KGCI: Real Estate on Air - From Side Hustle to Real Estate Empire with Systems and Social Media

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Summary:Learn how Yuliya and Philip Mariani transitioned from owning a smoothie shop to building a powerhouse real estate team. This episode details their journey, focusing on the critical role of operational systems for scaling and leveraging authentic social media for branding. Agents will hear practical advice on choosing a brokerage model that supports long-term wealth, the importance of defining roles within a partnership, and how to build a business that provides true freedom.

You're listening to Expansion, the podcast for EXP agents. Expand your skill. Expand your value. Here's your host, Glenn Sanford. Hello, everyone, Glenn Sanford here, founder of EXP Realty. And today I'm excited to talk to Phil and Yulia Mariani. They're out at Winter Garden, Florida. They run a small team there.

but hey welcome uh phil and uh julia thank you glen thanks for having this thank you so much glen we're so excited being here oh no thank you thank you thank you and you know just you know coming into the conversation it sounds like you in with your team you've kind of got two different segments to your business but maybe before we jump in maybe tell us a little bit about your guys' background, you know, how did you get started in real estate? You know, just sort of that whole journey. Sure. If you want to go first. So for me, there, Glenn, my background prior to real estate was 25 years in the health and fitness industry and sort of off as a personal trainer. I actually competed in some bodybuilding competitions back in 2009 and 10, got into weight management.

I did corporate fitness, all spectrums of the health and wellness industry. And from there, we actually got into our first franchise. We got a manually purchased, a smoothie shop. And then, again, sticking with the health and wellness, but we were always very entrepreneurial. And then from there, as we, you know, seven years later said, you know what, this is a lot of stress. And we decided to sell that. And that we came to a crossroads where we were like, well, what do we want to do next? and one of the things that we always agreed upon it, we always loved was real estate.

I know, you know, at an early on, my father always told me, buy your own house, own a house, not rent. You know, I have one of those old school fathers, you know, Italian dads, you know. And so I said, you know, so I finally came to decision. Well, you know, I always thought about, you know, we love real estate. We actually had a couple of investment properties prior to getting involved in the industry. And I said, you know, just made sense. So I just made a decision. I said, you know what, I'm going to get my real estate license.

I always thought about it. I never pursued it. I love work with clients, work with people. I've been doing that for years. And so I just made my decision, beginning of 2015, to get my real estate license. And I got license in April, 2015, and started running from there. Awesome. And so owning a franchise, a smoothie shop, just from a, just for, for, for,

like what is what did starting a franchise cost you in terms of like the original investment and and what were what were you on the hook for in that business now I'm gonna let you answer that because she ran the store full time so she'd be a perfect answer that one so that so the acquisition purchase was a little under $200,000 and at that time we had two properties to investment properties. We took out an SBA loan and SBA put, they put like an umbrella on both of our properties in order to give us a loan to purchase the store. So to make sure that we pay back the SBA loan. So we had that. But I believe our down payment was a little bit more than 20%

interest rate was 11. It was like 10.9. Yeah, on the business. But other than money, it literally, it honestly consumed our entire life. It was Monday through Sunday, you know, 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. So our daughter was born that year as well. It was very, very, very difficult. And then my husband had another idea to purchase a second store, which I thought he was out of his mind. But we still did it because we're entrepreneurs and we love taking chances. So we went and we purchased a second store in 2005, sold that right away in 2006 because it was too much, way too fast. But have we known then what we know today? I would have never purchased a business that were you, you know,

for a franchise. Or franchise fees were like 8%. So, yeah, and just that all overhead and employees and whatnot. It was just, I was, it was totally like a slave job. And at that time, Glenn, that's when food and gas prices was on the rise. So it just really squeezed the bottom line for us as owners. to a point where, you know, the saying you're the first in, you know, the last out and the last it get paid. And that's kind of what it kind of came to, you know. Okay. So real estate is a

much better career path is what you're what you're alluding to. Yes. And it's been a complete blessing in our lives. Absolutely. And we actually, we started investing into real estate in our early, early 20s. We actually did buy our first property before we even got married. And so that was our first property. And that was our first property. then we bought a second property and then third. And then 2015, we got our residential real estate license. So we're just truly loving, just loving real estate in every aspect of it. And what we went through with those properties back in 2008 gave us a really good learning lesson.

Learning lesson, yeah, where we can share with our like buyers right now. Okay, well, you know, don't do this, but do. that so we can share those experiences from our personal life experiences and guide our first-time homebuyers the right way, right? Excellent. So now what was it that led you to EXP? I think you were with maybe a previous firm as agents? Yeah, so we started in 2015 and we know, We were, ESP is actually a third brokerage. And the first two brokers that we were with were just, you know, small boutique brokerages and which was great at the time because, again, we were just new to the industry.

And then obviously I think with everyone, as you progress and grow in your career, you always want, you know, us as not only agents, but entrepreneurs, you know, we always had that hunger for growth to want, you know, to do better, to want to learn more and have better opportunity. And, you know, I guess we felt like we outgrew those, you know, prior brokerages and coming to EXP just gave us that platform to just soar like an ego to grow. It's just, you know, just tremendous platform with, you know, tools and technology and just growth has been amazing for us, I would say. With EXP, there's different avenues where you can make money.

It's not just selling real estate, right? There's different avenues where we can make funds, money, you know, like. RevShare, for example, that's been amazing. That's been really, really good. Yeah, just having a platform, you know, to have multiple streams of income was what really attracted us to the model. And, you know, and not only that, it's just EXP being ahead of the curve, you know,

just being one of the first to be a cloud-based brokerage, especially during the time when COVID first hit, I felt like, wow, EXP was so ahead of the curve than any other brokerage out there. So, you know, it was like we got some, you know, There's something special here. And so just a little bit of everything is what attracted us, but just having the ability to have multiple streams of income and to grow and have the tools and technology along with it,

with the compensation plan and just leadership like you guys. It's been amazing. Awesome. Well, thank you for that. And you joined EXP right after, I guess right after COVID, maybe 2021. How did COVID impact your decision? decision. Yeah, I think we actually were, what was it? I think our day was, I think it was like August 2021. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think it was an easy transition, you know, like I said, you know, we

didn't have to, you know, worry about going to an office and, and we just adapted like everybody had to do, you know, where people were getting scared or not, you know, I guess like the where people were not wanting to leave their house, we saw it as opportunity. You know, like I said, and everything in life, there's always opportunity, right? So we saw it mean as opportunity.

We just adapted quickly to what we need to do, take the precaution we needed to do. And we went out there and continued to serve clients and help people get into homes. And so, you know, it was a nice transition and just having, again, just the Cloud-Bee's brokerage and having everything,

online EXP world was just a simple transition, I think. Excellent. Now, what does your, what's your business look like? I think we chatted before they've got maybe two sides of the business and kind of maybe runs differently, but maybe just share how are you, how do you run your, like what's your business look like? How are you generating clients? How are you sort of dividing up the labor there?

Yeah. So I handle all the listings, the listing leads to work with all the sellers and then Yulia and then also our daughter is an agent as well with us. And they work with all the buyers and buyer leads. And we kind of just, I guess to kind of divide and conquer and kind of, again, we definitely focus on our strengths. And, you know, what, you know, which is great is having a family run team. You know, there may be, you know, something that you is, you know, stronger than I or maybe she's more relatable with clients than me. and we kind of really, I think, helped to diversify that way

and kind of just divide and conquer. And it's been, you know, we started out going on two years now. I think two years now we've been working that way. And so it's been working really good. We actually love it. Yeah, so our business right now, we have approximately 60% of buyers,

32% of sellers, so to give you an idea. But buyers, I love, you know, I start working with buyers back, nine years ago and I'm still on the road just truly helping. I think it's more a passion than a work or a job. It's my

personal passions to help families get into homes to have that American dream, right? Because I came to this country in 1990 as Jewish refugees. So American dream to obtain American dream, it's huge for me. So I have a lot

of immigrant buyers who come here And just to just for them to visualize that they can be a homeowner, it's incredible. And then over the keys, like now they own their own home in America. That's priceless. And there's also people that just take, not immigrants, but like some people that might take this opportunity for granted. But just to own a home. home, you know, for a majority of immigrants, it is truly, truly priceless. It's a dream come true. So that's what that's my passion. Like I'm a buyer's agent, 100%. I told my husband, you can have

all the sellers. Well, ironically, I was, I was a huge buyer's agent. In fact, I turned over all the listing stuff. I felt like I could always keep making buyer happy. Um, were sellers. I didn't, I didn't feel like that was as easy a task because it's so um so now we'll fill out like um you know whenever i get the the listing or the seller so i always think to in my head okay it's time to bring out my pit bull so uh so you lia um obviously there's some changes going on in the industry uh specifically around buyer broker. Have you started to use the buyer broker? I know July 31st is coming up, but have you started to practice and start to have those conversations that we'll need to have yet?

Definitely practice. I haven't, I'm just role playing within between my team, my coach. So we're doing a lot of role playing, a lot of preparation because I want to make sure that I'm, that I'm, that I'm, that I'm, that I'm, that I'm comfortable, you know, with the way I articulate my services and to make sure that my buyers are taking care of at whatever cost. I'm, I'll be very honest with you. I'm still very much concerned about the VA buyers. I hope and I pray that VA will bring something out, you know, like FHB. I think didn't VA, didn't they come up with something like last week or the week before?

I know FHA. FHA, you know, Freddie Mac did, yeah. I haven't heard anything on VA buyers. Okay. I suspect that it will be, you know, the reality is that everybody needs representation and it needs to be able to be sort of taken care of someplace in the transaction because a lot of buyers won't be able to come out of pocket. So I suspect that every mortgage type will support it.

The only difference is that we'll just have to negotiate up front for those commissions as opposed to just accepting whatever is being published in the MLS. Exactly. I mean, there's definitely a lot of preparation on my side. I'm doing a lot of reading. I'm educating myself to make sure that I do feel comfortable articulating the message. This is what's happening. This is where we at.

And with every change, there's an opportunity. It just makes us better and stronger agents. And one thing I can also add to Glenn is, you know, we love the fact that EXP is being very proactive with the agents on helping us prepare for that. So I would definitely add that. Yeah, excellent. So now what is your, like how are you generating? I guess you've got listing leads.

You've got, you know, 68% of your businesses on the buyer side. How are you generating those leads, whether, it be on one or both sides or a combination of the two. I mean, I think we're seeing probably about 50% of our business, I would say, is between referral and repeat customers and probably another 50% or social media. So social media, online leads. Google PPC, I tried for two weeks. And I don't know, I think where our business definitely is,

much better with referrals. We're getting a lot of referral business, being nine years in real estate. And we've been in Central Florida since 1996. So we have a huge sphere. A lot of people know us. So that helps as well. And we're very active on social media.

So people see us, you know, day in and day out, you know, showing homes, closing homes, serving customers, serving clients, you know, educating them on different things going on in the market. Yeah, I think. Which social. media platforms to work the best for your business?

I would probably say Facebook and Instagram. So Instagram number one, Facebook number two, but what's really taking off is stories and reels. Anything that has to do with video, people really want to see and feel you, who you are before they call you or text you. And just being authentic. I think that's authenticity. Authenticity.

That's what really sells online right now. And now how did you, how do you build the audience? Is it just making sure you're putting content out there? Are you following lots of people? How do you, how do you build sort of the following? I do is every time we have, you know, closing, we always connect with our clients on social media. You know, we do a weekly email as well to stay in touch with them. And again, like you said, just always just putting ourselves out there, you know, on social media.

you know, we always, if we see our clients say, let's say their son is, or their child is celebrating a birthday, we'll say, hey, happy birthday to your son. So we try to connect and keep in touch, you know, as well on social media with our clients and their family as well. Okay. We mainly just put daily content, whatever it is. As soon as I stop out of the house, hey, this is a day of a life and of a real estate agent. You know, so I just let people see what's going on in the back. Now, what's your, on your poor Instagram, where would people follow you at or do you have multiple Instagram channels? We do.

Yeah, so mine is a Phil Mariani realtor. And then we also have T. Mariani as well. And mine will be just my first and last name, Yulia Mariani. I just keep it very simple, very basic. You know, people, that's where people get to see my personal life. business life and and that's where people really get to know me yeah excellent now from a you've obviously got you know a number of people that you're working with what CRM do you use to manage your business so I love follow-up boss but my husband uses something else I use

KV core but he leaves using follow-up boss yeah okay yeah so Do you have like CRM debates? Like we should be on the same CRM? Oh my gosh. Yes. We did until I threw the talent then. So my husband has been trying to convert me into KV Corps for for nine years. And I'm like, I told I said, Phil, I just need something that's very, very simple, just super simple, basic where I can just go on and I can see everything.

So simplicity is what attracts to me. And I found follow a boss and I just was like, this is it. So I've been trying, I've been trying so hard for it to come with me to follow a boss. But right now I have follow a boss, Phil has KB4. But obviously our clients, you know, it's all the same. Yeah, we're kind of all one. We kind of merged. Prior to, prior to EXP, you know, we had our own separate books of businesses.

But, you know, through EXP, we run as a domestic partnership, which we love. So we kind of just, you know, once we join the XP, we just merge our businesses together. Okay. Awesome. So competitive. Oh, my gosh. I can sit here all day and tell you all about our like little competitions here and there. Or when we had multiple offers situations, right? And we're like, we're going after the same house.

And I have a buyer and it will happen to have a buyer. And we're like putting offers like, so on the same house, right? I'm like, I'm not telling you what I'm offering. It's true. She stuck to her word. She did not disclose. I did not disclose because, of course, you know, I want my buyer to win. Why wouldn't you, right?

Right, exactly. Exactly. So, well, if it's any consolation, it's between KV Corps and follow-up boss, those are the two CRMs that, you know, the most of our icons are on. probably more icons on KV Core than follow up us, but partially, and that probably is partially because that's what they get for included. And just talked to an agent just a little bit ago, and he was paying $800 a month, I believe, for KV Core,

and then came into EXP and it was free. So 800 a month versus included in the $85 a month. for him was kind of a no-brainer to use it. But follow-up box certainly is one that so many top teams use and love. Yeah, I would agree with you. Yeah. So if there was one piece of advice that you could give to an EXP agent, what would it be? Maybe one from you, Phil, one from you, Yulia.

You know, I thought about that question and really, you know, like Meansville, which talk about this all the time as well. So one piece of advice that I can give, the grass is greener where you water it. It's not any greener on the other side. It's greener exactly where you water it. That's one piece of advice. Because you can go from brokerage to brokerage to brokerage, but unless you work it, it doesn't matter where you go, you know.

Right. Good advice. Yep. I would say, Glenn, I would say definitely it's all about building relationships, our business all about relationships. And I think if you want to build a long-lasting business and you want to be successful in this business, but this industry, you have to build, you know, relationships first. I remember in the beginning when I first got started, you know, you wanted that first sale so bad, you know, to get it.

And I felt like the harder I, you know, chase just to get the sale, the more it avoids. me until I took a you know I said let me take a step back and just focus on the client focus on what are they really you know what are they saying what are they telling me what do they really want how can I help them get it because I know if I help them get what they want I automatically go where I want to go yeah no for sure you know I kind of came up with a phrase for myself as an agent which was calculate your commissions at the end of the year not with every client because if you're if If you're just out there to serve, when you calculate at the end of the year, you will find out you had a great year.

But if you take it personal when somebody doesn't do a transaction with you or you don't make the sale, it can deflate you and actually take you in the wrong direction. So just be of service and then calculate how much you made at the end of the year and just more just be in service mode and not worry about where it all falls in the short run. exactly yeah you're so right about that um glan because majority of the time if not most of the time um you know on the way to closing i will ask phil do you know how much we can't be what's our commission going to be like because we work work work right and they're like can you please send me a commission this person so at least i know how much to collect the check for it because i don't even know and then you'll get on my case how can you not know so So when it comes to tracking the business, I would say, Glenn, I'm probably better at that than Yulia.

You know, like since I started in the real estate industry, this is prior to having knowledge of a CRM. When I first got started, I never was introduced to a CRM. So I used to just started tracking everything in 2015. I started tracking everything on an Excel spreadsheet. So to this day, I still keep track of our closings on Excel spreadsheet. So that's kind of like my go-to. And then he'll send me about Excel spreadsheet. spreadsheet at the end of the year.

I'm like, can I just look at it? Because he'll tell me the numbers and I'll be like, there's no way, you know, calculating the numbers at the end of the year. I'm like, there is no way. I think numbers don't lie, right? There you go. Yeah, no, it's we, we, a lot of times,

overestimate what we will do in the short run and then underestimate what we do in the long run. And so, and you probably notice that your business just keeps on growing. as long as you keep on being consistent. So, Yulia, Phil, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast here today. I really appreciate your time. Of course, this has been amazing.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having us and taking the time out as well. Oh, you're welcome. And then you do have a website as well, Teammariani.com. if I'm not mistaken. And so go check them out, check out their Instagram channels and obviously

workplace and all the other places that we all connect. So with that, thanks everyone. Thank you. You've been listening to Expansion. Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes. Thanks for being the best part of EXP.