The Justin Landis Show: Helping Atlanta’s Top Realtors Build, Grow, and Scale
The Justin Landis Show is a real estate podcast about having honest conversations, building real relationships, and creating freedom through the work you do every day.
Hosted by Justin Landis, the show isn’t about hype or hacks. It’s about the people behind the business. Each episode is a conversation with agents, leaders, and partners who care about long-term growth, strong partnerships, and doing good work. We talk about what’s working, what’s not, and the decisions that actually matter.
If you’re building a team, growing your business, or just trying to find a better way to work, this is a place for real perspective and conversations worth your time.
The Justin Landis Show: Helping Atlanta’s Top Realtors Build, Grow, and Scale
Kristin Klingshirn (Part 2): Building Your Brand on Social Media
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In part two of her conversation with Justin, Kristin Klingshirn goes deeper into the social media strategy behind The Kristin Show, including why she deliberately quit Facebook, how she decides what to share and what to hold back, and the different level of scrutiny she has faced online as a woman compared to her former co-host Bert. She also opens up about talking publicly about losing her father, and why she refused to let one critical comment silence her. Her advice for real estate agents building a brand online: give people a reason to love you before you give them a reason to disagree with you, and don't let perfectionism keep you from posting at all.
Obviously, you build a relationship with your audience. And as you build that relationship, you get away with saying certain things. And that I understand. Like you have to give them a reason to love you before you give them a reason to hate you. That's like rule number one in radio. You don't ever come in hot. Like they got to get to know you. And I feel the same way for like this applies to social media. Like, don't come in hot with these massive opinions and like let them get to know you, and then you can start showcasing more of who you are.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Justin Landis Show, your real estate podcast about having conversations, building relationships, and creating freedom. And today I'm here with episode two with Kristen Klingtion from The Kristen Show. And we are back in our reverse seats, different than the radio. So Justin Landis here with Kristen on My Show. On your show. You are back on my show again.
SPEAKER_04It's less pressure if I'm being honest. I just get to sit here and just, you know, run my mouth.
SPEAKER_00See, I think it's less pressure here because I get to sit here and listen to you. So maybe this is the way we should do it. All right.
SPEAKER_05This is this is yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. All right. So last time you talked so much about your story and building your brand. And then you talked at the very end. And if you haven't listened to this, you've got to go back and listen to last week's episode about a Instagram post that went viral, had a million and a half views. And so I want to dig in today to your social media and the authenticity and vulnerability that you've had in it and what that could mean for real estate agents who are listening who are wondering themselves like, I want to build a brand, I want to connect with people, but I'm not sure how vulnerable I should be. What should I do? Tell a little bit about your strategy and then maybe how that could apply to a real estate agent. Yeah. What's been your social media strategy?
SPEAKER_04It's hard out there for if you want to be an influencer because the it's the market is so saturated, right? And I know when it comes to uh real estate and realtors trying to make yourself stand apart, right?
SPEAKER_00Do you know how many real estate agents there are in Atlanta in the MLS? They're 20,000.
SPEAKER_04See, yeah. That's a lot. That is a lot. And so yeah, it's one thing to like jump on a viral trend. And those pop up in my algorithms. I see real estate agents doing some like some really cool transitions and you know, funny things trying to get people to um view their content. And it's one thing to jump on a trend, it's another thing to create your own trend. And if I had that secret sauce in my back pocket, I'd be a multimillion person.
SPEAKER_00We wouldn't be on this show together.
SPEAKER_04No, I I still like you. I'd still come home. Oh, thanks.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04Um so I mean that that in and itself, that in of itself is actually like another job. Like managing your social media now is like another part-time job. So you're taking what you're doing for a living, which is my instance radio and your instance real estate, and now you're adding more hours trying to figure out how you capitalize on social media. And again, it's the input versus output that I talked about last week. If I'm gonna put because real mad props to social media people and directors, because that stuff takes time to do. And um, if you're a perfectionist like me, I'm a little on the neurospicy side. So if you're a perfectionist like me, I do something, I am going to edit it till I it's unrecognizable to make sure it's like perfect. So um take a little advice from me. It doesn't have to be perfect. Our Easter bunny, uh, our sad Easter bunny, um, viral reel that we talked about last week, there was actually a mistake in the beginning of it. And Ethan and I were devastated. There was an audio glitch in the beginning of it, and we posted it and we were like, no, still went viral. So don't get hung up on the perfection.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_04All right. You need to get hung up on the authenticity, the vulnerability. Like if you do something, and Ethan and I have done this, like, don't post it just because you put the hours and time into it. If you do something and it looks stupid or it feels stupid, or it feels inauthentic, or it it just feels like it's not gonna hit, don't post it. It's not, it's not time wasted, it's a lesson learned, right? And Ethan and I did that the other day, just this past um, just this past month or so when we had the Georgia primaries, we wanted to do something to encourage people to go out and vote. And we did, we put one together and we spent like, you know, over an hour, which may not seem like a long time, but for me, like an hour is a long time to work on something. And we didn't post it because after I watched it a couple of times and I really like let it soak in, and I'm like, that's not gonna hit. Like, I feel like that's that's not the vibe we were going for. So, and we and we didn't post it. We posted something else that ended up, you know, doing well. So, you know, don't look at it as time lost, look at it as a lesson learned and don't do not share something just because you put time into it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, on that sharing side, how do you decide what to share? Because I think that's a challenge for people who want to be authentic, but then you're like, am I oversharing? Is this too much? Do people want to hear about it? How do you decide when to be vulnerable and what you shouldn't share?
SPEAKER_04I don't think there's ever a wrong time to be vulnerable, right? As long as as long as it's authentic, as long as you're you're not you're not forcing it. I have there's so many things that I wish I would have posted that I haven't. Again, we can't live in the past. Um, and social media isn't the end all be-all, but it it we'd be we'd be ignorant to say it's not a huge component now to to business and to and to marketing, because where else are you gonna have an audience like that right at your fingertips?
SPEAKER_00I had Jonathan Rich on here a couple weeks ago, and we were talking about when we started 10 or 15 years ago, you didn't have to have no social media as a real estate agent, but now it's like, hey, this is part of the job. I mean, this is just part of what you've got to got to do.
SPEAKER_04And I mean, if you know, if if if I had the the time and the energy, I would have more platforms. So I would encourage you to have multiple platforms. I only focus on Instagram.
SPEAKER_00Um I but there could be some power in that as well.
SPEAKER_04Depends on, yeah. And I know with because with Meta and Facebook and Instagram are are now intertwined, like whatever you post on Instagram, you can also post on Facebook, et cetera. So you can cross both platforms. But for me, I choose to put my focus on Instagram because I know my demographic.
SPEAKER_07Yep.
SPEAKER_04Um, I I know I'm a I'm a woman of a certain age. And so my people's my pupils are on the Instagram, um, not on the Tiki Talk. So I I don't I don't worry about TikTok because like as I said before, my input versus output, I want to focus on Instagram. And if I'm gonna do it, you want it to be good. I want it to be good.
SPEAKER_00Do you follow some sort of schedule or how do you plan things out? How do you you have pretty consistent content? How do you keep it that way?
SPEAKER_04Okay, so Ethan and I, my co-host Ethan of the Kristen Show, we've been working on coming up with um uh some some form of schedule. And he and I actually have been tweaking that formula here in just the past couple of weeks. Again, very kismet. We're having this conversation. And we were posting too much content because there is such a you can't post too much content because you want to create a demand, right? And so we started cutting back and we were all now we're only posting on on the Kristen Show account, we're only posting one break from the show that day.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_04But then I was like, that didn't feel like enough. So I told Ethan, I'm like, how about this? We post one from the Kristen show because we talk about pop culture, but we also talk about our personal lives. So if we have a break that is like focused on me, I will post it from my account. Yep. And if you have a break that's focused on you, you will post it from your account. We will collab. And so we're in the process of testing that theory to see what kind of traction we have.
SPEAKER_00Even after years, I mean, because you've been posting for years. Yeah. You have a great following and engagement. You what I'm hearing is you're still tweaking.
SPEAKER_04Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Always trying to improve, yeah, get it better, even after lots of success already doing it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. I mean, because it's it's it's ever evolving and it's ever changing. So, I mean, we've been tweaking with the how long are, you know, how long the posts are. Obviously, short, shorter is better as far as grabbing attention span. But because I don't have another outlet yet for people to digest the show, social media is our main platform. So it's hard to take these breaks and cut them down to 30 seconds when it's like, but I want everybody to hear everything we said.
SPEAKER_00So obviously it's fun when something goes viral and you get a million and a half views, but I'm sure over the years you have posted things that have gotten some negative comments and people have not liked. Uh-huh. And I know that's a fear for a lot of people. They're like, well, if I put things out there that are real or vulnerable and they're actually like interesting, well, there might be an opposite perspective or a hater on it. How have you dealt with that over time?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh man, the haters.
SPEAKER_00They're out there.
SPEAKER_04The mean comments, the trolls. Um, so back in the day when I first started in radio, they were kind enough just to send you an email. Um, and so I used I just used to get the hate messages directly into my inbox, you know, and at least I had a name and an email address.
SPEAKER_00And it was just going to you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, right. It was just not the whole world. Not the whole world. And then um, slowly but surely, as everything evolved, um, if you have an opinion, more than likely somebody is going to have an opposite opinion and they're going to let you know about that.
SPEAKER_00That's what makes it an opinion.
SPEAKER_04And so that is um that is one of the downsides of doing what we do for a living, whether you're a media personality, you're a public figure, or if you are just utilizing social media, period. Doesn't matter because if you're on social media, you're an influencer in your own right because you're sharing your opinions, your thoughts, your life. And then if you also throw kids into the mix, a lot of people have uh have thoughts about parenting just about notice.
SPEAKER_01Yes, they do. And they like to tell you about that.
SPEAKER_04They love to tell you what you're doing wrong. Yes. Really? Because they like to tell you about it.
SPEAKER_01Nothing more than a parent likes better than to have somebody else tell them how to parent their kids.
SPEAKER_04No, please judge me, especially if you don't have kids. Oh that's not true. That's even better.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I love that. That's even better.
SPEAKER_04So with the with with the hateful comments, right? And this is something I am still working on. This is something that, and maybe it's for you, maybe it's not for you. That's something for you to gauge. I don't do Facebook because Facebook is so nasty. That was a boundary I created for myself.
SPEAKER_07Yep.
SPEAKER_04Um, you gotta protect your peace, right? And I I was Facebook cutting there for a very long time. I would actually like seek out the negative comments. Again, your girls neurospicy. So I I realized like what I was doing was detrimental to my mental health.
SPEAKER_00You couldn't help but look for even for the comments.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. And you and this is human nature. So, you know, we obviously what I do for a living, we share opinions. You have to have an opinion, otherwise, you're gonna have the most boring radio show on the face of the last very long. No, and so that's what we we had opinions, and sometimes we have very strong opinions. And I am not opposed to somebody saying, hey, I don't agree with that, and this is why. Yeah, I am opposed to somebody coming on there and you know, cracking on my looks and just like going for the jugular and just being nasty and rude for rude sake. Like that's unnecessary. And um, in all sincerity, my heart couldn't take it. Like it really, it it takes a toll on you because you could have a post, right? And you're like, yeah, like what I said, and blah, blah, blah. And then you're like, what people are thinking, and you go and you look, and you have like a hundred, like, yeah, it was awesome. And then that one person, that one comment out of a hundred, and that's the one you're gonna fixate on because it's human nature. Um, I wish it wasn't, but it, but it's it's the nature of the beast. So I drew a line, and so I just I don't do Facebook anymore. Um, I stick to Instagram, and I have a strict policy that um this is my house, and if you disrespect me, I'm kicking you out. So I've created my space, right?
SPEAKER_07Yep.
SPEAKER_04Um, and I will I will uh allow polite discord, but if you come in and you say something nasty, or if you're just like, you know, being a troll for trolls' sake, um you're you're you're blocked.
SPEAKER_00It's it's that so you had to put some boundaries in place.
SPEAKER_04Oh, absolutely. I have no problem blocking people, I have no problem muting people. It's as simple as like, I've created this space and I enjoy it, right? Right.
SPEAKER_00And now when you so now when you see it, you are able to deal with it better. You're like just shrugging this off. This is my space. This person shouldn't be here in a moving on.
SPEAKER_04Well, I I so I don't want to I I don't want to give false hope, but um, I do I shrug it off. I take a beat, right? Like it still stings. I'm not gonna lie, it stings because I'm a people pleaser. I want people to like me, right? So anytime somebody says something that makes me feel like they don't like me, I'm I'm gonna take it personally. That was the key of me learning. You can't take that stuff personal. This person, tech like, yes, we're out there, we're putting ourselves out there. They know me, but they just really know a snippet of me. Yeah, I think people need to realize that about social media. Like you're literally getting a blip of people's lives. And then you're getting a very polished blip for the most part. Unless you're like me and then you just post whatever. But and so the comments would come in, and I'm like, if I'm not gonna take advice from this person, I am most certainly not gonna take their criticism.
SPEAKER_00That's good. If I'm not gonna take advice from this person, I'm not going to take their criticism.
SPEAKER_04No, I like my inner circle. I trust my inner circle. They're gonna give me criticism. I know it's coming from a good place, not from a place of hurt. And I've also learned over the years, like that comment, that comment has nothing to do with me.
SPEAKER_07Yep.
SPEAKER_04That comment has everything to do with that person, whatever that person is going through. So it actually gave me a little more, believe it or not, empathy.
SPEAKER_00Um, not saying that I'm I'm you're growing as a person through other people's ignorance and meanness. Oh, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_04I mean, if we can't learn from other people's ignorance, there you go. And so, but it doesn't mean that I am going to allow people to disrespect me, right? Like there's that balance there. And so I see it, I clock it, I don't engage.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_04I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna argue with somebody that's in a hurt place. And um, so I sit there and I just I take it in, and then you like you realize like this comment is not about me. This is about them. I'm not gonna take it personal. Oh, wait, that does hurt a little bit. That's okay. I'm gonna acknowledge the hurt. Okay, now we're gonna block and move on.
SPEAKER_00Talk a little bit about the scrutiny as a woman that you have, because it's a different level of scrutiny. How how have you handled that and how's that been for you?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, um, God bless Bert. Um, so when I was on the Bert Show, um the he was always ahead of the curve. He had a great mentor in Kate Craddock, who was a visionary. And I also consider Bert a visionary in radio as far as like, okay, how can we make our product product as accessible as possible to people? First it was streaming, and then it was the Burt Show podcast, and then it was, you know, making like radio is not so much auditory anymore, it's a very visual medium now, thanks to we have cameras in studio that are constantly filming us. And so he got cameras in studio, it you know, the YouTube channel, and then you have social media. Like you want to diversify yourself and give people as many opportunities as they can to catch you. And um, when we were on, you know, the book show on Facebook, it was comical to me. I say comical, otherwise it would just be sad. The level of hate the women on the show got compared to the level of hate the guys got was astronomically different. Listeners were so much harder on the women on the show than they were the men on the show. And uh when I say listeners, I mean primarily women.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So um, women and men, but yeah, primarily women. And you could go and you could look at the comments, and it it would be like, you know, Bert could say something, it'd be like, oh ha ha ha, that's just Bert. He's so funny. And if I would have said the exact same thing, oh, it's like the sky is falling. Um, so and I'm not talking about like in the beginning, because obviously you build um a relationship with your audience, and as you build that relationship, you you get away with saying certain things. And that I understand. Like you have to give them a reason to love you before you give them a reason to hate you. That's like rule number one in radio. You don't ever come in hot, like they got to get to know you. And I feel the same way for like um this applies to social media. Like, don't come in hot with these massive opinions and you like get let them get to know you, and then you can start showcasing more of who you are. It's again like the long game, it's not the short game. And so um, this was years in. Like I had built that rapport with the audience, and I was still and I mean we would constantly get attacked for our looks. Um, guys never got the guys on the show, never once got attacked. Um, well, that's not true, because Bert will be like, that's a lie, Chris. And they crack jokes about me being short all the time. I'm like, okay, that's funny. Um, but as for our appearances, and it's one of those things as um a woman in radio and a woman in media, what I've learned over the years is that you can be funny, but you can't be too funny. You can be pretty, but you can't be too pretty. Uh you can be smart, but you can't be too smart. You can be opinionated, but you can't be too opinionated. You can be emotional, but don't be too emotional. And you and I am so proud to say that I've now gotten to a point, and I think this comes with um honestly with age, especially for women. I am who I am.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And either you like it or you don't.
SPEAKER_00So how maybe that's the advice, but how would you apply that to the real estate female real estate agent who is listening and is nervous about the same thing or is dealt with the same thing? Yeah. Is that the advice to be who you are?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And it's it's so corny, it's so cheesing, it's so cliche, but in in all sincerity, like be yourself, get inspiration for other from others, but at the end of the day, do it through your lens. Like, what would what would this look like from your vantage point? Um, because it it is, and it's so easy to like to get to get beat down and get defeated, and I understand that. And allow yourself, like give yourself grace. Um, but at the at the end of the day, you are not going to be able to please everybody. Yeah. So that's that's a pipe dream. I I I gave up on that yesterday. I gave up on that a while ago. Um, you can't please everybody. So if you stay true to yourself, right? Yep, find a passion, find a voice, and and and share it. And then don't let people beat you down with with their opinions. It's gonna happen. You're you're gonna take some shots and it's gonna hurt.
SPEAKER_00But let's let's talk our final thing here, because you've to we've talked about a good amount of challenges that we face to do this, but it's also we're talking on the challenge side. It's been super successful for you as well to you know, to be vulnerable, to share yourself both on air and on social media. And you know, you've talked a lot about you're a perfectionist, you want it to look great, you want it to be, you know, if you're gonna do it the best. I actually am the opposite side on the stuff that I do. A lot of stuff that I put out, I literally do it on the very first take. Yeah, and I'm like, that's good enough. You know, like could it be better? Probably if I took more takes, but like oh my god, I take like a hundred takes.
SPEAKER_05Ethan, it drives my co crazy.
SPEAKER_00I doubt I've ever taken more than two or three takes on anything I've ever put out. What for years? I write something and I read it, I'm like, that's pretty good. And then I might, you know, edit it once, but it's like, I just like get it out. And I think there's obviously advanced like the content. If you're putting out perfectionist content, you're gonna have stuff that is hitting a million and a half views. I'm not hitting that, you know, because I'm not putting that kind of time in, but I am getting stuff out. I'm not getting stuck in analysis paralysis.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so I think that's the risk to me as I listen to it of I want it to be perfect, I want it to be really great, I'm I might be nervous about what people are gonna say. Is what might you not end up getting anything out, but you do want to get things out. And so, how does someone strike the balance of not having analysis paralysis but getting something out if their nature's not like me, where they're just gonna like throw out the first thing that comes in their mind?
SPEAKER_04Here's what's so funny in the in the beginning of my like um morning show radio career, there was no analysis paralysis paralysis as far as like what I was saying on air. I just said it. Like I just that analysis to paralysis has been something new for me the past couple of years because of cancel culture and because of how easy something can go viral now. And I feel like the past couple of years, I walk on eggshells around my opinion opinions because I fear something's gonna get twisted, taken out of context. It's you know, it's gonna go viral and viral, not in a good way. Because yeah, you want to go viral, but let's you know, you want to, you want, you don't want to go viral in a bad way. And so I've really struggled with that the past couple of years on air and on social media. And I've kind of closed myself off a little bit to certain things that I'm willing to share because of that fear. And I'm just now starting to come back out of that and to find my confidence. In saying certain things and posting certain things and being resolute in who I am and knowing that what I'm saying and what I'm posting doesn't come from a bad place. Yeah. Like I believe I'm a good person. I'm a flawed individual, but I feel like I'm a decent person. But if somebody's just comes across you on their for you page, they don't know you from Adam, they see it and they take it the wrong way. So I can, I understand the hesitation. I understand the fear. And I know people are going to be like, that's so corny. You have a fear about social media, then just don't do it. But when you're in our industries, that's not really an option. So you got to figure out a way to make it work for you. But yeah, like I think I took some, some, some hits over the years that closed me off. And I'm just now starting to like re-emerge as the conversation.
SPEAKER_00So do you say for people to pick the things you're most confident about? And if you're at first just stick in those lanes of the things that you're most confident about to make sure you're getting out the content, you feel good about it, and you're build that trust that we talked about last time of like eventually people are going to trust your voice because you you've done done it.
SPEAKER_04So a a prime example of something, and like this stuff sticks with me. I don't like, I try not to let it fester. Like I file it away. It's not like like it's not in the front, it's in the back. But like, you know, when my dad passed away, I was very transparent about the grief journey and speaking about grief. I was a daddy's girl. We were very close. Um, you are never the same once you lose somebody that you're incredibly close to. And um it 1000% like took, you know, it and it still does, it took a toll on me. And um everybody in the our life, everybody in our lifetime, we're all gonna experience grief at some point in time. It just that's that's the part of being alive. That is life. And I, you know, Bart was great when my dad was on hospice and I was doing the show from Orlando where he was, and we were chronicling the chronicling the entire thing. And then, you know, I get back and grief is a forever journey. It's like the person doesn't die and then you grieve, and then all of a sudden you're like, okay, well, that was it. No, no, no. Like, I just the other day I was in the car and I was listening to CCR and I thought about my dad, and you know, you know, shed a tear as I'm driving home. Like, and that's just that's the love needs somewhere to go. Yeah, it's not gonna disappear. I'm always gonna love him, therefore I'm always gonna grieve him. So I'm talking about this on the air, and I don't think I was talking about it. I know I wasn't talking about it obsessively. I was talking about it when it was relevant to conversations and we share our personal lives. And so if it was something that had happened recently, if I got like a little wink from him, I I would discuss it. Somebody posted online that I talked too much about my dead dad. And so it was one of those moments when I was like, then I was like, well, then you know what? Screw you. I'm not gonna talk about my dad anymore. You don't get access to my heart and to my thoughts about my dad. But the only thing it did was a disservice to me because now I'm not being authentic because I want to talk about my dad. He was the freaking best. Like Pops was amazing, he had the best jokes. I mean, so why am I going to censor myself just because this one person is uncomfortable with grief? And then that's when you got to take a beat and you're like, this is about them, they're dealing with something. And then so then I became like, no, this is like this is what's on my heart. You know, you know, in your gut when you're you're supposed to talk about something. And so, um, like his birthday is coming up, so you know, of course, I'm gonna do a post and we're gonna talk about it. And Father's Day is coming up, so you know I'm gonna do a post, I'm gonna talk about it because man, that's real life. Why would you not? And you can't worry, some people are gonna be uncomfortable with it, and that's for them to figure out. That's not for you to figure out.
SPEAKER_00Man, Kristen, so much wisdom in your journey. Thanks for sharing this story because I think a lot of people are gonna be able to resonate their own story of trying to find their voice and where is that line and how do I post stuff? And what do I do when people disagree with me or um are hurtful and um And they will be.
SPEAKER_04That's again, if you're if social media, if you're gonna be in the social media game, that is just that is par for the course. I wish it wasn't like that. I wish we could change it, but I I've also learned like if if you can't change it, then you have to you have to change the way you react to it. Like we uh there's people in our lives, there's things like I can't change this person, but I can change the way I let them affect me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's not let those people influence us and hold us back from the impact we're having, because I've got to think that the impact of sharing your grief story helped so I mean, the numbers not even in the same ballpark. You helped so many, very few people on the hater side, but it does hurt that that the hater does hurt. Let's not let those people destroy us and help, you know, stop us from helping other people.
SPEAKER_04Preach. I'm here for that. I co-signed for that.
SPEAKER_00Kristen, thanks so much for being here for two episodes.
SPEAKER_04I feel so honored.
SPEAKER_00They've been amazing. They've been an absolute gift. And everybody, um, I want to thank you for listening. Make sure to like and subscribe. And we will be back again next week on the Justin Landis show.