From Billboards to Bestsellers: Elevating Your Brand Offline with Betsy Pepine

Buckle up for a powerhouse conversation with Betsy Pepine, a bestselling author, serial real estate entrepreneur, and founder of Pepine Realty, one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. Betsy’s approach to visibility is anything but ordinary. From celebrity endorsements with Barbara Corcoran, Dave Ramsey, and Glenn Beck to offline strategies that most online entrepreneurs overlook, Betsy shares what it really takes  to build trust, brand equity, and lasting impact, without relying solely on social media.

You’ll hear:

• The myth of “you must be on social” to grow
• The mindset shift that helped her treat marketing as investment, not expense
• What it actually looks like to secure a celebrity endorsement
• Her favorite visibility win outside of online platforms
• Why being everywhere doesn’t always mean being online

Plus, she opens up about her new book "Breaking Boxes: Dismantling the Metaphorical Boxes That Bind Us" why she wrote it, how it’s helping people break free, and what’s next.

Connect with Betsy, check out her quiz and book here https://www.betsypepine.com/

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With a visibility strategy that works harder than you do.

OMNI is your group coaching experience where you learn how to create visibility that works harder than you do. A strategic blueprint to become discoverable on the feed, search and AI. https://thevisibleceo.com/omni 

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Transcript

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Welcome back to the show. I am so excited today to have an amazing guest on the visibility impact show. She is a best selling author and serial entrepreneur in real estate. Her brokerage, Pepine Realty has been named as an Inc 5000 fastest growing private company in the USA multiple times and has earned spots on the top 50 Florida companies to watch and Florida trend best companies to work for list. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal has consistently recognized her as a real estate or her real estate team as one of the top producing real estate companies in the US. She is also owns a title company, a real estate school, a property management brokerage is endorsed by her mentor, real estate mogul and shark tank, uh shark Barbara Krick Owen, as well as leading media personalities, Dave Ramsey and Glenn Beck. Welcome to the show, Betsy Pepine. How are you doing today, Betsy? I'm doing great. Happy to be here. I am so excited to have you give us a quick rundown. Obviously, we just read your bio, but give us a quick rundown of who you are, what you do and what you love doing in as an entrepreneur. um Well, first and most importantly, I'm a mom of two, single mom of two, um and also uh two daughters and two rescue pups. So that's my top priority. But um how I earn my living is, yes, I'm in real estate. I consider myself a serial entrepreneur in all things real estate. um And so you listed off the companies. main brokerage is the, the main company is the brokerage. And then I formed all these spin-off companies that support customers and agents that use the brokerage services. So that's how I chose to kind of expand instead of choosing to go outside of the industry. I just said, okay, I'm already servicing these clients and these agents. How can I serve them better and with additional services? um So yeah, so that's me in a nutshell live in North Central Florida. Love it. So you are a serial entrepreneur. So how many years have you been an entrepreneur? my mom would say since I was born. mean, I've always, you know, even like in the fourth grade, I write about in my book, I write about convincing the class to turn the convincing the teacher to turn the classroom into a fuzzy pencil making factory. And we made pencils and sold them to the school. And then we went to Busch Gardens, which is like a theme park, kind of like a mini Disney, very Disney. But um yeah, with the proceeds. So just I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit. I've always loved I've just loved the idea of we have the ability to create value and in exchange for that, people are willing to give up their money for something that we create. And that's just to me, it's so empowering. And that's how to me you change lives. so, yeah, so my mother would say since I was born. I love it. I love it. That's even better. That's even better of a story. So one of the things that I you and I had a conversation before, and one of the things I really loved about our conversation is you have you have invested in I would what I would call traditional visibility. We talked about billboards, TV, radio, celebrity endorsements. What do most entrepreneurs get wrong when they think about marketing and return on investment? Because I know that some of these were paid, visibility opportunities. Where are most entrepreneurs missing the mark by not taking advantage of these types of visibility opportunities? You know, I think it's hard, especially if you're a newer entrepreneur, because you want to see an immediate return and you want to be able to calculate that return. And you can't in some of the lead sources, you know, the celebrity endorsements. Yes. Occasionally somebody will call in and say, I just saw Betsy's commercial with Barbara sign me up. Right. But that's, that's not the norm. It could be they've seen multiple things and then they see that and that tips them over. It also, the celebrity endorsements in particular, they just elevate the brand. it, it just takes it, you know, it's a rising tide, but again, so I feel like it accelerates your growth, but it's very difficult to get a true realistic ROI, just isolating that one lead source. Whereas that's very different than if you run social ads or, you know, buy leads. Like that's very easy to figure out how much that ROI is, but With these kinds of things, oh it's much more difficult. And so when you're new and money tends to be incredibly tight, you want to see a direct return. And so I think sometimes you don't invest in it, but it could really be the best time too, because what these things allow you to do is you're basically leveraging their brand onto yours. so you get rightly or wrongly, you get instant credibility. that may take you years to get otherwise. So that's where I think maybe a young entrepreneur may poo poo it, may say, no, I can't do that right now, when maybe they should reconsider. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you probably hear a lot. I've seen you on a billboard or a TV or with such and such celebrity, right? And so that's kind of like, you know, it's working because people probably say that to you a lot. Yeah, I see you everywhere or you know, they asked me if I can get them on Shark Tank. Wish I could but I know I can't but no I'm yes I mean and people say that multiple times a day. Yeah, absolutely. So how do you approach the balance of like brand visibility that builds trust versus visibility that drives direct conversions? Because I'm assuming you use both of those in your marketing. We do and we don't have We don't have it like we don't say 25 % our but of our budgets gonna be spent here, you know, 75 is here. It's more every quarter the leadership team evaluates all of the businesses and just Looking ahead. Where are we going to need the lift? Do we need do we need leads converted tomorrow or can because the other thing about these the other legion that you're more traditional ones that we just spoke of they They take longer, you know Even when I first started doing Barbara, the Barbara Corcoran commercials, it was months before people were starting to get it, you know, because you see one and done and you don't, you don't remember it. It's the repetition that's required. So it depends on if we need a shot of, of business, you know, short term or can we um go long term or what kind of mix do we need? So we kind of evaluated every quarter and adjust it based on what the business needs and We live in a very, I mean, Florida, we live in a very seasonal climate and a very seasonal business. And so we're constantly having to adjust that based on production and seasonality. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm sure also that um the thing that I have to say about real estate where sometimes we're talking to online entrepreneurs, and they have like a two week launch, right of a product, you have something that's timeless, right? People are always going to desire and always need. Yeah. Yeah. And I do like that because um just for my personality, like I don't, I wouldn't do well if I felt that I was in a transactional business, which I think a two week time period, this product has to be sold that I would feel that pressure. um For me, I love, my goal is to just build trust. And then I know if I build trust, I don't care if you know, any individual buys or sells from us, but I care about earning their trust. Cause I know if we do that, they are going to feel compelled to share us with their friends and family and their sphere. And that's where the value is. So it's very relational, not transactional. Absolutely. Absolutely. love that. So can you talk a little bit about how or what it looks like rather to secure endorsements from like the people you've got some big names, right? Barbara, Dave and Glenn Beck. what, do you even go about doing something like that? What does that look like? So those all came about in different ways. um And I'm sure there's other, like my friend, he's endorsed by, he's the realtor for a professional hockey team. And you can do that now for sports teams, college, well as um national teams. um You can have agents. So I have, before I had the endorsement, I had an agent that is in New York. and his company was responsible for buying my media for me, my television and radio. And so for the Barbara Corcoran, he happened to know her and offered that to me. I'm like, my goodness, yes, sign me up. So that was wonderful. um Dave Ramsey, that is something that's open to everybody, any realtor, they can apply. What I really like about them, there's there's so many different lead sources and people trying to get into you know They will they're not in the real estate space they get their license and then they because they're highly networked They just want to sell their referrals, right? Dave's background is in real estate And so he does have a real estate license and he has chosen to do that as well. But his whole um You know, he his whole philosophy is around building a debt-free life, which is something that I espouse. housing is a component of that. So it's a natural fit for him. But then what I also like about Dave is that unlike other lead sources where you might just have to pay a monthly fee to get so many leads and then take anybody, Dave, I mean, you have to go through an interview with his staff and you have to show how you know his products. I I happen to teach his classes. But you do have to really buy into his philosophy. You have to know his books, um the themes, the messaging. And he's very careful about that. He wants his brand represented through his um trusted advisors. So that's how I got that one. And again, that is open to anybody to apply. And I think there's a kind of a limit to how many he would even accept in certain geographical area. Right. So that's kind of, they're just kind of, they're all different. It's sometimes do you know, sometimes it's just applying. Yeah. um love that. If somebody was like very new, maybe first few years in business, and they wanted to invest in some type of traditional marketing visibility, but they can't go really big yet, like, where would you suggest that they start? That's a one. I mean, there's just so many different avenues. Like something I did from day one was I did an Ask Betsy column in the local newspaper. And it's in the digital paper as well as the um physical paper. And I did that since day one. And so now we're what, 20 years in. And so that's really helped because I started it so early. so that was great. But did the phone ring right away? No. but it really branded me and even that, which it's interesting to me because some of these things, it's like they're open to anybody. Anybody can come up with this, get in papers. But the perception is you've differentiated yourself. So then you must somehow be better at what you do. if you're brand new, that really helps you because you are brand new and you need as much credibility behind you as you can get. And so those are the kinds of things that worked for me to help create legitimacy behind my brand. love it. So good. So good. So you've built, I'm gonna call it an empire, you can correct me if you don't agree. But I'm gonna say you've built like this empire across several verticals in the real estate world. And now you're also adding author and speaker to the mix. Like what drives you to keep expanding your influence? You know, I'm just driven by nature and I wake up every day, my goal is to improve and empower the lives of others. And so I'm constantly looking for ways to do that. And that's why I wrote the book, because I wrote the book, I mean, the book has nothing to do with, most of my colleagues and friends, em if they write a book, it's a lead gen book for their business. This is not a lead gen book for my business. And so I wrote it because I hope to help. one person make a change in their life so that they could lead a more impactful and fulfilling life. So my mission drives me. That's what drives me every day. And so I started the other companies because it's like, how can I add additional value to these folks that I'm already servicing? I didn't want to just do random things. I wanted to add value to their lives too. So that's kind of what I feel like drives me. how even though breaking boxes is the name right? uh Yeah, it's breaking boxes, dismantling the metaphorical boxes that bind us. So it's not necessarily, it's not about real estate, but would you say it's elevated your brand? Yeah, it has. it has. It's again, it's like one more thing where I think people associate somebody who's, guess, took the time to author a book and go out and speak about it. I think the more ways you differentiate yourself in a good way, the better for your brand, whether it's directly tied to your brand or not. mean, some people choose to run for county commissioner that elevates your brand, you know, so. anything you can do to elevate, even if it's just you and has nothing to do with your business, you are by definition elevating your brand because the brand is you, you know, right. Absolutely, So good. So good this conversation. I'm in love with it. Okay, you said visibility has never been like a real struggle, but the cost of visibility has been a consideration. What mindset shifts helped you treat visibility as an investment, not a luxury? I think it wasn't so much a mindset. I'm, my personality is I will try most things once, you know, in terms of things that an educated decision, but it's like, okay, I'll invest in it. I always have a, mean, it's kind of like poker. love poker, but I always have, I always know beforehand how much I'm going to, how much I'm willing to lose before I walk away. Right. So I do the same thing with, with any kind of investment in my business. It's like, I know. what I'm comfortable tolerating and losing and having zero impact. Betsy, that was learning, didn't work, we've got to pivot. And I'm willing to do that. So I think it's more that mindset where what, you know, okay, I'm not attached to money in particular. just doesn't really get you anything other than freedom, which is great. But money in and of itself does not mean a lot to me. And so I don't mind trying things to see if they work. And worst case, I've learned a great lesson. that I'm gonna take with me. So I don't have that fear of failure that I think a lot of people em have an obstacle to do things because they fear, my gosh, that might not work. Yeah, it might not work, but I'm gonna learn something. So I think that's the mindset that I have to be able to make these kinds of, by some people's maybe estimations leaps, but they don't feel like that for me. that. I love that. So is there any marketing move that you made that felt like a gamble but turned out to be a game changer? Or were you all pretty like, you know, I trust myself, this isn't really a gamble because I know what's going to happen. It's always going to be a win. No, I wouldn't say that. I mean, I do know a lot about marketing. know a lot. I I have a degree in marketing. It's my passion. So I do feel fairly educated in the space. But having said that, I have done things that I thought were going to work and just nothing. I mean, just a like just the other day, I mean, we had something that we tried for six months and it was an online, it's kind of like an online magazine, but very local, but it's the It's the only lead source in our town that now, mugshots, know, mugshots in the community. so people are always know who just got arrested, right? And oh, it always surprised me because I'm always the last to know. But I'm like, okay, so this media source is the only area in our town that still carries that daily. So you can go on multiple times a day and see who's now arrested, whatever. But it other great news too. and. And I had heard other realtors swear by it. I'm like, OK, well, it doesn't make sense to me, but I'll try it. And we tried it for six months, got not one call. No one mentioned it. mean, there was just zero. So it's more things like that where we try it and it's just not the return that we were anticipating. Absolutely. One of the things when we had our conversation earlier was we talked about a lot of your visibility doesn't come necessarily from social media. So what's a visibility win that you're proud of that didn't come from the online space like we know it today and where most entrepreneurs are going directly first? Like what's a win you would say that you're most proud of? I actually don't feel like it's any one. I think it's the combination. mean, I've got I'm at the airport with a billboard. I mean, I'm kind of everywhere. I'm in different newspapers. I'm not on buses. know, those those are dominated by the attorney, the accident attorneys. But em but I feel like it's more the combination is what I'm probably most proud of and known for versus just any one particular marketing avenue. fair. That's so fair. So is there a marketing or visibility myth that you feel needs to die already? Like it needs to be done and over with and people need to stop talking about it? do think, yeah, I think it's the same with, I see it in real estate, in the sales aspect too, and not only the marketing, but I feel like there's people who say, this is the only, like, you've got to be on social media to be successful. You don't, you don't, and not in real estate. You don't have to be, you will be, you can be very successful. So I always say to like, even the agents that are with us, like do what, what feels good for you and what's natural for you and something that you enjoy doing that's authentic to you, then that authenticity will show through. You will attract your peeps. cause it's, it's awkward when you're on social media and you're not comfortable with social media. It's not your thing. It's a drudgery. Like don't do that. It's okay. There's so many different ways to make this business work. So that's what I think the biggest myth is that you feel like you have to do this thing or else and it's just not true. The truth is everything works. Everything works if you're willing to work. And that's what I believe. So whether we're getting visible to the masses on social media, or we're getting visible to the masses on a stage, or we're getting visible to people one-on-one with a one-on-one conversation, or going to networking events, or writing a book, right? There's so many mediums that there's not, this is the only way. There are many ways and you get to do, know, if you don't love it, It's not going to succeed, right? Yeah. uh And also, think it's like people think, I got to go to the masses. Well, no, you can also go deep. know, we've got we've got somebody who only specializes in condos within about a mile and half from our campus. That's it. And it's like, I think a lot of people would be like, there's no way you can make a living doing that. That guy is killing it. And that's his tiny little specialty. So you don't you don't have to sell to the masses to make it big. Yeah, absolutely. And the more I think specialized you can get, think people automatically have this red flag like, my gosh, I can't help everybody. And so they get this fear, but it actually helps them help more people because they're so specialized. So I love that. I love that. So good. So good. Okay. So let's talk a little bit more about breaking boxes. What led you to write this book? And obviously, I know it's been a brand builder for you and things like that. But really, what was the heart of the reason I know you wanted to help people, but what caused you to write this book in particular? So I wrote this book because um several years ago, know, just despite feeling very blessed, um I was not happy. And I went on a journey of discovering why that would be. And the I explored a variety of different modalities, meditation, yoga, therapy, bioenergetics work, EMDR, a whole host of different things. And the common thread was this feeling of confinement. And I correlated it to boxes because I see boxes every day in real estate and, you know, buyers and sellers put their, their items of safety, things that they want to keep out of harm's way in a box. And then we ship it across the city state country. Right. And then, and then we dismantle the box and we put it at the curb for girl, you know, for garbage pickup day. But these kinds of boxes, these metaphorical boxes that I was finding myself in while they were not physical boxes, they were just as real to me and I felt very confined in them. And I compare it to, know, if you've ever had the misfortune of purchasing a bed mattress from Amazon, it arrives at your door and you're like, no, they sent me the wrong thing because it comes in a box, you know, not very big. And you lug it inside and rip it open and lo and behold, two days later you walk by and you're like, oh, that is a full size mattress. How could that have possibly fit in that? And I felt like I was in that box prior to it being ripped open. And these boxes could be, and I felt it based on my industry, my gender, my family of origin, my roles, the good mom, the good wife, the good daughter. You know, all these different boxes I found myself in that, you know, maybe at some point in my life served me. Some still serve me, but others either I outgrew or they never served me and I was still in them. So I went on a journey of getting out of the boxes that no longer serve me. And when I was sharing this with others, they would share their dilemmas and they wanted help getting out of their boxes. And so that's why I wrote the book, because I thought, gosh, if I could just help one person get out of a box that they're struggling with. then the effort will have been worth it. So that's why I wrote the book. love that. So so good. So good. All right, we're going to talk about how they can get this book at the end of our episode. But I wanted to let our listeners get to know Betsy just a little bit better and a little bit more outside of the business world. So I'm going to ask you some rapid fire questions. Just feel free to answer whatever comes to mind. Okay. And some of them you'll get choices. So number one, early bird or night owl? my gosh, early bird. All right, go to coffee order. Never had a cup of coffee in my life. Yeah, I just never have had a cup of coffee. doesn't interest me. Never. I don't. Am I a drinker? I don't drink tea. I know I don't. don't drink anything. I used to have. I would say maybe 15 years ago. I mean, I truly had a fairly serious addiction to diet Coke, but I got I got rid of that. I got that out of my life and I've. I mean, truly was addicted to the substance. That was awful. But that was probably at least 10, 12 years ago. So good. Favorite way to unwind after a long day. Um, I love to draw and do art. I love to go on walks with my dogs and be in nature. it. um What's one thing people would never guess about you? I am a super die-hard introvert. same. We are so much alike. Um, what's one thing that always makes you laugh? Oh, my children, my girls. If you weren't in real estate, what do you think you would be doing? I would be, um I would have a farm and rescue dogs. I have a dog rescue. So good. good. All right. And last rapid fire question. What is your current obsession? What's something that you are absolutely loving right now? I'm right now obsessed with learning how to draw better. I love to do art, I feel like I'm not a good drawer. And so I'm obsessed with taking classes, learning how to draw. Do you feel like still? Is it like a creative outlet for you? I love that. I love that. So, so good. All right. So what is the best way that my listeners can connect with you? So I have a website which is just my name betsypapin.com. I'm also on all the social channels, which is also betsypapin, um except for TikTok, which where I'm Gainesville realtor. Yeah, those are the two main ways. and how can they purchase your book? So it's on Amazon, it's on Barnes and Noble, all the major bookstore outlets online, and it's also on my website. And I am actually, my course that's accompanying the book is gonna be coming out in the next two weeks, and that will also be available on my website. So good. good. We'll, link all of these in the show notes as well. All right, Betsy, is there anything else that you would like to share with my audience before we go? do. I did want to just say one thing. I mean, I know we talked a lot about marketing, but you had asked me if you were a new entrepreneur, what would you do? Yeah. And something I do now incessantly, but I didn't at the very beginning, and it has nothing to do with marketing directly is get yourself in mastermind groups with other entrepreneurs and not necessarily in your industry, but that will put you on a different trajectory than if you try to go at this alone. I love totally agree. Community is huge. Connection is huge. And people that what do they say? Keep yourself around like your top five people that you're around yourself with. Like that's so important and can help your growth tremendously. So thank you so much for coming on the show pouring into my audience. I'll make sure that everything is ah You guys can connect with Betsy in the show notes. I'll have all the links there So make sure you check that out grab her book and make sure when you connect with her tell her that you found her on the Visibility Impact show. Thank you so much Betsy Thank you.