Work Hard, Play Hard, and Give Back - A Real Estate Podcast

S2E3 - David Marine: Navigating Real Estate Marketing with Anywhere Brands CMO

• Coldwell Banker American Homes • Season 2 • Episode 3

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In this episode of Work Hard, Play Hard, and Give Back - A Real Estate Podcast, we sit down with David Marine, Chief Marketing Officer of Anywhere Brands, the parent company behind Coldwell Banker, Century 21, ERA Real Estate, and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.

With over 22 years of experience in real estate marketing, David shares his incredible journey from creating the first digital listing presentation to pioneering social media in the industry by launching the first-ever Facebook page for real estate.

We dive into:

  • The evolution of real estate marketing and branding
  • How Coldwell Banker’s Move Meter campaign revolutionized consumer engagement
  • The power of brand legacy and staying relevant in a changing industry
  • Hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, including his unforgettable interview with Shaquille O'Neal

David also provides actionable insights on how agents can:

  • Stand out with unique value propositions
  • Measure marketing success with ROI-focused strategies
  • Leverage brand recognition to pre-sell clients

Thank you for listening

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the work hard, play hard and give back a real estate podcast. I'm Mike Litzner, your host broker owner, coldwell Banker, american Homes. I'm here at the Franklin Square studio at American Homes and I have our guest today. We're super excited to have David Marine, chief marketing officer of anywhere brands. Welcome, david. Oh, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

Mike, it's great to be here yeah, yeah, have David Marine, chief Marketing Officer of Anywhere Brands. Welcome, david. Oh, thanks for having me, mike, it's great to be here. Yeah, yeah, so this is a different type of interview than we've had on the show before Anywhere. Brands Tell our audience who, anywhere, brands is and what they mean to real estate.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so Anywhere. Franchise brands include Coldwell, banker, century 21, era Real Estate and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, so they're kind of the core mass market brands within the Anywhere portfolio.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you left Sotheby's and Corcoran off that list right.

Speaker 2:

They're separate, they're outside of my purview, but as a chief marketing officer, I oversee the marketing teams for all four of those brands, including Coldwell, Banker Commercial as well. And really, how do we bring them to market, connect with consumers, service our agents and everything in between?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now you spent 20 years 20-plus years in the Coldwell Banker brand specifically. Is that correct?

Speaker 2:

Yes, this past March it was 22 years with the brand.

Speaker 2:

I started as the electronic product manager for a coal banker not sure what that is, but neither was I, but basically this is way back in 2002, okay, and I was newly married, second job out of college, just had bought 1300 square foot townhouse and and I got a job with Coal Banker and basically it was this idea of hey, the internet and all these digital things are becoming more prevalent. We need someone who's focused on how do we create these more electronic products for our agents to use. So claim to fame. First day on the job I walked in and they put down this giant three ring binder in front of me and they said this is a listing presentation. It's the lifeblood of our industry. It's what an agent uses every day. Yeah, we need to figure out a way to make this digital. And so I said oh, you mean like turn it into a PowerPoint presentation? And my boss goes can you do that?

Speaker 1:

And I said yes, so.

Speaker 2:

I created the first ever PowerPoint listing presentation For yes, so.

Speaker 1:

I created the first ever PowerPoint listing presentation in CoBanker history. That is a pretty interesting claim to fame, you know.

Speaker 1:

Bizarre, but yeah, that was me the funny part is that we can look back now and from a lens of 2025 and say that you know, that was an impact change technologically for our industry. And it kind of brings me back to I remember being at a broker council meeting in 2008, and they were talking about marketing and what have you? And they're going on and on about different ways that we need to market ourselves better. And then they say does anyone else have any questions? And I raised my hand and I go, has anyone ever heard of this Facebook thing? And I got crickets.

Speaker 2:

That's crazy because I remember distinctly in 2007, 2008, that same time frame, I had just gotten onto Facebook and I walked into my boss's office at the time. I was like, hey, I'm on this thing called Facebook. I'm seeing there's other brands on there. Maybe it's something that we should check out. And one of the great things about Coldwell Banker and their leadership and really helping with even my own personal career growth was there was always this idea of they were willing to try something new and so my boss's response to me was go do it and let's find out.

Speaker 2:

So we set up the first Facebook page in all of real estate for Coldwell-banker as a brand and started exploring that. And then you look at it today and it's like well, that seems obvious. Why wouldn't somebody do that? But at the time I remember I even created a presentation that was called what the Heck is Social Media and why Should I Care?

Speaker 2:

And it was going around like all right, here's what it can do for you if you want to invest the time in it, and obviously today there's no more like oh, I think it's a waste of time.

Speaker 1:

Right, should I Right?

Speaker 2:

It is. How are we going to be using it the most effectively?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now, with your role as a marketing director, what type of strategies have you seen implemented? I know you have been very instrumental, obviously on the co-wall side, so you know it's been kind of your baby, so to speak. Sure you know, yeah, but I know you've been very instrumental. What marketing initiative most stands out to you from, you know when?

Speaker 2:

looking back in hindsight, yeah, looking back in hindsight, there's so many different campaigns that you can say, wow, that was really amazing, it was groundbreaking, it was different. And then there are those that were like man, this really produced incredible results. One of the things that stands out to me, especially as we're looking into today's age of virtual reality and artificial intelligence and all that stuff, was back in 2009,. There was a place called Second Life.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I have no recollection of this at all. You shouldn't at all. But.

Speaker 2:

Second Life at the time was the first iteration of a virtual world where you could create an avatar and you could go in and you could talk to people and basically anything was possible. Okay, and so at the time we had saw this place, this thing, and it started to get some buzz and it was, huh, I wonder if there's a real estate application to this. What if we opened up an office in this virtual world and sold virtual homes for sale? And then we took it a step further. It was like, well, what if we recreated a real life home in a virtual world and had a virtual open house for it? So that was a bizarre idea. And again, trying to explain this to the powers that be, and you're like, okay, here's what we want to do.

Speaker 1:

And then it was like huh, that might be interesting.

Speaker 2:

Let's try it out. So we recreated, based on the floor plans and the specs, and we had pictures, obviously, of the property for our sale in Seattle Washington, recreated in a virtual world and then created this virtual open house in addition to a real life open house world. And then created this virtual open house in addition to a real-life open house and the PR response to it was unlike anything I've ever seen. I mean, it exploded for months.

Speaker 3:

I know that looking for the right home can be downright exhausting. In this real estate update, Crowd4's Maureen Kelly shows us new technology that one real estate company is trying out that makes finding your dream home a little easier. Here's what the open house of the future could look like. This is a virtual tour Web 2.0 style, but Coldwell Banker has just taken it a step further. They built a 3D version of this $3.1 million house.

Speaker 2:

Everything is to scale, an exact replica of the actual listings.

Speaker 3:

The virtual one was built in the online community called Second Life. Over 8.5 million people around the world have signed on to this site. Part of the reason this 101-year-old agency got into this world is to try to stay in touch with the homebuyers of the future.

Speaker 2:

It was all that people wanted to talk to us about. From a coalbanger perspective, it was huge. Now it was a short-lived effort. Second Life no longer exists, right, but at the time it was hey, this is something interesting. And how do we create something that is marketable in the real world, in a virtual? So when I look back at how things are today and my kids have a VR headset and how that experience, it is Right. We at CB were a leader in thinking ahead.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And while it was like bleeding edge at the time, right now it's like, okay, that's something that seems very reasonable to do, a virtual reality walkthrough of a home using a VR headset, so that's one of those things that kind of stands out in my mind is like, wow, that was way out there. But you know what, now, today, that's kind of realistic. Yeah, I think you bring up a good point. That and this is key to all of marketing is that whatever you're doing, you need to know whether it is producing results or not, right? So I'm a big sports guy, as you know, and I always use this as an example is, it doesn't matter what sport you play, they always keep score, right, whether is?

Speaker 2:

it doesn't matter what sport you play, they always keep score. Whether it's in the NBA or pickup basketball. We're keeping score because you want to know if you're winning or not. That's why you're playing Same thing with marketing. I can do this thing and oh wow, it's cool, and even from a brand's perspective. There's a lot of brands out there and they're doing advertising in these different campaigns.

Speaker 1:

Hey look, we won these awards or whatever, but is it producing?

Speaker 2:

results Right. So, even as an individual agent or a team or a brokerage, whatever you're investing your time and money in from a marketing standpoint, you want to be able to track whether that is performing at your expectation.

Speaker 1:

What's your ROI Exactly? What's your return on?

Speaker 2:

investment and, as a brand, is being able to showcase that what we're doing is producing results, whether that is leading to traffic to a website, leads, conversion. What is the return on immediate spend, investment, all those things, and there are so many different ways. I love it when I walk into a meeting and someone's like but how do we know that it's working? And I say like, oh well, I have just the answer for you.

Speaker 1:

Glad you asked.

Speaker 2:

Here's what I have, and here's how I can measure it. So I think that that's a key for anyone out there who's doing marketing is making sure you're being able to show that that's producing the results you want.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, exactly, like that, like that. Now the current focus for Coldwell Banker. They had this past year the arrangement with Thursday Night.

Speaker 2:

Football. Amazon Prime Thursday Night Football.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's Amazon, it's okay, you're a Jets fan, so they're not on Thursday Night Football. No, I'm a Giants fan. Oh are you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, gallagher's the Jets fan.

Speaker 1:

Oh all right, it's hard to be either right now.

Speaker 3:

Yes, very hard.

Speaker 1:

So why don't you share a little bit with our audience what that looks like from a and how it supports the brokers and agents?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when you look at a brand, especially a franchisee and an independent agent in this industry, and you want to associate with a brand, who's going to give you some sort of value. One of the values that ColdBanker brings is one history and legacy within the industry. Two, the brand recognition that's out there. So when you look at brand advertising, it's providing almost an air cover for the on-the-ground troops, if you will. We're making sure that our name is out there and that there's something that people can see in the brand that is going to be unique or different or make them go. Huh, let me check that out.

Speaker 2:

So with the Thursday Night Football, a great campaign was done around what we call the Move Meter matchup. So Move Meter, coldbankercom slash Move Meter. It's a tool you can compare any two cities across the United States and it measures a whole bunch of things beyond just the value of a home Lifestyle, walkability, all sorts of stuff that goes into the details of it. So what we did is we created ads that would compare the matchup between the two teams playing on Thursday night football. So it was Seattle versus San Francisco and the ad would talk creatively about the differences from them as a city, like the home of grunge versus the sourdough type of stuff. And then it would drive people to say you can go to coldbankercom move meter and see the difference not only between these but any cities in the US. What we saw is, when these ads ran, there was a 15% increase in the usage of MoveMeter during the course of On the Coldwell Banker corporate site.

Speaker 2:

On coldwellbankercom between August and December when the ads would run, boom across the board 15% increase. But we saw huge surges of like 1, thousand percent increase in usage when the commercial was running. And in fact, one of my favorite claims out of this is that Amazon Prime did a study with Google that said, hey, what's the most effective advertisers on Thursday Night Football?

Speaker 2:

And we're going to measure it based on the search activity that is happening within 10 minutes of an ad running. Okay, so people see the ad, who's taking action on it? And what we found was Cold Banker was the number two advertiser behind Gillette, spending significantly more money, and is an official partner in the NFL, but more people were doing searches for Cold Banker than any of the other brands on Thursday Night Football, including Meta, google, apple, kia, all the household brands you know and to me that's showing that, hey, it's a great, creative, great venue. It's getting a lot of eyeballs Right, but now it's also producing the results that we talked about before Measurable results.

Speaker 1:

Measurable results.

Speaker 2:

That is business oriented, getting people engaged on our site.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Then coming back to hopefully look for listings and agents and so on, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then there's the. You know the halo effect, so to speak, from that. So when an agent walks into a house, are they pre-sold? Because the consumer kind of knows the brand. So you know an agent has to sell the. Why real estate? You know, why do I need to hire a real estate person? Why that real estate agent and why that company? And it's great when the company is already pre-sold as opposed to who do you work for? Yeah, who are you? Yeah, and I get it all the time.

Speaker 2:

I mean, obviously I'm biased in the brands that I work for, that I place great value in the brands. But I'll go down the shore on vacation and my parents have a place down in Wildwood Crest and we'll talk to people on the beach and they know I'm in real estate and they're like what is this EXP thing? Who is that? What is that? But they immediately know oh, cold banker real estate. I know that.

Speaker 1:

I know that Better homes and gardens.

Speaker 2:

I know that one. It already rings a bell in people's mind, and one conversation that's been happening throughout the two decades I've been part of this industry is like does a real estate brand matter?

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And the comparison that I like to use is it absolutely matters. And if it didn't matter, then there would be a Kmart real estate and you wouldn't mind having a Kmart sign in your front yard right Now as a consumer, you're like no, I don't want that in my front yard.

Speaker 2:

No, that says something about my property as an agent. You don't want to be part of that. That says something about who I am. But when you put a Cole Banker Yard sign in your front yard, that means something. Consumers recognize it, they know it's a reputable name and you are now associated with that company and that name as well. That does wonders for you as well, saying, oh I know, mike, he's an ethical, great business guy and he's with Cole Banker, who also is that. That makes sense to me and therefore makes me trust them more. So branding, I believe, is actually wired into our DNA as humans. There's something about being affiliated or associated with something that's larger than yourself that gives you pride, esteem, self-worth. I have four boys and when it comes to athletic attire and sneakers like, brand is critical, and it doesn't even necessarily need to be like the Nike or the Adidas. It's the person who's associated with it.

Speaker 1:

As well, all right. So I know there's a story back here. So which brand is it that we subscribe to? Oh well, when it comes to sports stuff.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm a huge Nike and Air Jordan guy. Okay, I've loved Air Jordans ever since a kid, and having shoes, playing basketball, okay, and that's kind of carried over into my boys as well. But they love being connected or associated with those brands. That's like, hey, this guy, he's up and coming, right, he's great, he's the performer that I want to be and so therefore, I want to be associated with that.

Speaker 1:

And you're spot on. They see themselves in his shoes, exactly.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, exactly those shoes. But when it comes to purchasing the largest investment that you're going to make in your life, you want to. It's kind of ironic that a lot of times most people are just going with the random person that they happen to be near or associated with. And so I think right now, and even after COVID and kind of the surge in real estate activity, people are now being a little bit smarter about that and saying like, hey, you know what I just don't want to go with my aunt's best friend who I've known for 30 years.

Speaker 2:

I want someone who really does well, knows what they're doing, and there's some sort of connection there that I can understand, that I feel like I'm in the trusted hands. So that's why I think being part of a brand, in addition to your own personal brand, as an agent or a team or whatever I love the line that it's your name next to ours. That really makes sets the difference. So when it's Coal Banker, it's coal banker, american homes and David marine, then you put all those together. That's where the magic happens and the the unique aspects of each individual, whether it be the brand or the agent, can really set you apart.

Speaker 1:

I think that's a. There's a really important message here for agents, especially because it's finding your lane exactly very different um delivery and expectations of, say, a global luxury brand right or a property. You know something that's going to sell for two, three, four, five million or above. Then there is, you know the typical, you know, starter home and again they're they're both important, so I don't mean to diminish one. They're both the most important investment for that person at that time in their life. I'm sure you had your start home, I had mine and it took everything I had to try to get my first start home and then you build on it. But the time you get to that higher end property there's a different expectation, a different marketplace and how do you reach it? So knowing how to tap into that global luxury brand extension and the tools I think is hugely important if that's your lane.

Speaker 2:

Yes, there's different levels of expectation. At its core, the deals are the same. Right, you're dealing with a client who has something that's very precious to them and they want to get the best deal for and in the smoothest way possible, correct?

Speaker 2:

However it's the details along the way that really make the difference. Yes, so I think what the Global Luxury Program does best is helps educate our agents, and we have great tools in that system and there's great outreach through listing, distribution through international sites and all that kind of stuff, right. But the greatest thing to me is the value of that network, right, of going to the global luxury events. You're connecting with people because a lot of times those types of deals are coming from the referrals. Yes, it's going to be out of town people looking to move to our markets. And if you can learn from some of the best in the business about how they're going about it and say, hey, I'm running into this scenario, have you ever run into this before? Nine times out of ten the person's going to be like, yeah, I know exactly what you're going through. Here's how it worked for me, or here's how it didn't work for me previously.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, and to me, that's the value of the Global Luxury Program, of the brand itself too, is that it's no longer just reliant on you to figure this out. It's like now, all of a sudden, I've got people around me, like-minded, in the same boat, who I can lean on to help, and nine times out of 10, probably 99 times out of 100, they want to help, yes, and they want to be able to share that experience with you. So that is a great part of not only the training that's done at Global Luxury, but the events that they have as well to connect our agents.

Speaker 1:

Correct, absolutely, absolutely. So I want to pivot a little bit. We hear a little bit because, um, again, as we touched on earlier, you moved from the colwell banker brand, which is still under your purview, but, um, so now you're obviously four different brands. For the six brands is safe to say, for, yes, for, uh, anywhere brands, real estate brands. How does that change your, your position? How do you cross market different brands and their identities, so to speak? Yeah, it's super easy.

Speaker 2:

No, I'm kidding this past year.

Speaker 2:

It's been about a year that I've been in this new role and the past year has been a really eye-opening learning experience, both from an industry perspective but also as a marketer. And I like to start with research. To me, that helps me get a foundational understanding of what's going on within brands. And I like to start with research. To me, that helps me get a foundational understanding of what's going on within brands. So I spent the better part of the first three or four months in the role researching and talking to agents within each of these brands, outside of the brands consumers, getting an understanding of what is the perception of each of these companies Right, and then trying to figure out what is the unique messaging that each brand should have that speaks specifically to who they are but also creates differentiation between all of them.

Speaker 2:

They're often operating in similar markets, closely connected, so how do you create those unique spaces for them? And so spent a lot of time doing that, and was able to find out one just going to each brand's event. There is truly a different culture in each brand that is unique to them.

Speaker 1:

It has a personality, almost right yeah.

Speaker 2:

It really is bizarre how different it is, and for someone who's come to Cold Banker events for 20 years, I had an expectation of like oh, this is what it is.

Speaker 2:

And I would walk into one event and be like we would never do this at a CV event. And then it was like, not that it's a bad thing, but it was like, oh, it's very different. They're much more open to this type of stuff, so that was kind of eye-opening. And then how do you focus on what those differentiators are and then create the unique messaging, not only for consumers, but also the networks as a whole, so they can feel the pride in the brand? It really speaks to the core of who they are. So what I'm excited about for 2025 is, now that we've laid this foundational messaging work in place, a lot of this stuff is starting to come to fruition. Creative is coming out there. I'm excited about some of the new campaigns that are being rolling out across these brands.

Speaker 1:

Do you have any scoops for us, especially on the Coldwell Banker side? Oh, rolling out across these brands, do you?

Speaker 2:

have any scoops for us, especially on the Coldwell Banker side. Oh, on the Coldwell Banker side. So the great part about Coldwell Banker is when we did research with agents and consumers and it was no prodding or at all the current messaging that was in place was spot on, it was resonating. They looked at us as a trusted guide within the real estate process. Experienced leadership, everything that we talked about whether it's being the North Star in the real estate industry, guiding you home since 1906. That was spot on that was encouraging, like hey what?

Speaker 2:

we're doing is resonating with them, excited for Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, and when we did some of the research with them, I kept coming back to it and I was like, is this too obvious? But we need to get closer connected to the magazine brand. And so the new positioning for Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate was the real estate brand from the magazine you trust for all things home. Better Homes and Gardens Magazine has been around for over a hundred years.

Speaker 2:

It's one of the most read magazines in the world, it's one of the top 10 brands within the United States, and they have a significant presence within Gen X and Gen Y through their social platforms. And so I was like, well, if people know and love the magazine so much and our name is the same as theirs, we're just adding real estate into it. We need to figure out a positioning and a campaign that can do that, and so we launched a two-page spread, a full page spread, in the october issue of the magazines, continuing into this year. Yeah, and all of a sudden then it clicked immediately. With their network, we're already seeing increases in website traffic and leads on the rums gardens real estate site. Uh, and then this this month in february, we're rolling out a large era campaign called move up, which excited about some media partnerships there.

Speaker 1:

Now, just for our audience, I you know the brands that you're that are under your uh again, your purview, so to speak, encompass how many offices, how many agents, how many countries? Yeah, because I know cobalt alone is in like 40 plus countries, 42, 43 countries, uh yeah, it's over 60 countries.

Speaker 2:

I think it's 250,000 agents across the globe. But yeah, it's a very large footprint. And the amazing thing is each of these brands and I didn't even realize it until I started doing more detail is CB's been around since 1906. Center 21's been around since the 70s Right ERA as well, same with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in the early 80s. Each of these brands have been around for like 40, 50 years, right.

Speaker 2:

So these are established brands within the industry that have that recognition. So, as a brand guy myself, to me it's a great playground to be a part of and being able to work with these trusted brands that you don't have to establish like well what does this thing? Mean right. People recognize there's already something there and now I have the ability to help shape it and bring those differentiators to the forefront.

Speaker 1:

You know what's interesting From my perspective, again, 41 years of being, you know, on the brokerage side, so more the application side. You see the legacy of the branch you talked about and they're all very iconic. And yet sometimes you see agents who these new brands, come out and all of a sudden they get this. You know, it's like the hot new thing, sure, and they seem to get what I call the honeymoon period where they're all buzzing, buzzing, buzzing. It was like, oh yeah, they're the new thing, they're not the old thing anymore. And it was like, oh yeah, they're the new thing, they're not the old thing anymore. And then all of a sudden, three years later, it's like you know, it disappears and then there's another new thing. So there's a certain segment of agents who really respect the legacy and what it takes to survive 100-plus years, as Coldwell Banker has, or even 50-plus years, as Century 21, 21 has, as opposed to. You know I'm the hot buzz, but can you stay and show your value that people and agents actually stay with you?

Speaker 2:

I remember everybody from Purple Bricks to Foxtons and probably 100 in between.

Speaker 1:

Speaking of multiple bankrupt companies right.

Speaker 2:

The thing with brands is not just survival but thriving, correct? So can you one survive the test of time, but then continue to show that you can thrive over the course of it as well? Yes, and so that's what I think each of our brands have done in their own unique ways. And that's what we need to continue to showcase.

Speaker 2:

There's always going to be the headline grabbers and everyone loves like, hey, this is the hottest thing that's out there, right, and oh, let's focus on that for a hot second Reinventing real estate, but meanwhile it wasn't broken, that's right and the key also showing the evolution of the brand over time as well, right, the fact that even it was kind of the impetus for the rebrand for Cole Banker was this idea of, hey, everything that we were doing and everything that we were saying felt very current and modern and hey, this is a real estate brand for the future. But they thought we just looked old, right. So I was like, oh all right, that that's a way easier thing to fix, yeah. Then like, hey, we have no trust that anything that you're doing is worthwhile 100% Trust is everything, and so then, that kind of brought the rebrand to life and giving it a very modern and a facelift to it.

Speaker 2:

With these other brands that I'm now overseeing is what I'm trying to do as well is showcase. Okay, what is the consumer and what do our agents not only think about our brand, but what do they want the brand to be, what do they expect from it?

Speaker 1:

Are we?

Speaker 2:

delivering on that expectation, and is that expectation different from the competitor? That's right next to us and that, to me, even as individual agents are listening to this, is when you're talking about your own value proposition as an agent. Yes, if you write out, hey, this is my value prop as a company, as an agent, I always tell people, start with your name, right, david Marine is fill it out, okay, one sentence. Don't make it a run on just one sentence. What is it? Okay If I can change the name at the front to someone else and it still makes sense. Your value prop's not good enough. You got to make it specific to who you are as a brand, as a company, as an agent, and then that's what you can key on. You're going to do other stuff beyond that, but this is the sweet spot of what really makes David Marine, david Marine or Colbert American Homes truly unique, and the more that our brands and our agents can focus on that, the more success they're going to have.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, ironically, I'm not sure if you just answered it or not, but my next question was really more for like an agent. So you got an agent coming into the business or they're in the business and want to continue to grow their business. What's one piece of advice you can give them for marketing to help them, or a powerful strategy that would help them make an impact in their local markets?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'll share a little tool that I use. I'm a big guy on storytelling and I think that if you can formulate your story and use that in your marketing, it's the most powerful, timeless way to connect with people and to persuade them to want to work with you. So there's this little moniker that we use on all of our what we call creative briefs in marketing. So when you're starting a new project, you put this hey, we want this project to do this, to speak to these people and deliver on that. And you put it in a brief and you give it to an agency or whomever, and the team is able to say this is the confines of what this project should be.

Speaker 2:

But at the top we start with three words Convince that, because so convince who? Who do I want to talk? To Be as specific as possible that what do you want them to do? That they should work with David Marine, that they should sell their million dollar home with David Marine properties, right. And then here's a tough one, because what's the reason why, what's the proof to that, if you can make that sentence, make sense. Convince luxury home buyers in you know madison, new jersey, right. That david marine is the luxury agent of choice that you want to list your million dollar plus home with because no one has sold more million dollar homes than david marine in madison over the past 18 months or whatever specific it is. Then, all of a sudden, you've got the confines that you can create what is a unique story and message that's specific to you?

Speaker 2:

yeah, a lot of times we're just like I want to be the I'm the number one person for everyone, right, versus really honing in. Yeah, will you take the others that are coming outside of that construct? Yes, but you can be able to measure and be able to showcase. Hey, these are the specific people I really want to make a difference with this year.

Speaker 1:

I think that will help people refine their story and be more, uh, strategic about what they're doing one of my pet peeves and you've almost touched on it, but you kind of danced around it in a different way. But agents or the industry, I should say has a habit of I'm number one. No, I'm number one.

Speaker 1:

I'm number one on Tuesdays between 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock in closings. It's like so what are you number one in and what does that really mean to the consumer? So when you say, convince who, who's your marketplace and do they really care that you're number one, that's great for you. What's in it for me, the consumer? So that's why I feel like a lot of the marketing from an agent side misses. Am I?

Speaker 2:

off base on that. You're exactly right. It's been something. I've used that same line with people. I'm talking about everybody's number one in something. It's almost as if you see a movie trailer right, you know the movie is garbage, but they've got a quote from somebody who's like best action movie ever made, right yeah, you're like you just lost it.

Speaker 1:

It was incredible. They cut off the end. It was an incredible flop.

Speaker 2:

But you know that you're not fooled by it, right, but it's become an expectation that everybody's every trailer is going to have some amazing reviews part of it. Every real estate agent is going to put that they're number one or on the best or the most, whatever, on their advertising. It's when you get past that what's really going to make a difference, a more compelling message, exactly so.

Speaker 1:

I like that. I like that. Now I want to go one other place. We touched on this before when you're talking about your kids, but you said you're a Nike guy. Yeah, okay, I know you had a back and forth with Shaquille O'Neal. Isn't he a Reebok guy? He is. He's a. Reebok guy Did you know that when you interviewed For our audience David was at Gen Blue, which was the international convention for Cold War Banker. You had the pleasure of interviewing Shaquille O'Neal on stage as the keynote speaker.

Speaker 2:

Some would call it a pleasure, some would call it something else, but yeah, it was a truly unique experience. It was one of the hardest things and rewarding things that I've ever done. So for anyone who wasn't there and didn't see it, shaq was given questions ahead of time that we had to agree that he was going to be asked. But Shaquille O'Neal is Shaquille O'Neal oh a character, what a personality.

Speaker 2:

He's a good guy went off on his own and he was poking fun at me, and so what I had to realize as part of the interview was that when he was pushing me, it was all part of the act, yeah, and so therefore, I had to adjust in my own mind and be like all these questions are out the window. But I will be the the straight man in this two-man bit, and I know that he's doing this just to be entertaining, and so he made fun of my white pants. I hope every last time you don't get a jelly baby.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, and you spill all of those sexy white bags. You know some sexy.

Speaker 2:

Stand up here with this lady Awesome Good luck to you. Good luck to you.

Speaker 3:

Come on, look at this hot guy in the white pants.

Speaker 2:

It was all good fun. And so afterwards, at the end of the interview, we walked off stage and he turned to me and to me this is one of the best compliments that I've ever gotten. He said thank you for being so cool about all of this. He goes. I do 100 of these a year.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, and he says that nine times out of 10, the person reacts and is offended, and then the interview just becomes boring. So thanks you for making it fun. Yeah, and so, as you mentioned, yes, I was wearing Nike Air Jordans on stage with him at the time and he did point that out.

Speaker 1:

That little Nike story you told me, forget that.

Speaker 2:

Reebok, by the way, dude. I told him during the interview. I was like, like well, I'm a size 11. If you ever have any extra pair? So a week later, when I got home, there was a large box on my front porch and I opened it up and Shaquille O'Neal sent me six pairs of shoes and I'm actually wearing a pair of those Reeboks right now that he gave me To me. That really said it all. It's like, okay, he remembered that thing. That was said and there was that connection there. So I have one pair that I don't touch. It's just on a bookshelf at home.

Speaker 2:

But 100% street cred with the kids on my basketball team that I coach and my own kids were like, are those the shoes that Shaq got you? But yeah, so that was a fantastic experience, but, yes, a shocking one as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I really think that the speech training that I got in college really helps from a professional standpoint more than anything else. Yeah, I took marketing classes. I got a degree in marketing. Everything that I learned in marketing no longer exists today. Right, there was no YouTube, ads and AI and that kind of stuff. It's all I learned about the core basics of marketing and it didn't matter. But the speech classes that I took 24 years ago I still use every single day. Yeah, and that helped me that in the moment, because I knew what I wanted to do and I knew how to handle objections, was able to shift even without thinking about it. It just became part of like a natural reaction to it. So anyone out there who's listening and they're like, hey, I want to get into marketing or business or sales or whatever the more speech classes that you can take and the more you can focus on your presenting skills and how to persuade people, the better, because it will be a timeless resource for you Exactly.

Speaker 1:

So, david, I know you're married, have four kids, four sons, right, four boys, yeah. So how much of this education, so to speak, or words of wisdom, do you share with your sons and do they listen?

Speaker 2:

Do boys ever listen? I don't know I've got six of them, so it's just over time, right, the repetition eventually sinks in. So funny thing is, my oldest son is a junior in college. He's majoring in communications.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And he's taking some business and marketing classes as part of that. So he takes a class last year or the year before called digital storytelling. Okay, and I'm just like digital storytelling, this is one. Wish I had that class when I was in college. Two, this is my sweet spot. He's like, yeah, I got to do a project on a video, I got to build a website. My sweet spot he's like yeah, I gotta do project on a video, I gotta build a website, I gotta do some social campaign, blah blah. I'm like I'm here, let me know what, uh, what can I help with? What do you want you?

Speaker 1:

want me to take a look at anything, nothing.

Speaker 2:

He doesn't want to hear anything like. He didn't ask for that for one thing or the other, but the greatest thing to me was he came home and he shot that he had to make like a short film. It was a one minute film, no lines had to have these different shots and it was part of this project. And I was like well, can I see it when you're done? And he shows it to me and it was better than anything that I would have come up with.

Speaker 2:

So then there you're like wow, that's, that's a proud dad. Examples, hopefully, that I'm producing in my own life and with my wife that they will then be able to implement with their families when they grow older. And you want to be a proud parent in this thing or that thing. And then people always say all the time and side pet peeve of mine like I just want my kids to be happy, and to me happiness is a low base.

Speaker 2:

They can be happy doing nothing and playing video games all day. I don't want them to be that happy.

Speaker 2:

But I want my children to be more productive than I was. I want them to be better than me in whatever area that they choose to go in. So that's kind of what my wife and I are trying to establish and the right wisdom to share with them, and when you see one nugget get taken and implemented, yeah, like that's. It doesn't matter that they ignored the other 99 hour around it, but it's that one that you grab a whole lot all right.

Speaker 1:

so, david um, just to get a little more personal stuff, can you maybe share one fun fact about yourself that most people don't know about you?

Speaker 2:

I sing in my church not as frequently as I used to, but yeah, I was. My mom is a trained musician, piano teacher, choir instructor for 30 plus years. At a very early age I was singing solos and duets in church. I used to have to pull out a little chair.

Speaker 1:

So you can hold a tune.

Speaker 2:

Not as good as I used to, Okay, but one of the most rewarding things. My wife is very musical and she sings as well, and each of my boys have been required to take piano lessons for a limited amount of time. Some have stuck with it, some haven't, but my oldest is a musician, still plays the piano, plays the euphonium. My son Wyatt, who's 17 now, he sings and he's in the school worship team and he sings at church. And then my son Owen, who's 14, plays the trumpet, Okay, and my youngest Cole plays the piano and the I forget what he calls it. It's like a xylophone, but it's kind of different Glockenspiel is the name of it.

Speaker 1:

I've heard of it, but I don't know if I could pick it out.

Speaker 2:

But yes, so just this past over Christmas break, a little parenting rewarding moment is I sang in a quartet with actually it was a quintet with my two oldest sons, myself, and then my pastor and his son as well, so it was a nice little generational moment.

Speaker 1:

but that's kind of the musical genes are passing through, so is that on your YouTube channel?

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's probably on my dad's YouTube channel. He records all those things, okay, okay.

Speaker 1:

So I want to pivot real quickly to the give back. So giving is a really important part of, I know, our life at American Homes and I also know it's a big part of Coldwell Banker. Are there any causes or initiatives that you are personally really passionate about?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I believe in giving back, not only from financial, but with your time and effort, and both my wife and I, and even my parents before me, invested in our local church. I've been going there for the past I'm 46 now, so for about 40 years Wow and being part of that community and being in service there as well as within our school. So my boys go to a small Christian school. My wife teaches that one Right, and they're always looking for people to support and help out, and so whenever we can be part of that and give our time and effort, we'd like to do that. One of the smallest ways that I didn't even realize. But also oftentimes and you know this when you're part of a charity or giving back, it's oftentimes more rewarding to you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you don't realize it when you're trying to do something good for others. So with my son's high school, my oldest son was on the basketball team during COVID and in late 2020, early 2021, New Jersey wouldn't let fans in the gym Right the players could play but there was no fans allowed.

Speaker 2:

So I said to the head coach I said listen, I will figure out how to live stream and I'll get equipment and whatever if that gets me in the gym and that way other parents could see it. And they're like, great, let's do it. So I started live streaming these games and during the games I was just telling the score every once in a while and one of the parents came up to me and said just tell us what's going on every once in a while.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and one of the parents came up to me and said just tell us what's going on, just commentate for the game, and so I started doing that and it became a thing play by.

Speaker 1:

Play yeah, color commentary I was doing.

Speaker 2:

Play by play and color commentary, and so that was 2021 and I'm still doing it to this day for the games that I can go to, for both the high school boys and girls teams, and the great part about it is at graduation, yeah, I get, um, someone comes to me like no, this is, this is the guy on the live stream. And then like, hi, my name is joe. Uh, I'm so, and so's grandparents. We live in north carolina and we've been able to watch every game because of you. Thank you for that. Yeah, so like that type of reward and back, you don't even realize that you're making that impact you're making that impact.

Speaker 2:

You're just like, oh, I'm going to do this thing and it'll help out, right, but when you can get involved beyond the like, yes, I'll give money to support this cause, but when you can step beyond that Right and get involved, I think that that's the really where the sweet spot happens. And you know, coal Bankers work with St Jude Children's Hospital is a huge, huge program, and I've been privileged enough to get to go to St Jude. When you go and you see the work that's being done there, it is unbelievable. The people who go there, they are dedicated.

Speaker 2:

It's not just a job. This is part of the cause that they want to be a part of, and so being part of that organization and helping bring that partnership to life was a huge really rewarding thing.

Speaker 1:

I think one of the highlights at the Gen Blue, the international conference, where you have thousands of brokers and agents from around the globe basically attend, is they do a presentation from St Jude's and it's always so impactful. And personally, my wife and I are big fans and supporters of St Jude's and one of the things I always look for in a charity, if you're going to give on that level, is what percentage of the money actually gets to where it needs to be to help the actual helping people, and they always have a very high percentage that gets there and they share their work.

Speaker 2:

They want to cure childhood cancer and they don't care who does it Right. It's not like, oh, we're keeping it all to ourselves. They share their work with everyone across the board. Fantastic organization and really proud to be a part of it.

Speaker 1:

Very small part, oh awesome, awesome, so all right. So I'm going to pivot to the drop the mic question, which is always again a little left fieldish. We're going to change paces and stuff like that. So, and again, I just want to remind our audience if you like our podcast here, just like and subscribe, I think you're supposed to say smash that subscribe button, smash it All right, let's go smash it.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's go. So all right, good, so here's the drop the mic question. I know it's a little left field so I have to. Haven't seen the Shaquille O'Neal interview. Have you worn white pants or been to Baby Gap since?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I've worn the white pants before.

Speaker 1:

I look good in those pants.

Speaker 2:

He even said so my assistant at the time after that interview, got me a shirt and it was a screenshot from the video of me standing up in the white pants and Shaq sitting next to me, and she pulled a direct quote from Shaq and he said you're a good-looking dude man. Look at him in those hot pants. So she got me a T-shirt with that on there and a photo of it. But yes, I've worn them again.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I wasn't sure if you were going to be scarred for life after that. So, David, so happy that you were able to join us. I know you traveled from out of state to be here on our podcast and I think our audience is really appreciative of your insights. Again, you have some really unique viewpoints at our industry and it's really again lends some depth to the whole understanding of what real estate really offers well.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate the invite. The GW view wasn't too bad this morning. But happy to come out here and I will say you are the better looking of the partners at a CB American Ops there we go and wait.

Speaker 1:

I just for the record, gallagher, I did not pay him to say this, but I'm glad we have. We saved this for everyone to hear. It's on the books, it's official. It's official, it's official. There we go. All right, so real quickly before we go, david, if anyone in our audience wants to reach out or connect with you, what's the best way?

Speaker 2:

Feel free to engage with me on social at David underscore Marine on X or at DMarine40 on Instagram. Happy to connect with you.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, Awesome. Thank you again for being here and we'll see you soon.

Speaker 2:

My pleasure.

Speaker 3:

Hold on. Do you guys want baby Gap socks? No, I got cold baby socks you got those from Baby Gap Cold anchors.

Speaker 1:

I love them. Oh, okay, cd, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3:

CD, CD what's up? Cd?