Real Estate Branding, Viral Marketing & No Fluff Content Strategy

REE #303 Transcript

[00:00:00] Amy Cotney:
The more you post, the better — but at least five times a week. Again, don't get bogged down on perfection. It does not have to be perfect. Just put it out there. Just go. Right? Do it. Right?
And I think people overthink it so much, and that's where they get bogged down in it.

Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast. If you've ever doubted that social media can build your real estate business, this episode will change your mind.

Today's guest is proof that consistency, creativity, and authenticity still win. She's built a massive online presence across multiple platforms by being unapologetically herself — sharing real stories, real listings, and real life — with a growing audience of over 300,000 across Instagram and more than a million on TikTok.

[00:01:18] Tracy Hayes:
But she's not just an influencer. She's a results-driven real estate professional with deep community roots, a marketing director's eye, and a service-first mindset that drives repeat business and local trust.

Whether it's helping clients in—

[00:01:31] Amy Cotney:
In Auburn.

[00:01:33] Tracy Hayes:
Alika — if I pronounce that correctly — Alika, Avala, or Lake Martin, or teaching agents how to stop overthinking their content, she brings clarity, humor, and real value to the table.

This episode isn't about chasing likes. It's about building a brand that works with your business — not instead of it. Let's welcome Amy Barton Cotney to the show. Amy, welcome.

[00:01:54] Amy Cotney:
Hey, thank you for having me. I'm finally—I'm glad I finally got on. Appreciate it.

[00:01:59] Tracy Hayes:
I appreciate it, yes. I'm well. You're almost out of your illness, but you're definitely feeling better, and it looks like your energy's back.

Amy Cotney:
It's getting there.

Tracy Hayes:
Excellent. We're at 80%, so—

Well, we're really excited that you are coming here to St. Augustine — the greater Northeast Florida — for our RE BarCamp, which is always a hit. And I'm sure they're sold out — 1,200 to 1,300 agents typically are there. And I hope to be there, hopefully I’m healthy and we're over there and get to meet you in person.

But I want to introduce everyone to you, what you're all about, and basically reading your bios, I know why they selected you over there — because obviously, social media and marketing, branding in real estate is a big part of a real estate agent's career right now, especially the newer ones.

Yeah, for sure.

So on a national—just to kind of kick us off a little bit, I’m gonna get into a little bit where you're from, and obviously everyone knows where that is—on a national basis, I imagine, you know, you speak and you train and so forth.

What is the, probably the number one question you get asked with your background, your followers, and experience from a lot of the—say—those agents that are in that one-to-three year period trying to get their career started?

[00:03:12] Amy Cotney:
I think that one of the—well, there's several—and one of the questions that I get a lot is:

"Does social media really work? I haven’t seen it work in my business."

From it being a—I call it a "baby agent"—somebody just starting out.

[00:03:25] Tracy Hayes:
Right?

[00:03:26] Amy Cotney:
And my answer would be: A thousand percent, it works.

It's just—it’s kind of like going to the gym. You have to be consistent with it or you won’t see results.

If you are chasing likes — then, you know, one and you are only getting ten — you’re thinking, ugh. That’s ten people that didn’t see you beforehand, you know?

So you got to look at it in a different way. And it’s constantly putting content out there and seeing—it is kinda like fishing. Seeing who bites.

But it took me—like, I started in 2016. And that was when I started—nobody was doing video, nobody was really on social. So that was my niche into the real estate world, 'cause I’m not scared to be on a camera.

That's another big thing as well — there’s a lot of people that are scared to put their face on the camera.

When you put your face on the camera, that other person behind there sees, "Oh, she’s real. And I wanna work with somebody real."

Instead of just showing houses and stuff, you gotta have your face. And that’s one thing that I’m not frightened of. I don’t know where—I've got a broadcast journalism background, that’s probably why I’m not scared to do it.

Also, I’m not really scared to make a fool of myself.

So there’s a whole lot of things. But I think that’s one of the bigger things that I get asked is:

"How long does it take before you start to get leads off of your Instagram, your Facebook, and all that?"

And it—it took me—I rattled the pot at first 'cause it was something new. And then now, I would have to say, other than referrals, like 90% of my business comes from all my social media. For sure.

[00:04:59] Tracy Hayes:
Would you agree—this is my vision—when talking to people about social media, I think too many people, you know, it's like:

"Hey, you did a podcast. Did you get any, you know, from it?" or "Did you do an ad? Did you get anything directly from it?"

And like you said, it takes time. But also, sometimes you don't know that your actual business came from the social media.

They may have seen you on social media, or maybe they saw you somewhere else and went to your social media to kind of get to know about you a little bit more.

And then they call you. Or obviously, I think it's the biggest tool to use to stay top of mind of your circle of followers that are watching you.

[00:05:45] Amy Cotney:
When—

[00:05:45] Tracy Hayes:
They're actually ready to make a real estate transaction, they're reminded. They've seen you pretty much every day — doing whatever it is — showing a house, whatever you're putting out there. And that it's a daily reminder that, "Amy’s doing real estate. Amy’s doing real estate."

So all of a sudden, now it's a real estate transaction, and you come top of mind.

[00:06:03] Amy Cotney:
Right.
It really is about being consistent with it. I mean, that is, to me, the biggest — and not getting down on yourself and trying to make it too perfect.

I think that as well, that's the thing where people get stuck, and they say, "Oh my gosh, it's so hard to do."

It doesn’t have to be perfect, actually.

I call myself — well, my video — when I do videos, I call myself One-Take Amy, because I’m like, “No, I don’t want it to be perfect.”

If I cough, like I just did, or if I say something wrong and I just laugh about it — people can relate with that.

And that’s what — for me — it’s about being relatable.

And also, if you're that way, the people that you’re going to work best with find you.

And that—it just makes every transaction so much easier if they know you a little bit better.

Because I'm, I'm very authentically me on there. And I usually have the same type of clients — yeah — because they know how I am.

So it is very interesting.

[00:06:59] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. I mean, well — like people — you attract like-kind.

And your little mannerisms that we all have when we speak — and we stutter, and whatever it may be — it actually relates to, you're a real person.

And that this person is not going to be intimidated by the perfect.

Even the people on TV — on the news station who are talking every night and who are hired to look good in front of a camera — they will make some mistakes and so forth.

Obviously, you do it every night, you get better and better and better.

And that’s really what it comes down to doing video. Would you agree?

[00:07:33] Amy Cotney:
Yeah.
Yeah — a thousand percent.

So it’s just practice, practice, practice. And don’t worry about the perfectionism. And it does work. Social media does work.

I think it changes so much, so you kind of do have to stay a little bit on the trends — whether that be reels, whether that be carousels, whether that be the written word.

Supposedly, the written word is going to be really hot in 2026 — as far as like — and even podcasts, talking, your voice.

I mean, I’ll tell you — I had a funny story.

I was in HomeGoods a couple weeks ago, and somebody heard me — who I don’t know — somebody heard me from like a couple aisles over.

They’re like, “Amy, Amy!” — you know? And they’re like, “I hear you every morning.”

So my goal is always — I usually post at least once a day, on my Instagram for sure.

And it is usually at 6:30 in the morning.

And I also had — this past week — this guy stops me and he goes, “My wife watches you every single morning. I feel like Captain Kangaroo or something.”

So, but it’s also something that I enjoy doing. I love doing it. I’m a creative person.

Real estate is not creative. So for me, it’s like my happy spot.

And when I don’t feel creative that day, I don’t give myself a hard time going, “Oh my God, I haven’t posted.” I just don’t post that day.

[00:09:00]
I’ve also built a brand now that can kind of run itself if I don’t post for a couple days.

That’s taken me a long time to get there — so it’s work. But that’s what it is. That’s what you do.

You go to work every day. Part of marketing — market, market, market. And that’s just what I do. I spend at least two hours a day on marketing.

[00:09:13] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I mean, I’m a big John Maxwell fan — audience, anyone that listens to any number of my shows, I bring this up: Influence and Credibility.

That was one of the reasons why it attracted me when I saw an ad about doing a podcast — and actually hired the gentleman as my coach — because I really didn’t know what a podcast was four and a half years ago.

But those people that you were talking about — who heard you a couple aisles over, or the gentleman who came and said, “My wife watches you every morning” —

You have influence and credibility in the space.

And obviously, they’re not the only ones — they’re just the only ones you’ve run into.

So when it comes to being that real estate expert, you're the first person that comes to their mind, and they're calling you, and they’re going to take your advice because—

[00:10:00] Tracy Hayes:
Again, you are a celebrity in their eyes because of your consistency in obviously showing up on their phone or TV.

[00:10:07] Amy Cotney:
Well, I—I don't view myself as a celebrity, but I do get called that sometimes. I'm like, "Oh my God, it feels like I’m talking to a celebrity."

[00:10:15] Tracy Hayes:
And—

[00:10:16] Amy Cotney:
I'm just like, "Ahh!"

I do a lot too with social, as well — probably a different little topic — but I try not to make it all about me.

I owned two brick-and-mortars as well prior to real estate.

So I have a very soft spot for entrepreneurs — fellow entrepreneurs. 'Cause when you're in real estate, you're your own entrepreneur — but brick-and-mortar?

So I am all about the community and giving back. That helps my business. I've always done that since I started real estate.

Like, "Hey, let me go do a video of the new restaurant in town," or the coffee shop, or somebody making Christmas ornaments, or whatever.

And they’re like, “Well, how much do you charge?”

I’m like, “I don’t charge anything.”

"Why?" — "No, I’m here to help you grow. That makes me happy. That’s my joy."

If I can give you three leads off of that, then I’m a happy person.

You can't make it all about you.
You can't make it all about, "Oh, I just sold this. I just sold that."

You've got to give back some, and you've got to make it where you're giving people the knowledge that they need.

You're providing something that they can't get somewhere else.

[00:11:18] Tracy Hayes:
Value.

[00:11:19] Amy Cotney:
Value.

[00:11:20] Tracy Hayes:
Thank you. Yep. Value's the word.

[00:11:21] Amy Cotney:
Little bit.

[00:11:23] Tracy Hayes:
I'm gonna just reach out to one of my sponsors, and then we’re gonna come back and start off with just a little bit about where you're from, so everyone knows, you know, kind of where you’re coming from.

So, one of my great sponsors here on the Real Estate Excellence Podcast is ReadTomato.com.

If you're great at what you do, but your content keeps being ignored online, listen up: Read Tomato built something called the Hot Take Engine.

Once a month, you spend an hour on a call — they’ll put out your best story, strongest opinions, and answers your buyers are already searching for.

They then turn it into a full month of publish-ready content that sounds like you and shows up where it matters — Google and AI results.

You don’t need more posts — you need more signal.

Go to ReadTomato.com — it’s R-E-A-D-T-A-T-O-M-A-T-O dot com — and book your session.

That is an interesting thing too, there — Read Tomato. A good friend of mine that I grew up with owns that company.

And one thing that he’s doing — he created websites for years, for over 20 years he was doing websites for clients — but now he and his partner realized the search has gone over to AI.

Not completely, but even on Google — you’ve probably seen this as well — if you go to Google and put in a query, Gemini comes up with an answer.

Sometimes you never even click on a link or look at the links that are there.

And what he’s doing is, he’s taking your websites and he’s putting blogs and all that kind of stuff behind it, because that is what the AI searches are going after.

They want hyperlocal — obviously the most current information — so they can spit out answers.

And then obviously they put little footnotes of where they got that answer or summarize that answer, I guess you could say, there on AI.

And so that’s a whole other aspect of it.

But your social media platform is also part of it. I imagine you do enough video — what's your extent on YouTube? Or do you store a lot of your stuff that you do on YouTube?

[00:13:32] Amy Cotney:
Baby — I do more of my shorts on YouTube.

I've done some long content, but that was probably two years ago.

And it’s usually — when I do long-form content — it's usually about maybe a house that I’m renovating.

[Tracy Hayes:]
Right.

Amy Cotney:
People love that.

And I can talk for a long time about that.

But as far as, like, I usually will stick some of my IG stuff or TikTok stuff over on short-form YouTube.

[Tracy Hayes:]
On YouTube, yeah.

Amy Cotney:
But I would say like some of my—and it is usually more about—so we were talking about where I live:

I live in Auburn, Alabama.

Big college town.

Very, very easy to talk about Auburn. Everybody—I mean, we have people coming back all the time wanting to move back to live in Auburn.

So if I’m putting stuff on YouTube, it’s definitely Auburn-oriented.

If I’m talking on Facebook, then I’m gonna either talk good about the coach, or I’m not gonna talk good about the coach.

And I think too, people—people—realtors also are scared to maybe say something controversial on social because:

"Oh God, it might lose this client. It might lose that client."

Now, I don’t talk about politics or religion — hard no on that — 'cause...

But if it’s about like an Auburn football coach? Oh yeah, it’s going down.

And people love that.

That would be some of my best Facebook posts — is just about a new hire or something.

[00:14:59] Amy Cotney:
To talk about real estate, you need to keep it a little bit more—
uh, you know, talking about what's going on locally, and be that local knowledge in your town.

And that's really what I try to do a lot of.

[00:15:03] Tracy Hayes:
Let's step back so everyone has an idea, you know, your background.

Prior to real estate — what were you doing?
If I recall on your LinkedIn, I think you owned a business prior to that.

But what were you doing before, and then what caught your fancy to move to real estate?

[00:15:22] Amy Cotney:
Okay, so prior to real estate, I’ve always been in sales.

But I don’t think real estate is really sales half the time — it’s like psychology, you know?

So I had a business — and this is very hard to explain, especially if you don’t live in a college town —
but I had a business around game day apparel, where I manufactured game day apparel.

I live in Auburn. I’m from Tallahassee, Florida — fifth-generation Floridian.

So I grew up Florida State, and I live in Auburn, but I was selling to all the colleges — game day stuff.

Until the collegiate licensing came knocking on my door —
where I owed an obscene amount of money.
I was like, “Okay, I’m done.”

So my dad — he goes, “Amy, would you just please listen to me for one time in your life? Just freaking listen to me for one time in your life. Either go sell high-end luxury cars or go sell real estate.”

And I’m like, “Well Dad, the high-end luxury car in Auburn, Alabama is like an F-150.”
Yeah, I’m not selling F-150s. Sorry — I draw the line there.
They have to be white. They’re all white F-150s.

And so, I started real estate.

At first, my mentor at that time — she goes, “Amy, I really think you’d be great at it, but you are a bit of a gypsy. Like, you like to travel and move around and stuff, and you can’t really do that in real estate.”

And I’m like, “I’m not a gypsy! I got this.”

And sure enough, I got so into it. Also, I got remarried at that same exact time, and he is in medical sales and he’s always on call.

He kind of really grounded me in one place — where I wasn’t hopping on an airplane all the time.

And literally, the first two years — it was a grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind.

[00:17:00]
And it still is — like, I’ve been up since 3:30 today. I’m not bragging — that is something I’m not.

[00:17:05] Tracy Hayes:
Yes, your email this morning was before I got up and I was like, Wow... what time did this lady get up?

[00:17:10] Amy Cotney:
Yeah. “This lady’s crazy.” Just ask my husband.

But I love what I do.
And I was kind of like — I had gone to bed a little upset because one of my deals fell through.

And I’m like, “It’s a first-time buyer — oh my God, I gotta find her another house!”

So I was just like, “Let me go. Let me figure this out.” And I had a lot of paperwork to do.

So — I don’t—

It’s changed my life. Real estate, as far as where I was in life, has changed my life definitely for the better.

It’s gotten me way more grounded and definitely grounded in the community.

And I do love that part of it.

And I don’t know — I got off topic. Sorry.

[00:17:42] Tracy Hayes:
No, no. You are right on topic.

'Cause I’m gonna bring you in — because I think a lot of my listeners — you know, obviously people who are doing really well in the business, they listen in.

Maybe they’ll get one little line that might—“Ooh, that’s an idea. Maybe I’ll look into that.”

Where I feel there’s newbies, or people who have been in the business a few years but really aren’t—you know—they’re treading water and maybe even thinking of quitting.

I think every real estate agent has thought about quitting at one time or another.

So dad tells you, “Hey, you ought to look into real estate.”
You go over — tell us about those—
First of all, did your finding of a mentor—did a mentor come to you?

How did that relationship happen, getting you started and realizing, “Hey, there’s something here in real estate”?

[00:18:27] Amy Cotney:
So when I first started, I had no idea about DLY — do I even say that right?

I’m like, “Oh, those are so great!”

I didn’t even know about splits. I knew nothing. I’m just like, “Whatever.”

I went with a large brokerage with one of my friends who actually mentored me.
And she’s like, “I’ll take on Amy — the problem child.”

Because I’ve always been a little bit rogue, and I just think outside the box.

And so she was my mentor. I didn’t go looking for her — at that particular agency, they kind of assign you to somebody.

And that’s kind of how that came about.

Then you have to do three transactions underneath her.

I’ll say this about me — and about, I think, the better agents out there...

[00:19:45] Amy Cotney:
I am very self-disciplined.

I’ve been through coaching programs before — that doesn’t really work for me.
Because the coach will always say, “Okay, do this and do that,” and then 10 minutes later I’m like — done.
You know? Done.

So I’m very — I’m gonna wake up and I’m going to do the same exact thing every single day.
And I don’t need to be kind of told what to do.

I feel like that’s really important when you are self-employed, like we are in real estate.

I’m a small brokerage now — there’s only 15 of us.
And we don’t even have meetings.

People — you know, I’ll have lenders say, “Hey, can I come to your office meeting?”
And I’m like, “Yeah, yeah… we don’t… we don’t have that.”

I listen to a lot of podcasts to get—
If I go to conferences, I’ll do my own little thing to get my—

[00:19:51] Tracy Hayes:
You’ll search out what you’re looking for, right? From an education...

[00:19:54] Amy Cotney:
Yeah.

I don’t listen to any radio. If I’m in the car — which I’m in the car a lot — I’m gonna turn on Gary Vee.
I’m gonna turn on somebody that I will listen to — Tom Ferry — whatever I want to at that moment, and get my go-go juice from them.

But I do feel like — and I have been working with some 20-somethings lately —
and it’s hard because they don’t see results really fast.

This business takes a while to see the results.

And also, they’re young. They don’t have that people — that core group — yet, that can actually buy.
Their friends are still maybe in college.

So they gotta figure out how they’re going to break into the market, whether that be Zillow leads or whatever, what have you.

For me, I was a little bit older.

[00:20:38] Tracy Hayes:
Since you’re on that topic of — you know — we’ll say 20-somethings getting in the business...

They may not have had a big previous career, which they could have used to build a sphere of influence, but you know, they’re in the situation you were just describing.

Where would you suggest they go?

And the reason why I ask this is because I think it’s so vitally important — the first brokerage you go to, for most real estate agents.

'Cause a lot of them don’t have that entrepreneurial mindset or drive.
You sound like you could probably have been successful no matter what brokerage you went to.

But a lot of them — that first brokerage can make or break them.
And I think that’s a reason why so many agents never renew their first license — because they started with the wrong brokerage and they died 90 days in.

[00:21:24] Amy Cotney:
Yep.

[00:21:24] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. What do you recommend for those people?

[00:21:27] Amy Cotney:
I think you’ve got to find a brokerage that does a lot of training.

I had that with my first brokerage.

And I don’t need to be trained in discipline, but I needed to be—
“Okay, how am I going to do this?”

So we — this was 10, 11, 12 years ago —
I was on the Brian Buffini kick at that time.

And so we watched all these—we had courses with Brian Buffini.
And we did all—
You know, I drank that Kool-Aid.

And I’m telling you — it worked.

I lived between Brian Buffini and Gary Vee.
I did exactly what both of them told me to do, and that’s how I grew my business.

But we had a lot of training in my first brokerage.

My brokerage now is not for baby agents. It’s not.

We don’t do any of that.

You’ve got to be self-motivated and get your own leads.
The leads aren’t given to you here — like, you’re on your own.

And for me — being a serial entrepreneur, which I’ve been since I was 20-something years old — that’s fine with me.

That’s — I work better that way. I like it. I like to be in control of that kind of stuff.

So that’s kind of my background a little bit.

[00:22:28] Tracy Hayes:
Right. I think it’s great advice.

And there are some — there are larger brokerages — we know Keller Williams, there are others, that cater to that. And it’s a great starting place.

How many times have you changed brokerages in your career?

[00:22:42] Amy Cotney:
So...

[00:22:44] Tracy Hayes:
Ah — several times, it sounds like.

[00:22:47] Amy Cotney:
I feel like such a floozy.

[00:22:50] Tracy Hayes:
Well, you’re a gypsy. She called you a gypsy before.

[00:22:52] Amy Cotney:
I’m a—

[00:22:53] Tracy Hayes:
Gypsy.

[00:22:53] Amy Cotney:
No, I’ve been in—
I’ve been with my last brokerage — the one I’m in right now — for six years.

I mean, I’m breaking like my marriage — like, I’m almost about to beat out another marriage by being married to the same guy —
and I’ve been at the same brokerage for six years.

It’s a miracle happening up here in Auburn.

I’ve been in four different ones altogether.

So my first one was the big one.
And it was funny 'cause back then, when you went to change a brokerage, it was like—
"Shh, don’t tell anybody. We’re doing it in the middle of the night."

I was like, “What? Why are we changing?”

I was just going along with the crowd.
I was like, “Why? I don’t know why we’re changing.”

They’re like, “You know, they’re charging our clients $350 for a transaction. We are changing.”
I’m like, “Okay.”

So at 2 o’clock in the morning, we go and get all of our stuff out of our desks.
And I’m like, “This is just weird.” I didn’t even know.

So then I just followed them to the other brokerage — which was a terrible fit for me.
Like, terrible.

They did not let me—
So, I have to be in a brokerage that lets me be in charge of my own creative.
I don’t need somebody looking at every single post I do, every single...

[00:24:00] Amy Cotney:
Going, "That's okay, Amy. You can do that."

So that brokerage obviously did not work out for me.

Then I ended up at another one, which was new construction — and I actually really loved that brokerage a lot.

But, you know, the longer you're in the business and you figure out capping, and you figure out all kinds of stuff — I was leaving way too much money on the table for that one.

So then I ended up where I am now.

And yeah, I've had a lot of people try to recruit me out of that one, and I’m like, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”

When you find your home and you find somebody that lets you be you — when I'm me, that means I'm going to sell houses. That's how that is.

And so, I love where I am right now.

I don't foresee me changing for, you know...

[00:24:41] Tracy Hayes:
Well, it brings up the word — you mentioned it earlier — branding and your brand.

And, you know, again, talking to some expert — I think it might have been Jonathan Stein with Location — if we were talking to him...

That brokerage that has the mindset that they are not actually the reason why you're doing deals — unless of course they’re buying you leads and can say, “Well, we’re contributing toward this because we’re buying you leads” —

But is the brokerage nurturing your brand?

It’s Amy who is the person people are buying from.

It’s Amy who is the brand — not your brokerage.

And I think with social media and everything, things have gone that way — but not every brokerage has broken away from that.

Now I think there’s one here in town, which — I don’t know all the details — but just from comments I heard from an agent — someone like Sotheby’s, they have this way they do things.

And, you know, obviously they’re marketing to a certain individual.

But I would imagine most brokerages are going to fall under individual brands, like you.

You're creating your own brand — and they need to learn how to nurture that and bring out your creativity.

[00:26:00] Amy Cotney:
And I’m very lucky with where I am, because I get to do that.

My brand is Amy B. Cotney.

And my Roots Real Estate is my brokerage.

But everybody knows me by Amy.

Everybody actually knows me by my Instagram handle, which is @sweethomeauburnal.

And I’ll have people on the street go, “Hey, Sweet Home!”

You know? It’s crazy like that.

But that’s my brand.

That’s my brand.

But it has taken me—
You know, that’s one of my things, my passions too. I love branding.

I love creating a brand. I love being able to start something from baby and turn it into a brand and a life.

Just—that’s like—love it.

If I wasn’t selling real estate, I would probably try to help other people brand themselves.

Because I think everybody — I don’t care what business you’re in right now — I think everybody is kind of their own walking brand at the moment.

[00:26:51] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:26:52] Amy Cotney:
Whatever business you are.

[00:26:53] Tracy Hayes:
Well, this brings up a great topic — which I imagine is going to be a breakout session at the RE BarCamp.

So those organizers who are listening to this obviously need to make sure you’re in this breakout session to help facilitate it and guide.

Because I think a lot of agents right now — and not just real estate agents, I think we can go across any similar industry...

Although mortgage is somewhat similar, we’re not being pushed so much to brand ourselves as much as you are.

Although, if we can brand ourselves, that’s great.

The importance — what I want to get to — the amount of training and the amount of stuff that’s being fed into you, into the real estate industry and real estate agents on branding...

But I don’t think anyone’s truly defining it.

And I think most of the audience — and I would put that number at 80–90% — when you say “brand yourself,” really have no wall to stick that on.

They really don’t understand what that means.

Can you elaborate on that?

I hope you agree with me — maybe you disagree with me, so come back with that — but how does someone get started in that?

What does branding in real estate mean to Amy?

[00:28:02] Amy Cotney:
All right, well—

So I’ve had to change. I’ve evolved over the years, and I’ve learned a lot about what you need to do — or what works best for me, I should say.

And, if you're even on TikTok, and you’re even somewhere where you have a—
You know, I have 1.3 million followers on TikTok.

Well, there’s a reason for that.
And it’s because people like to watch me doing crazy things.

But with that, you get a lot of—
Oh my God. You get a lot of comments.

I don’t let the comments go there.

But what I have done — and what works for me — is with the brand...

People associate me with being—like, I have a pink sweater on.
You're not gonna see me in beige, for God’s freaking sake.

Hell no to the no on that.
There’s not gonna be any beige.

That could be somebody else — but that’s not Amy.

Amy Cotney has got the brand where she’s bright, she’s happy, she’s animated.

And I feel like—

So, ex-husband number two — and I have several of them — but we’re going to talk about him, because he had his own business and he was really good at marketing.

And he told me — and I don’t know why this stuck with me, I should call him and say thank you, if we were still speaking (but we’re not) —

And say, “Thank you for this.”

He goes, “Amy, you are your own brand. You just be—you. Be your own personality. Be you. That is your brand.”

[00:29:59] Amy Cotney:
He was right.
And so I am Amy. This is me. This is what you get when you see me.

But I am very strategic on it.

Like, if I’m doing a video, then I’m going to go and throw on something — a bright color — mainly too, because that grabs a camera’s attention.
And people go, “Oh!”

Like, if it’s a bright-colored outfit — that’s everything for me.

It’s very strategic. Like, it is strategic.

I used to do all my videos — like on TikTok, which I really feel like kind of catapulted us — my husband and I — in front of an orange refrigerator.

Everybody knew me because of this orange refrigerator.

Why?
I did all of our stupid little dances in front of an orange refrigerator.

I talked about real estate in front of an orange refrigerator.

Why?
Because people then start associating me with that.

They know I’m on.
They know I’m talking about it.

I have a pink refrigerator now. So it’s all branded towards my personality — what feels good with me.

That’s your brand.

But you’ve got to figure that out.

I’ve had to change it.

During COVID — and I think everybody was — I was on all the platforms, drinking my wine, talking.

I had to reel that in, because people thought I was a drunk.

I’m like, “How can I be a freaking drunk when I’m selling so much real estate? I don’t think you guys understand how real estate is.”

But I was just doing that because I was hoping to be picked up by a wine label —
because I do love really, really good wine.

So that was a part of a brand that I had to ditch — that part of the brand — in 2022, 2023, so people would take me a little bit more seriously.

And guess what? That worked.

So now, I maybe will have a glass of wine out,
but I’m not drinking wine on my socials anymore.

And I had to reel that in, ’cause I was getting feedback about that.

Like, “Oh, she drinks. Oh my God, all she does is drink.”

And so, guess what?
My business — boop — went up when I quit doing that.

[00:31:20] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I mean, one of the first things I noticed was a couple of your headshots and the way you do your hair.

[00:31:25] Amy Cotney:
Yes — my hair is my brand.

[00:31:26] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:31:26] Amy Cotney:
And then — yeah, I’m going to go get it done today actually after I leave here.

It’s definitely that too.
I always have blonde hair.
I always have some obnoxious glasses on.
And I always have bright lipstick on.

So that’s kind of my brand too.

You just gotta figure out—
But you can’t be somebody else.

[00:31:42] Tracy Hayes:
Right?

Well, you’ve chosen this brand for social media.
Now, when you go to meet a client — and the authenticity is important — and I know people, and you probably would agree with this...

You want to be the same person that they’re seeing on videos.

You want them to realize that you’re not someone different when you show up in person.

You want them to bridge what they saw on video over to the real you — in flesh and blood — in front of them.

But do you — I apologize about that — do you carry on the same branding outfits and so forth when you go to show houses?

[00:32:27] Amy Cotney:
Yeah. Well, you know, that’s a good question because...

I will say, like, I’ve had to—
Well now, I feel like the past two years — I had a really good year this past year — and I had a lot more luxury.

I started diving more into the luxury world.

So I really step it up a notch when I am going to a listing appointment with luxury clients.

And I know this sounds absolutely crazy...
But people unfortunately associate you with the cars that you drive.

So I have three cars.
And I talk about this with the lady who helps me market — she’s my girl that runs my website.

And she’s always like, “I think for one video you should be in your Subaru, and in the other video you should be in your striped Mini Cooper.”

I have the most obnoxious Mini Cooper — which I love this car so much.
I’ve had her for 20-something years.

[00:33:14] Tracy Hayes:
Oh my God.

[00:33:14] Amy Cotney:
It was for one of my brick-and-mortar stores.

And it just is—it is. I will never sell it.

It’s a little stick shift and I love it.

And so when I know my clients really well,
I will pull up in my Mini Cooper.

[00:33:15] Amy Cotney:
She does not go out very much — because I don't want people to think I'm bat–crazy.

But then, if it's a very high-end luxury one...

My dad, a year ago, gave me his, uh, Porsche — his Boxster.

[00:33:37] Tracy Hayes:
Mmm-hmm.

[00:33:37] Amy Cotney:
So I’ll pull up in that and I’ll do videos. If I’m doing luxury videos, I’m driving the Porsche.

Right.

And I really do think, like, all that stuff — I try to wrap it — I try to make my brand, the past year and a half, a little bit more luxury, and a little bit more refined, a little bit more dressed up.

I might not drop the—
I might not say “shit” or something like that.
I might, you know, try to—

So I’m just trying. I—
I’m evolving, but I’m still Amy. I’m evolving.

[00:34:05] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I guarantee a question any listeners are thinking right now:

You said you did more luxury this year — did you do something different in your social media that started to lean you that way?
What did you do?

[00:34:18] Amy Cotney:
I started really focusing more on—

So here’s how the luxury started.

And this is a really, really good example of the power of social media.

So, I sell here in Auburn, and I sell at Lake Martin, Alabama.

Lake Martin is about 30 minutes up the road.
It’s very second-home, high-end.

Average price point to get in is over a million.

So I’ve always had a house up there, and I’ve been selling up there since I started selling real estate.

However, this past year kind of put me up into a different category of selling up there.

I was maybe selling five or six a year up there — now I’m pretty much half-and-half: Auburn and Lake Martin.

So — this is an important lesson for you agents out there.

I was on my WaveRunner, and I was filming a new construction house — pulling my little phone out.

And just—
I mean, you know, waves — and I’m bouncing around — and it was a new construction.

And I didn’t tag the builder. I didn’t even know who the builder was.
And I actually thought that another agent had it. It was a beautiful house.

Right?

I put it on my Stories. I’m like, “Look at this new construction going up!”

That builder calls me up — it was a $4 million listing. He had two of them.

I got that.

I got two $4 million listings from a video on my WaveRunner.

[00:35:35] Tracy Hayes:
Great story. Great story. Yes. Yep.

[00:35:37] Amy Cotney:
I wasn’t in the video.
I was just talking.
I wasn’t even on it.

And then I’m like to my accountant, “Can I write the WaveRunner off because I get business?” Right?

So anyway — just little things like that.

I’m assuming — I think that somebody sent him that video, and they’re like,
"Hey, look what this agent’s doing.”

And then he goes, “Well, that agent’s doing already more than what my agent’s doing — so I’m gonna give her that.”

Two $4 million listings.

When you have those — the clients start coming in.

And I had to be at every single showing. That was my promise to him.

So I was like, “I’ll be at every, every single showing.”

So a lot of it — when you get into luxury — they don’t go through another agent. They come straight to you, ’cause they know you know about that house.

So I would — they might not buy that house, but they might want to go see another one.

So yeah, because of that one WaveRunner video...

One little, simple, unedited WaveRunner video — got me a lot of business.

[00:36:34] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:36:34] Amy Cotney:
Mmhmm.

[00:36:34] Tracy Hayes:
That’s a very powerful story.

Some agents do it — but again, it’s consistency.

Not enough agents do it.

As you obviously realized in your area, I think sometimes we think, “Everyone’s doing it.”

But the stats out the other day — 70% of the agents did zero to one deal.

So what are they doing?

You’ve got to realize — you’re really competing against what’s perceived to be less than 30% of the licensed agents.

But really your competition is down to under 5%.

And I think that’s actually a lot — of agents who are out there doing it.

And it only takes filming that new construction house, that awesome one — boom.

You got a handful of deals that, you know, most agents would dream about.
Just having those two or three deals for the entire year — and the income that you can obviously drive, especially at that price point, you know?

What was the return on investment?

When did social media become the thing for you?

When you started your career — you had your mentor, you were there — I don’t know if you were at that initial brokerage...

But when did you get the aha that you wanted to go all in on social media?

[00:37:45] Amy Cotney:
Right when — the day I started.

I already had my Facebook page lined up, and my Instagram. It was the day I started.

Again, I was a little bit ahead of my time before that, right?

I mean, nobody—

[00:37:56] Tracy Hayes:
You saw where it was going.

[00:37:57] Amy Cotney:
Yep. Yeah. Because of Gary Vee.
That hits me back to Gary Vee.

[00:38:00]
So — and also, I already had that for my business.

My skirt business, my game day business — I was already doing social for that.

I’ll tell you this — and this goes to everybody:

Don’t listen to the naysayers out there.

Don’t listen to people going,
"You look really dumb."
"Oh my God, you look so old."
"You talk like a Southern hick."

[00:38:16] Tracy Hayes:
Someone actually said that to you?

[00:38:18] Amy Cotney:
Oh... Oh, I’ve been told:
“You need to go and get braces.”
“You don’t need to be—”
“You need to wear contacts.”

[00:38:18] Amy Cotney:
"You need to do this. You need to do that."

Thank God I have thick skin.

That's another thing I'll tell you — you've got to have thick skin and cannot give a crap.

You just have to keep on going.

And, I mean, if you're on TikTok or Instagram...
Sometimes I don't even open my DMs, because I don’t even want to hear what people have to say.

"Your husband is sleeping around..."

I mean, the amount of crap — on a daily basis — was insane.

[00:38:48] Tracy Hayes:
Was that one or two?

[00:38:48] Amy Cotney:
Insane.

[00:38:49] Tracy Hayes:
I—

[00:38:49] Amy Cotney:
I just kind of, like...
I let all that noise go.

But you cannot be very judgmental of yourself on social. You just can’t.

You just have to—
You just have to do it.

And that’s been me from day one.
I’ve always been heavy on social.

[00:39:01] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Well, you know, this is going to be a chapter in my book.

You’ve done — you’re episode 303 — and of all the agents, it really comes back to that, what you were just saying right there: authenticity.

And that’s why people—

I think I was watching this past weekend — and unfortunately I was out of town, but with family at a funeral — and we were all kind of sitting around, watching, we had a ballgame on...

And everyone’s, you know, we’re chit-chatting a little bit, but everyone’s got their phone in their hand.

Everyone’s scrolling.

And, you know, I think some of them were playing games and stuff, but the reality is—
We stop with authenticity.

We stop with silliness — those types of things.

If it looks too clean, people will, I think, immediately assume it’s probably an ad.

And they—
And what you're going back to is you are you.

You look the way you do.
You talk the way you do — whatever it is.

And—

[00:40:00]
That’s the authenticity that people stop long enough to figure out who you are.

[00:40:05] Amy Cotney:
Yep.

[00:40:05] Tracy Hayes:
Would you agree?

[00:40:06] Amy Cotney:
That’s right.

[00:40:06] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:40:07] Amy Cotney:
I agree.

[00:40:07] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:40:08] Amy Cotney:
Yep.

And it’s a blessing, actually, to be able to do that.

There’s so many people—like, I used to train a lot of people to help them with their socials—
And they just worry too much about what people think.

And I don’t.

And it’s a blessing.

I don’t think my mom thinks it’s a blessing — 'cause I embarrass her a lot of times.

But I think it is a blessing.

I also think that this right here — [holds up phone] — you’ve got to be very, very careful with it.
It could be for the good or for the bad.

I don’t know if you know Darren Hardy — I was taking a course of his.

And he had a great thing, and I’ve been doing it for over three years now:

I have a time limit on how long I’m on social for a day.

Like, for that day, it’s an hour.

So I do not doom-scroll or anything.

And if I don’t get my posting out — that includes posting something — that’s part of the hour.

[00:41:00]
I feel I’m much more productive if I have that on there.

He had several really good pointers on that — about not being so attached to your phone.

Of course, we have to answer our phone as a realtor all the time, right?

But you don’t need to be scrolling on it.

[00:41:13] Tracy Hayes:
Right. Amy, let me ask this — since you’re kind of on the topic:

Is there anyone — and I imagine this has probably changed over time too — maybe some podcast or YouTube or whatever...

People that are talking about social media that you regularly listen to and steal some tips and tricks from?

[00:41:30] Amy Cotney:
Honestly... probably no.

Unless — and I go back, and I’ve said his name several times — I call him my business boyfriend — it would be Gary V.

I think that he is ahead of his time.

And if he says a trend is going to happen —
If he says, “Get on Substack,”
If he says, “Get on TikTok,” —
I’m going to do that.

But I don’t follow any other realtors. I don’t.

Because I don’t want to do the same thing that—

[00:41:55] Tracy Hayes:
No, I’m actually talking about people who specialize in YouTube or specialize in Facebook or Instagram — who are giving tips on the type of things, like—well, Gary V—like Gary V might give out.

Is there anyone out there you—?

[00:42:10] Amy Cotney:
I don’t.

I do what I feel is natural to me at that time.

Like, I do not overthink anything.

I don’t look—
I mean, if I’m listening to a podcast — and usually I’ll say it’s probably more with Gary V stuff —

He’s like, “The written word.”

So then I’ll go to Facebook and I’ll do—

I’m a journalism major too — and I’ll just write out this long post.

And guess what?

Some of those — like on a business Facebook page — I could have 800 likes and 300 comments, which is a massive amount on a business page.

[00:42:40] Tracy Hayes:
Are you blogging? Do you blog?

[00:42:42] Amy Cotney:
I do not blog.

[00:42:43] Tracy Hayes:
Mmhmm.

[00:42:44] Amy Cotney:
I don’t have time to blog and sell houses and do—
I’m like, "Ahhh!"

[00:42:47] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I—

[00:42:48] Amy Cotney:
—I can barely do all this. But I love to write so much.

[00:42:51] Tracy Hayes:
There is—
I mean, you’re gonna see, obviously, the material I take from this show — there's a blog on the show’s website.

But also, I do an article on LinkedIn.

So if you go on my LinkedIn and look at the— I think they actually call it the newsletter — you can have a newsletter under your profile.

And if you go down, you’re gonna see a lot of the people.

I’ve been spending a lot of time catching up with that, because I didn’t do it at the beginning.

But obviously putting the show out there — it’s putting the person, highlighting the person, putting them on a pedestal.

But then all the links are in there.

Because I’m working on the AI strategy of search — someone looking for a top real estate agent — and hopefully it’s gonna link up with someone that’s been on the show.

Whether it’s in Auburn, Alabama, or here in Ponte Vedra, Jacksonville — whatever — that it’s gonna link and find them, because I’m blogging behind them, you know, that material.

[00:43:41] Amy Cotney:
The lady who helps me with my website — because I do everything myself — I am not a control freak except for my socials.
I’m a very big control freak with that.

But the partner in crime on my website — she does blogging on my website.

Like, she does the writing.

[00:43:58] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:43:59] Amy Cotney:
I had something come up and I was like, “What is this about? What is this article? Why is it the most looked-at article?”
Because Google will send you what they looked at under “Amy Cotney.”

She goes, “Oh yes, I wrote the blog.”
And she uses stuff off my videos that I’ve done.

I’m like, “Okay.”

So there are blogs on my website — it’s just... I don’t do them.

I only do so, so much.

[00:44:20] Tracy Hayes:
Well, you have someone doing it for you — and that’s the important thing.

And that’s what—
You know, when I was talking about Read Tomato — that’s what he’s doing.

And you mentioned the lake, and—
I had Jim on the show, and one of the things he was talking about is he’s got a customer in Southwest Michigan where there’s a lot of lakes.

A lake’s a lake — but it’s like a subdivision.

They all have different rules. Lakes, different depths, different fish, different boats you’re allowed to have on there — and whatever.

And if someone’s searching for a house in Southwest Michigan on the lake, they’re gonna come upon thelakeslife.com, because he’s feeding all the blogs behind that.

So when someone searches it, it’s using thelakeslife.com as a resource, because there’s a blog on there talking about Lake X and the rules of the HOA, or whatever — what’s going on, the sales trends.

So you have someone actually doing it.

And that’s what I do with the show.

I’m basically— the transcript of the show, you put it in AI, it’ll write a nice blog for you.

So it’s not—
You don’t have to put too much thought into it.

You know, we’ve already created the material for it.

Alright — if you could quickly make a statement for the listeners:
I think most agents fall in the category — they’re doing some social media, maybe, but a lot of their stuff is static posts.

Because, you know, they’ve got some service they’re using.

And there’s one agent that comes to mind right now — I really want to tell her to just fire that service because it really doesn’t make you... you.

It’s a great photo of you — I mean, you look great, that’s not a problem — but it looks too generic.

It looks too commercial, for lack of a better word.

It’s not something that I think is attractive to the eye.

She’s trying to build a brand behind it — but she’s not doing enough of her real—like you do—short video and stuff like that, where people are actually seeing her face, relating to her, how she speaks, her mannerisms, and all that kind of stuff.

So let me circle back to my question:

Give us a tip — is there a difference in an Instagram reel versus TikTok?
Are you doing something different between those two mediums?

[00:46:30] Amy Cotney:
Um... I’m not.

So with TikTok, I was doing some real estate stuff on TikTok —

But TikTok—
So every platform is very different, and you have to figure out the platform.

TikTok is a lot different than Facebook, or Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, whatever.

And they don’t want—
They hate realtors on there.

They don’t mind seeing houses, but they are so used to me on TikTok...

They’re so used to seeing Kurt and I — my husband — as a couple.

If I post by myself on there, or if we’re not doing something together, it’s just not going to get seen.

[00:47:00]
But when we’re doing little quirky things on TikTok, I will shove that over to—

I have two Instagrams:
I have a personal Instagram and a business Instagram.

So my personal one is @amybartoncotney.
And so anything that is family or relationship with my husband-oriented, I shove over to that — and people follow that too.

And they know I’m a realtor, and they see the silly side of Amy — that’s not always in real estate mode.

It could be with my grandkid.

I think that’s good for everybody to see.

Like, they’ll stop me and say, “I saw you and your grandkid.”

So that’s more TikTok — that’s more of my audience on there.

Sweet Home — my IG — definitely reels, definitely about real estate.
A lot of carousels.
Carousels are doing really, really well right now.

And then Facebook—

[00:47:30]
And also keep in mind — Instagram is massive.

[00:48:00] Amy Cotney:
Like, it is reaching everybody. Like, I have people—Switzerland, you know, China—that follow me. Everybody.

I just—it's craziness, mm-hmm, how big that is. Same with TikTok.

Facebook — hyperlocal.

That's why I can completely talk about, uh, Auburn's new coach or firing the athletic director, and then everybody's like,
"Ahhh, yeah, Amy! Go, go, go!"

So you've got to completely do—
You know, you can't always do the same thing that you're doing on IG that you do on Facebook.

Amy, isn’t that a lot of work?
Yes. That’s called a job.

That’s what we have.

We have a job. Yes, we show houses. Yes, we list houses. But we have to market ourselves in different ways and figure that out.

Yes, it takes a lot of time—hence the fact I get up really early. But you know, you gotta kinda love it and live it.

This is a job that is—you know, my brother's like, "You need to take off a Saturday."
Well, who the hell are you?

And then, him—he’s the one who's calling me about a house on a Saturday! You know?

Right. I said, "When do you think it is?"

It's a lifestyle, almost. And obviously I love it, or I wouldn't do it.
Do I like it every day? No. I don’t.

[00:49:02] Tracy Hayes:
So Instagram allows you—like, for instance, the show's Instagram site is all reels from the podcast, right?

So when I go on there—
But I have it set up to send that reel over to Facebook as well.

So if you’re doing an Instagram reel and you’re talking about whatever, real estate—
Are you also—
Is that also posting on Facebook? Or you don’t like that connection?

[00:49:32] Amy Cotney:
I don’t like that connection.

[00:49:33] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:49:34] Amy Cotney:
Occasionally, I will post something on Facebook that I do on Instagram.

But I try to keep them a little bit different. I do.

It is a different audience. Instagram, I’ll have California—
So you gotta think of where I am, as well.

I’m a college town. I have people from Texas looking for their kid that, you know, is coming here to Auburn.

With the kids—California.

They don’t find me on Facebook.
They’re not on Facebook.

They’re on Instagram.

So that’s where I get those people from.

The Facebook audience is definitely more local.

They are two completely different animals.

And so if I feel like—if it’s a listing, then yeah, I’m going to post the listing, but in a different—
It’s still a different style post.

I don’t usually post the same thing.

Will it be posted the same day like that? Usually it’s not—unless I’m being a little lazy that day. But I don’t usually do that.

[00:50:25] Tracy Hayes:
Do you tailor some of your reels to create someone to actually make a comment or message?

Because I—I want to—
I’m leading to this because I imagine anyone listening is going:

“Okay, you’re creating these reels, but how are you getting someone to actually say, ‘Hey, I’d be interested in talking to you about a home’?”

[00:50:44] Amy Cotney:
So you’re talking about ManyChat—
Like where you say, “Hey, say the word ‘house,’ I’m gonna send you a DM,” right?
“I’ll send you a DM of the listing of the house.”

I do not do that. I don’t.

I tried it. It does feel some traction, but it never really ever got me any sales.

Mine is more definitely where—if I’m talking about real estate—

And I’m not saying that’s not a good thing to do, it just is not how I go around doing that.

But a lot of people do have a lot of success with ManyChat—
Where they automatically DM you the link to the house.

I don’t know if that gets you to the closing table that way.

But I do know they have some success with that.

But I don’t use that, and I don’t—
I think I had it where it wasn’t working for me.

What I will do is talk about something controversial or stir the pot.

And I love stirring the pot.

[00:51:39] Tracy Hayes:
(laughs) And I—

[00:51:39] Amy Cotney:
I will intentionally stir the pot.

My husband just loves it when I do that.
He goes, “Did you have to do that?”
Yes. Yes, I did.

[00:51:39] Amy Cotney:
…that gets your—the algorithm up.

And we’re talking. And we’re in a conversation.
And the whole—you know, everybody…
It could be about real estate, it could be about something local, it could be about anything.

But that’s what my… specialty is.

[00:52:03] Tracy Hayes:
Your call to action is to stir the pot.

[00:52:05] Amy Cotney:
Yes, it is.
That’s my call to action.

And people go, “I love it when you said that.”
“I love that you did that.”

And I’m not really scared to stir the pot,
because either you like me, or you don’t.

I’m gonna work for you as your realtor—or I’m not.

So I mean, if you don’t like how I am on here,
then you’re probably not gonna like me in real life,
and we’re not gonna get along.

[00:52:25] Tracy Hayes:
When you go to your listing appointment—say, I mean, it could be a cold listing appointment, not a hot referral… Like, you know, if your friend refers someone, that one’s probably gonna go with you.

But just, you know, I imagine occasionally you get someone who, like—you don’t know who this person is.
Or, obviously you’re going into luxury, and you get this call from somebody who may have seen, you know, the builder’s video or whatever.

You don’t know them. But the question is: How do you leverage your influence—your followers—and that credibility you have as a social media real estate agent, and leverage it in the listing appointment?

[00:53:03] Amy Cotney:
So I have, um, a little seller’s guide, so to speak.

And in that seller’s guide that I bring to a listing appointment—
In that guide, it tells you my numbers on my socials.

Like how many views I got. And I update it.
Like, I just did one for an appointment I had.

And it says:
Facebook: she got 3.4 million views in the month of December.

Okay—who wouldn’t want the eyes of somebody who’s got 3.4 million views on their Facebook?

So that, for me, is a big sales tactic on how to get a listing.
And I just take that in there with me.

Because you can print it off from Facebook or Instagram—right? That’s what I do.
I mean, the numbers do not lie on what people are seeing.

That’s kind of how I leverage it.

You know, I work better with non-engineer types. Or architects.
I’m not the most detailed person in the world—as you can probably tell a little bit.

[00:54:00]
So if I’m going into a listing appointment with that, they’re like, “Whoa.”
Because I have a lot of energy.

And that’s just not for everybody—and I’m okay with that.
It took me a while to be okay with that, but I am okay with that.

And I’m like, well…
You know, if I don’t get every listing appointment that I go to, then that’s fine.

[00:54:16] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:54:16] Amy Cotney:
I get—I’m very competitive, so I get a little pissy with that. But, you know—

[00:54:19] Tracy Hayes:
What’s the general mindset you have when you get a listing—to take it over to your social media and expose it to your following?

What do you like to do?

[00:54:29] Amy Cotney:
What do you mean by that?

[00:54:30] Tracy Hayes:
Well just—you know, you’ve got this listing.
You do different things on TikTok, you do Instagram versus Facebook…

Obviously when—I imagine your thoughts are:
You’re going over there saying, “Hey, here’s all my followers. This is what I’m gonna do with your listing.”

I would imagine something like that. Depending on the level or where it’s at, or whatever, you probably go in there with a mindset telling them:
“Hey, this is how I’m gonna promote it on my social media.”

[00:54:57] Amy Cotney:
A thousand percent.

And it is usually always—so if we have a luxury listing—
It just really depends.

I will wake up again like at 3 o’clock in the morning and go,
“Ooh! I got an idea. I know exactly how I’m gonna market this house.”

And then I get real excited, because marketing is my jam.
It’s my wheelhouse. It’s what I love.
It’s what gets me going in the morning.

I’ll go and go, “Give me a couple days. I’ll come back and I’m gonna tell you how we’re gonna market this house.”

And it could be a lifestyle video where I have people in there—
Where I have families that come in, or people swimming in the lake, or dogs jumping in the water—
Somewhere where there’s activity going on.

And so usually that just comes up in the middle of my head.

I have surrounded myself with a very creative team,
and they’re like, “Oh yeah, we got this. Let’s go, Amy!”

Say it’s just a listing that’s not lake-oriented—
Or it’s like, could be a game day—we have a lot of game day homes; I live in a college town.

Then I would focus in on a game day house—
And what goes on in a game day house: watching a TV with the game on, right?

That kind of thing.

I really try, if I can, to have some life in my videos—
So that people—

[00:56:00] Tracy Hayes:
Can picture themselves there.

[00:56:03] Amy Cotney:
Yes.

[00:56:04] Tracy Hayes:
Yes. Mm-hmm. That’s brilliant.

[00:56:06] Tracy Hayes:
Brilliant.

[00:56:06] Amy Cotney:
And, um, but that brings joy to me. That—some people, that would stress out.
I think it is a lot to, you know, get everybody together on the same day…
The weather’s gotta be good…
But to me, that is my, um, my joy—my passion.
And it separates me from the gang a little bit.

It’s a lot of work, but I love it.
That’s what I love.

[00:56:26] Tracy Hayes:
Well, no—I like it, because I see a lot of agents spending a lot of time on videographers and so forth.
And there’s only a few that really focus on what, like, what you’re doing: to give that relatable video—like almost like a commercial.

You know, someone listing their house—they want their…
You know, especially you—you’re looking at, you want to get into luxury (and every agent does)…

You pitch this beautiful home—you’ve gotta make the people buying it go, “Oh my God, I can see myself there, watching the ball game, looking out over the lake,” or whatever it is.

And that’s where the money should be spent with the videographers—creating that atmosphere, in my opinion.

[00:57:11] Amy Cotney:
That’s right.

[00:57:11] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:57:12] Amy Cotney:
It works. I mean—it does.
And then you can put that in the MLS—it populates to Zillow…
It’s there. It’s a whole entire little movie.
It’s a beautiful thing.

It does take time. It does take money.
I’ll say this too—I’m very blessed as well.

You’ve got to be a little bit creative with these videographers.

My son is a videographer—he’s a really great videographer.
Does he do my videos?
No, he does not.

He’s like, “Ugh—first of all, you can’t afford me.”
He’s too expensive.

But I live in a college town.
And we have people that need money.
These students need money.

These students are way smarter than I am with technology.

So I have a drone guy—he’s not even in, like—he just does it as a hobby.
And I’m like, “What are you doing today? You wanna make a hundred bucks? Let’s go.”
And we’re all filming, right?

So I’m very lucky to be able to pull from the college, with people who need money.
It’s so easy—if you think outside the box.

You don’t have to have fancy-schmancy stuff.

The majority of everything I do is on my phone.
And my phone is three years old.

[00:58:11] Tracy Hayes:
And it’s—

[00:58:11] Amy Cotney:
It’s not even the fancy phone.

[00:58:14] Tracy Hayes:
You have an iPhone 14?

[00:58:14] Amy Cotney:
I have an iPhone 14.
I have a 14—yeah, I went to the 14.

[00:58:18] Amy Cotney:
But, you know, everybody’s like, “You need a new phone.”

Do I?
I don’t know. I mean, like…
You know, it hasn’t hurt my sales.

So I don’t know that it makes a difference.
I don’t think bigger and better is always the right answer.

I think we go back to where we started with this conversation—
You have to be consistent.

And it just has to be a habit—something that you do every day.
And you can’t overthink it.

And you might not be for everybody.
That’s my other big message:
It’s okay if you’re not for everybody.
It really is.

And we talked a little bit about luxury—
And I will say, when you get into luxury, it is not easy.
There’s a lot of pressure on you with luxury.

So that’s a whole other ballgame.
When you get into it—it’s different.

[00:59:01] Tracy Hayes:
I want to go here. These are trending questions.

At least they were a couple weeks ago anyway, when we were originally supposed to come on.

But I can’t believe they’re that far off—
So I’m just kind of—not necessarily rapid-fire, but we’ll make a few comments about them.

Just get your opinion on these.

What’s the number one mistake realtors make with trying to grow on Instagram or TikTok?

[00:59:25] Amy Cotney:
Yeah—number one mistake:

Just sold.
Just under contract.
Me, me, me. Look at me.

Um—oh my God, I hate that.

So yeah.
That’s their number one mistake, in my opinion.

[00:59:37] Tracy Hayes:
I would agree.
I hate to go on someone’s Instagram page and all I see is pictures of fronts of houses.

[00:59:46] Amy Cotney:
Yeah.

[00:59:46] Tracy Hayes:
You know?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:59:48] Tracy Hayes:
Yep.
How do you go from zero to a hundred thousand followers without dancing or doing trends?

[00:59:55] Amy Cotney:
Well, you’re not gonna do that anymore—’cause of the algorithm.
People are not following people anymore.
End of story. That’s just not happening.
It’s not the cool thing to do. That’s not the thing. That’s not the flex.

[01:00:07] Tracy Hayes:
Six, seven... it’s not—yeah, yeah.

[01:00:09] Amy Cotney:
That’s that. Right?
You might like, but you’re looking.
Like—I can go and post a video and I go back into my insights, which I love doing.
Again, I’m a very competitive person.
So I could have 100 likes on there… but my views are like at 19,000 people.
So people are watching but they’re not liking.
That’s not cool anymore.
So you’re not gonna go to 100,000 unless you’re like freaking Alex Earl or something.
It’s just very hard.
That will not happen.
Unless there’s a new platform that comes out—
and you need to be the first one on it—
then heck yeah, I’d do that.
But right now on Instagram? That’s not gonna happen.

[01:00:47] Tracy Hayes:
Well, this actually—the next question is:
What’s more important for agents—followers, views, or engagement, and why?

[01:00:54] Amy Cotney:
You know what? Views.
Okay—I didn’t think about that very long, did I? (laughs)
I’m gonna go with views on that.
And I might not be what everybody does. Engagement, engagement…
But people watch.
There are so many people that just stand back and watch.
They’re not going to engage.
And they’re not going to follow.
But they are damn sure going to watch you.
So in my opinion, it’s views.
And the reason why I say that—several different things.
I’ll have people go,
“Hey Amy, I’ve been watching you for years, but I’ve never reached out to you. I’ve never said anything. I’m a quiet watcher.”
Blah blah blah blah blah…
I get that all the time.
And that—that’s people’s comfort zone.
So I’m going with views.

[01:01:32] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I think in real estate, no one’s doing a real estate transaction every day.
And so a lot will stand back and just watch.
You know, ’cause they might be five years off.
Who knows where they’re at in their life?

[01:01:46] Amy Cotney:
That’s right.

[01:01:46] Tracy Hayes:
What’s your strategy—this is actually, we kind of finished up a little bit of this—
but this is a direct question:
What’s your strategy for turning views into real estate business?

[01:01:57] Amy Cotney:
Hmm… strategy.
That’s a big word for me. (laughs)
You know, I really…
That’s…
You know, I don’t know if I have a strategy, other than:
Keeping it different.
And being, again, very consistent.
That’s my strategy.
Because—you gotta think about—again, we go back to:
They might not be in the mood to buy this year or sell this year…
But you need to be top of mind.
And the only way you’re top of mind is to be consistent.
They will forget you so fast.
Yes.
And I say this because—like yesterday, this happened to me:
So much of my last year was all cash buyers—
So I didn’t have a whole lot of lenders. I really didn’t.
And so none of my lenders have been blowing up my phone like, “Amy, send me business.”
None of ’em are doing that.
And so yesterday, I had somebody that needed a mortgage and I’m like—
“Oh… Oh, I just saw so-and-so on Instagram! I’m gonna send it to ’em.”
That’s exactly what I did.

[01:02:50] Tracy Hayes:
Right—so—

[01:02:51] Amy Cotney:
It’s top of mind.
Because they will forget you—
Even though I’ve got 120-something thousand followers on Instagram—
That doesn’t mean diddly-do.
They will still forget you.

[01:03:00] Tracy Hayes:
Yep, yep.
No—yeah. I think you’re exactly right.
You’re exactly right.
Your strategy is to be in the forefront of anyone thinking about real estate.
That’s the strategy. Right?
I would assume what real estate is.
Because when it happens…
I turn on the radio—I listen to a radio program on the way home every day.
And the host always does this read on one of the real estate companies here locally—
Obviously within that radio station’s range.
And it just plays every day.
Every time I’m on my way home, I’m hearing that commercial.
That probably—
You know, who was the last person? Boom.
I just heard the radio ad 30 minutes ago.
Right?
I think it’s that same mindset and strategy there.
Yeah.

[01:03:51] Tracy Hayes:
How often should real estate agents post to stay relevant without burning out?

[01:03:57] Amy Cotney:
So I don’t usually get burned out on social—’cause again, that’s my joy.
That’s my thing.
But I—I would say at least five times a week.
And I study this a good bit.
Saturdays and Sundays are pretty slow.
They used not to be, but they are right now.
So I might take a break and not do a Saturday and Sunday.
Or I might.
It just—it really depends.
I think at least five times a week.
I really, really do.
I think at least three stories a day.
The more you post…
It doesn’t really matter.

[01:04:35] Amy Cotney:
'Cause half of your algorithm is not even gonna see your post.
And people go, “Oh my gosh, I think I’m posting too much.”
No, you're not. You're not posting too much.
They’re not even seeing half of your stuff.
So, the more you post, the better.
But at least five times a week.
And again, don’t get bogged down on perfection.
It does not have to be perfect.
Just put it out there. Just go. Do it.

Right.
And I think people overthink it so much, and that’s where they get bogged down in it.

[01:04:42] Tracy Hayes:
A hundred percent.
Yeah. No, I always—I’ve told this story before, but I think it was…
Someone was talking about Mr. Beast, the big YouTuber.
And they were showing how he began—how he started his business, started doing videos—
And how primitive it was, and so forth.
And his advice was:
Do a hundred videos, and then turn around and evaluate yourself.
If you sit there and shoot a video and then come down really hard on yourself,
You're gonna quit.
You might not even get to two or three, because you’re just gonna tear yourself apart.
It’s just like doing a podcast—obviously, every time you do it, you’re gonna get better and better.
So you are eventually a one-take Amy.
I’m a one-take person too.
I can stand up and rattle off something, or put a little 15-minute podcast together with my partner—’cause we have a mortgage side—talking about that.
And it’s not a big deal, because we know the business and we’re comfortable because we’ve done it.
And we just project it out and we put ourselves in the mindset of—
You can become a one-taker very quickly.
But it takes practice.
You just gotta get up and start swinging the bat.

[01:05:45] Amy Cotney:
A thousand percent.

[01:05:45] Tracy Hayes:
Yep.
What kind of content actually works in small real estate markets like Auburn or St. Augustine?

[01:05:54] Amy Cotney:
Local.
Local content.
You being the go-to person on anything local—which I have become.
I call myself the social mayor.

That doesn’t mean I’m out at all.
I don’t go out very much because I get sick when I go out.
So I—I haven’t been out in a month.
But I know what’s going on in this town.
I know what’s going on at the lake.
And I know, I mean, I know when the restaurants are opening, I know what food is good, I know what’s going on.

That, to me, is very important in a smaller market.
And that’s how people find you on YouTube.
That’s how people find you on Instagram.
You know, if I’m talking about a really good meal I had at a nice restaurant or whatever, or where to go buy wine or whatever—
That kind of sets you apart from everybody else.

But I really think it’s—
It’s important people know I love where I live.
I love where I sell.
And if you love where you live and you love where you sell, it is so easy—

[01:06:49] Tracy Hayes:
To—

[01:06:49] Amy Cotney:
To attract people.
To attract that honey.
It really, really is.
And I—I love both of the places where I sell the most in, for sure.

[01:06:57] Tracy Hayes:
Can you grow a real estate business entirely on social media without cold calls or door knocking?

[01:07:04] Amy Cotney:
I did.
I’ve never cold called.
And I’ve never door knocked.

My closest thing I would say to door knocking—
Was people I knew.
So, I mean, I’m not—
I will not cold call or door knock.

And kind of… you have to look at social media as cold calling,
Because you don’t know these people.

I do these things called “pop-bys”
Where I will drop off something on somebody’s front porch or something like that.
That might be Girl Scout cookies coming up—or something like that with a catchy little thing.

And I used to do a lot more of that when I first started off.
I don’t do that like—this year, I did some stuff at Christmas,
But I don’t do it that much.
I do Santa Claus visits.
My husband looks like Santa Claus.
I do Easter Bunny visits—
Which he absolutely hates because he says the suit is hot.
But I’m like, “I don’t care. Put your butt in this—right now—you’ll be the Easter Bunny.”

[01:08:00] Amy Cotney:
So that’s the kind of stuff I do—and people love it.
But yeah, I don’t cold call or—

[01:08:00] Tracy Hayes:
No.
Well, I actually love your tip, ’cause it was funny—I was just sharing my daughter’s link.
She’s in the Girl Scouts and I just shared the Girl Scout cookie link with a lot of people.
And, yeah, that’s a great, great reason to buy Girl Scout cookies.

[01:08:17] Amy Cotney:
I—I just ordered cases of Thin Mints to hand out to my…
to my clients, or to people that I run into.

This year—I think it’s all this year—my word of the year is connection.
And because I’m so used to being behind the camera and everybody knows me,
and then I’ll go out in public and they’re like, “Hey!”
I’m like, “Hey…”
I don’t—they think I know them, and I don’t.

[01:08:43] Tracy Hayes:
So—

[01:08:44] Amy Cotney:
I am really trying to, at least once or twice a week,
sit down—which is very painful for me, by the way. It is—
And have coffee with somebody. Take that hour off.
Because I go like, I’m like—[makes fast-paced sound]
And then, for me to slow down, it’s really hard for me to get back up again.

So I’m just like, “All right, you can do this, Amy.”
I really think connection—and sitting down and talking to people one-on-one—
is going to be a key this year as well.
More of a human connection.

I think what you’re doing with podcasting—I love talking like this.
And I think that, if you can do that—
I used to have a podcast too. I loved it.
It was my happiest day of the week.

But it was before it got to be like…
I had to have a whole production thing.
And it was, like, a lot.
And then COVID hit.

So I—I did it. But I loved that.
I love the one-on-one talking.

[01:09:28] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. I really do.
No, I—I prefer, obviously, if you lived local, to have you sitting here, right in front of me.
I find that—that fun. Yeah, for sure.

What’s one video topic every agent should be posting this week to drive engagement?

[01:09:44] Amy Cotney:
Ooh. That’s a good one.
I think the—so the question I always get wherever I go:
“How’s the market?”
You know?
And then the news has a way of scaring us on how the market really is.

Right?
So I actually did it in a story yesterday—in an Instagram story.
And then I saw the news last night, and I was like, what the—

So like I was telling you earlier, I had a lender—like, I have several under contract right now for January and February, March…
And I would say only two of them are cash.
Everything else is back to lenders.
And I’m like, yes.
That means that we’re getting back to a normal market, right?
And real people are buying.
And that made me very happy.

Then I go and look at the news and it’s like,
“Oh, we’re down 10 to 20% on mortgage applications.”
And I’m like…

I think that you should be very positive.
I feel like we’re getting back to a little bit of—in my market—
I’m not gonna speak for everybody else. Florida’s a lot different market.

But in my market, I am seeing it level out a little bit.
I’m seeing first-time homebuyers again, which makes me very happy.
I’m seeing more mortgage applications.

So that might be something I would talk about—
Not letting the news scare you.

[01:10:55] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I think—
You know, put in there, there’s a lot of pent-up sellers,
And there’s a lot of pent-up buyers right now that’ve been sitting on the sidelines for a long time,
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
And eventually they just gotta say,
“I gotta go. We gotta go with what we’ve got.” You know—what’s out there.

[01:11:11] Amy Cotney:
Yes!
I mean, that’s what I’m seeing.
They’re like, “Okay, well, the rates are six-something percent—
We’re gonna go ahead and buy.”

I mean, it’s definitely not getting cheaper.
I did do a post about this, and I actually had a lot of—it was very interesting.

So I kind of missed the whole month of December,
So November stats came out with our average and our median sales price.

And our average sales price in Auburn jumped up 37%.
And then our median jumped up like 12% or 13% or something like that.
And I put that in a post.

People love stats.
They love it—because that is the true, that is the honest-to-God truth.
And I did it in a carousel post.

I’m not in the picture.
You don’t have to be in every single picture.

I’m not in it—it is the written word, in a carousel post.
And it talks about the stats.
And they were mesmerized by that.

And I did like, how much it jumped up, and I told the difference between average and median price.
So I think that, if you talk numbers,
Also makes—you know—you know what’s going on in your market.

[01:12:06] Tracy Hayes:
You’re paying attention. You’re studying it.
And who knows—maybe that number, that 37% clicks someone to say,
“Okay, I’m ready now. That sounds good.”
And you’re right in front of them giving them that information.

[01:12:18] Amy Cotney:
Can I tell you what I think is out?

[01:12:20] Tracy Hayes:
Go for it.

[01:12:22] Amy Cotney:
Did—were you gonna ask me what I think is out on a social media post?

[01:12:25] Tracy Hayes:
Go for it. That’s—go ahead. That’s number 11. Go ahead.

[01:12:30] Amy Cotney:
Trending sounds.
And everybody doing the same old, same…

[01:13:00] Amy Cotney:
Old. Like, and I think that’s out.
I think that people—you know what’s so interesting too, I think—
Is—and I’m not gonna call her out 'cause everybody does their own little thing—
I just would like to see how much business she gets from doing the posts where they sit there and they talk, uh, like dirty.
You know, "This house has got more bushes than my grandmom had" kind of thing.

I—I think that, like, for me, I think luxury sellers would not be wanting me to get up there and talk about that kind of stuff.
That’s—I think that’s gonna turn a little bit out.
I think it’s humorous when it happens.
I think that particular person needs to go into, uh, opening up a conference for like Tom Ferry or something like that.

But I don’t…
I don’t—I don’t know how I feel about it as far as it being like a trend.
I think that trend might be on its way out.

[01:13:28] Tracy Hayes:
Well, that actually brings up—I think—this question here that I had in the top 10 questions I was gonna ask.
Number 10 is:
What’s your process for creating content that balances entertainment and expertise?

[01:13:42] Amy Cotney:
Well—well, there, there is no—
No, I don’t have any processes.
I probably should work on all that.
That’s why I need to go to this conference.
I have no strategy, no processes.
It’s what feels… feels right.

Like, it is—you’ve got, like, you gotta have a little bit of fun and a little bit of, like, creativity to get their attention.
And then you’ve got to show them—and now this has taken me some tweaking.

Like I told you about me drinking wine.
I had to quit that crap.
So—I wasn’t being taken seriously.
I think everybody thought I was, like, a drunk all the time.

And… you can’t sell that much and be a drunk all the time, right?
So I had to go, “Okay Amy, you’re messing up here. Let’s tweak it.”

So I go in a little bit and I provide that knowledge.
I think that’s very important—for people to know that you know what you’re talking about,
That you are in that market every single day.

I’m very, very confident in myself,
Because I’m on—I know what’s selling.
I go into all these houses too.
So I think a lot of it is confidence.
And that you have to share that.

And I think if you’re too, too silly—and I’m—hey, this is the pot calling the kettle black right here because I am, you know, fun Amy most of the time—
But you’ve gotta be able to tweak it back a little bit
And you’ve got to show them that you know what you’re talking about.

And I do think when people meet me sometimes, or if we’re in a deal together, they’re like,
“Oh wow.”
Like, they get a little bit surprised by me because like—
There is a little bit of difference:

Social media Amy,
and Negotiation Amy?
Game. On.

Because we’re gonna do it.
This is—and I’m like, you know—I am very confident in how I sell a house.
And I’m very confident in the way a house needs to look when I sell it.
And I don’t back down.

I’m like,
“Everything off the countertops.
Even the coffee pot. Yes, I just said everything off the countertops.
Give me a basket, I’m about to throw it away.”

I mean—I mean, right?
I’m very confident. But I know what I do sells.

So for me, it’s like—also, I think people really appreciate that.
So confidence is really important.

[01:15:43] Tracy Hayes:
So what I’m getting is—you don’t—if you want to create just a fun, you know, kind of jokingly entertaining reel,
You don’t wanna really mix that with some market knowledge, right?

You kind of want to separate the two.
To think—so people—
There’s a credibility part to it, and then there’s what they’re actually paying attention to.

Because if you do a silly video,
But actually have a really serious tidbit in there,
They may not take it seriously because you made the video in a more humorous or, you know… joking manner.

[01:16:18] Amy Cotney:
You do have to keep them separated. Yeah. Like that.
And people like to see both sides of that too.

Like, I’ll post a video of fun—I did one a couple weeks ago where I posted a husband—
Where my husband and I—we’re…
He also sells real estate,
But in his real world, he’s out saving lives with pacemakers and stuff.

Like, you know—I’ll call him like,
“Can you go open the door?”
“Can you go—?”
“No, I’m putting a pacemaker in right now, Amy.”
I’m like, “Oh.”

So—but people like to see us together doing silly things.
People like to see us together in a video.
And I use that to my advantage.

We—we play off of each other really well.
We can get kind of silly with that.

But then I’ll bring it around the next day and we’ll talk stats.
Right?

So you’ve got to be able—but I go back again.
Like, it’s taken me, you know, some time to be able to figure out what works and what does not work.

[01:17:32] Amy Cotney:
Right. I also—I also, um, was doing more influencing, I would say,
Where people would send me a product…
Maybe a vacuum cleaner,
And—to sell, you know, off of the TikTok stuff.

And I had to quit completely doing that ‘cause it was confusing my audience.
It’s like,
“Is Amy selling real estate or selling a vacuum cleaner?”
“Or is she selling mascara?”
“What is Amy doing?”

[01:17:32] Tracy Hayes:
So you quit?

[01:17:33] Amy Cotney:
I quit doing all that.
Good point.
My bread and butter—I figured out real quick—
If—people think influencers make a lot of money?
They do not.

So my bread and butter is real estate.
And so I just quit all that and honed in on real estate,
And ever since then?
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep
Business has gone up.
So, yeah.

[01:17:50] Tracy Hayes:
Interesting. Alright—last question:
What’s the key to build a personal brand online that people actually trust?

[01:17:58] Amy Cotney:
I—I think… [01:18:00]
Being completely—however that is for you—
Being very honest.

And you’ve got to, like, look in the camera,
And you’ve kind of got to be their friend.
You’ve got to answer them back on DMs.

And I’ve gotten a little bit bad about that,
Because sometimes they scare me a little bit.
When I open them up I’m like,
“Oh my God, you need Invisalign.”

I mean, like—I just get tired of hearing all of that.
But, um, you’ve got to—you’ve got to…
Have a relationship with them online and be very sincere.
And I think that’s like—
That’s hard for a lot of people.
It really is.

And being able to look directly in the camera.

I also follow one person—you did ask me about who else I follow—
I follow Chelsea Pitz (P-I-T-Z).
She does a lot of public speaking, and she’s a good one to follow for tidbits on social media too.

Um, I love her stuff.
And I follow Pinky too.
She used to be Pinky Knows Naples, now it’s Pinky something else.
And she’s out of Florida as well.

And she’s had a big following.
She does a lot of social media stuff too. [01:19:00]
So I do listen to both of them.
We’ve been friends for a long time.

[01:19:00] Tracy Hayes:
So—those are both agents that are aggressively online?

[01:19:03] Amy Cotney:
Pinky’s not—she was in lending and now she’s a full-time coach.
So Pinky’s not an agent.

[01:19:07] Tracy Hayes:
Okay, okay.
So those are two good people to follow that are normal, non–Gary V people
That are in the business and know what they’re doing.

[01:19:19] Tracy Hayes:
Right, right. Yeah.
Well, I want to appreciate you coming on here.

We’ve gone—oh geez—an hour and 25 minutes now.
That last 15 minutes, I looked down and said,
“Okay, we’ve got to start winding this up.”

But hopefully some of our agents here locally—
Obviously I’m going to be putting this out.
This will go out live on—what’s today—Thursday?
It’ll go out on Monday on the audio.

But we’ll be following up with the social media,
I’ll be putting it out there and obviously tagging the ReBar Camp.

But I think it’s key that if you’re listening to this—and Amy, I think you would agree—
Please go up and tell Amy you heard her on the podcast.

You know, hopefully there was something you got from it. Share that with her.
And, you know, go deeper.

I think, you know, social media is the hot topic.
I don’t know how far AI is behind it—if it might even be in front of it.
But…
Social media is where hopefully you’re creating that brand,
Which I think so many people are lost on.

And you need to engage and follow Amy and what she’s doing.
And obviously, now you know her, and reach out to her and meet her when she comes in town for the ReBar Camp.

[01:20:27] Amy Cotney:
I am looking forward to it!
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to St. Augustine, so I cannot wait to see everybody.

[01:20:32] Tracy Hayes:
Yep.
Meet you guys—Nights of Lights.

You’re making a weekend of it?
Are you gonna make a weekend of it in St. Augustine?
You’re not just gonna flash in and flash out?

[01:20:41] Amy Cotney:
No, I’m gonna—I know I’m staying.
I think I’m staying till Sunday, I think.

[01:20:44] Tracy Hayes:
Oh good, good. Yeah.
Well, I can tell you right now—it’s beautiful weather.

I think we’re probably gonna hit 80 today.

Hopefully we won’t have one of those cold weekends where it hangs out at 40, 50 degrees for a few days.
I know—I don’t like that.

We go through the season—we go through the entire four seasons pretty much every day.
‘Cause the temperature swings could be 30 to 40 degrees any one day.

So hopefully you’ll have a great weekend,
And get out to stretch out in the Old City.

So Amy, I look forward to seeing you on the 23rd here in St. Augustine for the ReBar Camp.
And I appreciate you coming on and providing some great content here for the show.

[01:21:22] Amy Cotney:
Well thank you.
And thank you so much for being patient with me.
And this—third time is the charm.
And thank you for having me on.
I appreciate it.

[01:21:30] Tracy Hayes:
I appreciate it.
You have a super day.
We’ll talk to you soon.
Bye-bye.

[01:22:00] Amy Cotney:
Bye-bye.