KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Utilizing Facebook Groups for Lead Generation

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

Welcome everybody to another episode of Realture Hacks, Tips and Tricks. I am one of your host, Hallie McRory, and we are so excited to be in 2024 this year. So I am a real estate agent in Dallas, Texas and also San Angelo, Texas. And then I've got my lovely co-host on here, Casey Steyers. She is also an agent in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, but works really all over the state. We're both American Dream TV hosts, top agents. with EXP Realty and just love giving out and, you know, giving all the information we can and helping real estate agents to build your business most efficiently.

And that is our own co-host, Rocky. Yeah. Or is that your dog, Laura? No, Rocky. But it was too late. I was somebody to say, yes. He's like, what's going on? Yeah.

I was too late to the drawl. We're so excited to have Laura Griffin on. She has been a real estate agent in the past and is now a real estate coach. I'll let her give herself a little bit more of an intro, but I'm super excited because she's coming on to talk about utilizing Facebook groups for lead generation, which if you've been listening to this podcast at all, you know, this is one of my favorite lead generation tricks. And I think it's a hidden gem in terms of lead generation for real estate. real estate agents. So welcome, Laura. We're so excited to have you on. Thank you for coming on. We're actually recording here today on MLK Day. So thank you for coming on holiday. But yes, welcome. And give us a little bit of your background. We'd love to hear about it. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, we have a little bit of snow today. So which is right. We haven't had snow in like two years. So the kids are home, which makes it even more enjoyable. Well, we're a very relaxed podcast. We know everybody's got their stuff going on. Obviously, we've got dogs and stuff going on. So I know mine's at my feed. It's okay. It's going. It's going. Yeah. So my name is Laura Griffin. I'm a real estate agent in the D.C. area just outside of Washington, D.C. I've been selling actively real estate for the last 10 years. And prior to that, I was in the real estate industry, but just a different job title. You are still an agent still selling. I'm still practicing, although I do refer out a little bit more now because I do real estate coaching. Yeah. So I do a little bit of both because I still think you need to practice if you are coaching. So that way you're still up to date on what's going on and all the things.

Totally. I love it. So, okay, so when did you make the shift into coaching? In 2020, so actually in 2022, I was the top agent or one of the top agents in our brokerage out of 1,000. I was number four. So I was in the top five. And a lot of agents were coming to like, how did you do it? You're a mom. Like you're always doing mom things. I never see you working. Because I just saw what's on social media, right? It's like very sad. You know, it's just that like,

oh, this is my life, right? Not the real, not the real story half the time. And they were asking me a lot of questions. And I started saying, well, it was my Facebook group. And they're like, can you help me? And so I was like, okay, I'll help you. And then I realized I could help them. But I just didn't have enough time to help everyone. So I was, so I do one on one coaching, but then I created a course all about Facebook groups and how I use my Facebook group to get leads in my real estate business. So in 2023 in the first quarter, I started during the coaching and then third, fourth quarter of 2023, I released the course because I just realized I couldn't help everybody.

It's not enough time in the day. So yeah, I just love this. Is that something you knew you always wanted to? do or is this just purely because you were successful and people were coming to you? I never, I was like, I'm never going to be a coach. Occasionally I would help teach a class at the brokerage or something never really was a trainer. And everyone kept asking me, they're like, no one else teaches this. Like, how are you doing this? What's like, what's the secret? And I realized there wasn't anything for real estate agents. And a lot of them weren't using Facebook

groups. In our local area, there weren't. And then now as I'm talking to agents all across the country like I was just in Phoenix at another like an EXP event and things like that. It's like no one's teaching this. And it's so underutilized and it's a free thing. Like stop spending thousands of dollars a month on we all know who online leads. We're clicking these buttons and you're running and you're like just opening up doors to random people and they don't like, they may not like you. They may not trust you.

They may not even use you versus something that's free where you're building up that like, no like and trust factor. And they'll, I would say nine times out of 10, they will use me. Occasionally, they'll be like researching other agents, but it's so much easier to go into a listing appointment when they already know me. And they're like, yeah, sell my out. Yeah. Yes. For sure. That's kind of my direction too. I like to know that going into a listing agent, I've already, I feel like I've already sold myself and they already know they want to use me. And that's always a really good feeling. So 100%. It's make, it makes your life. much easier and it's less stressful and I'm not spending like when I was at an event like there was

one gentleman I talked to and he was spending like 20,000 a mom and I'm like I don't have I'm a mom like I'd rather be spending on recreation soccer and cheerleading in the things I was not yeah there's no guarantee either so no there's not no and you that's like that's like a I mean depending on your market that's a couple closings a month so hopefully he's yeah making those numbers. Well, I'm really interested to hear, just again, coming from like thinking about where I kind of fell into things, how did you fall into or like did you do research to find that Facebook groups could be a lead generation source or is this something you thought of on your own and then developed it or I guess like what were those chain of events?

So I started it just as a mom's group. And, If you're a woman out there and you're a mom, I highly recommend starting that way. It's so much, it's easier. And I just started it just because I wanted more friends. Yes. We were new to the area. I had kids. Like, I needed more friends.

And it was just like I started it. And I wasn't using it for business, but I slowly realized I was getting business from it because there was just this relaxed feeling that they already knew me. I didn't have to sell myself. I wasn't this like real estate agent. They saw on a billboard that, you know, they just felt, they felt like they could relate to me. I was a mom. I had kids. I could speak their language. And so I started realizing I was getting a lot of leads. It's like, I need to get my hands

around this. And so I went to a training thing for moms in business in Sacramento, where I'm from. And there was a lady there. And I can't, it kills like, I can't think of what she's, what she was selling. It was one of those like MLM type things. And she was talking about it. She was using Facebook groups. And I at dinner that night, I was like, look, I need to pick your brain because I have a mom's group. I have a business. I want to use it at a high level. What are you doing? And I took some of the bits and pieces that she was using to sell her products because it really resonated with me. And I changed it a little bit to more real estate centric. And then I started incorporating other pieces of offline marketing to these people. And I started

realizing that a Facebook group, I've got just about 10,000. It fluctuates. I realize that it's a huge database. Yes. And I can mind this database. And there's ways of doing it by having people raise their hand when you post certain content. There's ways of me looking at what people are posting. And then going back for our MLS, which we have Bright, going through Bright and like trying to find them and then start market. So I realized that there's all this opportunity of how many, I mean, everyone's on someone's database, right? Right. Whoever you are. But it's who can you, like who can get to that person at the time when they want to buy or sell a house? And I realize I have access to 10,000 people. And I've got a lot of data on them. And when they're joining my group,

I'm getting a lot of metadata from them. So why not use it and leverage it as a free tool versus spending thousands of dollars per month or doing open houses every weekend or door knocking or all the other lead gen tools. Right, right. I'm with you for sure. So I guess touching on the data, what kind of data do you track or pull from your Facebook groups? So there are tools out there. There's a couple. So anytime someone joins your group, you get the first. three magical questions, right? And so I'm asking for their email, but I'm giving them something because not everyone's going to give you their email and some people kind of know what I'm going to do, right? They already know. And so when you're using some of these tools, it can take some of their

data out where they live, where they work, all these different pieces. And so I use those tools and then I dump them into my CRM or my email service provider. Okay. You're able to, as people are posting in your groups, like my mom's group, like public. every other day there's i'm having a baby and i need a new pediatrician or having a baby and blah blah it is you know whatever it is i need advice on something you can go oh it's you know it's laura griffin and you can look at her profile and go oh she lives here and then you can start searching where they're from and you can start marketing them right because they're having a life event why not market to them yes that's a great point didn't even think about that aspect too i haven't either so i'm like okay

And I start putting them. I have drips and like marketing. Like I planned it all out because it's like why not, you know, it's a free database. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I already know like something specific about them. Yeah. So did you kind of tailor this all yourself or did you have, did you do like a lot of research on how you could, you know, turn your group into like a little database?

like did you end up sprucing it yourself or did did you go to another resource? It's all been trial and error of the last few years of what works and what doesn't. I track all my content. And it's like, okay, that didn't work. This really works. Okay, well, this is a post. And I'm going to be on it. Like, I rinse and repeat my post.

Like some people come to me for coaching and they're like, I don't know what to put for content. I was like, look, we don't need a whole years with the content. You can repurpose some things or you can just tweak it slightly. the season. So I will track like what did well or what did I, what content did I post that got a ton of leads. And then I'm, I keep that and then I'll repurpose it and keep using it again because it got me leads the first time and it keeps repeating itself. Yes. So it's really just tracking things. And yeah. And do you do you track these like on a Google She or do you have your own like a separate platform that you're using that? So for my content, I do track it on a Google Shee.

My husband's now changed it to an Excel spreadsheet, because I'm not an Excel guy. That's not my thing. I did use, I use ClickUp to my admin. I'll post some stuff on there as more of a brain dump. I just kind of like just the simplicity. You could put it on a Trello board or a ClickUp, but I just like the simplicity of and just look at it and see what's red and what was green. Right.

So with your group, do you have it like with your, your cover photo and the name of it, like, what does that look like? Do you have it as like the mom's group still? Or do you have it like moms by Laura Griffin Realtor, like kind of, you know, subtly plugging yourself? Yeah. So what's that way? What I have found works best in my area and for the people that I've coached is whenever

I'm auditing a Facebook group because I do a lot of auditing is don't sell. This is people will not trust you. People will not use you. it will not go over well. So your cover banner, your banner photo needs to be branded as X, YZ community, your X, Y, Z, mom's group, whatever it's going to be.

It's the group. Obviously, colors and things could still be complementary to your real estate brand. Because, you know, if your real estate brand is navy blue, maybe you don't want to use, you know, like something that's going to be, you know, like, you know, something different that wouldn't really go well together.

But the way that you can brand it is at the bottom, you can make your real estate page an admin, and then you can make your real estate page affiliated to the group. So at the bottom, it'll have like a banner, and it depends on what color your group is, but it'll have a banner, and it'll say group by Laura Griffin real estate. So you can still advertise, but it's not coming from a place that I'm going to sell to you because then people won't trust you. And the groups that I go into where people are constantly posting it, look, I listed this

house. Aren't I so great? I have this open house. Look at this banner is, you know, XYZ Holmes Company. it doesn't they don't convert while they don't getting leads it's because it's too sales and people just don't want to be sold to they just want to feel like they're part of something and part of a community and then they'll know like and trust you and feel comfortable calling you when they need you yes yeah so if someone wanted to make their own group would you suggest they they try to make

it about something else in the community then then just about real estate like for me i have like a a jobs group. I have a moving to Goodfellow Air Force group. I have a San Angelo real estate group. So I've got, you know, a mix of different groups, but nothing like, it's not like, oh, this is the French Bulldog owners of San Angelo. Like that's, I guess the jobs one maybe more so. I don't know. What are your thoughts on that if someone's like wanting to just jump into this? So with the jobs one for you, if I could just, I'll just dissect yours. It's from getting here, right? So let's dissect your jobs one, right?

So that one, you're probably going to get a lot of reload people would be my suspicion. Because they're starting, they're relocating. Do you say it was Dallas? Yeah. So they're going to move to Dallas. They're like, well, what's the job market light? Or maybe I'm just going to say maybe their spouses. Maybe one spouse already has a job.

Maybe the other one's starting to look. So yours would be heavy on relocation. I would put some relocation stuff in there. I would have like a link for a relocation guide in your description. If you, hey, if you're joining our group because you're relocating to Dallas, Texas, love to be a resource for you. Here's a guide and it's got everything about Dallas, Texas. And you can put that together and have an admon and do it.

And then there's links to a landing page, either through your CRM or your email service provider. Got it. So that one is going to be a little bit and you should be setting up tags in your keyword indicators in your group for you. So anytime someone mentions relocating or I'm not. you to the area are those types of words then you should start messaging them and saying hey local real estate agent i've got a relocation guide i've got maybe a buyer guide or i've got a renter's guide or something like that can i send it to you and start opening up those conversations because you'll probably get a ton of business like any like tags like that set up yeah and there's key they're

they're keywords so i i have a whole bunch like buying a home um i have home in mine um trying to think of what else real estate agent realtor all those normal keywords, but you can start putting in more specific keywords into your group. So that way it kind of gets annoying, but you'll get all these notifications, but you need to go in there and you need to set up the systems. What do you do? What do you say to the people? What do you email to the people?

You need to work out those drip systems is what we use in real estate. You need to have these sales funnel drip systems in place because you're going to start getting those leads and then nurture them. Yes. Um, you should. So I would not do like bulldog club of Dallas, Texas. Yeah. It's too nichey. And I would do more of a community group, moving to living in, um, XYZ community group, XYZ mom's group, X, YZ parents group. Sometimes that's a niche that's not, uh, utilized as much because you're going to want to put community value into your groups because it shows that you're in the community. It's like, those are just

easier for real estate agents to get leads from. Um, and also Air Force. space ones. Those are huge. And there's a lot of them out there. But if you can really get in there, and again, you're going to need a relocation guide because 90% of the people that are joining are coming. And so you need to have a huge sales funnel for military. I mean, and you, and then I would also have like your lender go in there and do a VA lending class or how to utilize equity in your current home to buy another house here and turn that one into a rental. Because that's big. I'm a military spouse, or his is a veteran, but I'm a military spouse, but that's a huge thing. Like, most of them keep their house and wherever in their movie. So you really need to think

about who's your avatar, who are you going to market to in your group and start setting up those systems because anyone can start a Facebook group and anyone can get thousands of people to join. But how are you using it as a lead tool? And what systems do you have in place to turn it into that? Yeah, that seems like the big point of this is that you need to have those systems in place. And that's what I teach. It's like, because it's like I find so many agents, like, I've got 10,000 people, but I have never gotten a sale from my group. I'm like, what? How is this happening to you? Okay. Let's dissect this and let's start marketing and start putting together content and pieces, collateral pieces outside of your group to get them to realize your

real estate and you add value to a group, but also add value outside. So that way they like you and they use you and they trust you. Yes. Yes. I love it. Okay. So do you utilize VA's a lot for your groups, virtual assistance? So I do for one thing I do post every week on Fridays, I have my admin put like an events thing in for my mom's group. It's like kid friendly. So what events are going on? Because that just takes too much of my time.

Yeah. But my admin and I know all the VA companies are going to be like this. No, anyone can do this. I don't have my admin or my VA. I have her moderating. So when people break the rules, like she's the one that slaps her hand because I don't want to slap your hand tell you know you can't do that um completely plus i don't want people to be mad at me like oh i don't want you to be mad or i don't want the nasty people please are in us yes yeah yeah

email lily and yell at her she gets paid for no i'm kidding um but i add all the people to my group and this is the reason why so this is my lead generation this is a pillar in my business i take it very seriously. I do not let other real estate agents. I do not let lenders into my group. I don't let title reps into my group. I've just learned that. And so when I'm adding people to the group under my name, I can see, are you part of like some of these bigger real estate groups on Facebook? And I go, uh, it may not say you're a realtor in your, you know, in your job description or in your profile, but I can see you're part of like, let's say like lab code agents or my local real estate group or whatever. So I go, nope, decline and ban. And I don't let them in. Versus if she's

doing underneath her profile. She's not in all these groups. So she may not know that they're a real estate agent. Right. Right. Yeah. Well, and yeah, I get that. And at first I kind of struggled, because I do the same thing. I don't let others in mine. At first, I kind of struggled with that, but then I was, I was on some sort of forum or something in Solve where someone was like, this is literally like, this is like a, this is a sellable asset one. If you ever wanted to sell it, like you totally could. Two, this is basically a CRM for you. I mean, like you said, Lord, this is essentially a database.

Would you let other real estate agents into your CRM or database? Or your open house. Would you let them sit at your open house and get all the buyer leads? Yeah. We would. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's like, I'm like, if nobody's ever said anything to me, but if they did, I mean, that's exactly what I would tell them with, you know, this is my CRR. essentially. So it's not that I don't like you or don't, you know, but this is, you know, this is my business avenue and, you know, there's plenty to go around. So, you know, one out of the. Don't let lenders in. And if they're in your group, get them out. Yeah. Because I've also found there was a couple lenders and they were like, no, don't use LOR, use, you know, X, Y, Z agent. And I was not, and they were in my group getting these leads. And I was like, wait a second. Or don't use LOR. she's not good.

And I was like, oh, wait, because the client sent me the information. I was like, hmm. So then I just went through one day and I just deleted them all. Yeah. I felt it was like you can't bite the hand that feeds you. Yeah. Yeah. Like, how are you going to be in the group and then say it's like, you're in my group.

That's bold. They wanted it to go to their agent who feeds them business all the time. And I 100% like, I get it. Outside of this group, but when it's your group and they're in your group. referring their clients to someone else, it's like, hello. Yeah. Yeah. And if you want to.

Yeah. Yeah. I was like, do, do, do, do. No, no, no, no. But if you, but I would do recommend have a lender in there. Have a, if you have a title. It's like a closer, you know, every state's a little bit different. Have them because sometimes I'll miss a post.

It's like, oh, I didn't see that one. I was busy. I was out showing it, whatever it was. Right. And so the lender will kind of. kind of like reinforce that relationship or the title rep or sometimes they'll answer questions about I had one where the lady we had questions about a fence issue and I was like yeah talk to so and so and you know they give you some advice and about you know your fence issue and then they ended up wanting

to sell their house because the fence issue was just too much well if they hadn't been connected with the title rep that I knew and then the couple with the title issue and you know all those things so definitely and then you can use them to how host events in your group or or whatever to kind of help build that like we know what we're talking about we can help you yeah when you say events are you talking about like in person events that you're promoting in there or events like virtual webinars or something that in in the group you can do both we do and ask the expert um so I'm a mom's group and I love like moms and business is my thing I'm a mom I'm in business yeah I love promoting other moms and business and I know in my group um when I say you

you like like Kim Kim makes all my cake she makes my cookies for my Santa cookies a Santa party if I say you use Kim to make your cake or your cookies or whatever like everyone will use Kim and so I know the value of what I say so we have the expert where a mom in a specific specific industry that I think would translate well in my group like maybe it's sleep study or sleep um sleep coaching or um we had an insurance one and then we had like we're going to have a wills and trust which is not sexy but we all need them right right yeah yeah yeah So do like a live webinar in your group that can be live streamed or you can record it and just post it, whatever you feel comfortable with. Everyone's got their own thing.

And then you also need to have events off of Facebook. So I have cookies with Santa. Not everyone in my group gets to come because it's gotten so big now. But when I started, I didn't have that many clients and like who's going to come to cookies with Santa? Well, my mom's group did. You could do a movie day. You could do ice cream in the park. You could do you could even do just monthly meat or monthly might be hard.

I know I don't have the bandwidth for it, but you could do quarterly meetups because I think, too, when people see you, and they have like a real conversation with you, I think they start to trust you and they start to want more business with you because and they see my kids. I'm like, oh, yeah, she really is a mom. Yeah. And you have that common ground. And so I think when you have events, the online ones are just to add value and to show that you care about your community. The second, the offline is the same, but also to show, to build those offline relationships so that I think are stronger bonds than the online ones.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, okay, so your coaching program, you do, it sounds like you do an audit and then, you know, help build those systems out for clients and stuff. Any other touch points you'd want to talk about with your coaching group? Yeah, so I do coaching. The first meeting is not fun. it's like down and dirty, like let's just rip this thing apart and see what's working, what's not.

And then we spend the next few weeks. Usually it's laying the foundation pieces. I find a lot of agents just don't have the right foundation pieces or they don't have, and then the systems and the content plans and the offline content nurture systems. And then I also have the course, which there's two different. There's like, do it yourself, like independent study. And then we have a VIP group where you still get the online course, the workbook, all the templates, everything. But we do one-on-one coaching, Q&A.

coaching with you once a month where you can ask, pick my brain, ask me anything. I will help you with whatever. There's one stumbling block that you have. And then you get part of a Facebook mastermind, which you get access to with the VIP program where you can ask other agents who are kind of going through the same process with you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Cool. Love it. Okay. So you have a couple different options where, you know, depending on people's schedule and stuff too or how involved they want to be. Yeah. And if anybody wants, if you have a Facebook, this will be. good for you. If you have a Facebook group, if you go to groups to leads, so it's groups with an

S and leads with an S.com's backslash top five, I actually give away the top five posts that I posted my group to get real estate leads from my group. So you could use it in your St. Angelo group. Okay. Groups to leads.com backslash top five, and the five is like the number. And it's got posts in there that I use. And they're rinse and repeat. Like, and the one thing to think about is no one's going to remember that you posted that. I mean, don't post it every mom. But if you posted it three months ago, no one's going to remember. Yeah.

We're busy. Different people see it. Are you? And I'm sure this is part of your course too, but I know, like a big thing now is for, now that we have like that feature for people to, or you could like do at everyone or at highlights, like stuff like that. is that something that you are doing or do you feel like that's spammy or people get mad or i have used it maybe five times um i don't use it like i audited a group the other day and this person

was posting at everyone every time they listed a house and they posted in the group no one cares and the problem is that group is just so like i and i can't tell this on the back end and no one would be able to but what happens is when you do at everyone people get annoyed right because why are you why are you like this may not speak to me. I may not need to see this. And then every time someone comments, you're getting a notification because you're at everyone on this post. So you're just getting in the day with all this crap. And the problem is if you go up to the group, they can silence your group and they'll never see your content again. They can still be in the group. So you might have really good numbers, but people aren't getting the content or they might turn you off.

So every time you post, they will not see your posts anymore. So then you really shot yourself in the foot because they're not going to see anything you've posted in the script. They may be in it, but they won't see it. So I use it for, if I do like a giveaway in my group or like my cookies to Santa tickets, like something more like people want to see this or my birthday post. Like I give away Starbucks for my birthday. Yes. And I've used it.

Mine's a community group. So I've used it when there was like a child missing. And then recently we had there was a guy on the loose. There was like hell. I mean, so something like really important like, hey, this is going on. But no one wants to see your just sold, just listed. coming soon. Yeah.

Don't do that. And then I see other agents recommending to get engagement in your group and stuff. You need to do at everyone for every post for the next few weeks. No, because you're turning off everyone. People are going to start unfollowing the group. There's other ways to feed your algorithm in your group and get your engagement back up. If it's dipped, don't use the out of everyone. It's going to be probably.

And I have a feeling they may be kind of getting away from that because the feedback, I'm in some masterminds with Facebook admins. And I'm like there's a lot of like a lot of like this was not a good tool. I agree. Yeah. Like this is those are groups that like Facebook collects your feedback kind of deal. Yeah, they're masterminds for people that have like a lot of have groups or like a high level. They've invited us to join and kind of pick our rate or beta test.

Which is kind of cool because it's like, oh, okay. I kind of get to see what might be coming out. Yeah. So do you think I've had someone asked me this before and I really, I feel like I didn't know for sure just because of my specific market that I've been using this in. But I've had an agent ask me, do you feel like your groups like niche you into different price points? What do you feel like? Or have you seen all different ones? I've seen all different ones.

But with a mom's group, I think the one thing that I see a lot of is they have a townhouse. So in our area, we have townhouses and condos. And they're trading up because they're having kids. So they're buying the bigger single family. So for me, I do a lot more like trade ups. And I have another client who's got a, oh, I'm going to mess up. I don't remember what the name of it is off the top of my head. I can't think right now.

But it's like a, I'm sure I'm going to say this wrong too for fair housing. But like it's like a grandparents group kind of a thing. And so everyone's trading down and they're, you know, they're downsizing. And so, you know, that person, yeah, that's kind of their niche. My niche, I'm great with trading up. And but I can sell a $200,000 condo and they might be buying a $2 million house. It doesn't matter to me. Like I can still speak that language because I can speak mom and I have tools for you for

when you're trying to sell, you know, stage your house or trying to do a showing appointment. You've got kids and you've got like 10 minutes to get out of the house and it's a scramble. Or we're going to go look at houses and you've got your three. kids with you. I can speak to that. I've got the tools for it. So, you know, I don't think it really niches you. I mean, other than maybe your military, I mean, that's going to niche you into military. Right. You need to be able to speak that language and know what a PCS is and the BAHs is. And you need to know those terms and you need to be able to speak that. But I don't, unless you were, you know, I've never seen anyone where they're like niched into like only $200,000 condos or only into

luxury $2 million homes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess you technically could. if you wanted to. It sounds like, you know, like how were you saying you can, you know, you have to trade up. Somebody else has trade downs. Do you, with your coaching, do you help people who might want to, you know, go into a different niche and use this as, you know, another avenue for that? Yeah, I've got one client right now who's doing moving to like a certain state. So that's kind of that niche is it's a real. Lots of moving. And they have, um, we're, referral part. I mean, the state's large. They've got referral partners everywhere. Got another one that niches to teachers, which is really interesting. And they've got a teacher

program. And they go. Okay. Yeah. So she got like a teacher program where she gives back so much of the transaction. And then they go into the schools and she's dropping goody bags off. And is it a concept? That's something I do each year as well. But I haven't set up a group or teacher. I was a teacher before I did this. So I don't know. I mean, I don't know how much You're counting. I feel like you should do that because Casey is also writing a book right now about how she transitioned from being a teacher into real estate and how it's like it, you know, it only made her real estate experience that much better.

Yeah. So I could have kind of avenue for like your book and also your business. I don't know. So if you were starting, like, which avenue would you take it if you were doing that? that like if you if I was to create a group today about teachers so you're in rally and so maybe raleigh is the county too right or is it no it's wait it's right it's great it's white county okay that's right maybe just do a county teachers group and then um in there um you have some sort of a teacher's program you get with your lender and say hey you know i put together like a teacher program

so if you buy or sell a house with me there's some you know i don't know what your laws and your state are so obviously. Like in Texas, there's, we have one. It's called T-Shack and it's, you can get like, down payment assistance for being, I mean, there's a person, they, it can really be for anyone, but they do have a program that's, it's more of like a marketing gig, I guess. And it's like anybody that's like a police officer, a teacher, you know, ambulance driver, med, a medic, like, community service. Kind of like heroes kind of Yeah.

Terms is I think they're what they call it. That's something you could like market in there, I guess, and say, you know, if you're a teacher, this is like a program that you could qualify for. Is that what? Yeah. And you would have like teacher and buy your guides for teachers. And you would have some sort of a program, you know, like I give back 1% of the transaction towards your closing costs.

Yeah. Or whatever it is. And then, um, You could teach seminars and they could be online or they could be in person and you could teach them to the teachers about, hey, there's this teacher lending program or my lender partner has this program and they give so much short-shoulding cost assistance. And this is the program and this is how we can work with you to sell your house and then buy a new one. And then they go into the school and she does drops. They're not expensive like snacks and things like. And then they do a coffee cart thing.

but she drops it off and they all have to enter a raffle. Okay. Scan a QR code. Yeah, that's, I would have them tag me. And if they tag me on Facebook or Instagram, I would enter them into like a raffle. But you want their information. Yes.

So scan a QR code to a Google form that requires their name, email, phone number, and physical address. Why do I, why do you need my physical address? Well, I'm going to mail you a gift card to Starbucks for $25 or whatever it is, or Target, whatever it is. Because you want that. So then you can start marketing to them with content around your teacher program. Or you can look them up and go, oh, my God, this teacher is a renter.

Okay, why need you start tailoring my marketing to renting? Or, oh, my gosh, they lived in their house for the last 10 years. I got a ton of equity. You know, maybe it's time for them to get rid of it. They've outgrown it or whatever. And so you start catering the marketing to that person and you're getting their information. And I don't, you guys aren't bright, but you guys could probably look up a lot of the stuff in your MLOS too.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, I love that.

And even Casey, you could even look at it from like an agent attraction standpoint. Like there's probably other teachers who would like to get their real estate license on the side or have that. And that's kind of my book, what it's kind of geared for. Yeah. And your group could be, you could do like discounts. Like, you know, I don't know. In our area, there's like certain places it's like 10% off on Tuesday for your pizza. And so you could start putting like teacher discounts in there.

There was a restaurant this last week. It was like nominate your favorite teacher and they get, I think it was breakfast for a year. So it's like you can take a post like that and just repurpose it and say, Hey, this, ours was famous toastery. It was like famous toastery. If you enter on their post, they're giving me free breakfast. I think it's free breakfast for a year.

You know, make sure you see that. You could just cater a whole bunch of stuff to the to the teachers within your group and then still host the seminars and still provide value, but you're providing a space for those teachers to connect with each other and, and maybe, maybe share ideas and things like that. They have a common ground and then just build off of that. Yeah. Okay.

Love it. I do too. Get on that. I'll see you in a couple months if it's done. No, I'm kidding. Laura, I want to, I guess, so Casey and I are not human moms. We're dog moms. I personally do want to become a mom at some point.

Not quite there yet, but it's on the horizon. in. And I just, I love talking with other real estate agents who have just absolutely crushed it, who are moms. And, you know, just, I always ask about like work life balance. And it seems to be that it's more about integrating the two together and just like kind of making there, there's like a, you know, integrating them to be more efficient with both. It's not like necessarily a balance is what it sounds like I would love it. I don't know. I know this is all supposed to be all about Facebook groups, but since you are, you know, so I guess like your whole business revolves around, you know, being a mom as well. I'd love to hear about your journey of being a mom and being

in real estate and coaching as well. So when I started, I had, my daughter was like a few weeks old. I was in corporate banking. I was a bank manager and I was like, I can't do this. So I wanted to go back into real estate and joined a team with a rainmaker. We had leads coming in, like all the long, you know, paper, like all those sources. And I soon realized I couldn't do it. And when a lead would come in, it was always like I was feeding my daughter. It was bedtime. It was bath time.

The diaper just had a blow out. And like, and that process of like, I was at a training recently. It was like, oh, you got to double tap them and then keep calling. And it was like, and if they come in at 8 o'clock at night, it doesn't matter what you're, and it's like, I can't do this. Like, this isn't work for my life. You're a guy and your wife's taking care of your kids and I'm trying to survive. And so what I've realized was you have to find something that allows you to do this.

And it's not that I, you know, I'm not any less successful than those people. I'm just as successful. Will I be the $100 deal an agent a year? Probably not because I kind of like to do things with my kids and I like to, you know, I like to volunteer. Like the referral, you know. Yeah. And I can refer. So what I realized was there were other.

avenues for lead generation that fit my lifestyle better. I was so stressed out and I just worked myself for three years until I just felt broke. And I was like, I can't do these online leads anymore. And that's when I realized, okay, I didn't mind doing open houses at the beginning because I didn't mind giving away a Sunday, even though my husband had to go to all the mommy and me things, which he likes it. He liked it. And all my friends still like him. So it worked out for him. He was always the only dad. But you have to find other ways to balance it. And then you have to set up boundaries with your clients. I don't pick up the phone after 6 p.m. Unless we're negotiating a contract or it's super important. And then they can text me,

hey, it's an emergency, whatever. And I set those boundaries. I don't work on the weekends. My clients know this. They all have children too, which just happens to be. And unless I have to show a house and then I have a showing agent who I kind of will leverage for those. But you have to and you have to put on your, so get your, so when you have kids, the best thing is I get out my calendar and I look and I go, this is you know we're February's coming up so I put down my kid things first like who has a doctor's appointment um I've got one child with special needs so we've got some other appointments in there that have to happen yeah when's date night when are the kids like when's recreation soccer

when is writers club for my daughter like when are all these things happening and those are the non-negotiables they go in first yeah then all the other activities and I just know that I'm not going to go out and show a house on a Wednesday night because I've rec soccer that's important to me. I will be there. So I have showing ages to back me up and I say, hey, can you go show on this night if I need to? And that's just kind of how I've worked my business. It's taking me a while to do it and to realize that they're only little for so long and I've missed things. And I'm like, I'm never getting that back. And so you will, you will, like, I missed a lot of stuff and I regret it. So set it up now. And those are non-negotiables. Yeah. Yeah. And I volunteered to school twice a month. I, you know,

I try to make sure those are in there too. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I just, it's, I love seeing, it's, it's just inspiring for me to see other real estate agents who are, are, you know, can make this work. Because I don't know, it makes me, it makes me nervous. This right now, my business is my baby.

And I know other people can relate to this. And I just, it's like you want to be able to do all the things. So I just love when. You can't. other moms have right right but i don't i just love seeing other moms be successful and and you know say no to stuff and have those boundaries but you know still killing it and taking care of their clients and still um i don't know have those passions be able to and be able to live those out too leverage like i've realized i have a virtual two virtual assistants um hiring on a third one

to like leverage some of that if you can afford it um or have partners in your office and say, hey, I'll give you 50% of this if you can just like take care of this, especially after you have a baby, take the few weeks off. I did. I was back like, three or four weeks into this thing after I had had some health issues. And I went back to hospital. I was in the hospital like almost a week. I had a lot of health issues from having my son. And I just was like, we're going back. Like I had him at the closing table. Like, we're doing this. And then I regret it now. I was like, I should have taken this. Like what did giving away 50% would have been fine.

I should have just done that. And I regret it now. It really impacted my help. I should have just took the time and enjoyed the moment. Instead of like getting back out there and listing all these homes and let's go. Yes. Yeah. That'll always be there.

The money will be there. The deals will be there. The clients will respect you. And they'll understand. Say, hey, I just had a baby. Or, hey, you know, Braden's got a recreation soccer game on Wednesday. Can this agent show you this house? They don't care.

They just want to see that. Right, right. Yes. I'm with you on that for sure. They don't care if it's you or somebody else, unless the other person's, you know, make sure they're good quality. But they don't. Yes. Cool.

Well, as we're starting to wrap up here, I want to know, are there any other, like, resources that agents can, you know, read up on or listen to that you suggest if they want to get into Facebook groups or even, you know, balancing their real estate career being a mom as well? definitely if you want to start a group, definitely think it through. Like what will what what is the group? Do your research because I talked to a lady in Tampa the other day and there was 20 other groups the same name. Like no, no, no, no, no. That's not going to do you any good. And really think about what will your group be different and look at groups in your area

and research and go, oh, this one's not, you know, this one's just all sales all day every day. That's not really what I want. So really kind of think through it and think of a content plan and really think of what are you going to provide and how are you? you going to be different and then the and how are you going to market to the people in your group and then keep in touch with them because if you don't you will lose transactions and you need to be consistent and that's the hard this is hard but you really need to think it through before you just

start you can't just go on today and go on a Facebook I'm going to do XYZ group and then just go got to have a plan plan it out and and leverage help I mean you can use upwork you can use Etsy you can use fiber for if you need help with creating some of your like collateral pieces and some of the stuff, but really, like, use, use what you have, but also don't be afraid to go get some help for creating things. Yeah. Yeah. And then obviously, we have your coaching, Laura Griffin coaching.com. If anybody is interested in working with you one on one, or I guess, you know, one on one or they have, you have the DIY group and stuff, like you said. So lots of the course. So if you want to learn how to do it and you want to learn how to get leads

from your group, because that's the biggest thing is like, what do you do to get the leads and how do you find them. We teach all that. And we have systems and templates and things to make it easy for you. I'm a mom and I get it. I need a template for everything. Yes. Yes. I love it. Well, any other last minute hacks, tips or tricks that you think would be good for real estate agents? Okay. One last thing. If this is, I'll give you two things. Yes. If you have a group, make sure your description does not, it'll say you're real estate agent, but that's not the first thing that they see. You want to

attract the people to your group. so don't do that. Don't say this is a group by Laura Griffin Real Estate. I'm the best real estate agent in Loudam County, and you've got to join the script. Make it talk about the group and what area you serve and all the things. And then make sure you have your guide set up in your group. So often that's the one thing that I see people don't have guides set up.

And that's where you can lead in and put your landing pages. Yeah, perfect. I love that. Yes. Thank you. Awesome. Well, guys, yes, please reminder here. go follow Laura on social media.

Laura, what are your favorite platforms to post on or for people to follow you on? Yeah. So on Instagram, there's two. It's either groups to leads, which is the course, the Facebook course, or you can do Laura Griffin Realtor. And that'll, Laura Ferrell will get to Instagram and Facebook too. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Bye. Bye. That was great. Thank you.