Founder's Story - From a Million Views to Million-Dollar Listings: Fontine’s Early Retirement Plan | Ep 231 with Fontine Da Luz

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Fontine Da Luz—a rising force in the real estate world who began closing deals at 17 and now commands an empire fueled by millions of social media views. She’s not just selling homes—she’s turning followers into clients and laughter into leads. Key Discussion Points: How Fontine turned a marketing failure into a viral breakthrough with her comedy character “Ling Ling” Why entertainment beats education in today’s content-driven market The psychology behind analogies, relatability, and storytelling in sales What business owners get wrong about social media—and how to fix it The systems she built to turn DMs into deal flow Scaling a global client base without paid ads How she plans to retire by 25 while moving into large-scale commercial deals Takeaways: Humor isn’t a distraction—it’s a strategy Authenticity wins over perfection in marketing Systems turn attention into revenue Your personality can be your biggest brand asset Most people won’t believe in you—until they see it working Closing Thoughts:Fontine Da Luz isn’t just building a real estate business—she’s rewriting the playbook for digital-age entrepreneurship. Her story proves that bold risks, raw authenticity, and a well-timed punchline can be more powerful than a polished pitch. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fantine, I'm super excited because something that you're doing that I think every business leader, owner, they need to understand is how to market correctly on social media, but themselves, not specifically the company. And you've garnered over 11 million views. I've seen tons of your videos. I've laughed harder than I have with many other people that I've watched when it comes to the comedy side. And normally they're in comedy, but you're in real estate. So you've seen. using social media and comedy to sell million-dollar homes? How did this come about? Well, this was an accident, actually. So we were looking at how we could scale my business, because before I was using a marketing team and it wasn't producing any results. However, I'm still spending money.

We're not spending. It's more of an investment, but I wasn't seeing a return on my investment. So we pivoted from doing these basic videos into just something that I, really love to put out because I think it's funny. It's just me being myself. And I want to mix education with humor because nobody wants to watch a realtor talk about real estate. You need to make it entertaining for people. You need to put in metaphors where people can actually break down the information and kind of associate it with something else. Like when I do my buy presentations and my listing presentations, I always use analogies and metaphors so that people can

connect it with something. So if you do, like, for example, I used to, when I do my buyer presentations and it's a guy or a girl and they're single, I'm like, okay, well, a contingency in real estate is kind of like dating. You want to see if there's reflexes. You don't want to go in non-contingion, have them meet your mom, and then you find out they have five kids and that they're broke and that they have no morals. So a contingency period is where you're kind of vetting out your date, your spouse. Yeah. So, you know, and that it makes it easy for people to understand and they'll actually learn

something from it. So it's not just educational, but it's a way for people to actually be able to process and remember the information that you're giving them. I noticed that your content, your content had changed drastically over the last few months, which has obviously turned into this huge reach that you're getting. and you're connecting with a lot of people. Can you break down what went into the thought process of this is what I'm doing, maybe what's working, what's not?

And then how did I get from A to Z? Well, I just took a huge risk. Actually, a lot of people told me not to post those videos except my marketing team. So I love them, Focus Media. And it just was by a complete accident. So we did a take on like a variety, what is it? It's kind of a trend where everybody was saying, oh, my name isn't this. I don't even know how to do this.

My name is X and I do this. So it's kind of that format, but I just did Lingling because I've been called Lingling before. So I thought that was funny and that blew up. And I thought, okay, well, how do I make leads out of this? How do I create, how do I generate leads from this? And then I just kept doing more Lingling. but with real estate lessons embedded into the videos. And it's crazy because people will actually text me and tell me that Lingling has taught them about real estate.

Because they'll actually sit and watch a video of Lingley explaining it. They won't sit and watch a video of, I don't know, let's say like a boring average realtor talking about real estate, which I did before. It's very interesting. You created a character. and that character is now educating people, making them laugh. And I feel like social media now, if you want to stand out, comedy seems to be something that is massive. It really resonates.

It seems like virality speaking, if you're not like dancing to some dance trend music, you've got to be doing comedy. And that really resonates with people. So what went through your mind in terms of, so you put this out there. Obviously, it sounds like people said, hey, maybe don't do it. maybe you were nervous. How did you get over the fact of, you know, maybe the comments or things that might have come in that could have been negative? I just, I didn't care. Honestly, I really didn't care because people are going to hate on you until it works.

So in my mind, I thought, okay, well, they're going to tell me this, but then when it blows up, now they're going to support me. And that's exactly what happened. Because people want to hate on something that they've never done or will ever try to do. And then, when you do it and then it actually produces results now they're going to tell you that they supported you and they actually doubted you and that's just because they doubt it they doubt themselves so i mean in my mind it was either this is going to work and i'm going to become viral and i'm going to generate hell of tons of leads from this or it's just another video online which is okay with me because i mean people's attention spans are extremely low even if it was a complete disaster

Who cares? Everybody's going to forget about it the next day. That is true. We have no attention span. We do forget in five minutes. And there's so many, the media moves so fast in all forms of media that. Exactly. Yeah, what happened, you know, yesterday or this morning. So how did you take all this viewership, the traction, and then translate that into sales, leads, something related to the business? Well, I started getting tons of DMs about real estate. So I trained my assistant Devine to start filtering everybody out. So now when you text me, you'll get an automated text message with how to buy, how to sell. Actually, I do private equity funding for people as well.

So for startup companies. So I not only help you with the funding, but I also help you find a place where you can have your startup company held, the main office address. And I mean, I could just show you. It's really simple. but it's really easy for you to book an appointment. And then when people start booking appointments with me, I notice that because they already see my videos, they're more authentic, they feel more comfortable

because they don't feel like they have to walk on eggshells. They want to work with me because they like me, but then when we get on the call, I'm very professional and I actually handle all other problems. I have a listing presentation. I have a buyer presentation. Even a couple of family offices reach out to me. So then I was like,

hey, this is what I have. I've done larger-scale transactions. I'm very well-versed in this, and X, Y, and Z, I showed them my Excel. And I'm always open to collaborating. So, I mean, you number one, you have to like the person you're working with. Number two, you have to trust them. So this is already me getting my foot in the door. Okay, you like me? Okay, great. Here are ways you can get in contact of me. There's also a link tree where, actually, I need to change that, but there's a link where you can read an article about me that someone published. And there's also my references, my reviews, pretty much all of my edifications are there.

So, you know, you like me, you see the results, book a call. Now we're here, yeah. Yeah, it reminds me of, so we had Ryan Sourhan on. And, you know, he, he's like the most followed real estate agent in the world on social media. and I foresee this as being, and I thought it was interesting. I'm like, wow, social media. And he's doing like Netflix. Like he's doing a lot of different media that then translates into the business.

And I like the fact that your approach is very unique and different in the fact that you've leveraged it almost from the beginning. So, I mean, sky is the limit. How do you see this in a few years' time into all the things that you're working on? Okay. My goal is to be pretty much retired by 25. So I will, I won't have to work if I want to. I already have two buyer agents that are working with me and I have a Justin coordinator. And it's just because I'm getting so many leads off social media and they're from all over the world, which is crazy to me because I've had somebody in Canada, as somebody in the Netherlands, I had somebody in Puerto Rico ask me for real estate advice instead of asking their local expert.

And I was like, okay, well, I need to go find a real estate agent out there. But the good thing is with Intero, it's so easy for me to find a referral partner. So I just put it in. I'm able to help them like Illinois. I had somebody want to buy and sell, sell their house in Illinois and relocate it over here. I had somebody in Texas. A lot of people in Texas want to sell their house and move over here. And they found me all social media.

And I think within a couple of years, I'm going to just keep building a team and automate everything so that there's systems in place, which I'm already. building and ideally I would like to start focusing on the higher scale things which is what I'm transitioning to and maybe pivot towards commercial or like the higher end homes like in Menlo Park in Palo Alto in the peninsula area but my passion has just been making people money so that's why I really like the larger scale transactions like hotels shopping plazas and like 300 plus multi units because when you're helping people people make money, they're really happy. They'll always do business with you. It's always good when you can help people make money. So you might become the next most

followed on social media real estate agent. You might beat Ryan soon. So when it comes to looking at the platforms that you're putting your attention to or focusing on, it used to be like Gary V told us when he was on that, you know, you got to go everywhere and you got to do this. I don't know if that's the same anymore because that was a few years ago. But what we're finding a lot of the people that we've talked to, they're hyper focusing now on like one platform. How do you see that when it comes to where are you putting the content? Mostly on Instagram, but I also put the same content on Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube as well, but I feel like there's different strategies. Like Facebook and Instagram, they're owned

by the same company, but they're different. The algorithm is completely different because on Instagram, you have trial reels. LinkedIn, you want to be a little bit. bit more professional. So my videos don't hit as well on LinkedIn. YouTube, my video, YouTube shorts, my videos perform fairly well. But for the long form style content, that's a completely different ballgame and ballpark than Instagram Reels. Because, yeah, it's just a different algorithm for each of them. So I think being hyper-focused on one social media platform and then spreading your content words is the best way to do it yeah that makes sense do you find you get the most leads and conversations that might lead into business from instagram and lincoln so people

will see my sales on lincoln and then dm me are you doing the same content like are you doing the comedy style content on lincoln i am but it's crazy to me but i'm also having my assistant target people so i have her add a lot of probate attorneys i have her add a lot of family the offices. I have her add trust attorneys as well. So she'll just, that's one of her tasks. I really should just add more people. And then it's, you know, it's a hit or miss either like me or don't like me, which is, you know, I can't please everybody. But the people that think my content is funny, they always reach out. And these are people that I'm targeting. And they want to work with me. It's amazing because a lot of people talk about, you know, algorithm changed or it's

harder to reach more people like it was before. A lot of people always complain about. or talk about, I mean, I feel it myself that, you know, reach isn't always as easy as it was back then, but it sounds like if you really create this character or you create this persona, you create this style that resonates with a lot of people, no matter what the algorithm does, they will still remain. Are you finding that as you're going that people that you were talking to before, are they continuing to reach out? Like, are you building more long-term relationship? Yes, definitely. The people that have known me when I've done real estate when I was 18 see my videos. A lot of them support it. They think it's funny. And it's also a way for me to pretty much follow up, if you will, without me texting them because they'll just see me on their Instagram every week posting this content. And then they'll text me like, oh, Fonte, I thought that video was so funny. And then it leads into a conversation like, oh, how are you? It's like, oh, I'm great. You know, then, you know, then you know, they're I'll do real estate, I helped them before.

So then it's like, oh, yeah, actually some blah, blah, blah is looking to buy a house. It makes me think that I have to create, maybe I should start interviewing people and a character. I think I might do that. I'm going to come over a persona because it's hard to separate yourself among the pack of so many people talking about the same thing. But I really like this idea of creating a persona, character, and mixing in comedy with education. I think it's both. I would imagine if you looked at stats, like the people that watch your videos watch probably much longer than if somebody is just doing education, right?

That doesn't make you do. Absolutely correct because I started off the first three months of me using that marketing team and working with them. I had only a thousand views and they were very professional. And it was just me talking about real estate. And yeah, I mean, even, I mean, right now they're a little bit more. I mean, but here, I'll just show you. These are my more professional videos.

I only have 5,000 views. That was just from December. Big change. So lastly, what if, you know, I'm thinking about doing something. Another business owner is thinking about doing something. We're all like, yeah, our Instagram kind of stinks. You know, I want to, I want to ramp it up. I want to change.

What advice do you have for me? me that I should be thinking about right now in order for me to up level. I would just say be yourself, be authentic and just stop caring so much about what other people think because I promise you they don't care. And even if it doesn't perform the way you wanted to perform, just keep trying because I mean, I didn't get results from for like three months. And then my video just blew up and that video was actually just me being myself. That was the video that wasn't scripted it was just me being myself and making a stupid joke but people connected that connected more with that than you having a formal script and actually educating them

in a formal way because when people do business they're going to do business with you so you should just be yourself i really like that so the being authentic being yourself not over thinking I think we overthink on the net. We want the scripts. We want to look like AI now. So we need to be human. Perfect. We need to be ourselves and don't seek perfection.

This has been great. People want to get in touch with you. Let's say they want to buy real estate. They want to follow your social. How can they do so? Well, my Instagram is Fonin, F-O-N-T-I-N-E, the realtor. And you can also get in touch with me through my email. And that's going to be Fonteen DeL-L-L-O-O-O-N-T-I-N-E, D-A-L-O-U-S.

at intero.com. Fantine DeLuse, this has been great. Every day I see your videos, I have to laugh. And the fact that you're doing it plus working in a business and combining the two, I think is extremely unique. It's one of the few. That's why when I thought, I'm like, I really want to talk to you about this because I feel like this is a massive miss for a lot of business owners out there, a lot of

entrepreneurs, they can really learn from this and it can really up-level. Basically, it's like a very low-cost. a way to market because you're not running like millions of dollars of ads you're making these videos which is like you know anyone can do it with i imagine like you know you got some costume stuff whatever they want to do but it's a low cost way that almost anyone can do and once they hit and go viral it could change their life but uh fine team this has been amazing and thank you for joining us on founder's story of course thank you for having me