Venture With Joe and Cody
Venture with Joe and Cody is a captivating journey into the lives and stories of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and pivotal community figures, revealing the essence of success through candid conversations. Tune in to discover the setbacks, triumphs, and invaluable lessons learned on the path to making a mark in the business world and beyond.
Venture With Joe and Cody
Surviving the Tough Market
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The brutal truth? The current real estate and lending market is leaving many professionals questioning their future in the industry. High interest rates have slashed buyer pools, deals are harder to find, and the feast-or-famine income cycle is pushing talented people toward more stable careers.
But as Joe Skipper and Cody Wilhelm reveal in this candid conversation, there's a clear path forward for those willing to adapt. They pull back the curtain on what's actually working right now, particularly focusing on how social media has become the most cost-effective lead generation tool available to struggling agents and lenders.
"You can door knock for five hours and reach 500 homes if you're super good at it," Joe explains, "or you can post something valuable on a Monday and reach 700-800 people in just 15 minutes." This efficiency is game-changing for professionals watching their marketing budgets.
The hosts dive into the critical difference between value-driven content versus clickbait, why consistency trumps perfection, and how to select just one platform to master instead of trying to be everywhere at once. They also address the psychological barriers preventing many professionals from leveraging these tools effectively.
Perhaps most refreshingly, Joe and Cody emphasize authenticity over imitation. "Don't let other agents influence you or deceive you into thinking that's how you have to be to be successful," Joe advises. "There's someone that's you, so get your personality out there."
Ready to weather this market storm and position yourself for success when conditions improve? Listen now for actionable strategies from two professionals who are practicing what they preach and finding ways to thrive despite the challenges.
Market Challenges for Agents & Lenders
Speaker 1Hey guys, we're back with another episode of Venture with Joe and Cody. My name is Joe Skipper, I'm the owner of Skipper Realty Group, brokered by EXP Realty, and I'm with Cody Wilhelm with Residential Mortgage. What's up, my man? What is going on? How are you Good? Good, I think we had talked about wanting to do a podcast that kind of addresses the elephant in the room and the tough times that lenders and real estate agents are going through right now.
Speaker 2It's a battle.
Speaker 1Some are successful and some are doing great and some are struggling. And I think that we may have some tips, we may have some tricks that we do or things that we suggest to kind of keep people motivated in this industry and going along. What do you think?
Speaker 2I love it, I'm here for it. I think we're all kind of going through the same battles the ups and downs and what's working and what's not working. So I think it'd be great to kind of share what we're seeing out there and how we might be able to help others.
Speaker 1For sure. I think in the real estate, realm. I think about agents that come into this market and I'm like that's tough. It's really tough, and I'm not saying it to diminish people or to think like to give up, but it's a grind and I think real estate and lending is a grind in general.
Speaker 1Whether you are making 24 deals a year, 50 deals a year, one deal a year, it's all. It's all relative to what you're doing and I think that if you got into this career, you know just stick with it. Times are good and bad in real estate and you'll look back five years from now and be like I made it through that and I can see the success of that.
Speaker 1So, generally speaking, stay strong. Do you have any? What are you seeing in lending? I don't see. I assume that if real estate's doing not well, then lending is probably dealing with the same sort of thing. Lenders are probably dealing with the same thing of dropping out and moving on to other gigs. What are you seeing?
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, same thing. I mean it's, it's all they're. They're pretty well linked together. You know our current issue is is interest rates are just making it more expensive. So less buyers, less opportunities. There's still plenty of people that are buying and selling. It's just not at the rate and number that we're used to in a quote unquote normal environment. So it's just a. It's like any type of sales position that you're in, where you're self-sourcing your business, going out and finding them, and when you have a lot of buyers it's a lot easier. When you don't, then you're figuring out where am I going to get them from? If one out of 10 people is potential, then where am I going to find these 10 people from, rather than one every two or three people that are looking and interested? So it's just getting more and more creative. Not to blame everything on the rates, but it's all because of the rates. So if it were more affordable, I think we'd be.
Speaker 2we'd be looking at something where it's just kind of chugging along and everybody's how we've been in years past, where it's you know it's not like it's crazy, but it's also busy enough to keep everybody invested and moving along and I think right now, and like it's been the last couple of years, especially on the lending side, it's just there's just not enough business for some people to get to keep paying their bills and it's just the infrequent paychecks and knowing that you might close something this month and it might take you three more months to close something, and, depending on your financial situation and whatever that looks like some people, it's just not worth it emotionally, financially. I'd rather go find something where you can get a steady paycheck and maybe you're not making as much, but it's consistent and you're not stressing about it and it's just a better overall lifestyle.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think you know we have.
Social Media as a Free Lead Generation Tool
Speaker 1Well, we probably all jump all over the place. Cody and I generally don't go with an itinerary of these things, but I do think we have a lot of thoughts and I think, like one of the suggestions I have for people that are struggling in this market and one of the things that I did originally because because I was getting it was a new was provide value and find the cheapest way to do it. What I found was social media. You don't have to pay for anything to be on social media and you can reach hundreds of your friends, thousands of your friends, if you're super cool, you know, and it allows you to get your face in front of people for free, the most amount of people you can. You can door knock for five hours and reach you know 500 homes if you're super good at it a day and you've wasted five hours of your day, you can post something valuable content, informational content to help people on a Monday and reach 700, 800 people. And it took you 15 minutes to make the video.
Speaker 1So, my suggestion to people that, granted, this is a long-term game, you will get clients and you can get clients right from one video if you do it right, if you get the right video that reaches the right people. Having said that, it is a longer-term game to get those sort of clients begging for clients, but just showing clients you and I. It's a tough market. Admit that, it's a tough market. We don't need to fake to people that like, hey, get in now. This is the best time and I think being real with clients showing your personality, getting your face out there which most agents hate to do, is get their face out on social media, talking and messing up words and doing different things. I think that if you can get over that, it's the cheapest and most valuable way to get clients. I think I don't know if you agree or disagree yeah no, I wish I would have started years ago with it.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Actually trying to be consistent with it, you know it's like I post something once a year about work, but never anything steady, and I'm still working on doing that. But I completely agree, Like you're, you're in front of them, you're providing value, You're giving them that reminder every day or every week or however however often you're posting that. This is what I do and this is how I'm trying to help everybody. I'm not I'm not out here like begging for business. I'm trying to educate and explain things to people that way, when you're ready, hopefully I'm the first person that you think of.
Speaker 2So, it is a great easy, like you said, you can pay absolutely nothing to record yourself and post them and write something up. So yeah, it's.
Speaker 1And you mentioned a good point. Consistency with social media is key. You have to be the person that you don't post. Once a week you don't post. You have to post a lot If you buy into this medium. You have to be the person that everyone sees you and even if they don't care about you, right then when they're thinking of real estate, I've had multiple people say I saw your videos and that's why I?
Speaker 1called you because you seem to be on this. You're on the topic, you're talking about topics and I'm not doing that, saying that to brag. I'm saying that because if you're front of mind when people think real estate, if you're the guy that when they think buying or selling, they're like oh, I just saw Joe's video. Or I just saw Joe and Cody on their podcast, or I just saw that it brings a legitimacy and it brings a trust that people are like I'm going with them. Why would I go with a random schmuck that's you know that I saw once or my neighbor buddy that sells two homes a year, when I can go with someone that is putting out consistently valuable content on a regular basis?
Speaker 2But it's, it's credible and it's just as if you know, it's like advertising on a shopping cart in a store or a bench at a golf course, like it's just that repetition of seeing it and over time you're like oh man, this person. I feel like I see this person everywhere. They have to be good.
Speaker 2Otherwise why would? Why would they be everywhere? So if you're constantly seeing that on social media, it's just a good like. I think it's just natural that our brains process that and look at that and say I'm going to reach out to Joe because he's out there, he's putting himself out there. He obviously wants people to know what's going on, not hiding it. So yeah, you want to be front of mind when people are thinking of that stuff.
Speaker 1But yeah, and honestly, social media is how people are looking Like.
Speaker 2I rarely and.
Speaker 1I maybe I'm wrong on this. I rarely put people on email newsletter or email lists for for homes that they're looking for. Everyone's on Zillow Redfin, whatever. They don't need the agent necessarily to set them up with an email list and then pray that they find a house based on their emails that they get every day.
Speaker 1People are more social media savvy than ever and I think when they are looking for things, whether moving to Wilsonville, moving to Oregon, whatever they type in their search medium, you kind of have to get the algorithms to see that you're that person that they need to talk to. So I think in real estate, personally, I think real estate is going, if not already is, in social media. We still do old time mailers. We still believe they're important. We still believe that old fashioned kind of marketing, old fashioned, that the mailers the different things of our community and things like that they do work and I'm not downplaying that.
Speaker 1but I think the consistent presence on social media, especially with agents who are struggling with money, is the way to.
Speaker 2Well, and and I kind of fought it for a while because I always kind of had this view in my head like I hate social media, I'm not good at it, I don't like it. It's entertaining, but that was about as far as it went for me. So it took a lot of time for me and I wish I wouldn't have put it off for so long or just agreed to just do it and be a part of it, because now, as I'm starting to get it going more, I'm seeing there is such a huge amount of value and yet it's uncomfortable at first and you're putting yourself out there. But I think that there's also that part of people that they want to see what you're doing and what you're saying and if you screw up or how you're talking about it. We judge ourselves so strictly, but yet if we watch somebody else do a video and they screwed up or said something wrong you probably laugh at it or appreciate it, because you're like yeah, you're like, oh, good for
Speaker 2them you put it out there and you know you rewatch your video 50 times and you're like no-transcript, like they just they would post, but video.
Value Content vs. Clickbait
Speaker 1For a lot of agents it's been a slow burn. I'm starting to see it very significantly nowadays, but when? I first started it was like on the forefront of it because agents, no one wanted to get in front of a camera. I would argue that some people believe that the clickbait stuff gets you. I lean like gets people like doing the stupid stuff on Instagram or some trendy thing. And I'm not against that.
Speaker 1I personally want to be the agent that provides value, so I look more towards like, value, content of like and it may be boring and it may not be as clickbaity, but I just I feel like I personally put out just more informational content to help people that are like hey, this is a common question, you and I talk about it all the time and with our podcast and with our, our lives, that like, what do people need? Like what are people asking you, what are people have questions about, what's their common concern, and then just addressing it, because I think that to me provides a little more value for serious buyers than just- 100%.
Speaker 2But I know the clickbait stuff works, I know like you know I know lots of people that do it, but I wonder, though, at times how much it does work. Does it does it work in the sense that you get more likes and more views? But does it actually bring value? Because, for better or worse, I see a lot of the same style of videos from it's all, like everybody's going for humor, which is great.
Speaker 1You know, everybody wants something lighthearted.
Speaker 2But it's more of an entertainment thing to me than it is Like if I watched a, say, a lender that was doing something and it was a little more funny, but it didn't really do anything, it didn't teach me anything, it didn't open my eyes to anything versus a educational piece, I feel like I would tend to want to lean towards that person rather than the one who's just cause.
Speaker 2I would look at it as like, oh, you're trying to build a following and making more of a humor kind of thing around this industry, as opposed to somebody who's actually trying to help benefit people.
Speaker 2So yeah no shade on people that are doing it that way. Everybody's got their own thing. But I'm with you. I like to provide value, even if it's not maybe as funny or entertaining it's. I feel like if I'm, if I was looking through stuff and I'm trying to actually look at buying a home or get a mortgage or something, and I see the humor one cool, that's funny, you get a good laugh.
Speaker 2And I see one that's actually providing value on something that I'm looking at. I'm like that's what I'm looking at. I'm like that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for information. It's like when you go to YouTube and you're trying, you're working on a project or something, you get somebody that actually dives into whatever that project is and it's so much more valuable than it is when somebody talks about it for 20 minutes but they don't actually explain anything.
Speaker 2It's yeah, I think there's something to just getting into it and sharing what people want. People, you know, our memory or our attention span is so short that if it goes on too long or it doesn't get to the point, then you're on to the next thing. It's hard but it's fun, yeah.
Speaker 1I think you're right and again, I'm not knocking because they could be super successful based on they could say hey look, I've got this many clients because of my funny videos.
Speaker 1Totally that you know. Maybe another tip for people, two tips that I have before we maybe move on to another. You know, idea or topic for people is one. What my group did within eXp and the work group I have is very social media like savvy, and they really taught us focus on one medium. I think if you're, if if you're like I'm going to TikTok Facebook, instagram, pinterest, youtube it can be super overwhelming. They all have different algorithms, they all have different processes of how they post, why they show your case yours more than others.
Speaker 1I think becoming an expert in one of the mediums is the best thing to do is to say, hey, I want to be a meta is kind of Facebook and Instagram, so you could kind of probably do two there. But to say, hey, TikTok's my thing. It's like studying that, learning on YouTube again free, learning how to post on YouTube, learning how to post on TikTok via YouTube. There's tons of lessons, tons of things that are free out there in the internet realm and I would suggest to pick a medium and go for that medium, become an expert in it. Then you can dabble in the other one and move on to the next ones.
Speaker 2But again long-term game but it's free.
Speaker 1You can learn free and go that route.
Speaker 1The second thing I would say before I'm done blabbing is don't look at other agents and think their success, don't judge their success based on the videos that they do. Yeah, don't look at an agent and say, oh look, they post this really funny video, or they look really cute in front of this house, or they do this. They must have all the clients. I can't be that person, because not every person wants that agent. Because of this video that you think is amazing, some people are like I don't want it. Just like we were talking. A funny video is funny and entertaining, but I want someone that is informative and tells me what I need to know to get the best deal on a home or to get the best sale on a home. So for the very same people that you're like, that's an amazing video. I'll never be like them. You may not want to be, because there's enough people out there that fit every personality and every demographic and everything that you do that you can have people like you for you.
Speaker 1So get your personality out there the video shows your personality and people will like your personality, no matter how you think you're maybe introverted, extroverted, weird not, there's someone that's you, so don't let other agents influence you or deceive you into thinking that that's how you have to be to be successful in this industry.
Speaker 2So I don't know, yeah, and I think it. I think it provides your opportunity for longevity If you're doing what you feel comfortable doing, even if it's not what everybody else is doing. Because if you're doing something, trying to mimic what other people are doing, and you're like, ah, this isn't really me, but I want to do it because this is what everybody else is doing, you're going to stop doing it because you're going to feel weird about it.
Speaker 2It's not going to feel natural. Whatever you think, it is that you that you want to get out there. However, that is, even if that is just humor, like do it Cause, then it's you. It's, it's what you want it to be. You're you're more than likely going to continue doing it, rather than just getting burnt out and being like this is stupid, I'm not getting what I want out of it, I'm not as good as those other people are. You just do it for you. That's the other thing too, and then we can kind of move on.
Speaker 2In my perspective, my little bit of learning over the little bit of time I've been doing this is doing it for you to get that information out there, not for a certain amount of likes or views or comments or whatever. Don't base your value on that, because you're always going to be let down. Or you do have one and you have great success and you're like how do I do that again? What did I do? It's just doing it to get the information that you think is important to get out there and know that you did your part on sharing that, because even if only one person got value out out of it, then you did your job.
Speaker 1So no, you're totally right. I think that you know real estate and lending is on. Social media is not a. You know, when we even in your personal life, when you're in college and stuff, it's like, yeah, how many likes did you get? Or how many people? Yeah, that was cool because that rated how many people were looking at your stuff in the real estate world I had to mentally get over the amount of likes or comments and be like, okay, there's not that many.
Speaker 1But like you said, all it takes is one and I have two and I'm not again not bragging, it's just more for motivational people. I don't get a lot of likes and I don't get a lot of you know, quote, unquote views relative to these agents that you see are like oh, they're so amazing, they get so many views. I just got $2 million, over a million dollar deals from my social media solely.
Speaker 2Wow.
Selecting Your Social Media Platform
Speaker 1So just for people that like are, you know that get down or maybe feel insecure about you know how many people are liking or not liking all it takes is one buyer or one seller to like that video and say I want that agent, so keep pushing through. Don't look at likes and comments as the only way that shows your success. Continue to put out content that's valuable and you will get people that value.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I will say too, as we continue to not close this topic.
Speaker 1We don't have to. I just was trying to like think of other ways to do it, but I think this is obviously the number one way in today's market to do it for the cheapest amount, and I think agents and lenders are looking for cheap routes to get clients. You know which makes sense Totally.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think that the as much as I said, don't pay attention to the likes and everything. There is good data in that too, right when, like one style of video that you may have done, generated a little more views and a little more activity.
Speaker 2And you can kind of go back and look at that stuff. Maybe it was the way that you started it or it was the good length or topic or whatever, and so it does kind of help to figure out why did that one not get as much traction as this one? And sometimes maybe it's just algorithm, it just got in front of more people. But it is interesting when I go back and start looking through those and see, okay, that one didn't do as well as this one and you kind of just start to fine tune it a little bit more. I'm going to try this type of intro with it or I'm going to start with this and I don't know.
Speaker 1It's interesting, it's like a whole process and learning experience that I don't know that you ever yeah, I think, yeah, that's right, I don't do a great job at that, but you're right, I still try the hooks and the closers and the call to actions and you still want to do that. But again, that goes to focus on one medium, because TikTok has a different algorithm than Instagram and that has a different algorithm than YouTube, and so you can't organize a video to meet every demand necessarily. So you really want to focus on the medium that you're in and say how do I make it best SEO optimized for X medium? And then test that because, you're right, it could be a call to action that really worked or it could be a hook that really got people in. So you're like, okay, I'll try that sort of hook again because that might get people to stay longer and watch and it's overwhelming. And so you're like, okay, I'll try that sort of hook again because that might get people to stay longer and watch.
Speaker 1Yeah, and it's overwhelming.
Speaker 1Like even if you haven't been on social media, you're like dude. I cannot start this Like. This is too much to look at algorithms and SEO, optimize the content and have a call to action Like it. Really just, it's a slow game. It may not get you clients right away, but it's the cheapest game. And low game it may not get you clients right away, but it's the cheapest game and it's the one that you can learn for free. You can adapt to for free. You're already looking at it, probably personally, so you've probably already seen things that make you draw your attention.
Speaker 2So, really utilizing what you already know, naturally, as part of these mediums to build your business and to grow in a time that's not necessarily easy to grow yeah, sure, well, and I know on the financing side we can talk about things that to us seem very basic, but it's great information for people because they don't deal with that all the time. So I know that's kind of a struggle for me at first, like, well, what am I going to talk about? That's going to be like really good information to people. And then you just start to break it down or I'll ask people and they're like, well, what about this? I'm like, yeah, that's like the super basic in my mind.
Speaker 2And I didn't you know I'm thinking everybody else knows that, but for sure the content's endless Like you could talk about.
Speaker 1We're talking about. We've talked for almost 20 something minutes about social media, when we were going to give a bunch of ideas for agents, but it's like you can.
Speaker 1you know, can understand that most buyers and sellers only sell a house two, maybe three times in their life. I don't know what the stat is, but if you just average their moving every five to seven years, it's just not that many times. And even if you did something every five years for the rest of your life, that's still not a lot. And so terms that we use, doing definitions of terms that are common, things that clients don't understand, the topics are endless. Even if you think it's stupid, there is someone out there that doesn't know what that is.
Speaker 1And if you're kind of questioning it like closing costs, earnest money, down payments, all that stuff. We get those questions asked all the time. So if you're getting clients that are asking you those questions, there's probably eight to 10 at least that don't know the same answer and want to know the answers lots of topics.
Speaker 1Lots of good things. So social media for free for you agents that don't have the money to do stuff really become an expert at social media on one of the realms. Like we don't have. Like we have good equipment now, but we started. I still film a lot with my iphone just with the amazon, like when I'm on, when I'm doing remote things, I use an Amazon uh Bluetooth mic. That was like 15 bucks, you know oh really.
Speaker 1And so it's super simple. You can connect it to your iPhone and if you're if you're mobile and you're doing those sorts of things, it's super cheap. So there, is that?
Lead Generation and Follow-up Systems
Speaker 2one sounds pretty good too.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's not a buy-in, this one's not, but for my, for my remote stuff, for the house tours I do and things like that, it's like 15 bucks. It's super cheap, it's great, yeah. So, yeah, it's an easy way to get in. Do you suggest? Well, first do lenders have like lead generating sources that, like you can purchase like a Zillow leads and Redfin leads.
Speaker 2Is it the?
Speaker 1same thing.
Speaker 2It's the same thing.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2We just have to. There's, you know, your realtorcom Zillow. I don't know about it on Redfin. I've never, I've never done that. I know I've done Zillow and I've done realtorcom.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2And then there's there's also like third party ones where you can go through and they just you know they have a different site, like FHA loanscom or VA loanscom. So it's like a people are looking for that information, they sign up for everything and then it's just a lead source through there. They all seem to be pretty much the same. You get variations of certain stuff. I feel like at times, the one where they are looking for a home, that's usually. There's a little more incentive there, as opposed to doing the research side, where it's like people are trying to figure out can I, what do I do to get an FHA loan? Is my credit even good enough? Do I have enough money? As opposed to somebody that's looking specifically for a home and they want information on that home.
Speaker 2That usually tends to be a little bit higher chances of it going through, but I've never. I've dabbled in it over the years and I've never really had great luck. I mean, I remember there was a time like 2016, 17, 18, maybe right around there, where realtorcom did pretty well, but overall I feel like I've I've never, really it's never been my best plan. Like it's kind of something to help, but it's never for the amount of time and energy that you put into it to drip on them for months and months and months it's.
Speaker 2I don't know, it's never been something I'd rather. I like the in person stuff. I like the networking, the building relationship side yeah, I think so, and the leads it's.
Speaker 1It's easy and and maybe this leads to a more general topic is it's very easy to chase the shiny object in real estate?
Speaker 1And I think like to be the. There is no, truly there's no such thing as an easy lead, Like there's no agreed besides your sphere of influence, besides you know, and even them, you have to keep them, keep in contact with them. But if anyone's promising you for a thousand dollars a month that you are going to get and the thing that gets me in real estate is like we guarantee X amount of leads and it's like that sounds like you're going to get that amount of buyers or sellers, and it's not true. You're only going to get, like even good agents. I was just watching a guy on my team talk about. He was talking about Google ads and things like that, which are generally a warmer lead.
Speaker 1yeah, that if you kind of optimize your people are searching for your realtor in wilsonville and you have these ads that, like they click on you so they're generally warmer leads because they're people that are looking for that or searching for that. But even then he was saying like a good is like two or three out of a hundred, potentially like wow, yeah like solid sales from the leads.
Speaker 1So yeah. So 100 leads guaranteed for 80 a month is means that you have to work those leads. So don't chase the shiny objects unless you know what it takes to chase the shiny objects because I'm not saying zillow, there's not. There, I'm sure are successful agents that spend thousands upon thousands of dollars a month in Zillow leads and do really well with it, but no one talks about the background like of no one talks about the background behind what goes into those leads and how many rejections you have to get and not to say rejection's bad.
Speaker 1but don't think that these guaranteed 500 leads mean you get 500 clients. You're not even going to get 250 clients. You're not even going to get 100 clients. You've really got to. And you have to have a system in the back end that not only you're contacting them but you have a CRM that takes them in and contacts them via text email.
Speaker 1You have to have these systems in place that no one tells you about until you purchase the program and you're like frustrated that after a month you're like, yeah, I get all these leads but no one calls me. Yeah, something, some stat that like a lead has to be touched eight to twelve times, no six to twelve times, with eight being kind of the average. How many times you have to reach out to a lead before they start? You know before you might start getting them.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1As as. I believe, that and how many of us including you, including me, I'm sure have reached out twice and been like man? They don't seem to be, responding.
Speaker 1So, moving on like and it hit me too, cause I was like I don't do that stuff, but I do have some random ones that click on the website and you, you know it's like oh, someone went to your website, like I how many times that I did it twice reached out by text, maybe called, left a message and no one yeah you know, it's like see you later and I guarantee that person bought a house I guarantee that, oh yeah the house, if I was to look back and see, but again just goes to that, like it's fine to pay the money but be ready to lose a lot of clients, but also be ready to have a CRM in place and a plan in place to nurture those clients, because it's not a guarantee.
Speaker 2Right, no, and I'm with you. I think that's the struggle that everybody runs into is the amount of times you need to reach out just to get a response. Just to even get a no, it might take four or five times of reaching out for them just to say response like just to even get
Speaker 2a no you know it might take four or five times of reaching out for them just to say, hey, I'm not interested. Perfect, thank you. That's all I needed. I just wanted to, you know, figure out what I'm, what I'm doing with you here. But it ends up being such a frustrating thing because you spend so much time reaching out, following up, putting everything together and you're paying for it and, like you said, the CRM and all this stuff and you start to look at it after a couple of months and going, how much am I spending here for nothing? And you know the hopes of getting something. So it's, it is. I think it's. If you're good at that, if you like being on the phone, if you're a just kind of a natural people person, you love to talk to people and try to kind of play the game with it, it might be a great fit. I know plenty of people that they're great at it.
Speaker 2They have no problems just phone call after phone call, every day all day, and that's just their comfort zone.
Speaker 1And other people.
Speaker 2It's not. I think it's just kind of like the social media thing, right, like making videos, it's like whatever feels like your best interest, whatever's natural for you. Obviously we got to push ourselves, but start with that For sure. If you like people but you don't like picking up the phone and calling people, find networking groups that you can go to connect with people, volunteer, get out in front of different groups of people that you can just slowly kind of let them know what you do. But just the natural progression.
Speaker 1You're right, it's like I, you know, I, I remember being new and being kind of like oh, should I door knock? Should I cold call? Should I social media? Should I do the Zillow lead? Should I do newsletters? Should I do? You know, and you're exactly right, find what you like to do on a daily basis, Find what's natural for you and what you like doing, and do it If it's door knocking and you're natural and you're like I could walk around neighborhoods and talk to people and love it.
Finding Your Authentic Approach
Speaker 1Walk around and door knock because it's successful. These are processes that have been in place for years that do work. But if you were like man, I saw this YouTube video on this guy that door knocks and he does so well and I want to be that good, but I hate door knocking. Don't try it. Yeah, like don't exactly not going to work Yep and you can be successful in other realms.
Speaker 2You can't you know, I did not door knock once and I'm fine, like huh, yeah.
Speaker 1So just your point of really just picking something you like and mastering it. None of it's going to be a get rich quick, none of it's going to be short term. You may get deals Some people do get deals from their first newsletter or their first door knock or their first cold call but just be prepared to like to spend the long game in everything you do. It's hard in this environment when we're trying to struggle for a dollar and struggle for struggle for a deal, especially new agents that are trying to get in this market. But I would say for new agents, get with teams, get with a brokerage or a team that like matches what you want to do, like mine.
Speaker 1Social media I got with a team with any exp, that's social media driven experts in the social media field on google, facebook, all the stuff, and that's what fit me, naturally and that's what's gained my success. But yeah, it's, it's tough. Anything final. I know we went on a long time. 30 minutes people are anything final. You want to do that you have to say before we kind of move on.
Speaker 2Just one last little thing about what we were just talking about is, like you said, it's a long play. You're not going to get instant gratification from it, but I think as long as you can feel good about what you did for your day, for your week, whatever that is, then you're going to, it's going to keep you going, because usually just doing those activities produces a good feeling and accomplishment. And I did this thing and it was. Maybe it was challenging or I was nervous about it and I pushed myself and I got to that next level to to motivate you more, because I don't know about you, but I know for me, if I've, if I'm planning or wanting to do something and I'm nervous about it, or you know, I don't know what I'm going to do or say, and then I don't do it, then I feel like it builds up that wall even more.
Speaker 2And then the next time, I think about doing it, I'm even more nervous about it. But if I just push through, usually I'm feeling like, oh, that wasn't that bad, Like I should, just why was I nervous about that? I should just move forward. And it kind of keeps that good momentum. But for sure the longer I put it off, the more I'm like oh my gosh, it's like this huge thing in your head of how how did I ever do this before? And now you're like oh, that's nothing, let's take the step.
Speaker 1You got to take the step no matter what it is. Start doing it. You can do this whole planning and over analysis paralysis. Start doing it. You can do this whole planning and over analysis paralysis by analysis and be like oh.
Speaker 1I'm going to start in a month. Let me just get everything set up At some point. You've just got to do it. And just if you, I look at my YouTube videos from when I first started and I cringed because they're so bad. But I just did it and it's like you just improve. You're like, okay, I can get this, I can do this, I can learn from this, I can get an editor to do this. So yeah, it just, it slowly builds on itself. But, but know that. I think my final thing is know that. You know, with the negative of saying real estate agents are dropping out, lenders are dropping out, now is the time to seize.
Speaker 1They're still clients and now is that time to seize that opportunity and there's less competition out there for you, so start dragging up the. You know those agents that did one, two deals a year that are now dropping out.
Speaker 1Take their one to two deals like start taking market share of the area that you're in and then, when times are good, you've established yourself as that person so that when times start, people start flooding in. Then you're that agent that has been doing it during the hard times. So stay motivated and stay consistent with the things that you choose to do.
Speaker 1And, cody, I know you will speak, I'll speak for you. But to say, if you guys are listening and you have any questions or concerns or even frustrations that you want to chat with us about and see how we overcame things or still overcome things and still struggle, with things. We're always here to help, I think, unlike maybe a lot of agents in this world. It's like there's plenty of buyers and sellers for everyone.
Speaker 2And I don't like to see agents drop out.
Speaker 1I like to see terrible agents drop out, but I don't like to see agents that are good people that are trying to do well for our industry drop out for these reasons. So I'm definitely a supporter of good agents. The bad ones don't call me and I'm not meaning bad, like you're just struggling to do good. The bad ones we all know who you are, so you drop out, don't call me. But the other ones, the other ones that want to do well and are trying to do well in our industry I'm more than happy to talk, and I'm sure you're the same with the lending side of things.
Speaker 2The same thing we'd love. I think both of us would love to help and, and you know, bounce ideas off each other. It's kind of the fun thing. The collaborative part of our businesses is being able to help each other, and when you can meet people that have the same mindset of we're not competing against each other, we're trying to make each other better Because, like you said, there's plenty of buyers and sellers, even in this market.
Speaker 2Now they're still. It's spread around enough. There's enough stuff that we can build each other up and encourage each other and help, rather than keeping it all to ourselves and not sharing anything. I think it's just most of the time, people don't implement it anyway.
Speaker 1So there's really no harm in sharing stuff. Absolutely, absolutely Okay, man. Well, thank you so much, I know we probably could have covered a little bit more, but I know people get done with us after about a half hour so we got to keep it short. But until next time we'll talk later.
Speaker 2Love it, see ya.
