Shonda Campanaro: Excellence in Real Estate

Shonda Campanero  0:00  
Don't just collect followers, reach out to those people and talk to them and let them know that you know. What are you doing in your business? How is your market? And that's worked for me a lot, because I get a lot of referrals.

Podcast Intro/Outro  0:12  
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. Hey.

Tracy Hayes  0:42  
Welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host, Tracy Hayes, a real producer in the house. Today, I'm calling this the Power Hour, because today I have a guest host, Miss Melissa Ricks, far right, and I have one of the most successful agents in Northeast Florida here center. Her awards are many, and it would not would take a hour just to list them all, she is recognized consistently by the best of Jacksonville year over year. In 2020 she was recognized as a top Instagram influencer. We got to learn about that her business is built on my comprehensive on her comprehensive knowledge of the local markets, unmatched negotiating skills and constant dedication to the industry and her clients, she considers the most rewarding part of her career is developing lasting relationships with her clients while guiding them through such important investments and decisions, whether buying, selling or investing. This agent strives to exceed her clients extra station, no matter the price point. Let's welcome the campanero in the campanero group realtors. Shonda campanero girl, I stole some of that from your Instagram. I do some a little bit of a background check, but I'm, I'm glad you finally made it to the show. I had to bring in your your escort over here to make sure you got here today.

Shonda Campanero  1:56  
She's my realtor, bestie. We do, we do this stuff together. You know, I'm cracking up as he's given your intro, where he says your negotiating skills are like one of your strengths. Yeah, you know how she negotiates? She threats.

Tracy Hayes  2:10  
I'm gonna burn your house down. House down.

Shonda Campanero  2:15  
That's actually how we connected. Years ago. We did a we did Tracy together, feisty as ever. I'm like, yo girl,

Shonda Campanero  2:27  
it's like,

Tracy Hayes  2:29  
don't make me call. Are you guys? Are you guys bullies? Am I learning that we got

Shonda Campanero  2:36  
she's so she's So, listen, I never claimed to be a Southern belle. She claims to be a Southern belle. She's dead.

Tracy Hayes  2:46  
Well, you're from Philadelphia, and you don't have that beautiful accent. Shonda, Tell us. Tell us a little about where are you from?

Shonda Campanero  3:00  
Where'd you grow up? Oh, Lord, I am from a small, little town in Southeast Georgia. Tiny little town. The biggest thing there is, like a Walmart.

Tracy Hayes  3:08  
That's where I grew up, Southeast Georgia. Don't want to name the town.

Shonda Campanero  3:12  
It's called Hazel Hurst. Probably Never heard of it. Hazel Hurst. Hazel Hurst.

Tracy Hayes  3:17  
It is amazing. When you go, when you go around the country, you find some of these little towns that are not on the maps and so forth, like my son's Ty and for some reason, I was going to a football game, and some small college in Georgia went drive through this one, these off roads. One of those towns is named high Thai, t y. T Y is the name of the town. So I take a picture of it and send

Shonda Campanero  3:36  
it to Funny thing is, as small as that town is, since I've been in Jacksonville, everyone I meet somehow has some tie to that town or the surrounding town, like maxley or Alma I've met people I'm related to, which isn't hard. The town's so small, I'm one of six children. My mom is one of 14 children, right? So I probably am related.

Tracy Hayes  3:59  
Yeah, that's a huge area. So you grew up there, you just assume you graduated from the local high school there. Okay, so at this time in your life, you mentioned earlier pre show, you had your first child, really, at 20, what did you have any aspirations, or what was going on in your life at that point of what you wanted to do as a career, or any career at all?

Shonda Campanero  4:18  
Well, you know, I grew up in a small town, and in my mind, all my friends were like, I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer. And I was the one who was like, I just want to get rid of my head. So I never, and it's amazing that I think back, and I never really planned on doing anything else. Did not plan on doing it at 21 years old, with an

Tracy Hayes  4:43  
eight year old. So what migrates you? What's going on you're in your young 20s now? What brings you to is coming to Jacksonville, kind of the next chapter in your life as you're raising your first one?

Shonda Campanero  4:55  
Yeah, I moved here when I was 19 years old. I was married at 20. T I had my daughter at 21 Okay, so, yeah, that from then on, I've been here ever since.

Tracy Hayes  5:05  
So is real estate really the only thing you've ever done professionally? Yeah, absolutely interesting. So how? What? So you're raising your kid? What age you start someone introduce you to real estate, or you start getting interested?

Shonda Campanero  5:17  
Well, I started getting bored. I was my daughter had gone to school, she was my everything, right? Everything all day long, together. I sat at home all day and I was like, there's gotta be something else. I want to do something. I had always been fascinated with real estate, and I knew a typical nine to five was not going to be for me, because I still wanted that work home balance. So I met a lady who had known for a couple years, miss, put English. She was a realtor. Completely looked up. What was that mean? HUD, English. She started plenty. I met her. She lived in Deerwood. Okay, so I called her up. I said, I want to be a realtor. And she said, I think you'd be good at it. You should do it. So I'm like, okay, so I go to real estate school. I get my license. I call her back up, and I'm like, I have my license. Now, where should I go? I have no idea. And she goes, Well, I have a sister who works with Prudential network Realty. They're the best. Her name's Sandy Littlefield. Call her up.

Tracy Hayes  6:18  
Are these people still active in or they retired to move on,

Shonda Campanero  6:22  
or, well, Sandy actually retired a couple years ago from Berkshire, and I believe they're both up in the mountains now, retired now. So Sandy got me an interview at Prudential, and now birch are halfway, and I've been there ever since 15

Tracy Hayes  6:36  
and a half years now, yeah, so on your LinkedIn, absolutely. So think about that moment where you were getting in versus the new agents today, because a lot of them are in the same situation. You agree, Melissa, they're they're like, What should I do? And now you just starting to fall in and have, by pure chance, that it seems like knowing these people that were fairly good at it, you know, they took you in, and they probably trained you in some way. You've been at Berkshire Hathaway 15. I don't know if there's any agent. There's probably very limited agents. So we can say I've been at the same brokerage for 15, right? Yeah. So you're not, yeah. So, I mean, so if you were talking if there was a new agent looking there, or someone who just got their license, and maybe they just saw it in the fall in a brokerage right now, and they don't even know what's going on, what would you suggest them? Or, you know, like someone like you know, like something like you said, Hey, I'm looking to get in real estate. Called you. What would you suggest to them to do before making that choice of brokerage to

Shonda Campanero  7:28  
go so different now than back then too. Honestly, I think that, I think that they're actually it may be a lot more confusing nowadays, because there are so many different options out there. I usually give a list of brokerages for Norwegians to talk to, because there's, there's just so many and so many. They offer different right opportunities. And you know, like you think back then, when you it was free, it was pretty straightforward. Yeah, absolutely right.

Shonda Campanero  7:52  
But this, the brokerage that works for me, may not work for her or anyone. Exactly depends on where you are in your life, where you want to be and what you want to do in your career. You know, I would definitely tell them to go to a company that has training. That's the most important thing as a new agent, because when you get your license, you don't know anything. So Berkshire Hathaway or Prudential, back then, had some of the best training. We went through an incubator program. It's like going to school. We had to go there, like four days a week, and it was all day long. And I had a great instructor, Sharon Wilson, and I was scared of her. I was scared to say, I can't be here tomorrow. She'd be like, yes, you can.

Shonda Campanero  8:35  
Yes, ma'am, damn. So, so So

Tracy Hayes  8:41  
you're in your mid 20s right now, at this time, right that you're talking about my late 20s. Late 20s, okay? And that's did that structure of them coming in to get you, kind of foundation of saying, Hey, you got to come in. That helped you, because you didn't know anything about real estate.

Shonda Campanero  8:58  
I knew absolutely nothing about real estate. But again, that training there, we did everything, we wrote contracts, we got up in front of the class. We did caravans together. So it was like we were, you know, really talking to clients. Now she would make us call people. I remember one time she busted me out because I put my phone on mute because I don't call people, I don't cold call and I was faking it. You're

Tracy Hayes  9:29  
thinking, having a conversation

Shonda Campanero  9:30  
with yourself, conversation with myself.

Tracy Hayes  9:34  
Well, so if you look back and anyone listening now, you calculate it's 2022 you go back 15 and a half years. So there's a couple other great brokers in the or associate brokers. We want to list them that I've had on that were going back prior to 2008 so you get started, it's what 2007 is, right? 2007 and all of a sudden, I mean, before you really get started, the housing market collapse.

Shonda Campanero  9:59  
What was that? Tail end. So when I got started, I learned how to I was writing contracts on short sales and foreclosures. I was listing homes. Back then, we negotiated our own short sale. There was no lawyers handling this, so I would have a listing. And, you know, there could be two banks, so you're trying to negotiate with this bank, and they're like, Okay, yeah, we'll take that. But second thing lost money too,

Tracy Hayes  10:26  
second mortgage or whatever, yeah. So it

Shonda Campanero  10:28  
was hard, but to me, it was normal, because that's how I learned right now, last year was like picking flowers.

Tracy Hayes  10:38  
So again, going back, because I think one of the greatest thing about the all the successful agents has how you got started, some faster than others. So you know that we got, we got the housing issue, finances going on, and you got all these foreclosures, these deals don't like happen in 3045, days, like, I mean, you know, occasionally they do, but a lot of these short sales and stuff drag out that you were dealing with. So what are you? What are you doing initially, in the sense of marketing and getting yourself out there let everybody know that you are in real estate.

Shonda Campanero  11:06  
Well, that year, it was a little easier for me, and this is going to make me look really old. No one really used the internet. I got online and I started just pasting my URL everywhere. So when you went online, I was popping up. So, you know, I'm a new young agent in a company, and people are having a hard time just kind of like right now, and all of a sudden I'm selling houses, you know, not a ton. Like, back then, it was amazing.

Tracy Hayes  11:37  
What do you find? A lot of your a lot of your people from out of state, they're searching the internet and Googling or whatever. And because you were putting your stuff all over, you were popping up

Shonda Campanero  11:46  
absolutely I even remember Sharon Wilson doing a class like the next year on like, Shonda camp. Well, then I was called but Sean does marketing, what Shonda is doing. You know, isn't

Shonda Campanero  11:58  
that crazy how different things are now, though? Like, I mean, even just from a couple of years ago, as far as your online presence and how important is so, I mean, it does show your age, though, sister,

Tracy Hayes  12:13  
well, I think a lot of people discount the fact how much YouTube is a search engine too, and you're put you if you're putting videos whatever length out there you're putting regular content. People are searching from other states and looking into the area.

Shonda Campanero  12:26  
Are you doing YouTube? No, I got to get on YouTube. I just had this conversation with the girls, because we're on pretty much every platform except for YouTube, and we're starting to try to build that as well. Because, I mean, I know a handful of Agents around here that have really started to, even if

Tracy Hayes  12:40  
it's your I think you could you start doing some really good videos of showing a house. You know what you normally do anyway, and you're putting them on YouTube. People are searching, even though that house is still not up for sale, you still see your

Shonda Campanero  12:56  
professionals, professionalism,

Shonda Campanero  13:01  
with insecurities, because that's why I canceled so many times. I do not like the way I look, the way I sound. I'm sure everyone has the same insecurities, but I did a podcast with a guy, and when he sent it to me, I was like, Oh, my God, we can't put that out. I was in a rolling chair. I'm like talking with my hands, bobbing my head around. It was That's normal.

Tracy Hayes  13:30  
What actress reminds me of, obviously, I grew up watching Dallas, and what was the other side show to Dallas was a spin off, yes, yes.

Shonda Campanero  13:41  
Say guys, all age, things coming up, no, I

Tracy Hayes  13:46  
at that time, oh, my god, you guys are terrible. You guys marvelous. I love Melissa's hair today. She looks great. I love the little curl in it, yeah, I think that looks

Shonda Campanero  13:55  
I did that just for you because

Tracy Hayes  13:56  
she's different today. Yeah, she put a little girl

Shonda Campanero  14:01  
in it. No, I really just do this. I don't have to wash my hair in the morning. No big deal. It's really dirty.

Shonda Campanero  14:08  
I text her. I'm like, you want to go on Johnny Cash. I want

Tracy Hayes  14:11  
to touch base on because, like, just yesterday, obviously, you guys were out for lunch with some of your counterparts. You guys work for different brokerages. How important has it been, is this something that you did at the beginning, or just, you know, has developed in your 15 years of hanging out with other, you know, top producers, successful people in the real estate industry. How important is that, not just for a

Shonda Campanero  14:32  
friendship, but yeah, for me, it's actually boosted my business, my confidence, and it's awesome. And especially, you know, we help each other. We know what's coming on the market. You know, just last month, I showed a house for a friend who works for exit real estate, because that's what you do. There's enough business for everyone. So it's nice to be friends and have friends with all these amazing ages. If I have questions at midnight, right? We have a text. Games so we help each other. I can imagine

Tracy Hayes  15:07  
labels and then real estate.

Shonda Campanero  15:12  
Some through Facebook Messenger. We've got some through group chat. Once Like honestly, I will, I would argue with anybody that I think right now it is a top, maybe two or three priority to be in collaboration with agents.

Tracy Hayes  15:28  
Well, since I got both of you guys on, you had lunch with Marissa and some other people. Yesterday, was that something you guys schedule weeks in advance or Sunday night? You say, hey, let's get together on Tuesday.

Shonda Campanero  15:37  
So yesterday was actually a different event. That was a little bit of a different concept. There was, there was a lot more people. A lot more people than just us there. We typically do. We try to schedule, like, dinner or something, I would say, like, once a quarter, and, like, try to be there for like, birthday by, like, it's genuine friendship, you know, like, and it's, it's, it goes so much bigger than just real estate, like, the support that we like we you have to understand, like, on our side of things, I'm sure you guys are the same in the lender world, like not everybody that's outside of our industry understands this lifestyle, right? So I have a ton of amazing friends that I'm super close with, but they don't understand what I live every day. So when you find a group of people that you shop with and you're friends with, but now you're in the same industry. We get each other on a different level. So those friendships are even more powerful. And then, like, not only, like, you know, she mentioned, you know, we talk about coming soon listings, when there's a multiple offer situation, and you know, you're in there and you're throwing your offers in, and you have a really great relationship with that listing agent. That rapport is already built. Like, there's so much benefit to it, and then just supporting each other and helping each other grow.

Tracy Hayes  16:44  
I mean, absolutely. I mean, how, how many times have you stolen? Not stolen, but, you know, politely, we steal all the time. Steal from each other, from the standpoint, because right now, like making offers is important, how you present it, yeah, and they stole someone's other, someone else's successful idea, and put it into your next offer.

Shonda Campanero  17:00  
And stealing. I just know I'm using that as I get it.

Shonda Campanero  17:05  
Yeah, we give each other the tools you need. Melissa's an open book. If you want to know anything, she will give you. She'll tell you everything she does what. But the problem is you have to use it to do it. Most people are not going to put in the work I'm not doing everything she's doing. There's no way. I don't know how she's like, super long.

Tracy Hayes  17:25  
I won't go that far. So deeper into that, deeper into the surrounding yourself with successful people. So where, where in your 15 years, did you start to realize this is about, you know, meeting with these top ages. Melissa wasn't there when you started. When did you start to realize homeless, that this is actually even though they work for a different brokerage? Did you learn that quickly? Is that something that came on, you know, over

Shonda Campanero  17:50  
the years wasn't really something I learned, and it wasn't really about real estate, it was about meeting my people, you know, they came into my life at the right time, you know, I went through life for a long time, just right here. But when I really my husband and I got married, and he's my support, he motivated me, he pushed me. He wanted he made me want to be better and do better. Get out of your comfort zone, yeah, and, you know, I used to be so insecure about trying to get luxury listings. You know, very early in my career, I went to a listing appointment and this guy talked out to me so bad about my accent, so I crawled in this shell, and I stayed in this shell for years. And Mark was like, that's probably why you're sensitive to it now. And sadly, he was like, What are you doing? You are amazing. You go out there, and if you want luxury, you get luxury,

Tracy Hayes  18:45  
just like another, like an agent that you sort of looked up to, that means you or it was

Shonda Campanero  18:51  
an older gentleman of mine. Yeah, absolutely. So funny thing is, I sold this house a few years later. So you know, with the motivation I started getting out there, I started going after that, and I started getting it. So the moment I stopped hearing what people thought, I didn't care anymore. You know, I stopped trying to do this big, full on listing presentation they taught me to do, I do it my way, and I like my way, right? So it worked for me. And then all these amazing women came into my life, and it just helps we motivate each other. I feel like, all of our business, do you

Tracy Hayes  19:27  
feel like track to the like, yeah, yeah.

Shonda Campanero  19:29  
What's cool is, and this is the beauty of what we do, you know, you work like her and I connected, and we've gotten really close over the years through a transaction, because we the way we communicated. We were just, we were just girls from day one, and then at the back end of it, then we tried to do the whole like, let's sit and have some brainstorming sessions and talk about how we run that worked real well. We'd go in and be like, Oh, Margarita, me and

Tracy Hayes  19:54  
friendship. I don't

Shonda Campanero  19:57  
know about you. Shawna, what you would say? But like, I feel like I've seen a massive increase in agent support and collaboration over the last two to three years. Absolutely, by far, like before that, it was a lot more competitive. I just think we turned a corner. I think people realize that there is plenty of business out there. None of us ever like all of our

Tracy Hayes  20:17  
everyone's circles are different, different

Shonda Campanero  20:19  
pipelines with different data. Like we I've never crossed paths with another, like an agent friend of mine and,

Tracy Hayes  20:24  
well, I mean, I picked up on it, because you guys do a lot of posting when you do get together with your regular group on Instagram or Facebook. And I'm seeing that. I'm going home, and then as I'm chatting with you guys here, we're coming up on 11 months of the show and talking all I'm seeing all these people meeting each other, and you all are coming from different brokerages, all coming from, I know your backgrounds now because you told me your story, and that's what I sound so powerful.

Shonda Campanero  20:48  
It really is. And there's, there's a lot of it. I mean, it's not just, I mean, there's a huge group. I think, if you're out here in this industry, and you're, you know, not wanting to collaborate and build relationships with other agents, you're only holding yourself like for what? Why there's so many, so many agents have so many great things to say and ideas, and I mean, I learned from her, she learns from me, and all of our all of our girls. I mean, we're all doing the same thing.

Tracy Hayes  21:12  
So I'd like to hear from both of you on this. So you guys are in a circle that probably a lot of people and even loan officers are like, Oh, those girls are way too powerful. They would never talk to me or whatever type of thing, right?

Tracy Hayes  21:29  
You got an agent out there, maybe new or maybe just someone who's hit a lid, maybe he's been in the business for a few years, and they're hearing us talking about this regularly. This is a common theme on the show, surrounding yourself by other successful agents. And I have seen a brokerage well known in this town, where the new agents tried to join each other, like, let's do a new agent group. It's like, and the senior agents are looking at them, going, don't do that, because you you're not getting anywhere. You're not putting that you're not the fifth person in the room. You know that you want to be. You know you want to be you know. You hopefully surround yourself with four people that are that you look up to and strive to be type of situation. So how would someone trying to pop through that lid and grow grow their business to another level? What's the surround themselves with the successful agents that they know and see every day?

Shonda Campanero  22:15  
What phone and call them? And I'll tell you, anybody that's in this industry, no matter how successful you are, if you're not a jerk ego person, they're gonna give you time. I honestly, I love my girls, but I meet with newer agents more than I meet with my group of friends. Well, that's not right. You want to come? Yes, Tito's always free lunch. My only disclaimer up front is, it has to be lunchtime, and there has to be Tito's.

Tracy Hayes  22:46  
Well, so Well, I am debating to move some of the shows to later in the afternoon. And yeah, I know you are

Shonda Campanero  22:57  
probably like, why? But no joke, I respect so much an agent, especially a newer agent, that can pick up the phone and call someone like Shonda or call someone like and just say, Hey, I'm new. Can I pick your brain for an hour that shows you are chasing an opportunity. You are hungry. You want to get in front of somebody, nobody. Whether you've been in this for 15 years. Five years, it does not matter, five months, nobody's better than anybody. We're all trying to do the same thing. So stop living in fear of judgment from that.

Tracy Hayes  23:28  
It could be something very simple, because we've seen some of these really young agents, I mean, just got a college or whatever and whatever, they're listening to senior people giving them advice. They're doing exactly that, and they're seeing success, yeah, so if you want to turn on a dime, you know, whether it's couple months, your business around, you need to make those good those calls are, I think those are calls are easier than calling the like you saying you don't like cold call clients. Call a Senior Agent, say, I want to sit down have coffee.

Shonda Campanero  23:55  
And I've done that before, when I thought about starting my team, you know, I called, I think I called you lots of people. I talked to cc Underwood, I called anybody I knew that had a successful team, because I wanted to say, what are you doing? And everyone was so willing to open up and tell me what they were doing. And that's the great thing about our real estate community. We are a tight knit community, and everyone is willing to help everyone. And you have to be, you know, your reputation, your name is everything you can't ask to the people there are.

Shonda Campanero  24:27  
There's a handful out there that I'm sure would not give the time of day, but you move on, yeah, the next one, there will be people willing to provide value. And I will say back to the new agent groups. I'm seeing a lot of that too, and I think that's great too. Like they do need to be there. They need to have their supportive groups. And like, I think that that's something that, like, I had that when I first started, like, I had a group of people I can go to. We all started somewhere, you know, like, you need to have a support system no matter what it looks like.

Tracy Hayes  24:52  
All right, so you're 15 years in the business. I can't, I can't says that. I think about how old you are. Well, she started when she was 15. So. So who do you, who do you look up to right now? Who is your resource? Is there someone that you admire in the business, whether locally or nationally, that you you follow or maybe you've had confided in over the years? Is there any one person that you there's not

Shonda Campanero  25:20  
one, there's a lot of people, you know, when I got in the business, I was young, so obviously I idolized some of the ages in Prudential at the time. So, you know, I used to look up to them, and I love me some. Anita viney. I love Nita viney. She is one of my favorite people. And I've all I used to tell her, I'm gonna be like you one day, and I and I still joke with her to this day. I call her Queen Anita. And you know, I've had people ask me before, are you gonna need his daughter? I'm like, yeah. And then Bill had to go and get under real estate. She's an amazing realtor as well. So love Anita Vining, you haven't seen Lisa Mordecai in years. She used to love me some. Lisa Mordecai, when I got in to the Mandarin office, she was, you know, the top producer in that office, and I used to tell her, one day, my name is going to be on that board because we had a sign by the road, right? We all fought to get on that board,

Tracy Hayes  26:16  
the big one that's still Watson, that has the big one on, but we had one too.

Shonda Campanero  26:22  
She said, Come on, come take it, you know. And I worked my butt off to get my name on that board. She left before I got it up there. But Darn it,

Tracy Hayes  26:30  
so you, I mean, you immediately sounds like you when you got in those office, you quickly went over to these top producers and created some sort of relationship

Shonda Campanero  26:38  
with them, absolutely, yeah, you know. I mean, they knew what they were doing, and I wanted to know, what are you doing to get this business? How do you do this? And I've had great conversations with many ages, and everyone has always been more than willing to help you and tell you what they're doing. Yeah, I

Shonda Campanero  26:55  
think one of the most important things about that conversation, though, if you don't catch on to what she's saying, that, like, people need to really, like, meditate on is she did that 15 years ago. She still does that to this day. That's what's important. Because a lot of people, I heard this quote the other day, I'm gonna jack it all the way up. Something like, the difference between I like, See, I jacked up already, something about understanding that success means, when you get to whatever years you were chasing, you understand, did you post it? Oh, yeah, I'm jacking it up, though. I told you no.

Tracy Hayes  27:31  
Is it the one where you got to keep putting the work in? Right? Saying, Yeah, your people, there's common things and successful people, and it's people just stop. They so they don't swing the hammer one more time. They don't take that one

Shonda Campanero  27:45  
extra step. But you can't just reach that, you know, whatever,

Tracy Hayes  27:48  
that sometimes the treasure is just one hammer away.

Shonda Campanero  27:52  
She's still 15 years and still making an effort to, like, when she's, you know, building our team. Because I remember, like, we talked about it, and I was like, call, CC, call, like, talk to the people that have done it and and that can offer support and value to you. You know, sometimes people have been this. You're 1520, 25, years that like, oh, I don't need to ask anybody for anything. Like you're only keeping yourself here.

Tracy Hayes  28:13  
All right. So no one else in the entire world has a team that we know like her. So who did you talk to me? That's tough, or you just formed your opinion by everyone else's input and formed your own. Okay?

Shonda Campanero  28:26  
So you remember, I came from a team, so I knew that model, but and nothing against that model. That model worked for them. I knew I didn't want that model, so I did. I approach, I approach like my model from doing the opposite of what everybody else is doing. And that's kind of how I live life, because I kind of how

Tracy Hayes  28:45  
I live life, by nature. I just term everyone else is doing it. You're like, Yeah, I'm the same way. We talked a little bit about pre show, you know, over the years, you know, going from, you know, someone in their 20s and and having continued success. And really, I mean, I mean you continue to put, keep pushing the limit on your your records and things that you're doing. What are you doing to stay sharp we talked about a little bit earlier. You list. Do listen to podcasts occasionally? You're on social media? Do you try to stay abreast of what's going on in real estate on a national level. What do you do there? Just to

Shonda Campanero  29:24  
stay Yeah, and for real, before you answer that, I'll piggyback on that question like Tell us. Tell us all the small people how we can get the awards that you get. Yeah, for real, girl in your house.

Tracy Hayes  29:35  
I text them checks instead of glass. More room for the glass. We have a

Shonda Campanero  29:46  
lot of education. I mean, we still have an incubator program. I can go up there anytime I want. We have Anne King, Kevin Longman. They're constantly putting out education online videos, so I have access to. That. But I also have people like Melissa that I'm learning from, because, again, you're constantly learning and growing. So did you see the thing I posted a few days ago that was like the CD we used back then.

Tracy Hayes  30:15  
I made a comment on it. We were going to talk about it on the show.

Shonda Campanero  30:20  
Actually marketed I was fancy. I had my CDs laid out, and that's how we marketed. But now there are so many programs that I'm overwhelmed. So yesterday, I learned all these programs that Melissa and her team are using and other ages for talking about programs they're using that I want to implement into my team. So last night, I was online all night long, like research all these programs. So I think that we're learning from each other more than anything, right? You know, it's hands on experience.

Tracy Hayes  30:54  
The one of the common themes was obviously surrounding yourself by successful people. The other one is education. You just brought it up. How important is it? Now, I will say everyone that I've had on all says their brokerages has an education level. So I don't want one brokerage has something other, because I think you, you brokerages are all going to give you some level of education. Is it? How important is to go outside of that, like, like, meeting with other, like, you're talking about, How important has that changed your trajectory of being an agent or going to a conference or something of that nature? How important is that to be looking for those things outside your just your your stuff that you're just getting

Shonda Campanero  31:32  
at the brokerage? For me, it's the most important. It's impacted my whole career, because I don't do well in a classroom. I am. So add I can sit there and say I'm gonna listen. Two seconds later, I'm staring at a spot on the ceiling. So if that does not work for me, I could sit in all the training I wanted. It's not going to help me. So for me, that's the best training. And even social media, you know, social media, I think you said this yesterday, is kind of the new training tool. So instead of the podcast and things I used to listen to, I'm scrolling through social media, listening to, you know, all these big people just talk and pour out all this information that's really helping me. When you

Tracy Hayes  32:13  
when you say that, because I'm visualizing what you're doing, because I do, you know, I get caught on the wheels. There's a lot of motivational stuff on there. You know, it's 30 seconds or whatever, but then it starts your mind. It's a

Shonda Campanero  32:25  
mindset going influencing. Is the new educator. I said this yesterday, and I believe it wholeheartedly. I just had a conversation with an agent on the way here at the skin prep for a panel in a couple weeks, and we were talking about, like, fear of growing and like how to work people pass that and I say this all the time. It's a mindset. If you are not relentlessly chasing opportunities and putting your fear behind you, you're going to hold yourself back. Nobody else is going to do it for you. You're going to hold yourself back. So like the conversation of how important is further education beyond what your brokerage can offer? Are you signing up for seminars? Are you doing the research? We live in an age of like unending knowledge. You can't expect to go to your brokerage class from nine to 11, Monday through Friday and go to the next level. It's not going to get you there. That's good stuff to know. It's good to have that knowledge. But how much further do you want to go in your career, and what kind of work are you willing to put in to go to additional training?

Tracy Hayes  33:20  
Do you find the education that we're talking about this higher level thing? It's not just an actual, hey, go do this. It's not an actual always, you know, sometimes they give you a piece of advice, like, Hey, this is, you know, do more Instagram videos or something. You can go implement that right now, sure. But listening to other successes, these stories, listening to podcasts and the positive stories, people's successes, the days higher education is hearing those stories actually gives you more energy and may send you on your own search. You didn't actually get like, do more Instagram videos from it. You got like, hey, it's out there. You got to take another step. You're just gives you another energy for the day, that positive mindset, that your mindset was the word you used a moment ago, which

Shonda Campanero  34:04  
is it's all. It all comes full circle, and then learning how to engage with your followers once you start doing those things. I mean, Shauna kills it on Instagram, you know. And the beautiful thing we talk about this all the time is organic following. You won't see this girl and I out here paying for followers. Yes, it's not how we roll. You know what I mean? Like, how do you build an organic following of people? You're authentic. You make sure people know what you're doing, and you're consistent. I heard

Tracy Hayes  34:29  
there's a big exp agent out in Utah. He's one of the first podcasts I started listening to, and he came on and said he was actually killing his entire old original Instagram page because he did do the paying for the follower stuff, and he got to the levels he wanted. So you can do different things when you have more followers, please. He realized, after a while, they realized how many were actually what do you call authentic, engaging?

Shonda Campanero  34:52  
So I don't know anything about that. I actually just heard a couple months ago that you can actually pay for followers. I didn't even know that was a thing. I used. Know. I don't even know. I'm gonna go and have 10,000 followers. I don't even know how it works. I don't know anybody that's done it. I just heard that it's the thing. So I'm like, wow, people, really? I mean, I guess if you want followers, it's the way to do it. But are they the

Tracy Hayes  35:14  
algorithms already figured out you're buying them, that's the thing they it was, I think it was a thing at a time, and it got you a certain level.

Shonda Campanero  35:20  
But now, yeah, really, yeah, you just click on their followers and go through. Come on, you're a woman. We all stuff. I don't click on, click on them, and you go through, and you can see who are bots on it, though, no, it's like, no picture with symbol.

Tracy Hayes  35:36  
Oh, very Yeah. Like, no, no profile. Basically, yeah,

Shonda Campanero  35:40  
we all get bots. I mean, you can go on and you have to go through your page and filter them out, because somehow, you do get bots. Because post on your page,

Tracy Hayes  35:49  
I guess they're trying to get you to follow them. You get someone who says, oh, so and so is following you now. So you're like, feel good. So well, I'll follow them. They're following me. But the reality, it's one of those bots that she's talking about. I've started figuring that I'll have 200,000

Shonda Campanero  36:05  
followers. My question for that is, then, okay, so there's an option for you to do boosted ads. Why aren't people doing that? Isn't that a better source of your money than paying to have followers? Or am I not understanding it? The paid follower thing is like a new con. I have

Tracy Hayes  36:20  
to bring Daniel on for that.

Shonda Campanero  36:23  
Maybe it's perception. Maybe you start a new page. You have no one, so you want perception thing that you're big, but and then you grow big, and you get your own followers and done, and then what do

Shonda Campanero  36:34  
you go and delete? It allows you to do

Tracy Hayes  36:36  
different things. You see these people with, like, the swipe up on the Instagram where it says swipe up, like, if you're doing an ad, yeah, and you like the ad and you can do a swipe up, well, you have to have, like, when I understand, like, 10,000 followers to be able to do that. So do you

Shonda Campanero  36:50  
want to just invest in some followers tomorrow? Is not money?

Tracy Hayes  37:02  
Berkshire Hathaway, Home Services, Florida. Network Realty, you know, went from Prudential to Florida. Network Realty, right? That's how that went to Berkshire Hathaway. It was Prudential. Florida. Network Realty, yes, that's Berkshire Hathaway. You've been there the leadership team. I mean, brag a little bit. I mean, obviously you must like it there. I imagine a lot of other brokers have tried to come steal you away. So tell us a little about Berkshire Hathaway and what. Why is it that you fit there and you seem to have made home, and unless you're planning open your own deal tomorrow,

Shonda Campanero  37:40  
you don't want me call my broker. I'm gonna have her drink. She doesn't

Shonda Campanero  37:47  
drink, but she will be safe. I already have a plan for her last and final move when she is right.

Shonda Campanero  37:54  
When I joined Berkshire Hathaway, this goes back to the beginning. So I'm young. I'm scared to death. I go in this interview room, and I'm expecting, like a broker, to be sitting there to tell me how great they are. Now it was Linda shear herself, and there Sharon Wilson, there are a few people in the room, and you know, here I am, this little nobody, and this woman who runs the whole company is sitting here to interview me. She was the sweetest, most down to earth person. I loved her. I instantly felt that connection, and I knew that's where I wanted to be. To this day, she's on my Facebook. If I make a post right now, she's going to be one of the first few that likes it and comments our biggest cheerleaders, Christy Budnick. You know, Christy's moved on, and she's running Berkshire house away now, not just here, right? And I'm still she makes time. I could text her right now and say, call me. And you know, she wasn't busy, she would call me. So it

Tracy Hayes  38:55  
we are a strong relationship. So, yeah, we are the roots that you've put in here are strong Absolutely.

Shonda Campanero  39:00  
So now, you know, a lot of things have changed in the company. We have new people that have stepped up, but without change, you can't grow. So, you know, now we have Kevin and Anne King, and the technology Anne is bringing to Berkshire is absolutely amazing. I am excited about it. You know, that's one of the things that I lack in because I am older, I tend to get set in my ways. And you know, I've got to pivot millennial. What are you talking about, this old age?

Shonda Campanero  39:31  
Are you millennial? No way, absolutely. The title of podcast. How old

Shonda Campanero  39:41  
were you my age even more.

Shonda Campanero  39:45  
So, okay, my kids call her a baddie, so her age doesn't matter.

Shonda Campanero  39:50  
Oh, they just made me a shirt lately. The Sean, it hasn't officially been named the Shonda, but it should be.

Tracy Hayes  39:58  
There's a there's a shirt there. That her, her labels coming out with that we were talking

Shonda Campanero  40:04  
about, they made me eraser back with their because she's a diva.

Tracy Hayes  40:12  
And you're telling me great you tell me great things about Berkshire Hathaway technology. Use some several words there and describing there how important though you're talking to an agent. Yeah, different brokers just have different things that they're doing and so forth, but the things that you're bringing in, because it sounds like you're doing, you do a really evaluated yourself over the years, and obviously hanging out with people like Melissa and Marissa Scott and those top agents in there, and the matching it with what your mindset and you knowing you right, you you've analyzing and you doing the outside what they're just offering at the brokerage, and matching it with the brokerages has really, like fueled your fire. Absolutely.

Shonda Campanero  40:54  
It's one of the strongest brands out there. I mean, everyone knows that name, Grant, and I want to be affiliated with that brand. I love it,

Tracy Hayes  41:04  
but you can't just put the Hey, I'm with Berkshire Hathaway. Call me. Oh no,

Shonda Campanero  41:08  
yeah, absolutely not. And I do corporate relocation. We're Berkshire Hathaway and things like that too. So there are advantages for me being where I am as well. And it's, you know, it's where I've always been. It's where I feel comfortable at.

Tracy Hayes  41:22  
So let's go. Well, actually, I want to, I actually had a line here tell us about, when did you bring on? You brought on Judy and Diane together? Basically, roughly the same time, or about it was close, yeah, about the same time. All right, so we were talking a little bit earlier. You you felt you kind of reached a lid in your business. You needed some help because you couldn't just take care of everybody, she didn't want to cut everybody off, either you were giving business away and said, Oh, I gotta keep it in house. So you bring in Judy and Diane. How, how is that dynamic? Or how long you guys been working together? Now it's

Shonda Campanero  41:52  
been a year. Now it's been a year now we're still proud. We're still learning, we're still growing. I kind of did it backwards. It just happened. So I did not I wasn't ready. I didn't have my systems in place, but it just kind of happened. I've been friends with Judy for years. I've been friends with Diane for years.

Tracy Hayes  42:12  
Were they new agents or they were working somewhere else, and you brought them into the fold?

Shonda Campanero  42:16  
Well, Judy has had her real estate license, I want to say, 25 years, she hasn't done residential. She's actually the vice president of Jones Lane, laselle, so she does commercial property management. So with her background, it just kind of went together. And, you know, she had kind of dabbled in real estate residential a little bit, and she's always been a huge referral partner of mine. She's always referred all her friends, family, clients to me, and when she was ready, I I was happy to have her. I couldn't think of anyone else I would rather have on my team than Judy. She's one of the hardest working women I know. So now Diane. I knew Diane's husband, that's how I met Diane. He was one of my clients years ago, and I've done business with his family, some of his friends, people that work for him. Diane worked at the Chamber for years.

Tracy Hayes  43:09  
She knows she's got a big circle, absolutely

Shonda Campanero  43:11  
huge sphere. So Diane called me and said she was thinking about going into real estate, and absolutely I could definitely see you being an amazing real estate agent. So she came to you absolutely. And I told her, you know, I can, you know, set you up an appointment with Berkshire. You could talk to a few more people. And she said, Well, I was kind of thinking I might want to work with you. And I was floored. I was like, Yes, this is going to be fun, and

Tracy Hayes  43:42  
is there a bottle of wine in the office?

Shonda Campanero  43:46  
She's so then I get the call, okay, so I'm doing this, and when she says she didn't house this, like she had no assistance. So I'm like, Okay, sister, like, we got to organize you. Let's sit down. Let's figure out, like you had

Tracy Hayes  43:59  
at least a transaction coordinator, would you have

Shonda Campanero  44:03  
everything, no system? Melissa was like, you have to work smarter, not harder. And that's what I'm still to this day struggling with. Yeah, I try to do everything myself, and it's taking a toll on everything.

Shonda Campanero  44:17  
Yeah, listen, trying to rein this one in is like, I don't even, we've had tons of she, they're doing fancy and they do it their way. They do they do a fantastic job. But systems was definitely like, in the very first conversation, I was like, Oh God, we're gonna need, we're gonna need alcohol. But, I mean, it's worked out great because she's a lot of it, like, when hiring is like, if you hire the right people, like you guys can figure it out together. Like, I didn't when I first hired, I didn't. None of my people do the same roles from and like, obviously, I'm set up different. I don't have agents, but like, we've had to pivot. So like, you know, they work through the the challenges and stuff, and you do it together as a group and as a team, and you figure out together, which is the beauty of having support.

Tracy Hayes  44:58  
So you reach, you reached. Lid in your business, these ladies come in. Yeah, what is it done for your overall, just business in general, are you able just to capture even just 10 times more? What? What has it done for you, for what you personally could do in the time of the day, and what you personally were doing, everything, transaction, coordinator, and everything all there. Now you got these two ladies here that are bringing their time and skills in what has it done for the captain arrow? From Captain arrow to the captain arrow group? You know, in a sense of your business volume?

Shonda Campanero  45:30  
Well, we're still growing and we're still learning. I again, they came on at a time to where I was like, listen, I already talked to Melissa. I'm not ready to bring up my own agent. She told me, I'm doing it all. Because she told me, No no, but I wanted them, and I knew it was going to be a great match, so I said, I would love to have you ladies. I don't really know what I'm doing. I don't know how to run a team, but if you're willing to learn together, let's do this so they have helped me take a step back and be able to, you know, hand them off some buyers, and I am now taking the time to actually get the correct systems in place to grow this team right, and I'm anxious to see what, you know, the next year holds for us. I'm super excited, because I feel like we're gonna do some great

Tracy Hayes  46:21  
this is the big talk, really, in a lot a lot of the podcasts, you know, the agents or your loan officers or whatever, reaching this lid and then hiring that first assistant loan assistant

Shonda Campanero  46:32  
the day she makes her first admin hire. We will be celebrating. I don't understand

Tracy Hayes  46:38  
why hasn't come forward like forced you to have one. That's what I would have.

Shonda Campanero  46:43  
Tells me all she hears a lot. Yeah, I hear it all the time. It's just giving up still to this thing. It's hard. No, I just It's my name. She's a control freak in real estate, all you have is your name. If you tarnish that name, you're done. You know you're you need to have the respect of your peers. And my biggest fear is for someone to mess up my I hand something over to someone, and they

Shonda Campanero  47:12  
do it wrong. Now imagine hiring somebody that's right, that values your name as much as you do. That's fine, and they're out there one thing that I hear on a consistent basis, so that event yesterday, I can't tell you how many people messaged me later and were like your team. Your girls are amazing. They love you so much. They love your culture, they love your brand, they love what you stand for. And I love that. I love hearing stuff like that, because that means the people that work with me believe in me. There's the people out there

Tracy Hayes  47:44  
like, yeah, and, well, I don't know how it's amazing. You know, you're a woman of faith. He puts people like that in front of you at times, at different times. Oh, absolutely. You have to just be smart enough to figure out who those

Shonda Campanero  47:56  
like a month from now and be like, Shauna, this person's right in front of you. I'm gonna like, place them there. Oh, my gosh. Look at them.

Shonda Campanero  48:05  
And I am looking because that is our next step. That's the next piece of the puzzle. Because, you know, again, I brought them on because I was referring so many pieces of business out.

Shonda Campanero  48:15  
And it made sense at the time, why don't I

Shonda Campanero  48:18  
keep this volume on my team, they were ready. It made sense at the time. Now they're hungry. They're ready for more. I'm ready for more. We don't aspire to be a huge team, right? But we want more. Ready?

Tracy Hayes  48:32  
Yeah, you're no, well, you get, you get hooked on transaction, right? I mean, absolutely.

Shonda Campanero  48:37  
And we're completely referral, word of mouth, face, and we can't handle anymore without someone. We do need something. Alright?

Tracy Hayes  48:45  
So we talk, we common themes, surrounding yourself with great people. Education was one of the things we've already talked about. One of the other terms was consistency. What would you say, looking over 15 years, and it could be something you just really started in the last couple years, but what would you say right now that what you've done consistently has made a difference in your business

Shonda Campanero  49:05  
social media. You know, even back then, before the Facebook and things like that, I was on MySpace. You even know about MySpace? Oh, yeah,

Shonda Campanero  49:15  
I should have said no, because I don't want to show my age. Now, the coolest MySpace profile, by the way, my top eight friends were dope.

Shonda Campanero  49:25  
Mine has always been the internet, because I'm not that agent that cold calls. You could probably give me $10,000 worth of leads a week, not going to turn on because you have to be able to turn those leads. You have to pick up the phone and cold call. I'm not going to do that. So I know what works for me. Social Media Works for me. And all my clients, again, are always word of mouth, which is, you know, the best form of marketing. So they're all word of mouth. They're all from social media.

Tracy Hayes  49:53  
Would you say quite a bit of your you know, your circle, maybe never have used you before with their friends. Or whatever, your past clients, because you're consistently posting, and they're your friends on Instagram or Facebook, those regular postings just reminding them that, hey, I'm in the real estate

Shonda Campanero  50:10  
business, absolutely. And that's, that's how I do get my business. You know, I just closed the, see, I think the third transaction with a client I met early in the business, I'm about to close her sister's house, so the majority of my clients continuously use me and send me to all of their friends and family. And that's the biggest compliment, right? You know, when you have repeat clients, yes, and then that's hard,

Tracy Hayes  50:33  
yeah, that that's a, that's definitely an ego, you know, or flattery, it definitely, it gives you a high. But I think one of the one things that people miss out is the, you know, whether you're doing the short videos or you're doing the Instagram post, is, you know, I always go back, and I think Melissa, I talked about that guy sold 13,000 cars in his 15 years of in the business because he was writing thank you cards every month, and it was building up. He had a team of people writing these cards. You can do that in 30 seconds on Instagram every day, and it doesn't cost you a dime. And that's why we go and the power and the power of it.

Shonda Campanero  51:04  
I text my clients to this day. I have clients from years ago. If I see a funny name, I'm blasting it out to them, and that's, you know, I'm different, because that's how I stay in contact with my well, you would do that with a friend? Yeah, yes. Every single one of my clients have become my friends, and I pick up the phone and I call them. They call me. They you know, I had a lady a couple days ago call me and ask me for a contractor sold her house 10 years ago, right? It's just the way it is, and that's the most important thing. This is a relationship business, and I feel like that's why I do so well, it's because I am

Shonda Campanero  51:41  
authentic, right? You know, we talked another comment about, like, too many people are putting too many rules and restrictions on how and when you need to touch base with your database. And so we talked about yesterday. I was like, those are just ideas. Just remove it when you think of them. Let them know if you see something that reminds you there is no the more you systemize that, or, you know, like, if you had a checklist every day, I've got to call Fred, Bob and Harry today. What's driving you to do that? Just call them or text them or hit them up on Facebook.

Tracy Hayes  52:11  
I hate the holiday emails that go out these companies. Just think, I know you send me that, and it's like, delete, delete.

Shonda Campanero  52:22  
I did a now, don't get me wrong, I believe in like, any opportunity to reach out to your database, so I use these bomb on videos. They're my face. I do it and I do it at random. I try once a quarter, but I don't force it, because I'm not a force, you know, whatever. But like, I sent, it's like 32nd videos out to like our people, right? So I sent one out during Christmas time, and it was maybe a week or two before Christmas, and it was like, literally, me talking crap to him in the Starbucks drive through line, because that's what I do. And, like, tell them all, I love them and stuff, but like, talking crap, but like, it was just me reaching

Shonda Campanero  52:57  
like, yeah, VIP page. When she told me about it, she told me to create one,

Shonda Campanero  53:04  
yeah, yeah, probably

Tracy Hayes  53:06  
I don't think I've been I'm not on the VIP page. She's the only realtor. She let me in there because she was like shit and I forgot to take

Shonda Campanero  53:20  
you. Are you? Have you even started one yet,

Shonda Campanero  53:23  
though, not keeping up with it the way she did hers. But she let me on there. Look at what I'm doing. This is something else. She gave me another tool to use. Yeah, so that was really cool.

Shonda Campanero  53:35  
I'm gonna go and be tomorrow like, ma'am. You haven't posted here in three weeks. You need to get on there and do giveaway.

Shonda Campanero  53:41  
She's not getting enough my clients, you know, they're all my friends. They all send me funny memes. We text each other back and forth. We make fun of people, you know, no, I don't know.

Tracy Hayes  53:54  
I don't know anything about making fun of people. I don't know about that. All right, I'm gonna, we're gonna finish. I'm gonna ask one, last, not a serious question. If you someone came to you today and said, Hey, Shonda, give me three things, three keys to success, for sure. What would you just three? Three things are off the top, yeah, we talked about a lot, yeah, just anyone who wants to get better in the business, and it could be just in business in general, what's been your success? What are three key things that you think are?

Shonda Campanero  54:21  
I tell everyone I'm a realtor, and I tell them how much I love it, and they see that. They see my face light up when we authenticity of loving what you do. We talk about real estate, and I get excited, you know? I I love going to look at houses with my clients so that. And when you're a new agent, I feel like you need to get dressed and go to your office. I don't do that as much anymore. I told my broker, I'm going to start because it motivates you. It makes you see the other agents doing work, staying busy, and you want to get busy and you want to go out and get that work.

Tracy Hayes  54:54  
So that's really big advice. I'm trying to preach that here in our loan officer, some of these new people are not. Coming in and getting the energy from

Shonda Campanero  55:01  
the office. Yeah, and that's the key thing, because at home, it's so easy to just go on Facebook, go make something to eat, so you keep getting distracted,

Tracy Hayes  55:10  
at least you're talking shop in the in the office and exchanging ideas or experiences to grow

Shonda Campanero  55:15  
absolutely and then probably social media. Social media, for me, has been the biggest game changer. When I started posting every single thing I did, every award, every closing, my business doubled. I got a lot of backlash from that.

Tracy Hayes  55:33  
At first, some people think you're bragging. It did.

Shonda Campanero  55:36  
It came off as that. People would say, Hey, you got to stop that. You know, you're just you're Why Are you bragging so much? I said, You know what? I'm not buying Zillow leads. I'm not paying for marketing. My business doubled once I started doing this. I'm following you.

Tracy Hayes  55:51  
It's just another reason to put something up there shows that you're in the business and you're actually really good at it.

Shonda Campanero  55:57  
People want to work with successful people. I've had people message me randomly and say, Hey, I used XYZ for years, but it looks like you're killing it, and I want you to sell my house. And I'm thinking in my mind, oh my gosh, they sell way more than I do.

Tracy Hayes  56:11  
Okay, so exploiting social media obviously positive way, letting everyone you know know what you do and you love it. And then what was the one in the middle? What was number two there was the I was trying to show up, show up, right? We would say, show up.

Shonda Campanero  56:29  
And you could probably couple that with like consistency, like consistent schedule,

Tracy Hayes  56:32  
consistent showing, consistently, showing up

Shonda Campanero  56:34  
and get and engage with people. I do have to say that engage with people. Don't just collect followers. Reach out to those people and talk to them and let them know that, you know, what are you doing in your business? How is your market? And that's worked for me a lot, because I get a lot of referrals. That's interesting.

Tracy Hayes  56:50  
I picked up a tip of part of a month or so ago. I was listening to someone and he you know, when you're going on and you see someone's post on Facebook actually say something with some substance to it absolutely, you know, versus just, you know? Yeah, I know a lot of times there's a lot of stuff. We just like a lot of stuff, but if you see something really exceptional, go, oh, wow, that just say something. Write a sentence so you

Shonda Campanero  57:10  
get engaged, absolutely. Can I add one more thing to that list, too? Chase every single opportunity that's in front of you. Opportunity, opportunity. Don't turn away from if you're in the if you're new and you're getting in the business and you want to, you know, climb to whatever, get to whatever goal. If there is an even, if it seems small or minor, chase it relentlessly every single time. Can you give us an example, like, let's say you, you come into the business and you're just trying to find connections, get into every single realtor group, realtor mastermind, social media groups, whatever networking groups you know, engage and engage with those people, right? So, like, one of the best business decisions I made a couple of years ago was because I was in this networking group. I watched what the people were saying. I picked somebody out that I thought would be a fantastic partner for me for this side hustle that I had going, and I reached out to them. We set up a business plan for a whole it was an opportunity that I never would have taken had he not been in there making these comments and like having this desire to do something, you had similar, yeah, and then you chase it, you know? And it turned out to be an amazing opportunity. It turned out to be an amazing business partnership that I grew over the years with him because of just watching and paying attention and not turning away from possibilities. You know,

Tracy Hayes  58:24  
well, you know, he puts people in front of us. You go, if you show up, he's going to put people in front of you that'll give you those paths, those those opportunities. They're out

Shonda Campanero  58:34  
there. You just gotta pay attention. All right, we're gonna

Tracy Hayes  58:36  
wrap this up my two minute morning questions. Is it more important who

Shonda Campanero  58:40  
you know, or what you know depends on the situation right now in this market, maybe who you know. I think what you know, you think so. I think so. I think so. Now, who do you know will get you further sometimes, but I think it's more important

Tracy Hayes  58:55  
listening your story. I think who you know is that what was the woman that you met the first year Hathaway you called when you said, I want to be an

Shonda Campanero  59:01  
Asian, hot English she wasn't a Bert driver.

Tracy Hayes  59:06  
I think that was your who got you to your

Shonda Campanero  59:08  
what I was just gonna say. I feel like I answered this question the very first time was on this and I don't remember what I said. So I'd be interested to see, but I would 100% say, who you know?

Shonda Campanero  59:21  
Shonda, yeah, girl, she's on my Facebook. She's gonna see this.

Tracy Hayes  59:27  
What's on you and your husband? So you have two you have two children, right? Okay, what's the well, does the 23 even travel with you anymore?

Shonda Campanero  59:36  
She Oh, no, we're not cool. We're finally getting a little cool. Does call me every day again. She loves me again. 16 to 19 stage, I'm the worst person in the world. What's on

Tracy Hayes  59:47  
your travel bucket list? You have a family vacation, or maybe just you and your husband that just want to go a couple

Shonda Campanero  59:53  
vacations planned? We don't really have time to make you can't. Yeah, travels hard, but we did buy and. RV. So we've been the whole camping thing, like getting into that me hiking in my full goose.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:09  
No, I gotta see that. This is so interesting. You're not the only person. And I've been on my I've been on this thought process too, because my kids are, you know, nine, and should be nine tomorrow, 12, and we're like, you know, this time to go do those traveling, they can actually understand what's going on. You know, go buy an RV. Because I've had numerous agents come on and say almost the exact same thing you did, but you actually have gone and bought the RV.

Shonda Campanero  1:00:32  
Yeah, we absolutely love it. We're boring. We like the idea of friends. We just don't like really hang out. So we go camping. Aaron loves it. He's all about outdoors. We just light a fire, drink bottled wine, and that's, that's our party and party.

Shonda Campanero  1:00:48  
So I don't know if we talked about alcohol more or your age more on this, but I feel like we keep bringing them.

Shonda Campanero  1:00:54  
I feel bad because alcohol always comes up. My small town, my whole family, they're, you know, really religious. And my dad's actually told this is dry county. Yeah? We talk about, God would take the alcohol for me. I'm like, Daddy, that's a show. I don't really drink that way. I drink two drinks, and I'm, like, a high school

Tracy Hayes  1:01:20  
kid, yeah, all right, last question from the loan officer, and we're gonna go out and talk to some more loan officers here. You're I'm sure, over the years, you've probably gone through a bunch of different referral partners, so you have people that you rely on. What is the number one thing that you require in that referral partner relationship, and specifically the loan officers that

Shonda Campanero  1:01:39  
you use communication, and that's how we bond it. To me, communication is key. I don't care if you drop the ball and you completely screw everything up. Call me up and say, Shonda, I screw it up. It's gonna be another week, but this putting you off. We just need one more day, and you're writing an extension. We need one more day. You're writing an extension and you not knowing what's going we look stupid. That was the deal. We kind of bonded over, because didn't even know my buyer flipped to a bond loan and the buyer didn't know either. Remember that?

Shonda Campanero  1:02:12  
Oh, I remember. We almost went to jail. Yeah, I'm pretty sure everybody involved in that transaction remembers that one.

Shonda Campanero  1:02:19  
So communication to me, is the biggest thing. I don't care what happens, just let me know. Pick up the phone, text me. That's for me. That's the biggest thing.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:27  
Cool ladies, thanks for coming on the show. Pleasure. She did awesome. Yeah, she realized she's gonna want to come on next month and Bring it. Bring Judy and Diana.

Shonda Campanero  1:02:42  
Why did you let my hair sit

Shonda Campanero  1:02:47  
top of my hands? You guys did awesome. Thank you for having us. Thank you.

Podcast Intro/Outro  1:02:53  
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.