KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Becoming the Social Media Queen with Gogo Bethke

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

Welcome to episode 17. Today we have real estate social media queen, Gogo Bakkeon. Gogo has been in business since 2011 and made top 3% in the nation in the last two years in a row. She has conducted over 200 transactions, equaling in about $40 million, and she has recently begun expanding her team to meet the needs of her clients more efficiently. Team Gogo at EXP Realty now has over 40 agents in over 30 states. There are so many people, myself included, who either know Go-Go or at least know of her. However, might not know her story. In today's episode, Go-Go shares her journey that led her to the U.S. where she has earned her title as the Social Media Queen and top real estate agent.

This is Unleash Your Inner Legend, a podcast featuring modern-day legends, sharing their life choices, habits, and routines that got them through where they are today. Get ready to be inspired and to take massive action to Unleash Your Inner Legend. legend. Okay, you guys, today I am so excited to have a fellow boss of babe on the show. We've got Social Media Queen herself. Welcome, Go-Go. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I'm so excited to have you on. You are one of like the fastest growing agents in EXP. You're crushing it on social media and obviously crushing it in real estate. So I'm sooth about this. Thank you. Thank you. I found my cup of tea. Well, you sit it very well.

I like it. And I feel like a lot of us, including myself, like we know you, but we don't know, like, your story, your journey. And I know that becoming who you are was definitely a process, not an event. So I'm super excited to kind of dive into your story. Oh, thank you. So you want me start from the start? Absolutely. Let's start it. Well, you can hear from my accent. I am not, English is not my first language. I was born in Transylvania, Romania.

And as much as I love my family and they love me, I always felt that I don't belong there in a weird way. I don't know how to explain this, but I always had big dreams. And coming from a small little town and, you know, America was really not in the event of my life. of how this is going to go down. You know, it was supposed to go down and go to high school and same town and go to college maybe, because most of my friends didn't really go to college and get a job of any kind that, you know, gives you enough money that you can pay the bills

and be a stay-at-home or be a mom. You're a stay-at-home mom, it's really not an option back at home. It is in the first two years. The government pays you believe it or not gives you two years worth of salary. But after that, everybody, my mom always worked. So that was never an option for me. And, you know, be a wife and live a little.

life and raise the kids and, you know, call it life. And that would have never cut it for me. I don't know why I was always the oddball out. Not a bad kid by any means, but just not like the rest of them. And so I remember it was communism until 2009. And I was eight years old. And I remember watching TV the first time they opened the Western world. And you're going to laugh when I tell you who's the reason why I'm in the U.S. So I remember watching 48. hours by Eddie Murphy. It's the first movie I've ever seen that I saw not white people in it. I didn't even know anything but why it existed until then because when you live in communism, it's censored. So that means the news is censored, the television is censored, your meal is censored,

magazines are like there's no access to the Western world. So it's literally your little village and that's all you know. And so I remember seeing him the first time and I thought he was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Like I remember being eight and being like, I don't know who he is. I don't know where he is, but I'm going where he is. So that's my first recollection of I'm going to America. Then when I was about 18, I started playing with the idea again, and pretty much the only way to come to the U.S. at the time was to become an au pair. I live in Nanny. So I applied and I got the job and I got a family here in Michigan, and they were actually the one that asked me if they can call me Go-Go, because my email was

G-Y-O-G-Yo, my nickname from home. And they can see you in Rio, they can see you, so they asked me if they can call me GoGo. So I was like, sure. So that's how GoGo started. And then, so I came to the US in 2003. I didn't know a single human being besides my host parents, which I also didn't know, besides the email being for a couple of times. And that was it. I figured everybody at home was like, are you crazy? Like, how can you leave everybody behind? What if it doesn't work out? Oh, and I borrowed $200 because it wasn't even my money because I didn't have money to get on a plane. and I always just knew that if it doesn't work out, I always know where home is. I can always go back, but I may never get this chance again.

So I came and about two months later, I met my husband. And two months after that we were married, so I was 21. And it's been 16 years now, happily married. Nowadays, it's almost like you're a dinosaurs being married for so long. And yeah, we have two beautiful boys. I got my license in 2011. So I did the corporate America job. I did the stay-at-home thing.

Everything was fine. You know, I can make the best of any situation. I just knew corporate America. I have too many opinions and too big of amount to ever last in that type of scenario. And then I was like, don't ask me my opinion because I'm really going to tell you. I remember when I was applying for the job and I went through, he was to work for a company called NSF. and I went to like 11 interviews and it was a base level job and my husband was like, are you going for VP or what's going on? Why is it interview after interview?

So this was like a warehouse job and the guy goes, okay, so if we're reorganizing the warehouse and which one are you? Are you the one that barking the orders or are you the one like going and actually organizing it? And I was like, I know what you want to hear, but that's not what I'm going to tell you. As I know I'm applying for the warehouse jobs, so I know you want to here, then I'm going to just take the orders and put the boxes on the shop. But I'm going to tell you, I'm going to meet the one in the middle of the warehouse, telling everybody how to do this efficiently. And he was like, and I got the job. I thought I'm not going to get the job. But the moral of the story is, I tried it all. I can't say tried it all. But I really, I've worked in a jewelry store.

I've been a babysitter. I've waitress at night. I got a real estate license. I've worked for in America. I've been a safe home man. So I kind of, it's kind of a process of an elimination, I guess, of what I don't want to do when I grow up. And so I got my license. And so I got my license. It was actually not my idea. It was my neighbor's idea. She was, or she is, a director of marketing for capital title or local title company. And she was like, you're so social and you have so many friends.

And at the time I was a state home mom and I was watching HD TV. So I figured like, I got this. I can do this. I can do what the people do on TV. And so I got my license. I passed right away. I worked with a real estate company called Real Estate One. They're one of the largest brokerages in the state of Michigan,

but they're family owned and they're only in the state of Michigan. So I stayed with them for about six and a half years and as my Instagram was growing, I figured there was a time for a change because I recommended or referred a lot of agents to other brokerages because real estate one was only in the state of Michigan, which ended up taking a lot of my time and there was no monetary way of me to make anything out of it. And I don't want to say I only do things for money, but in the end of the day, if something thinks a lot of your time, there has to be a way to get paid for it. So I switched over to KW February of last year, and I stayed with them for eight ones.

They opened up my eyes to profit share, and I can thank them for that. They are actually the reason why I switched over, I guess, to EXP. And, you know, after you learn about things, the more time you spend in the industry, the more you learn, the more you realize what else is out there. And so I switched to EXP October 1st of last year. And I've been with you guys or us ever since. I knew you had a great story. This is what I'm like so excited about because like, wow, what an incredible journey you've had. Your mindset is definitely nothing that's just coming normal to a lot of people. How did you break that mold?

Like what was it that you thought like, okay, this is it. Like this is not what I want to be. I want to do something bigger. So I mean, I can say nothing is an overnight process. So I don't know where it necessarily started, but I would say probably about five years ago or so. You go through at least, I don't know if everybody does or something. not but I feel like everybody does you know I mean at one point you kind of question why am I here what is my purpose what purpose do I serve you know I mean like I want to feel like I am worth something I want to feel like when I die in the end of my life I've done what I was supposed to and I was I meant to hear on earth but then I was like okay so what's that you know I mean like okay I'm ready to do what I meant to do but what is that because I've never been the type of person

that would wake up and be like I'm three years old and I'm going to be a ballerina when I grow up where I'm going to be a vet or a pilot or a doctor or a teacher. Like I never knew when I'm going to be when I grow up. I still don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up. You know what I mean? But I wanted to, in the process, I wanted to be able to enjoy myself and also listen to the voices and the guidance of, okay, whatever it's taking me, I wanted to be ready for it because I never knew what I want to be.

So I started all of these soul searching and you might laugh on that, but I came across Oprah that had not her weekly shows, but she had these two things. One of them is called Super Soul Sunday, and the other one is called Mastermind, no, Master Class. It's called Masterclass. So it's two different shows. There are kind of an hour each. And she's talking to everybody who's somebody in this world, somebody that made a name for themselves or wrote a book or got a Nobel Prize or, you know, I mean, just anything that. And she talks about like really deep questions, like, who's God? you know what's what's your soul you know what's the difference between fate and religion like all kinds of like deep questions and I was like oh okay and then when you watch these people go through life and what they

learn from it I have a book actually then I write quotes talk to me for whatever reason so that that's my love language for life and so I would write quotes all the time so I would just sit and watch those shows and then listen to their stories and kind of apply it to mine and how did and so through all those videos, then I got to Tony Robbins, and I read quite a few books, and I listened to every podcast that you can think of that is like motivating and life-changing and kind of answering these big questions about life. And I realized that your mind has power through all of these things. And then I realize that the universe or God or the mother nature, the higher power, whatever you call it, the inner being, whatever you call it, that you feel like there's somebody that, I don't feel like we are puppets

that are telling us what to do, but I do feel like that they are show us away and we have a choice of choosing between right and wrong or choosing with path we're going to go down on. And I feel like you need to listen to those little voices. And so eventually I realized, I remember the very first time I said it out loud and I want to make $150,000. Oh, no, $150,000. So not only that you have to be able to say it out loud because the universe has to hear you, but you also have to put a date and time for it. So I said, okay, I want to make $150,000 by December 3,000.

31st of 2016, I think it was, 15 or 16. Guess how much money I made? How much did you make? 300. 152. That's awesome.

Yes, you exceeded it. You only met it, but you exceeded that goal. Well, that yay big, but it was right at that number. And I was like, 156, I think it was. But either way, I was like, oh, my gosh, your mind has power. You know, you do bring what you think. But you do have to be able to claim it. You have to say, I want to be speaking on that stage one day.

And I want that to happen before 2020. And I want it to be this big. You know, like whatever you claim it, you have to clean it. So as soon as I realize that your mind has power, really the sky is the limit. Now you just have to have the balls to ask for it. Yes. So how do you overcome that? I think a lot of people, you know, like we hear it a lot.

Okay, yeah, go out and, you know, do it. But it's like a lot of us get held back by fear. How do you overcome that fear and that imaginary restraint you have? Like a lot of people have. Because for me, the fear of not having it, it's much bigger than a fear of what if it's a no. Because if I hear a no, at least I know I tried and it wasn't meant for me. But if I don't even have the nurse to ask for it,

then it's going to bother me for the rest of my life. What if I did? Yeah. What have it happened? So I also believe that something it's not, there's a Japanese thing, be careful what you wish for it because it might become true. And I also feel like God protects you from sometimes from things that you think you need or want and it doesn't necessarily, you should not have it because it's going to take you down the wrong path.

So sometimes looking back, even I claimed something and I didn't get it, sometimes I thank the Lord for not giving it to me because maybe at the time, when I asked for it, I wasn't educated enough of what that's really going to look like or what that really means. And sometimes you just have to go back and think the Lord for not giving it to you. Absolutely. And I feel like you discover yourself in that process too because you start thinking, Well, it may have been it. Like, this isn't, like, I feel out of whack.

I feel like this isn't aligned with my why. So then you redirect. I was like, okay, great. I'm glad I, it declined to me. And I didn't waste, you know, 10, 20 years on this. Yeah. You're actually going the wrong direction. Yeah.

Absolutely. So, you know, like, I got to ask you this question because I feel like it's something you've been hit with. And not only are you a person, you know, foreign or not from America, however you want to put it, but you're also a woman, obviously, and you're stinking cute. Like, how did you get past all those struggles that come with everything? And, you know, a lot of people would see, you're like, oh, she's a cute little blonde. But like, in reality, you have as much brains as people can tell already from listening to this. You have as much brains as you do look. So how do you

become over that cliche and just kind of prove it? Well, I actually woke up to your message this morning. So let me tell you that. Maybe that's what helps. So, I don't know if you saw my video. So last week we were in Vegas. And from Vegas, I came. So I actually, on Tuesday, I had to pack for two trips. My husband took my weekend close up with him and the kids on Thursday. I flew out to Vegas.

And he went up Thursday. Friday, I flew back, landed in Michigan at 7.30 at 9. I literally had to drive my church three hours north after a whole day flying. So I can be with the rest of my family for a day and a half. So that's the life of, you know, life of a realtor, life of a mentor coach, whatever you want to call it. In order to make it all happen, you kind of have to be planned. So I end up going up north. I end up having a client of mine who wanted to see a house,

going out with the, I had to call the listening agent, they showed the house, whatnot. So I am pool or lakeside in my bathing suit and they call me, we want to make an offer. So I went up and sit down outside, you know, sit down in my bathing suit, try to make the offer, whatever. My son comes upstairs. And I'm like, oh, perfect.

I'm like, can you take a quick photo for me so I can post about this? I show the good bed and the ugly of the real estate side of like, yes, I'm on vacation with my children. I just flew halfway across the globe. So I can be with my family. and my friends for a day and a half, and yes, I'm in my bathing suit and yes, I'm making an offer. So that's pretty much what I wanted to portray. While I wake up to feel message from this lady who's looking out for my best interest or however she worded it,

because the local professionals are talking about me and they're rolling their eyes every time they see a picture of me, my bathing suit. And what was, what did I, how did she word it? What did I want my message to be with that photo? Oh, oh, did I have fun responding to her? I told her, I said, first of all, I'm European. I wasn't raised and I have to hide my body. I was raised that God created me to his liking, so I look just like God.

God does not make mistakes. So, B, in my opinion, you can have brain and boobs at the same time in the same photo. Okay, my boobs do not take away from my brain capacity. I'm not dumber by the, if my boobs are bigger, my brain doesn't shrink from it. Okay. C, this is the truth. I'm in my bathing suit on vacation and I am making an offer and I am not lying about any of it. D, you don't have to follow me.

You don't want to look at my boobs. Don't look at my boobs. You know what I mean? And then I mean, I could continue on. But the truth is in the end of the day, I don't care about anybody's opinion of me. Their opinion, I can. can deposit in the bank. As soon as I can deposit their opinion in the bank, maybe I will start caring about it. But I think I was blessed from the moment I was little. I was kind of a mischievous

little child. I was always first in class. I was a good student. I would get into trouble. It's not really big troubles. I never done anything stupid, but I would back talk. I raise my hand and tell my opinion if they were doing something wrong. I got thrown out of kindergarten for telling the teacher not to sit on the desk while she was reading the book because my parents always said I can't sit on the desk watching TV. So I was like, excuse me, can you get up the desk? You know, I mean, so I always had that, I always had this like fire in me that like nobody's going to tell me what to do. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I truly, to be honest with you, every time I see women like that, that they feel like they have to be buttoned up to here in order to show their

worth or like, I feel bad for them. My body is not my brain. That you has nothing to do with each other. You know, I mean, I could be the best looking woman and my boobs could be hanging out there. If I'm a bimbo, nobody's going to buy a house for me. Absolutely. You know what I mean? So the two, it doesn't matter how you want to care yourself for, in my opinion, if you want to show your two colors and your opinion and your personality and your hustle and your hard work and your, you know, your worth and value, do that. Yeah. You can do that with your boobs hanging out. And then, you know, it's so funny because of how people like that lady, like how much people give negative unsolicited advice.

Like, you really are going to sit there and read that and think, oh my gosh, thank you so much for letting me know. I never would have thought that. Like, who freaking cares, right? But they're so damn miserable with their own selves and their own lives. So they're taking what they wish they have or who they could be and projecting it on you and seeing that. And I went into a profile and I saw there's not one photo of her,

not good or bad, no photo of her period. Yeah. Like, I don't know how to say this, but. please don't take it in any bad way but I love myself I love what God created me to be I enjoy every moment on earth than I get I pray to Lord that my life is long so I can see my children grow up and I can fulfill all my goals on earth but if my time comes I feel like I had a good run I don't know if you saw my post last night if you just see that meme if it's dark and late and you hear a noise in the house and you're too lazy to get up to see you just say ah I had a good run

I was like, oh my gosh, sometimes I feel like that. But I do feel like I am living my best life. I am happy and content of where I'm at. Of course, I have much bigger dreams to achieve. But whenever my life, my last breath comes, I'm good. So as long as I feel a fulfilled life, I'm good. So to all of those people that, you know, when I want to point out whatever they believe I'm doing wrong,

it's just to their standards and to their opinion, to my standards and my opinion. doing just fine. I think the biggest like lesson I have learned like if I can say one thing to like my kids or to anyone it's like understanding that there's a difference between fact and opinion. And I think a lot of people misconstrue that and I think that their opinion is fact and that's how it should be. We'll know that your opinion and once I started like understanding that mindset shift like I'm like that's your opinion that's cool you can have it but I have my own and it's not that. and you just don't want with it.

And I actually feel like there's all kinds of people out there and you'll find your tribe, but you can only find your tribe if you let them know who you were. And then they could gravitate to each other. So clearly this lady and myself, we're never going to be best friends. We're probably not going to go beside drinking mimosas, you know, ever.

And that's okay. You know, there's place in this world for everyone. I'm just saying I didn't message her to be like, why don't you have pictures of yourself on Facebook? Yeah. Yeah. Because based on my opinion, You know what I mean?

It's like, but that's okay. I mean, I'm happy she messaged me. I don't think she was expecting an answerer. Absolutely not. Your eyes, though, to think, oh, okay, well, maybe I need to be focused on myself and stop being negatively focused on other people. Yeah, I really, I just never felt like I need to hide my body. Also, when I moved to the U.S., like, I was, like, my parents would go on vacation.

My mom, my sister, my aunts, they didn't wear a tab. They wear a bottom. Yeah. And even the bottom is a thong. You know, I mean? So that's how I was raised. So for me, the whole body image, I lived in a dormitory for eight years of my life. I watched naked girls walk around all the time.

Like my parents come here. I remember the first time they spent six weeks here. And my husband was texting there. He goes, your dad is in the kitchen making coffee in his underwear. And I respond and I said, you're lucky. He's not naked. He put the underwear on for you. But that's what, but that's a cultural difference is, too.

too. I mean, I wasn't raised and I have to hide my body. And to be honest, it breaks my heart that that's how the U.S. is. That you have to hide your body because then your brain won't shine. I just don't get it. Yeah. And I think there's also, too, that whole sticking mess if you think about it, too, a lot of people do that because we got to hide your body because some people are bad and evil and do evil things because of that. I'm like, well, that's on them. We should be doing something. You know what I mean? Like, I know that's a whole other topic, but I know like a lot of people tend to date that because of the evil in the world, which your body's not evil. It's the people who do the bad things. And same with money. People like money is evil. No money is not evil. It's the people and what they

do with the money that's evil. Money is not evil. You can use it for good things, all kinds of good things. Absolutely. So, you know, just talking with you, I can definitely, since you have no regrets of any decisions you've made, but let's just say lessons learn looking back. If you were to go back and do something over again. What's one thing that you would think that like, okay, I'll go and do this? I never joined a team because I felt like I am not willing to make somebody else's a name. I just can't. I'd rather work three different jobs to make it in this industry. So if I could go back, I would join a team for like six months to a year just to soak up as much information as I can, just so I can reach my goals faster. I feel like you can make it on your own. I made it. You know, I mean,

but how much faster could I buy? Absolutely. Clas. Yeah. If I, if I, if I, if I, just, just soaked up information from other people who already walked the wrong versus trying to figure it out myself. Absolutely. So quick tip before I let you go, I appreciate all your time. What tips would you give to other people who are looking to up their social media game and grab that appearance that you have beautifully and tastefully done? I think you have to.

I think the biggest lesson, the biggest takeaway of any social media training is that it has to be about you. If you didn't realize that you are your brand, whoever umbrella you work under being KW, EXV, Remax, Century 21, name it, you know, a small boutique brokerage, it really doesn't matter. You bring in the leads. I mean, usually when I ask agents,

say, okay, tell me the last time you got a lead from your broker. And they're like, oh, yeah, so I actually can't remember. I'm like, exactly, because you generate the leads. You are your business. You make them the name. You bring in the money under the door. So in the end of the day, if that's the key scenario, then you should be able to market yourself. And when you market yourself, then people, and especially if you show your true colors,

that's why my leads are serve of influence, past clients, referrals, or social media. I don't buy leads and never have. But in order to do that, you have to find, as I said on stage, I don't know if you were there in Vegas. You have to find your monkeys. You have to find your tribe. And the only way you can attract them or the only way they can find you is if you show your true colors. because people are attracted to people alike. And then if they're like, oh, she's my peeps,

then they're going to work with you. But if they don't know you, and all they know is the last listing you did or the new open house that you do or some stats about real estate, they don't know you. So they can go then with any realtor. They don't feel to click.

So my biggest note is make it about you. It's be you. I love that. Now, you're always on the go doing like trainings, whether it's in person or like virtual. What's the best? way that people can keep up to date on all the things you're doing and attend the courses and training that you provide? Probably Instagram. Instagram is the one platform that I use the most.

Mine does feed. So my Instagram, I do business on a business page. My personal is really private. The reason I do it that way is because my parents didn't sign up for the American country. You know, my parents don't speak English. So they don't need to see everything that I do in real estate. No, I'm going to force it down on my friends throw, then I'm a realtor. So my personal Facebook is personal. It's just my kids, vacations, whatever we do. be you know how that goes and then so my business pages are linked together so my facebook and instagram pages are linked together and that's where i do all the business anything real estate or go go go get go with book can whatever related is on there um so instagram is probably the

one i spend most of the time on but they are linked together so they can message me there they can message me on facebook but on instagram they probably get a quicker response awesome and what's your handle on instagram gogo's real estate perfect so i'll make sure to connect that to you on show notes Yeah, and then if they want any training, the training I created to pretty much not have to repeat myself. It's called GoGo's Boot Camp and the workshop. It's over 20 hours of videos. It's pretty much the basics. Anywhere from the basics to, you know, high level, how to build a team, how to make six digits, you know, passive income and anything in between.

It's Google's Bootcamp.com. Well, thank you so much for keeping it real and being so inspirational. I appreciate your time today. Thank you. I appreciate you. I mean, I'm thankful that you asked me to be here. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Unleash Your Inner Legend. For more inspiration, make sure to subscribe by going to Unleash Your Inner Legend.com.

We'll see you guys next week.