KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Is Your 2¢ Worth Your Commission

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

Is your two cents worth your commission how a single social media post cost a realtor, their license and reputation? Oh, you know we're talking about this one. Welcome to the influential real estate marketing podcast, where agent entrepreneurs come to learn how to generate and convert more leads by using the latest in technology, social media, and lead generation systems. Here are your hosts, national speakers and veteran agents, Amber, and. The Rook. Hey, everybody. Yeah, this one sounds juicy. I don't know about that word.

Right. Before we get into it, though, guys, today's episode is being sponsored by Sphere Influencer, which is the single most effective sphere marketing strategy to build relationships, get more referrals than ever before. You can get more information at getspereinfluencer.com. All right, so we can't talk about marketing

without talking about social media. So here's the question. Is your two cents worth your commission? And for one agent, I'm guessing not. Man, this story did hit the national media. So kind of tell us about it. All right. So it all started when we were asked to write a class for the Texas Association Routers on social media etiquette.

Right. Now, we speak at events for associations all the time. So this was nothing new. But when we started diving into this, this is when it got like really scary. Now, he's going to tell you about the individual. case we're talking about but because we are technology coaches like you said and wrote curriculum we actually get privy to some of the social media posts that people file complaints on that are violating the code of ethics or or some other type of article and so this one kind of

blew our minds tell us about this there is we're going to we're going to talk about it because it was national news this is an opinion this is an actual story so here's a story it's not it's not it happened not too long ago, but not so far in the past, but with the age of social media, it just seems like forever ago. But it was a South Dakota Republican state representative who also worked as a licensed real estate agent that got fired from their brokerage because of a Facebook post. And it was a Facebook post that depicted protesters being hit by a car. Now, she then went back and argued as like, no, I wasn't depicting or promoting people should get hit by cars. But it wasn't just any people, was it Jason?

No, it was protesters. It's like, you know, keep your protesters. And her statement after was, I wasn't promoting people that got by cars. I was promoting people that they should be on the sidewalk, even though the image that she used was a car hitting people. So whatever. That was a story. But it went deeper than that because of the protester topics. Plus, it was right after a protester was run over by someone in a car.

So it was inappropriate now. It went viral and her brokers decided, you know what? You don't represent our values and we're giving you back your license. So I want to say she was fired. Her license was given back. Same difference. Same difference. She was fired.

And she was also fired from her job as a political figure and humiliated on national news. Of course, she brought that, I guess, on herself. They called that removed from office. Removed from office. But you know, this might be an extreme case. But yet it's so relevant in our industry, you guys. So we wanted to bring it up because we actually see posts on a daily basis on social media from realtors that violates the code of ethics or some other article. So even though we've given you an extreme case, tell me that you guys don't see some crazy posts from other realtors on Facebook in particular.

Here's what I want you guys to do for me. Finish the sentence. You know, some clients, they're so difficult to deal with that I and then whatever you want to put. and that's okay to think that let me let me some give you some best locations if you want to finish this sentence if in your head if you want to just say in your head finish that sentence your head not on social if you are in your office by yourself you can finish the sentence your sentence you can finish the sentence your spouse that's one way to do it if you're in your car alone yeah I was going to say caveat please make sure your clients aren't in the car listening to this podcast but here's the thing

it's okay to feel this way I'm not denying you your feelings what I'm denying is in that heated moment is you deciding the best place for me to finish the sentence, some clients that are so difficult to deal with that I, whatever, is on Facebook. That's the worst place for you to feel that way. And I always like to tell people, I'm not upset that you get angry. I'm upset of what you did in anger. Does that make sense? Yeah.

I continually get blown away, though. Like, for example, I saw a post that or one was turned into us where it said, you know, I'm paraphrasing because I don't have it right in front of me, but, you know, I can't believe somebody offered me a hundred grand under asking price. GTF, oh, something, something, you know, I don't know. It was all these acronyms with cursing and da-da-da-da. Offer rejected. People are so stupid.

Or, you know, it's like, why would you put that on Facebook? Okay, that was turned in. It did violate multiple codes or articles. and fines were doled out. But more than anything, guys, it's not just about the fine, it's back what we're talking about, is your two cents worth your commission because the way that we market on Facebook,

we know that your Facebook personal page will get more referrals than any other site, including your business page, including most ads. You want to get a huge part of your business from your sphere of influence. Well, most of your sphere is friends with you on Facebook. I was always curious. Seeing those posts.

Whenever a realtor post something about a frustration with a client that how, because they never called a client out by name, then how do you know the other clients that you have aren't going, is that me? Is that me? Or if we have a bad experience, is she going to talk about it on Facebook? Or they've getting a bad taste in their mouth for working with you or referring business to you because you're negative. Right.

So, but here's the thing. There's, I get the frustrations. Believe me. I get it. it's in the actions that we do that's going to get us in a world or hurt. Now, here's a thought process. I'm going to speak to the mind of the ROTOR. Well, you know what?

Hey, that's how I feel. And if take it or leave it, take or leave it. This is how it's my business. And if you don't want to work with me and deal with that, then I don't need you. That's great if you want to feel that way. But in a marketing world, anytime you make your world smaller, the less business you'll have. And why? we're not telling you just to clarify to lessen your values. We're not telling you to soften the line of your

beliefs. What we're saying is some things are better meant to stay in your brain and not on social media, okay? Because your two cents, is it worth your commission? Because people, it's a direct reflection on you. And it's so much bigger than just real estate transactions, you guys. It's about so much more. So let's cover just some general do's and don'ts. We're going to go through it pretty fast because some of these you guys already know, but we're all guilty of doing it anyway. So as Jason covers these, you might be like, yeah, I know, I already knew that one. But here's what I want to add because you might be sitting there listening going, well, I don't do that. I would never do that. Because I think we've, out of all the years we've been teaching, we tend to ask how many of you guys,

you know, might rant. I think we've had maybe seven people that will say, yeah, I've done that. Everyone else is like, I've never done that. Okay, so let me speak to you if you've never done that. That's all will and good. I hope that you never do. But here's something else that might get you in trouble, if not find. And it's less obvious. And it's less obvious if you don't be cognizant of it.

In these cases that we gave you where someone said, hey, 100,000 under asking price, GTFO, you know, offer rejected. That violated, obviously, some things that were going to get them in trouble, some rules or regulations. But here's what wasn't talked to. about is all the realtors that were commenting on that. None of them said, hey, maybe that's not the best thing to say or, hey, maybe you shouldn't say that or, you know, hey, look at the right side, you know, or this one realtor ranting about their clients, hey, I think clients are pretty good.

I know they have problems. None of that. All of the realtors coming out of the woodwork where you go, girl, I'm in that situation right now. Oh my gosh, I'm so with you. wearing your go girl. I hate my clients. It was that mob mentality. It's the mob mentality. Where they just like it opened a gate for them to complain about some of their frustrations too.

But then what's the danger in that? Well, the danger in that number one is you could also possibly get fine. Number two, that you as a bystander that's saying something to be enabling or what you say encouraging, I'm going to say enabling is you could also get fine. But also your clients are seeing that as well. And therein lies the danger that you may not have said it. But hey, because that person is my friend or I felt that way before, let me just chime in and let me kind of add to the fire.

And man, I cannot stress enough that no one's going to tell you, hey, the reason we're not choosing you as our realtor is because of the rant that you went on or because of the comment that you made on someone else's rant. I wish they did. I wish that. But they won't. They just won't use you. I know.

I wish that us as Roll Tours would be able to stand up to someone who that we know and say, hey, I know you've been frustrated, but let's talk offline about this. Or maybe you shouldn't do that because once you put something out there on the internet, it's there. You can take down. Just don't join it. Going back to her story, this representative took down that post. It didn't matter.

Damage was done. The damage was done. So you guys, I want to, Jason's going to give you some quick dues and don'ts, but I will tell you, I'm going to open Pandora's box and say that there's no bigger danger right now than in politics. You guys, we are in a volatile time and it doesn't, it does matter your opinion. It does. You should research for yourself and have a stand that you take politically.

But as your two cents worth your commissions, we're not saying lessen your values. we're not saying don't take a stand for the things that are right. But, you know, our pastor says this. I've never heard someone that converted to Christianity or converted from Democrat to Republican and Republican to Democrat because you lectured them into it on Facebook. Like, that just does not happen. So while we're not telling you not to have values or have a stand,

because you should the way we rant about it or put down other political parties, because they're not just saying how great something is. it's almost always putting down the other party is not a good reflection on you. And it's actually not even helping your cause anyway. People, that's not how people convert. So we're going to go through these things that you can talk about that most people say you can. We're going to show you whether you can do it.

But here's the research and the data. There is no win with politics. There just isn't. You can disagree with me or not. But I'm not going to argue with you because when you're right, you don't argue. So. No win on social media, of course. Of course.

That's fine. Yeah, I totally agree. So here's what I'm going to agree. I'm talking about. Let's say you and I think the exact same way politically, right? But I might be too extreme for you. I'll lose your business. Let's go the opposite route. Let's say that you and I think the exact same politically, but I'm not radical enough. So I'm either too radical or not radical enough and I lose your business because of what I said. We're of the same party, but I'm only speaking positive, but you're sitting there dogging the other party. Exactly. So now I'm thinking

your negative even though we're on the same party. So while you as the realtor might be thinking, well, I'm only going to work with people that I, you know, that have a political affiliation as similar to mine, that's okay. But again, inside of that political affiliation, like if you take a look, and I'm just going to break it down, if you take a look at both political structures, inside of each political structure, there are multiple factions inside of each political left or right, even some centerous or some independence, there's multiple facets to each political party. So I can't, so this is where we go into the extremes.

Now, again, I'm going to stop right there on the divergence of the political mechanism. So here's what I want to share with you. I'm going to make a quick, all right. Do's and don'ts when it comes to social media posting and what's going to work for you, your business, what's going to increase it, and then what's going to decrease it and cost you business. Number one, root for your team. Now, we were having a conversation last night. At least my wife was trying to have a conversation with me about sports.

Oh, my Lord, that didn't go far. I was trying to talk to him about how Beasley may not be playing for the Cowboys because they don't want to pay his salary and then what happened Jay? And then so then she starts talking about

does it Zeeke? Oh my God. For those of you don't know, I'm married to a very intelligent man who finds more joy in technology and reading, which I love and even video games and good care less about football.

So when I try to have a conversation with him about football, it doesn't go very far. In my defense, if we're watching National Geographic and they show an animal, I guarantee you I can name it. That's true. He blows my mind. And I guess I would rather if I had to choose be of that intelligence, but I'm not. So I focus on football. Last time I checked, there's no like National Geographic bars out there. There's just sports bars. So I can't relate. So why do we bring this up? So we bring this up because, you know, we're having a conversation. She's trying to tell me about, I guess it was Zeke.

We were talking about Zeke Elliott. That's his name. Anyway. Good job, babe. Talking about Zeke Elliott. She's like, can you believe that? And I don't know what side of the conversation I was supposed to be on. So I was like, yeah, that is horrible.

She's like, no, it's good. I'm like, exactly. It's so good. I was lost. Anyway, whatever your team is, if it's football, if it's baseball, basketball, Cricket, you know, whatever. I was just naming sports. Fencing.

You name it. CrossFit. Whatever your team is, root for that team. Show your pride. It is awesome to do on social media. That is amazing. You are going to get people coming out of the woodwork because you're like, let's go and then insert the name of your team.

And then you guys can talk and build rapport and that's awesome. But don't put down the other team. Why is it so hard? why is it so hard? We do say, do share your faith. It's okay to share your faith. I know for me, faith is important, and I know it might offend someone,

but here's what's so great, you guys. I do share my faith, but I never put down other people's faith or beliefs. Okay? So it's the same as a sports team. Share, don't put down. Now, this is change in our industry. It used to be like,

don't talk about religion. don't talk about, you know, this. It is, I don't think there's a religion out there that says don't share it. I know there's one, but, like, Scientology. But I'm not arguing people into mine. I'm not being negative. Correct. So here's the thing.

I think that there is a lot of power in being able to lift someone up. I think that the word is something that we are actually directed to spread the gospel. And so, so why wouldn't we? But there, I don't think at least I've never read something like you've got to put down all the other people. Yeah. No. Or at least maybe.

Leviticus, I don't know. That's pretty right. That would be a living out of it. Leviticus. Little dark reading for the Bible. So really, guys, this is just a general reminder that be careful what you post. You're not arguing somebody into another side. What you're doing is costing yourself business.

You're costing yourself relationships. And by no means are we saying money is where our morals should lie. What we're saying is you're not changing their mind by negative posts. So is your two cents worth. your commission. Not to mention, we don't want to spread negative energy anyway, right? And also the guilt by association thing. Oh my gosh. I think that's the one thing that if you pulled anything out of this podcast, if we've been beating your head. I get it. I'm not going to be ranting online. And here's just a little quick side note. If you ever, ever, ever start a post that says,

you know, I normally don't post this. Just stop right there. Just delete that backspace. Do you have any times Jason stop me for making that post? I'll say, Jason, I have got to post about this. This is really upsetting me and he's like, stop. Anytime you say I don't normally post this but dot, dot, dot, just don't do it. So, you know, we want you guys to be socially active as far as marketing yourselves. We want you to put your thoughts out there because your friends absolutely want to hear it. However, what we'd like to do is just to keep this phrase in your head. We've said it several times.

Is your two cents worth your commission? Does what you have to say, does it have to be online? or do you just need to say it out loud just to get it out there? And are you spreading love or are you spreading hate? Because your words are either fruit or poison. So good. All right, guys. Thanks so much for joining us today.

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