KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How YouTube Long-Form Content Generates 67 Leads and $86K GCI

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Summary:Shelby Johnson and Allie Garced review the nine-month results of using YouTube long-form content as a primary real estate lead source. Johnson shares how posting 37 long-form videos generated 67 lead inquiries, resulting in closed deals, pending contracts, and high-value outbound referrals worth $86,000 in total GCI. The conversation covers long-term mindsets, working with video strategists, transitioning from strict scripts to bulleted riffing, implementing interactive lead magnets like neighborhood quizzes, and incorporating subtle, integrated calls to action into content.

With Shelby having 37 public long-form videos and having made $60,000 already, that's essentially like her getting paid $1,600 per video. And it's only going to continue increasing because YouTube is... You are listening to The Agent Goldberg podcast. And I am Shelby Johnson. I'm also here with Ali Gorset, Ali, the agent. both of us have dedicated our lives, Allie for longer than me, mine's just nine months. Two, YouTube as our primary lead generation source as we build out our brands, our pipelines,

and our financial futures in real estate. So what you are in for today is a little treat. I started my YouTube channel back on in July of 2025. And this is now the end of April, 2006. So we are going through the nine month update. What happens if you stick to YouTube for nine months. What could happen? Many people, I'm sure, blow me out of the water.

Maybe some people would learn maybe some things. Yeah, learn it all from Allie. But, okay, so yeah, the Asian Goldbine podcast, Ali and I are both EXP agents, icon agents. and I, Ali and I both moved to new markets to start over from the ground up. Ali is now, I think, focusing exclusively back on Arizona. Are you still selling in Minnesota? Actually, give me a little update on that, Ali.

No. No. I'm going to, I think I'm going to let my license lapse. Or I may have to extend another year just because I am selling my own condo. But after that, I'm going to let it lapse. I thought that I was going to be working in two different markets, but then I realized how cold it is in Minnesota and in no way am I showing any houses under those tundra conditions. So I was like, no, no, no, that's enough for me to say, no, thank you. Also,

the compensation for buyers agents is lower than what I was used to. And my price is usually higher than others. And it was just going to be that much of a difference that I was like, nah. Plus, the third reason is I really couldn't get those, cut the fat. And I couldn't get those neighborhood had names down. There were so, I just, I just sounded so lost. So I was like, nah, I know Tucson, like the back of my hand. I know the regs. I don't want to get confused. Let me just double down on that. And I do think that this is, uh, and I love this that you're doing this. You know, I'm like less is more, less is more type of thing. And so experimenting, testing things out, exploring your curiosity is great. And then also equally, if not better, is to cut it out when you realize when you're doing your

analysis, you're reflecting. And you're like, is this really the best use of my time? Do I enjoy this? Is it also profiting the way that I wanted to do? Is this the environment that I want to put myself in? All of these factors combined. It is okay to pivot and make changes to your business to lead you closer to whatever ultimate goal you have set for yourself. Listeners, that's for you. I love left as more. Less is more is just. I feel so good. Okay. Bringing it back to YouTube. So July 2025 is when I've posted my very first long form video. And now that it is the end of April, 26, my update for you is that I have done 37 long form videos, which I did not do the math ahead of time. Did I do one a week? Like, I think, no, I did. I think I did more. Actually, I don't know.

Ali is going to do the math and check while I continue with my stats. So 37 long form videos for short form, which I only did in the very beginning as I was just starting out my YouTube channel and I was like, oh, I have these awesome, they are pretty awesome shorts that I did for like Instagram. I was like, let me just repurpose and put them here while I am trying to figure out how to do long form. hindsight, I actually wish that I did not do that. I wish that I had only long form in my stats. But we can talk about that later if you want to. So we have the 37 long form from that.

I just got out of follow-up boss. I was checking how many people have reached out based on YouTube. 67 people have reached out based on YouTube. From that, I have closed five. I have one under contract. And I have 10 outbound referrals. Six of those outbound referrals are under 500,000. And four of them are over 800,000. So pretty good, exciting referral. And for those of you don't know, the reason why those referrals are not mine that I'm working personally. It's because I'm about 100 months pregnant by this point. A hundred months. Yes. He's been cooking that long. And so anything that's come in recently, which clearly there's been an influx lately, I have referred out because I am going to have a baby here shortly. Real quick. On my five closings that we have happened since starting YouTube, that is a total of just under 2 million in volume and a total GCI of just under 60,000.

And then with my one that's under contract as well, that will bring me up to 2.872. Wow, 2,872,000 in volume and 86,000 in GCI from YouTube, which is, I think, really exciting because a lot of people start YouTube and they're like, man, I'm not going to get paid for a long which is exactly how I went into it thinking. And I think honestly is 100% the way you have to go into YouTube. You have to buy in the long game. I'm not getting paid for a while. I'm not even talking anyone for six months.

No one is going to give a crap about anything that I put on the internet for at least six months. And that's the mindset that I went into it too. So it's cool to be at the nine month mark having by, you know, in just two weeks, earned $86,000 from YouTube. And I have some things that I have learned along the way. that I'm going to share. But before I do that, I want to pause and breathe and say, Ali, any thoughts, comments, anything. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, baby. Okay. So, yes, it is almost one video a week that you did. Your YouTube channel has been alive as long as you've been pregnant.

Nine months. Dude, it's line up literally, like, almost exactly. Anyway, so you, whatever excuse you have, audience, like, gold miners, whatever excuse you have about not having started, Shelby did this while pregnant. During the first trimester, okay? I did the math really quick. So essentially, like, I know that when you're, when you're first starting out with YouTube, some of your first videos are going to be, who cares? You know, it's a race, in my opinion, it's a race to 30. Once you hit 30 long form videos, we're talking about longs, or at least I am, not shorts. Shorts don't do in my opinion. Once you get to 30, that's when you're going to start getting leads.

So with Shelby having 37 public long-form videos and having made $60,000 already, that's essentially like her getting paid $1,600 per video posted. And it's only going to continue increasing because YouTube is evergreen. New people are going to continue watching those videos, meaning that those 37 videos are going to make her a lot more money than $1,621. But that's how I look at it.

I'm like how I like making it like, I don't know for me and it fun that way. You know, like how much am I getting paid to make a video? So that's like one stat that I use. It's like number of long forms divided by the GCI or GCI divided by the number of long form videos. And then I also like doing another formula, which I forget what it was going to be. Oh, how many. the watch hours per day, just because I can look at that and be like, wow, I could have spoken

for 13 hours today to 13 different people or 100 different people, whatever it was, but I didn't have to. My clone, aka my video that's living up there, did that for me. So that's amazing. Six clothes and pendings with 10 more. That's wild, but I'm so happy for you. Thank you. And you know what? I owe it all to you. When I look back to all the videos that I made in the beginning, I went to Ali's channel and I was like, what's working for Allie? And then I just sorted by most popular videos. And of course, started with the pros and cons because, you know, pros and cons is such a hit, which is so funny now, because I'm like, oh, my God, you start with the pros and cons because it's such a hit. But now I'm like, it's my first video. And it's still like doing well, but I'm like, maybe I should probably redo that. You do. years once a year, don't you? Or do you? I want it. I haven't yet. So it's on my list of things to do. Actually, right after this, I'm going to make a cons of all the neighborhoods around Davis-Monton. So my most, my top producing video is the scary truths about Tucson. I think that has like almost 60,000 views, but that's one of my first videos. You know, it's like been around for three

years now. That as well as like the pros and cons, but of course anything really like negative. So I am going to redo all of those now that I have a better camera even if it's me just repeating the same information. I'll include a little bit more and I'll detract, like I'll say a little bit less about some stuff that I got some comments on, mainly the bars. Someone was like,

you drink a lot. I was like, oh, maybe I shouldn't mention so many bars. And I'm just going to redo those videos. I plan on doing them. I would like to do them every quarter because they just don't get old. Right. But I had a minimum twice a year. That's my plan going forward. The pros and cons and the scary truths. Which the scary ones do.

I was about to say slap, but then I remembered that I am 35. And who's, I don't know. Maybe, wait, wait, what generation is that? Or is slap cool. Am I like aging myself even more?

If you say anything with confidence, it's cool. So just say it again with confidence and it'll be cool. Yeah, readoo, redo, redo. So the scary videos, slap. Yeah, they do. They slap. Okay. So, yeah.

What I was going to say, though, too, about, like, repeating videos. So now I have, which I want to talk about in a second, about the transition between my editors and YouTube strategy and stuff like that, is the guy I have now who's like really, really good. He's a strategist. He's not just an editor. He has a team for the editing. But he said, like, he's already having me repeat videos that I've done. and I haven't even been in, you know, I haven't gone through all of the videos. It's like less than here, nine months in. And he's, he's like, try not to repeat more than 30 to 40% of whatever you said

in the other ones, but then otherwise just make, make, make it as many times as you want, basically. But he's telling me what to do when to do it. So like he's not saying, go do it five times in a row and I'll post it five times. Like, not that. It's, you still have to like space it out. But I thought that was an interesting. And it was helpful for me in thinking through the information I wanted to share is like 30 to 40% can be repetitive, but after that, try to make it something new. That's what he said. Interesting. 30 to 40%. That's good to know. I didn't think about that. There is one more stat that I like to look at when it comes to like amping myself up, not like YouTube studio stat, but just like my own production is the

number of videos that are public or that you've made divided by the number of clients that you've had. So with your referrals plus the closed plus the pending, that's 16, right, in nine months. So with your 37 videos divided by 16, it's 2.3. So for every 2.3 videos you post, you will get a client. And so I like thinking about it that way. Or it's like, I just need to post. three videos. And if I post one video a week, so every single month, I will be getting one client. Or every three videos, I will get one client. Yeah, that's awesome. And I don't think like that. So I really appreciate you sharing the breakdown of how you think because it is helpful. I'm still very much in the phase of like put on my, like I just need, I still need reps. You know, I'm over that

third just, you know, it's like the race to 30. I still feel like every iteration. is I'm learning something new. I'm doing something that I wish that I hadn't when I rewatch the video. And so just really trying to focus in on those 1% changes. So each video I can make just this incremental change in hopefully over time, not hopefully, definitely over time, the progress, the reps will add up into even better stats. Can we talk about that as far as like what your, what kind of lessons learned when you're watching your own videos again? What have you learned so far?

Yeah. So this has been a real struggle with me, which actually I'm going to explain a little backstory before I answer this question. So if I, with baby brain, if I never get back to it, please remember what you just asked me. I'll get back on you. About this. So I had created a problem. When I first started the YouTube channel in July of 2025, I was confident in my, I was confident in my that I would stick to it, but I was not out a place where I felt ready to hire anyone

like really good who knew what they were doing, who had high expectations of me on the video. What I wanted to do was kind of like, go around and find out on my own with creating videos, literally copying people who I know are successful at YouTube, not just Allie, but I would pick people in different markets. I would find videos that slap. And then I would literally replicate their thumbnails, their, titles, their script, the whole thing. And so I did that in the beginning. And in regard to editing, I had the 18-year-old from my gym who was interested in editing, just do the editing. Like, we were

both learning together. She had never edited YouTube videos. I had never done, committed long form for relocation specific target, you know, that sort of thing. And so I was learning based on what performed well and what didn't, like what an audience was interested in. And somewhat based on what I was reviewing for myself, but because at that time I was 100% scripted and I was 100% figuring it out on my own, I actually had less kind of feedback for myself than I do now, which has been actually really hard because I did this process with my editor, my 18 year old from the gym, and my own research for six months. And then at the six month mark, roughly, it was actually February, is that February, March, April. Okay, so six, seven month is how long I did that for. And then at that

point in time, I hired a professional. I hired a YouTube strategist who now tells me exactly this is, you don't even need to know. This is your script. Here's your script. Go and record. But also, leave the house. I'm not doing it now because I'm a whale, but like leave the house. These type of different backgrounds, these are literally what you're going to talk about. Your talking points. You can change the actual point to meet your market, but like here's what you're doing. And also don't script the same way that you're doing now. And so all of these changes at once were really, really hard for me. And it's even harder. Like I had this today being on a call with him where he does, he started out weekly and then biweekly and now it's monthly, but get on the call.

And one of the things that I said last time was, I want more feedback about me, my performance, you know. And now I'm like, oh, God, now I got feedback. That was terrible. And it's great. Like, I love it. But also, it's hard to hear. And so one of the things, which is great. And by the way, Allie and I both love feedback.

We'd rather have it and be like, like, gone and no. then someone tell us we're great when we're not. You know what I mean? But anyway, also loop this back. Some of the things, which I think your questions are like, what did you learn? What are you changing? Right?

Yeah. Basically. So the goal after the baby is to leave the house more. That is one that is really, really hard for me because I'm very comfortable in front of my computer. But it is also, I mean, the guy told me, he's like, hey, look at these videos that are doing really well. one of the things isn't common is not only are they engaging in the stuff they're talking about as relevant,

but they're also able to be like, right here is where blah is happening. Look, this is. And so it's just another level of like, if you want to take your YouTube from, you're doing fine, clearly. You're getting clients. But if you want to be great, this is what makes your presentation that much more engaging. People want to feel and be there and look at what you're talking about. And so that one was really, really hard for me. And then the other one that is really, really hard for me.

And I'm getting ganged up on because the strategist does it, but then also Drake does it. And it's so, yeah, anyway, is the fact that they don't want me to read word for word, which I, Ali, I think you know this. Maybe you didn't. But I was scout and To Kill a Mockingbird in our community play when I was in sixth grade. So all to say, I was an actress. I've been an actress since that moment when I was 11. It was a very big deal. Okay. But the point of me. That's laughs. The whole reason why I'm saying this is because I do think that I am likely better than average when it comes to reading off, reading word for word and having the audience feel like it's natural. And actually, I would say people go to my channel and tell me if I'm crazy or not. But like I've been told that. It's not like me coming up with it. It's like, I can, I can like act and like, feel like, oh, you're reading.

And so to me, word for word was more efficient. I'm an efficiency girl. And so I'd write it all out. And then I would just act, you know? And both Drake and the strategists are like, once again, this is good. You don't have to change. Do you? But do you want to be great?

Do you? I'm like, damn you. Like, you know, that really hurt. And so I'm like, yeah, I want to be great. And so now they're like both pushing me really hard to think through and get the bullets, get the ideas, do the research ahead of time, but then riff. And riffing is incredibly difficult for your girl. And those are the two main things. Does that answer your, that was so long. I'm so sorry, Ellie. That does. No, no. That definitely answers it with now I have a personal question. No girl. Hit me. Yeah. For those that are not in the air.

area. You know, like, I've been wanted to make videos outside, especially since I'm in, like, nicer weather. It's clear that I'm not in Tucson, you know, like there are no cacti. There are no palm trees. He would say do it anyway. Really? Yeah, he would say to go to some neutral background, because he has said this to me before,

where I'm like, dude, if I do this right, I'm going to be driving all day because I want to go to this location for this shot and this for this shot. And he's like, better than nothing is to find some. with a neutral background. Like he's like, just go to a park, you know, or go to a neighborhood with pretty houses where you have something behind you. And that is better than you being in the studio. Of course, top here would be.

Yeah. You also mentioned different shots in different locations. Is that what he recommends as well or just walking around in one location? People are very, very successful walking around in one location. I, when I got inspired by this, this was back. you know, when I first started with him, I did one video outside and I'm actually very proud of it. Because I did. I was like, I really want to do this the right way. I'm going to go to all these different places. And I did. And it took me like literally five hours to shoot and drive around and do all the

things. But I really like that video. I think it is compelling to watch and interesting. And I think that the goal maybe, although I love selling real estate, but I'm going to have to, with a baby, I'm going to have to like prioritize different things in my life. And I think that what I'll do is I'll probably start prioritizing YouTube and then just not work with clients as much, which hurts to say because I really do like working with clients. But that's a down the road problem. But when I have that, my whole intent of saying that is like, I do intend to go into the world and shoot. Nice. Nice.

Yeah. I've been looking back at my or thinking back at my channel, one of the highest converting. on my videos was when I was walking around the specific neighborhood that I lived it at the time. So there were a couple of times that could have made it pop or it could have made it not for views, but for conversion, like actual clients booked. It was six-month update of living in that neighborhood. So people want to know, like, do you like it after you buy it? And also, I was outside. So I walked a little bit and then I sat down in the park. So I was like in the neighborhood. People could see. I'm not sure which aspect of it made it pop more. But yeah, maybe I'll do like something similar. Just like, yeah,

just walk outside. I think so. And then it makes you feel more. And the other thing too, it like forced me to riff because I didn't have like my beautiful teleprompter in my setup. But I also think it makes you feel more approachable. But I do. Okay. So I do think that there's like around Robin. Like there's a full circle thing to consider. Like if you are just starting YouTube and you are, you already are trying to learn so many new things. Throwing in an external factor like movement and walking in different sets and all these different things is like, maybe not, you maybe don't need to start there. Maybe this is something where you pick one thing a week that you get comfortable with and

then the next week you add that one, you know, one percent. And eventually when you want to go from good to great, that's when you integrate in this. But, Helly, don't you? You, um, you use bullets and you riff. I do bullets now. Yeah. So back when we had Sam Caudill on the podcast over, what is like two years ago now? I was going to say 10. Yeah. 10, 15 years ago. Because we've been doing this podcast since the 90s. 90s, yeah. At the time, he was like, yeah, don't script. And I was like, I can't not. I have to know what to say next, you know? Exactly. But then, yeah, it took me like about six months after that. That's when I realized I was going to

going off script anyway. And if I'm going to ramble, in my mind, as I was going off script when I had a script, I was like, I need to get back on script. I need to get back on script. And I think that kind of, that has to show in my video where I, where I'm rushing it. So like my biggest lesson learned is like, nobody wants to hear somebody that feels like the rush. Because if I'm listening to someone and they're rushed, now I'm getting anxious. And I've watched some other videos and they're like taking their time on this long ass rambus. but people stick around. It gets a lot of views. It gets a lot of likes. So I just, I am still learning to fully embrace my rambles because if I'm confident about what I'm saying or if I'm into

what I'm saying, other people will be too. So I'm just overall learning to just slow down because there's some boring fucking people on YouTube and they're crushing it. Yeah. No, I, I'm with you and I also struggled the same. And I think it's because you and I are so efficiency and time-based and go, go, go, get to the point. What's the point? What's the point? That we assume other people are like that. But meanwhile, they're like literally putting you on the TV after their workdays.

We're entertainment and education. We're edutainment at the end of the day. And they're there to just sip their little cocktail and listen to what Allie's got to spew about. Yeah. Yeah. And therefore, like the longer, the better of the videos. You know, so like embrace the ramble. embrace the rant. And then it also just ends up turning into a video where you're just talking to a friend. Like,

oh, anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, on this point. So I will have bullet points now. Sometimes I'll, like, literally handwrite it if I'm on the fly and I'm like, this is an idea that I know that if I wait any longer, I'm not going to make this video. So I'll, I'll like revert back to my notes. And sometimes I even, like, have it on the screen, like, or like recording. Like, by the way, I want to make sure that I'm cutting, like, covering these three notes. So these three bullet points. Okay, number one, oh yeah. And then I'd like talk.

And then sometimes I hide it. But yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, I've done okay doing bullet points now for a while. That's, um, this is one of my goals putting it out to the universe right now is by the next time we do an update, which I don't know if we'll do one at one year or further. And also listeners, if you guys, ooh, I like how she said gold miners. Gold miners, if you guys like the updates, please let us. know. We want to know what you like and what you don't like. So Allie is Allie underscore the underscore agent ALI on Instagram. DM are there or I'm The Shelby Show on Instagram. DM you there.

But we want to know because we don't want to, yeah, give you more things that you don't want to hear. Or maybe you love this and you want more updates. You want Allie's update after be doing it for, what, three years? Yeah, three years. Three years, baby. And we actually have a similar number. I have two point, so close, actually, 2.25. For every 2.25 videos I make, I get a client and you're already there. Like, that's crazy. 2.3 in nine months. I love that for you.

I hope it continues. I hope we, I will. I think I'm really excited about it. And I do want to share some of the things that I've learned lately because like the reason why I explained that long, the first six months, seven months was literally just me exploring me, my own research and feedback, nothing but me because I had my editor, but she was, I mean, literally she's a college kid and she doesn't, she's just doing what she's, you know, there's, she wasn't telling me, she wasn't coaching me on how our strategy should be.

You know what I mean? But so in the past couple of months, I've had a high learning curve now that I have someone who's telling me things. But there are a couple things I wanted to note about what I've learned lately. So one, I do think that the power of professional editing, when you are ready, when you have committed to YouTube, maybe you've gotten some leads, maybe you're hopeful, you're like, this is it. I'm going to do this.

They're in my belief for me personally, huge difference from when I had non-professional amateur editing. Love you, Johanna. If you listen, you're great. Versus the one who is a machine. And I see that on my stats, but I've also seen it. on a large uptick in outreach. And I just watching the videos, I'm like, these are way better.

So professional editing is a huge one. And I think a second one is what Allie mentioned already, which is longer is better. I remember when I was first doing it. I was like, I just need to do a video week. I just need to do a video week. Get it out. And so some of my videos are like seven minutes long. Like they're or, you know, I think I even have one that's like five.

They're like five, seven, you know, 10. if there's a 12 minute one, I was like, I'm crushing it. But now, like, the goal is into the 20 minutes. And I am not there. This is another thing I'm definitely working on because I get tired of talking. But you're nine months pregnant. You're kind. There's no excuses. But yeah. So what I found is there are people who are going to watch whatever you put out from start to finish. if it's an hour long, or in my case, like, I'm so happy when they're over 20 minutes. And so what that does to your watch time is amazing. You like the watch time per video, but also general watch time. And the more time people can spend with you, the more, what is that? There's like a, there's a phrase for it. It's like that parasycial relationship. Is that what it's called,

Ali? I call it bonding. Oh, that's so cute. Okay, yeah. So more bonding occurs and then, you know, they're with you, they're with you for life. Like, they're like, no, I want to work with you. I'll wait. Do I need to wait? I need to pay more? Whatever. So that's another thing. The professional editing, we have the longer is better. If you're on a 50-50 split, it's time to rethink your brokerage. At EXP, the split is 8020. And once you cap, you keep 100%. We show you how to get there faster. I'm Ali Garcette, or Ali the agent. My sponsor. Shelby Johnson and I each close over 40 deals a year. We are full-time agents actively producing,

and everyone in our upline is an icon agent. When you name us as a sponsor at EXP, you get full access to all of our systems and checklists and templates, our 200K GCI playbook to help you make 200K your first year, direct mentorship and direct access to us, no huge group calls. We also help agents add another stream of income, which is RevShare. We will help you with all the tools and trainings you need to build revenue share that will help you retire early. If you're interested in building an actual business, book a call at theagentgoldmine.com. Third thing that I have learned that I was not doing before is the power of lead magnets. And what I mean by lead magnets is before I was just doing, hey, reach out to me, which is totally fine.

but I did reach out text, email, or book a call. And I know Allie has a different opinion on this, so we'll dig into that afterwards too. And I would usually just do this like in the beginning, like when I'm like, oh, here's the hook. And then I'm like, by the way, if we haven't met, my name is Shelby Johnson. And I'm a real estate agent here. And I would love to work with you, blah, blah, book a call. Okay, now we're into the good stuff. You know, where it's like you give them a little bit, you make sure that they know

who you are and why you're actually there before they get tired of the topic. And then you give them like a bunch of value, but then hit them at the end. That's like what I did in the beginning. I did like a hit in the beginning and a hit at the end and maybe something in the middle. But absolutely none of the I never did the actually, that's a lie. In the first couple of videos I did the like subscribe or like. And I'm like, dude, such a waste of energy for like if you have a call to action, you want it to be important and subscribers don't matter.

Likes, you know, don't matter. Clients matter. So anyway, so that's what I did in the beginning. And then now that I have the strategist up my. about lead magnets and not just one, but multiple. He wants multiple. And he said relocation guide is like the obvious one that people do. And it's literally like, if you have nothing better, do a relocation guide.

But it's not that compelling. People don't care about a relocation guide. But if you do something cool, like what Drake is almost done working on now is our neighborhood quiz. I feel like that. So I know it works because people in his community, the strategist, he has a bunch of agency works with. And it is absolutely crushing for them where it's like, hey, like, if you're just looking for a jumping off point and you don't want to go through everything in the whole city, you just want to go through our cool freaking quiz and find out what might be a good fit for you.

Like, here it is. Go have fun. And it's literally like, you know, do you want character in your homes? Do you want new construction? Do you want, you know, like, what's your price point? And it like leads you all the way through. And then, of course, at the end, they have to plug in their contact information to get the results of the quiz. And there you have your lead magnet. And everyone and likes a quiz. I mean, I love a quiz. So that's an example of a lead magnet. And then another one would be like, if you are in a market that this is an example of someone else in the community, what they do, they have a bunch of golf courses. They have like a bunch. It's a golf city. And so what he did is he created a spreadsheet of here are all the HOAs with golf communities.

Here is the annual fees. And here's what you get with the fees. And he'll tease it on the screen and be like, yeah, and if you don't want to spend time looking up all the H-O-A's, like, I have this whole thing, just reach out and I'll send it to you. And it's a spreadsheet. But then now they reached out, they plug in their information. And so these are all ways that you can get leads. But so these are the soft leads versus the other type, which is the people who literally book a call or who literally email you or call you and it's like, hey, I have the situation. I'm going to be out in two weeks. Can you show me houses? But at the end of the day, what the strategist has said is that people do not use YouTube for longer than they need whatever

information they're looking for. So if they're thinking about moving and they're going to watch all the videos, they're going to binge watch you. They're going to love them all. And if you don't capture them, then when they, if they're not ready then to reach out, you're losing them unless, which sometimes happens because YouTube is so freaking powerful that they'll remember you in six months and be like, hey, I used to watch your videos. I love you. Can we work together? That happens. I'm not saying it doesn't. But what he's saying is a more surefire method to capitalize on all the work you're doing anyway is to find a way to grab their information and then have your newsletter. Just put them on a newsletter, which, you know, it doesn't have to be that great. It's just a

ping. It's just a reminder. But anyway, okay, so the lead magnets, we talked about neighborhood quiz, the HOA spreadsheet, example. Or you could also do like an app, which we have had. had some success with. I can't say it's great, but that's what we do too, where it's like, hey, I don't know if you know this, but Zillow literally sells your information to the highest better when you say schedule is showing, like literally. And so if you don't want that, if you want to look at houses on a super cool app, like we have one for free. Check it out. And then you can message me direct. So those are just all different ways to get more people. And if you like integrate them, then you can get more leads and stay in control of your business as opposed to hoping they

remember you in six months. I haven't, okay, I want to say, more thing on this before I move on to the other thing that I've learned is that you have to decide gold miners out there whether you want to do that, whether you want to capture, you know, all of these contacts, really is what they are, and then do some sort of nurture over time. Or you can do what Allie does, which is, hey, when you're ready, book a call. Up until then, like, I'm not here to nurture you at all. You know what I mean? And Ali, your two cents on that.

Yeah, yeah. I am so bottom of funnel only and I just, I hate follow up. And I know the money is in the follow up. But also there are a lot of bottom of funnel ready to be lead people, you know, ready to be clients rather, like leads that are ready to be clients. And it's, it's been working for me so far. But you know, you're opening my mind with that quiz. because the quiz can be so helpful. Relocate, buyer relocation guide, nobody gives a shit. Everyone has one. It's the same stuff anyway that you can just Google. You can ask chat chabit for, like anyone can ask chat chabit for a better version than your buyer relocation guide. Right. So like, but yeah, but the quiz as far as like which neighborhood is best for you, what area is best for you, that's really, really good.

especially like, because I'm sure you can ask more, I can ask more bottom of funnel type questions to where they, yeah, where they won't even finish the quiz unless they're ready. So and therefore, like, I wouldn't mind being the one that reaches out to other people if they're bottom of funnel. And can we brainstorm on that? What other question, what questions could I add on there to make sure that it's not middle of funnel people? And I can, I can send you. obviously Drake is the one building this out, not me. Obviously. But I can send you like literally everything that he's working on.

But yeah, time frame is one. Price point is one. Like those two alone, I think, are really helpful in are you bottom of the funnel or not. And like, oh, are you sure about Lexington or wherever you are? Are you sure about Tucson? Or are you still shopping? That's a good one. Oh my God.

Yeah. And then also can help you too not waste your time with people in areas you don't. want to sell in because if like you could have you know starting out wide or whatever um and it can help yeah like and so that's another thing too like if it's a lower price point or an area you don't want to sell in i know that you and i both have our feelings about referrals but i do think that if you find a really good referral agent it's different like one of the girls who i'm i have two girls who i'm referring these 10 to and i just am loving the amount of feedback one of them it's giving me and I'm like, you don't know. I'm testing the other one. She's about to get cut.

But she literally is like, hey, just want to update you. She'll send me a roll up. Here are all the people. This is with their status. And then one was like they're pausing. And then the next day, she's like, hey, just want to let you know they unpause. We're working like this is, I'm like, dude. So if you, if you can find a good referral agent to refer out any of your low hanging fruit that you don't want to work with for whatever reason, or maybe they're not moving for a while and you don't want to nurture them, you could potentially refer them. Flip side. This is the other thing because in this mastermind that I'm in now, I hopped on a Zoom,

Drake set it up with this husband-wife team out of St. Augustine who are awesome. I really love them. I'm like, oh my God, are you us in a couple years? I don't know. Like, they're, I just, because he's super nerdy and she's just like me. Like, I'm nerdy. She slaps. She slaps.

going to talk side. But anyway, which it's so annoying because she has a real team. And if anyone has been following the Shelby Chronicles, I've been around the block and back with regular actual team. So I'm like literally cringing when she's like, oh, we're the team. I'm like, dude, why don't you just refer it? And she said the most obvious answer that I'm like, I'm such an idiot. She's like, because I plan on selling here forever.

And if I refer out my business, I'm not going to get the repeat business. nor am I going to get their referrals to their friends because if someone else closes them, someone else, and she's not personally even closing it, she just has a team. But she's like, if someone other company closes them when they go to sell or when their friend or their mom or whoever's moving here, the likelihood of them coming to me versus the person who they built the relationship through the transaction is now tilted. And I'm in it for the long game. And I'm like, God, girl, I hate you.

You make so much sense right now. That's so annoying. Yeah. I mean devil's advocate, though, but like, is that worth the effort in maintaining teammates, making sure that the teammates don't leave and take the clients anyway? You know, of course, like, if you refer out, that could be a guaranteed go away, but also follow up. And you're still, you still have the YouTube channel. So like, the clients still know you. So as long as you follow up throughout the transaction, you can still have your foot in there, I think. Yeah, it's really like which effort is more. Do you want the potential referral business later? Or, you know. Yeah. And I'm so not like obviously I'm referring right now. I'm like I can't even think about the theme. Team sounds so terrible to me right now. But it is something where it's like I think that if I were to do it again, I have learned so much based on my first experience, go around, reflection period, rebuild. You know that like I don't know. This is a TBD future Shelby problem. I'll keep you posted. But anyway, that was the power of. lead magnets. And that's okay. And that was my third thing that I've learned recently. And I have just one more that I'm going to go over is the power of authority statements slash integrated

CTAs. What I mean by that is that I used to have only specific clear calls to action that were like me almost like breaking what I was saying to be like, oh, and if you are, you know, moving here, book a call. You know what I mean? Like it was like a, it wasn't integrated. And one of the things that the strategist is really challenging me to do is try to integrate my more subtle calls to action along with the ones that are direct. Like, hey, book a call. I want to work with you. But also using like whenever you share something that's like inside about your market and you're like going in the weeds and then you can say something like, this is what I mean by integrated, is like, and this is the type of stuff that you won't find on Zillow. So if you are looking for

this strategy, this direct, so you can avoid mistakes too in your market. Just shoot me a text. I would love to talk about it with you. Boom, keep going. And then so it's like you're telling a story or you're sharing data. And then you just, instead of being like book a call, it's more of like, and if you are worried about buying next to one of these big stories that I was talking about, but you don't know what streets are big. Literally just shoot me the address and I will tell you. And then keep on going. And so there's just like a thousand ways where he's like,

you can integrate more without being the direct. Does that make sense? I'm like spinning here. 100%. Yeah. And that's an art. Like it is, it is an art to weave that in because it's not,

or at least in my opinion, it's not templated, you know, like you can't say the same thing. every time. It has to be specifically woven into that specific video, story, like, whatever you're saying. So you have to redo it, create it every time. Yes. And it's training a new habit. And that's when you were like, what are the things you've learned for watching your videos? I'm like, well, I didn't really learn from the first six months, to be honest. Like, other than,

okay, I have the ability to do the hard work, which it is. YouTube's not easy for anyone out there. Like, this is hard. That's really what I learned. it's been in the past two, three months that I've been like dumped on in a way that a lot of learning has happened. And it's so, so frustrating now when I'm like, okay, can integrate calls to action or like integrate stories or whatever. And then I get my video, my one take for review. I only get to review it once. They're like, that's your only take because they're in charge. That's the crazy thing. But anyway, I'll review my one take and I'm like watching it. And I'm like, Oh my God. That would have been a perfect situation for this story or this smooth integration. And so then I'm like, I have to be better next time, which is exciting. But it's also like, and honestly, okay, I would much rather be in the place where I am now, which is getting g-a-dapped on, really. There's, I'm, then where I was at the six-month mark where I'm like, oh my God, like, I'm doing a YouTube. People are reaching out to me. And like, you know, I'd much rather be like,

God, I fucking suck. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. I would love to get a shit on all the time. That's our love language. Yeah, it is. It really is.

But that is all I brought for my lesson started at my nine-month review. Allie, what do you have? What are your thoughts? Anything? We spoke about you referring out. And for, I know that this is going to be a question, or at least like I would have the question. Yeah.

How to Find a Good Referral Agent. We have done several podcasts on that, different episodes on that. So search in our Apple or Spotify, however you listen to this, like type in the word referral and you'll find some. And then, as always, we have resources on every other episode that we've ever done on the agent goldmine.com, just for you, beautiful gold miners, all for free. So dig in there. My last question, though, which is kind of random, kind of about in left field.

Thumbail click through ratio, what number or like how do you suggest for those that maybe don't have the funds to hire your person or, you know, like, how do we go about thumbnails? How do we get people clicking on the video that we just spent hours on? Yeah. And actually, I am pretty proud of my Shelby generated thumbnails. But that's something that Johanna didn't do, the 18 year old didn't do because I'm so freaking picky about it. But what I did is I literally, I already told you guys this once, but I would go to other agents in different markets. I would go to their pages and I would search by what's popular and I would 100% copy their thumbnail and their title. But the thumbnail, I would recreate it in Canva.

Take a bunch of photos of myself and then I would create it. at this point, I do not do any of my own thumbnails, and it actually shook me in the beginning that they don't even use my photos. Those pictures are all AI. They dumped my headshots or photos into something that's spitting out some girl who kind of looks like me. I mean, she looks like me, but she's a, she's an AI. She's an alien or a robot. whatever. Yeah. Artificial. Whatever my.

So I use some thumbnail editors, which are typically different than video editors. And whenever I ask them, because I'm actually looking for different video editors right now, I'm hiring more. I'm hiring more thumbnail editors. I'm on Fiverr every single, every other hour of the day. Just testing everyone out right now is so overwhelming. But sometimes when they sent, clearly they'll put it into chat GPT or nanobanana, whatever they do. and I'll get it back. I don't know why all these different editors are doing it.

They must put one of my, obviously one of my photos into their system. And it always spits out the same type of photo back where I look like a chipmunk. Like my cheeks are like so big. And it's like the same thing every time I look so Asian, which I'm not. And I just like, I'm like, how can you even send this back to me when like did you not even look at it? So I always have to tell like the video, their thumbnail editors.

If you're, if you're going to use AI, just make sure I don't look like a chipmunk. Literally, that's part of the job description. That's hilarious. Because it happens so much. Yeah, that's, it is tough. I, um, they, the people who I'm using now, their click through rates are high. and mine were good before two. I'm trying to see, where can I see it, though, like my average.

I don't know how to... I have so many... On my last... On my last... On my last... I have 9.1% click-through rate on my most recent video. And I feel like they're normally... Yeah, like, I feel like they're normally...

Let's see, the last one before that was 8.1. I was going to say they're normally over 7. For my... Oh my God. Wow. I want to hire the thumbnail. Just the thumbnail person. Just the thumbnail person.

Just go to mine. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm not saying obviously, but when I, by the way, these are, they're using like mine, but like every agent in their group has the same. That's why they only do one agent per market. It's because they're all the same thumbnails. They've tested it, you know, in different markets and they know it works. so then they're just blasting it.

Which good for them. I mean, I'm here for it. So that's what I have no actual feedback for you on thumbnails other than just copy people. In the nines is insane. I've never had one in the nines. Actually, I don't know. I haven't looked at every single end of it. Who knows?

Yeah, who knows? But yeah, I would say on average it's seven or plus, which is, since they've taken over. And before, I had pretty good too. But one other thing I was going to say about the referral, I know you were talking about, yes, we have done a ton of videos on how to find a good referral agent. Since this is my own market that I'm referring people to,

the two agents that I chose to refer to, I've worked with both of them on cross sales. And that's why I picked them is because the one who's giving me the best updates was the best experience that I've had with. another agent in this market, but also for years and years and years. I was like, girl, I don't even like friends. Like, I don't want friends, but like we should be friends because you're on your. And then the other, the other girl was just in a, it's like, Lexington is weird with like horse farms and like the acreage and all that stuff. So like I picked her because she

specialized in that and that's what those other ones were looking for. But anyway, all to say, like, if you're doing, if you're having a baby and you're looking for a referral agent in your own market, think about who you've had great experiences with or ask if you have no experiences, ask people who have been around for a long time being like, who do you love getting an offer from? Who do you want to work with? Yeah. Yeah. Or when your business gets so big to the point where you're like, where you're overwhelmed and you have to refer out. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Cool. Shelby, this was amazing. I'm glad that we did this episode. I'm sure that this is helpful. If you gold miners listening found this helpful, please give our podcast a five-star review.

It takes you like 30 seconds and it would help us out a lot. We appreciate that. Any last parting words? Shilby? I just love you in your face and you don't look like a chipmunk. You're beautiful. Be a bro and share this show. Bye.

If you're on a 50-50 split, it's time to rethink your brokerage. At EXP, the split is 8020. And once you cap, you keep 100%. We show you how to get there faster. I'm Ali Garcette or Ali the agent. My sponsor, Shelby Johnson and I, each close over 40 deals a year. We are full-time agents actively producing. And everyone in our upline is an icon agent.

When you name us as a sponsor at EXP, you get full access to all of our systems and checklist and templates, our 200K GCI playbook to help you make 200K your first year, direct mentorship and direct access to us, no huge group calls. We also help agents add another stream of income, which is RevShare. We will help you with all the tools and trainings you need to build revenue share that will help you retire early. If you're interested in building an actual business, book a call at theagentgoldmine.com.