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What Agents Need to Know About Zillow Becoming a Brokerage · Massive Agent Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they finally did it.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Big Z, Zillow.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Zillow finally became a real estate brokerage.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys heard the news yesterday on social media, you're probably wondering: cool, what does that mean?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do I need to know?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Does it even matter?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, good questions.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We'll answer those today.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: The Massive Age Podcast.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: We need generation tips and strategies to give you more leads and sell more balls.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I love to buy houses.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I like to sell houses.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Leads a week.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've had better, better.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, have I got your attention now?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here's your host, Dustin Brom.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: What is up, everybody?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode 144 of the Massive Agent Podcast, and this is your very horse host, Dustin Brome.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: My throat is bugging me today, so um I apologize for the for the much deeper, yet scratchier um horse voice.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like not horse like the animal, like nay, but you know, H-O-A-R-S-E.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's awesome.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's always nice when I procrastinate doing a podcast episode and then uh wake up in the morning with a scratchy throat.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So good for you guys.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: You guys get this today, which is uh which is fantastic.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you are new to the podcast, my name is Dustin Brohm, your host.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am the co-founder of the Industry Syndicate Podcast Network, the real estate and mortgage industry's first and only real estate uh podcast network.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I am a national speaker on all things real estate marketing and podcasting and social media and lead generation and whatever the hell else I feel like talking about.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a realtor in Salt Lake City, Utah with EXP Realty and the founder of the Massive Agent Society.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can check out which markets we still have available because it is a one agent per market lead gen training and coaching program.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see if yours is available at MassiveAgen Society.com.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been teasing this for a few weeks now.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Massive Agent Daily should be live sometime next week.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know the exact date, that's why I'm not doing an official launch this week.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So next week on next week's podcast, I'll be telling you all about the Massive Agent Daily, what that is, and how you can get started with it, because I am freaking excited about it.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that um I wish existed, and now it does.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited to bring that to you.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So last week's episode, which we've gotten some great feedback on it.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh thank you guys for the feedback.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I always love getting comments and messages where you tell me what you like or what you don't like or what you learned from an episode because it lets me know, oh my God, people are actually listening, which is cool.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I like that.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but last week's episode was a bit long.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: We went over an hour.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: This one's gonna be pretty damn short.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: We might not even go 20 minutes, but uh, some big news came out this, well, yesterday morning.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you guys hear this, it'll be yesterday morning.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Zillow has announced that they are now becoming a brokerage.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, agents have been freaking out about this and pissing their pants about this for years now that Zillow is gonna become a brokerage and put us all out of business.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't really adhere to or uh believe that last part that they're gonna put us all out of business.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is not a surprise, okay?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a surprising thing.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is a natural evolution.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the actual announcement.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this is from a Housing Wire article.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Zillow has announced that starting January 2021, they're creating something called Zillow Homes.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna start in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Tucson.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're going to have agents licensed with Zillow rather than outsourcing it to premier agents and partner agents in in the cities where they have their iBuyer program.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, those those who want to sell their home um through Zillow offers, through their own their the Zillow iBuying program, will work directly with a licensed employee of Zillow Homes.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So Zillow Homes is about to become a thing January 2021 in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Tucson, and obviously it will expand into other markets from there.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, this kind of goes without saying for for anyone that didn't think that this would ever happen, or or for those of you who did and were freaking out that when Zillow becomes a brokerage, that we all go out of business.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, guys, I am not worried about this at all.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's it doesn't register for me.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's zero worry at all.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: I because I don't want to go be a salaried employee for Zillow, don't want to do that.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And even if they don't do the salaried model, they can't do what my brokerage does.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: They just can't.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: They can't share 50% of their revenue to their agents, can't do it.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: It can't be done.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not I have no desire to even look at what the hell they're doing.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Some agents will.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So what?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like just because some agents may want to go work for Zillow doesn't mean that a lot will, doesn't mean that most will, and it obviously doesn't mean all will.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Zillow's gonna do their thing.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: But what what this makes so crystal clear, and this is what's funny to me, is how many of you guys have been spending money with Zillow, and you know that they're in some ways competing against you, right?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now they are literally, directly competing against you in your market.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in Atlanta or um Atlanta, Phoenix or Tucson, they're literally gonna be competing against you.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: They want to now get people to buy and sell through their agents, as they should, right?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're a business, they should do that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: This does not upset me, this does not worry me or bother me at all.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like they don't owe our industry shit.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Zilla doesn't owe you shit.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, Zillow is a company, it's a business, a for-profit corporation.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're uh the the responsibility that they have is to their shareholders, right?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And to their employees.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So they should be doing this.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm surprised they didn't become a brokerage sooner, but they have.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're saying, oh, this is just you know, this is just for the iBuyer program.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Once they have a brokerage, all they have to do now, like the the next press release that comes out is oh, we're expanding.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, now we're recruiting agents.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: They say they're not recruiting agents for this, for this first move.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what they say exactly.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, according from the Housing Wire article, uh, buh-buh-buh, they will not be recruiting uh these people are already employed with Zillow.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the agents who are going to be servicing clients through the iBuyer program for Zillow homes, they are already employed with Zillow and they will be getting their real estate licenses.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Zillow said it will not be recruiting for these positions.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, okay.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you were Zillow, wouldn't you want to recruit agents that knew what the hell they were doing?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe not.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I guess if you're training them, you can train them and so they can do business your way.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine, I get it.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: But at some point, Zillow's gonna want to grow.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be like, hey, we have this brokerage.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why if if we have 50 agents, why not have 5,000?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they're going to recruit.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So what?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's just going to happen.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: That that's the next step.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Here's here's what's so interesting, and here's what you need to know about this.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Zillow is literally a competitor of yours.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: They are competing against you.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: They are.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Ever since they're I mean, the we saw the writing on the wall for a long time, many years.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been saying, like, anytime you don't have control over where your business comes from, you run the risk of losing that source of business.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're paying Zillow for leads, you're paying Zillow, whether that's the Flex program or whatever, but you're getting your leads from Zillow, well, Zillow can just double the cost.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they can just double the cost, or they can change their algorithm and the the leads suck all of a sudden, or maybe they're better, but they they're gonna charge a thousand dollars per lead and and that prices you out, or only your biggest competitors in town can afford that.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that sucks.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sucks for you, right?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Look, guys, this should be a wake-up call.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is a positive thing.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: It shows you that if you rely on other people or other companies or other parties, when you rely on them to get business, that is dangerous, that is risky.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it and it's not surprising either, but so many every Zillow premiere agent that I that I know, they all acknowledge the fact that, yeah, you know, I know Zillow is kind of competing against us.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I know that you know we're kind of paying them and helping to fund them competing against us, but we're making money now, so you know the ROI is there.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, at some point it's not gonna be.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, the ROI disappears.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: So then what?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you've wasted five years of your life where all your business came from Zillow and then they change something and price you out, or they decide, you know what, we're just not gonna offer these leads anymore.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna keep them for our own agents, or if you want them, they're gonna they're gonna be ten times as much.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're gonna go out of business.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go out of business because you don't know how the hell to get your own leads.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's a problem.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, what you need to know about Zillow becoming a brokerage, which just for their iBuyer program, agents, don't panic.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Industry, we're we're still your friends.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is only for the iBuyer program, until it's not, right?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just like before, we will we will not become a real estate brokerage, we have no desire to be, until they do.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that that's the way it works.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't lie.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, but who who gives a shit if they did?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're doing what they should.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're growing, they're evolving, they're growing, they're filling needs, and they're doing exactly what Zillow should do.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you are upset by Zill, if you are upset at Zillow for this, I would challenge you to ref to do some reflection.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you upset at them because of something they did in their interest, in their best interest?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do they owe you something?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: They do not.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're a paying customer, if they are delivering what you're paying for, everything else they have going on in the background, like that's their business.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're getting what you paid for, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're getting those leads.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: They might be shitty, they might be expensive, but you're getting what you pay for.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you didn't have to sign that contract, you didn't have to renew that contract with them, now did you?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you did, because you're like, well, I spent$5,000 and I made nine, so uh, you know, it's it's a positive ROI.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do it again.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what if you took that five grand and did some videos and some Facebook retargeting campaigns and had 10 closings come from it?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Man, my voice is deep today.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's very deep.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it'll be interesting going back and listening to this podcast after it's published and like hearing myself.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't know, maybe I'll like the sound of my voice better.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a little, um, here's a squirrel moment for you, but a side note, because I I get so many people that are like, oh, I can't do video because I hate the way I look, or I hate I can't do podcasting because I hate hearing myself, I hate the way I sound.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, newsflash, I don't know anyone, any podcaster or any video creator ever who's like, oh, I love the way I look on camera.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I've never met them.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've never met that person.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've never met a podcaster that's that's like, oh, I love hearing my own voice.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, we we all hate our voice.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: We we all hate hearing our own voice.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird, right?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because the way we hear it in our ears is different than what the public hears.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So then when you hear it come through a speaker, you're like, ooh, I don't like that.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: That that's different.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, but guess what?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: We do it anyways.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: We do it anyways.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, whatever.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, I have no idea where I even took the detour to get there, but you know, that's worth mentioning.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like the sound of my voice.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like hearing my voice either, but I do it anyways.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's just, you know, it is what it is.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So getting back on the tracks here, you have to be in control of where you get business from.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be control of every aspect of your business.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean that doesn't mean that you personally have to do literally everything in your business.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: As you've heard on previous episodes, no, you need to outsource certain tasks.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: You need a transaction coordinator, you need someone to help you with editing.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you're doing content, you need, you know, hire that stuff out, of course.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and I forgot to turn my tone off, my phone off.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's nice.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, um, you have to own your data, you have to have control over where your business comes from.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you have to have control over every aspect of your business.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys are with a brokerage and the brokerage owns your data to where you're trapped, like if if you're using a a CRM from your brokerage or um a website or or a system from your brokerage, and then you try to leave that brokerage, maybe you want to go start your own, or you want to go to another team, or you want to go to another brokerage, whatever.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, hey, all right, I need my database, and they're like, Your database.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's funny.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they laugh at you.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, your database, that's our database.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hmm.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you shouldn't have given control of your data to your goddamn brokerage.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's it's ridiculous.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: My brokerage, so I'm with exp.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: They do not own my data.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they don't even it's not their CRM, it's not their website.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all my data is with KV Core, which is a third-party company.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if I ever left EXP, I can continue using KV Core, and KV Core is just gonna give me my stuff.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: They they have no interest in keeping my data because they're not a brokerage, right?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking with a an a KW agent earlier that's like, well, I'd love to leave, but I gotta figure out how to get my uh you know, all my leads that that I've been building up over the last six months out of out of the CRM because uh you know, don't they own that?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, yeah, they do.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's like, oh shit.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: So she's got to figure that out.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um when you don't have control, bad things happen or bad things can happen.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean that they will, but eventually they probably will.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So own your data, make sure you have control over it.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's a website company, make sure that if you ever leave and switch to another website provider, that you can keep the content.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a major, major website provider for real estate agents uh that puts big money behind a bunch of different events.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they won't they own the content that goes on the website, according to them.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're signing over any right you have to that content.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if you build a website with them, if you write articles and do a bunch of content, they own it.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So when you leave, and you will, because it's crazy expensive and they do a shit job, uh, they are going to keep your data.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's nice.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's nice.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, don't do that.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: You realize that we have control.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: We we we have control over the decisions we make.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so don't get into situations like that.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you were relying on an agency or a team leader or a broker or uh someone that you are paying to give to bring business to you, you don't have control over that.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: It may be working fine temporarily, and you may get to the point where you think it's just gonna continue to be fine, but all it takes is one email out of the blue that's like, hey, we're gonna make a change, we're gonna make it pivot, we're not in business anymore, we're we're raising our fees, whatever, and all of a sudden you're done.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're but if you if you okay, here's here's what you need to do, guys.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned the problem, you know.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I here's what you can do about it.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the things that you can control.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you can control knowledge, you can control your brand.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, so you need to be doing video content online.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be doing video, whether that's Instagram stories, posting it natively to Facebook or YouTube videos or on LinkedIn or live videos, anywhere.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be building your brand, okay, because that the brand cannot be taken away from you.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: If people recognize your face or your name or your brand or your logo, that can't be taken away.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can can then you can control how many people see that stuff.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to build your own brand.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Content is the best way to do it.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Facebook ads, ideally, to help amplify how many people see it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Facebook ads are just the most cost effective.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, side note, guys, they just announced uh another announcement.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Facebook has done away with the 20% text rule, which is super annoying if you've been running Facebook ads, where they're like, oh, we're this ad's not going to be shown because it has text on more than 20% of the screen, and you're like, no, it doesn't, or so what?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's my ad.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they've done away with that rule.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now they just strongly suggest that your ad not have uh not have text on more than 20%.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: That they say that ads with text on less than 20% performs much better.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's cool.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're not you're not going to get ads denied, but they may not work as well if they're text heavy.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that's cool.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: But Facebook ads, if you can learn Facebook ads, then you can hire somebody and know that they're good.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then if if they somehow don't work out, you could step in and take over.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't know, if you have no knowledge at all and you hire an agency or you hire some other company to run ads for you, well, how do you know that they're even doing the best job?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: How do you know that they're even doing it right?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that like sure, maybe you're getting 20 leads uh in the month for what you're paying them, but what if you probably should have gotten like 75?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like I see this all the time.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: People overpay because they're like, oh, I don't have time to learn that.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to learn that.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they overpay and they just they're like, oh, that seems cool.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Great results.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I got 30 leads this month.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for that ad spend, you probably should have had 70.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to learn that.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Your knowledge cannot be taken away from you.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Your email list cannot be taken away from you.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys are capturing email addresses?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you're capturing email addresses, whether you're using them for a weekly newsletter or or you know, some sort of weekly email or not, I mean, you should be, but even if you're not, that email list is yours.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Your website, your domain name is yours.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so all the SEO power that you build up over time with all the links.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you're gonna create a website and have content on it, you own that.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you own your email list, you can distribute newsletters, you can reach people directly.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: You control that stuff.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Build a brand through content.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: You uh learn how to get more people to see your content.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Facebook ads are a great way to do that.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: You could use Google ads, you could use TikTok ads for God's sakes, you could do so many different things to get people to see your content.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: But what's important is that is that you build a brand because your brand, Zillow can do whatever they're doing, but that's not going to affect your brand.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can actually thrive at a local level if if consumers know who you are, if they've heard of you, if they've seen you, if you have a good reputation, if uh if they see you all over the place online, they're gonna think that you're one of the biggest companies or the biggest agents in town.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And Zillow cannot compete on a local level like that.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: They just can't.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So build your brand, capture email addresses, build an email list, um, you know, even social media, okay, even all of that, like you we have to understand uh that we're using these platforms, and if they change their algorithm or if they change their rules, or if they decide to censor your page because they don't like something you said, which which freakishly is happening quite a bit in the the world of politics, it's ridiculous what's happening with Facebook and Twitter with censorship.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's unbelievable.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like entire media companies are being demonetized and shadow banned on platforms because of political beliefs and opinions.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's scary.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, it just goes to show that if you rely on Facebook entirely or if you rely on Instagram entirely to build your brand, that's dangerous too, because you're using their platform.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if they decide to make a little adjustment or a change or or change their terms of service, uh and now you could be out of business or or disappear.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: So use the tools that are out there for sure.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying don't use Instagram and don't use Facebook.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely do, definitely do, but have in the back of your mind the knowledge that at any time it could be pulled away from you or a change could happen.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why you have to have those other things.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Have a podcast.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Podcasting that can't be taken away from you.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's content that's put out there.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it's um there's so many different places you could put a podcast.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that is great content that will live forever and is searchable.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Get content out there, build a brand, and then whatever Zello decides to do, whatever the social media networks decide to do, whatever kind of craziness they they start doing with censorship, uh hopefully that doesn't leak into the real estate world, but who the hell knows?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think that they'd go this far.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's getting crazy.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but no matter what happens, if you know what time it is, if you know that that your control is what's most important, you can you can make adjustments and you can make changes and focus on the things that are best.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Start a podcast, start building a brand, start building an email list, send emails out, have ways to directly connect to uh to your database, your leads, your clients.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if that's on social media, cool, but have other ways in mind as well.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if nothing else, from this Zillow becoming a brokerage thing, I hope you guys realize how important it is to control your own ability to get new leads and to get business.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you rely on Zillow or anybody else, they can go ahead and change things and compete against you or double the double the cost or whatever the hell, and you can't do a damn thing about it.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And for a business, it really is not a good business move to put yourself in a position where you're you're beholden to the decisions of other companies.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: That sucks.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be that way.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: You've chosen to let that happen.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So try not to do that.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So hope you guys enjoyed today.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back next week with the Massive Agent Podcast.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, my voice will be back.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: It will, it'll be back tomorrow, but um, you get the deeper, very, very white type voice.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it's just as soothing.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm just gonna keep telling myself that.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys, appreciate it.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you have not left a review on uh Apple Podcasts for the show, please do uh made it simple for you, just go to massiveagentpodcast.com slash review, and uh that'll help you leave a review.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know what you like about the show, just put a little, you know, little blurb about the show.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: It really helps us to show up uh in searches and more importantly, please share this podcast with a colleague, an agent friend of yours, your broker, a team leader, share it within a Facebook group of other agents.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just share uh this podcast with any other agent.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you find this valuable, help us to spread the word, help us to grow our audience, and uh and we'll continue doing it.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for sitting through the uh the very wide episode.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just call this the very wide episode, and uh we'll be back next week.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: See ya.