz exactly
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just want to pop in say hi and kind of saw this tip that I saw if I'll mark it down in let's say
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in Buffalo this reel is really cool here's what they're doing right yeah that's cool and how do
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you then stay on top of that where do you get those ideas from uh I'm on my phone like
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I'm disgusting about so like I felt a ton of people um so it's honestly just me on my phone
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like laying watch TV in bed just kind of so you follow a realtor's real estate trainers coaches speakers
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yeah you know marketing people you know absolutely like I know like I know you had Jennifer
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Beeson on a while ago like I follow her um Arjun Neil like all those guys um
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excuse me you know you are uh what's the what's the word what is the word um begins with a
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see gosh this is embarrassing I'm blank curating thank you you're curating ideas yeah
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and just send to them okay so let's let's continue this all right you're doing that for some
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period of time whatever it is you know obviously the L.O.s are like okay okay but how do you get
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alone from that that's always so that's always the thing like I always get asked like so what's
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like the ROI of doing something like it's a snowball right like you have to keep doing it you have
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to be consistent about it consistency and social music is key you know you can't like post one
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piece and then kind of fall off the map you gotta be consistent about it and um I like I
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view it as like a digital handshake you know if you don't shake any digital hands you're not giving
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yourself an opportunity to get a client or a loan so if you said you're probably that's your primary
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source of of business right of of I think you said 20 million if I so it's primary source of 20
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million um uh walk me through little little bit detail though in terms of how that moves from
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they come to the workshop I'm gonna you know I'm gonna take this the full length man you know me come
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on yeah full length all the way to at some point are you asking for a meeting are they asking is
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it a mix of both and then you and then I mean I know what happens between you and me you know
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that I know this I just want to articulate it for those that are trying to connect the dots so
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sure so okay so let's go right from like the beginning right like I have I have the class I
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teach the class um 10 real or show up you know it's decent you know it's pretty good number um don't
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they go off and maybe let's say four of them um are starting to post stuff on Instagram right
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all of those four I might reach out to them be like hey I love this piece of content great job
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I'll give them you know feedback and whatever um after that like they've they've met me in person
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they've kind of gotten a sense of my personality how I kind of operate how I am as a person
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at that point I'll meet with them you know for lunch or for coffee whatever it is
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and I don't even talk about loans I stick to like what's gonna what marketing right like what's
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gonna help you grow your business that's what I stick to um and I'm kind of just like
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I'm here to help you grow your business so um right after that usually it it turns into like
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they have a comfort level with me they start to trust me um and it has turned into um me being
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kind of like having I would say just in the last probably three months probably three realiders
23:08
that are like huge advocates for me where they might have a pre-quality from another lender
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but they're like no no no like you use Chris like I know him I've known him for a few months like
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hmm so they're they're advocating for and that's what I'm always trying to build right
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is someone who's gonna be kind of like my a champion for me love that love that and um I
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I guess sometimes I you know when I think about what I'm gonna say I'm cautious for you listeners
23:33
is like Jeff stating the obvious so I hope this isn't me stating the obvious but do you think that
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they would be well I mean I guess the answer to what I'm trying to get to is this is you're
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showing up in a different way you're not like the key points what did you say during the last two
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three minutes you didn't show up and talk about loans you didn't show up and talk about how you
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can close in six seconds and all this stuff you showed up and and really cared and invested your
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attention into them right that old cliche people don't care how much you know until they know
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how much you care I mean it's a cliche for a reason because it's true um and so you're just pouring
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in and investing to people and your hope is or your bet is is that the the return on that will be
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as you said they're gonna like you trust you feel comfortable with you and they're gonna be like
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geez Chris is really helping me grow my business Joe blow over here or Sally Q over here
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these these other lenders they're good right and they perform but it's what Chris is helping me with
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right it's Chris is giving me more value right like I uh you know I used to before before this
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you know I'd go and like yeah I'm responsive like we can close loans and you know 30 days bubble
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blah blah but like essentially like they're I'm sitting on the table I'm thinking like well if
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you can't do that like you're not doing your job right like what are value giving me right so
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I really try and stick to and that's what I like to do I like to try and help you know
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realtors grow their business I like helping people um and and and this whole personal brand
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thing is how I do that with realtors how often do you do these workshops um I try and do one at
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least once a month um if you know I'd like to do more um in the summer it's difficult um I've noticed
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like it's just it's just difficult to get you know in the busy time of year it's it's hard to get
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you know realtors in the door but usually once a month and then um also I'm looking on your
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website here you do have this this link how dare you offer one-on-one coaching what is that about
25:34
so um that actually came up with COVID um so in your state for a while until fairly recently
25:43
we couldn't have you know kind of written groups indoors um and I did a couple of these um
25:52
the workshops virtually on zoom and it just to me doesn't have that same effect you can kind of
25:59
sense people kind of doze enough or you know it's just easy to not pay attention as much as you
26:03
would be in person um so yeah so a couple of realtors reached out to me um and asked if they could
26:16
do like a one-on-one session um rather than a group because they wanted to kind of you know
26:22
they were forced to use social media kind of like I mentioned before and uh doing the one-on-one
26:28
things just kind of took off like they kind of spread throughout the office and the a
26:31
Chris will do like a one-on-one thing with you right in our board room and I was like uh maybe
26:35
I should put this on the website if people are uncomfortable being in a group right now so um I
26:40
prefer to do the one-on if it's between zoom and a one-on-one session I'd rather do the one-on-one
26:46
person you'd rather do the one-on-one yeah I think that's all a personal choice um because that's
26:52
the same thing I do a lot of um both zooms in persons and one-on-ones with real estate agents um and
26:59
for me personally here's how I like to run it I like to do if I if I don't know the agent I like to
27:04
do the one-on-one over zoom first because that's just discovery you know what I mean share what I found
27:10
and again this is all to each their own but what I found is if I want to do a bunch of screen sharing
27:14
and stuff well obviously that's really easy to do over zoom I was at a little state office a couple
27:19
weeks ago and we were looking at this agent's Facebook ads and and you know you're just like
27:24
right on top of each other's like all around the laptop yeah all right let's let's get get some
27:29
social distance here shall we yeah no but um do you um do you have any criteria or qualifiers before
27:38
somebody gets on your one-on-one you know I don't um you know if if someone reaches out and puts
27:44
in the effort to actually reach out to me and say like hey I want to grow my business that's
27:50
really the only qualifier I would need they actually put in the effort to contact me
27:55
so that kind of tells me they are they want to grow got it and you have a form right on your website
28:00
for that yep I'm curious have you thought I'm sure you have your smart guy and you know digital
28:06
I see people do who do this and they use calendar yep yes so I do have calendar um I kind of got messed
28:14
up on my account but I think it's been squared away so yes I do have calendar it's actually probably
28:20
I should probably make it a little bit more prominent on my website um but well obviously your
28:24
link about one-on-one you know get in touch if you just want to book an appointment as you well know
28:29
that could just be a calendar link right and because the back and forth can really be right
28:34
all right okay and by the way just uh I thought of this a moment ago because you know your
28:41
primary platform is Instagram right yes um but you're not just talking about Instagram in your
28:47
workshop are you no so I talk about um I do I'll do Facebook I talk about you know YouTube
28:55
I have not gone into like really TikTok yet uh mostly it's it's it's Facebook YouTube and Instagram
29:04
sure um the big three yeah exactly I you know a little bit of like some people ask you a couple
29:10
questions on LinkedIn um and that's just to me it's a different piece of content that goes on
29:16
there versus Instagram if it's not educational kind of thing um you know you're not gonna put a
29:22
you know a story of like you walk in your dog or something like that on your LinkedIn or anything
29:25
like that so yeah I mean we we have a class on Instagram or on LinkedIn as well but yeah each
29:31
platform is kind of unique the only ones I think that are similar as and you know this as well
29:35
as Facebook and Instagram it's relatively easy to cross post and share similar content on that
29:40
but yeah absolutely and you can engage with the comments so you kind of on on on YouTube and
29:45
LinkedIn but I think Instagram just opens up as a better platform I think for dialogue at least to
29:50
me um to go back and forth and comment and DM people yeah well you know depending on your preferences
29:58
also what you avoid on Instagram is a lot of the political stuff and you know the um polarizing
30:04
comments absolutely yes all right let me think about this how I'm looking at your Instagram
30:12
and your content and you've got very professional looking videos professional what I mean by that
30:17
is good lighting you know good audio are um are you editing any videos not um actually that is
30:26
taken all those videos are done by like a phone stand I have here and like a chair that's like
30:33
on the other side of this I was computer or one or two take guy yeah pretty much I just kind of
30:39
go through it and you know trying to get it done um there are a lot of times when like I can't
30:44
keep tripping over words and sure it takes me like a while but um I know I don't edit anything yet
30:50
um come with some of the other other uh pieces of content were videos that um there were
30:57
probably two minute videos that I used as a kind of a ad campaign on Facebook and I just
31:02
screenshot of it and use it as a piece of content so I kind of have videos and photos just from one
31:07
shoe so kind of put some money on Facebook ads behind some of your content um I used to yep I
31:17
used to um I don't do it anymore really um that whole phone curious um not not really now I kind of
31:24
stuff what's that we got us here yeah no it was not that's why I stopped it interesting yeah I'm
31:32
looking at some of your um interesting your content that's one thing I get across to like in
31:38
in like the course too is like I'm always worried about like over producing it and like oh
31:43
it looks bad or like what if I sound weird or whatever I'm like you know like these phones now
31:48
can shoot in 4k like you don't need anything crazy you can just put the do a selfie in a video
31:53
yourself that's I'd be a great piece of content and sometimes actually I think a lot of the times
31:59
when a piece of content isn't like produced or edited or anything like that I think it gets
32:03
better engagement right what's up with you and reels I haven't done any reels yet I know I gotta
32:10
get on that um I for some reason my Instagram account is not letting me do reels right now
32:16
oh yeah I think it's I might have to update it or I actually talked to some do at the Apple store
32:22
that was like you might just have to delete the app and like re-upboard it's yeah the other
32:26
updated or do that man I wouldn't want to do that yeah I know it kind of terrifies me so that's
32:31
why it's kind of a bad part you gotta lose all your content and comments and all that stuff yeah
32:35
was everything yeah so forget what he said did you did you recently update the app though
32:40
Instagram uh yes I did yeah still having a problem with reels no having a problem with reels yeah
32:47
kind of weird I say I really don't want to delete the app or delete the account or anything so
32:52
yeah I mean open a second or whatever with Instagram you know that kind of stuff
32:55
getting it yeah yeah wouldn't frustrate me uh the customer so I wish I could just
32:59
cost them away and get it done but yeah and by the way the other thing that's cool is on your
33:05
um your website for your workshops and stuff which is the grow or plateau academy you also have a
33:11
quite an extensive list of recommended resources um it's it's actually really good I mean a lot
33:18
of these on here um you've got them broken down into categories so how often then I mean
33:23
uh our agents asking you hey do you know how to excerpt you know good resource for why right yeah
33:30
all the time all the time and that's what prompted me to put these resources together um and those
33:37
are all resources that like probably two or three agents ask the same questions so like like
33:42
ball went off my head like I should probably like put this on my site so they can like you know
33:46
kind of have a little bit of like this encyclopedia for themselves so um that's what prompted that
33:51
and um it's been stupid they like they love it yeah I'm curious that they go to your site as a
33:57
destination to browse those resources yeah so I've noticed uh like that's one of the most popular
34:03
like probably landing spots on on the site is that and I've noticed that like
34:09
talking to the agents that I work with they um they might share like you know someone might have
34:14
the same issue in their office and they might reference my site rather than Google's you're like oh
34:18
Chris like taught me how to do x y and z here's his here's the link to a site go to the resource
34:23
pages to answer that exact question um I'm curious if you have thought about um taking this
34:30
concept of these these classes the academy um and then also creating a Facebook group I have um
34:40
um I have uh I haven't done it quite yet um but it's definitely like in like that um the CE
34:48
credits um I have you know I I would love to you know offer more classes you know specific to
34:54
Instagram specific to you to that kind of thing um and also having the group one that's not
35:00
really in the in the near future I think once things at least our market kind of settles down a
35:04
little bit that's something I'll probably be focusing on um this fall winter is kind of creating a
35:09
group there yeah I've seen people do that successfully because as you know it's like you know it's
35:13
that moving parade who are coming through your workshops some are getting one-on-one some aren't
35:18
and there were all busy fading from at least a group be it Facebook or elsewhere you know
35:23
is a place to kind of build a fence around them and stay top of mine yep yeah absolutely yeah and
35:28
like this whole like this is like essentially like version one of grower plateau you know like
35:33
I kind of like it's almost like I'm like putting the like the rails down of the track while the
35:38
trains coming at the same time like I'm just kind of like building it as like people ask questions
35:43
or like offer a good idea maybe or whatever I'm just kind of like version one and I always like
35:48
tell realtor's like version one or one piece of content is better than like perfecting it and
35:53
making sure it's like the absolute perfect thing because it's never gonna be perfect and then you
35:57
just post it right so something's better than nothing yeah 100% unbelievable I totally get what
36:04
you're saying I've been there man on a weekly basis building the airplane while it's flying yeah
36:10
exactly what else are you doing then that's got you you know passionate in terms of
36:15
lead-gen marketing that kind of stuff um so a lot of times like I talk to um really you know we
36:23
have some some pretty good pieces of of technology that makes it easier for a realtor's kind of
36:27
roller business um one thing I'm working on to implement to our team is like where like a realtor
36:34
can update the free call themselves and you know I'm sure in other markets that's like probably
36:40
commonplace but here in this area at least in in New York state that's not something that is
36:47
prevalent at all right so when I when I you know talk it when they start talking to me about like
36:52
oh let me like learn about your loan process after we talk about like the helping them
36:55
roller business you know I share them like you know different things I'm trying to work on to
37:00
to make the team better and make it easier for you guys rather than reaching out to me you guys can
37:05
just do it yourself yeah yeah let's offer you use for that uh it's called Stadkey
37:12
yeah I think I've heard it was it again Stadkey Stadkey yeah exactly yeah actually I was listening
37:19
to your pockets I heard it from one of your pockets um and um the other thing I'm working on I'd like
37:25
to do is um do kind of like um like a summit like a business kind of summit where I bring you know
37:32
maybe a panel of realtor's in and 10 realtor's that I work with and get them there and just talk
37:37
about how they grew their business because I think if you ask you know 10 realtor's how they grew
37:42
their business you're like a 10 difference so that's another thing I'm think I'm working on
37:46
planning for the fall um where we do it maybe like one of these local breweries that we have around
37:51
here or whatever um and just doing kind of like a roundtable discussion um about how they grew
37:57
their business because like I said you'll get time for answers yeah absolutely 100% great idea
38:02
I've seen that executed very well um and of course like we said at the start of this you know you're
38:07
the MC the host yet but you attach yourself to them and you get that additional level of perception of
38:14
of dare I say celebrity but also status you know what I mean yeah relationships will come out of
38:21
that and most of those realtors love to be acknowledged and most realtors don't mind sharing either
38:25
if they have the right mindset you know there are those scarcity-blinded realtors but you don't
38:29
invite them you know are they yeah client uh yeah but that's you know like you know I'm being you
38:35
know I'm 33 and a lot of the realtors that I you know I work with are you and a lot of them are
38:40
of the mentality where like there's plenty of business for everybody um so one of the you know
38:46
questions that I got asked was like did you think you're gonna be cannibalizing or like well someone
38:50
copy you know how I you know get business but like again you're gonna get 10 different answers
38:58
and one one one way might not work for you another might well they're white money so um you know
39:04
I didn't really worry about you know stepping out anybody's toes or anything like that I just
39:09
think it'd be a great no another great resource to to provide to realtors so yeah no scarcity mindsets
39:15
you know those people asking those questions meanwhile somebody's actually doing that and getting
39:19
business versus overthinking it you know exactly that's awesome yeah I can see you're doing Facebook
39:25
lives pretty frequently too yeah so I use a program um called uh Streamyard um it's a great program
39:32
allows you to kind of stream you know up to eight people um on a live stream then you can download
39:37
the video and what I always do is um I I'll have you know uh I had a financial person on a few
39:44
weeks ago where we were specifically talking about financial planning for realtors um since you
39:51
know a lot of them you don't have access to a 401k or whatever but how the can they you know tax plan
39:56
for taxes um how can they you know save for retirement that kind of thing um and I kind of
40:01
reel around that I work with and we were just kind of going back and forth and he was talking for
40:05
the most part we just played talk show host um another one I had a home aspect round we
40:10
talking about home inspections and then we kind of got off because he had investment properties
40:14
and we got into investment properties which branched into like Bitcoin all that sort of stuff so
40:21
it's uh it's been it's been pretty cool I want to have you know maybe some attorneys on there
40:26
and just kind of keep doing it consistent yeah it's just again it's content it's a way to stay
40:30
kind of top of mind I'm looking at it it looks like back in April you also had a real estate
40:35
agent on like Q&A with Ryan Millard well I'm a liar yep yep I had M Corey um you know
40:43
and like I said there's a couple realtors where um I have plans for I think in the next couple
40:47
weeks we're gonna do one um but they flip houses so I was like man this would be great if you guys could
40:52
talk about like what you look for in a flip like how do you find them um you know that kind and
40:57
just educating people who might be interested in flipping and um and even if you're not you can learn
41:02
yeah by the way along those lines first of all I think that's a great concept and then kind of a
41:06
you know sister to that concept is not just flipping but also investing whether you flip or hold
41:13
because let's face it myself included there's a lot of people that are again seeing what's
41:17
happening in real estate the value the appreciation and you know now we got all these influencers
41:21
that are all you know we got crank grand cardone and all these people like you know talking about
41:25
buying real estate um stock and so my point on that is is the consumers also are interested
41:33
about that and I'm stealing this completely from somebody who I had on the podcast Chris Smith
41:38
who has a company called Curator and he's been asking his database of real estate agents you know
41:43
he's basically putting it out there saying my wife and I are finally think and this guy does
41:47
marketing for real estate agents so he knows the real estate game and he's like my wife and I finally
41:52
have decided we want to invest in real estate so this is a guy who's been in real estate for many many
41:56
years has never invested property knows the business in the you know intimately but doesn't know
42:02
that little nuance of being a real estate investor right yeah he's putting the challenge out to
42:08
his real estate agent saying where's the content from you about becoming an investor yeah you know
42:15
I mean not for the flip all that kind of stuff and the people on hgtv right but for the average
42:19
person who's cautious and afraid wants to dip their toe in because that's by the way me as well
42:25
you know so along those lines think about more content you can do around that team up with other
42:29
people who understand that very very well and yeah yeah that'd be a great one you know I have
42:34
you know I have 25 units myself you know yeah and we you know it's one of those things where you
42:42
can like I think a lot of people are hesitant because you know they're nervous about doing
42:45
with tenants or whatever it may be but I think yeah you're right like bring someone on that can
42:49
educate people um about investing in what it takes what it's like what do you look for that kind of
42:55
thing okay so is there any of your content yet dealing with that um I've done um let's see yes
43:02
there's a get into like house hacking a little bit um which kind of dives into kind of building
43:08
your room from your portfolio um so yeah there's there's some piece of the content to do dive into
43:14
more yeah I'm serious because there's a few folks I'm trying to remember the individual's name
43:21
who I had on um and that is that is stuff particularly on Instagram you do those videos I see
43:25
your whiteboard stuff oh here it is right here Justin Brown um he uh similar to you owns a
43:32
lot of rental units and that's a lot of what his content is is you get your whiteboard out or he's
43:37
doing a real that shows the whole numbers how it nets out yeah that will also gain you a lot of
43:42
engagement and also establish your authority because you're you know show it man come on
43:48
yeah that's a great that's a great idea like I just popped in my head like when you were talking
43:52
I was like shoot like I look at cap rate so like I can explain that I can look at you know
43:57
cash on cash return like what does it mean like what do you look for so yeah and you might want
44:00
to know that's what I do yeah you might want to think about creating your pillar content um and
44:05
starting up that on youtube and then you know um repurposing that for the yeah exactly yep
44:12
yeah what you get for for a youtube is some search but of course you can do the hashtags on
44:17
Instagram as well yeah open the search so yeah I want to see that next from you all right you got it
44:23
you'll see it all right that sounds awesome um all right so do you have your next uh you know
44:30
event class your academy scheduled for anytime this year uh it's gonna be a layer in August um so
44:37
last week of august um we uh as of right now tentatively because my my wife to do for our second
44:44
baby it's coming up here so um so it'll be here uh I'll be here right here in staircase
44:49
nice man it's gonna be in person right yep right in person as again as of right now um right now
44:55
everything's open for us but um it'll be in person it'll probably be um between 10 and 12
45:02
probably probably 10 or 12 people there at this one and I don't know if I asked you this earlier
45:07
but how do you invite how do you promote um so I we do um I have an email blessed I have a database
45:14
of you know basically all the on real owners and the GSA are here and Syracuse has been really
45:19
helpful um you know say it again yes I what is that GSA it's the greatest Syracuse area of
45:27
Realtors for a realtor's got it yeah so when I'm doing an event or something like that they
45:31
they pump it out to their database um when I if I'm doing it to a specific brokerage uh they'll
45:38
send it you know west all their Realtors um and I just promote the promote the heck out of it
45:43
on my Instagram what do you use to capture reservations um oh shoot you scared out of me
45:50
an eventbrite or yeah there you go that bright yes or I'll use eventbrite or I use uh meetup
45:56
meetup okay in meetup why hey there's a blast in the past that's funny okay yeah I think
46:03
eventbrite's great for in-person meetings yeah um you know for sure uh the virtual ones not so much
46:08
yeah yeah I had some issues with um eventbrite with the virtual one I just don't it I that's
46:15
why all my people do if you're gonna do it over zoom you don't need it uh let's just go
46:19
right to zoom now zoom of course is lacking and some of the marketing automation follow-up and all
46:23
that but we got some work around so yeah that's awesome man and you know what you're gonna be
46:28
presenting in August later this month rather so this one uh this this one wants to they just
46:33
want to do the the personal branding course um the the normal course that I've been doing nothing
46:38
like specific to YouTube or anything I think the people that are showing up to this one um I think
46:44
are more like maybe newer agents I I get the sense that they're newer agents um that are just they
46:50
might have their personal Instagram account but they don't really know how to use it to get business
46:55
to get listings or to get new buyers so that's what's going on there yeah um so you and I are in
47:01
the same lane I'm actually doing another class tomorrow um and this one is at a local golf club and
47:07
the title agency here has been promoting it to it's one specific brokerage and they have
47:13
60 reservations from one specific brokerage wow yeah so they've done a good job yeah
47:20
promoting it um that's awesome yeah yeah exactly it is oh I was I was gonna ask you do team up
47:26
with affiliates uh I know it's in New York is an attorney state right correct so home warranty home
47:33
you know um other affiliates who can help get realtors buts and seeds have you tried that yet
47:38
yep so I have a couple uh attorneys that I work with that you know they'll they'll they'll
47:42
throw it um I actually have had a couple of attorneys show up because it does kind of translate to
47:48
to their world too um so yeah yeah I work with you know a lot of the attorneys that's another
47:54
referral source to get butts in the seeds for this this class awesome well listen man I know you're
47:59
busy and besides that you got a baby on the way too sure a lot of other stuff to prepare for
48:04
I appreciate you um sharing your strategies in time with us once again I want to make sure people
48:09
know how to connect with you on Instagram uh why don't you give us what your Instagram
48:14
username is or handle whatever you call it yeah it's just it's just my name Chris Madden underscore
48:18
hello yeah and that's M-A-D-D-E-N Chris M-A-D-D-E-N underscore hello exactly that's awesome
48:25
and then I'll also put a link in the show notes if people want to check out your your website which
48:29
is a grow or plateau academy.com great we'll check that out but follow him start looking at the
48:35
content he's doing and uh swipe and deploy what you like exactly all right man I appreciate
48:41
you tuning in and listeners uh as always if you like this episode please leave us a review and
48:46
we'll see you on the next one bye for now
48:49
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