KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Ten Steps for Realtors - Turning Relationships Into Referrals Part 1

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Are you ready to generate way more leads with way less struggle? I have great news for you. I'm now accepting new students into high performance agent Academy. Inside the Academy, you'll get eight months of customized support from me and get access to my entire playbook. Sales, marketing, social media, systems, all of it ready for you to copy and paste right into your business. Check the show notes for the link to learn more. We start on May 1st. Hey, my name's Tina Beliveau, and I am obsessed with all things real estate, growth, marketing, social media, technology, and team building. If you're an ambitious agent who's hungry to grow, work on your own terms, and build a thriving life outside of your business, this is the podcast for you. I got into real estate when I was 18 years old and grew my business from nothing through referrals and social media.

And since then, I've built a top performing team and I've sold over 1,700 homes. and $400 million in sales volume. In this podcast, I keep it real, and I tell you exactly what I'm doing to sell tons of houses, lead my team, market my brand, grow my social following and database, and maintain incredible work-life balance. I'll never shy away from sharing my biggest mistakes, as well as the juiciest parts of my secret sauce. Pull up a seat and get ready to learn and be inspired. This is the high-performance agent podcast with Tina Beliveau. Welcome back to the high-performance agent podcast. I'm Tina Belivo and I'm here with my collaborator, Laura Malick. And we're here to talk to you about 10 steps to turning relationships into referrals.

So let's start by talking about why we're doing this just briefly. Well, because you're the systems queen. I want to be able to repeat things. We know how important the database is. We know how important is to follow up. And I just was feeling like, am I doing the right thing? I feel like one time I was doing a birthday touch and then now I'm not. And then I'm sending them a home report. And I was just like, there has to be a better way. Like there has to be like, what do I do when I have this contact? You know, like, where do they go?

And I know you have that map. And so that's what I want to dive into. I want to understand your map of bringing that client in. And where do they go? I so appreciate you saying that because I feel like I spent the first half of my career, not having my own map. And so that's one of the many encouragements I want to give throughout this episode

is like, you may not want to use parts of my map. But I think what's so powerful is that now I've like figured out what my map is. And then I can just execute the plan. And then I don't have to have the decision fatigue. I don't have to wonder if there are holes or if there are holes. I've made peace with them. And I actually have like a significant hole in what I do. And we'll talk about that when we get to.

step 10 of my one through 10. And it's, so I feel like for me, part of what is so great about being my own, you know, business owner is I can make these decisions on my terms. But I feel like there's that really uncomfortable period leading into having made your own powerful decision of how you want to run your business and what you do and don't do and understanding your reasons why is when you're in that like fumbling through phase, right? I just heard something, you said understanding why. I'm definitely missing that piece of like, but why do I want to do that touch or that's why I would do that touch because that's the why. I was missing that. Yeah. And I think it's something that has evolved. And I've referenced this in a lot of my like content in the last couple years. But I basically revisited all my systems in 2020 and 2021 and changed a lot of what I was doing because I realized things had kind of outlived their time or weren't as like modern or just technologies changed so much.

So let's get into it. But I feel like regardless of like your production or experience level, if you want to have a relationship driven database, focus, business, I think this is just like always a valuable conversation. And the other thing is we were having like, we always have like a quick prep conversation before we have our episode. And I was saying like, I think it's overwhelming to look at some of this because we all know that we should have, you know, this system or should be.

using our database more like our CRM better than we are. So my encouragement is you listen to this is I always say it's like a layer of a cake, like a many, many layered cake is like your, your marketing, right? And you just add one layer at a time. And that's what has really served me is I add the next logical thing. And sometimes it's the thing that really needs to be done with like urgency or would make the biggest difference. Sometimes it's the thing that makes me happy or gives me energy or a boost, like when it's time to maybe like shift the brand around or refresh the website because I also need that kind of psychological fuel to build my business and to keep doing all of this work for years and to continue to evolve and grow and build and refine and watch over the

systems. So look for your layer of the cake is the analogy. So I want to start from the beginning and I'm curious if it's the same or if it's different, you can kind of decide which way to go. But basically, I'm going to be adding someone to my database. Do you do something different if I've just kind of met this person and I got connected? I know they probably don't need to sell or buy in the year. So it's a sphere ad. What happens if I get, like I'm hosting an open house, you know, like a lukewarm lead? And then I don't know if you want to go down this route because I know you don't do it as much.

Have you ever gotten cold leads? Like I still do some kind of like boosts on Facebook and stuff. But like those are kind of the three ways that people get added into the database. Do you do the same method for all three or where do you want to take us? Oh my gosh. That is such a needy question. And there's a couple different aspects to it of where people go in the workflow. So kind of the topic for today is how to turn relationships under referral. So what I was thinking was we would talk about kind of the like big picture of nurturing a relationship into a potential transaction or referral. But what about when? someone is like a right now buyer or seller. So either way, it starts with the same step one, which is putting them into a CRM. And that is its own topic of like, what CRM should I use? So you can absolutely just use a spreadsheet in the beginning.

But ultimately, it's always a good idea to get your business into a CRM as soon as possible. And to basically, I use my CRM as a digital Rolodex. The most important things that it does for me is it's a repository. of all of my clients' contact information. There are stages of what stage they are in the buying or selling cycle. And it may be, in my case, 90% of who is in my database is in the stage of just, it's called contact. That's the stage.

But it's just like, they're just there. They're just in my sphere. They're not buying or selling right now. And then I have stages for if they're in the buying or selling process and how urgent and like what their timeline looks like. So anyone that has any sort of buying or selling potential in the short term, that's kind of like an extra layer on top of just the overall relationship like tracking and nurturing process. So in case you missed it, high performance agent Academy is officially open for new students and we start on May 1st. Do you feel frustrated by making slow progress, sick of your systems and CRM being a mess, lonely and tired,

of figuring out how to grow your business on your own. And are you ready for a breakthrough in your sales, marketing, and lead generation? First of all, you're not alone. I have been there. And I've blazed the trail to solve all of those problems. I've assembled every single system, template, and marketing strategy I use so you can copy and paste them right into your business. If you're ready to transform everything about your real estate business, this is your golden opportunity. I will walk alongside you for the rest of 2024 and help you plug these systems directly into your business. And we will customize every element to your market, your brand, your voice, and your goals. High performance agent academy starts on May 1st and I don't want you to miss the boat.

Head to the show notes to get the link or DM me on Instagram at Tina Beliveau and I'll send you everything you need. See you in the academy. Let's kind of tag that to the side. but I would say the important thing is to get every relationship into your database and to add a complete contact as often as possible. So I will say a little bit more about that in a second. And then to stage them properly so that you can easily figure out who is in your lead pipeline versus who is just in your relationship repository overall. I love that. So we're bringing everybody into the database. And I personally would like to go, let's go this sphere.

route if we could do that. And then we can need to talk about it all or we can do a part two. But that sphere of like they're not really wanting by herself, but I want to nurture. I want to build that relationship. And I want to plant that seat. Like you reminded me of that. Like when we're adding, they may not need something for one to five years, but in five years, we're going to be thankful. So you've added them. Now, now how are you talking to them? What do you do? Yeah. And I want to say one thing before we even go to step two, which is this is the biggest issue that a lot of the agents that I've coach have, which is they're just not getting people in their database. And there isn't really, there's like, I haven't found a magic bullet. Now, I will say that if you have any sort of online

resource, online lead sources, not resources, online lead sources, those can often be automated right into your database, right? If you have Facebook ads or they're coming from your website or any other funnel, like all of that can be automated. But what about the people that you're meeting at preschool pick up at the grocery store in your neighborhood where you're just literally developing relationships or you meet someone at an open house and maybe you're not using a digital open house collection form, although I definitely recommend that strategy for a lot of reasons, including handwriting. So for me, I found that I needed to do a lead sweep one day a week and basically catch up and make sure that everyone that I met in the last week had got into my database.

And at certain point... I just implemented this from your academy and it's amazing, like such a great tool. Well, thank you for saying that. And I feel like for me, I did it on Mondays and it worked so well because I would do several things every Monday morning. First of all, I never had appointments out. So Monday would be my day to catch up from the weekend. Input all of my new contacts and leads, which aren't necessarily the same thing. And that was also where I did all my weekly tracking of how many people did I meet last week, how many did I add to the database, how many listing appointments did I go on, how many buyer appointments did I go on? And there's just no, like, there's no fairy that's going to just

track that for you. I get at some point AI might actually like sweep our calendars in a way where all of that can happen. But otherwise, like someone has to count that up and it's going to be you or someone who works for you if you have like an admin. or some kind of support person who kind of sits with you every week and like kind of gets you doing that. So for me, I just build a strong habit of kind of inventorying my week. And then when I was really crushing it, the year that our team did 50 million in closed volume, I was adding 10 to 25 people to my database every week. So I was out in the world, very active. And again, this was a little bit of a while ago, I think there's a lot more we can do in the online space to meet even more people at scale a lot

more quickly and like a lot of the strategies I teach with like Facebook groups and giveaways and all of that. But the bottom line is like what you focus on expands, what you measure is what you can improve on. So one of the things I would suggest if someone's listening to this and they're like, uh-oh, like this is already my number one gap from like this episode, it would be to set a goal of how many people you are going to add to your database every week and then set a time to do the input, whether that's you inputting it or giving it to someone to input and to track how many. And then what I would do is I would sometimes have to sit and look at my calendar. I think I said that to you on Boxer. Like, you might just have to sit and figure out where did I even go last week?

And then suddenly I would remember, you know what? I met these three people. We didn't exchange phone numbers, but I can at least go friend them on Facebook. And I can follow them on Instagram or whatever your medium is. And that would be the way. that I would at least build a relationship. I also would research people's address and the tax records and sometimes just put them in my database with their name and their address. And there might not be a way to like contact or drip on them yet. But I basically just built a habit of adding people.

And I do, I don't always get like the permission to add them. I just start inviting them to my best stuff. Like my events. So like I think we could go a lot of different directions. with this, but you've got to add people to the database or your business will not grow, unfortunately. Hate to say it. Well, and I think, so some of us, like, I think are probably really good at finding leads

in database ads. But like you said, it's this next part of one, putting it into the CRM. I know is very challenging for me. But I've worked around that and now adding this new system in has been amazing. But now I'm like, okay, but now I have all these touches. like what am I going to do with them? So like what's your next step? Like where, how do you decide? How do you, like, I feel like there's lots of like, you have the email, you have happy birthdays, you have like, what's that next layer? Like, how do you decide that? Yeah. Well, I would say like step two is definitely

friending and following on the platforms that I like to use because that's the, that's the most touches of all, right? Like the amount of Instagram stories that I post and everything that I do, I would never like try and match that with emails going out and things like that. So I do think that that's the ultimate. But the challenge with social media, depending on how you're using your account, is you may not be like super heavy on business. So it's a great way to build the no like and trust factor as like a person. And then depending on your social media strategy, you may or may not be building credibility and calls to action. And that's where I feel like the more business driven layers of the cake can add a lot more value and kind of be doing that work in the background, especially when you don't want your social

media to be like, buy and sell a house today. Like that's my, you know, because that's not really what people are on social media for to like, they don't connect with that. So often, at least in my opinion and my experience. So that is why for the third step, the very first thing that I teach in the academy is email marketing because for a bunch of reasons, but it's basically cheap or for free, depending on the platform that you're using. You can reach the most people with the least amount of time and effort. It's the ultimate like one to many system. And not rely on algorithm. Yes. Thank you for saying that too. Because I think the algorithm is, I actually saw this great post the other day by someone I love seeing what she has to say. And she's like, by the way,

it's not the algorithm. It's your content. And I think that's actually true. And creating great content does take some planning and it's very perpetual, right? So I feel like for me, I have to really maintain my Instagram and pump out so much, whereas like one quality email per month, which is where I'm going with step three, really kind of permeates the like the business message. And it's not like I need to do that so constantly. So I love email as a way to reach all of those people. It's pretty easy to get an email address. I think it's an easy ask. Yeah. And then there are all these tools that we have out there now to use as like online lead magnets, like maybe I form a Facebook friendship with you,

but then I do a giveaway. Or I invite you to one of my events that is the kind of event where I would kind of invite my whole network versus just actual past clients. And then the registration form is how I build my database and kind of, and you don't even have to put that out there on social to everybody. But if there are 30 people who you have like your eye on building a relationship with and maybe you've friended them or have a way to connect with them, then you,

you know, private message them, the invite and say, hey, like, I just thought of you. Maybe you and your kids would love coming to this fall fest we're having or whatever,

especially when there are like key relationships with people that you want to develop and really want to, you know, turn them into an advocate in some way and just form a friendship, too, because I feel like that all like really works together. So, so yeah,

I think emails are easy to collect and, and they're really, really effective. And I just did a free Zoom last week on my kind of latest iteration of my email strategy on kind of creating like a very local content personality driven monthly email update. So I will put that in the show notes for anyone who wants to watch that. It was like a 30 minute training. And is that what you're suggesting to get started that awesome email that is working for you?

Yeah. Yeah. Because I know that people are like, what am I going to email? Well, that's like the next thing they're thinking. And they're like, okay, I'm going to send an email, but what is that email? Yeah. So that other training starts to answer that question. And I think we all have to find our way with that.

And I wouldn't want you to listen to this and be like, I have to do it just like what Tina says. But I got my kind of new iteration idea from a different, some agent that I've been following on Instagram who is like 10 years younger than me and doing a lot of very like fun stuff with her reels. and I started reading some of her content. And she talked about how she subscribes to this service called Nudge, which tells you what's going on in your city, but it's only in huge cities, like New York and L.A. So I subscribed to Nudge. And then I was like, oh, want, wamp. I'm in Baltimore. And then I, but that was actually, it's so cool, though, how like when you kind of pursue something, because I was like, well, I know stuff.

Like, I know, I know what restaurant just opened. Like, I don't really need someone to tell me. And that's where it started to be like, you know what? like maybe this would be a way. If I think about how connected people feel to me because of my social media presence, I'm already sharing so much about myself online, not to like a crazy extent, but like people know what's going on in my world. So it's kind of silly for me to be like overly professional and buttoned up in my business emails. When the people that really want to refer me and be in a relationship with me, they're also in my social media network. So they,

it all just kind of ties together. Yeah. It's definitely relatable. I mean, I think, especially right now, we all want that. So I would encourage if others don't want to, like, I believe you can be professional and relatable. Thank you. Yeah. I think that's just a very good way to kind of recap that thought. And one of the questions that I got in the email session was, well, what do I do with my leads? And I was like, great question. Like, they should be receiving totally separate email content and like a not really a drip. So again, this is like a whole other topic. But this is the foundation. This is an email to your whole sphere that is relevant to someone, whether they're buying or selling a house right now or not. So not sending the email to, like, I have 5,000 people in my sphere at this point. Like, I'm not going to send them all an invite to an open house. Like, some of them don't even live in Baltimore anymore. They listed with me eight years ago, but they still refer me occasionally. So like for me, I know who is actually in the audience. And then I need to send messaging that would add some value to their. life, hopefully, or at least not cause them to unsubscribe, which is really the name of the game more than anything. Well, and I think you said it once to me too. You're like, would I want to read this? And that's how you know, like, you know, you're probably doing it right and attracting. Like, if you want to read this, like, most likely people in your database want to read it too.

Yeah. And it's a high bar of like, would I want to read this on social? Would I want to read this on email? And again, you need to pick your layer of the cake that I would say is like, again, either gives you energy to work on right now or is like such a gaping hole or problem in your business. Like at one point I identified my emails were so ugly. Like I didn't want to open them. So like that wasn't good. And they were so repetitive. I was like sick of them. So that's step three is the quality content driven email with a local twist. I like that. I like that. So I have my person. I've gotten their information. If I don't have their information, I'm going to rely on social media to connect. If I have their information,

I still want to make sure that I've connected on social media. And then the goal is to get more information, their email being a top priority so that now they can get this awesome email that shows my professionalism, relatable, and maybe some local insight if I choose to do that way. That's a beautiful recap. And yes, email for me. That's how my brain works. I have to recap. Yeah, to like process it. And I, for me, email is so much more important than the phone number. Yes, I do want your phone number. But email is where I get all of my automation. Like, I do not have time to sit and personally text people coming back to what I, like, kind of the spoiler, what I said at the beginning. Like, I'm not doing as much like personal outreach. Like I really rely on my systems because of like my business cycle and where I'm at my life. So yeah, email is clean. Okay. So now that's that's a really, really great layer. Like let's just talk about that. Like you're adding your database and you're getting into people's inboxes. So then take us the next step. But this is probably a note. Is it? Is it? Is it? It's a really, is it. this another layer or do you think this is the same layer? This is another layer. Okay. Yeah, because it's a different system. Yeah. And I said email is queen. Email is still queen because the thing

that is perpetually interesting to me as a homeowner is how much my house is worth. So if you're not using a system that sends a, you know, hopefully pretty sound algorithmic market value estimate to your clients, I think that you're missing out. And I, And I think we are in a world where people are smart enough to understand that his estimate is not completely correct. Yes. But they still look. Oh my God. Yeah.

It's like the curiosity factor. It's like of what's in my bank account? What is my retirement account accrued to? What is my house worth? It's like these very fundamental questions of these things that we like invest so much money and energy in and we want to know what's happening. It's just that perpetual curiosity. So again, coming back to what you said of like, do I want to? have received this. Like, that is in the very short list of things that are interesting to me as a

real estate consumer, regardless of where I'm at in the buying and selling cycle. And I don't want to be blasted every day with, it's a great time to buy. It's a great time to sell. I just think that's obnoxious. The market is heating up. Like, yeah, it's the same story for the last four years. And that's part of what I was feeling like. It's a great time to buy and sell. It's such a great time to compete with 85 other buyers. Let's go. So what are you using to send these clients their home value? Yeah. So I mean, I like to kind of save that for my academy members. There's a lot of tools out there. So you can definitely Google. Fair, fair.

Like home value estimate software and things like that. But I would say that that is something that you can send out either once or twice a month with most platforms. So for me, I actually have it on the twice a month setting. So my clients and my sphere, they are getting 36 touches per year just with email. And that is absolutely a cornerstone. And only because I have found that the home value estimate software gets such a good open rate and a very low opt out rate that I didn't actually realize it was emailing people twice a month. And then I went in my settings. I think actually why I was teaching session one of the academy. And I was like, oh, it has been emailing people twice a month. I just, I hadn't realized. maybe I shouldn't admit that, but here I go. And I was like, well, I still have really good, you know, open and non-opt-out rates. So I just let it ride. And that's 36 touches a year.

24 of them are completely automated. And people reference it all the time. And yes, once in a while, do we have to unwind someone's valuation coming out differently? Yes. But I mean, that's just part of being a real estate agent. We have to handle objections all the time about everything. For me, it's like, did I get in the door? I have because of your academy, I have the same program, and they question it. They're like, can you give me a CMA? So now I have activity to talk about it. So it's really a great tool. Yeah. So if you want to do that personal follow up with people and you're looking for reasons to connect, like that would be a great one of that service. Like it'll send you a list of who's been active, what they've been clicking. And if they've been super active, it like notifies you real time. So if you're like, I really need to dig into my business. I need to get busier. I need to start having a lot more conversations every. day. I need to be talking to people and asking them for referrals and asking them if they know anyone who's, you know, thinking about buying or selling. Those are the ways I like to dig in versus like that cold outreach of just being like, hey, like I got something from a lender today.

And I was like, I know they're just trying to like reach out. They were like, how's the weather today? And I was like, it's good. We're both here. Yes. I mean, it shows like it's value. That's what people want. They want to hear from you. Give them value. So I love that. Yeah. So bring me to the next layer. Okay. So that was layer four. So layer five for me is having at least two events per year. And in reality, I actually have more. But first of all, if you've never had an event, just have one. And don't even worry about making an annual or, you know, semi-annual commitment. I have found that having two cornerstone events per year works really, really well for a lot of like my different goals. So obviously I want the touch. I want the chance to see people in person and, like, cement the relationship and solidify all of that and get back in touch. Because I've now been in the business so long. It's crazy to, like, see people 12 years later. Sometimes I don't recognize them.

Thanks to social media, I usually do. So there's a lot that it knocks out for me. And I like to have my events at least one of the two per year at the level where it's not so expensive per person that I can't take that broader approach I referenced earlier on when we were chatting. of inviting people who maybe aren't a past client, but I have the budget and capacity to invite some of my neighbors, to throw it out there to maybe a Facebook group that I run and give away a few tickets to people like that. So for me,

I've had a lot of success with pulling people into my web by inviting them to my events, getting them in my database, building the relationship, creating goodwill and all of that that just kind of works together. Okay, so you don't necessarily invite, So let's do the event where you can do the broader event. I understand a past client event. So the broader one, you don't technically invite everybody, but you have the opportunity to invite a lot. Is that correct? Like you don't send it out to all 5,000 in an email like come to this event. You kind of have somehow selected.

Yeah. Is that right? Really, really. This is a very good question. And it comes up anytime someone's like trying to figure out what they want to do with events and what works for them. So couple things. Like I want to use my fall fest as an example. example and then also my pie party. And if you go back and listen to the pie party episode, that will also clarify a lot of my strategy. The pie party, the pies are $35 per pie. So that is a very expensive party at the scale that my team is at. So that is definitely only past clients and people who have referred in the last, basically my, I have this like, not arbitrary, but arbitrary timeline of if you referred me since January 1st, 2020, you're like in the recent referral bucket in my mind. And I do tag and label everyone in my CRM by what year they've referred. So I just have kind of up to the minute information on who's been supportive and when at all times.

So that group gets invited to our pie party. And that's perfect. There's 900 some some of those are spouses. Right? Yeah. And by the way, what's removed from that group is all. of my past clients who no longer live in the state because I don't want to blast them with content that would cause them to opt out. So if I have a tag called out of state, so if I remove the out

of state people, it's 900 some people. And then we had 150 people get pies this past fall. So that event used to be 20 pies a long time ago and it has grown and grown. And that's just kind of the strategy I've gone with. So that event is just a much higher, ticket. It's really, you know, you can just add up the pies and kind of imagine. Now, the Fall Fest as an example is an event where I either pay a much smaller price per head or maybe even just negotiate, like, I'm paying a flat fee to this farm and I could have 300 people there if I want. And those are the events that I use as more of a catalyst to bring other people into my web. And another way I bring people into my web is other events that are not necessarily mine or their zero cost, like charitable

initiatives, things that are kind of like community based or maybe I'm like a little bit of like an organizer or the face of something. And I just, again, I'm like meeting people and bringing them into the web. For example, I'm hosting an event on Friday, two days from today. It's a play date for a cause. So we basically have organized a playdate at a local like little like gymnasium for toddlers and small children. And I publicize that on a whole bunch of different local Facebook groups that I'm in. And I'm not necessarily going to add all those people into my database, but I'm going to be there and meet people, see who I connect with, and literally put them through the 10-step process. Maybe I'll friend them on Facebook or follow them on Instagram. Maybe I will

add certain people to my CRM. Usually it's very clear when I meet people if they're like interested in connecting about real estate, right? Like my dog Walker today came over to me while I was eating lunch and she was like, hey, can I ask you about something? And then literally she was sitting there with me and I was like, what's your last name? Because I didn't have her last name yet. She's very new to our dog walking roster. And then I was like, is this your best cell phone number? Is this the right email? Like I'm at a point where I have no like anxiety about being like, I need all your contact information so I can send you those listings you're asking about. And she was like, oh yeah, it's this, this and that. And then we were like laughing about her having an AOL account.

But I think about like 15 years ago when I was much earlier in this, you know, process, it was, I found it hard to just ask people for their contact information. Yes. So it's just a habit. Yeah, it's not. It's not at all. Okay. So yeah. So I can host an event for past clients and they're getting those emails or I can host event that it's broader and they're maybe sphere, they may be past client, but I'm a little bit more in control of who I'm inviting or I'm using me.

it for database ads. They're not even in my database yet, but I've recently connected with them. Okay, that makes sense. Okay. I love it. And I want to dig into something you just said. It's like, you were like, I can do this or I can do that. I'm like, well, you can do anything, right?

Like, you could have an event just for the top, you know, five people who refer to you the most in the last couple years. I've had all kinds of like niche events. So if you're, again, like figuring out your budget or whatever, you may start with a very small sliver of your database. I know some people that often do an event for everyone that bought and sold in the last year and sort of celebrate. But if you're looking at like, how do I kind of nurture a lot of relationships at once and get more systematic? And just, yeah, being a lot more kind of cagey and strategic.

Think about an event where you can use it like a little bit of a wider net and then build your database that way. I think that's where I can grow is I was so focused on past clients and VIPs and like, like, having this, you've opened it up to, well, let's do an event that's, I can hand that small or per ahead so I can invite more and meet more people and grow those relationships. I needed to hear that. Okay. Great. Well, I'm glad that was helpful. And that's often when people say, I want to have an event. I'm like, okay, why? When it's like, well, because I should. And I'm like, yes, but let's really think about what are your goals right now. Do you have a big mess of, oh, my gosh, I haven't been collecting anyone's contact info. So maybe you create kind of an event strategy centered

around that or, you know, whatever the case may be. Love it. Yes. So those would be kind of the... Events is another layer. Yeah. And then, you know, the events have like a lot of components. How do you market it?

Is it an email? Is it a text? Yeah. It's all in the academy. And really what matters is planning an event that appeals to your audience. So they just come after one invite and you're not like chasing them with like 85 reminders. So it's really getting the event concept correct, which might take some experimentation. or a little bit of like research and crowdsourcing and like polling,

which sounds like a lot of work, but could probably be like three really quick conversations with your clients. So that's events. And then you get the touch of the invite and then you get the extra, you know, benefit of anyone who comes and like getting to see them there. Then it gets a little bit more specialty. So we've talked about steps one through five,

adding to your CRM, friending them or following them on whatever, you know, social platform is you're choosing. A monthly quality email. that is about your personality, your personal brand, your local expertise, and that would appeal to people whether they want to buy or sell right now. And then the home value email, any homeowner is interested in knowing what their houses were. And then the fifth piece of having at least two events a year, if not more. And sometimes don't forget about just joining someone else's

event and like co-branding it so that you can really like hack the time and energy that would be required. So then from there, it gets into things that are a little bit more of like a deeper layers. Yeah, the deeper layers and like, okay, what's important to you and like, how do you connect with people and how do you build? So the first one is taking the connection that I have with people on social media and then deepening it. So one of the ways that I do that as like a habit, like once or twice a day, I go through my Instagram stories and I don't just heart. Sometimes I do that, but I actually write something to people and just start conversations in the private inbox, whether it's on Facebook or on Instagram.

So I just, and I'm strategic about strategic in the sense of like, if I see a client posting something and I feel authentically like interested or wanting to cheer them on or whatever the case may be, like I just continue the conversation. So it's a great tool for me, especially having a team. Like I was just right before we pressed record for the podcast, I was DMing with a past client who just bought a house. She bought and sold with our team. She worked with one of my team members.

I haven't physically seen her in real life in years, but we're like so closely connected on social media. I posted about what color I was going to paint a cabinet in my new house. Then she sent me pictures of her house. And that all was like a very quick interaction in, you know, in my inbox. And for me, that's like the ultimate way. I'm at a point even where like texting is overwhelming. Do you feel that way?

Like your text inbox is just like so full. Yes. So I kind of love that like my messenger and DM box is where I really just like connect with people. And then I also don't feel like there's as much like time urgency to get back. I just I get to it when I can. Some days I'm really on it and sometimes I like fall way behind and like follow back up with people later.

That's actually so true that you say the urgency. I just did something the other day. Like if you're looking how to create conversation, I love doing polls or like asking people's opinions. And it's great because they interacted, but then like it takes the pressure off of you of like reaching out. And it's like it's just so fun like to have that conversation. And I did something and I don't think I think I went back two days later and reconnected

with everybody about that. Like there is really no pressure to do that follow up instantly. Yeah. And I think what's so powerful about what you just said. I was like, oh yeah, polls. Like they've been an Instagram story feature for what five years. Like I know I've been using them for like a relatively long time. It's just like email.

Like it can seem tired because we've been doing it for a long time. But these tools really, really work when you use them. And especially when you find the way. Like so you might enjoy the polls right now and for whatever reason. Like although I did just do a poll today, but I hadn't in like a long time. I find it very easy to kind of respond to what I see to not even create the content. So I have so much activity that I don't have to create content and design anything. Like I just respond to what people are posting.

And those are the relationships that are just easiest for me to nurture because we're on the same level. They like to be on Instagram. So do I. They want to post stories about their kids and their house and their job and whatever. Like I want to talk about that. So I, yeah, I just like I go. I meet people where not just where they are, but where I am. And then I'm not like working outside of my strength zone to form bonds.

Like I have I have this one friend, Kate, like we have a similar mutual circle of friends. We used to see each other in person, but now we've both had babies and like we're never in the same place anymore. But we have like such a deep Instagram relationship. And it's just funny. Like she's coming to my event on Friday, but I was like laughing with her. I was like, I can't believe I get to actually see you, you know. And she's been one of my most supportive clients. and referral sources. But that's just a byproduct of the fact that we really, really like each other

and just see a lot the same way. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the High Performance Agent Podcast. Make sure to subscribe by hitting the follow button so you don't miss the next episode. And check the show notes for links to all of my goodies, including my newsletter filled with tips for ambitious agents. You can also find me on Instagram at Tina Bellevue. Talk to you soon.