KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Real Estate Events 101

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

Welcome back, real estate rock stars. Today's guest is Eddie Massa, otherwise known as the Houston real estate guy on the gram with his 266,000 followers. He's a broker, he's a title rep, and most importantly for today's show, he is a marketing expert. Today, Eddie and I go deep into how he left all of the boring real estate meetups in Houston in the dust by creating the go-to monthly social gathering for everyone in real estate. and everyone's talking about it. It's called the real estate social. Eddie consistently brings in 200 people to his event monthly, and today he breaks down exactly how he does it. So what to look for in a venue, how to get sponsors to cover all of your costs, creative ways to create FOMO, and how to turn that FOMO into an entire business plan. So if events are a part of your marketing strategy, this one is for you. Rockstars, please welcome, Eddie. You have worked in VIP nightlife management and fine dining and hospitality and in commercial appraisals and the title world and the broker world. And it's really cool that you've combined all of these experiences into a beautiful thing called the real

estate social. So what is this social networking event that you do? And let's stick into why it might be helpful for listeners to do some sort of a networking event within their marketing strategy. 100%. So when I started in title, I started going to these networking, networking events that most people go to. And to be honest, they're really lame. So I was like, you know what? I might as well create my own. You know, I've been doing this for, you know, hospitality for 15 years and up. And I'm like, let's create a culture in Houston that's real estate related. So created the real estate social. I was like, you know what? That's a good brand. I want to create like a fun networking event that's not intimidating for people. So there's no like passing coosies or passing business

cars of like different little areas. It's just really a networking event that's very just natural. So what I do is I invite real estate agents, lenders and builders are free. And then the rest pay a fee to get in. That way we filter out. I really want to make sure it's real estate professionals only and keep that exclusivity there. So it's been great. I've been doing it for a little bit over three years now and it's been a hit like 150 to 200 people go and it's all people for all over the city so it's been great for my business and for everyone else's business dude okay we got to break it down so you went to these other ones and they were lame how from that point forward like how are you like i'm just going to start an event or what it what did you do to actually start this event so i mean

working in the bar industry i know all the owners so it was pretty easy for me it's a planet so i just like called the owner of a bar and i'm like hey i'm going to throw an event there again me a shot. He's like, all right, cool, here it is. Here's the keys. So yeah, that's kind of how I just had it winged it at first. And the more I did it, the more tweaking I got, I use Eventbrite as my platform for software. And that tool is amazing. You know, you can do email blast. You can do ads on there. So it's kind of like a one-stop shop. Yes, you pay a little bit more to use it. But again, it's just all about time. Your time is your money. So that's what I use. And it's been great for me so far. Okay, so step one, you called your, your friends of the bar industry to get

a venue. But let's say now that you've done this a bunch of times, if someone is looking for a venue to do a not lame event, like literally just R&D yours kind of, you know, duplicate it. Which, by the way, listeners, go check it out. It is on Instagram, the real estate social. So go check that out. And also check out Eddie, of course. He is the Houston real estate guy on Instagram, but bringing it back. So in your lessons learned, Eddie, what are some tips on choosing a venue? So, you know, standing room is important. Know the amount of people you're going to have the first event. It's always important.

Parking is if you're in a city that requires that, always look in that as well. The type of music you have as well, I actually bring my own DJ for each event. That was really important to me. So I want to create the environment. But also just having a, just changing it up every month. I've noticed when I went to other networking events, they kept it at the same venue. I feel like changing it up every single month or whenever you do an event is super important because it keeps people engaged, keeps people excited.

And you're also kind of given a tour of wherever you're, whatever city you're in, while thrown in events. So it's just a fun way to be like a food and bar influencer without even trying. Okay, with the venue, okay, standing room, the amount of people parking, are you paying for what are your thoughts on paying for the event space? I personally don't do that. I think it's, you know, if you're bringing it an off day, the bar wants you there. If you bring 100 people to a venue, they're typically not going to charge you a venue fee.

So my advice is if they charge you a venue fee, don't do it there. There are definitely a lot of local businesses that want you there, and that's important to support them. So focus on those bars that want you there and it's an off night, like a day. Tuesday or Wednesday, those are the best days to do it, especially in real estate, because like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, they're working, they're showing home. So that's my strategy is I do mine on a Wednesday in the middle of the month. So that's kind of how I do it on my end. Okay.

Is it the same what week Wednesday? So is it like, I know that the venue is changing, but at least is the date changing? Sometimes it is. It just depends on, like, for example, spring break goes on like the beginning of the month. So I typically adjust to that. So I try to make it just adjusting with the calendar and make sure it works for everybody and also the industry itself. And also my traveling schedule helps too. My personal life.

Yeah, people show up. They keep it, they're always watching when it is and I'm really good about getting it in front of everybody. So you can honestly do it. As long as you're at a consistent time around there, you can make it happen. The date doesn't really matter. Okay. Time of day. Time of day.

So I've played around with this. So at first I did it from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. That was a little too short. So I actually moved it up from 530 to 830. Just gives people time to get there during rush hour. So that's been working for me. But in terms of like an actual networking event, that's prime time. Okay, gotcha.

530 to 830. And do you have like a schedule of events? Do you have like a speaker? Do you like address the group or is it just kind of a mingle? What does it look like? it's a straight up mingle for this one. And that's really, you know, it's funny. Like real estate angels, like, why should I go there? I don't want to, you know, network with other real estate agents. I'm like, guess what? You're going to do a deal with who? Another real estate agent.

So I'm like, that's how it's always good to go there and just meet other people in the industry because you might work a deal with them. And if it's a multiple offer situation, hey, guess what? You're probably going to win that because you already built a relationship with that real estate agent. So it's funny. I hear that multiple times. I'm like, just come check it out. I'm not, I'm not forcing you. You're going to meet some cool people out of it. And guess what? You might be in a builder and make your careers. So you never know.

So it's a straight up mingle event, which scares some people, but they're going to give it a shot. They walk in and is it like, is there food? Is it like go up to the bar, get whatever you want? Are you welcoming them at the door? How does it? I need to, I need more. I forgot.

Let me explain that part. I forgot I'm breaking it down from scratch. So yeah, I do have a check-in area there. And I only give drink tickets to real estate agents. And that's provided by sponsors. So at first, I was really paying it by myself and maybe another sponsor. So I was really limited on, you know, how many tickets I can give out. But it's always important to only hand out to real estate agents because you want them there.

And so does every vendor there too. So that's kind of my strategy. And it definitely works. You're also capturing those emails too at the event, right? So data is key in this world. And that's how I promote my events and keep on adding more people to my email list. So it works out. Okay, so there's the check-in area and they're getting, is one or two?

How many? Literally, I'm asking all these questions because I'm like, someone out there wants to be you. 100%. Yeah, so I actually give one ticket out to real estate agents. And then I give a certain amount to sponsors. That way they can hand it out and use it as candy for to track these real estate agents or future partners in the real estate professional world. Okay, so smart.

And then in that tech and area, you mentioned. capturing data. How are you capturing the data? So Event Bride's my biggest, my biggest, what's I call it? I guess you can say, that's a software that, you know, I get all the, all the people that sign up. So it's going to be the biggest way. Instagram too, obviously, I use that as a tool for promotions, but I'm really, I'm really like new school in terms of like how to get an event out there. And I use, and I've learned this through like my, my time from when I was 15 years old promoting a teen nightclub to what I do now. I've always use social media as my biggest tool.

Dude, and I mean it shows you have a bajillion followers. Listeners, he has 266,000 followers and so many. Follow me, I need some more. Yeah, dude, give them all the love. Also go to YouTube if you're not watching this. We look so cool. We do.

That's right. But Eddie, so you mentioned Eventbrite, but is this like a QR code or are they like signing in? I'm just trying to figure out the actual capture moment. Got you. So I put a link up on my. bio or the real estate social bio and you know for you put websites typically so that's really sign up is there and also the stories but it's just a link that you click so the vent bright is just a software

kind of like an ebyte essentially it's the same thing it's just more of like you can ask certain questions like what company you work for you can be very specific on what data you want from that person signing up so i've always yeah go for i was okay this makes sense so they're signing up ahead of time. And at the door, though, are you like, you're funneling through, like if they haven't signed up at that point, you're like, hey, you got to sign up. Correct. In order to get their drink ticket, they have to sign up, and that's how I require them to do that. Okay, so smart. I did something really cool lately, though, and, you know, take this advice. It's really cool. So usually you hand out like a drink ticket. Everyone sees those, like they look like raffle tickets.

I thought those were really boring. So I kind of created my own dollar. I wish I had, I may have it. I can go pull it up if you want it. But anyway, it's like a dollar that shows has all the sponsors. There's a real estate social branding on it. So it's kind of like you're using your own real estate social currency buying the drink. So it's pretty fun. Just different ways to get my sponsors in front of agents' faces. So it's really cool. It's been working so far. Very cool. Okay. So they've showed up at, you know, 531. There's a line out the door. And they're going through and you or your assistant is checking to make sure that their name was on the event bright. They RCPed if they didn't. They need to do that.

show proof. Then they get their one drink ticket, the special hyper-marketing cool one. And then they are, and by the way, is this you who's manning the door or is it someone else? I usually hire someone else to do it. It's mostly like a check-in person that I hire. That way, I can go out and mingle and help my sponsors get in front of people as well. Okay. And the sponsors are probably already there. They showed up. Correct. Okay, gotcha. So they're there. If they show up at like 30 minutes, it's fine. But usually people start showing up like 30 minutes after, and that's when you'll see most of the real estate agents come. Okay, totally. That's something that I learned through. Pines and Properties is my real estate event. It's an investor-specific

one that I've run for years. I don't run it in this moment, but there's nationwide now. Yeah, so I was in the Army before getting into real estate. And so like, you know, if you're not 10 minutes early, you're late. And that was like my mentality with everything. And I'd be like, the guest speaker is, because we used to do a speaker, is starting like right at this time. And I would be so mad when people would just stroll in, you know, 30 minutes after. And so it took me a while, but finally learned that whatever the start time, you should not actually count on anyone being there. If you wanted to start at a time, you have to backdate it 30 minutes prior. And that's what you push. 100%. Not only that, but like, no offense, but real sedate agents are kind of

flaky. So let's say 100 people signed up. Yeah, it didn't happen. Sorry, it's true. I'm, you know, but it's it's a free event so people do sign up and don't show up. So typically I have like a 60% success rate of whoever shows up to the event. And that's like typical across the board on anything I do. Okay. So at this point, they are coming in and they're mingling. They have their drink tickets. So they probably go to the bar and they get the drink in their hands.

So they feel a little more comfortable. And then the sponsors and you are like in charge of mingling and making people talk to each other. What does it look like? Honestly, it's like it kind of happens naturally. Like it's not, yes, I go mingo introduce myself, but it's just, people just feel comfortable there. So it's not really, it just happens naturally, like I said. So it works out. Okay, gotcha.

And food or no food? I don't have food there. It just gets messier. I've tried it. Totally. And plus a lot of these bars don't have food there. So do I try to, that's another thing. I try to choose bars that do have food because they end up staying longer.

So if they do have like snacks or whatever, that's kind of like a good go-to. So I'm really careful about like choosing venues that have food. Okay. And then the mingling happens and people leave. And that is the event. Is there anything that we miss like from the actual event itself? I think you got it down. It's again,

I keep it really simple. I do change it up sometimes like I bring a saxophone guy or I bring a magician or like a street. Dude. Again, it's just just try to again, you want people to talk about you want it's all about capturing content as well. So if you were posting it, people are going to be like, oh, I missed out. I want people to have FOMO all the time. That's always my goal. Okay, so it says the, okay, perfect. This is a great segue into marketing. So on the back end, you have picked your date, your time, which, by the way, how far in advance are you picking these or are you doing it like

month to month? I'm doing it month to month just because like if there's a new bar that opens, I'll be ready. I usually want to do that. Like, if there's a brand new spot that open, it's just a good way to promote that business. So I typically do two to three weeks of market, like, I choose two to three two to three weeks in advance. And that's when I start promoting it. And you, you mentioned Eventbrite and Instagram. Those are your two primary. So just to confirm, is this correct? Where you have it on your real estate social, the real estate social page. You also have it on your Houston real estate guy, Instagram, and you're sharing it in your stories with the link to the event right to RSVP. Is there, how else are you marketing it? Facebook's another one.

That's kind of another one. I usually get the older generation, like 40 enough for that one. But hey, they do. That's, that's another one. And, you know, it's, it definitely works. LinkedIn, sometimes I use that, but I don't get too much luck. I want to say a lot of my commercial clients are on there, so they were always on top of that. But, Most of the residential people at Facebook is going to be the best, the best platform. Okay. And it's all about sharing the, you're just pushing the Event Bright link. Correct. And the cool thing about it is it will show up as a flyer. So it makes like, it makes it pretty.

It's not just like, hey, here's a link. You know, it's like, it says real estate social and it's, it's nice. So it's another reason why I like Event Bright. And if you text it too, it's, it sometimes shows as a flyer, which is like that as well. So again, it's just an easy platform to use. I use it for all my types. events and it works really well. Okay, so in Event Bright, you can create the pretty flyer, which I love. I love a pretty flyer, man. And then from there, you said, you also mentioned email blasts and ads. So, Event Bright has its own platform for email blasts that you can pay for. I think you believe I do about 6,000 a month, 6,000 emails that they'll do automatic for you. So again, you can pay It has different platforms and different, what's it called?

Subscriptions, you can say. And then they also provide, so I don't know, Instagram and Facebook are really weird about promoting real estate events. So I can't really promote it on there with ads. But Event Bright has its own platform where you can pay for Event Bright ads. That way, if people are searching for like real estate networking events, mine would be the first one to show. And it's been working so far.

I just started that, I want to say in January, actually last month. I think I forgot it in January. And it's been working really well. I got like 20,000 impressions within three weeks. So just getting more eyes on the brand. And when you mentioned 6,000 emails a month, so are you, when you're capturing this data, are you transferring it over into a CRM or are you just, you're continuing to follow up right there through event brat?

Wow. I keep it on Event Bright, but I'm also from the title business. I do my research beforehand and see who's coming. And then I also do my research for followups afterwards as well. So I put that in my CRM to reach out to those people directly. Follow up. So beautiful. Okay.

Sales, baby. That's what we do. Right? Oh, my God. Okay. So that's marketing. We have Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Eventbrite, which once they have a minute. So actually, that's one question, too.

Once they've RSVPed, how many times are you reminding? Like, what is your tempo or what are you emailing these people when? you do email them. So it's only one reminder and it's two days prior. I try not to overload them because then they start getting annoyed and unsubscribe. So I really try to minimize, annoying them as much as possible. Totally. Does it text as well? I don't do text. No, it's mostly just email because, again, like it's for events. Everyone gets bombarded by events. So I really want to keep it not annoying and get people engage and make it the cool thing to be and kind of exclusive too. No, I mean, it makes sense, like, which we'll dig into in a minute about how you mentioned

the music, wait, the magician and a saxophone player and stuff like that and content creating FOMO is everything because that's so true. There are so many events out there. Most of them are super lame. Like, even agents will do open houses and they're super lame or they'll do a ton of different things and they're just super lame. But if you take a step back and you're like, what would I want to go to? What would look so cool, you know, on the internet? They'd be like, dude, I do not want to miss that next month. I am going and then just create that event. Exactly. That's what it's all about. Again, there's a lot of trial and hour, trial and error out there, but you just have to see what works and see what people like, but also put in some creativity

in it because, you know, again, we're in this industry where a lot of people are doing the same thing. So you have to stand out and that fit in. Before we move on from marketing on the ads, how much an ad spend, you said you've been doing it for about a month. What does that look like? So I started with finer bucks the first month. I did around $750 to $1,000 this month. So that's when I got the 20,000 impressions. I think it's going to work. It's just a different way to get out there.

And for me personally, not to go out there and pass out flyers is the easiest way to get in front of people. Yeah. Okay. And then to kind of go back to the creating FOMO, are you hiring a professional like videographer, photographer for your events? I do. I have a photographer and videographer that comes. I typically, so I want to say I do a video every other event, but for the most part, I just want to capture pictures because pictures are what people are going to repost and all that. So the video itself is mostly just for pictures are the ones that people share. And what is your tempo, I guess? Because you're not,

you're not emailing out the pictures. You're just posting them and then tagging people? Or what What does that look like? Yeah. So if I know who's on the picture, I tag them. But typically I post them on my Facebook page. So I require them to go on there and see who's on there. But I'd post like around 10 photos at a time. That way people can scroll and stay engaged and then share it.

So that's the way I strategize on my social media post for that. Okay. So we have the photographer. We have the videographer. We have the FOMO. So I'm curious about the, because to kind of bring it back to the mingling, like are you, On your event bright, are there people's Instagram handles? Like, are you requiring that?

And then are you doing outreach? I guess how are you building the FOMO connective, the stickiness? So on EventBright, you can add photos on there. So I typically add photos from previous events if they've never seen it before. And I do type in at Real Estate Social so they can see what, if they end up going on there, they can see the whole event on the actual social media page. Gotcha. So I think at this point, we have the venue, we have marketing for the event, we have the event itself.

Now can we talk about follow-up? So what happens post-event? Besides, of course, we just talked about the photos. What else happens post-event? It's a post-event. I actually use a different email blast software to say, thank you for coming and here are sponsors, follow me. You know, that's kind of how I make my own email chain essentially that I send like the next day. That way people see it.

They were brand new to the event. They're like, hey, this is the guy that's running it. People are aware. People who's aware who's sponsoring as well. So it's kind of my strategy on that. I use a email software called benchmark. I've tried MailChimp. It wasn't a huge fan.

And I really like benchmark because it's cheaper. It's easier. You can create your own content out of it. So try it out. It's good. It's easy. My affiliate code is. Yeah.

I don't get anything for me. Yeah. I should go, though. That's what I'm saying. Get your link. Hey, if you get it before this thing goes live, we'll put it in the show notes. 100%. Sponsor me.

Yeah. And actually, speaking about sponsors, that's something that I never did. And I know it's a huge opportunity loss. So can you talk about what you are doing with your, just anything you got with sponsors. And I'll ask questions from there. For sure. I mean, I guess we can start with. the cost of the event. So I typically, let's say you hand out a drink ticket, those of each

one, they're $13, right? Let's say someone, that's on average. And so you have to like figure out how many people are coming to your event, how much you're going to spend. And now you're going to figure out, once you figure out the accounting part, then you're all right, this is how much sponsored your money I need to host the event and to provide marketing for it. So typically I have a two different tiers on my marketing. I have a digital marketing, which I charge $500 a month for that's just to be on the flyer to be exposed on social media and then i have a thousand dollar a month one which includes drink tickets you're on a banner as well i forgot to mention that i have a photo wall that has their sponsors it says real estate social so it's just another way to get

people in front of it um so that includes that includes the email list from the event so they can do their follow-ups it also includes me as their sales rep at the event to push the whatever product they're using so that's kind of the strategy you've been working and so far I have five or six sponsors each month. So I use every single dollar towards the marketing and towards the event or drinks, whatever it is. So the more I get, the more I spend on marketing, the more I spend on drinks. Or I keep it a little, the event going a little longer if it's, if it's pumping. So which it probably is with the with the magic. What's his name? Magician. Magician. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So you mentioned $13 a ticket for the drink

tickets. You already mentioned that they get one. They might get more from sponsors later. But how much in the venue is free. Awesome. The venue is free. How much does the photographer, videographer, the magician, the saxophone, how much how much roughly are we looking at for that? Just to put it on average, it costs about a hundred bucks an hour for those type of professionals. So the magician's a little more. He was like $200 an hour, but again, he's really good at I bring every once in a while. The DJ, about $100 an hour, a saxophone guy. around there. Photographer, videographer, there's different prices for them. So I try a lot of different ones that are cheaper and more expensive. And I try to find that happy median at around

$100 an hour. All good to know. And you mentioned that you had five or six sponsors. Are they spread out across the tiers? Yes. Actually, most of them are, all of them are the $1,000 one. And the cool thing is I make it exclusive for that sponsors. So I only have one lender, one brokerage. one title company, aka Riverway title, it's mine. And then also, whatever, if it's, have a cabinet guy, a cybersecurity, and a brokerage, did I say that? That's it. Yeah.

So I just keep it very exclusive to whatever tier they're in. So, and they like that, you know. Yeah. Of course, I allow those lenders and all that to come to my event, but to be a sponsor, I'm very exclusive to that. They're paying money to have their brand up there. So I'm respectful of that. Good.

which and how are you marketing to the sponsors? It's mostly word of mouth. They come to the event, they like it, and they ask me. So I really don't really chase sponsors just because, you know, I let them chase me. So it works out. I mean, that's the power of creating FOMO online. It's like whether, you know, the people we talk to about YouTube or they have big Instagram or whatever, it's like the more that you can create this FOMO and this. whether it be a subject matter expert in a realm and people know you before speaking to you,

it's like you're not selling anymore. True. It's not about how many people you know, it's how many people know you. So that's important. We're going to clip that. Yeah. Quote that one. Okay.

Is there, is that any sort of agreement? I'm thinking about, okay, if I'm listening to this and I'm like, great, a sponsor comes up to me, are we handshaking? on $1,000, $1,500, or did you get someone to draw it up? What does that look like? At first I did, but I use this thing called Chat, TBT to make my little contract. So I created a little presentation that shows, like, a three-pageer, shows like what each shot tier includes, and then like a signature and kind of a little legal terms of once you're a sponsor, like let me know two weeks in advance if you want to not be a sponsor or stuff like that.

Like all the lingo goes on the third page so they can sign and send to me. That way I have that in my documents. Okay. In one cost that we didn't talk about, the person at the door. So I typically pay someone in my office to do it, but let's just say I spend around, I think $100 for them to come for three hours. I pay them well. I'm like, you know, they're part of my staff. So I'm like, all right, come. It's extra after hours. Yeah. So typically like $20 to $40 an hour is the average to pay someone to do that or have someone volunteer is always nice too. Yeah. We used to have interns.

And we would, they were free for us. They were paid. The Army has this career skills program that you can intern with the business of your choice for six months prior to getting out and you still get paid by the Army. And we used to do that all the time, have all of these soldiers. Anyway, I digress. So. I need an intern.

What's that? I need some interns. Dude. And actually, there's not a military, actually, isn't there a military installation by Houston? There probably is. I mean, Texas is, right? Yeah. Because I have the paperware, I have the process for how we did it. So if you're seriously

interested, I can send you that. I'm always, I'm always down to teaching people. Yes, I was saying the free labor, but you're like, let's. I'm teaching them. I'm not, I won't take advantage, obviously. No, of course, of course not. Um, okay, something else I thought of, do you do any like swag giveaways, anything like that? Uh, I tried that. I just thought it got a little messy and kind of cheesy once I started doing that. You know, and I really don't, I really try not to go on the mic or anything during the event. I really just, again, I keep it very casual, keep a mix and mingle. Yeah, but I've really, I'm not a big fan of the giveaway stuff. I feel like that cheeses it up a little bit, and for my event particularly, but other stuff, it might work, but

got to my stuff. And with the photo wall, can you describe what that looks like? It's about 10 feet by 8 feet. It's massive. I got this company, I think it's called stickers and banners.com. They sell it on there. And it's cost around $600 total, maybe $500, if I remember correctly, but you update the banner. The banner costs like $300 to $400 to create and ship to you. But yeah, again, it's like a roly one. It's really easy to maneuver. It's easy to put up. But it looks good. It looks professional. People love it. So do you have, do you do anything like to direct people to tag your you know or no not really i think it happens naturally they tag us because it's such an easy brand to to do so i think that's another thing is like when you're doing these events like i could have

called it my company's social but i wanted to create something cool and different so creating a side brand for whatever event you're doing i think that's important too like that's why i created the real estate social because it's like it just sounds cooler like instead of going to like the riverway social they're like let's go to the real estate social just again it just like creating a restaurant or a bar that's like you have to create a cool brand that's memorable and easy to say so marketing um marketing manpower behind the scenes do you have like an assistant who helps you with all this or are you doing it what does that look like it's all me i do all social media posts everything uh it doesn't take me that much time i want to say the

social media stuff does a little bit but um i think eventually i'll get an assistant for the marketing stuff in terms of for posting and doing all that fun stuff. But for the most part, yeah, that's what people get intimidated by these things, but just kind of, you know, just have to, you know, manage your time a little better. And it doesn't take too much time to organize an event like this once you get going. Because Event Bright again helps me a lot when in terms of creating the event and getting it out there. So. Gotcha. Okay, what did, what did I miss in regard to doing this event? I think you got everything. I'm pretty sure I went down, broke down all the stuff for the prices and all the goodies.

So if you want to create a networking event, this is just like a good little, I guess tool. I give you all my magic on this one. Love it. Okay, let's talk real quick then. I have a couple more things I want to ask you. But before we move on from this, managing expectations. I know that there's many people who want to come out the gate and be just like Eddie. Do you have any realities that you would like to share?

struggles, realities, anything like that. Yeah. I mean, again, I started this event three and a half years ago and only like, I want to say 30 to 40 showed up. And, you know, I wasn't discouraged. I know these things take time to promote and get the name out there, but just keep it going and just keep tweaking your event each time. Like, what did you learn from that event?

Write down what you learn and see how you can fix it and make it better for the next one. So that's really important to do. And don't get discouraged. if no one shows up to your first event because there's something you did wrong and it's not you just learn from that mistake and tweak it so i think to listeners if you're seriously considering doing this i would highly recommend that you go to eddie's personal page and to his um the social the real state social page on instagram and just look at what he's doing um because i i know a lot of people have tried to start meetups in the past. And each month, it feels like, oh, gosh, I've had, you know,

they would be so excited if they had 30 or 40 people come to their first event. But it's one of those things where it's like, don't get discouraged, but also if something's not working, don't, you can't just do the same thing over and over again, look at someone who's doing it really well, figure out how theirs looks and how yours looks differently to try to adjust and lean on their lessons learned and their successes to implement into your own business. Not only that, but another strategy. Let's say there's some other networking groups, for example, like HAR has YPN, so it's the young professionals network.

It's always good to team up with them too at the beginning, because that way you get bodies there and that awareness. So I do stuff like that for Women's Council of Realtors. I'm actually their event director. So I combine the event sometimes. So again, it's just another way to not reinvent the wheel, but you combine forces and you can go out the gate strong. When you do that, how does it, like, what does partnering up look like?

Are you putting their, are you co on the event bright, on the flyers on, okay. So typically, yes, and this is more of a nonprofit thing, so I don't charge them. Like, hey, you're bringing realtors there. So I'm not going to charge you. I'm just like, let's team up and partner up and invite more people to this event. And we all win because it makes you look cool, makes us look cool. And it just works. And yeah, I really try to team up with nonprofit, also nonprofit organization.

is what will help too. So if you want to do that, that's always a plus. Hypothetically, if you did not have the following that you had and you were starting from scratch and you went up to these bars, whether it's bars or whether it's, you know, people to partner with you, what would that conversation look like when you had less social proof backing you? You know what? I didn't have that problem when I started because they're like, hey, just try it. You know, I think these bar owners are, they're happy to have an event. there regardless of how many people show up. So it's one of those things that set expectations from the jump. Hey, look, this is a new event. We're building it. Once it gets going and it gets bigger, we're going to come back to you and support you, but just give me a shot.

And in terms of getting people there, just, you know, it's one of those things. Sometimes you have to go old school and text people and make those phone calls of, hey, look, I'm throwing this event, come support, bring your agents to do this and be like, and that's kind of how you have to do it. So if I was going to start from scratch, had no social media following nothing, that's how I would do it. I would just go. old school, text, call, email, just invite, personally invite people to the event. Okay, gotcha. Is this, and now we have finished this part of the conversation, I think. Is this your sole marketing strategy? Or what else are you doing for marketing? Oh man, for the title business, I do a lot. But this is my biggest networking face-to-face marketing. I do throw events for builders as well. So I kind of use the same strategy and make an event bright and throw development parties as well.

So I do a couple of those events with my bigger partners. So the builders love it, especially because it gets more exposure, gets more content of their houses and all that. But other than that, I do have another strategy that I do, and it's called an off-market list. So I create this list, like I want to say a year ago, and I gather off-market properties or upcoming properties, and I just do a cool email blast. It makes it kind of like an exclusive email blast.

So you have my face on the top. It's just another way to get more awareness of what I'm doing and also my personal brand. So that works for me really well. And I think you can use that as a real estate agent as well. You just have to have those connections. And especially during your brokerage, like they have a lot of pocket listings too. So it's the same thing. I just do that with commercial and residential and combine it and make like 50, 60 different properties.

So those two things are my biggest strategies in terms of bringing in business form. me. Also, joining different networking groups is super important to like women's council of realtors, a young professional network, NARP, National Association of Hispanic Real Estate professionals. Sorry, I said that pretty quick. But again, joining those networks really helps your business and also just getting in front of people. I mean, whether you're a real estate agent, lender or a builder, you need to build your network and you need to get in front of people. That's the key. Okay, quick couple questions on Instagram. Then we're going to head to wrap up. You have 266,000 followers on Instagram. That probably didn't happen overnight. Can you talk about

your growth on Instagram, kind of like where you started, when it took off, why you think it took off, like basically just an overview. Yeah, for sure. And again, it's, it didn't happen overnight, for sure. But I noticed like my personal videos, they had okay engagement. And again, it's not, you're, you're going to shoot content it's not about you it's about them it's what what people want to see so i noticed like the broke agent was posting a lot of funny videos and like and that's kind of the strategy i took i started you know what i can do this i can create funny content that's real estate related and that's what really worked for me so i throw my professional stuff in the mix but my funny content and humor content that's the one that goes viral and to get people to follow me then afterwards and then i keep them

hooked with all the information I post about, whether it's Houston related or the market related. But again, that's how you get people engaged. I think humor is the easiest way to get people engaged. And what was the timeline? That only took really a year. I had one video that had like 600 or 700,000 views on it. And that's really what blew it up. So I want to save a few months.

But again, I just, you know, the algorithm changes all the time. So I think I got a little lucky with that in terms of, Instagram pushed my reel because that was the time when like reels are being pushed really hard. Now it's changed a little bit and again, it changes all the time. You just have to adjust and see what works and what people are engaging. But I've noticed a lot of real estate agents posting the same stuff and I feel like that content doesn't mean is not as push as hard. If it's just a picture of a house or a video of a house, it's just people get bored of that

and they kind of just skip through it. You want to keep people engaged for longer than seven seconds and that's the goal. Yeah, it's hard. I think tapping into the creative juices is challenging. And then there's this like debate of like, you know, there's the rip off and duplicate type of like, oh, that worked really well. I'm going to do that for myself. But then there's also this thought of like, you know, if you're authentic and creative, even if it's not happening. And that's probably how potentially like the best new thing has the potential of coming from within.

I don't know. You can read, you don't have to remit the wheel to. Again, like copying someone word for word, don't do that. But you can always take someone else's idea and make it better. That's when an idea is technically, right? You take an idea and make it better. So, yeah, I usually define, if I get like in a creative block, I just, you know, hashtag real estate, hashtag funny real estate memes or hashtag mortgage.

And then just look and see what's out there. And it kind of, you know, create something out of someone else's thing with using a different type of content or whatever movie script that, you know, I just kind of put it all together that way. way. That's how my creative juices work. Yeah. Well, I think you are naturally, you look for the things that aren't boring. You know, you don't want to be boring. And I think you're, you're relatively funny. You're not that funny, but you're okay. My girlfriend says I'm really corny. So probably, that's definitely true. I have a lot of dad jokes, Amy. I'm not a dad yet, but I'm ready for it.

Coming soon. Eddie, what did we not talk about today before we had to the wrap-up section that you think would be important for listeners. Oh, yeah. I mean, I forgot to mention I own a few bars in Houston, so that helps. So we kind of, that's just an extra thing. My next event is actually going to be at my country bar called Bandits. So we did like a rodeo kickoff and it's going to be cool.

So that's just something a little extra that I wanted to say. I think it was kind of, you know, double dipping in this case. But I'm also, you know, with that background. Yeah, we'll allow it. People need some cool stuff to go too. So yeah, I mean, that's, something that's something fun and exciting that's happening recently. That's not real estate related, but hey, I throw events and I'm going to use my own bar sometimes. So that works out.

Okay. And what does the future look like for you? So the future, I'm going to stay, I love title. It's a fun job. I get to stick to my creative juices and what I'm best at, which is marketing and creating relationships. So sales is sales and relationships. That's what that's what this business is all about. But in terms of my long term, I definitely potentially want to be a partner of this company. But my long term goal is to be a real estate developer just because I have that hospitality background. I'm starting to get into that slowly. But I really want to build from the ground up, like a mixed use development. Just as I've seen it, you know, hospitality is definitely a huge part of those developments, especially now with retail and office space not doing so well. That's

going to be the next generation of mixed-use developments. And I've been seen in Houston slowly. Those are the ones that are successful. But yeah, I want to say 10 years from now, real estate developer, also still entitled. I think that's my long-term goal. Perfect. One surprise question. I didn't even know I was going to ask is what's your current like bottleneck? Like what is a frustration or a point that's like slowing you down that you need to break through to pick it to the next level? You know, time is your biggest asset, and sometimes you have to say no. So that's what I've kind of learned this year is like I get pulled in all these different directions. And in order to get to the next level, you have to be exclusive with your time as well. So that's probably the

biggest bottleneck is my time, because I'm doing so many things, I have to be selective of what I'm doing and what's going to help my business and my personal growth. That's a good answer. Okay. Eddie, The wrap-up question, number one, is what is your favorite app or tool? And you've talked, it can't be Eventbrite or Instagram because we talked about those. Dang. That is a tough question. I feel like I got nothing left. Oh, well, actually, you know what?

I just got a new one, and this is CRM. And I've been playing around with different CRMs. I know for real estate agents, follow up, boss, people like using that. But I like highlighting stuff in colors. So I started using Monday. And I absolutely love it. I think it's one of the coolest CRMs. You can customize it on the spot.

And that's helped my business a lot. Of course, if you haven't used Canva, that's what I use for most of my videos and all that stuff too. So don't sleep on Canva. I love it. If I'm not using a professional, you know, graphic designer, I can make it there.

So, yeah, those are the two that really help my business currently. What events are you going to in the next 12 months that aren't your own? Hmm. Oh, so Houston Rodeo. That's happening this weekend. So definitely going to that. Does it have to be real estate related or in general?

Normally people answer real estate related, but you do you. We support you. I'm going to throw some fun stuff in there. I have a couple of events I'm going to. So, yeah, we, I'm going to, I'm an event director for Women's Council of Realtors, Houston. So we actually do this annual thing called designer purse bingo. So we're doing that in May. Yeah, this has been great.

So it's people come to it and they win designer purse. We have like all the top brands. We did that last year and it was a hit. So that's probably my big event I'm doing in May that I'm a part of, but I'm also going to. What else am I doing? I think that's about it. In terms of fun events, oh, I forgot to mention I do work once a year, the Formula One Austin race. Sports Illustrated hires me to work their big event.

So that's a fun. I'm the only one from Houston working at. So I'll be doing that next year as well. That was really cool. the year before that was like post Malone and Zed. So I helped orchestrate that and promote it in Texas, which that was a huge event. So that was a lot of fun. Yeah, again, sorry, most of these events I'm a part of. So that's probably one of the coolest ones I've been a part of because it's like 3,000 people, people from Vegas, LA, New York come and it's just such a fun, fun thing to be a part of.

I mean, your life sounds fun. It is fun. I have a good time. So that's the other thing. Have fun when you're whatever you're doing. So it's not work if you're having fun. Perfect. Yeah. And he does reply to his DMs, even though he's got 266,000 dollars. I do. Yeah. It takes a while sometimes. If they're on the request page, I always forget. So that's another thing I need to do better. But that's okay. Dude, I was thinking a virtual assistant would do so many great things for you. And we can also talk about that. I got, I got CSP for you, the interns, we got virtual assistants. I got you. It's huge.

Yeah, for sure. But okay, guys, listeners, if you want to hang out with me and Aaron, you know where to find us also. We're The Shelby Show and Aaron and Mucci Stagie on the gram and we love to hear from you. Let us know if you like Eddie, if you don't like Eddie, specifically Eddie. Yes, give me zero stars. I'm just kidding. But if you're going to give him zero stars, don't do it on our Apple.

No, no, no. You have to go to his Google business page, okay? Exactly. Okay, cool. And guys, that is all we have for. today. Eddie, thanks so much for coming on the show. And real estate rock stars, thanks for listening. Thank you.