KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Leveraging Personal Networks in Real Estate with Jacintha Freeman

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

Friday Focus is your weekly mini-series from KGCI Real Estate On Air—a deep dive into one theme, broken into tactical, easy-to-implement episodes. Every Friday and Saturday, we unpack the strategies, scripts, and systems agents use to win more business—without the fluff.Catch every episode in the series to get the full picture, and put these moves into play by Monday.SummaryThis episode is an essential guide for any real estate agent who wants to build a consistent and predictable business without relying on expensive paid leads. Featured guest Jacintha Freeman reveals a strategic blueprint for tapping into your most valuable asset: your personal network. The discussion goes beyond a simple "how-to" and provides a powerful framework for creating a loyal, referral-based business that works for you.Key TakeawaysYour Sphere of Influence is Your Goldmine: Understand that your existing network of family, friends, and past clients is your most powerful lead-generating asset. The episode emphasizes that by providing consistent value and staying top-of-mind, you can turn your personal relationships into a powerful referral engine.The Power of Genuine Communication: Learn how to communicate with your network in a way that feels authentic, not salesy. The discussion provides a blueprint for using technology and social media to share valuable, non-salesy content that positions you as a trusted authority and keeps you connected with your sphere.Be a Problem-Solver, Not a Salesperson: Discover that the key to unlocking referrals is to be a resource for your network. The episode highlights the importance of providing value beyond a transaction, such as by offering local market updates, home maintenance tips, or a referral to a trusted contractor, to build a reputation as a valuable resource.From a Transaction to a Relationship: Understand that a single transaction is just the beginning of a long-term relationship. The episode provides a clear roadmap for providing a "white glove" experience to every client, which encourages them to become a loyal advocate for your business.Topics:Jacintha FreemanPersonal networkReal estate referralsSphere of influenceLead generationCall-to-ActionReady to unlock the power of your network? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start building a business that lasts! Ready for more? Subscribe to KGCI Real Estate On Air and grab the Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android. Inside, you’ll find our complete archive, 24/7 stream, and every Friday Focus mini-series—ready when you are.

Tactical, focused. Just like a top producer. Here's a sample from this week's Friday focus on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Hey, everyone. This is Real Estate Rich's podcast, and boy, is it going to be rich, full of the wealth and the tips and the tricks of all kinds of successful agents. Because that's what you want to be, right? A business builder who has success in their business,

well, that's what we got going on here. And I'm going to have all kinds of agents. women, young or older, sharing all their stuff because there's technology, there's just, how do you build your business? There's so many questions, right? So let's learn from some of the best. Gather your wealth and build your business. That's what this channel is all about, and I'm excited to bring it to you.

I'm Kathy Burns, and I'll be your host, and stay tuned. Let's get at it, right? Hey, everybody, it's Kathy Burns, and I'm here today with Jacintha Freeman. All right. you so much for being here. I'm excited to have you. Thank you for having me. Yeah. So as I just mentioned to you, my mission is to help all these realtors out there that are in the 40 plus age range that are like struggling, trying to figure out how they're going to work this crazy business, especially since NAR, and also about tech. I'm interviewing different agents like her so that we can

get a feel for like some nuggets from some pros that have been in the business that have experienced it. and help everybody out. So, DeSytha, tell us a little bit about your backstory. Like, how did you get into your place?

Yeah. Well, by trade, I've been a cosmetologist for over 30 years. Oh. So, yeah, my life has been servicing and helping others.

As far as, you know, helping themselves, love themselves, or feel better about themselves. So I've been a customer service for a long time. So my initial, I think life path is to help people.

So that's where a real estate fell in. I love real estate literally from the first home my parents bought. I love the whole process. We had a family agent. She's still active now. And she's an older lady, but, you know, I look up to her because I tell her all the time, you're the reason why I got into real estate. I absolutely just love the process. And even looking at the homes, like millions of homes that my mom was hard to please. So we looked at a lot of times. And I just fell into that. And I think about six years later, I say, you know what, let me go to real estate school. I actually ended up going. It was a little harder than I expected, but honestly, when you want something, you put your mind to it,

you just get it done. So I do exactly that. I got it done. I passed my test and I jumped in the real estate. And I thought it was going to be like, oh, hey, bam, here's my house. I want to hire you. Oh, no, ma'am, you have to put in some work. So I noticed really early on that it was similar to me building up a clientele, which I had to do in my previous business. So I think I have a little niche right there with that. I'm kind of used to building up a clientele and getting clients and lead generation and stuff like that with my older career. So I kind of eased on and took it along with real estate.

Let me ask you that because actually you probably had a whole sphere that you could say, hey, ladies, this is what I'm doing. And because they already knew you, trusted you, wanted to support you, did you get much business from that? I did. I did. I want to say the first year. I think I closed over 20 units and they were 90% my clients.

People who sat in the salon with me and I listened to my real estate test completely like all the time and they would just be pushing me on and pushing me on. You're going to get it like, let me ask you the questions while I would do the hair. Oh, yeah. So when I passed my test, everybody was like, okay now, okay, here I'm coming. And they actually, you know, the conversations would be now, hey, how are you today? Went from the weather to, hey, are you one of the, to buy a house or do you want to sell a house or do you want to purchase some real estate? Are you interested

in land? It was those conversations. So all of that converted me right into clients. Right. That is great. I love that story. And that's what a lot of people don't realize. I was talking to this guy today. Matter of fact, I had him on another podcast that I was filming. And he told me that his started with the wedding list. Wow. He goes, I got a whole wedding list and we had 250 some people. He goes, I'm going to work that wedding list because they know us and are like us, right? Correct. Correct. And he built that getting, what did he say?

He says one postcard a month and one video email a month. Like he said he originally started with bomb bombs because that video opens up in the email, which is awesome. And I said, well, what are you saying in those postcards? And he goes, I'm not doing just sold and just listed. He goes, that is really lame. He said, what you want to do? He goes, they're just going to pitch it anyway.

You want to be selling you. I said, man, does that make sense? But he said, it's a consistency, which I'm a big believer in. So I said, my niche is waterfront, the waterfront homes. And he said, you need to be doing a post about water temperatures. I said, oh, how interesting. I never would have thought of that. Or activities on the lake or the catch of the month and it could be a house.

You know what I mean? Right, right. Very creative. And I said, dang, I love that. So then I thought of tech. Do you use chat GPT at all? Yeah, right. Right? You can ask chat GPT, especially the 4-0. Give me ideas that are content for waterfront specialists or whatever my niche was, right? Whoever my people were. He says, because it's about being in front of them so that you are top of mind when they think realtor. Correct. And you don't need to be saying, do you need to buy a house? to do this, you just put your branding on there, your faces on there, and then some little ditty on whatever it is. And now you're talking about it hits their brain. It hits their brain and you're

like, oh yeah, she is an agent or he is an agent. Because sometimes they just don't think it because you have other agents in the market today. They're hitting left and right. They're hitting back and forth. And the biggest thing is to keep reminding them like you say, just keep reminding them, hey, if you're ever thinking about it, give me a call because they may not even be thinking about you that day, which doesn't mean that they don't want to work with you or they wouldn't like to work with you. It's just that they didn't provide. And you have to keep it on the top of everybody's mind, which kind of hints towards the social media. Right. And platforms that we have that are free that everybody can use and say, hey, don't forget about me today. Hey,

I'm thrilled to hear, you know, you kind of have to be. I think all the mediums are important. But when you were in the beginning and you got no money, I mean, I was trying to figure. figure out everything I could do with zero budget. Yes. You know, YouTube is free. Right. Facebook is free. Instagram is free.

So you can start on all those platforms. You just need to be consistent, you know. And I think utilizing chat GPT and even Google, even Google, you can, right now today, if you Google somebody's name, something's going to cut them up on them, no matter what it is. And that's not, you don't even have to pay for that. That's free. So if someone runs into me and say, hey, oh, her name's just in the free.

Let me Google her. Some things are going to come up about me, which are going to be reputable things, no matter whether there's things I've done in the past or whether it's things I'm doing in the future. They want to just know you're a real person, that you have real intentions, and that you are successful at the things that you do. So that alone will just take you a long way. It's just another part of social media. Yeah.

And what about Google Business page? I mean, that's free. Freed that out. Y'all is free. It seems to be expanded. its opportunities with all kinds. I haven't dove quite into it. But I keep reading about enhance that Google business page.

Get all your reviews on there. Yeah. If you get people to give your reviews, if like literally you just send 10 people a day that you know to just say, hey, give me a review. Can you give me a review? Either they're going to say, you know, when I want to buy a house,

she's going to be great to deal with or, hey, I bought a house. Or I'm thinking about buying and using her. It's going to be one of the three. So any review helps in those reviews boosts your, presence on Google. Yo, social media, everything. Yeah, I love it. So let's see, what do you thinking about that you're going to do different now that we've got this whole NAR thing? Are you more focused on buyers or sellers or what? You know, I always try not to close any doors because there's room to me to deal with whoever comes along, whether you're a buyer,

whether you're a seller, whether you're an investor. A real estate agent to me is just a real estate agent. That's just what I am. You know, I don't say, hey, I'm just going to go to one side because I just in my mind, why close out 30% of my population when I can have 100 and just keep everybody? So I don't mind working with the buyers or the sellers because honestly on either side, it's helping somebody. I don't see one as harder than the other or it's more difficult than the other. I see all of it as challenges and I see all of it as opportunities to help people. So with that, I just have one mind frame, get it done. Get your customers help get them what they need.

So I stay opening a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Have you ever had the disc profile done on you or do you know what I'm talking about? So the personality profile? Yeah, it's like Tony Robbins. I see it. It's a disc profile. D is like dominant, the driver, the I is the high fun personality.

So it's funny thing because the, yes. The team that I was on, she attempted to do one, but honestly, I did it on my phone instead of my computer. So I didn't exactly know how to click the buttons, but I went back and did it. And I found out that I'm a very dominant kind of push, push person. I'm more of a leader, you know, and things like that. I have a leader personality. So, yeah, I just found out about that a couple of months ago, which is so funny. Because at first I didn't even know what it was.

Yeah, I know. It's great. It's great for when you want to align yourself with different, even partners in the real estate business just to even do a deal with together. I like to know personality styles because I want to see if we're going to, we're going to gel or we're going to butt heads, especially by hiring us. assistant or a VA. I always have them. Yeah. I just wanted to touch this up a little bit before you go on. I think my thinking is a lot different from the normal person because I've went

through breast cancer. I have to take chemo, radiation. Right now I have lupus. So I have had a lot of sicknesses. I've been down a lot and, you know, when I'm down, I have a lot of time to think and process things. So when I'm up and I'm able to go and I'm able to move, I kind of look at it as like, okay, hey, it's another day for me to change somebody's life. So with that being said, my life was changed and I'm able to turn around and give and help people. So I think that's where my mind frame comes from when it comes to things happening in the market or the situation with ours. You know, it doesn't affect me as much I think as it would affect someone because I'm so grateful to still be here. I feel like my mission of life is to help people.

So that's why I say all in. Yeah, I love that. Well, the part that I was thinking about with NAR was like, what are you going to prepare better for your clients where they understand your value more? It sounds to me that may not be as important to you because you're already working within your sphere. They already value you, trust you, love you. If they say, I want to go buy a house and you say this is the commission, they're going to say yes. Feels like it. Yeah, and even the people that I don't know, you know, when it comes to new clients, I try to treat them the same way.

I want them to know who I am as a person. I want them to know how dedicated I am, no matter if I just met you two minutes ago. I'm no more dedicated to the ones I've known 20 years than the ones I meet two years or two minutes ago. When I meet someone and I say, hey, I'm going to help you. I'm all the way in. I'm fully in. And I'm actually going to push as hard as I would for someone I've known for a long time. So I just keep myself prepared and try to keep myself up to date so that I can give people more information.

Today, people want information. If you can provide the information and you can make them feel like you do know what you're doing and they can just kind of trust in just that alone without them even knowing you, that goes a long way as well. It does. The biggest challenge I think we're going to have is we have to have that signed documentation before you can even take them out and show them a property now. You know, I do that. I do that already.

I was taught, I started at Keller Williams and I actually was taught there to, hey, you sign a client up and you make them primary your only client so that you can, before you move your car, because people can jump from person to person from realtors. Realtor is calling all day. They don't mean to. They don't know how the system works. A lot of them honestly don't even know how we get paid. Right.

First question is like, do we pay you? I'm like, no, you don't come out of talking with anything. But, you know. That's different, though. No, no, no. That just changed. That's the part. Exactly.

So. Yeah. We can't even say that anymore. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So now you have to push yourself on them more and say, hey, this is why you need me or, hey, I can make this 10 times better for you than you would be on your own or I get to take the load off you. You have to push yourself on them more than the rules. So I think that's even better for a person because you have to get to know people regardless of whatever. Well, yeah, I agree. We just have to establish what we're getting paid now before we go out. In addition to signing that thing, It has to have that signed agreement on the payment amount. And that's what a lot of agents aren't realizing. So yes, they may very well be the ones paying us.

Right. And that's been the scary part that the public is hearing, oh, we're going to have to pay all these agents. Not necessarily, but you might. And that's what they got to know. And that's the whole thing that's tripping up a lot of agents. And what's so funny to me is that NARA, you know, this whole thing in the MLS where our community,

were put in there before. They didn't used to be. And they said the public was complaining and they were being hurt because it wasn't there. So they had it put in there. And now they're saying the public's being hurt. So now we've got to get it out. People. It kind of discourage you.

You know, you just have to stay strong. And like I said, just push yourself as a person to make these people understand why, hey, this is why you need me. You're going to get tired of looking for houses. I don't get tired of looking for house. This is my job. This is what I do. This is what I get paid for.

So just like someone else will go to a nine to five, if we take our job seriously and focus in on making these people happy and explain to them, hey, I found houses for you today while you were working. I'm valuable to you. I'm valuable to you. So you have to make them to say, hey, you know, you would want to pay me because I'm going to make your day a lot easier. I'm going to make your search or yourself a lot easier for you. You know, you have to sell yourself. And that comes with being honest to who you are and genuinely want to help people. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you. How do you feel that tech helps you with your business? Because I know you're a techie. You're building your own website and stuff. So how are you thinking that agents need to incorporate that into their business? I think agents could really spotlight themselves as a person.

That's the first and foremost thing. I think that the personality, you don't have to have the best personality in the world, but people do want to know that you're a real person. Hey, what are you doing, database? Do you drink coffee? Do you like cake? Do you have kids? Like, they have to normalize you as a person.

And then once they see you as a real person in the world, then they will start to look at, okay, well, what are you doing? What do you do? Then you explain, hey, you know, I'll make your life easier. I can help you find or sell your house or just kind of, you know, it's free to put it out there. So don't be scared to use it. A lot of people are scared to get on camera. If you don't like, it's avatars you can use.

There's no excuse. Today, you have to really just take these platforms. They're free. I don't have a ton of money to spend on social media. So an hour a day, I take time and I post on all the. of my business pages and you can do the same thing. You know, in the morning time is when people, everybody's picking up their phone in the morning before they go to work, trust me.

That's right. And in the evenings, before you go to sleep, you're going to have that phone in your hand no matter what time you go to sleep. So if you just keep your mind on people's minds when they're looking, he's got to be smart about it. Hey, just think about, hey, when do I pick up my phone? Oh, I pick it up in the morning, on a lunch break and I pick it up in the evening. That's three times a day.

You can tell yourself without having to pay for someone to tell you when the post. Right. And then you find your target audience. You say, okay, well, who am I selling to the most to? Who have your soul the most to? You try to punch out those people. Maybe that's your niche. Maybe that's your age group.

And, you know, hey, work with what you have. You have to work with what you have. And then once you get rich, yeah, you can pay somebody to do that all day. But I kind of enjoy doing it myself because, like I said, they get to see your personality. They get to see what you put into it, the hard work and the dedication. Because it takes time and dedication to make those TikTok reels and Instagram, reals and videos and when people see your content, they enjoy. So yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, thank you so much. You've really been helpful and

insightful and I appreciate your time. And I know you help some agents out here. Yes, I hope so. Yeah, agents listen, y'all don't give up. Y'all keep pushing. If I can do it, y'all can do it. And, you know, women, hey, it doesn't matter if you have a kid, two kids, five kids, 10 kids, you know, whatever you're doing in life, you can always make time for your goals, make time for things. that you want to do. And us as realters, we do change lives. So just keep that in mind when we're working. And that way, it'll kind of push you to want to do better and going forward and just help more people, y'all. So. Yeah. Those are wise words. Lise words right there. I love that. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And if you like this, please subscribe below. And we will

have all of her contact information for you to be able to reach out to her. And what area are you in? I'm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. But I'm service. Hey, New Orleans. Wherever you are, I can come to in Louisiana. All right. Everyone. She's your girl right there. So thank you very much. And bye for now, buddy. Thank you. Thanks for joining me on this episode of Real Estate Riches. Wasn't that great? I'm sure you've got a nugget or two. I know I did. So if you liked it, please subscribe below. Share it with everybody. Make some comments. We really find that invaluable. And if you're thinking that you would love to talk about this a little bit more. Let's get to a business strategy call.

I'll have the link below. Let's see if we can't mastermind together and see if we can't empower each other. That would be great. So until next time, signing off. Hope to see you on the next one.