Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to real estate? Prepare to be enlightened by the savvy blend of online marketing and real estate prowess of our guest who's been navigating the industry for a decade. Her journey offers a unique perspective on the significant role the internet plays in today's real estate market. She shares insights on her innovative community-focused marketing strategy, the importance of personal branding, and the power of video marketing. Not to mention, she gives us a glimpse into her successful investment strategy that spans across multiple states, offering a lifestyle that many dream of.
Our conversation doesn't stop at real estate – we also venture into the world of networking and why it's an essential tool in business. Discover the power of small talk, learn how to create lasting impressions online and understand the importance of reaching out to local leaders. This episode is packed with a wealth of knowledge and experiences to inspire and equip you to take your real estate career or investment journey to new heights. Whether you're an aspiring real estate agent, an investor, or simply interested in how to leverage online marketing and networking, this episode is a must-listen!
Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to real estate? Prepare to be enlightened by the savvy blend of online marketing and real estate prowess of our guest who's been navigating the industry for a decade. Her journey offers a unique perspective on the significant role the internet plays in today's real estate market. She shares insights on her innovative community-focused marketing strategy, the importance of personal branding, and the power of video marketing. Not to mention, she gives us a glimpse into her successful investment strategy that spans across multiple states, offering a lifestyle that many dream of.
Our conversation doesn't stop at real estate – we also venture into the world of networking and why it's an essential tool in business. Discover the power of small talk, learn how to create lasting impressions online and understand the importance of reaching out to local leaders. This episode is packed with a wealth of knowledge and experiences to inspire and equip you to take your real estate career or investment journey to new heights. Whether you're an aspiring real estate agent, an investor, or simply interested in how to leverage online marketing and networking, this episode is a must-listen!
Speaker 2:
Way back when wait way back when. Yeah no, I've only been an agent for ten years, but always wanted to and then never got the chance until what did you do? Before, or so I did internet marketing.
Speaker 1:
Which is okay, I do all perfect. Yeah, I was gonna say people that have like a background in marketing. I think we have a heads up, yes, not just as an agent, but just any type of service, exactly.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I always told my kids you have to. I don't care what you major, yeah, but you have to have a minor, at least in business or marketing, because it's gonna come in handy for anything that you do.
Speaker 1:
Yes, you know, something that's great is also Like when you're younger, especially like some type of MLM type thing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, right. Yeah, I couldn't do it because my personality, but it definitely teaches you some great things. My partner comes from that background. Yeah, and she's perfect for that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I was gonna say I tried, I was very, very bad at it, but Exactly, I did like Mary Kay in college, right, right.
Speaker 2:
No, that's why I partnered. Yeah. Yeah, she was just made for it, so I was yeah.
Speaker 1:
So okay, so you? What made you decide? You said your kids had to be in school.
Speaker 2:
So once they my youngest got his driver's license, then I was able to. Yeah, so when you live out as far as Winchester and everything is very far like sports and schooling and everything, so I would drive like four hours a day just to get them to all of their practices and games and so, yeah, could not possibly do real estate. Yeah, at that time, why real estate? I always knew I wanted to do something in real estate. I Everyone says they're obsessed with watching, looking at homes, even way back when I mean I remember, you know, when I was graduating college, of course this was. You know, the internet was not a big thing back then. I'm a little older, yeah, but I was still finding apartments online. It would just be like one little line describing it, but I've always been searching for that. So, yeah, it was just natural progress and and yeah.
Speaker 1:
So something I love that you do is you like highlight your clients on your blog? Yes, mary to Hancock yes, she's a client. Yes, yeah, she does that. How do you approach your marketing? I know you said you were in online marketing, so you get a little bit of a heads up, right, do you see?
Speaker 2:
yeah, right now for our marketing it's just promoting the community and people, even selling homes. You know, if someone asked me, like, what's the favorite home you sold, I don't remember the homes you see so many homes when you're in real estate but I remember the people and in the stories and so all of our marketing is about our entire community and just highlighting everyone that does so many amazing things and when we give back to them, think it back to us, so it just it's perfect for everything there's just cycle for good stuff, right, exactly.
Speaker 1:
You see yourself in five, ten years. Oh gosh.
Speaker 2:
That's always such a hard question, especially as a neural divergent. I really don't know.
Speaker 1:
I think I'll be here, but I could also be one of these other 18 places exactly.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, even like I don't even know where I'll be living. We have homes in multiple states because I like going different places and so did you do that as a Investment type investment? Yeah, but when we look at those, it's yeah. Is it a retirement option and not just as an investment? What are some of the states that you have comes in. Currently we have Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee and. I'm looking for Georgia and Mexico.
Speaker 1:
Nice. That's the cool thing about like, I've learned a lot about the tax code. Oh yeah, and that's a great thing about being a real estate agent, yeah is that you have a lot more like Abilities to.
Speaker 2:
Travel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is a hard thing to wrap your mind about and I know we actually met for the first time last year at Karen Cooper's thing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, are you gonna be back this year? I don't think I'm able to make. I have another, are you?
Speaker 2:
gonna be there. I am, but if you remember, there are a couple of panelists who had been splitting their time in like another state and doing real estate and that was a whole mind-drop, like can I actually do that and service my clients?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, they're ladies. I'm sure I was gonna say yeah, and there's ways to set it up.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think it's a mental block more than you know. You need to be there in person with them. They don't care. You're doing the work for you, it's yeah.
Speaker 1:
And you know, and there's this thing called like celebrity businesses, right, it's basically personal brand businesses, okay, where people will work with a specific company because they are buying into that celebrity status of the brand, right. Right, if you think of like big names like Oprah Winfrey, and you know, like when you purchase certain things or like the Martha Stewart line, you're not gonna actually get to meet Martha Stewart when you buy her books or little cricket type things.
Speaker 1:
But you still feel like your friends with them, yeah, and you're like buying into their, and it's kind of similar to that when you start to like take your service-based business to the next level, where it's like people stop expecting as long as you set up the expectations correctly to sit here and like work with you all the time and, like you just mentioned, it is kind of a mindset it is. You have to shift it and then be okay with it, and they're okay with it too.
Speaker 2:
That's what I'm finding You're a level of following your set-up issue. Yeah, I know, I know. I think there's a lot of that in real estate. I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1:
It is. It is. What are some of the influencers? Books, podcasts that you're listening to and reading.
Speaker 2:
Sure, besides, all of Karen Cooper's books yeah, of course, karen, I honestly don't listen to a whole lot. You know, I again it's the people when I'm reading, I want to read stories about people who live different lives than I do, so that I can understand, you know, different economic levels and all these things, cause that's I want to really be able to relate to everyone but also understand what they're going through, which I think I do the same with my clients as well, it's? You know, I never ask my clients like what they do for a living. I always, you know my partner's, like she knows every single thing about them and I'm just like I know who they are is like what they like and like I don't care where they work.
Speaker 2:
I don't, you know, that's not. It's like the house. No, I don't care about the house. I want to know about the people. What is your lifestyle and all of that? So I don't listen to a whole lot of podcasts and books by people like that. I feel like a lot of them have the same information. Yeah, that's maybe a little.
Speaker 1:
Your story, your story driven.
Speaker 2:
You're like people driven human stories, yeah, so I love reading those things, which I think agents are realizing that they need to do a mix of reading and not just business stuff and business podcast.
Speaker 1:
So it's funny because I'm obsessed with the business podcast. Yeah, techniques and strategies, but what I really love is getting to know people and their stories and their struggles and their whys and their motivations.
Speaker 2:
And yeah, and I think we get to point to where you know what you need to be doing. You don't need to listen to another podcast. You're not doing it Right.
Speaker 1:
But you know what you should be doing. What do they say, though? Sometimes it takes like hearing it Like 13 times and you're like Okay, it's time to do it. And then it's like the friend that told you from day one. They're like I told you to do that crap 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and I'm like, yeah, you did.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's needed 13 to 10 years to process it. So in terms of like your community out in the Winchester area, what are some like developments or because you guys kind of pick?
Speaker 2:
things up. So I lived in Lake Holiday for 20 years and it is the best kept secret. There are so many people that look for waterfront properties. They want a second home that they can actually get to and enjoy. And going down 95, it's not really great for traffic for Northern Virginians, I know like Holiday Assets is like no one's done.
Speaker 1:
I saw it on your website, but I was like, and it's right there.
Speaker 2:
You can drive an hour and 15 minutes and have a waterfront home. You know it's incredible. So we have a lot of little.
Speaker 1:
What's the price point right now, in 2023? October 29th. What is the price point I had?
Speaker 2:
to find Sam. So it's actually fairly good because it's not open to the public. It's a private gated lake. You can't go and party like like Anna, so prices stay a little lower. So you can find out. We have a waterfront home right now in the five hundreds Okay, so it's very affordable.
Speaker 1:
You listed it or there's somebody else that's listed it. There is someone else that listed that one there's. Okay, I'll have to look at that.
Speaker 2:
I had it before, they did it and I fired them. Anyway, needs a little bit of work, okay, okay, yeah, very, that's awesome. That's such a great place. It's very affordable. Yeah, we actually have. I had quite a few clients who own second homes there and during COVID, when everyone started being able to work from home, moved permanently. Yeah, because why not If you can?
Speaker 2:
do that, it's got good internet, exactly, yes, yes, best have good internet. That is definitely a little harder out there now, especially if you want to be a little further outside of the city and you want a little more land. Yeah, finding reliable internet is a little difficult still out there, yeah.
Speaker 1:
I agree. I know I see you look complaining about it on the groups. Yeah, it's very hard. How do you find your best clients besides referrals? Because I know good agents, it's mostly referrals.
Speaker 2:
But besides that, how do you find that? Yeah, I'm probably not a good agent. I don't do a whole lot of referrals from other agents. I do a lot of referrals from clients. That's what I meant, sorry. But internet marketing I want to bring people to me because I'm an introvert and I don't want to go to networking groups and all of those things. So that is why I do so much social media and video, so people really get to know me online and then they reach out and because we specialize in waterfront homes and we specialize in those things, they want the people that really know the leaks and can pinpoint them to where they need to go. Oh yeah, Mostly online.
Speaker 1:
So explain I know a little bit, but explain to our listeners. What does that look like?
Speaker 2:
for you. So we have a couple of things. So first, I have a lot of websites that are literally neighborhood websites. So there's a Lake Colovodate website, there's Lake Frederick, we have a VirginiaLakeHousescom which covers all of the lakes so people can see oh, do I want something that has a pool? Do I want something that allows water skiing All these different options. So we have the websites. We also have a magazine that we launched a year ago, where we are about to celebrate, called the Old Townist. So we feature businesses and people that make Winchester run and make it interesting. So we're just always out talking to people in the community and then combining with our social media so they really see our faces everywhere. We were interviewing our local sheriff last week and we're just walking through. He's giving us a tour of the whole courthouse and the jail and everything, and this lady just walks by and she's like I love your blog and just keeps walking.
Speaker 1:
I have no idea who she was. You're like I have a chief celebrity status right there.
Speaker 2:
That is the goal. You know, in real estate Everyone says don't be a what?
Speaker 1:
do they?
Speaker 2:
call it secret agent. Oh yeah, and that's what I would be without the internet, because I'm not going to networking. I actually hate networking Same.
Speaker 1:
Thank you. I hate networking. I used to go at the very beginning because it's what I had to do to get my name out. But it's really not what you have to do. No, it's just what everybody else knows how to do. And so they tell you you have to do it Exactly. And so I bought into it, did it, realized how much I hated it, but still continue doing it because I didn't know of any other way until I discovered video.
Speaker 1:
There you go and I was like, like you, I don't like I could find go out for three hours between traveling, getting there, coming back home and meet what 15, maybe 20 people up the most, they're not gonna remember you unless you go over and over and over to the same event. Yeah, or I could take that two or three hours record and edit a really good video. Yeah, put it out there and Thousands, thousands and it's always there and it will consistently bring in people, as long as the topic is good, right, yeah, right, like exactly, yeah, it's I.
Speaker 2:
I love social media marketing, online marketing, video marketing yeah and it's great for us too, because we're able to educate our clients on the entire process Without them having to sit down with us for two hours and go through everything. So our clients come, they already know which is if they want to work with you. Yeah, they know me. They like us. Yeah, they know that we're gonna be able to really guide them for what they're looking for. Yeah, not just someone's name who you know. They had 200 people respond in a Facebook message looking for an agent.
Speaker 1:
In terms of I know you. I said what do you see yourself? I'm sorry. You said I have no idea because I could be in any of these 18 arenas as an agent and You're in this career, in this bucket, in this bucket yeah, you see yourself.
Speaker 2:
So I'm trying to transition. I have a small team, so we're trying to transition me into being just the marketing person and overseeing and then they're doing everything.
Speaker 2:
Katie is more of the face for the networking thing, so in person, but I really want to be on the back end. I love doing Introversion things, exactly, exactly. Yes, yeah, I just want to bring people to us and you know I do develop relationships with people through text and email, which sounds insane. But I mean one of my best friends, who I've been friends with for 30 years, I met online way back then, you know, my husband and I met online on a fantasy football website like this is a train for you else, right, important really, and I think that's people don't realize that. They think it's kind of weird, but it's not it's becoming the way of like Absolutely everything.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yeah, I mean dating now starts online. For the best part, a little scared, I'm gonna make me.
Speaker 2:
I don't know how anyone's dating right now, but it's a little scary.
Speaker 1:
But yeah, people are used to, though, communicating via text and via phone calls and video calls yeah, and it's so easy when you are neurodivergent.
Speaker 2:
And I don't want to do small talk.
Speaker 1:
Yes, you know, I agree. So this is what I love about like podcasts and like a format like this where I get to be one-on-one with somebody, having Conversation with you, with them. It gets documented, filmed, edited, put it out in the world. So, rather than just having because people do one-on-ones, right, right, but then that conversation and then that's it, that's it. There's no business from it. Yeah, or whether you're giving them business or giving you business or some type of mutual connection, it's great. You get to meet the person, you get a face to name, but now you can actually take it one step further, which is introduce them to Exactly your market in your whole audience. And, yeah, why the heck?
Speaker 2:
not, yeah, and that is what I honestly love doing is Connecting other people.
Speaker 2:
Yeah to what they need the conduit? Yeah, absolutely. I have people call me for the most random things, like what I need a limo this weekend and I cannot find anyone. So I will find you a person that has a limo ready for that weekend. Let's go like just very, very random things. Of course, we get the house things. You know, do you have a pain or do you have all of those things? Yeah, but I have family coming in this weekend and where should we go eat? That's my favorite cuz, yeah. Yeah, let me be the list. Yes, I know all the restaurants and I do not cook at home, so, yeah, can tell you exactly where to go.
Speaker 1:
That's great. So you're like not just a connector, but like You're out there seeking these relationships and these people that you'll be able to connect them to. Exactly you know, and so people know. Okay, if I need answers, she's the person.
Speaker 2:
I need to go to.
Speaker 1:
That's awesome. Okay, so you tell me about your future casting goals of being the man behind the Making everything work personally, where do you see yourself, besides having more time?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I really just want to be able to travel more. We travel a lot, but our kids have just reached the age, two of them just graduated college and now they are in different cities, so being able to go, we don't know where they're going to end up permanently. So, yeah, hopefully in states that you want to buy property. Yeah, so far. No, no, not Georgia. Yeah, tried to get one of them to go there but did not have any yet. That's fine.
Speaker 1:
Is there anything else that you'd like to share with listeners who are business professionals in the community, who want to know get to know their local business owners? Is there anything specifically you're like I can share this little piece of advice for you.
Speaker 2:
And this may just be because we live in Winchester, but we always find it interesting that we can literally text or call anyone and get a meeting and I think we've tended to think that that doesn't happen anymore. But we just texted the sheriff and said, hey, can we have a meeting? Absolutely. It comes down Like the mayor you can call anyone and ask. It might be no, Do it anyway, Maybe not call. I'm not going to call, Katie will call, I will text, I will email. But the world really is more open than I think that's such a good advice. We believe it is Like you really can reach out to anyone and especially as an agent, people kind of have that trust already, like you're a realtor. Even if you're not calling them about real estate, they kind of know your name in the area and stuff. But anything that you want you can go out and just ask someone. You'll find it.
Speaker 1:
I love that.
Speaker 2:
It's such a good mindset shift right.
Speaker 1:
It's definitely a mindset shift, yes, for sure. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. It was so great getting to actually have a conversation and dive in deep a little bit. That's small talk, I appreciate it.
