Where’s Your Next Lead Coming From?

Every real estate agent eventually hits a wall where they ask themselves the same high-stakes question. It usually happens after a quiet month or a season of "random" results. In this episode of the Unstoppable Real Estate Agents Podcast, we’re pulling back the curtain on why most agents are trapped on a professional roller coaster and how the top producers have moved beyond "chasing" to something much more sustainable.

If you’ve been working harder but your pipeline still feels like a mystery, this conversation is the diagnostic tool you’ve been looking for.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• The "Invisible Cycle": Why your current activity (or lack thereof) is actually predicting your income three months from now.
• The Rainmaker’s Fallacy: The fundamental mistake agents make when they finally get busy with closings.
• The Three-Pillar Framework: We outline the three specific channels that create a stable business. Most agents focus on one; the "unstoppable" ones have all three running simultaneously.
• Tactics vs. Engines: Why a new marketing "trick" won't fix a broken business model, and what to build instead.
• The Consistency Gap: How to ensure your lead flow doesn't stop just because you're out in the field showing houses.

Resources & Links:
Buyer Postcards: https://www.kimhughes.com/buyer-postcard-campaign/

Seller Postcards: https://www.kimhughes.com/seller-postcard-campaign/

Read the Blog: https://www.kimhughes.com/wheres-your-next-lead-coming-from/

Watch the Video: https://youtu.be/BlcOY_beXC4

Stop Running Your Business in Chaos Build the Systems That Keep It Running Smoothly

Join Real Estate OS Accelerator | Building the Operating System Behind Your Success.  The hands-on coaching program that gives you the structure, systems, and accountability to finally run your business like a pro.

Real Estate OS Accelerator - Kim Hughes

Additional Resources:

📩 FREE RESOURCE: Download my Complete Checklist – 72 To-Do’s to Dominate Success in Real Estate to supercharge your strategy! https://www.kimhughes.com/72-to-dos/

Visit my website for FREE Templates: https://www.kimhughes.com/resources/free-downloads/

Power Strategy Call – Best 30 minutes you will ever spend discussing the struggles in your business as we create solutions that will set you up for unbelievable success! Go to http://www.TalkwithKimHughes.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You know, there is a question that real estate agents will ask themselves, you know, once they have a closing or at the end of the month when they're trying to plan for the next month. And it and it's one of those things where you don't say it out loud. You just kind of say it to yourself. Um, but usually it's in a frustration. And so the biggest question that I hear from agents when they are at this point, you know, trying to get listings, trying to uh find leads. Where do they go and what do they do? And so at the end of the month, you're sitting there going, well, where do my leads come from? How do I know what's working for me and what's not working? Welcome to the Unstoppable Real Estate Agents Podcast. I'm your host and real estate productivity expert, Kim Hughes. Join me as we focus on real strategies and implement real solutions designed for you to achieve major success in your business and life while getting you organized. So, you know, real estate is a very unpredictable business. One day you could have 20 people calling you wanting to list, and then the next three days it'll be dead. So you have to kind of look at what your business is doing for lead generation so that it stays consistent. And one of the things that I'm going to talk about here is we're going to go through different ways that you generate leads. And, you know, some of them are free, some of them are paid. Some of them you're probably already doing, some you may have never thought of. But these are the things that we show our agents how to generate and do it the right way. So, you know, most agents are going to always look at, you know, what do I need to do to post to get more leads? I need to post on social media. I need to buy more leads. I need to maybe get on the phone and do cold calling, but I don't have a database, so I don't know where to go to, you know, get those phone numbers. Um, you'll run Facebook ads, which can be very expensive. And then you go to networking events hoping that you know somebody there is going to have a lead for you. So your pipeline can be very, very busy and then dry up, be a little busy and then be a little dry. So everything you plan in your business has to be very strategic. So let's talk about where your leads are coming from. So you probably get leads from um, you know, of course, the MLS, you get them from Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com, all of those syndicated sites that connect with your MLS because what you're doing is you're feeding your listing to these programs for them to generate leads for you. So you may pay for those leads, you know. If you do, that's probably a big chunk of your marketing budget. So if that's working for you, I'm gonna say stay with it. It doesn't work for everybody. So I am not one to say pay for leads, right? I mean, I may say you can run a Facebook ad um on your business, on who you are to generate, you know, connections and an audience to build that audience on social media. But you have a website, um, you have past clients, you do have a pipeline. So let's talk about not only do you have leads that come in from these um programs that are syndicated through the MLS, but you know, what else do you do? You know, are you calling your past clients? Do you have a strong past client system? Meaning, do you at least touch on them once a month, if not maybe two times a month? So that is really important. If you've listened to any of my podcasts, if we've ever had a conversation, you know I'm going to tell you that if you're not tapping into that past client, you are missing opportunities and you're leaving money on the table. Just straight up. If every agent should have a very solid marketing system that they use with their past clients that's unique from everything else that you do because these are people that have either bought with you or sold with you. So look at that strategy. And if you don't have one, I'm gonna give you one real quick because we're gonna move on. But here's some things, but you can go back and listen to some other podcasts, and we'll link them in below so that you can just find them real quick. So when you have a past client system, the first thing you're looking at is do I have their birth date, their home anniversary? Do I have them set up to receive the monthly market stats? Do I have them set up to receive my newsletter? Okay, there's four touches right there. Your newsletter is a monthly, so that's 12 touches a year. Your market stats are monthly, those are 12 times a year. Right there's 24 touches every year, two touches a month. So if you do nothing else, do a newsletter, do the market um market stats. You've always heard me say, do a video on your opinion of those market stats. And I'm gonna give you a real quick little story here. I had I receive an agent, he's pretty well known in the industry. Um, very impressed by him, have known him for years. I will never give out his name, but he has a very strong real estate business, and he's very well known in his market. He's very systemized and everything, right? Okay. So I received his monthly market stats about a last month at some point. And I took the time to read it, thought it was very interesting. He missed some major marketing points that I wanted to tell him about, but I thought, you know what? He is not my client. He doesn't ask for my opinion, so I'm not going to give it to him. But if he's listening to this podcast, he may know. But here's where he missed the mark. He sent out this great email explaining the market, you know, um explaining his opinion on those market stats. It was a great email, but there was no link to his website or anything. So what he did was really good, but he only kind of did a halfway thing on it. So what I would recommend, if if you don't want to do the video, then just write out your opinion. Talk about what those market stats, don't just send them, have an explanation, talk about what you appeal, what your opinion is on all of that. But link, but put your opinion and the stats on your website. So on your website, you should have a place for market stats, a blog, and then put that information there and send out the email that teases them a little bit about the market stats, and then link it to read the full article, to see my opinion, to hear my opinion, click here. And then they go over to your website to read the rest of it, to watch the video, whatever. He missed a huge opportunity here by pushing those readers to the website to read all of that. And then while they're on the website, not only did he link, do inbound linking, which Google loves, but he's also pushing people to the website to learn more about him, to see what listings he has, who's on his team, what does what else does he talk about? Does he have community events on his website? Does he talk about the housing market? You know, what's going on on this website that he can, you know, push to his readers through that market analysis. So to make it come full circle, you need to do this so that you don't miss out on that opportunity. And it's not taking any more time, but just a couple of seconds to put a link in there and then send it out. Um, he didn't even put anything to look at the market stats. It was basically him just talking about the markets, which is great, but there was no visualization to it, right? So when you're doing this, make sure you think, you know, what are the best ways for me to capture people coming to my website to read these market stats and to get them to contact me. So think about how you want to do that. Um, I always say that when you send out these market stats, what you're saying is if you would like more information or would you like to know about how your home is positioned in today's market, give me a call. I'd be more than happy to do a home review for you. Super easy, rolls off the tongue, gets the appointment, gets the listing when they're ready to list, right? Easy peasy. So make sure that you're doing those market stats. Those are free to you. So you're just taking the time to post it and send it out. And if you have an assistant or a VA, they can help you with that, you know, so you don't have to do it all on your own, okay? You could even take your market stats and upload them into AI. I use Chat GPT, I use Claude. Um, I think there's Harpa. I use that. But you upload those market stats and say, please review these market stats and give me an opinion of what is going on in today's market in my community, and then you tell it what to review and then see what it gives back to you and how you it know it's not going to be perfect by any means because it's not in your voice, but you can train your AI to do your market stats, write your opinion and and everything. But of course, you have to train your AI to know who you are, your personality, and your market. But I bet if you put that in your AI, it would come back with giving you some great content to work with when you get ready to talk about it, whether it's on video or in just content. Okay, so we're gonna move on. So, you know, really dive in and look at that um at those market stats because that that's a really powerful thing. And I think I say this in every podcast. So, you know, just make sure you're doing it if you're not, okay? So when you're generating leads, you're like I said earlier, you're getting them from your MLS. Um, you should have your database. Now, your database should have your past clients, so you're marketing to them for leads. Um, either they are buying and selling or they have a referral. You go to your networking group and you really, you really focus in that group of being the authority in your market and let everybody, every other business in that networking group know that you are the real estate agent. Okay. If these are people that can complement your business in your networking group, you need to reach out to them outside of the networking group. Not just every Tuesday or once a month, you meet with them, meet with them in those networking groups, but then reach out to them separately and take them to lunch, take them for coffee. Um, if y'all have families, hey, meet up at the park, you know, things like that. This is how you get your name in front of people so that they remember you. That's called lead generation. It's being creative with what you have. And these are free. This is free stuff. It's just taking time to do it. And then, you know, your business to business. These are lead generation. This is separate from your networking group. These are not people in the networking group. These are people outside. So again, these are going to be landscapers, they could be um housekeepers, they could be um handymen, plumbers, electricians, insurance, mortgage, you know, just the list goes on and on and on. Um, you might even be surprised that a social media manager or a videographer that's in your market, take them to lunch. They know people. They pretty much know probably everybody because they are becoming the authority in their market. Now, when a when a strategy fails, you've got to just look at it and say, okay, what do I need to do? Why did that fail? What do I need to do to make it work? So when you are creating this lead generation, you know, um, you should have, in my opinion, this is where I think that every agent should be tapping into their marketing strategy. Of course, we have already talked about, you know, the syndications from the MLS. We've talked about your database, we've talked about your past clients. Now we're going to talk about um, well, we've also talked about networking. So right there's four, is that four, four things, four ways that you can generate a lead. And then um look at your community. What speaking opportunities can you get into? What um organizations can you get involved in and get to know these people? You know, everybody says, oh, everybody at church, everybody at this, you know, at the Kawanas or the pilot club or the garden club in your community. Yes, you've got to find what works for you and what you enjoy so that you will be invested into that group or that organization. But again, you've got to nurture those people to make them think of you when they or someone they know is ready to buy or sell. So again, you're going to, you know, if I'm in the garden group, you know, I'm going to be on every field trip we take. I'm going to be at every meeting. I'm going to be sending out birthday cards to everybody. If somebody is sick, I'm going to, you know, hopefully reach out to them and ask them if I can bring them a meal. If not, then I'll send them a happy, you know, a get well card. But, you know, these are the things that you do that are really so minimal, but have a huge impact on people, especially in the world we live in today. We live in a society right now where people do not trust each other. We get mad very quickly, we get frustrated. We have our brains are 30 seconds, if not less, on topics. So we have to kind of step out of our comfort zone and be the authority in that market, right? Okay. So I want you to sit down and create a lead generation strategy that's going to be that engine that drives your business. Okay. Think of a farm market area. Uh, I'm sorry, farm area. Then um, and if you're like, I don't know how to do that, well, easy peasy. Pick a farm area, go into your tax roll, pull the data, clean up that data, create a you know, mailing strategy, meaning what are you gonna send them? How are you gonna address it? Are you gonna send it online? Are you gonna print it locally? What are you doing? And then start doing it. Just do it. You know, create we have postcards. You don't even have to create the postcard. We have the postcards. We have buyer postcards, we have seller postcards. I think there's like 10 of each that um we'll link it below. These are these are postcards that are already tried and true. We know they work. We have the proof that they work. All you have to do is open it up in Canva, change out your photo and your contact information. Boom, you're done. Upload it to your online printer, send it out. I would send them out at least once every two weeks, once a month. If you have a strong marketing budget, send them every week, you know. Um, but put that in place. I mean, these are things that can make you money. You just need to sit down and put your strategy together and then create your system and then follow it. And then just make sure you touch it either every day, once a week, whatever. But either you're touching it or your assistant is touching it so that they can help you get this done. So if you are one of those agents that's very overwhelmed and you're like, I want to do all of this, I just don't have the time and I don't know how. Okay. I want you to go and click on the link below to the Real Estate OS Accelerator. This is the program that you're gonna need where I walk you through building your systems for you, you know, and then you're gonna go do it. So you don't even have to think about it. We talk about in this coaching group that I have, it's such amazing because everybody here is so motivated to build their business, but they lack structure or, you know, not everybody is a systems person and looks at things in that analytical way. So come join us and let's do this together and get you going in the right direction. And finish this year super duper strong. When this market turns and it will, you want to be prepared. So having now the time to put together lead generation marketing strategies is going to be your best friend. Okay. So do that. And if you struggle with it, talk to your broker, talk to other agents about what they're doing. Come talk to us. I mean, we offer a 30-minute strategy call for free. And you'd be amazed at what we get done in that 30 minutes. And if you need more time, then we can schedule a private one-on-one that gives you more time and we dive deeper into it. So I give you all of the uh ways to get your business going in the right direction. You just got to pick what is going to work for you. And then let's come together and talk about it. But getting back to, you know, your your lead generation source. And so we want you to build that stable real estate business that's clockwork, just constantly working with you. Okay. So I really want you to dive into your past client and your sphere system and create that system. Review that system. So the three main lead sources that are going to help you build a stable real estate business. One is the past client and your sphere system. That's your that's your bread and butter. Okay. That is your that is where you go every time you're ready to lead generate. You need to go in there and start working on that before you do any cold calling or running down the road trying to get to an open house so that you can meet buyers, you know. You don't need to do all of that. So the number two is the geographic farming. You make sure that you are farming to an area in your community, maybe more than one. And if you're a broker or you're a team leader, every agent should be doing this. And this is going to help you become better in your business, but it's also going to show your authority as a broker, team leader, single agent, you know. But this is something every agent should be doing. And brokers and team leaders should be teaching this to their teams. Um now, with the geographic farming, uh, farming is um being consistently appearing in that area, you know, so that is like direct mail, social media, your community involvement, your local market reports. These are things that, you know, are already at your fingertips. Then there's that digital visibility. Um, you know, buyers and sellers are online, they're looking at property, they're looking at everything that they can get their hands on, and then they're reaching out to that agent. So most likely what they're doing is they're on realtor.com, they see a house that they're interested in. So if they don't already have an agent, they're going to talk to that listing agent, right? So what we need you to do is really saturate your market in all the ways that you possibly can so that those buyers and sellers are not doing it that way. They know, oh well, here is a listing, let me call Kim and talk to her about letting me, you know, showing me this property, or maybe this is the house that I want to get, but I need to sell my house right now. So make sure you saturate that market. I just can't say that anymore. It's so it's such a great way. But the missing ingredient here is the consistency. And this is where agents really need to understand that it's the quality of what you're putting out there, but it's also doing it in a consistent way. So for example, if you are doing a newsletter, you want to send it at the same time every month. Maybe it's like the last Thursday of the month, the last Wednesday of the month, whatever that is. You want to send out your market stats the same time every month. Your market stats come out pretty consistently. They, you know, I usually give them, you know, five days here or there to get it published. But after that, you know, you could say on the 20th, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna e blast my database with my market report. And they know. So once you start training. Them, right? You're going to see that they are more engaged. So at first, you know, it may fall, you may think, oh, this is falling flat, it's not working. Consistency. Be consistent in everything that you do. In closing, you know, we don't want to just go out there and try everything. You know, you want to pick one or two things, put them in place, then go into the next one. But here's what I'm going to recommend. Like if you're going to do a newsletter and you're you're putting in your lead generation strategy and you say, okay, I'm going to do a newsletter, do don't take on too much at once. Do your newsletter, give you some grace on how to put that together. That takes time. You want it to be stellar so that when people are reading your newsletter, they're excited about what's going on in the market. They're excited about what's going on in their community. They're excited to hear from you. Okay. So make sure that that newsletter hits the mark. It might take it two or three times to really, you know, do that. But what I always say is send it out the first time. And then as you reach out to people like past clients and people in your sphere, ask them, what is it that you like about my newsletter? What do you not like? What would you like to see? You know, so ask them and people will be more than happy to give you their opinion on what they want, you know? And then you take that information, you put it all together, and you see how can it make how can I make this work for everybody? It came from one of these people, but I want to make it better for everybody. So this is a great way to send it out, then get on the phone and start talking to people that are receiving it and opening up that door of conversation. Okay. So that's a really good way to do that. Now, if you feel like that these are not going to work for you, then we need to have a conversation because you have a roadblock. And you don't need a roadblock when it comes to lead generation. You want it to be very consistent, very smooth. You want to know every month what you're doing to generate leads in different ways. So maybe what you do here is when you get off of this podcast, you sit down and write out, these are the ways that I'm receiving leads. And you list every way baseball games, football games, talking to my friends, you know, things like that. Um, you know, networking, past clients, fear, cold calling, farming, social media. What am I leaving out? Business to business, networking. I think I said that. So sit down and do that, and then take one lead generation strategy and build it out. Okay. That is the most, to me, that's a fun thing to do because you can sit there and think of all the creative things that you can do with your past clients, for example. You know, what are you gonna do for them? You're gonna send them a birthday card, a home anniversary card, you're gonna do a pop by, you're gonna send them your newsletter, your market stats. I'm gonna call them, I'm going to, you know, run into them at this networking event, or I'm gonna see them at the next baseball game because our kids play together or something like that. But always make a point that when you're in public at events, that you walk up to these past clients and you introduce, you know, you make sure you say, hey, how you doing? And if they're sitting with people, introduce yourself. Don't wait for that past client to introduce you to them because sometimes they're distracted and they are not thinking. People are not thinking. I am always that person that when you and I see each other and you have someone with you, I'm gonna give you a hug. I'm gonna say, How you doing? We're gonna talk for a minute, and then I'm gonna turn to your friend, I'm gonna extend my hand, and I'm gonna say, Hi, my name is Kim Hughes. Nice to meet you. And then they're gonna start a conversation and I'm gonna say, well, then how do y'all know each other? Does your kid play on this team? You know, we're starting a conversation, right? You're not talking real estate to them. You're just building a conversation, you're building a rapport with them. These are easy things that you can do. So write it down, make a strategy. If you need help, reach out to me. But I would love to see you take a look at the real estate OS Accelerator because I think this would be a real big, big marketing move for your business. Thanks again. See you later. Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you know someone, and I bet you do, who would appreciate this podcast, please share it with them. As a reminder, this podcast can be delivered directly to your favorite device by using the subscribe links you can find in the show notes below or over at unstoppable realestateagents.com. Remember, it takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. Have a great day.