The Real Mike Duley

Ep. 13 - Moving Seats: Escaping Roles That Kill Growth with Kimber Walton

• Mike Duley • Episode 13

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Social media feels noisy until you hear the strategy behind what actually works. We’re joined by Kimber Walton, a branding focused marketer and tech leader in Utah, to break down how real estate agents can build a personal brand that earns trust, attracts the right local audience, and turns attention into real conversations.

We dig into why “brand” is bigger than a logo, it’s your voice, your consistency, and the experience people expect from you. Kimber shares why she treats content as the vessel of the brand and why copying trending posts without a desired outcome usually leads to wasted effort. You’ll also hear a clear approach to choosing a primary platform, using Instagram as an operating system, and building an intentional funnel with tools like a bio link site, Stan Store style setups, and ManyChat automation.

Then we zoom out to the future: AI in marketing, generative engine optimization, and what it means to be discoverable when search behavior shifts. We talk about creating hyperlocal content that pulls locals in, how to differentiate instead of copy competitors, and where platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook Groups still create real leverage for referrals, relocation, and community building.

If you’re serious about growing a real estate business with a stronger personal brand and a smarter content strategy, hit play, share this with an agent who needs it, and subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to the Real Mike Dooley Podcast. I'm Mike Dooley, nationally recognized broker, bringing you real conversations, real strategies, and real insights into today's real estate market. Awesome. Thank you for being here, everyone. We're with uh the real Mike Dooley, and we have an awesome guest. Uh I can see her on the screen. I know you can if you follow us on YouTube, but let me tell you, looking sharp, styling, profiling, I see her all over social media. I'm gonna jump off with that too. If they want to follow you and they love everything you're gonna say, which they are going to, where do they find you on social media? All the handles.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, my Instagram, really everywhere is at KimberWalton.

SPEAKER_01

Easy enough. A lot of people will like this too because I'm in Walmart land. We're gonna tell everyone that you're related to the Waltons. Uh, so we're just gonna start a new thing. We'll start a new page that you're the billionaire, but in Utah.

SPEAKER_00

I I wish. Um, also I have very convenient initials for the company that I'm affiliated with, Kimber Walton, KW. So I go by all the swag because it serves two purposes for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. Well, I know today we're going to talk about personal brand and social media, kind of be all over the place for our listeners. I always tease about people being from Paris, but then I say Paris, Arkansas, or Paris, Texas. I'm sure you probably is there Paris, Utah.

SPEAKER_00

If there is, I don't know. We we name things after um like scripture and stuff here. We're we're we're that crowd. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. So there's a genesis.

SPEAKER_00

Uh probably.

SPEAKER_01

If not, we should create a Paris. We'll we'll create our own little town. Elon Musk is doing it, everyone else is doing it. We'll create our own name founded by you, Paris, Utah. Maybe it starts off on this podcast today.

SPEAKER_00

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01

I know you wear a

Kimber’s Origin Story And Roles

SPEAKER_01

lot of hats. It would be helpful too for our audience. And I found I've had a lot of people ask questions all the time, too. Is you know, maybe we can just cover a few of your hats that you have. I know we were talking about before we started and let everyone know some of the roles that you have. I know it was really cool. I shared it with my whole market center, so you know. Actually, I shared it with the whole region. You were doing the vision board uh on Zoom and online. Thank you for doing that. I thought that was great. You didn't even know I was a follower of your great stuff you were already doing.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Yeah, so I am um uh a little bit of an anomaly in um our organization, but just in general with marketing. So I um I have been affiliated with um our brand for about 11 years. And the origin story, which once we talk about brand, you'll realize that's very important um in the whole scheme of things. But my origin story was I came to the company in a role that was the opposite of who I am, who I can serve, and how I can best um, you know, help people be more efficient, close more real estate. I think that's the goal uh for us specifically. And so I am the poster child of if you are on the wrong seat on the bus, um, get up and move. And uh yes, you have uh they call the sunk cost fallacy. There is that. Um, I am going to hold here because I've already invested X amount of time. Um, I am the poster child of why don't do that. Get up, move, um, go serve people the way that you naturally um are uh positioned to serve people. And that's when the magic happens. So that's my origin story. I was in the accounting role at KW. So um you'll realize when you get to know me through some of the questions you ask. I'm very extroverted, I'm very loud. Let's talk about it, let's get into the details. So, right now, as of 2026, um I hold a few roles. Um, I'm over our technology for the state of Utah. And I also um run a marketing company called the Content Group. I've been doing that for about four years. My focus with the content group is branding. And the only reason I called it the content group is early on, if five years ago, I believed that content and branding were one and the same. I see a lot of people treat those separately. So we can talk about that later. But I am very focused on branding and content, being one and the same. And that's how I feel agents can get more traction. So I serve agents throughout our entire organization, helping make that easier because we are an industry full of distractions.

SPEAKER_01

So I saw, I think in my notes 2014 to give the audience context too, right? It's when you started.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, which is so weird because I'm only 25.

SPEAKER_01

Just wanted to find out about the content group, where do they go? What's the website for that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so it's just the contentgroupco.com. I also have everything linked. So any link that I want you to look at or applies to me is really on my Instagram. My Instagram is my primary platform. Honestly, sometimes I want to tell my parents, can you

Pick One Primary Social Platform

SPEAKER_00

just message me on Instagram? That's my preferred communication platform in general. So um I would love if you um connect with me, follow, uh, send me a message.

SPEAKER_01

I love I actually uh off script, I love that because I think a lot of people, even me, so I might you know grab this podcast, we're together, I'll post it on all the platforms, you know, LinkedIn, Facebook, you know, and somewhat treat them the same. What you hear? Mix things. And what I'm hearing from you is dial in and get good at one, and then someone can meet you at other places. They can meet you at your website, they can meet at other places, but through that, that's kind of the the OS, that's kind of your operating system, is your Instagram. Correct. That's so good. So if someone wanted to message you, if they DM and all that, does it uh that's strategically tagged? So do you have a link tree all there in your bio? How do you use that funnel?

Building A Clean Instagram Funnel

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I actually love when you ask questions like that because I think too many people are not transparent about their tech stack. So that is something you will also learn about me. I'm very transparent. I just let's I'm not a gatekeeper, is all I have to say. Um, I currently have a bio site. It's just because that's like what's connected through Squarespace, which is my website. And I'll be honest, I am currently, as of four days ago, um a proud subscriber of Stan Store. So as of today, you would look there and go, Oh, this is um, I'm listening to this podcast. She mentioned BioSight, now it's Stan Store. Um, because I'm big about as um as you learn different things and realize what are the mediums I'm trying to get out, what are the problems I'm trying to solve. You need to make sure that your tech stack matches and mirrors that. And I was realizing mine, I when I chose it, it was more aesthetic and not as, like you said, like really intentional about um funnels and stuff like that. And then I am a big user and believer of many chat. I would say that would be the number uh two tech uh piece component that I have plugged into my Instagram.

SPEAKER_01

I love people that they're listening. I love you said tech stack. So I've actually uh recruited and brought several independents over to Kella Williams. And that's one thing I think a lot of people talk about CRM. They talk about, you know, what platform you're using, what things. And sometimes I think it's a holistic tech stack. So anyone listening, I would I would listen to her and I would write that down and I would use that because at times we use a lot of acronyms in the world, especially you being a marketing branding person. People are always, you know, insta, all these things are using different different acronyms and different small words or abbreviations. Sometimes we're not talking to someone apples to apples, and they might not understand what we're saying because we're using so many acronyms or so many things. So I love that you say tech stack, because too, that could mean even our iPhone is part of that tech stack. I think people think about too is it talk about all the pieces of that. Do you mostly, I guess Instagram is mostly driven from your phone. So really your your operating system really is driven probably for your phone for the most part, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. So if you sat down and coached with me as far as, again, um I love social media managers, SMM. Um, that is a very big role and come um it it it it's a it's an industry within itself. Um I never claim to be that, and I claim to be someone that can help you strategically build out content. I do think templates, social media, marketing, all of that, it tends to lean a little bit into one size fits all. And I always joke, I know too much. I know too much about how things are going to perform based on what industry you're

Strategy Then Content For Results

SPEAKER_00

in, what area you're in, and then just the algorithm of the moment. And so I really try to focus on getting um getting everybody situated with the correct content strategy first. So a mantra that I have is strategy then content, strategy then content. I watch a lot of people around me go grab something and just go do it, or somebody is posting all these cool reels. I'm just gonna go do that as well. That might be a good idea, but I will ask you what's your desired outcome? What are you working to accomplish? No one ever knows the answer to that until they've talked to me and we've gone and built that out. And what's fun is when you start to see results from strategy, I mean, copy paste this in anything in our industry. I know I'm preaching to the choir on this, but I will approach everything with strategy than content. And I really, really hope that that was still on subject with the original question.

SPEAKER_01

No, I think that was awesome. You got me on to my next couple of questions where we're talking about it still. So, to your point, if you're in Utah and someone, I'm just making this up, we're talking about the beat, the beach. And they went to Panama State, they went to Mexico and their whole social media strategy was talking about the beach, but that's not their end user. You know, if they're looking to sell luxury properties with a little bit of land in Utah with snow or whatever that is, and I know those different parts of Utah. My side story, my parents' best friends live in St. George, and they let me know that it's basically Vegas, you know. Uh, but people don't realize that how beautiful Utah is. I did. We have a sprinter van. I'm gonna go a tangent real quick. And we did all of Utah. It was so beautiful. Just so you know,

Hyperlocal Storytelling With Utah Examples

SPEAKER_01

if anyone listening has never been, I highly recommend Utah is so beautiful. So, so a side thing, what's some of your favorite things to do in Utah? Favorite places to go and be. If I was going there for the first time, where would you go or do?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so the tourist. We let's go tourist lens first, right? Tourists love our national parks. So Bryce National Park, Zion, which I just taught all of you how to say Zion. Okay, I say it with the D-I-O-N, you would have said it different. Um, those are the little hacks to know if someone's local. Um, Zion National Park and the Narrows. You'll hear about the Narrows. It's those beautiful pictures that literally Microsoft uses as a screensaver, and it's canyons just on both sides, and there's uh ankle, sometimes even calf deep water that you just wade through, and it is um it's honestly a spiritual experience. And then um Moab is another fun place if you are an outdoors adventure Jeep um rock crawler. Um, you can go there, and that is where the arches are. So if you've ever seen the beautiful arch, um that is just you know, here for thousands of years, just formation. And so there's a lot of amazing things to do. We love rock crawling in my family. Um, and then oh, sorry, my light just went out. Hold on. Okay, so I was like, I need to move.

SPEAKER_01

Um everything you just said, I I went to all of those. And if you have small kids, so I'm a 13-year-old and a nine-year-old with my kids. Is the narrows, the water was running a little bit too. So my nine-year-old, I was mostly carrying her at a lot of places, super cool experience. But the arches, I didn't, we we had into our sprinter van, we stayed in a tiny home. It was so cool in Moab. You know, we went and I did not know we had to hike in. My wife might have known that, but she didn't tell me that. My nine-year-old, it was a little bit uh more difficult for her to do, even our 13-year-old, I think it was about a mile in. The distance wasn't the difficult part, but actually some of the elevation changes for the nine-year-old. So I got my workout in for sure. I had her on my shoulders at least half the time. And I'm by no means a crazy in-shape guy. I do D1 and stuff, but I'm no Marcus. I'm not in shape like him. Oh my God, you know, the guy's in shape. Yep. Um, but two, uh, here's where I'm gonna come back for all the audience. And I love that you said. So if you were presenting uh Utah, for instance, and you did an amazing job at depicting that, part of your strategy would be is how are we gonna integrate that into our either real estate business, mortgage business, marketing, whatever that business is, and then the end in mind, what clients do we want? So a strategy session might look like that, right? It's understanding where are we going, who's gonna be our audience, and then working backward, right? So, like goal setting to the now, if you will, working backwards. And I think about I know you do a great vision board class too. So my vision board might have, I'm gonna do, and you talked about crawling. I think crawling though is when you have a side-by-side or a razor and you actually go up the the rocks very, very slow.

SPEAKER_00

We do actual uh Jeep Wranglers. So Okay, okay, and there are some fancy ones like we have a Terraflex lift 97 Wrangler that is just that thing is a part of our family, and um, there are some fancy ones, the ones that people just bought last year that I'd be scared if it rolled.

SPEAKER_01

So you said 1987. Now that we have a lot of a lot of ducks in this. Is that is that a thing?

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, I mean, I hear that's a thing, but I feel like that's a thing more with people that drive Jeeps on red like roads.

SPEAKER_01

So it's kind of like the tourist or the real person that drives a Jeep. It's like, you know, the fake people, if you will.

SPEAKER_00

It's the wave. Like if you if you do the wave, there's a Jeep wave, and then uh really it's just like if you have a lift, you have to advertise your lift on the Jeep as well.

SPEAKER_01

So I've I've learned a lot of things. Join the crew, yeah. I know uh I had a mentor say know a little bit about a lot, and I think that's what I'm already gathering from you already. If I'm if you're a strategist and anyone else is want to get into this and you do with your marketing organization, you're able to listen to people, understand, and then meet them where they are, and then kind of make segment it, if you will, and then strategize. I did I had a few questions I want to throw out too, and let's make sure uh throw out your social your Instagram again. I know it's the best place to find us. I want to make sure the audience does not miss that.

SPEAKER_00

I always joke at Kimber Walton. I was able, I joined Instagram early, like when the um we just did it, we used it for filters back in the day kids. We would just download Instagram to add really bad filters to our photos. So I I got

AI Helps Remove Emotional Blocks

SPEAKER_00

my name at Kimber Walton early. Um one thing, well, I'll I'll wait until you ask me a question, but I I think well, yeah, um part of the strategy then content, and this is something that's very relevant in today's age because of AI, which by the way, now I don't just lump brand and content together, I also lump AI into that. It's all little one beautiful package. But in AI world, right, it's it's kind of been fun to learn. For I know Mike probably feels the same way, but for me as well, it's been fun to learn because computers actually don't emotionally attach to anything, right? It's we get so much information output from using AI because there's not that emotional um barrier. And emotion is a beautiful thing about humans, but sometimes when it comes to strategy and how we look at things, emotion is a huge block for us. And why I bring that up is humans judge things. So we judge books by their cover and we think that things are um, the kids say cringe. We won't do things because we've already attached a thought, a meaning, and a process to it and like our ideal way of looking at it. I don't do that with strategy. I go, okay, I'm taking off the lens of this uh judgment that I'm putting in, and then I'm gonna go build out my strategy. So I'm gonna give you an example. When I go build out a content plan, sometimes if it's those more um the high-reach videos at first, sometimes I will get kickback of, okay, but what does this have to do with real estate? Right? Everyone wants to go back to the plot. Do you think that is why you've started to watch and follow the people that you followed? Is it always because they have all the information about the subject, or is it that they were a compelling person to follow? You understood what they were getting at, they had a strong personal brand. And then now that you're there, now you're in the funnel of what they're doing, right? Their focus in my in my world, it's brand. And so you'll see sometimes on my Instagram, I'll model, I'll model what I think an agent should do. It will get results, and then I get the proof and the pudding versus the concept of judging it seems uh it's usually where I get stopped. So I'll give you the content example back to Utah, right? Because this is where um I serve. So I walked out of a building the other day, and I was in um, we were holding an event on the fourth floor of this building. Well, the building is uh primarily a plastic surgery clinic, which is kind of a thing in Utah. So I just thought it was beautiful, so I did a pan of my scene, and I saw in a 10-second pan, I just went like this with a video. I saw two churches, a Range Rover drove in the scene, and then I also panned over enough to see this plastic surgery clinic. So I was just scanning the beautiful mountain area, but then I just had it in my phone and I thought, you know what? That's actually kind of funny. That is a Utah thing where you can do a 10-second pan and see two churches, a Range Rover Mountains, and a plastic surgery clinic. And so I just went with that as far as like Utah focused, a hook. That 10 second as I was walking into the building got 335,000 views. So I want agents to focus on get get the local people in your funnel. Some parts of a real estate agent, you have it easy in the sense of you just need to focus on the people that are actively like they live in Utah. They potentially could buy or sell in Utah or already own. So being hyper local is a part of the strategy. Some people would think, well, that's a weird post. I'm just gonna go talk about the market. And it's just not gonna have the reach. And so, and I'm a big and not or person. So it doesn't mean that you shouldn't post the market update, and it doesn't mean that you shouldn't do those, but you should both have them built in your strategy. That's how you get further.

SPEAKER_01

That's so cool. I was thinking about like Mr. Beast, for instance, what you were what you were talking about. Uh originally, obviously, you know, he did thousands of thousands of videos before he even got views. But now he's selling chocolate. He's selling other, you know, uh his meat and cheese company, his other company. Because he had a personal brand and someone you were relatable with, everything you were just saying, now we can go, oh, whatever the next thing he does, I'm gonna at least watch it and maybe see if it's a way I want to engage with it, which Is exactly what you just laid out for me, for him, for Gary Vandichek. You can kind of go through several people. They're like, oh, now they're doing playing cards, now they're doing this thing. But because they were a personal brand and I was engaged and I bought into them, then when they go do something else, they're a thought leader in that other area. So I love that you said an and, and then they can go, and here's the analytics around the market, whatever it is. But I had this fun, engaging thing. If they only did the analytics around it, I'd be like, meh, that's pretty cool. They're pretty smart, but they had the whole package. And that's really cool. I love that you laid that out.

What Kimber Studies Every Morning

SPEAKER_01

See, I I just learned it from you right now, just on site, connected with it immediately. What would who so who, you know, and maybe our audience is thinking about it. Who are you uh receiving influence, information? Who are you love watching and just saying, you know what? Let me take in that information and make it my own. Is there someone that you really just follow on Instagram or TikTok or just people that you love?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I um again back to the people don't really ever get into the details sometimes, and those are like where the power is. I just need to reference sometimes when people will bring up, gosh, like you just know so much about some of this stuff. My daily, so one hour usually every morning, and it's usually just why I'm like curling my hair or something, right? It's the it's the 45 minutes where it's like I'm already just sitting there and I could sit in silence, or I could sit and consume information. So in the morning, I'm usually picking on um something like uh a couple of new characters have come in recently because I am focused on AI too right now. So I listen to Dan Martell a lot. I listen to um there is a new podcast, and I promise you, me and Mike, we're going to be the um when we mention this, and you're gonna look back in five years, you're gonna be like, they knew about this before everybody else. But there is a podcast called Open Residency that has um just come in front of me lately, and he is the um he's a little bit more of a dry um interviewer, and he just asks like the like tell me your story questions, so he gets all the details out of people, but he is interviewing. First of all, you'll go watch Open Residency. The set is phenomenal. But they'll have people like Callaway, um, which he's a big video creator, um, just these high-level people that are basically just laying out the framework of what they've done. I love to consume content like that. And then this is more of a long-term thing, but um uh trying to think um off the top of my head. Um what was I gonna say? Oh, uh Stephen Bartlett does Diary of a CEO. That one's been interesting because I think he's changed his game a little bit more lately to be like everybody, and he's interviewing like CIA operatives and stuff like that. So you learn a lot, but it's not as strategic, I think, as it used to be. Um, and yet he brings on a lot of people that it's a good, interesting perspective. And I would say those are the top of my head. I the Gary Vaynerchuk, he's a part of the repertoire now. Like he I've been listening to him for 10 years. Um, honestly, I would say if there's one person that's influenced who I am today and what I do and what I focus on, it is truly Gary V. And that back to that whole We Judge book fights cover. Um, I think some people would listen to him for five minutes, hear him swear, they don't appreciate swearing, and they would turn him off. I think about that. If I had turned him off then, the amount of things I wouldn't know. And so I love to pass along that perspective. I actually did a substack about the swear jar keynote that we just had at our Keller Williams convention, because I think it is a lens that um I can respect everybody's beliefs and um, you know, sensitivity to things. I'm I'm from Utah. Like you don't need to talk to me about any of that. Um preaching to the choir. But um, there's so much left on the table. So many people, so many things to learn when you judge first.

SPEAKER_01

So what is your Substack uh handle? Do we call it a handle? Do we call it our Substack name?

SPEAKER_00

I think it is Kimber Walton, but I'm glad that you have to.

SPEAKER_01

We can get that so people we can get that in the show notes. But I actually started one and all of my, you'll be proud of me. I'm really looking at my personal brand is real Mike Dooley, everything. So my substack is real Mike Dooley. And some people would challenge having, I actually had someone I was working as far as a strategist having my name in there. Uh just something for you, and maybe I would love your thoughts too. It's people thought, hey, if you're gonna have a business, so one of the things they thought about doing was the real estate CEO. So it had no name, it could have, you know, no ceiling, you could have more coaches underneath it and more pieces

Substack And The Long Game

SPEAKER_01

under it. But what I realized is on the real is I am in real estate. I do everything I do is around real estate, but also it had the real. And I thought it was just kind of fun. I just thought, you know what, I'm not going anywhere. So I thought if I'm gonna be forever, why not have my brand? So my Substack, one thing I've been doing, and I don't know if you thought about this or doing this, I'm using Chat GPT, the voice functionality. And I'm actually, as I'm taking my daughter to school, and I love that you said I'll go back one thing we talked about 45 minutes, doing your hair, doing whatever it is, people like us are investing in ourselves. So anybody listening, I would challenge you, there's always ways to invest in yourself from podcasts, from books, and all those things. So I figured out a way if I'm taking my daughter to school or, you know, driving somewhere, I'll talk into Chat GPT and I'll actually lay out a substack. The goal is to do one of those a week, which turns into the blog, if you will. And it's really just a concept. I find a lot of them is around my 13-year-old. She had ACL surgery right now, so she's not on her basketball team. And what that's taught me as a dad and a life lesson is that people do have obstacles and stuff happens. It just happens to be right now, my 13-year-old can't get back on the basketball court. So I'm using that in business as in saying our mindset is so crazy, even at 13. How are her teammates relating to her? How is she getting back on the court? This is all, as you mentioned before, this is all depending on the widget. It's just the same thing. So, me, for instance, in real estate, maybe you didn't sell as many houses or commercial buildings or investments last March or this March as you did, you know, in 2020. Well, what is your mindset? Well, you're gonna have to work 25% harder. You're gonna have to talk to more people, you're gonna have to have a personal brand. You got to do it differently. And I think that's what I just mind, I think about my Substack as posting out there. And to your point, people might not listening, might not even know what that is. But Gary Vanderchick, to your point, he talked about it. And I was like, well, if he's paying attention to that platform, I need to learn and I need to pay attention and I need to post. So I miss a couple of weeks, no problem. But now when someone goes, hey, I'm on Substack, you can go, yeah, I have a hundred posts on there. So when that does hit, they're gonna go, the algorithm's gonna go, oh, who's got a lot of posts and who's been posting with us for a long time? Then you think about AI, which I love you talked about before. So when it runs through AI and it might start pulling in Substack as a SEO for AI, which is GEO, I think, right? Is that right or something like that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I always say geo optimization, and then I'm like, that's wrong because the O is optimization. So we're getting there. It's new.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, we are team effort, but I'm going, okay, well, we have a hundred on there. Then now what they're doing, though, AI might still be pulling out the same things, you know, realtor.com, whatever it is, Google. But if that flips on its head and starting to use other platforms, well, if you're participating in those and you have a hundred shorts on YouTube, a hundred Substacks, and then it tricks and you go, Oh, now I'm the top person in all of Utah, Arkansas, wherever you are, that's a win. That's what I'm I I wanted to reiterate what exactly what you're saying I'm thinking about every day. And for our listeners to think about is I'm also never going, oh, I only got one heart on Substack. It's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm actually going, okay, if someone later 10 years from now and I have 10,000 pieces of content, podcast, you know, and you're on shows, and I'm so grateful you're on the show, they'll go, Oh, how many shows have you been on? And you're like, oh, I've been on a hundred shows. I actually have my own show, and you're like, oh, I have 10,000 pieces of content. That's actually going to be an interview question, I think, in five years. When you go and you're going to continue to rise in the Kelly Williams world and real estate, all the things, when they go, hey, we want you to be a regional director, and they interview 10 people and they're like, oh, I'm not even on TikTok. And you're like, I have 10,000 pieces of content. That's going to be actually a resume builder. And I'm so excited that you're doing that. I'm thinking about that too. I'm about to be 50 in May, which is crazy. And I'm going, if I want to be the leader of the future, I need to be playing on those platforms.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm going to be 40 in September. So me and Mike are having big birthdays this year. That's the car.

SPEAKER_01

What are you doing for it? Are you doing anything special?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, my best friend is getting married in Hawaii earlier in the week. So I might just make that. Um, I'll let you get married on the 21st, but then the rest of the week's about me.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. That's so cool. Well, you know what? I you started in 2014. I started in 2016. Okay. And basically a second career. I launched Yake Candle at Walmart. And then I realized I was the only person in marketing and sales and logistics on the ground doing that. And I was going to turn 40. And my youngest daughter, so of two daughters, is going to be born. And I said, you know what? We always say we want to be the parent or the leader that says, do whatever you want to be, be whoever you want to be, do all this stuff. But dad was safe. I was in a great job, but I was in corporate America. And I love that you said, I was smiling when you said you can't really put you in a box. I feel that way about me too. It's kind of, it's kind of funny. We're both those people. And I hopefully our listeners are those people. And I would challenge them to be that people because you really grow from that, don't you? Because you know, when you started as your accounting role, you could have been, you would have been uber successful at that. But you know what? You wouldn't have been happy. You would have been safe. You actually would have done your organizations a disservice. You would have done your companies, your followers, you would have never had those posts that have 330,000 views because you would have been that boring accountant, if you will. Now they could be fun and be awesome, but you have a ceiling sometimes in certain roles or certain things. So I love you. You said there's no box. To me, I always think about there's no ceiling then,

Compete By Being Hard To Copy

SPEAKER_01

right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And there is something I want to point out, I think, with um, because I look around at competition all the time. All the time. Like almost too aware, right? You know, your peripheral vision. My competitor peripheral vision is kind of scary sometimes. But I'm so aware. And the reason why is because I think that is what you need to do in business. However, where most of us mess up right there is we go identify what our competitor is doing, and then we go copy paste. And there are things that are um if if the baseline, for example, like a CRM, if the baseline of all of our competitors provide a CRM, obviously it would be weird if we didn't, right? Like that would be a okay, maybe that's a miss. So I think it's good to recognize what your competitors are doing, but then I go think, how can I be different? And I would say that is a other than strategy, then content, probably the other biggest theme about Kimber Walton is finding your differentiator. I think Cody Sanchez calls it um your contrarian belief. And then we had an amazing creator. Um, uh, well, he's uh runs a business, uh, Marcus Sheridan. He spoke at our convention megacamp in 2025, and he basically talked about talked about how he built his uh a business that was failing um and you know made a lot of money off that around like figuring out what everyone else was doing in his industry and doing something unique and different. And so I think we need to very much be aware of our competitor and then go provide the service that isn't being provided, make a list of like what do you love that our industry is is offering? What do I not love? How can I go be different? Because just by definition, if it's different, it's going to stick out. That doesn't always mean it's positive, but if you've strategically picked the differentiator, then you are unstoppable because it is very hard to duplicate me. It's very hard to duplicate Mike. So I like to put that perspective to people to help them in their business and their strategy, but also awareness of the brand that I'm in and with. And again, I know it's sometimes I feel like it's a big world, and sometimes I'm like it's my little office in Salt Lake City, Utah, right? So we can feel like we're in a big fit or a big pond or a large ocean, depending on where we're at. But in my little world, no one is putting this much thought into how my agents can be the most competitive. Like, get into this training room. We are going to make sure you're showing up on all of these ranking websites. You're gonna understand digital PR. You're gonna be the most relevant in two years. That is my mission. And anybody that wants to be on that mission, please come here. So that is how passionate I think you need to be about it. But that didn't just happen overnight. I went and got the information, I knew what knowledge we needed. And then also, like I was actually helping agents solve the problems that needed to be solved and the things that they needed to know. If I was just again doing what everyone else was doing, that's how you slowly become um irrelevant.

SPEAKER_01

For sure. And Marcus also, I love that he also said this too. He said sometimes if he didn't do something well, he would even direct them to their his competitor. And I think that was everything you were just saying. I was smiling because I love the love, I just connected with Marcus Thiel because he obviously looked at what they were doing. And I just want to go back to one thing you said, which I love, is I also admire uh competitors sometimes they're doing something really well. And how do I integrate that into what I'm doing and maybe level that up at times? So I think some people, um, not us, because we obviously can't be in a box, but other people look at a competitor and they'll never even look at what they're doing. There's like, oh, that's a competitor. Where I actually appreciate it and go, oh, so it's like uh if you saw the Super Bowl, Coke and Pepsi had the play with the polar bear. Well, it was kind of fun, a play on fun, and have to think about that and go, oh, oh, I like that a lot. There's some positive in there. How do I integrate that? And does that relate to my personal brand? So bring it back too. I think that's something and you said this too. I want to, you said two years later. I really keened in on that too. And hopefully our audience does too. I think sometimes social media, personal brand, strategists, a strategy doesn't happen at 24 hours. It's like they're gonna come to you and you're a doctor where they're like, oh, I broke my arm. I'm gonna put a cast on it. Well, that's an immediate fix. What we're talking about, personal brand, takes time. You you started this in 2014. You actually even started it way before that because everything that you were doing, you were leveling up, leveling up, leveling up. Uh, and to your point, it's about health and wellness. I'm even thinking about that in my personal brand. Because on Insta, to your point, do I look the way that I feel confident and I want to be? You know, those are things that I'm thinking about too. I don't really want to go to a personal trainer, you know, kicking my butt and doing that stuff. But if I want to represent who I want my audience to be, so knowing who your avatar, and I think I heard you say that too, right? So thinking about who I want to buy and sell with, well, that's important. Are you representing that?

SPEAKER_00

Who are you talking to is the most amazing question that I think sometimes we absolutely forget. Like, who are you? Who are you talking to?

Brand Mistakes And GEO With Neil Patel

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, when you roll into that. What do you think the biggest mistake some agents are making in personal brand? What are you seeing out there that you're kind of like cringe a little bit? You're like, come here, sweetie, let me help you.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's one of those. Um is this is this a bold law where success is simple, not easy. I love that because truly the things that I teach and help people implement and help people strategize is very simple. And I when they when people go easy for me to say, easy for you to say. I didn't say it was easy. I said it's just simple. It's simple thoughts and strategies around things, but it's not easy because a few things sometimes it costs money, sometimes it means you have to be consistent about it. Being consistent about anything isn't easy, I'll be I'll just like call it right now, right? But those are a handful of things. So I think the um I guess the I say canary in the coal mine, but the I wish I would have known I want to be the voice of my agents new. And right now, what is um a miss for a majority of um, I would say like I think I get the vibe from the industry, right? Or at least, and it's not even in a judgmental comment. I had so many people come up to me at family reunion in Atlanta this year, and based on what they have figured out is the questions they have and what's compelling when they mention it back to me, like thanks so much for saying this or doing this. Their takeaways teach me that truly we are not very we have work to do. So I would say the number one thing is getting your personal brand going, but align with somebody that can that understands what that means because it's not a logo, it's a part of that that is some part of a visual representation that if I now see that logo behind you, I immediately know what that means. I know it means um kind of that dark navy blue. I know it means like, I mean, I'm just almost thinking of like your image, but also like the cadence of even how you talk, your voice. Like this is the brand, right? So you have to get out there. That's why I say brand and content are the same. Your content is the vessel of your brand. And there's two other aspects I would add to it as far as the urgency. If you um we're dropping a lot of like tech things that you should look up and people, so just take the notes and go follow these um creators. But Neil Patel came to that convention that Mike and I were at, and he spoke at um, we call it CEO summit. He spoke at the very end of it. That room was small, right? The the theater we were in only held so many people. And I went to the entire family reunion. I am the biggest Gary Vaynerchuck fan that exists, unless Mike wants to fight me on it. And I think that 25 minutes that he spoke is the most important thing that agents need to go pull and implement. And there is a lot of people that weren't there. So that there were 13,000 people there, there were only, you know, 300 in the room. And most people probably just took some great notes. And the slides went to my junk mail. So a lot of people probably didn't even go look for them. I was gonna message his assistant if he did, if I didn't find him. But um, Neil Patel talked about what we have been mentioning, geo, right? Generative engine optimization. It's basically being found by AI. And why um this was so compelling is one of the slides that he shared, he wasn't just talking about, hey, go create things that rate you at the top of the search for if you're a luxury agent or if you're a real estate agent in a certain city. He had a chart that showed even things like your emails, which some people are.

SPEAKER_01

just that you're you're tied into that right and I am a believer of the emails hold a place right like your newsletters or whatever you're doing but he's like showed the chart that said the trust of the brand the equation to line up with people opening the emails was insanely different and if someone didn't have a brand so I'll have an agent that doesn't have a brand but they're stuck on the emails and so they're not willing to do the brand because they already have a system that works and they're not realizing they're not being found but they're also their current roles of engagement are slowly becoming irrelevant because now that we're so inundated with content emails are opened only the only ones we open are the ones the brands that we trust I think there was a stat he said or or uh 13% is the open rate for email directionally you know if you know the brand and then text messages was like 92% open rate that was something of an aha to me that I'm thinking about something I've been integrating for a couple years now I do a lot of video text. So I video myself and then I text it to the person. So usually if you look through I have like a thousand texts I haven't read that's becoming my new email okay but if someone sends me a video text I am a thousand percent watching that video. So that's been a win for me is for any of the audience you think about I love you said text stack. So I think about that too text is something that I'm doing if you think about email it's not necessarily even if I know the brand sometimes if they that's why a lot of new brands if you see it in fashion I feel like makeup all these things are forward thinking at times they actually ask for your mobile number and your email because they're going to text you the coupon or whatever events coming up also along with the email. And I think that's something as real estate people we need to be paying attention to and you talk about this trends. I also think not only competitors in our same segment or same asset class but also other businesses what are they doing? How are they reaching me? And I think that's something that's important. Yeah I'm gonna uh I'm gonna move a little bit we're kind of almost wrapping up which is crazy it sounds like me and you could talk for four hours yeah I know I know which is which is good and I think they're getting a lot out of this I'm getting a lot out I had a lot of notes on this too but you know you think about a strong personal brand if you think about uh this you know we talked about Instagram is where you live I think if the audience needs to listen they need to you know where where are you focusing where are you going and I think what I heard from you and I want to pay attention to so I said I'm 50 you're forwarding so you're thinking about my audience so if your buyer is 20 well you know what you might want to have a different or you're 20 you might want to think about where your platform is and that's when I'm starting to take in from you you think about your tech stack it doesn't mean you're not on those other platforms but you're reaching your audience your avatar so mine kind of started in high school and college on stuff where it's like on Facebook but am I

LinkedIn And Facebook Group Strategy

SPEAKER_01

really getting the engagement that I want and I'm noticing I'm actually getting stronger and better from Instagram. So I think that's something to think about. But a place actually I'm continuing to play is LinkedIn because I came from corporate America you know I was at Fortune 50 companies craft foods avid nutrition uh Yankee Candle Newell brands a lot of my I have 10,000 people on there and I think our audience sleeps on that do you what do what do you think about other platforms we need to be paying attention to yeah so I feel like three is your number that you need to show up at a high level every single month and part of your content strategy.

SPEAKER_00

So I am a different business and and I guess where I'm a little bit different too sorry my light keeps turning off I mean my my I have ruined Mike's video no um but part of uh part of me um my business is different because I I'm not even again a copy paste marketing branding person. If I was then yes 100% LinkedIn and I I mean honestly I could still do it anyways but to be honest our world this is a benefit of being a KW one of them add them to the list um is our world is so big here that I always joke with people on like when I run out of people to help like Heller Williams then maybe I'll go market outside of you know our organization but um in LinkedIn that strategy by itself is so smart for real estate agents because again you're focused on the hyperlocal local aspect which I do think Instagram serves you at a high level for that but you're also focused on one time one of my agents that did do a lot of referral business from well she got a lot of business from it um she just said I said what made you think about like digging into LinkedIn and she said I just went where people had jobs and I mean it's kind of funny but you think about it it's like these are people that are business professionals. They either own businesses or um are integrated into an organization and so the sky is the limit right with relocation opportunities with again specifically around corporate is there a corporate connection or a relationship that you can go build where once a month you go talk to the employees of the organization about you know building wealth through real estate and trusts and stuff like that. I love when we have our uh um operating principals here come and teach us about truly how they've set up trust like there's nothing again that is too um small as far as these subjects because again most of most of people aren't really plugging into it they just know they need to do it. I know I need to own a house I know it'd probably be good if I had rental income and I know it'd be good if I had all of that in a trust. Well you can go create those connections in a you know to all of these businesses. So LinkedIn is a very strong strategy for any real estate agent. Instagram is a strong strategy because it does create a hyperlocal experience better than most. And then I would say where I love Facebook as a strategy is not just the copy paste I'm gonna let my post go to Facebook which is fine. It's definitely the passive way. I like the group aspect of it. I like the community builder aspect of it like you know being the most connected person in your neighborhood group even if you're not the owner of it because sometimes I think we told all the agents to go start a community group for their neighborhood or their farm group. So now they're all started um it doesn't mean that you can't just be the most engaged because again that person might that started it they might be tired. They might be looking for an admin to help them and that's the opportunities that are available on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01

I love that you said that I wrote that down in my notes too I'm getting so much from you too is uh the average agent only makes it 13% of them make it three years in real estate. So to your point if someone started that group they might not even be in real estate anymore. Could you also have a referral thing you do with them or take over the group or be an admin with them I love that way of thinking that's back to this not being in a box and not having a ceiling not having a lid. So I heard you I wrote down to Instagram Facebook could be passive you're meeting the people where they are but groups within Facebook because that is hyper local hyper engagement hire even me sometimes I have five thousand or sixty one hundred people I think follow me on Facebook. I might get a post though and it's like four people like it and my mom was one of them. Oh yeah my wife didn't mom always likes it yeah mom and spouse always there I love what you said though too it's not like I need to help uh 6,000 people maybe my goals for real estate is I only need to help 60 this year. Well if I had 60 people that were in a group but highly engaged and they referred five people have 300 opportunities. So I I love that you said that that made me think a little differently as in going sometimes it's not that I think Gary said this too. He said sometimes it's not the number it's the engagement in your social media platforms that you're going and your brand is connecting with them. How are they connecting with you and they go oh I'm thinking of real estate who am I going to think of in Utah and it's like well that's the trigger that I need for me. So tell um in branding I love storytelling so this is what I always say I say tell stories don't tell yourself a story right tell stories to other people don't tell yourself a story I could tell myself a story about there's already a Facebook group someone's already got that um someone's already got that taken the market's all saturated okay well you all know how to pull stats you know how to pull farming stats I mean I think it was cool uh Jason Abrams actually just brought it up like here's how here's a strategy go pull farming stats in an area that you're in and then go find what areas are underserved by one strong real estate agent we're just telling ourselves too many stories and there's a lot of opportunity for sure we could keep going I'm gonna thank yeah plus our sponsor um uh Omaha uh mortgage mutual Omaha mortgage we want to thank them for coming on and being our sponsor also if people want to follow you where do they find you on the insta what what is Jason speaking of he always messes it up I think it's good the insta pages yeah how he does that now though back back to him a great example he was not on social media and not doing it now obviously he had a podcast is where you met him first and now you're meeting him in other places he's continuing that personal brand which I think he's a great story and be a great uh test case as in he didn't really know what he was doing on social media wasn't really playing there but he's staying consistent I heard you say that like four times too he's being consistent with this post so this podcast if anyone's listening comes out Friday at 707 a.m every Friday I love James Bond. I love the number seven and I heard Jay Papazon say your audience and people are looking for this that's why his 21%er comes out at 7 a.m every morning on Fridays so that's a system. So what you said success leaves clues I'm I'm no I don't need to recreate the wheel I'm just looking at my personal brand saying what other personal brands do I like and how do I want to emulate or integrate that into my own but where do they find find you on Instagram and Substack at all the things yeah Kimber Walton like that is the it's actually nice that it's not a super common name too but that is my Instagram that is my Substack any link that's relevant will be on my Instagram I'm also on Facebook and LinkedIn um and you'll notice a new stand store coming out next week.

SPEAKER_00

Nice we see the the rock uh crawling can that happen is that on Facebook or Instagram that usually happens around April and May because uh middle of summer is like the worst time to go to Moab so if you're planning your Utah trip

AI Speed And The 12 Day Rule

SPEAKER_00

can I just close with one last thing of course we would love it. I think this is a good frame of reference and I have been putting it in trainings that I've been teaching lately but I want everybody to take away from it and it's not from me it's from Stephen Bartlett and of course my light's going to turn off right when I say this so let's make it up before we okay. So Stephen Bartlett was on a panel or he was speaking at a um a conference and I just again ran ran into this on YouTube and he gave the person a frame of reference of how fast the world is moving right now. And he said in the internet days right like the 2000s that me and Mike are both around for in the 2000s we were uh the internet came out and then you slowly started to see um you mentioning your Walmart experience is uh relevant in this conversation brick and mortar being disrupted by internet took a while right like those little things um usually a technology comes out or something like that comes out and it takes a while for it to be universally adopted so he gave everybody a scale he said if the internet if things changed in a year's time in the internet days it's like in AI days it changes in 12 days wow so this is why I put urgency when I go throw out hey I'm gonna help you go plug in this generative engine optimization strategy I have so much time urgency behind it more than I ever have and changes again human aspect change is not great for humans but when you have that frame of reference you don't have a year to feel good about it and adjust you have 12 days in that scale of time so take that with you when you're hesitating like is it the day that I start the Substack or the YouTube or any of that yes it's today and if it's not today it better be tomorrow because 12 days from now you're all you're you're behind at a higher level and a quicker level than ever before. And so go plug in these strategies that have been hanging be in business with the people you need to be in business with um be in proximity with the people you need to and um you know your business changes.

SPEAKER_01

I love that well you need you need to get a little hashtag that says the 12 12 day change or something like that. We'll come up with something cute. We'll use AI to help you with do that because it's so cool and adds urgency to your point. It's like ah people aren't going to adapt to that as you know how many users and I think Patel talked about that too is how many people are actually going to Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, all the

Final Takeaways And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_01

things well fantastic. Thanks for being on we truly appreciate it. Till next time thanks for joining the real Mike Dooley again appreciate our sponsor uh Mutual Omaha Mortgage for for doing all the things with the real Mike Dooley and Kimber thank you for joining. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_00

Okay thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for listening to the real Mike Dooley podcast. Subscribe share stay real I'm Mike Dooley. Until next time