Marki Lemons: Social Selling Made Simple

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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com

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progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states. I believe every real estate professional should leverage social media for the purpose of lead generation. Here's why. If you leverage landing pages, a call to action and video, you can add, and I add about 4800 new contacts per 4800 new contacts per year to my customer relationship management system.

Podcast Intro  0:40  

Welcome to Real Estate Excellence, making lasting connections to the best of the best in today's industry, elite. We'll help you expand your circle of influence by introducing you to the leaders in the real estate industry, whether it's top agents who execute at a high level every day, or the many support services working behind the scenes, we'll share their stories, ideologies and the inner workings of how they run a truly successful business, and show you how to add their tools to your belt. Now, please welcome the host with the most Tracy Hayes,

Tracy Hayes  1:13  

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast with your host, Tracy Hayes, who is going to the RE bar camp here in St Augustine, January 27 Well, today I have the keynote speaker for that event on the show. She has more designations than I care to mention. She is not only a real estate agent, but an international best selling author, keynote speaker, member of the Chicago Association of Realtors. Amongst other things, she's also a podcast host of her podcast, social selling Made Simple, which all of you should subscribe to. She's a creator of many real estate educational courses. Her current training is called the six figure realtor workshop. She has over 25 years of marketing experience has taught Realtors how to earn up to 2,682% of return on their marketing spend. I got to figure out how you did that. She has earned numerous awards and has been featured in Forbes, Washington Post, homes.com realtor magazine, CBS News, Chicago CNBC. In addition, she holds over 50 real estate related licenses and certifications and designations. Let's welcome the 2023 re bar camp one coast. Keynote speaker, Markey lemons, Ryal to the show.

Marki Lemons  2:27  

What's going on today? I'm your girl. Markie lemons, round right? Real Estate. Keynote speaker, six time international best selling. Author, and I can tell you already 2023 is going to be and is lit. It's lit. L, I

Tracy Hayes  2:44  

T, well, I could tell you're already digging in by our pre show, and we'll get to that in a minute. And I'm just really happy to get you on, because I don't I want everyone to get excited. Obviously, the pump up. Over 1200 tickets plus have been sold, so there's gonna be a huge audience there for the event. There's gonna be a lot of energy, and I enjoy seeing a lot of the local agents, plus, from what I understand from Kim Knapp that there's six other states represented, from people coming from other places coming in as well. So it's really gonna be a great event. January 27 Well, Markie, as I start off every show, I want to get my audience tell us about you know, where did, where did you grow up, and I know you have several degrees from a master's degrees from several universities, and then what led you into real estate?

Marki Lemons  3:27  

Oh, well, thank you for asking. I was born and raised in the restaurant business here in Chicago. I am a proud Chicago fifth generation entrepreneur. Birthed a sixth generation entrepreneur. So my oldest son is a second generation realtor, so my family owns Chicago's second oldest black restaurant. We've been in business since 1954 we've sold more pork rib tips than anybody else in the city of Chicago, and my grandfather has been inducted into the barbecue Hall of Fame. One day when I visit Chicago, I'll have to go by there, I've never we got to get you to Chicago, and we got to get you some limbs. And so my mother started the concession business when I was 12 years old. Quit her job as a dietitian, and I worked side by side with my grandfather at the barbecue restaurant, and my mother in the concession business. In 1999 my father sister sued me because I owned the trademark rights for our family's business name, and I had to counter sue my family in the process, I wanted to earn an above average income yet feel like a stay at home mom and I thought that my loan originator had done a fabulous job right originating the loans because I had bought My first property at the age of 24 so I said, Well, I'm gonna go do what Dennis does. And I went, and I worked side by side with Dennis, and I became a loan originator, and in the process, I earned my real estate license in 2002 now here's what's funny. I did not take the pre license course. I was not in sales. Sales agent. I came in as a licensed real estate broker and decided that I should own my own real estate company. I realized quickly that the pre license course, even though I didn't take the pre license course, but I had to read the pre license book to sit for the exam, didn't teach me buckets, right about selling real estate. And so I'm like, dang, I'm dumb. I don't know nothing, and I pride myself on education. I'd already had a master's degree and had already taught on a collegiate level. So I said, Oh, I need to go and figure this thing out. And so I earned the ABR designation that first year selling real estate. The second year in 2004 because I didn't even leverage the license till 2003 but in 2004 I was in the top 10% of Realtors in the city of Chicago. I closed $12 million in volume. That came to 72 closed transactions. So that's how I came I came in because I wanted to feel like a stay a stay at home mom and earn an above average income without going back to school again, right? That's how I got here look and now today, 64 right? Real Estate designation, certifications and licenses later, clearly I believe in education, but I did not want to have to go back to school. V, right?

Tracy Hayes  6:20  

Well, I mean, obviously, you know, going through your bio and so forth, I mean, you have a just a passion for creating and sharing with others, is what I was reading between the lines.

Marki Lemons  6:31  

Yeah, I do. And let me tell you why. So my grandfather did not graduate from eighth grade, and when he arrived in Chicago from Indianola, Mississippi, he had one pair of shoes and they had holes in them. And my grandfather said he thought he was a rich man when he had two pair of shoes and neither had holes in them. Well, if you were to go to a famous Dave's barbecue restaurant, there's a picture of lamb's barbecue as a part of their national decor. And that's because when they wanted to know about the barbecue business, they came and had a talk with Mr. Lemons, and what my grandfather taught me was Marky, competition is healthy for business. Give it all away. And he didn't tell me this, but this is what I learned from that lesson. When you give it away, you're forced to do better. You're forced to try new things. So I am consistently giving it away because I understand, and I saw it with my own two eyes, how a man dies, you know, a millionaire, a self made millionaire who had nothing, and his pride and joy was his financial ability to take care of not only his children, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren, because he came from contribution. So what I bring to real estate is what I saw my mother and my grandfather do every single day that's beautiful.

Tracy Hayes  7:52  

I think, you know, one of the key phrases that's used a lot with a lot of the top agents that I have come in is collaboration, and and many of them I've seen sit down with many of other real estate agents that have called them up and say, Hey, can can we sit down and want you have an idea, or, Hey, I'm struggling, or whatever it is. And, and you're just, you're feeding into that with the heart in willing to collaborate, realizing competition is better, and not everybody is going to run with what you what you tell them, and no but no one is Marky. Let no one else is Marky. Lemons. You are you. That's the unique thing. And we all have our own unique circles of people who we hang with, people who get along with us and people don't get along with us. You know, it's all different. But to go out there and obviously raise the bar for real estate in general, you know, is obviously the common denominator that everyone could feed into when you first went to school, you, I think was it you got your undergrad from Chicago, state? Is that correct?

Marki Lemons  8:49  

If I get the college's personality management

Tracy Hayes  8:51  

in my notes, I mean, what was your dream at 1819, 20 years old? I mean aspiration for a career. What I can't believe it was mortgage lending.

Marki Lemons  8:59  

It was not mortgage lending. But here's what's kind of funny. I'm gonna pull this out for you. Just so happen to have it sitting here. This is my high school memory book, okay? And in my high school memory book, it says what I will be doing in 10 years. I will have my own business with two children driving some expensive foreign car. Okay, my career goals. Now, get this, my career goals. This is 17 year old, Marky talking to herself, right, to own my own business and be the best I can in my field of study. So I was clear at 17, right? What I wanted to do that I wanted to be the best i I've never been mediocre. Just Just do something to do it has never been my thing. I probably also get that from my mother and my grandfather, and so if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it right, or I'm going to tell you, No, can. Period. That's just and even though I do a lot because I'm a workaholic, I say no to so many things. And here would be an example. Someone got me together last week, someone came to me and said, Mark you, why don't you start a real estate speakers bureau? I'm like, Oh, that's not what I'm called to do. I'm not here to I don't really do a good job at managing other people. That's not my forte, per se, right? I said I'm not going to do that, but I wrote like a 20 point bullet list, right? Of things that you should do if you want to become a real estate keynote speaker. Join Toastmasters. Join the National Association, Speakers Association. Check out Rhea, go to rapid. Lee Brown can help you, or Dorna Carol can help you here. Three real estate speakers bureau, I broke it all down. So someone came on the post. They said, so you just said, No, you're not gonna help us, but you gave us a list of how to do it. Right? I wrote you one list that took me 20 minutes, because what I'm not going to do is take 20 to 30 hours to develop this course and then make it a part of my daily job. I'm gonna point everybody back to that list. That list is done now look, this is I'm not gonna do this, but here's people who can help you do it. And the reason that I do that, I don't ever want anyone to say that they feel like I was a roadblock or I tried to impede their growth, but I'm not going to allow you to come in and slow my growth right

Tracy Hayes  11:28  

right now and they can only walk away with you. Did give them something you didn't like. Not answer their call. You didn't you respond and say, Hey, I really don't have time for this, but here's a list I just spent 2030, minutes on, you know, filter this out. Call Lee Brown, whatever it may be, make some phone calls. And, you know, research this. But this will, you know, give you a kind of a skeleton outline of of where to go. You know, yeah, there's no doubt we can be taken off the tracks quickly, quickly. And, you know, I think we're all susceptible that, especially visionaries, I fall into that visionary thing. We can be distracted by, by a lot of things. It's the integrators that really actually put the put the road, to the tire, to the road, so to speak. What are you doing on a regular basis? Because you're creating a lot of content, you're you're working on courses that you're you're doing and so forth. But what do you do outside? Are you a podcast listener, a book reader? Obviously, you go to a lot of events, because you're involved in a lot of different events, and I'm sure you take from the other speakers that are there. What do you do to stay out in front?

Marki Lemons  12:33  

What do I do to stay out in front? So if we were to come back, I am a book reader, and I journal, okay? Actually, I already have my Christian planner for this year, okay, so I am always the one who's writing down and reading a book. The reason is I, for a period of time, had stopped doing that, and instantly I realized that productivity went down. So I came back and I implemented again. So journaling, writing down. And I have notebooks galore, and they all have something different in them. Okay, stay out in front. I don't think I've ever told

Tracy Hayes  13:10  

it was there a particular, typical type of book you're reading. Or, I mean, do you do go? Do you do pleasure reading? Or is it more business development? What do

Marki Lemons  13:19  

you I don't do no pleasure reading Facebook. Facebook and Instagram is all the pleasure I need, right? So no, here's what's funny yesterday, because I just started a new business, a new passive income business. So Russell Brunson from Click Funnels, his father consulted me yesterday on my new business structure, and tomorrow I have a call with his and I guess it's his brother Rick, Rick Bronson or his uncle, right? So I'm always reading something either business development, but right on top of that is the movie, The Secret my parents were recovering addicts, so a day in the life of Al Anon. So either I am professional development or personal development. Mindset is key right now. I'm working on getting out of my own way. I don't have a lot of negativity surrounding me. I'm very good at eliminating people. I was playing with a new tool called romantics the other day. It told me I already knew I was a high D hat, but write it drop in big, bold red letters. It didn't even say straight shooter. It said sharp shoot, right? And I'm like, How does this form know my personality? So it takes social media and pulls in your disc so you know the personality of the people in which you're meeting with before you actually meet with them. So mindset and moving out of my way not being stale. So I'm consistently educating myself on new systems and processes. How do we make this better? How do we make this better? How do we make this better? Some things I eliminate. So last year I decided to delete Twitter. Clubhouse, Snapchat and tick tock. Now keep it, because I have to clarify this, because so many people have taken offense who haven't listened to what I'm saying. Okay, that is not the here's the word, preferred location of my target audience. Now, is my target audience on those platforms? Yes. Are they viable platforms? Yes. Is it the preferred destination of females, age 45 to 54 to go let their head down and tell all they business? No, it isn't. Therefore I hang out where they prefer to be and are willing to tell their business, and that's about understanding your target audience, right? So I do business is never as I'm my feelings aren't easily hurt. I'm in this because this is a business. I just happen to love what I do and I like people. I was social before social media ever came about, I was a social butterfly. Check mark and failure to exercise self control every quarter gram school that was me post a child for talk too much, right, right? And so when we start thinking about how I'm standing out, it's always coming back to what do my consumers need and want, and how do I make it better.

Tracy Hayes  16:22  

Two things, two things. There I want to go. Since we're, you brought up the target audience, and I one of my guests I had on, and actually they do my back end work at streamline media, Carl Sonia, and he was talking about we're, I asked him the question, Well, how long does it take to find out where on social media your target audience is because everyone has the suggestions. Now you've been putting out a lot of content for some time. Did you take that analysis after several months, years of putting out content and seeing where you were getting the most, you know, feedback or return on before, when you narrowed that social media

Marki Lemons  17:01  

platforms down, yes, but let me tell you, it took some time. But let me tell you where the thought process came from when I decided to come from being a loan originator to the real estate side. It's because I was looking at my business plan. It was a simple mathematical equation. I would make more money per transaction as a realtor than I would as a loan originator, okay, based on the price point. So I said, You know what? Look I'm an unwedded mother. How am I gonna feel like a stay at home mom and earn of average income? I need to leverage my broker's license. Now, when I decided to come over to the real estate side of the business, I'm realizing quickly that I should have made a shift as a loan originator that I did not make. And the shift was I needed to shift my sphere of influence to the price point in which I wanted to sell at. What do I mean by that? The rule of thumb is a person can afford a house at two and a half times their gross annual income. At that time, I wanted to sell $250,000 houses, but my friends weren't earning six figure incomes. That then meant that, if it was based on their income, I would only be selling $125,000 houses, because they were making about $50,000 a year. Right? Instantly, I knew that I needed to shift my spear to sell more expensive houses, right? So then you come online and you bring in that same philosophy over to online platforms. I will tell you, I honestly thought that I was the cool chick hanging out with a lot of men, and I still am the cool chick, but there was one difference. I got married and I had another kid. When you get married, your language changes, okay? So now as a married woman, right? I don't have as many men in my spear as I do women. Now to get to that sweet spot, my 45 to 54 year old age bracket, I actually grew into it. So to me, everything that I do feels like I'm hanging out with my girlfriends all day. So now, at this point, because I'm in that age bracket, and I am that age bracket, I need to identify what problems are in my age bracket so that I can retire successfully with my sphere of influence. So here's what's different. I'm actually coming down to Clearwater, Florida after I come down to Jacksonville and St Augustine, right, right, because I am going to go and take the CDs the certified divorce specialist, because my friends are getting divorced, and at this age, it's not just one, it's not one real estate transaction, it's multiple real estate transactions. It's second homes, it's investment properties. So that now I understand I'm them, right? I just do this thing on out the industry with them, and I. Retire successfully. But most people, when they get they mind wrapped around, what are the issues of, what are the future issues of your age bracket? Go get trained on that now so you can be more well versed. Brilliant, brilliant, right? Yep, and that was up against metaverse. I decided I'm having look. My friends can't even get their heads wrapped around Instagram, right? And my husband don't even have a Facebook account. He think Facebook is the work of the devil, okay? Why? Well, it is, but it is, it is he? Yes, he has a valid point. But why am I gonna force feed Metaverse down their throat when I understand divorce is a true issue. Pump the brakes, just like I deleted Snapchat, tick tock clubhouse and Twitter. I don't need to talk about the metaverse, right? I can talk about the psychology and mentality. And here's what I know I'm gonna learn from the CDs. It's it's going to teach me how to work problematic real estate transactions.

Tracy Hayes  21:04  

Now, that's that right there. I mean, you know, it's, it's, when you mention it, you talk about, it's like, oh, that's common sense. But we're what. We're not thinking about it. We're not, you know, putting it down to, you know, finding that in that niche. Because when you said 45 to 54 I'm like, Man, you really have your avatar, you know, narrowed down. And, you know, how did you actually get there? And you just explained that. That why you're in that age group, or, you know, in that targeting decade there is because that's what's going on. It's your wheelhouse, age, you know, group and so forth. And then you're leveraging in that. I want to step back listening to everything you've you said. And obviously you started off telling us about, you know, by your second year, you had 72 transactions. You were, you know, top 10% of the realtors in Chicago for those new agents that are here, or maybe an agent who got started, but not really off to a great start. What were some of the things that you were doing back then? And I can only imagine, because this drive that you had is only continued to fuel itself. I can only imagine you started off the real estate business with a high drive for education and drive. But just talk about that first couple of years, and some of the things that you were doing to really get yourself out there as a real estate agent.

Marki Lemons  22:24  

So I came from a sales and marketing background, and I'm gonna tell a different story. Okay, I hired a copyright expert this year, and when I'm sitting down talking to the copyright expert, and she's interviewing me, I became sad, and the reason I became sad is because, as real estate professionals, we come into the industry, and we believe that the pre license course taught us how to sell real estate. We believe that with that one course, we're going to be good. Well, you quickly realize the pre license course does not teach you how to sell real estate. It teaches you consumer protection, period, right? So now you got this real estate license, but you don't know nothing. You don't know BUPKIS. And I had reached out to the National Association of REALTORS about article 11, right? Competency? And I said, Well, what? What makes a person competent? They said, Well, we believe a person is competent if they pass the pre license course, I said, Well, I know for a fact, salon, right? I'm the person who did not take the class, and I can let you know for sure I didn't know anything, right? And so then we come into an industry that we don't pay our taxes, and because we're not paying our taxes, we don't pay into Social Security, we do not set money aside for retirement. So we have to do this until the day that we die to be able to survive. That's sad. I don't want that to be period. And so with that being said, I treat real estate like a business. Two things, I've always had a business plan, and I've always had a database, and that would even go back to high school, just like I had keep this memory book, I had a black book. So then we, you know, we still had rotary down telephones. Actually, we might have had the little touch tone phone by that point, and I had everybody's information in a phone book, and I carried my phone book with me. God, I just dated myself every place that I went, right. And so I had a database and a business plan before I ever came into real estate. So the first two things, if we were to go back to how we became successful, we made that list of 100 people, we sent them a direct mail piece, and we got on the telephone with our warm market. So now today, we have other tools. We can do different things. We can send an email, we can text them right? We can FaceTime them. There's so many other things that we could do, but we still went back to that foundation of 100 right? And that's essentially how we got our first couple. The deals. Tell you what I did different. Back in the day, they had all these little cute sands, like, let's say it was a bag of popcorn and let me help your business pop, right? Something like that, 1000 Grand Bar, right? I literally had printed those sheets out, went to the wholesale store, had the popcorn, had whatever candy bar was at that. And I was going around meeting people with my flyer and the candy bar attached to it. My automobile was wrapped. I ran a classified ad every single day in the back of the Chicago Sun Times. I was using house values. My Mercedes station wagon was wrapped with my company name. I had billboards and bus benches. Here's what's funny. The only thing I would do today that I was doing then is direct mail. I'm not doing bit. I'm not doing benches anymore. Because guess what people are doing, looking down at their phone. They're not looking at the benches. They're not looking at the billboards or they must go by. Yeah, they're looking down. They're down, right? And then hopefully they'll see what's in front of them. But their heads are down now, right? So when I'm thinking their heads are down, I need to be on the palm of the I need to be in the palm of your hand. Yeah, right. On Facebook, on look Yelp, because they surely getting ready to figure out what they going to eat, right, all of those different things. So I'm trying to be in the palm of your hand today, and not as many places as I was. But one thing is the business plan and a database.

Tracy Hayes  26:34  

So when you someone comes up to you, which I imagine is probably daily, and says, Hey, you know young person. And I'm looking, you know, I think there's a lot more young people in the business today than there were, you know, in the 80s, we were growing growing up, and at that time, I've mentioned it on several shows. I mean, a lot of the the stereotypical real estate agent was really the not all, but two thirds of the, probably the audience, if not more, were wisest of our spouse, of a successful corporate person who had that that regular job. And they were, they just started tinkering in real estate, and it just got bigger better. Now you see these 25 year olds, 30 year olds, killing it here. I see a lot of them. I've had a lot of them on the show. So I imagine that group, you know, the 20s, when we're trying to figure things out, you're coming to you and asking you about real estate. What do you say to them?

Marki Lemons  27:31  

I'm saying to them what I just said. But let me say this. So my son is a second generation realtor. He's 26 years old. In our office is him and I have successfully recruited four people under the age of 27 I'm having the same discussion with them. However, their discussions a little different. So even though I'm 52 or 5.2 okay,

Tracy Hayes  27:55  

I'm 52 I didn't realize that we're just exact same age,

Marki Lemons  27:58  

same age. I create video content every single day. So I'm definitely having social media technology. Who is your target audience? Where are they spending their time at? And here's what's kind of funny. Last week, my son Skylar, he went to go do a video for a health food store down the street from our get this our pork barbecue restaurant. This video has blown up on Tiktok, the owner of Dr whoever, sanak, has found a way to find my son, because they're getting so many new clients coming in because of the Tiktok video. Now, mind you, I told my son to do this video series a year ago. I'd already told him that. So what I'm

Tracy Hayes  28:40  

realizing we don't we're too old. We don't know anything.

Marki Lemons  28:43  

Yeah, we don't know anything. So what I've come to realize when it comes to my son, he he is not receptive to what I'm saying and how I'm saying it. Somebody else has to say it first, and then he comes back and he says, and I'll say, I can pull up emails, text messages. You do know that that's exactly what I said, right? And I'm no, I'm no longer offended because I was offended at first, right? Right about the fact so I'm giving it to them straight. Sometimes they're listening, sometimes they aren't, but it's the same rule of thumb, right? It's the tools that have changed. You still need to have a business plan, and you still need to have a database. Oh, we don't call it a database anymore, your CRM, your customer relationship management system, you still need to have one, right?

Tracy Hayes  29:30  

Yeah, well, obviously there's the mom son transaction there, right? But the other young people in there, obviously, they see your success and so forth. And I often think it's because they don't they they're in it. They're like living it. They're, you know, if we knew what we know today, when we were 25 years old, you know, where would we be? Right? And so we're looking back and saying, Man, I know where to use that tool, because I've got 25 years on. You. You see this tool, but you don't see where what it can do for you. I do because I got 25 more years ahead of you on this track, and that's to me, that's where the the disconnect is. It's a natural thing. They're young and, you know, we all were, I wouldn't say young and, you know, just say young and dumb, but young and didn't realize a lot of things that were going on, you know, around us, where you put 25 years of worldly experience, we could say, You know what I see, where that tool could be leveraged, because I've got 25 years on.

Marki Lemons  30:31  

Well, here's what's kind of funny, though. This is an and this is me siding with them, right? You and I leverage technology. There's a larger percentage that don't so they don't have any idea where to leverage that tool in the business, because they failure to adapt. Yeah, and so when I said, come back to the fact, I said the CDs versus the metaverse, I'm clear about the failure to adapt, and that I would be force feeding people, and if I haven't gotten them to adapt up to this point, why would I give them something else?

Tracy Hayes  31:08  

Well, that just really, just transitions me into the second half of this show, which is really what I want to I want to dig into your knowledge. Because I as much as I try to get out there, and I was a little bit ahead of myself. Back in October, I reached my 100th episode, which I know you're near your 100th episode as well. And it was back in October, and I put on this class. I had a couple other agents, actually. One was a marketing director with one of the large brokerages, and one was another agent who does a lot of social media. So my part of the presentation, creating content was the theme, and my part of it was using a podcast, not you don't have to create your own podcast. You could be guest on a bunch of podcasts, and it's a great way to have a whole month worth of content. When you start cutting the reels and the statements out and, you know, putting yourself out there. I kind of put myself in front because I hadn't actually even I was just launching my youtube channel now, now I'm going back into all these videos that I've been doing for the first 100 episodes, even a year ago, and going in and cutting reels out of these things. And it's, you know, between YouTube shorts. Of course, Facebook has its reels Now Instagram. I don't overwhelm. I try to keep my most recent episodes and building my little Instagram part there. But I also been throwing them on on Tiktok, because you can just take the same reel and put it across all platforms, you know, within a few minutes. And so people are all of a sudden now going, Oh my God, look at this huge, you know, the amount of content that Tracy's producing. Now, if I go back and teach the class, they're going to have a different perspective of what I'm talking about, because if they just look every day, they're getting three or four different reels from me, because I have just, I have a pile of content, and of course, so I was selling the part on on, you know, being a, if not a, you know, start a podcast, be a guest on podcast, because we're all looking for good guests. I'm, you know, I bring in a couple each week. So, Hey, folks, this episode was produced by streamline media, the number one media company for helping brands generate content that converts. I knew I wanted to start a podcast to reach more people and bring value to the world, but I did not have the time or the knowledge. Streamline media became my secret weapon to building my show. They handle all my back end work, production and strategies to keep my show going strong. If you're in the real estate business and looking to make content that generates more leads and brings in more revenue, check out the streamline media link in the show notes and discover how partnering up can supercharge your path to real estate excellence. To start this transition, let's jump right into what you were we were talking pre show with this cutting edge. Take your notes. People, listeners, to get your notepad.

Marki Lemons  33:56  

Chat, G, P, T, tell us what's going on there. So chat, G, P, T, maybe about two weeks ago, right? Gary V comes over, and I'm sure he was on tick tock, and he talks about a new platform that's going to change everything but everybody, and it's essentially artificial intelligence. And so I watched the video, but I really didn't have time to engage with it. I actually put it on my calendar to come back and look it. I pride myself on getting 7.5 hours of sleep every I have not slept. Essentially since playing with this tool, I've been going to bed. 4am 2am 4am 2am then so I'm getting about four to four hours of sleep a night, but I'm waking up motivated right to come in and sit down and figure out how to monetize chat, G, P, T, so it's artificial intelligence. Decisions and the way that real estate professionals can leverage it in their business. Think about any type of research that needs to be done, period. Okay, think about your property descriptions, how to make them stand out and even change the tone of those so the way that I have leveraged it already in my business when I am a podcaster, right? So how do we repurpose that content? I was already repurposing that content, video, video clip, podcast headliners, doing audio, grams, text to photo. We got a blog post, we got email marketing. All coming out of Right, right? I was writing a new book. I've actually completed the book because I have the intro to the book. I have written a new class because the chat, G, P, T, told me what the title was. From the title, I was able to get a course description. From the course description, I was able to get learning objectives. So let me tell you what I did last night, what a lot of real estate educators don't do a good job at is writing their learning objectives according to, I think it's Bloom's taxonomy. And so when we're writing those learning objectives, I'm coming over here because I've downloaded the master's degree in education coming out. Yeah, this is it. This is it, right? So when I am writing a course, and a lot of people don't know this, but you need to write like, Be, define, generate those would be some of the terms. So guess what? I put the fact that I wanted it to write me learning objectives for the title and for the description it gave me based on a theory, and it did that right. So now every my to do list, the classes, the finishing the book, the research, new content, coming out, property descriptions, everything created inside of chat. GBT, whole

Tracy Hayes  37:01  

site, so you had a subject that you want to teach about, but you also told it your theory, am I understanding that correctly? Yes.

Marki Lemons  37:11  

And let me see, because I'm here now, so I'm wondering if I go over here to the platform, because I want to read this to you. So I already knew that I wanted to do a class on what AI would look like. So let me come back and I'm going to pull this up so I can read it to you and how I started this, the actual, the outline and information for this class. Okay, here, here will be an example. I want you to give me a book title and subtitle on a book about how to be successful in real estate market when the market shifts. And it gave me navigating the real estate market A Guide to Success and shifting markets. I want you to give me 10 book titles and subtitles on a book about how to be successful in the real estate market when the market shifts, because it only given me one right? So now it gives me the adaptable real estate investor strategies for success in a change in market real estate success in any market, proven techniques for buying, selling, flipping properties, right? So then I said, Write me a book Introduction with friendly and engaging tone of voice for Title number five. Well, title number five was mastering the real estate market, a step by step guide to profitability in any market you ready for this? Welcome to mastering the real estate market. If you're reading this book, chances are you're interested in learning how to succeed in the exciting and often unpredictable world of real estate investing, whether you're a beginner looking to get started, or an experienced investor looking to expand your portfolio, this book is for you, and it goes on,

Tracy Hayes  38:49  

yeah, yeah. Well, it's funny you bring this up because I've been spending a lot of time recently, you know, especially, you know, my youtube channel goes out, and I'm sending the reels out. And I kind of was, you know, you go on YouTube, all these people have all this advice on how to get more views. And obviously people do stay on your channel, you know, to you know, or stay on your video for longer periods of time and so forth. That's a big marker for them. But the you know, key thing is just the title. So just this morning, I had a reel from a podcast I did a couple weeks ago, and the kind of coach I hired, we just kind of emailed back and forth. He said, Why someone shouldn't buy real estate right now, something that was the title so many words, and you know which Why would a real estate agent, why would we want to tell somebody not to buy real estate right now? Right? We're at our business, but because it's, it's contradicting our normal thing, or it's controversial. That's the word I want to use. It's a controversial title. Well, I put that out on YouTube this morning, and that reel, within a couple hours, had 1000 views. And I actually emailed the agent. I said, Hey, this, here's the YouTube link, and got it, and we'll and I emailed. Mailed it to a couple of her teammates, and one of her teammates emailed back and said, Yeah, I mean, oh yeah, that's a great reel. And blah, blah, blah, but I don't, you know, I not really like the title, and I told her why I chose the title in that AI is picking up on that and knows what people are. What's Trending, right? That's the word trending, and

Marki Lemons  40:19  

that's hot. Well, we could use it also for SEO, but get this, I said, compose a list of book chapter ideas. First one, getting started, the basics of real estate investing. Number two, finding the right property tips for successful property selection. Like when I tell you, this is a game changer, and it's a game changer because it is making people or saving people 84% of their time. Yes, so now we have to think about how we need to leverage it. So let me tell you what I did have to do. I had to have a discussion with myself. The discussion with myself was, do not come up with a new business enhance the businesses you already that's what I'm getting at. So don't you. Don't you dare, Markie, go create yet another business. How are you going to leverage this to make every business you already have better?

Tracy Hayes  41:17  

So let's break it down simple for someone might be watching, or, obviously, the audience that you'll be in front of on January 27 how they are going to use this tool? Because, obviously, they're not creating educational programs like you are and so forth. You know, you're, you're at another level, but on, on the, you know, down on the street level, real estate agent, how would they use this chat? GBT.

Marki Lemons  41:41  

GPT. The Well, first of all, every real estate professional should create content. And I'm what I'm saying is one too many glamor shots. People don't care. Your glamor shots do not solve consumers problems. Okay, and so we need to go back. We need to do what is trending. So I always like to either do I'm going to do some type of Google research on what is trending right now. So I would go back over to google.com, forward slash trends, see what the trending subject is. Take that back over to chat, G, P, T, come up with titles from the title now. Keep in mind the content inside of the system is good. I think they're working 2021 so it's only from 2021 back, okay, but we've been through shifting real estate markets before. So in those shifts, right? It's oftentimes going back to the basics. What does that look like? And so I'm going to take what's a trending subject, bring it over, get my titles, then get my content, my body for blog post. But the way that I believe I'm going to teach it when I come down there, because this was not my subject, so I got to talk to Kim about, can we switch the subject up? Is that you have it to write you a script, and then you take that script over to a platform called pictory, p, i, C, T, O, R, Y, dot, a, and you have the script to create you a faceless video that then you're going to come back and you're going to use on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube, shorts, let's see Wales on Pinterest and on LinkedIn. That's how you I'm gonna see them

Tracy Hayes  43:25  

part up. And I have a question I've asked my social media people, because one of the things I noticed when a lot of agents are out there just, even just doing, hey, I got an open house today, or here is a new listing. And they're, they're actually, you know, they're using their phone to, you know, walk through the house or whatever. How important is it for them to put themselves in the video at some time or another, so that people are building that relationship by seeing them and seeing their face and smile and so forth.

Marki Lemons  43:56  

I'm going to say it's contingent upon really what that agent wants. So when I leave the house, I am known on the south side of the city of Chicago. Oftentimes, my youngest son and my husband do not like to go out in public with me, because my face and my voice is recognized. So the question is, how record how to what degree do you want to be recognized? Right? So I like being recognized, but I was not only was I a social butterfly, I was always popular. So it's just a little higher level, right? But let me tell you, I don't I think consistency is more important, and here's why I'm telling you. So my son, who has been on Instagram since 2014 only has 16 posts. The mass majority of these posts. Let me just count. 369-369-1212, of the 16 posts have been made since April of 2021. Okay, they're all Instagram reels. The most popular, number one Instagram reels. Was a education Instagram reels without his face. His second most engaged video was an education reel with his face, okay. The third most engaging reel was the fence. The fence only of Michael Jordan's house. From there, he only has of the 12 videos his face is only in one, right? It's the consistency. And do you provide value, whether your face is in it or not. Now people know who he is only because he has the other posts definitely have are just pictures. Are four pictures. So he has of his 16 posts 12 or reels for photos so they know who he is from the other content. But his reels have done very successful in bringing him more visibility, whether he's in the real or people know him because of the photos he's posted on his profile. So do

Tracy Hayes  46:00  

you want to, kind of, you want to mix it? I mean, because obviously, as a real estate agent, I mean, you kind of, you're branding yourself, right? Yes. And so he's got a reel that brings them in the educational piece. He's not actually in it, but is on his Instagram page. So do you you that consistency of putting yourself in some of them. So he is recognizable. So a client does see the real and say, Well, this guy seems to know what he's talking about. I want to know what He even looks like, because I'm going to meet him at a house, or I'm going to come to the office. I want to know what you know. Who am I running? Who am I coming to see?

Marki Lemons  46:35  

So his brand, his is consistent on all platforms. He only has all of his listings have professional photos, so there's some things he's definitely done that he's done consistently. So for me, I'm going to have my face in all of the videos, right? I'm consistently putting my face out there and my audio, because you video is the only form of content you can repurpose without recreating. But I want that level of visibility, so when agents tell me, one told me yesterday, she that she was old and grumpy, and I said, No, you're owed to me a season to perfection. And I'm telling her, especially for that seasoned professional who does not like how they look, create consistent video without your face, because viral videos don't always have a face in it, right? So get consistent with the faceless videos. But not having video you, that's an excuse. So I want you, if I want you, to consistently create videos, whether they have your face or,

Tracy Hayes  47:38  

okay, well, because the important thing is getting it. Don't let don't let don't let your because I think you're going down the route is they're not doing video because they themselves, don't like the way they look, or don't think others do, which I think is totally false. I think you know, the people who like and trust us, you know, see our face and accept it for what it is and but don't let that get in your way, because you can consistently doing video using putting your logo out there so people are seeing that. They're seeing your name, hearing your name, but to consistently be in front of them top of mind on the social media.

Marki Lemons  48:12  

Yes, most definitely. And so consistency is key. Video is key. You get to decide if you're going to put your face in it. And let me say this, if I did not have access to my son's analytics, I couldn't tell you that, but I am clear that people are liking saving and sharing his videos because I made him send me his analytics so that we could do that side by side. Comparison. No, you might not do videos like I do, and you might not have, you know, an Instagram reel that's been viewed 170,000 times. That might not be you, but you can clearly get reels that are being viewed 20,000 without your face in it. You still have to create video content. And here's what, and this is how I'm going to figure out chat. GBT, I have some new tools that I'm working with no one wants to do their own social media. The only way you should outsource your social media is if you are willing to create video content to then send to the person who you hire to do it. Because when you do video content, your face, your voice and your tone will always flow and follow the content. So here's what a gentleman, who I've been learning about chat GBT, he said that his website numbers were down 60% since it rolled out. He called it the S, C, E, D, model. You have to develop your style, that's the s. You have to build a community. That's your C. You have to gain experience, okay? So you can't live vicariously through other people, not in this industry, because no two real estate transactions are the same. And then you have to collect data, right? D. The D is a data and so when I read that, I said, that's what we're doing, right? We've developed in our videos and in our recordings. We've developed a step. We're building a community. We've gained experience because we're doing it, and the goal is to collect the data, right? And so I'm not worried about chat GBT, because I'm gonna gain the experience. Yeah. And then the question is, how do we leverage that? But for real estate professionals, you have to create video content, period, and it's the only way you should ever outsource anything. If not, you're looking like a couple of 100 other people.

Tracy Hayes  50:36  

Yeah. I mean, I'm a total guinea pig when it comes to and I've got to put this, and I have no problem sharing the failures. And, you know, I got a coach, I started the podcast, but we didn't talk about video, and it's really not to me. You know, Joe Rogan can look at his downloads, because he's got a big check from Spotify, but he already had an audience before he got in there. And what I found, really, for me, it's really the video coming from the podcast. Yeah, it's great to get downloads, and check your download numbers, who people might be listening to the audio. But really, you know, the it's the those people that are listening, those 30/62, clips that you're you're cutting out of here is really the content that you're you're creating to put yourself out there. So when someone says, how many downloads you got? Well, yeah, according to Lipson, I've got, you know, these, these downloads on the episode. But when I cross over and I go over to my reels, whether it's the full length video or it's, it's the shorts that I'm cutting out of there. I mean, it's multiplying 10s of 10s of 1000s of times. And I think the typical agent you ran, you said some numbers, 170,020 1000. I mean, would you agree you have to start in it's in that E the experience part of that, you've got to start the journey. And even you. And hopefully you do get some ones, you get one view, because that's going to tell you, you know, either you know your title was bad, the video wasn't shared by others, you know, whatever you're doing, if you're making people laugh, like people want to share that with their friends, or whatever, you know it's, it's, you've got to get out there and start taking the steps and find out where the potholes are, and find out, you know, where you're going to jump, you know, grab onto one of those rockets. And, you know, eventually, some of them start to go viral.

Marki Lemons  52:28  

That's true. And I started creating video, actually, back in 2006 a gentleman by the name of Freddie Taylor made me do a video, came to my office to do a video. And then when Facebook came out with Facebook Live and it hit the Android device, because the Android device did not get it first, I have been hooked ever since. So technically, for me, I was waiting to consistently create video, and Facebook Live is my jam. The reason it's my jam is because I don't like to edit video, and so any platform that I don't have to edit the video because I'm not a good video editor, then I'm loving it. So going live is my is my strength, because of my dislike for editing right, even though I can easily hire somebody to edit it, right? But I'm also doing what is the preferred way to deliver video? Everybody's not gonna deliver live video, right? So now we've given everybody an excuse, right? You don't have to do live you don't have to put your face in it. So now it's just an excuse, you know, it's, it's too many great tools out here. It's too many ways to do this. The numbers prove it. We're preaching it to you. It's you don't want to do a video, and that's it. Just say that, you know, I'm not gonna do it because I don't want to do it. But it cannot be the excuse. This is the no excuse. I mean,

Tracy Hayes  53:50  

people are attracted to the authenticity of, you know, yeah, we're live right now. If you're watching on Facebook, live or obviously, if you watch this, when I put it up on YouTube, I'm not going in and taking anything out. I mean, we Bob back and forth. We you know, if we stuttered on some words, whatever, we mispronounced a word, use the wrong word. I mean, that's natural of people having a conversation, and that you have to realize that your mind does not differentiate between the video and someone sitting in front of you having this conversation. You know, you and I are going back and forth as if we were sitting in the same room across the table from each other, and your mind doesn't differentiate. So don't be bashful because you stutter. We all stutter or mispronounce a word or whatever that may be. I want to run down. I was in your LinkedIn, and there was an article in there, and I thought a couple questions that were in there, but actually, I'm sorry, actually, the first question is about your podcast, social selling Made Simple. Realtors learn how to use social media in tech. Sell you. Tell yo. How did that come about? Why did you go to a podcast to get your word out? What was your what's your whole game plan behind that?

Marki Lemons  55:07  

So we are actually coming up on our third year of social selling made simple. I was already repurposing my content, and I happen to be on a fellow Realtors podcast, and within a week of being on their podcast, I get all of these great deliverables back, right? I get the video on YouTube, I get the podcast episode, I get an email. I get, did I say blog post? And I'm and then I get these photo quotes, and I'm like, Oh, I love this. This is what I want for my business. This is how I want my content to be repurposed without me having to repurpose it. Yeah, so I hired pursuing results to come in as my podcast host, producer. The next thing was, I knew that I needed a book. Now, the reason for getting a book or becoming a publisher and an author is not to get rich off of being a publisher and an author, it is to increase write your visibility, to validate in order to be able to charge more money as a speaker. And so I took my podcast and actually my second international best selling book, which is the social selling journal, comes straight out of podcast. This book actually just sold out in the realtor bookstore at the last realtor conference on Expo, which is now NAR next, or NAR next. And so I am taking my podcast, repurposing it, creating all that content on multiple channels, YouTube, Lipson my website, Instagram, LinkedIn, and then I took it, repurposed it into a journal that made me a international, best selling author, and now I have six of these bad boys, and it increased my visibility, my authority, and the world of real estate that was it Did what, exactly what I wanted it

Tracy Hayes  57:01  

to do. I mean, I've been telling people, because I've brought in all these top realtors and hearing all their stories, you know, you know, single moms, the whole you know, the whole you know trials, and you know guys that came from corporate America and then criss crossed over into real estate, and then some young people, fresh out of college who you know, are killing it. And I was like, I need to put a book together, you know, because there's, they're common themes, different stories, and put that together. And I'd really, yeah, love to see what you did and how you're, you're taking it and putting it into, into the print, yeah,

Marki Lemons  57:36  

this was the first one. The modern real estate professionals Guide to Success. I was the author. I hired a publisher, I can definitely I have a checklist on what you should do for that. So in the beginning of the pandemic, when I came home, I had met a young lady. Her name is Crystal Swain Bates. She's a six figure author over on Amazon with children's books, and she basically taught you how to become a a publisher on KDP. And I took our program, and right now I have 31 publications on Amazon. I have six international bestsellers. One of them I acted only as the publisher. One I was a contributor, like secrets of top selling agents that came out of homes.com their second edition. I'm a contributor Latinas in real estate. I wrote their Ford. And so when we start thinking about it, we have the modern real estate professionals Guide to Success. We have the modern real estate the social selling journal, and then what we came out with last year for an accountability tool for our members and six figures. In 12 months, we came out with the six figures for real estate agents, and because my start was as a loan originator, and loan originators need to build their realtor relationships, we just came out with the second edition of this for loan originators, and I partnered with my son Skylar, and so I'm just looking At the podcast actually provides a lot of content for, oh, I hate to say this for everything.

Tracy Hayes  59:09  

I have to clip that reel. I don't know if you know Travis chapel, build your network. He was the gentleman I hired as a coach. I know he's going around speaking now too, but that's what he's telling you, and it's not you don't even have to even have to even start your own podcast, just be a guest on a podcast. And there's several platform guestio.com is one of them, to go, to go on and and put on. I was on Lee Brown's podcast. Episode aired early December. We recorded, I think, in early November. If you have a story, click on Lee Brown's website and you know, put in that you want to be a guest, and it's there in the content creation is there? We already answered some of these questions. Here's one I think an agent is going to have. Going back to the article on LinkedIn that I saw there, how do I easily incorporate social media into my work life, work life and workflows?

Marki Lemons  1:00:00  

Yes, I believe so let me come back. If I'm looking at tools like romantic we need to bring in third party tools that tell us the personality of people. Now, in undergrad, I took psychology, so I'm, I am the Facebook predictor. Can tell you, based on how people post and things of that nature, what's going on in their life. There are some things that stand out to me as take psychology course. But there are twos that are way more in depth than that. Social media is the only place that people are willing to tell you all their business in real time. To me, it is the greatest lead generation, too, if you're willing to listen, I believe every real estate professional should leverage social media for the purpose of lead generation. Here's why. If you leverage landing pages, a call to action and video, you can add, and I add about 4800 new contacts per 4800 new contacts per year to my customer relationship management system. The rule of thumb is, if a person adds 2880 contacts, they should net 20 close transactions. If their average minimum price point is $250,000 they will earn $100,000 per year. How much time should they use? One hour per day. Social media should be leveraged in your business, one hour per day, whether you post anything or you're thinking about, hey, people are telling me all their business. How do I extract that business? Put it into my customer relationship management system to follow up with people. So all right,

Tracy Hayes  1:01:33  

let's, let's simplify that. Let's keep it simple. I always like to use the term kiss. Keep it simple. Stupid. Is this in your book? I imagine

Marki Lemons  1:01:40  

it is in the book. So it's eight by eight strategy.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:43  

So you want to add 2800 and some change people to your CRM every year. And okay, so I'm going there. So if I'm on social media, am I? Obviously I've got my friends, and then Facebook will throw a friend of a friend in front of me, or your people who they suggest you should be friends, maybe with that sort of thing. If it's someone you know that obviously you have 50 common other friends together, you want to break into that, get that person's information and add them to your CRM. Is that basically what you're saying.

Marki Lemons  1:02:22  

So I want to go back, do research, do videos on information that's needed by the general public, add a call to action, have them leave Facebook, go to a landing page and submit their information. That's one strategy. So with my son's very first Facebook Live video, he was not a real to 48 hours. He added 63 new contacts to his customer relationship management system by talking about a grant program that was up to $40,000 in student loan debt elimination. That's one strategy a second strategy, without doing any of that is for us to come every single day, strategically listen to the Ford family Occupation, Recreation and dreams of our friends and our friends friends, and then strategically reach out to them. Now by doing this eight by eight strategy, for no money, we will actually touch 2910 people in a warm audience in a calendar year. That means we then need to follow up and add a call to action. What would that look like? A landing page with a birthday coupon? Okay, so if you gonna go in and wish eight people happy birthday, then have a landing page. In exchange for their all their contact information, they get some type of birthday coupon from you. Okay, so there are so many ways that we can leverage this information, but strategically reaching out to eight people by 8am gives you 2910 touches that you can do something for and have them to update their information in your customer relationship management system. Now, keeping it's still only gonna net you 20 transactions. That's just the way the math breaks down. Everybody's not gonna do business with you. Everybody isn't looking to buy or sell real estate. But if you're strategic, the numbers just the law of attraction and the law of averages, it is going to net you 20 closed transactions at $5,000 per transaction. And it's free. I'm gonna say this again. It's free.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:33  

Well, I think you and I would agree, the typical agent, if they're not working on a team that's being fed leads where they got to call somebody back or something. They're like, Okay, what do I do with my life? Well, I mean, in Chicago, it's cold in Florida now, but I'm sure it's not as cold as it is in Chicago. What are you doing? Are you waking up at seven o'clock in the morning and spending, you know, the first hour, hour and a half doing this, and then you're just, you're continuing building the snowball. Effect, and then year after year, because you're only adding to that 2900 to, you know, 5800 and so on. And it's just going to compound and have a compact so that 20 deals might be 20, you know, might be, you know, 25 or 30 in a year or two, and so forth, depending on how hot the markets are in that sort of thing. Would you agree that's what I'm visualizing, what you're doing? Yes.

Marki Lemons  1:05:25  

And here's the thing, I'm just I'm writing down this number to give you the exact number. So when the first year that I came in as a loan originator, right? First year I had no experience, gained experience, right? I originated $96,668 in loan originating revenue. What was I doing every single day running that classified ad in the back of the sun? That classified ad was averaging me six telephone calls per day, six people reaching out to me before technology, I did a no money down program. Okay, so I know these these averages work. Okay, I didn't stop the classified ad. Whether I had money or not. I was running that classified ad every single day, charging it, whatever the case may be. I didn't have the bus benches. Then I did have the billboard. Some of them were illegal, so I was illegally squatting on railways, railroad passengers across the city of Chicago, and my automobile wasn't wrapped at that but I was gonna run that classified ad every single day. And what I know from that classified ad, it was going to get me six people to call me. Okay, I closed $96,668 okay, these numbers work, and they've been working. People do not want to do the consistent lead generation, which is why we have so much fluctuation in our income. Their thought process about being an entrepreneur is is skewed at best. It's unrealistic. You have to work in and on your business every single day, and what I'm asking for is one hour per day to strategically reach out and update your customer relationship management system period.

Tracy Hayes  1:07:11  

So you're you're adding the names on there, you're keeping that updated. Now, let's flip over to what are you from a content standpoint, what are you what are you leveraging that CRM for? Or what kind of things are you sending those people, besides the standard birthday and holiday emails,

Marki Lemons  1:07:30  

I don't send birthday and or holiday emails, so I don't do what everybody else does. I've never I am different. Okay, I take great

Tracy Hayes  1:07:38  

the holiday ones to drive you nuts. You get too many? Yeah, I got a

Marki Lemons  1:07:42  

bunch of stuff here for Christmas. So let me tell you what people have received from me today, contingent upon the system, they're in a email 9am closing on the blockchain and crypto mortgages, the future of real estate that went out. I did a foreclosure short sale class with wise agent. Guess what they got this morning? Short Sale, success with Markey. Step three, it is a email with a video embed and download. So that was one. So this morning already, contingent upon who you are and where you are in the system, you've gotten some type of email from me. Now, at the same time that these emails went up, here's a great joy, right? There's a post on LinkedIn, there's a post on Facebook, there's video over on YouTube. It has syndicated to multiple platforms, show, Spotify, SoundCloud. All of that has happened in my business before 9:30am in my time zone. I'm over here with you right now, right we're creating even more great content that's gonna go Sure, I'll do even more right before the end of the day, because it's in my calendar to do more before the end of the day. So I send a email. And I guess it depends on what company you're with, but my company sends a email every other week. I was sending an email once a week. I became overwhelmed by my own emails, so we went to every other week. That was our sweet spot. And then on an occasion, if something special is going on, I will send them that information as well. But I'm posting every single day to social media. I know what has already gone out today, and then guess what? We're going to take that in for. And that was Amy Churu. She's going to come in and do a private class to my private network. We already had negotiated that before. That, that's gonna be more content. So just consistently creating content, and I'm gonna say once again, your glamor shot is not content, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not. So you have to help solve problems.

Tracy Hayes  1:09:54  

The content that you're putting out in the articles are, are, you know, because. I think you know the real estate agents have sources where you know different real estate articles are coming up, or you or how much control and choice are you having over what goes out, or you just having that just randomly

Marki Lemons  1:10:15  

different articles go out? No, so I don't, I don't randomly. I don't post other articles, stuff you're creating. Yeah, it's the stuff that I'm creating. I'll tell you. I am the chairperson of the 77 which is the Diversity Committee of Chicago realtors, where we have one representative from each of the 77 communities. I source content specifically from the city of Chicago about those communities that I share with that group exclusively. Other than that, I will share something from the National Association of REALTORS based on an email that they sent me that might be relevant. So like now we have a strong real estate landlord tenant ordinance here in the city of actually cook county and the city of Chicago, they are going to come out with a 2023 what is supposed to be the return on security deposits. I'm going to post that because that changes every single year.

Tracy Hayes  1:11:12  

But if it's your own, you put in a little, you repost it, and put some of your your your comment on it, your opinion on

Marki Lemons  1:11:19  

it, your comment on it, and because I'm on so many podcasts and interviews and who's who, and real to magazine and most charitable agent in the city of Chicago, I'm getting content every single day that I've written, that I've been a part of, that I've been a contributor to. So I'm I share a lot of my own content. At this point, I don't need to share other people's content, so I don't share a lot of other people's content because I'm creating the content that they've told me that they want.

Tracy Hayes  1:11:51  

Now if I if I understood you correctly, the chat, G, P, T, that could almost write a small article for you,

Marki Lemons  1:12:00  

but it's gonna write an article based on what Realtors need and want. So I'm very niche. I only work with realtors exclusively, right? So everything that I'm doing is going to be what is going to help realtors. If it's not that, then it's me telling people why they need to hire me, right? Because my second part of this is you cannot act like you don't know what I do for a living. That means that I failed. So it's kind of funny to me, how many people get an attitude when people don't know what they do for a living or don't use them. That's not that person's fault. That's our fault. That means that we have failed in ourselves and our marketing. So the people who don't use me don't want me to know their business, because what I've clearly publicly demonstrated is that I'm the best choice and and everybody's not gonna do business with you, and there's no need in being met. I know who don't want me to know they business, and I'm okay with that, right? But you can't like you don't know what I do for a living, because my job is sales and marketing.

Tracy Hayes  1:13:03  

Next question, how do I incorporate my community and my real life into social media? And I think you tipped a little bit on that with the 77 communities, a little bit, because that's you're you're involved in real estate, you're involved with those 77 different communities, but that that day to day real estate agent, you know, what can they do to

Marki Lemons  1:13:27  

they need to ask themselves, what are they willing to share and share at a deep level? So I am an over share. I have let me clarify that I'm not the person who posts five times a day, but when I post, I'm giving you some depth. Okay, because I have decided that it's okay for me to share. But I was a sharer before that. Keep in mind so people, they're very some people are very private. They need to decide what's that one subject they're willing to go deep, whether it's their love of cooking. Whether they're a gardener, there's an agent here in the city of Chicago. Her name is Paulette Edwards. She's a garden so people have never seen her, not dressed up, except for in her garden. And she lives in a condo. So she got the hat, she got the overall, she got it all right, we have seen people have now have a newfound love for her, right? Because she's willing to share everything about gardening. So people have to find that one thing that they are willing to share and become the expert of and share all of it. Okay? And it doesn't have to be your personal life, but you gotta, you gotta come up with something you want to share, because that's how we build. I would guess endearment is what I'm thinking about. Might be the wrong word, but And people, they know my business. You know, they know I'm a blended household. They know my husband is losing weight now. They know that I had three surgeries in 65 days last year. They know. They know my children's names, birthdays, where they went to school. They know this, right? My youngest son is going to Harvard this summer in what's called a summer of a lifetime program. Everyone knows that people have called to ask for his zeal to send him money. Okay? Everybody knows it, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  1:15:20  

Now I was just, when you were saying that in I just, I was thinking all the different things that, you know, we deal here. And, you know, again, flipping through everyone's social media, right? What's their posting? And, you know, here in Florida, they play sports year round. So if you're a soccer player, you're pretty much playing 11 months of the year baseball player, and I've never seen a real estate agent beyond posting, hey, here's Johnny hitting the ball or Sally kicking the ball, whatever it may be, actually break it down and become a resource and say, Hey, this is what it's like to be a member of elite soccer. Here my kid goes to training, and we go to soccer practices, and you know what, you know, and actually, you know, create a video. I think it would go viral, because there's a lot of people from Chicago moving to Florida, and their kids want to play soccer. They're going to, you know, tap into that, and that's something they're doing every day. They're sitting there for hours for these practices and games and so forth every week, sitting on these benches, watching these games is like, why not just, there's a great way to build your community into your real life.

Marki Lemons  1:16:27  

It is. And I post everything, not everything. I have five good secrets, and I'm gonna hold on to them.

Tracy Hayes  1:16:34  

I'm just, I'm gonna brush it, because I know we're going long here. This was a, again, a question from the article, actually, you know what? Yeah, you can answer this one pretty quickly. Probably. What is the best content? And you've mentioned it before, but let's kind of close. You know, bring this whole conversation to a close. But what is the best content to create for social media?

Marki Lemons  1:16:55  

The best content to create for social media, I'm give two answers, is video content, because it's the only form of content that you can repurpose without recreating. But second, if it's not going to be video, it's the content that you're willing to create consistently.

Tracy Hayes  1:17:11  

Okay, all right, I understand that whatever you're willing because consistency is the key. Everyone keeps telling all you, I've been I've been listening to Ed my Let's book one more. I think it's called, he talks, you know, he talks about that. But it doesn't matter any of these, any of these guys, whether these YouTubers are and everything, I tell you, consistency, consistency, consistency. Sometimes you're only going to get one view, sometimes you'll get a couple 100. Sometimes you'll get a couple 1000. But you got to keep putting it out there consistently. And Markie and all your books. If everyone in Marky lemons.com I hope you're bringing some of these books with you when you come down.

Marki Lemons  1:17:48  

I am gonna bring some. I just looked over here

Tracy Hayes  1:17:52  

on the table for that because I went on your LinkedIn, yo. And you're, you're pushing the six figure realtor workshop. Let's finish with that and just tell everybody what it's about, because they can go right on your LinkedIn. It's right there in front of them, or probably, I'm sure, your other social media spots, but the six figure realtor workshop,

Marki Lemons  1:18:12  

so in closing, six figures in 12 months, is our private membership group, where monthly we provide a group coaching call, a monthly mastermind, weekly tutorials and podcast previews. We've been in existence now over two years, we've had over 1000 realtors, and a large percentage of them do earn an additional six figures within 12 months. Come on over to Markie lemons.com. M, a, r, k, i, L, E, M, O, N, S, if you spell my name correctly, you will find me anywhere on the internet.

Tracy Hayes  1:18:48  

So what? Give us some, just some, some details of, you know, what kind of conversations are those agents having? You say, you guys, you're getting on a zoom type call doing these masterminds. What are some of the the challenges. So someone who might be listening to this can say, You know what, I have that same challenge. Maybe I need to get in that room to hear the answers. What are some of these agents fear?

Marki Lemons  1:19:09  

Video, fear of not having a business plan, not having a strategy, not generating enough leads, not leveraging platforms. They run the gamut, and they're able to ask us anything, and if I don't know the answer, I know someone who does. And so we bring in consistent experts. So, yeah, it's pretty good.

Tracy Hayes  1:19:29  

Well, you know, that just goes, you know, one of the common themes, you know, from the top agents that I have have on, you know, we talked about education, you know, in obviously you're a creator of a lot of education, but obviously one of those other things is surrounding yourself by other successful people, and one of the cornerstones of personal development, and being in that mastermind that you have, being around those other people who have a common, common ideology, I think, obviously trying to get better, and then hearing from not. Only yourself, but other greats that contribute into that mastermind to solve some of these very common real estate agent challenges.

Marki Lemons  1:20:08  

Yeah, and it's some, it's some real challenges that exist. So I have to, I have to hop on another call, because, yes, we got a Facebook call. So the gentleman is over here watching me now on a different device.

Tracy Hayes  1:20:23  

Last question, and then I'm going to close out, is it more important who you know or what you know? And why

Marki Lemons  1:20:29  

it's more important who you know? The reason I serve on so many boards is because they've opened doors for me that I could not open myself. So I would say it's more important who you know than what you know, and to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. I love it.

Tracy Hayes  1:20:44  

I love it. Markey, I appreciate your time today. This got some great content. We'll see you on January 27

Marki Lemons  1:20:50  

Thank you. See you soon. Yes, ma'am.

Podcast Intro  1:20:56  

This may be it for today's episode of Real Estate excellence, but we both know your pursuit of excellence doesn't stop here, to connect with the best of the best and really take your skills to the next level. Join our community by visiting Tracy Hayes podcast.com where you'll meet more like minded individuals looking to expand their inner circle and their personal experience that's available at Tracy Hayes podcast.com you

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