Business Innovators Radio - Dionne Malush – Secrets to Selling 78 Homes a Year Through Unique Marketing

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

In this episode, Nina Hershberger talks with Dionne Malush, a co-owner of Realty One Group Gold Standard in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area. Since 1989, Dionne has effectively utilized her artistic talents and creative marketing skills to excel in her real estate career.Dionne’s background includes graduating from the Art Institute in 1989 and starting her own graphic design business. After about 17 successful years, she transitioned into real estate, combining her design expertise with her entrepreneurial spirit. In her second year as a realtor, Dionne was already making as much as she did in her 17th year of graphic design, thanks to her unique approach to marketing.Dionne shares how she was able to close an astounding 78 transactions per year, three times the national average, without having a large team. She credits her creativity and out-of-the-box thinking for her success. Dionne developed a comprehensive marketing strategy that included everything from custom-designed flyers and social media to a published book on selling homes in Pittsburgh. Her “25 Tips for Selling Your Home in Pittsburgh” book gave her instant authority and helped her win 100% of the listing appointments she went on.Listeners who are looking to stand out in a crowded market, whether it’s real estate or another industry, will find Dionne’s advice invaluable. She emphasizes the importance of consistent, multi-channel marketing, as well as finding creative ways to provide value to your prospects and clients. Dionne also shares how she leveraged technology, like AI writing assistants, to save time without sacrificing quality.To learn more about Dionne Malush and her real estate expertise, visit her website at DionneMalush.com or email her at [e-mail]. Dionne is always happy to chat about marketing strategies and share the lessons she’s learned from her decades of success in the industry.MegaBucks Radio with Nina Hershbergerhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/megabucks-radio-with-nina-hershbergerSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/dionne-malush-secrets-to-selling-78-homes-a-year-through-unique-marketing

Welcome to Megabox Radio. Conversations with successful entrepreneurs, sharing their tips and strategies for success, real-world ideas that can put Megabox in your bank account. Here's your host, Nina Hirshberger. Welcome to today's show. My name is Nina Hirschberger, and today I have on. My guest is Dion Mollish. Dion is a co-owner of Realty One Group, Gold Standard, and the Pistons. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.

And since 1989, Dionne has effectively utilized her artistic talents. And I can vouch for that to excel in her career. She's a very creative, marketer, instructor, motivator. And I'm honored to have her on the show today. We're just going to talk about success principles, success strategies, things that Dion has has learned through her years of success. So welcome to today's show, Dion. Thank you, Nine.

I'm so excited to be here talking to you today. So you were an art major in school then. So, yeah, so I went to Art Institute. I actually graduated in 89 from Art Institute. And I knew pretty quickly that I wasn't meant to work for anyone. I tried to have a couple of jobs right out of art school and just I didn't really like to be told what to do. So immediately I took after my dad who was entrepreneurial and knew that I would want to start my own company. So pretty quickly out of art school, I started my own design, graphic design business, and it was really cool.

And how long did you do that? So I had, well, I mean, I still do it. I still actually do graphic design work kind of on my own and for our company. and so I started 89. I had about 17 years of my graphic design business whenever I got into a partnership that messed up the whole thing, actually. But we did good. We were doing everything. We were actually doing screen printing and embroidery in-house.

We bought another company in Pittsburgh, and we merged them together, and they were a union screen printing business. So we took that business and merged it with ours and grew pretty rapidly. We had some great success in the area. I remember just everywhere I would go, I would see something that we created. So it was kind of fun being part of that. And, you know, we'd walk into the store and someone would walk in with a shirt or a hat or something that we did. So it was fun. And then the Labor Day parade, I remember 2004, we had about almost 50% of every shirt in the Pittsburgh Labor Day parade we created.

So it was a very fun thing to do. You know, it wasn't as stressful as real estate, I can tell you that. It was, you know, there's sometimes, if the shirts weren't perfectly lined up and things like that, like, nothing ends the world. Where if a house doesn't go through, then, you know, people are, like, devastated where, you know, shirts, it's just shirts. I mean, things aren't perfect. But it was a great business. I loved it so much. And we had 11 employees whenever we kind of got into that partnership battle.

So we were growing. We did, last year we did about a million dollars in sales, and the average ticket was, about $400. We did a lot of $400 projects, and we were doing really well. So you talked a minute ago about your father teaching a little bit of entrepreneurial. So is that where your love for being a business owner came from your father? And if so, what did he do? Okay.

So my dad, you know, when he first, him and my mom first were married, he worked at the mill, like a lot of people in the Pittsburgh area. and again he knew pretty quickly that he wanted to be on his own so he started a body shop and he was really kind of neat to painted cars and that was his love he loved cars well then he niched it to corvettes so he had a company called corvette specialty so he was like the painter of all the corvettes in the area so of course I fell in love with the car we had corvettes our whole lives

and I still have I have tuned right now and but it was neat because he didn't even understand about marketing, right? That wasn't the thing, but taking a niche instead of just being something to everybody, he niched it to Corvettes. And so our whole lives, I mean, I don't, I was probably maybe six months old when he worked at the mill. So I'm 55. So up until, you know, until he passed away in September, they still have, they still had work in the Corvette line of business. They have a parts business that they had for 20 years since he had a heart attack when he was 48. They couldn't do the actual work like that anymore.

but he started a parts business. So they have been entrepreneurial, the roller coaster ride of being that since my entire life. So I learned a lot. It looks like strategy number one would be niche. Did you niche when you had your graphic design business? Well, we did because we had that union, right? So we went to the labor unions,

and we really marked a spot for us in Pittsburgh because we joined the Teamsters Union and we were a union shop. And we focused on everything American made. And so it was a niche, and it was working. I loved it. And we made some amazing relationships with the presidents of the labor unions here in Pittsburgh. So it was a great niche.

And when we saw the opportunity to buy a company, it was called American Screen Printing, it was easy for us because we thought, you know, instead of trying to do everything all the time, like, it's difficult to be that somebody for everybody. but when you niche and you can focus on one segment, it made such a difference in our growth. Okay, and that makes sense. So after you got out of that business, then what happened? So it didn't go down very well, the end of that.

So I actually walked out and left the business and started another design business and just did it from home, like just a home-based graphic design business. At that point, I thought I didn't want to have all my eggs in one basket and realize that I had an interest in real estate and I had for a long time. So I got my real estate license and in my second year of my real estate business, I realized I'd made as much as I had in my 17th year of my graphic design business. And I thought, hmm, this is pretty cool. I could combine real estate and graphic design because when I started, most agents were using Microsoft Word to create flyers, right? And so they didn't have all the cool stuff like we have today, Canva, AI, all the things that they can use to be more effective and more productive. We didn't have that 20 years ago.

So when I came out of the gate, everything looked better. My business cards were better. Everything I did, the flyers, the marketing, the ideas, you know, and learning things that I learned from Becky, you know, and marketing. And it just worked. So I really came out quickly, and then I started not doing as much graphic design work because I couldn't effectively do both. So I was ranging in my last five years of production. I closed about 78 transactions each year when the average real estate in America closes like 8 to 12.

And I didn't have a team or any. I had an assistant who helped me with the paperwork, but I didn't have this team. Like today's big thing in real estate is a team of like 20, 30 people. that they have to grow and continually feed. I did that on my own, and there are teams in the Pittsburgh region that haven't even closed that many in their years. And so it has to tell you how marketing yourself, even though I didn't know a lot about marketing,

I knew enough to be creative. And I think there's such a big difference between creativity and marketing. Like I can create beautiful things, but getting it out to the masses has always been one of the struggles that I've had as a business owner, so therefore why I'm taking all of these. classes to learn how to be a better marketer.

Okay, so explain that a little bit to being creative. So in other words, you were much more creative with your business cards, with your flyers, with whatever. It was just harder to get people to pay attention or explain what you mean by that? So, you know, the message to market match, I think that's something that Dan Kennedy has been a big part of. I could create a beautiful image, beautiful things, but how do I get the market to want to pay attention to it?

So that has been an ongoing struggle for me. I think that most people could probably have that same struggle, and that's why everyone's not a marketer. So I was able to create a beautiful piece, for instance. I always looked at a house as a product, just like when you go to the store and you have all of these great designers, create these package designs, and companies put them on a shelf the way they're,

put it on there, the packaging, the font they use, all of that. So I started thinking of houses the same way as a product. So we want to be in this crowded marketplace when, you know, in the first, what, 16 years of my career, there was a lot more listings than there are today. So you had to really stand out. So all the things that agents do today, I was doing ahead of the curve. You know, we were doing the drone, doing the professional photography. Even on a $50,000 house in Pittsburgh, I was sending out a professional photographer

because that's what they were good at instead of me doing all the pieces of it. So that's kind of what I'm talking about. Like blending creativity with real estate was awesome. And I think that's why Canva and products like that are so helpful to a real estate agent in today's market because they can't. It may not be the most amazing design ever, but it doesn't have to be. It's better than just creating a flyer in Microsoft Word, and they're able to be more creative and showcase their listings and, you know, their successes on social media because of products like Canva.

Well, I suppose, though, so not only it doesn't have to look pretty, but, you know, I don't think you give yourself enough credit because I'm sure the copy, the wording, the description you had on those flyers had to be pretty impactful as well. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been selling that many houses. Yeah, you're right. And I think I probably don't give myself enough credit. I used to spend hours crafting the perfect wording for a listing, where today I can use chat TBT and make the most amazing listing description, you know. And I teach the agents how to do that. And they're just done at the input that they can give to chatyptee and what they get back out.

And then they can add it a little bit. But instead of taking hours to write something because they're not professional writers, They can take minutes and edit so they get their time back. So that's something in my company that I'm teaching our agents. How do you want your life back? Use the things that we have, the tools like Canada and AI, to help you and give yourself more time. Well, and, you know, that's the thing. You know, people say, well, you know, they're kind of nervous of the AI.

And I say, you know, it's an assistant. It's an assistant. Think of it as an assistant. It's not going to take over. Now, there are some industries could be really decimated by AI. But the bottom line is AI is never going to sell that house. It's going to be a real person who goes through and walks through and helps and, you know, all of that kind of stuff. But like you say, why would you not use it to craft a very well-written copy for that particular property?

So that makes perfect sense. 78 houses is that what I remember you saying that you sold that second year I did that like five years in a row and I'm so like I'm that person that will give you the exact number like one year was like 77 and a half because I worked with an agent we did it together so like a lot of agents will round up they'll go from 78 to 100 and I'm just not that person I don't do that I just am not that person so yes so for five years straight I ranged in that area between 75 and 78 houses in the year. Okay.

So, yeah, the market. Go ahead. There's got to be strategies more than just even a pretty flyer or that. Did you, so did you niche to a particular kind of a house? Actually, I did it. I did a lot of, of the things that agents probably don't do today. Like, they're, I was consistent. I was doing something every month.

I was reaching out to the clients. I was sending market updates. I was sending flyers, you know, I was other than just, just listed and just sold. You know, I remember meeting with Becky and going to the no BS meetings that we had in Pittsburgh and the ideas that we came up with. My greatest marketing tool of all time is because of Becky and Weston and the No BS meeting that we had, which was a, I wrote a book on selling houses in Pittsburgh. 25 tips for selling a home in Pittsburgh was my book, and I could legitimately go into,

to the seller and say, I wrote the, I literally wrote the book on selling houses in Pittsburgh, and I did. And I'm the only one that ever did. Out of 9,000 realtors today and all the realtors that have come in my 20 years, I am the annual agent that did that. So when I walked into an appointment, so we talked about creative marketing, it's the best. It gave me, when people talked to me, I had the authority, right, because I had a book. And I would sign it and I'd put their name in it. You know, Deer Mr. Russell, happy home selling, you know, my name in it, and I'd leave a copy with them and I can tell you out of 100% of appointments I would have 100% of a listing. It was that good.

So I was having creative marketing. But just having a book. On a book and all the stuff that I took with me. Like I was great with presentation. I took a little, did the listing presentation. I always went with marketing materials. I had everything printed and beautifully done. I was just that person that understood creativity and presentation.

but having the book was like the icing on the cake because they never met anyone that was a real estate and didn't have had a book. So if I went up against four or five agents and, you know, one of the strategies in real estate is always trying to be the last agent so you can blow them away at the end because they've already seen a couple other ones, get to be at the end and then you hand them a book and they're like, wow, this is amazing. And the book is really good. You know, it's really good tips on how to sell out. So, see, no, I mean, people that are going to be listening to this and reading the article about you in the magazine is going, you know, they're going to be in other different industries. I'm not going to all be realtors and stuff. So writing a book, no matter what industry, let's say you're a dog groomer, would a dog groomer find value and having authored a book?

It's the greatest marketing tool for any business out there. it gives you instant authority. No matter what business that I would be in, that would be one of the first things I ever did. So if I started a new business, I would be creating a new book. So I am 100% believer that it gives you authority. I'm like most, I mean, if you're really,

especially if you're a dog greeting, I mean, or do you say dog grooming, dog grooming business, how cool would that be to learn all about what they do, how they do it, some good success stories. It's amazing. It's amazing. And it's physical. And you get to touch it, right?

It's not just something you go online and maybe they read it, maybe they don't. They physically get to hold it in their hands. I love that part because I think you've killed some more senses when you actually have it versus, you know, it's just like online courses. I remember all of the courses that I have. I probably have thousands and thousands of dollars of courses that I have on a computer that I forget about versus. is the physical books that are in my office that I can go reach for and have, and when I need it, I can grab it. So it's the same idea, right? It's having a book.

It gives you instant authority. It also gives you something tangible. Well, and most people don't throw away a book, at least, you know, for a long time. I suppose there's a certain point. Yeah, I don't know. I've never thrown any books away. In fact, I love books so much. I tell my husband, when I die, I want them to be in my, in my, my case.

gasket with me. So I love books. So, you know, I give them away and I, I would, I, you're right though. It's a, it's so, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's so, people won't trade away. So they might give it away, share it with their friends. That's even better for you because they share your book. If you're, if you're a chiropractor or a dentist and you have your own book and they, you know, everyone needs them. So someone says, oh, I have, you know, I need to go to the dentist. Oh, here's a book my dentist's throat. She's going to go to that time. So, Dion, was it hard to write a book?

I mean, did it take you forever and ever? No, this was the heck. I wrote this book in 2000, I can't even remember, 2008. And I had originally put the, you know, all this, typed it all up in Word and the things that, you know, that we had back then to do it. So it was not hard. It just took some time, you know, and then today with all the tools that we have to be created. it wouldn't take nearly as much time. But I actually hired someone to edit and read through it.

So it wasn't just me writing. And I'm not a professional writer, but it was me writing my ideas. And then I had someone edit just to make sure that, you know, the proper grammar, proper punctuation because that's important to me. And then I created it. So I had that creative element. But nowadays you can find someone, you know, pretty inexpensively to help you on Fiverr or something like that to put together the book. So I think you can self-publish.

There's so much you can do. So just for fun, give me a couple of the top tips of those 25 that you had in that book. 25 tips. That's a long time since I wrote that. But many tips were about staging, marketing, talking, I mean, negotiations with the buyers. You know, when you get a buyer, I actually have a lot. right here. When you get a buyer, some ideas that you could share with your agent, you know,

so 25 tips here I have it right here in front of me. Now it's fast. I put that up quickly. So we had things about maximizing your home's potential, deciding on an agent, pricing strategies, appraisal benefits, home shopping, doing your homework, why the seller should do some homework, keeping your emotions in check, how to know your buyer, never sign a deal on your next home, low offers. I even had a mortgage professional write a chapter in it about mortgages so they

could understand about that. It was a really good book. I had five bonuses at the back where, you know, so I had the 25 chapters. And the chapters, some of them are only two pages long, two or three pages. So just think about that. In any industry you have, you have tips, right? Car industry, you know, what's the best way to buy? car and how to talk to them and how to get out of their in a hour instead of six hours might be one thing

if I was writing a hospital dealership but yeah it's great it's a great great book so i want to go back then to a moment ago you talked about staying in touch with i don't know if it was your prospects or you know even though somebody buys the house today doesn't mean they weren't going to be in the market they could have kids that are in the market for buying a house. They could be, you know, getting moved and, you know, having to change jobs and stuff. Tell me about staying in touch with your prospect, your clients. What did you do? And what do you do now?

So a big part of staying in touch was doing something every month. For instance, maybe a market update or, for instance, Valentine's Day or using the holidays or fun holidays. that was always something creative that we learned in our marketing class about the unique holidays there are in a year and sending things when no one else is going to. You know, sending a Thanksgiving card versus a Christmas card and a New Year's card or different things like that. So I was always sending things to my past client's sphere of influence. That was my target audience. And by doing that, always sending information, like little gifts, always in front of them to become top of mind,

allowed me in those years that I was closing 78 transactions a year, 72% of my business came from past clients, spare of influence because I was the only person never thought of. During Heart Month, I did a signs of a heart attack magnet and then signs of a stroke magnet. I could still walk into those houses now 10 years after sending that and they're still on the refrigerator. So they had staying power.

I went around and found the best pizza in my area, and I did the top 10 pizzas in, you know, in McMurray, Pennsylvania or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I put my top 10s with their phone numbers and contact information on their website. Again, that magnet is still stuck on plenty of refrigerators in our area, and I don't even do that kind of marketing anymore because I'm not selling how because I actually own the company now. So that consistency paid off time and time again, and there's so many strategies that an agent or anyone that's in business can employ about becoming top of mind,

just consistently being in front of the consumer. You have to be in front of them. There's too much competition out there now, especially with the Internet and all the messages and the emails that people get. So it's with email marketing, you know, sending direct mail, I still believe in all of it. So do you have a particular budget when you were sending these monthly things out? Yes, it wasn't very much that budget.

It was enough that I would, you know, especially when you're a newer agent, when you're getting started, you don't have a lot of extra money, but you can budget 100, you know, 100 flyers a month or 200 flyers a month. Even now with stamps at 68 cents, most offices will let you print at the office. So you go and print your flyers out, put them in the envelope. I spent many nights addressing envelopes and handwriting them because I knew the power of a handwritten adress. versus a label. So that's what we do. So if I'm going to say at that point, maybe it was $100 a month to be in front of 200 people. Now it may cost a little bit more because stamps are more expensive.

But you can buy envelopes. You can have handwritten the envelopes. You don't have to pay for labels. And you can go to your office and print out your flyers and the things that you want to send to the client. Email is super inexpensive because even on Google, you can send 99 at a time without it being spam. So there's all kinds of ways. but there's all kinds of excuses not to do it, too. So you just have to keep doing something.

That's important about being in front of people. They need to see you. I did billboards in our area, and I actually went to the local grocery store, and they had TVs at the registers. And I was one of the first people in the area to go to them and say, could I put an ad on there? And they're like, well, we don't really do that.

But we could think about it. So when they thought about it, they thought that's a great idea. So then they did some ads, and, I pay for ads on the TV screens at the supermarket, and people would come up to me and say, I saw you on TV. When reality is, they didn't see me on TV. They saw me on the screens at the shop and save. But in their mind, it was a TV screen.

So I was so good at marketing without even knowing what marketing was. Yeah, I'm just writing down all of these little strategies. So you not only, okay, you talked about going to the office and doing a flyer and stuff, But you also talked about magnets that went on the refrigerator and stuff. You began to think a lot out of the box. What everybody else was doing, you kind of did something different. You were looking to be unique. Definitely looking to be unique.

Because I knew that there was so much competition. There's so many real estate agents in Pittsburgh in our West Penn multi-lists. It's like eight or nine counties. There's 9,000 realtors. So I know if I was back on the market again as a realtor, could I hit those numbers again? I absolutely could because I know I would consistently be in front of now. I can be in front of even more people because 20 years ago we didn't have Facebook ads. And, you know, the things that we have today to get in front of people is amazing.

And it's so low cost compared to some of the things that we did 20 years ago. So it's the opportunity to Don't you think being arriving in their mailbox A physical mailbox was something that others don't do? They still don't do it, yes. And it's one of the greatest things ever. I know people will say, well, they only get a small percentage, but you get a small percentage.

Direct mail is my favorite. I love getting the mail. I love looking what other people are doing to market themselves. In one group I was in, they did these oversides. postcards. And, you know, they were so big, you couldn't help but look at them. And the thing is, you may not be ready for that service right now, but if you're consistent in marketing when they are ready, you'll be the first one they call. That's where people get messed up. And I know there's been plenty of people in my career where they've sent out a postcard. I have a graphic designer.

I want to design this postcard, and I want you to send this out. Okay, well, what about next? No, I just want to send one. Well, sending one is not enough, and I've repeated this, and this may be wrong or this is just my right, but seven times creates memory, 12 times creates mind dominance. That's what I've always said. So if you're going to send one, don't waste your money. Just don't do it. And I'd be like, well, I want to send it out to my clients. We'll send, save your money and don't send it.

Because if you're not going to consistently send to them seven to 12 times, it's pointless. And you don't have to say if your budget is $200 and you can only send to 100 people, then send to that 100 people every month for 12 months. And I promise you that when they're ready to sell or buy a house, you're the only one that's going to do it. Because 20 years I've been doing this, and I can't even tell you I could name on one hand the agents out of 9,000 are consistently doing this stuff. Yeah, no, that's perfect device. You've talked several times about a friend that's a friend of both of us. Her name is Becky.

And the one thing that I say, Becky is phenomenal in marketing, but what she's a genius about, out is that consistency over time. She used to own a restaurant, and I forgot how many she had on that, but every single month for, again, I think it was 170 months or I don't know, blah, a crazy about physical newsletter in the mailbox. It was that consistency over time. And she became one of the top restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. So, B, let me read back, because I've been taking notes this whole time.

We started out by saying niche. And in your case, you didn't really niche, but I bet you had a particular area of Pittsburgh that you were not, you didn't go the whole Pittsburgh area. In the realty market, I think they call it farming, correct? We do. We absolutely call it farming. And so did you have a particular farm or was it just friends and family? So no, I did both.

So I did Sierra Influid Past Clients and Farms. So I farmed around where I lived. And I did really well in that area. And I think that there's so many niches in a real estate agent's life. I just pulled up. I had a document that I created for our agents. Things like first-time homebuyers, you know, local community home agent, an investor real estate that just works with investors, condo king, relocation specialist,

senior specialist, vacation home specialist, condo specialist. There's like land buyers for equestrian, single mom. There's so many different things, specializing in divorce real estate agents, celebrating heroes in the community. So military, golf homes, there's all kinds of things that an agent can do to niche. My personal niche was Fair of Influence, PATH client, and then I did my local area. But what I found, though, in my years of business,

there was an agent that was in a market. It was probably 45 minutes from where I lived. And I was closing 78 transactions a year, and at that point it was about $16 million in productions. Our average sell price is really low in Pittsburgh. I looked at her numbers, and she was closing about $20 million, so it's $4 million more, and she was literally closing a third of the houses that I was.

So I was like, that's a third of the work. like she's doing and making more money than I am. So I called her and I said, what are you doing? So she went to, she joined a golf club and it was about 45 minutes from her house. And I said, why did you go so far away? She said, well, because a lot of people locally don't want me to know their business. So she joined the golf club, went there every week. She had dinner there once a week and she just built up relationships with people.

And then she had all of those people on her mailing list. And one thing that she could offer to them is that nobody in your local area will know your business, right? So she went out and just marketed the fact that she was out of the area. So a lot of people don't want their neighbor that's a realtor to know their financial business. But they picked them because that's what everyone does. But she had a very successful business by specializing and marketing in an area that was outside of where she lives. So I always looked at that and I thought that was pretty smart. But for me, my area, I became like everybody knew my name where I lived, everyone between the billboards, the little TVs at the local shop and save.

With all the mailings that I sent every month, I was on every pizza box, every, you know, softball field. Like, I did it all. And it worked. It truly worked. Okay. So let me go back as I've been. So we started with niche. You talked about a message to mark and match.

So you, the copy that you wrote that's now much easier, you told the message. You created great design. So your listing package was spot on, was beautiful, professional made sense. You wrote a book that gave you a story unlike anything else. else. At the back of that book, you said you had four bonuses. What were those bonuses? So let me reach out. Let me tell you what they were. So the bonuses at the back were these. Bonus one, preparing for the dreaded home inspector. Bonus two, 10 reasons your house is not selling if it's currently listed. There's three, five important things you need to know about the buyer's mortgage.

Then bonus for top 10 selling tips and then selling your home on your own, which bonus five for selling your home on your own. It's about safety and, you know, about letting people into your house. So it had a little bit of fear factor in it. So at the end of bonus five, they're like, I really should let my home with an agent. So a little, you know, a little bit of fear factor in bonus number five. So those are just extra bonuses that I added because I've had 25 tips already. So I thought that was kind of fun to add those at the end. And people loved to see those things.

Or did they have to ask for it and you send it to them? No, I actually listed them. But knowing what I know today, that would be a great thing to do. So this kind of like lead magnets, right? This is not what they call them these days. Yep, yep, yep. But, you know, 20 years ago, this was a big part of it. And then on the outside of the book, it said, you know, bonuses inside.

So the creativity. Yep. Then you talked about staying in touch by sending something to them on a monthly basis. If you're only going to send one, I always say, just like you did. If you're only going to send one or two, don't save your money. It has to be consistent over time. And so you did it on a monthly basis. You also showed up everywhere.

That was one of the last things you talked about. You talked about, you know, the softball or baseball team and the, you know, golf, whatever. I mean, you showed up. The grocery store. monitor. You showed up everywhere. You also got into tips, top 10 tips, top 10 this, top 10 whatever. You had consistency over time. You identified a marketing budget. So it wasn't, it didn't sound like it was haphazard. It sounded like I'm going to spend, whether it's a percentage or whether it's a dollar, I'm comfortable spending two,

hundred dollars a month whatever that number you you budgeted it and you did spend it you became unique you thought out of the box one thing I didn't ask you were you been into events did you have events for your prospects or your past clients you know I did not and looking back I think that I probably would have been in a hundred transactions if I would have did that. That's an area that I'm not a really great event planner. So I never, and I was always thinking I had to do it all by myself. Right now I know there's plenty of people that can help with things like that.

And it is important. I see the events that we do for our agents just in-house and how much it helps. I was going to also say about networking. Networking is a massive part of my success. Like I was always, not only was I in front of them visually, I was in front of people all the time. I was going to attending events, B&I, you know, the local chambers, going to happy hours, things that to be around people, successful people. And that feel to this day is a big part of who I am.

And I know if you watch my social media, you'll see me. I'm out and doing things to be in front of people. So they get to know who beyond malish is. So when someone says, hey, I need a good real estate company or I need an agent or an agency that I'm top of mind. them. So when we first opened Realty One group, we were the first ones. We brought them to Pittsburgh. We disrupted the market. And by doing that, we had to be aggressive on our marketing so aggressive that we had the other companies literally calling us, sending us letters telling us we could not market. We could not use the initials to their company name in our marketing. They were so mad at us

because we were marketing out like crazy. And I really believe that I put Realty One Group on them that because the marketing that I did at the beginning and the focus on the agents and making our agents stand out has affected every single real estate company in Pittsburgh. All of them had to up their game because of little old us. And my partner Mike and I, like we were out there. So, you know, again, did I know what I was doing? Was I a professional marketer? No, but I knew enough to know how important it was for everybody, all of our agents to be able to walk out and people say, oh, I heard of your company. Because even last night I was at an event, and they said,

this lady said, what company do you own? And I said, I own Realty Bung Group Bult Center. She said, oh, I see your signs everywhere. That's what we wanted, right? We want them to see our signs. We want, and they may not have seen a sign. They may have seen us on social media, but in their mind, they put real estate and signs together,

just like the TV. They put TV and TV screen at the local supermarket together. So marketing is a genius. I love it. And the more I learn, and the older I get, I wish I learned more. 30 years ago, but again, I knew enough to know that I had to be out in front of people. I have, you have to.

It's a people business. So I'm looking at the clock, and unfortunately we are out of time. The last thing that I heard you saw and say, and I thought it was brilliant, was you're teaching your agents to actually kind of name themselves. I'm the divorce real estate agent expert. I'm whatever. You give them a whole list of possible things, which then comes back to the very first thing is niching, and that's a form of niching.

So that's amazing. Dion, I want to thank you for being on today's show. If there's somebody that would just like to reach out to you and I don't know, maybe they'll be in the Pittsburgh area and they can think, man, that's the team that I want to be associated with. What's the best way to get a hold of you? So if you just go to Dionne mallach.com, it's D-I-O-N-E-M-A-L-U-S-H.com, that has all of my contact info, or you can email me at Dion at goldstandard-Pittsburg.com, and I'm available if someone just wants to talk marketing. I love to do that. Well, I appreciate it.

And so thank you, Deion, for being on today's show. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate you taking the time. So until next time, if you found value in what Dionne shared today, please share this episode with your fellow entrepreneurs and help us spread the word for marketing. Until next time. Thank you for listening to Megabucks Radio with Nina Hirshberger.

To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, visit megabucksradio.com. Thank you.