From Zero to Instagram Success: Amanda Ryan's Journey in Real Estate Marketing

00:00:14 - Mike Mills

Hello.

00:00:14 - Mike Mills

Hello, everybody. Mike Mills with Mike Mills Mortgage and Finance here. This is Mike Mills Mortgage and Finance and I am dressed up today. I actually have a shirt with a collar on because because I have a very special guest joining me today. I want to make sure I look my best and not my normal raggedy t shirt. Today we're going to talk about marketing in real estate and specifically with social media. We do a lot of stuff or I do a lot of stuff on this channel about marketing and advertising for real estate agents and what they can do to kind of help grow their business a little bit. And I always like to talk to people that have actually done it. Now, I've had people on here that have done it in the past, or they have a business that they run, and they do it for agents. And there's a lot of valuable, wonderful people, coaches out there that do a great job. But I really like to hear from agents that have boots on the ground that are actually doing it and have had successes but also can tell us about their failures that led to them having successes. So joining me today is Miss Amanda Ryan. Hey, look at my timing on that. It worked out really well.

00:01:16 - Amanda Ryan

Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to be here.

00:01:19 - Mike Mills

Thank you, Amanda. I appreciate you being here. So Amanda is with the on the move team. DFW did I say it right?

00:01:26 - Amanda Ryan

Yes.

00:01:26 - Mike Mills

Okay, good. With Keller Williams. Now, she's been in real estate for just a little over six years correct. Which I'm sure you've experienced in dealing with other agents in the world. That was like, I've been doing this for 30 years, so there's a lot of everybody's been out there doing it for a long time. But in the short amount of time and perspective wise that you've been doing this, you have had a very successful career for yourself. You have built a strong team that's now supporting that development, and you have had a really good amount of success with social media. And for someone that's only been in the business for six years, that's a lot of things to accomplish in a short amount of time. So I want to start just by finding out a little bit about you and find out kind of how you got into the business and what brought you into real estate, where you kind of came from. So tell us a little bit about all that kind of fun stuff.

00:02:19 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. So taking it a little far back. Not too far. A little further back, but I'm originally from Ohio, and I went to college in South Carolina at Coastal Carolina University. Graduated. I got my so what took you.

00:02:36 - Mike Mills

From Ohio to South Carolina?

00:02:38 - Amanda Ryan

So I thought it would be great to be able to study but at the beach instead of in the cold I like it.

00:02:44 - Mike Mills

I like it.

00:02:45 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. The winters are so cold in Ohio, and so I said, you know what, if I'm going to have to pay student loans no matter where I go, I want to be comfortable and I want to at least be able to study on the beach. I love it. Yeah. I went to Coastal Carolina, graduated from there with a degree in sports administration, knew that I wouldn't be able to really grow up in South Carolina. Coastal Carolina is just right outside of Myrtle Beach, and so it's a very tourist and college town, and so there's like no way I could actually adult there.

00:03:20 - Mike Mills

I had a very similar understand not the beach, but mine was different. But yes, very impossible to adult in those situations. I totally understand.

00:03:27 - Amanda Ryan

No way. So I moved back to Ohio, got a full time job, and that ended up turning into my dream job, was to be an athletic director.

00:03:39 - Mike Mills

Yes.

00:03:40 - Amanda Ryan

And so that was great. I worked there for two years and loved what I did. I didn't have to teach and be in the classroom, and yet I was able to be a part of the sports experience and having coach referee all of these official meetings.

00:04:04 - Mike Mills

What did you play when you were in high school?

00:04:07 - Amanda Ryan

Just about everything. So I ran track, I was a cheerleader, I was in gymnastics, I played lacrosse. Yes. When I went to Coastal, that's when I continued play lacrosse. So I've always just been very athletic and always a part of a team, and so I just really resonated with that. Sports was such a big part of my life, so that's why I got my degree in sports administration and knew that I wanted to be an athletic director. And so it was crazy because graduating college like months later, I was in my dream job as an Ad and it was awesome. It was really great. My best friend, my childhood best friend had moved to Texas because her parents moved here one summer. And so this is when I was still living in Ohio, her parents transferred to Texas.

00:04:57 - Mike Mills

So the job you got for the Ad was in Ohio back in it was, yeah.

00:05:01 - Amanda Ryan

And so I came for a summer for a weekend to visit her, and she was dating a guy who was roommate.

00:05:11 - Mike Mills

Nick's, your husband.

00:05:12 - Amanda Ryan

Nick is my husband now, yeah. So what was it, eight years ago? Met Nick that summer. We were really long distance, and then I decided to just pick up everything, move to Texas.

00:05:25 - Mike Mills

Now.

00:05:26 - Mike Mills

Did you meet him in college?

00:05:27 - Amanda Ryan

No, that's when I had graduated college. I was in my full time job.

00:05:31 - Mike Mills

As an oh, you came to visit her and met him while you were here?

00:05:34 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah.

00:05:35 - Mike Mills

Gotcha okay.

00:05:35 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. And so, yeah, I spent that summer just really coming here every weekend, every other weekend. And Nick is a business owner. He owns Killer Hot Rods which is a classic custom car hot rod.

00:05:49 - Mike Mills

Oh, wow.

00:05:50 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. That's awesome business. And so I knew there was no way that I was going to get him to move to yeah. Because his business is already established here. And let's be honest, you already know how I feel about the cold weather.

00:06:03 - Mike Mills

Right. You weren't exactly upset that you might want to move out of Ohio, right?

00:06:09 - Amanda Ryan

So I was like, okay, fine, I'll go ahead and move to Texas. And so I did. The funny thing, though, is that when I moved here, I was like, okay, I'm going to just get right back in the swing of things. I'm going to be an athletic director. The funny thing is that you can't be an athletic director without having your teaching degree.

00:06:28 - Mike Mills

Is that a Texas thing?

00:06:29 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:06:29 - Amanda Ryan

And so I was like, okay, teaching is not my jam. That's not going to happen.

00:06:34 - Mike Mills

It's not a lot of people's jam these days. The teachers are leaving left and right on us.

00:06:38 - Amanda Ryan

No way. Well, I ended up finding a fundraising job, which was cold calling coaches and athletic directors to get them to run a fundraiser. It was a catalog filled with personalized clothing that supported their team.

00:06:55 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:06:55 - Amanda Ryan

And so I took that job, just thought it would be temporary and ended up actually loving it. I had a cold call, but talking to coaches and athletic directors was my thing already. I had done it in the past.

00:07:07 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:07:07 - Amanda Ryan

So I worked there. It was a very male dominated industry, and yet I rose to the top. I was rookie of the year, had top number of sales and fundraisers that were coordinated. So it was really cool.

00:07:23 - Mike Mills

You were hustling it and killing it.

00:07:25 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. Yes.

00:07:26 - Mike Mills

How were all the other guys? Were they like, it's okay, or they're.

00:07:30 - Amanda Ryan

Like, they were good? No, they were it's naturally it's going to be a competitive um yeah, it was good. And I don't regret one thing about that position because it taught me so many things. One of the girls, Rachel, had left from there and got into real estate, and her and I were pretty close. Just again, it was a very male dominated yeah, you're one of the few.

00:07:57 - Mike Mills

Ladies there, so you all are budies.

00:07:59 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, we had our own little girl team there.

00:08:03 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

00:08:04 - Amanda Ryan

So I met up with her and we were just talking, and she was telling me about real estate, and I was just immediately sold. I was like, wait, I get to be my own boss. I get to make my own hours. This that. So I ended up getting into real estate school shortly after meeting with her on it. So I did my classes online, and then not too long after, I was quitting and getting into real estate full time.

00:08:31 - Mike Mills

Wow.

00:08:31 - Mike Mills

So when you got finished, did you go right. Was Keller Williams the first place that you went?

00:08:37 - Amanda Ryan

It was okay.

00:08:38 - Mike Mills

Why did you choose them when you were looking around?

00:08:40 - Amanda Ryan

So I had met and what's funny is I never went to any other brokerage.

00:08:45 - Mike Mills

Oh, wow.

00:08:46 - Amanda Ryan

I had met with a few agents. I had met with a team leader. I had went to Career Night, and I was just like, this is where I want to be. These people, they're going to show me the way. They're doing bigger and better things. They can show me the ropes without me having to reinvent the wheel. And so I never even went anywhere else. So Keller Williams, day one, and I'm still here today.

00:09:11 - Mike Mills

Well, it's very much they have their own culture, and when you show up, you just don't experience that really anywhere, honestly. There's other big box brokerages like the Remaxes and the Century Twenty One S and all those of the world, which are all great, too, but Keller just does things differently, and they create a different atmosphere. They have very strong team building events. And what I mean by that is just like what you went to you were telling me, the megacamp. Yeah, the megacamp that you guys had. I mean, stuff like that. Other places just don't do that kind of stuff. And when you can get everybody in a place together and get them excited about what they do, the power of that is immeasurable, right?

00:09:53 - Amanda Ryan

Hands down.

00:09:53 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

00:09:54 - Amanda Ryan

The culture, the people, the training, the systems, the models, all the things. It's funny because I remember going to Career Night and having a question about getting into the business, and what can I expect business? And I know that it's commission based, so what's it going to look like until I get paid, right? And everyone was just like, oh, here, let me tell you this. Let me share this with you. Let me help you. And it was kind of like, hey, let's all take arms in this together, and let me show you the way. And so I just remember that, and I'm like, okay, I don't even have to meet anywhere else.

00:10:31 - Mike Mills

Well, it's kind of like house shopping, right? Truly.

00:10:34 - Amanda Ryan

I tell people, check all the boxes. Yes, great. Put an offer in.

00:10:37 - Mike Mills

Yeah, well, when you're out looking, because you deal with, obviously, buyers, and so do I, and they'll say, oh, we like this one, and we kind of like this one, and blah, blah, blah. And you're like, well, then neither one of those are the one. And you're like, what do you mean? I'm like, Because when you find the one, yeah, you'll know, like, there won't be a well, maybe it's like, no, this is the one. I've experienced that with every house that I've bought with. I mean, not me, per se, but my wife, for sure, when we go look at four or five different houses, and she's like, this one's okay. And then we pull up to one, she's like, this is it. And I'm like, how do you know, she's like, I just know.

00:11:07 - Amanda Ryan

I just know.

00:11:08 - Mike Mills

All right, so it's kind of the same thing, right?

00:11:10 - Amanda Ryan

I don't need to waste any more time. Let's just get to it.

00:11:12 - Mike Mills

So how long did go on your own? I don't know. I say on your own. Keller is very structured with teams, and they have mentors and all that kind of stuff. But from the difference between where you started doing it right out of the gate versus where you're at now with your team, how did that transition? How did that all play out?

00:11:31 - Amanda Ryan

So I have a different story than most agents when they get into the business. So I met with a team that was a very successful team, and I said, I want to get into the business. I'm a little nervous about going all in full commission.

00:11:48 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:11:49 - Amanda Ryan

And so do you have any opportunities for somebody that just wants to get their feet wet? And so this team had an opening for an inside sales agent position. And so that's what I started with. What is that just I was the one that was generating leads for the team.

00:12:08 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:12:08 - Amanda Ryan

And so I was the one cold calling for sale by owners, expired online leads, and then once I set the appointment, giving those to the agents.

00:12:20 - Mike Mills

So I want you to talk a little bit about that because there's this fear. Maybe fear is not the right word, but there's certainly a hesitation for a lot of quote unquote salespeople real estate agents, whatever, when it comes to the whole idea of cold calling. It's terrifying.

00:12:36 - Amanda Ryan

Right?

00:12:37 - Mike Mills

I'm not going to call random person. I don't know how to do that right now. You went from doing it right out of the gate because I've actually done similar to thing where you were talking about how you were selling the not the subscriptions, but the specific apparel to the schools or whatever.

00:12:53 - Amanda Ryan

Fundraising.

00:12:54 - Mike Mills

So one of the jobs that I had in college, I worked for a local newspaper. It's called the Fort Worth Business Press in Fort Worth. And I was selling advertising. Well, I mean, that is like knocking on every single possible business that you can imagine showing up. They don't want to buy it. It's a newspaper. This was like right as the Internet was starting to kind of take off, too. And they're like, why would I want to do this? But you have to deal with rejection because you just get told no so many times, and eventually you're just like, numb to it, kind of. But just talk a little bit about what it's like doing the cold calling thing and why it's been something that you've been easily maybe not easily, but just been able to manage without getting frustrated by it.

00:13:31 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, well, the fundraising job definitely molded me.

00:13:36 - Mike Mills

Correct.

00:13:37 - Amanda Ryan

And so when I knew that I wanted to get into real estate and it's one of those when you're like, I'm going to do any and everything to make this happen.

00:13:48 - Mike Mills

Right?

00:13:48 - Amanda Ryan

And so I was like, okay, I'm going to take this job that nobody else wants to do, and I'm just going to hustle, and I'm going to get it done. And so it's like, choose your hard, right? And so what's my hard? Either getting rejected by cold calling or not becoming a full time agent like I want to.

00:14:09 - Mike Mills

Right?

00:14:09 - Amanda Ryan

And so I chose my hard.

00:14:11 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:14:12 - Amanda Ryan

And so I picked up the phone, and I cold called, and I was setting all these appointments for these agents. It wasn't too long. I imagined being in this position, like, six months to a year, and it wasn't even two months. And I was like, I am setting all of these appointments for others.

00:14:30 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

00:14:30 - Amanda Ryan

I'm like, I'm going to do it, and I'm going to do it for myself now. And so I had that conversation with that same team leader for that team that I was on, and she was like, yeah, I agree. I think that you're like, go ahead. And so that's when I really dove all in.

00:14:49 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:14:50 - Amanda Ryan

And then so I was then in the office cold calling and setting appointments, but this time they were for yourself. And so being new to Texas, I didn't have family, friends.

00:15:01 - Mike Mills

You don't have the sphere because you didn't know anybody.

00:15:03 - Amanda Ryan

I didn't have all of that. So cold call was how I built my business. And what's so funny is that I don't regret that at all because looking back on that six years now, some of my best loyal, most repeat clients, most referrals, they're from expired, they're from for sale by owners. So it's really cool. Yes. You get rejected. Yes. It's not for the week. You got to kind of have a backbone to do it.

00:15:31 - Mike Mills

You got to have a little thick skin. You might have someone drop some unfriendly words at you from.

00:15:34 - Amanda Ryan

I mean, it happens, right? It can also happen with your family, too.

00:15:38 - Mike Mills

Yeah, it certainly can.

00:15:40 - Amanda Ryan

So, yeah, I don't regret it at all and glad that I took the time to do that and build my business that way.

00:15:48 - Mike Mills

Is it still a part of what you guys do as a team now? Not for you, probably, because I'm sure you're not cold calling like you used to, but you all have it as an element of what you all do.

00:15:56 - Amanda Ryan

We don't, really. Yeah. What's crazy? So I was on that team for about two years, had left, went on my own for just a little bit. Now. I still had my showing specialist with me. I had a part time admin at that time, but that's really when COVID hit, and I was like, okay, it doesn't feel right to cold call people when I've got people that I'm cold calling. They're out of a job. They're sick. Their family is sick. They don't know how they're going to page yeah. They didn't know how they were going to pay their mortgage or do whatever they needed to do. It was just really weird. It didn't feel organic, it didn't feel right. So that's when I said, okay, I'm going to drop the cold calling. I'm going to get real with social media, and I'm going to see what this does for me.

00:16:45 - Mike Mills

So the idea during COVID was you were doing cold calling. You were really having a lot of success at that, but because of the circumstances, like you said, kind of didn't feel the right way to go about things. So the next thing you're looking for is, okay, I got to find another avenue to reach customers.

00:17:03 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:17:03 - Mike Mills

So what is that going to look like? Well, now your avenue is social media. Was there anything in particular? Did you have, like, an AHA moment or anything where social media is the way versus saying, I'm going to start doing mailers or I'm going to start the old school way of marketing? Was there something about that in particular other than you just knew people were there?

00:17:23 - Amanda Ryan

Well, I thought of it like this. What do I have more of? Time or money? And so mailers cost money. Posting advertisements online or buying leads from Zillow, all of that costs money?

00:17:42 - Mike Mills

Yes.

00:17:42 - Amanda Ryan

So what do I have more of? Money or time? I knew that I had more time, and so that's when I said, okay, I feel that with my time, I can put out value, I can put out content that I know of that I'm an expert in. Put that out there and let's just see what it does. And so that's what I did. It's funny because, Mike, I did not have this glamorous. Like, I did not have anything like this. I had a spare bedroom where the bed was in the middle of nobody's.

00:18:15 - Mike Mills

Ever described the studio as glamorous, by the way, but thank you.

00:18:18 - Amanda Ryan

Very nice. I like it. Thank you. I had a spare bedroom, and I never let anybody see the bed, the dresser, the TV, certain angle. I totally cornered. I'm like, don't look behind me. I had a desk and I had all of these millionaire real estate shift, like all these books that my camera stood on top of.

00:18:44 - Mike Mills

I love it.

00:18:45 - Amanda Ryan

I didn't have the nice little tripods like we have today, so that's what I used. And I just positioned myself in a corner so that you couldn't see anything. It was just a white wall. And I just went to work.

00:18:59 - Mike Mills

Started talking.

00:19:00 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. Recording videos.

00:19:02 - Mike Mills

What kind of stuff did you start with? Where did you feel like in your mind that you're like, all right, did you start with videos? Did you start with pictures? Did you start with how did you come up with your plan of attack? And I love if the answer is I had no idea what I was doing. I just turned the camera around and started talking. I think that's awesome too, because that's sometimes how you learn. So did you have a strategy or did you just try it out?

00:19:26 - Amanda Ryan

I was already posting standard posts.

00:19:29 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:19:30 - Amanda Ryan

With photos and closing like, stories and all of that.

00:19:35 - Mike Mills

Pictures of your listings.

00:19:36 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, I was doing that. And then I said, okay, what can I do that is going to make people stop the scroll? Now, it wasn't called stop the scroll back then. Right now, that's like a term that everybody uses. But so I just really dove into video.

00:19:53 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:19:54 - Amanda Ryan

That was really where I wanted to start.

00:19:58 - Mike Mills

Did you understand how impactful video was at the time? I'm sure you know now, obviously, because you do it. But at that time, did you realize that it would be because one of the things we talk about that I bring people on, we talk about all the time with video is I think there's a hierarchy of communication, right. The lowest form of communication in my mind is like email, right. It comes across, people see it, but engagement or whatever, it's got low impact. I still think it has its place, but it's just not there.

00:20:27 - Amanda Ryan

Right, right.

00:20:28 - Mike Mills

Then you have maybe I would call it maybe text messaging, right? Text messaging is great. Sending someone a message is fine. They'll communicate, but it doesn't carry tone. Things get lost in translation all the time. It's got issues of itself. Then I would say like a phone call, right? Pick up the phone, talk to somebody. You get their voice, you hear their voice. It's a communication level there. I would say the highest level is what you and I are doing right now, right. Sitting face to face and having a conversation, being able to see body language and talk. But I would say right under that would be video.

00:20:58 - Amanda Ryan

I agree.

00:21:00 - Mike Mills

I think that's not a secret anymore. Everybody kind of knows that's what it is. But I wouldn't say when you started that, that was as prevalent as like, oh, video is the answer. So was that just something you felt or did you have some idea of you thought that that was the best.

00:21:12 - Mike Mills

Way to do it?

00:21:13 - Amanda Ryan

Well, I would say thinking back, I probably didn't know that video was going to be what it is today.

00:21:23 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:21:24 - Amanda Ryan

But I also had all of the time, so why not just explore? Why not see what works?

00:21:31 - Mike Mills

Mike a little bit.

00:21:32 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. What sticks? And so I felt that if I were to just mix in a new medium, let's just see what that does. And so that's what I did. And I created videos on just standard real estate things.

00:21:47 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

00:21:48 - Amanda Ryan

And it was like all of the basics.

00:21:52 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:21:52 - Amanda Ryan

And that way I could educate and just put something out there and then see what kind of response I got back. And then that just continued to grow.

00:22:06 - Mike Mills

I guess. Really? Do you remember. Do you remember when you started if you felt like there were a lot of people doing video at that time or was it seem more scarce? Because one of the comments that I'll get from agents from time to time is when we have these conversations is something like, well, there's so many people out there making videos right now, I would just be another voice in the crowd. It's not going to have any impact, I should do something else, whatever. Because I'm not very good at it. But we know you work on stuff, you get better. But back then, back then it wasn't that long ago. It was two, three years ago, a little over, but considering everything that's happened between now and then, it seems like a lifetime ago. Yeah, but do you remember if video was as prevalent, if you saw people, if you had a feeling like I can't make it because everybody else is doing I'm going to blend in, or do you even recall that at all? Because you're like, this is just what I got to do.

00:22:59 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, I don't remember. But honestly, if I were to think up back, I probably was thinking I don't care. Yeah, I don't care. And even today there are thousands of videos being posted all time. Yeah, especially today, by the way, and on all of the different platforms. Because let's just face it, there's 101 different platforms that you can be on.

00:23:26 - Mike Mills

Absolutely.

00:23:26 - Amanda Ryan

And I would think that my answer is still I don't care.

00:23:29 - Mike Mills

Yeah, well, and that probably comes from your I'm sure it's ingrained in you automatically from birth, but it also probably comes from your experience in dealing with the cold calling in that if someone doesn't like a video or thinks, what do you care? Like it doesn't make any difference to you. And really another thing I've tried to impart people wanting to go down this road is when you first start off, people are great, the response is awesome. People are always very supportive and have positive things to say. Once you get to a certain point and you get more traction with your videos or you say something, maybe you'll have people that will have a comment, some stranger in Ohio that might have something to say about it, but it doesn't matter. And it's that thick skin of being able to cold call someone and them having tell you no to make it easier to do these videos because you don't care what the response is.

00:24:20 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. And that's the biggest thing I hear people say all the time, you're so great at video, you show up, you look good, you sound good, nobody ever hates on you. And I'm like, listen, it is not actually that is very far from the truth. There's times when I don't want to show up. I don't feel like I look good. I've got a giant zit on my nose, my voice is all groggy because, gosh, I don't know about you, but hearing myself talk is like cringeworthy. But it's still just showing up and being consistent. When I look back on my first videos, I'm like, oh, God. Like, girlfriend, what were you thinking? What were you doing? What were you saying? Bless your little heart.

00:25:05 - Mike Mills

Yes.

00:25:06 - Amanda Ryan

And yet those videos are still getting views. They're still getting comments on them. I would say for somebody that is wanting to break into the video space or even just social media alone is just get started. Yes. There's all of these different people that are out there doing it, and yet there's going to be that one person that resonates with you. Somebody that watches my stuff, may not watch your stuff, or somebody that watches your stuff may not resonate with what I'm saying. And so that's the beauty of social media. I get asked this question, and it's who is your ideal client? Well, recently, within the last year, as I've kind of been growing and evolving through video and social know, figuring out who that avatar is, who is it that you want to work with? The most beautiful thing is that when I'm putting out content that speaks to that person, that's the type of client that I'm attracting. And so it's funny because our showing specialist, Amanda, she's amazing. She's like, all of our clients are the best. They're so cute. They're young little families and all these things. And she's like, they're like my little children. And it's funny because I'm like, yes, that's the goal. We're putting out content that speaks to them because that's who we want to work with. That's who I want to work with. That's who you can relate with. And so that's the beauty about video and social media is that when I cold call somebody, their home expired or it's for sale by owner on one, two, three, Main Street. I don't know who's going to pick.

00:26:50 - Mike Mills

Up the phone, right?

00:26:51 - Amanda Ryan

But when I'm putting out content that's going to relate with the 33 to 37 year old female who has a young family or wants to have a family, that's who I'm getting to then work with.

00:27:04 - Mike Mills

Yeah, you're picking your customers, basically with.

00:27:07 - Amanda Ryan

What you put out, and that's what it is.

00:27:10 - Mike Mills

Well, and you're three years into it. And that's where I think a lot of people that are thinking about or want to do it or trying to do it, because I do see a lot of nowadays again, because the market has slowed down a little bit. Everybody's like, how do I got to get I read something the other day, just this year alone, like, 60,000 agents, national association of Realtors said 60,000 agents got out of the business, which is I don't want to say it's good, but it is. Because there were a lot of just like lenders. There was massive amounts of us when the market was crazy, and there's a lot. Of great ones out there, but there's a lot that maybe needed to not be there anymore.

00:27:48 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:27:50 - Mike Mills

But when you're starting off something and you're trying to improve yourself to have the expectation that you're going to make this quality, wonderful content that everybody's going to engage with, and it's going to be amazing. And I'll speak for personal experience. When I first started thinking about doing video or putting stuff out, because I was always like a casual observer of social media that I would flip through and look at stuff from time to time, but I very rarely engaged, period. I didn't like comments. I didn't nothing. I just was like, okay, it was 5 minutes to kill and then move on to whatever. And then once I started doing it more, I started in a place where I wrote out every, okay, I want.

00:28:26 - Mike Mills

It to look like this.

00:28:27 - Mike Mills

I'm put the camera here and it had to be perfect, right? It had to be exactly perfect. And what I found was that was just an excuse to not do it. Because when I didn't get through the whole thing of putting it together, it's like, well, what's not going to work? I'll just do something different, you know what I mean? And the power of just doing it regardless of if it's perfect or not is such an important thing, for sure. And when you start and you've been doing it for three years, and someone comes in and you know, Amanda's great, but you didn't see it for the first three weeks or first six months.

00:28:57 - Amanda Ryan

When she was doing it.

00:28:58 - Mike Mills

You're seeing it after she's had three years of experience and coaching and help to figuring it out, trial and error and all that kind of stuff.

00:29:05 - Mike Mills

That's right.

00:29:05 - Mike Mills

You've gone through the whole process and still, if I would guess, you're still learning, right?

00:29:10 - Amanda Ryan

Oh, of course.

00:29:10 - Mike Mills

Still figuring it out.

00:29:11 - Amanda Ryan

I'm still figuring it out. I don't know that anyone has the secret sauce.

00:29:16 - Mike Mills

No, there's not.

00:29:17 - Amanda Ryan

And let me be clear, it's not about going viral.

00:29:20 - Mike Mills

No.

00:29:21 - Amanda Ryan

This is a long term game for me.

00:29:22 - Mike Mills

Yes.

00:29:23 - Amanda Ryan

And what that looks like is building an audience. That is the core of my business.

00:29:29 - Mike Mills

Yes.

00:29:30 - Amanda Ryan

I don't need a video to take off and get 500,000 likes and views and comments on it.

00:29:36 - Mike Mills

Doesn't do any good.

00:29:37 - Amanda Ryan

Doesn't do me any good if nobody is reaching out, asking questions or engaging or DMing me to help them with their real estate needs. So it's a long term game, constantly learning and growing through the growing pains of it.

00:29:52 - Mike Mills

Well, we talked a little bit before we went on Live about this, but I want you to speak to it again since you just kind of brought it up there. But talk about the importance of knowing why you're doing the social media part, right? Because you said it's not about going viral. So what do you mean by that? Explain that a little bit.

00:30:06 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. So the purpose for me in putting out the content is that I want to provide value. I want to educate somebody and I want to be relatable with them. And so putting out the content where I'm always thinking like, okay, what do I want somebody to do with this content? Am I trying to educate them? Am I trying to get them to comment or share DM me or tag somebody, whatever it is? And so the long game for me is the educational piece. And so I think about video in the sense of, like, when I'm sleeping, somebody's watching my video, it's working for me. And so when I put out valuable content, it's going to be relevant always. It's going to be a value add to somebody.

00:31:00 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:31:00 - Mike Mills

That's the what do they call it? Evergreen content.

00:31:02 - Amanda Ryan

Evergreen content.

00:31:03 - Mike Mills

Evergreen content. Anybody that doesn't know explain what evergreen content is.

00:31:08 - Amanda Ryan

So it's content that is going to be relatable with somebody, and it's going to always be something that relates with them or that somebody can see value in it's. One of those YouTube videos or those Instagram reels that somebody know a year ago, years ago, it's still relevant. And it's still relevant.

00:31:27 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

00:31:27 - Mike Mills

Anything that you can put out that doesn't necessarily have to do with right now, but ultimately can be used down the road too. Right. Another thing that you've at least from the outside looking in, I think that you've done, which is always I don't know that it's a debate in the social media marketing world, but I think it's certainly people have different opinions on it. But I think the way that you've done it has been, I think there's a lot of value to it, which is focusing on one particular platform. So at least it appears. And you can tell me if I'm wrong because whenever I bring people on to talk about this stuff, I do a little social media stalking because I see what's going on.

00:32:01 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:32:02 - Mike Mills

So Facebook, I could find you, but it wasn't easy, right? It was a little bit harder. And it wasn't clear, especially for your personal page, that you were realtor your team's on there, the on the move team's on there, but it was a little more challenging there. TikTok you have the team on there, but at least as far as I could find, you're not personally on there necessarily.

00:32:24 - Amanda Ryan

It's my account.

00:32:25 - Mike Mills

Yeah, well, of course, yeah, I know it's yours, but you're not you're you're the team on that. You know, YouTube, I think you had a few things there too, but really where the bulk and traction of everything that I see from you is from Instagram.

00:32:42 - Amanda Ryan

That's right.

00:32:42 - Mike Mills

So Instagram seems to be the one that you really put a lot of your time and focus on. So what was it that made you decide that you wanted to focus on one particular platform? I mean, you still have stuff on the other ones and it gets put out. But it does appear like you really are geared towards Instagram. What is it about Instagram specifically that made you want to focus on that one?

00:32:59 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, I love instagram. I think Instagram is such a great platform for so many different reasons. It allows me to connect with individuals, with business owners, with other realtors in areas, and then just local and organic past clients, friends, family. And so I feel that with the different capabilities that you can have on Instagram, there's so much opportunity for you to stand apart, to shine. And so that's why I decided to go all in on Instagram. What's funny is, even though Facebook has the reels feature, still, you're not going to find all of my reels on Facebook like you do on Instagram. When I'm showing up in my stories, I'm showing up on Instagram stories, not Facebook stories. And then the same with all the other platforms as well. So, yeah, I really love instagram. I love all the features of Instagram. The majority of our social media business is driven through Instagram. It's very easy to set up. I have a personal profile since growing the team, our team has a profile now as well. But my personal profile, it's a creator account. I'm able to still put on there my number, my email, my website. I'm able to put on different links to our YouTube channel or Stories, or carousel posts that have multiple photos in them. Videos, stories, lives, guides, right? There's just so many different things that you can do within Instagram that I just love. So that is definitely my number one platform. It's my favorite platform.

00:34:46 - Mike Mills

This is a weird question. How old are you?

00:34:48 - Amanda Ryan

33.

00:34:49 - Mike Mills

33, okay. So I wonder if there's a little bit of generational stuff too, because I'm 45. So I'm a little older than you, if you can't tell by all the gray and the white there, but didn't.

00:35:01 - Amanda Ryan

Notice it until you said it.

00:35:02 - Mike Mills

Yeah, my wife's a little bit, she's about same age as me, about one year younger. But she specifically was a big user of Facebook for a long time because that was the one that came along kind of in the age of we were maybe in our late 20s, early 30s when it showed up and we had our kids. But that's kind of when everything started. Instagram didn't really come along until a little bit later. But I have a younger sister who is about your age and she loves Instagram. Like, Instagram is her thing and Facebook's like Facebook, she's way into Instagram. But then if I go, I had a girl on here recently who was she's not a realtor, but she does a lot of stuff in the real estate industry space. And she calls herself a Gen Z guru. Like she does a lot of talk about Gen Z and what they're looking at and they are TikTok is their jam. And she was telling me she told me a story about we were talking about going out to eat, right? So let me ask you, when you go out to eat, you and your husband or your family, you're going out to eat and you're in a place you don't know, where do you go to figure out where you want to go eat?

00:36:14 - Mike Mills

Gosh.

00:36:16 - Amanda Ryan

Okay, so I typically go to Instagram.

00:36:20 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:36:21 - Amanda Ryan

Or Yelp.

00:36:22 - Mike Mills

Yelp. Okay.

00:36:23 - Amanda Ryan

But I do like Instagram because there's Dallas love list and Fort Worth Lovelist.

00:36:28 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:36:28 - Mike Mills

Don't even know that that exists. I have no idea that exists.

00:36:31 - Amanda Ryan

Oh my gosh. You have to go follow them.

00:36:32 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:36:32 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. They're really great. And like, you can go on there and see where they've been and look at reviews and what they love about it.

00:36:38 - Mike Mills

See, so you went to do I'm going to Instagram. Like, that's where I'm going. And then you did say Yelp, because I go to Yelp.

00:36:44 - Amanda Ryan

I do go to Yelp.

00:36:45 - Mike Mills

That's where I go. I go to Yelp. I'm like, what's around here? And a lot of times I'm just going to try to figure out I know every restaurant that's here, but sometimes you just need a reminder and go, oh yeah, I forgot. Let's go to this place. We haven't been there in a while.

00:36:55 - Mike Mills

Whatever.

00:36:56 - Mike Mills

So I'm talking to the Gen Z girl, and she was telling me about because she travels a lot and goes places for her job that they go to TikTok and there's people that post, and she'll like, Arizona, Phoenix, the best restaurants for whatever. And there's a million TikToks about this stuff because have you ever been to Yelp? And she's like, I don't what? Oh my gosh, okay. I'm so old. But you say you go to Instagram. So it's like there's this bleed down of these different platforms depending on when you were born and which one you just kind of gravitate and use more because it was the thing at that period of time. So, I mean, I know obviously that's funny, the Bells and know and the different uses play a role, too. But I do think there's this generational thing on these platforms where you see traditionally here's another weird thing. So again, my sister who's close to your age, I don't think she even has a Facebook account. She might, but I'm not 100% certain, right? If she does, I've never seen it, and she doesn't post. I know she has Instagram, but my kids, okay, and my kids friends, they're starting to create Facebook accounts. And my daughter's 15, and it's weird for me because she has volleyball. I've got like six of her friends that are her friends from school, the friend of me. And I'm like, I don't think so. But it's like that cycle over of the next generation coming through because now they're all maybe it's because their parents post on Facebook all the time. And we post the first day of school pics and all this kind of stuff. But now she's on TikTok more than anything. But I'm just saying they're creating Facebook accounts and there seems like there's this gap of a generation that just didn't have Facebook at all that's so interesting and now they're fleeting back or loading back into there. So I don't know, it's just my.

00:38:47 - Amanda Ryan

Theory probably wouldn't be active on Facebook if I wasn't a realtor if it.

00:38:53 - Mike Mills

Wasn'T for yeah, I don't know that I would be active on social media, period.

00:38:58 - Amanda Ryan

Honestly, I do love social media, but it's it's different platforms that I'm more interested in. And when I first got started with social media, the thought to me was like, okay, which platform am I going to dedicate myself to? Which 01:00 a.m. I going to decide to go all in on? I'm still going to be a part of these other ones just to get my name out there. I still have a Facebook business page. There's reviews on there. Right. Because there's going to be somebody that that's going to relate to.

00:39:31 - Mike Mills

You got to sell to somebody over 60.

00:39:33 - Amanda Ryan

Right, right.

00:39:35 - Mike Mills

Like us old people.

00:39:37 - Amanda Ryan

Yes. And so I still have that. But when I was first getting started with deciding during COVID that I was going to go all in on social media, it was like, okay, which 01:00 a.m. I going to be consistent on, which 01:00 a.m. I going to just be the expert in. I'm pretty average at all the others, but I really have it nailed down on Instagram's platform.

00:40:00 - Mike Mills

So what do you find on Instagram right now? Well, hang on, let me back up a second. So I talked about coaching, and you've mentioned coaching before for your business, not for you personally. Right. Do you use coaches in things outside of because I know Keller has a lot of stuff, but do you have somebody who helps you with social media that isn't a part of your team that says, hey, this is what's what? Do you have somebody that does have or have you I should say I.

00:40:26 - Amanda Ryan

Have a business coach. Right. Like for my business. Right. Because I want somebody to be able to teach me how to grow a big team and how to successfully do it without me having to learn the.

00:40:36 - Mike Mills

Ropes the hard way.

00:40:37 - Amanda Ryan

Yes. Reinvent the wheel and go through the growing pains that somebody else has already gone through that's right. So, yes, I do have a business coach. On the social media side, we do have part time marketer kaylee, she used to be in the real estate agent business. She had a full time job at our Keller Williams office and she's just always been in the marketing side of things. I brought her on part time to post on the team account that I'm not going to go post on. Managing one social media account is enough for me especially when it's just Instagram. And that's my main focus. Yet I still want to be relevant and still want to put content out there, still want to highlight the team and share different things that's going on in the community. So she takes that off of my plate. So if you go to our team on the move, DFW, Instagram, Facebook, you're going to see posts regularly. It's not me. That's not my Instagram page. That there's always constant posts and videos and stories. That's me.

00:41:41 - Mike Mills

Okay, so she's posting stuff for you, but Kaylee is her name. Nothing is Kaylee, by the way. She's not going, hey, you should do this or you should do this, you should do this. You're kind of doing that yourself. Here's what I want to put out.

00:41:54 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, right. I mean, I'm just like when you first get into the business, they teach you you need to spend from nine to new, lean generating, right?

00:42:03 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

00:42:03 - Amanda Ryan

So what do I do? I take that same model and put it towards social media. Okay, so Monday I'm planning out all of the content.

00:42:12 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:42:13 - Amanda Ryan

What's trending, what do I want to post about what's going to add value?

00:42:16 - Mike Mills

So that's my question. So where are you going to find the type of stuff you want to post now that you're doing it first? The question is always, how do I start? I can start doing it. I'm going to go now it becomes, okay, now I really got to refine my message. So where are you finding that kind of stuff? What are your resources?

00:42:33 - Amanda Ryan

Obviously I'm going to go to Instagram and I'm going to go to TikTok to look for what's trending? What are people resonating with?

00:42:40 - Mike Mills

Where do you look in Instagram?

00:42:42 - Amanda Ryan

So on the Discover page, okay. It will be the second icon to your left, and you'll click there. And then you'll be able to just see what's showing up on your for you page. Okay. And you'll be able to see you could type in like hashtag Arlington, Texas. You can type in building a new home and just see what has the most views, what's getting traction, what's showing up there. So I'm looking there. You can know. Just look on Google or Google Trends. Yeah, anything? I'm looking at where I'm meeting people at. So, like on Instagram? So I'm going to look on Instagram, like what's relating with people?

00:43:27 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:43:28 - Amanda Ryan

And so I'm taking Monday is my Day, where I plan out that content and I figure out what am I going to post for the week, what's going to bring value to people? I do have content pillars, so I've got four content pillars.

00:43:43 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:43:44 - Amanda Ryan

And that was something that I created. I created my avatar. Who is it that I want to speak to? Who do I want to work with?

00:43:52 - Mike Mills

Okay, so when you say I created my avatar because some people are like, wait, you made a person that exists no.

00:43:57 - Amanda Ryan

Yes, I did. Her name is Grace.

00:43:58 - Mike Mills

Okay. But you didn't actually create this thing. This is who you're trying to sell to. Because I've heard this before. I've heard you've created this human or this thing, this human that exists that you don't really know, but you do because you know her name and what she shops and what she right. That's your avatar.

00:44:19 - Mike Mills

Right?

00:44:19 - Amanda Ryan

That's my avatar. So I created her first.

00:44:21 - Mike Mills

She's like your prime audience, essentially.

00:44:22 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. Who do I want to talk to when I'm creating content? And then I created the content pillars. Got you. What kind of content am I going to consistently put out that's going to relate to my avatar?

00:44:36 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:44:37 - Amanda Ryan

What content am I going to put out that's going to relate to Grace? Because I teach trainings and classes to realtors all over. I've been teaching them in Texas and outside of Texas. And that's one of the things that I say is create your avatar. Who is it that you want to talk to? And then create the content that you're going to be passionate about and that's going to relate to your primary audience. And so I've got those content pillars.

00:45:03 - Mike Mills

So what are your pillars?

00:45:04 - Amanda Ryan

So local businesses, sports, new construction, real estate.

00:45:12 - Mike Mills

Right now?

00:45:13 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

00:45:14 - Amanda Ryan

And then all things local.

00:45:15 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:45:15 - Amanda Ryan

Got you. So I've got those that I'm putting out. Sports is a big one for me. And then I sell a lot in new construction.

00:45:24 - Mike Mills

So when you say you do sports as one of your pillars, how do you relate that to real estate when you do it?

00:45:31 - Amanda Ryan

I don't.

00:45:31 - Mike Mills

You don't?

00:45:32 - Mike Mills

You just talk about sports.

00:45:33 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah.

00:45:33 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:45:33 - Mike Mills

Like you're listening.

00:45:34 - Mike Mills

Do you have kids?

00:45:35 - Amanda Ryan

I don't.

00:45:35 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:45:36 - Amanda Ryan

No, I love professional, like the Cowboys. We just sent out 300 magnet Cowboy calendars.

00:45:45 - Mike Mills

Do you post content about sport? I've never seen you maybe I haven't.

00:45:48 - Amanda Ryan

Gone through it in depth, but well, I like baseball, and I started posting about baseball at the beginning of the season. But yeah, you got to do what.

00:45:56 - Mike Mills

You like to do. You can't force it.

00:45:57 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah. Now that football season. Oh, yeah.

00:45:59 - Mike Mills

That's your jam.

00:46:00 - Amanda Ryan

Yes.

00:46:00 - Mike Mills

Are you Browns fan?

00:46:03 - Amanda Ryan

I mean, if my dad's no, no.

00:46:09 - Mike Mills

Because in Ohio, you're either a Browns fan or a Bengals fan, and y'all hate each. It's kind of like here. You're either a Rangers fan or an Astros fan. And there is no in between.

00:46:18 - Amanda Ryan

There is no in between.

00:46:19 - Mike Mills

The Cowboys really don't hate on the Texans very much. The Texans certainly hate on the Cowboys, but we're disinterested in the Texans for the most part. It's like you're here, but whatever.

00:46:26 - Amanda Ryan

So I'm always rooting for the home team, which is why I'm a Cowboys fan.

00:46:29 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:46:30 - Mike Mills

So to all of Amanda's clients out there, she is an avid Cowboys fan.

00:46:34 - Amanda Ryan

But dad, we go to the games. We went to the draft when I was here in town.

00:46:39 - Mike Mills

Oh, wow.

00:46:39 - Amanda Ryan

That's awesome. Yeah, we're like, very into it. Yeah. Love it again. You know why I went to college for sports administration. Are you going to give athletic director?

00:46:50 - Mike Mills

Are you going to promise right now that after every Sunday after a Cowboy game, are you going to give your take on what happened and how terrible it was?

00:46:58 - Amanda Ryan

You can find me on the fan.

00:46:59 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:47:02 - Mike Mills

I might do that myself. You'll make a video and just be like, this team is terrible. Yeah, this happened. So I'm tuning in if that's what you're going to do, I'm definitely in for that.

00:47:10 - Amanda Ryan

What's funny is our clients know that I'm a huge sports fan and I've got a lot of clients that are New Orleans Saint fans and I love them so much that I send them a Cowboys calendar on purpose. Draw like a smiley face I know you've been waiting for. You know, they're texting me, of course. They're like, yeah, yes.

00:47:31 - Mike Mills

Now, our company's in New Orleans, so I'm very familiar with that one as well.

00:47:34 - Amanda Ryan

They expect nothing less know, they just know that that's my personality.

00:47:37 - Mike Mills

But that's the fun of it. That's why sports is fun. Yeah, because you can poke fun at each other and nobody gets their feelings hurt.

00:47:43 - Amanda Ryan

Well, first, usually, I mean, for the most part, but I'm putting out that content. I want people to relate with me. Amanda Ryan, the 33 year old married sports lover, local enthusiast. I want them to relate with me.

00:47:57 - Mike Mills

Absolutely.

00:47:57 - Amanda Ryan

So one of my content pillars is real estate and new construction and just like tips and advice and all the things real estate related. But all the other content that I'm posting and putting out, there is something that I think Grace is going to relate with. Grace, my avatar.

00:48:14 - Mike Mills

Well, that touches on something that talk about on here a lot is creating content around real estate is great. You need that. You have to do it. But there has to be another facet because you're not just real estate. You're not just a man who sells real estate. There's a lot of other parts of you that exist, and people want to identify with someone that they identify with. Right. And the only way to do that is to know everything there is or not everything, but know other parts about you other than that you sell real estate. And one of the things that I see a lot right now and I say right now because like I said, market is slowing down a little bit. Everybody's like, how do I need to market myself better, get in front of more clients, et cetera. And so you see a lot of realtors and mortgage people putting out the, hey, call me if you want to buy or sell your home. I'm going to be your trusted advisor, and I'm going to be here for you.

00:49:08 - Mike Mills

Right?

00:49:08 - Mike Mills

And here's my phone number and my email and give me a call, right? The standard commercial, and they don't put really anything else out. That's it, you know what I mean? And then was like, Well, I made some stuff, and it didn't have any traction. I'm like, okay, so it's a different avenue. We come from a world, or I do, where we've been trying to escape commercials since the dawn of media, right? You had the three big channels, and they ran their commercials, and everybody bought in. And then once they realized that the sugar companies told you all the cereal was good for you, and actually it gives you heart disease, and we didn't figure that out, or even when they had advertising, it's, oh, smoking's great. They might lie to us in those ads. I don't know.

00:49:47 - Mike Mills

Maybe.

00:49:48 - Mike Mills

So we've all tried to get out of it. And then you go from regular TV to cable. We'll go on cable, and then they start popping, and then you go, well, now we're going to go to streaming. And now Netflix is like, hey, we may start running ads if you want to charge. A lower point is everybody's trying to get away from advertising, trying to move away from it. And so what you're doing is and what you're doing is you're creating content that's informative, that has information, that has value, like you said, and you're also creating content that's just personal that's about you and what you enjoy. And can you explain or say to an agent that might be listening to this why that part is so important and why the commercial aspect of it may not be the route you want to go and have the least amount of success with?

00:50:32 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, for sure. I mean, people don't want to be sold, right? We're being sold all the time. I don't know about you, but I get, like, 17 scam calls before noon every day, and then I get like, 21 afternoon to 09:00 p.m. At night.

00:50:46 - Mike Mills

How many DMs do you get of, hey, I'll edit your content.

00:50:50 - Amanda Ryan

I get those too. People don't want to be sold. They want to give their opinion. They want to hear a good story. They want to laugh. They want to relate with somebody. And so one thing that I teach in this social media class that I hold is, you're never going to see a just listed or just sold post from me. Instead, you're going to see a story, right? You're going to see a story about a family. And usually somebody can relate to that story with that family instead of just listed, just sold. Congrats to my amazing clients. Nobody wants to see that. And so you want to put out that content that's going to be relatable. Don't think of it as an advertisement. If you educate somebody about real estate, you don't have to introduce yourself as a realtor. You don't have to say, Call me.

00:51:40 - Mike Mills

They'll figure it out.

00:51:41 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, they're going to figure it out. And then they're going to see you as the expert. They're going to follow you, they're going to DM you and they're only going to use you.

00:51:49 - Mike Mills

Right?

00:51:49 - Amanda Ryan

And so you've got to think differently about putting out the content. When I look at my own Instagram feed or TikTok or whatever it is and I'm scrolling and I'm like, I listen to a video and the first thing is like, hey guys. I'm like, oh my God, no. Next. Nobody wants that. You have 3 seconds to hook them immediately. So what are you going to do in those first few seconds or first few words of your post or in the photo to grab their attention without selling them? Because I promise they're going to just keep scrolling at that point.

00:52:27 - Mike Mills

Well, and that's something you learned doing it too. Because I'm sure it sounds very much like you've been self taught in doing all this social media stuff. And by the way, there's more resources out there than you could possibly imagine to figure out what you need. And I don't say don't pay somebody to do stuff because sometimes paying someone is easier and you can get there faster and you don't have to go through all the bumps and bruises. But if you can't afford it, if you're not in a place where you're ready to start paying someone, there's plenty of resources out there that you can find on what to do. And brought one up just exactly right now, the whole idea of the hook of if you want someone to listen to you within the first two or 3 seconds of your video, there has to be something that attracts them to watch a little bit longer their attention, right? And it's not, hey guys, I'm Mike Mills with Mike Mills Mortgage and Finance and like all that stuff do not yes. So it's a difficult thing to figure out how to get out of that. But again, you have to make content in order to start figuring out what works and what doesn't.

00:53:27 - Amanda Ryan

And one of the things that I decided early on was I don't have all the answers right. And so, yes, I'm going to go to Google and I'm going to look them up. Chances are they're not going to be the most up to date information. So what can I do? I can go follow marketers. I can go follow these influencers who are doing this on a daily basis. There's these Vloggers and influencers and marketing agencies and professional putting stuff out nonstop every day. Yeah. And they know what they're doing. They're catching my eye. So why not go follow them, see what they're doing and then recreate that content into something that somebody can relate with, whether it's real estate related or local related, all of those things.

00:54:19 - Mike Mills

How often are you on your Instagram strategy right now? Are you posting stories every day or reels every day or three reels a week or what's your general strategy.

00:54:30 - Mike Mills

Right now.

00:54:31 - Amanda Ryan

So I pretty much show up on my stories every day.

00:54:33 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:54:34 - Amanda Ryan

There's something and I try to do that. I intend to do that every single day. Sometimes life happens. Like, I'm just not feeling it. I don't feel good. Or maybe it's just one of those days where still feel like I'm not doing it. I'm working from home, and I'm not getting out of my yoga pants and my tank top and no makeup on. It's just like one of those days. But I'm still finding a way to provide value to my followers and to my audience without me having to show up on camera. And so, yes, I'm posting on my stories every single day. And that's that real, authentic, just whatever's on your mind. Yeah, just putting that out there. And again, sometimes it's real estate related, and sometimes it's not. Right? And then my focus is reels.

00:55:21 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:55:21 - Amanda Ryan

And so the goal is to put two reels out a day.

00:55:25 - Mike Mills

Two a day.

00:55:25 - Amanda Ryan

Okay. I'm sorry, not two a day. Two a week.

00:55:28 - Mike Mills

Two a week. I'm like, two a day is pretty impressive.

00:55:32 - Amanda Ryan

So what's funny is I noticed that there was a slowdown in my Instagram with engagement and everything, and this was back in December, and I said, okay, what can I do to switch it up? So I did one a day for the entire month. Now, I did miss a couple of days, but I was very intentional about putting test it and see yeah.

00:55:50 - Mike Mills

How to do.

00:55:51 - Amanda Ryan

And it did great. I was able to kind of get a refresher rekick into my account. And then I started back in January, not posting once a day, just posting twice a week.

00:56:05 - Mike Mills

Right.

00:56:06 - Amanda Ryan

And I noticed that my traction started slowing down. No, it started staying the same. Yeah, it started staying the same.

00:56:12 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:56:12 - Amanda Ryan

And so it was great. It was just a way for me to just, like, make it up. Yeah, mix it up. Trick the algorithm, if there's such a thing.

00:56:18 - Mike Mills

Something I read the other day, I don't know if you've seen this. I just saw it maybe a day or two ago, and I don't remember if it was an article or if it was a video. Like, all the media runs together in my head sometimes where I pick this stuff up. But it was saying that if you want to change up your traction on your reels to take it off of being also posted to your page, because it prioritizes your friends, your sphere before new people. And he was saying, like, if you turn off, he's like, just try it. Because there's that button on there that you can share it to your page or whatever, or you do both. But if you uncheck that and just kick it out, well, then it goes to more strangers or whatever. It gets kicked out more to the masses, which can get you more followers. And then you can kind of alternate back and forth with doing that.

00:57:07 - Amanda Ryan

I like it.

00:57:09 - Mike Mills

Little nugget there. See, I can provide information sometimes.

00:57:12 - Amanda Ryan

Sure. And that's the thing. Just like we just talked about, I don't know all the answers, and I don't expect somebody else to know all the answers. But when you talk with marketers or you talk with somebody else who's doing it, you collaborate and you figure out what's working for them, and then you repurpose it into your business, into your account.

00:57:29 - Mike Mills

So if you were starting out so you teach classes, which are great, your classes real quick. Are these available to anybody? Is this only Keller Williams? How do you do your classes?

00:57:42 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, where do you do your classes? Typically, I just have brokerages reach out to me.

00:57:46 - Mike Mills

Okay.

00:57:47 - Amanda Ryan

And we set up a day and time. Sweet. So I do them locally or I've had brokerages fly me out and I go teach there. And sometimes it's a one day class, it's a 90 minutes class, and sometimes it's a two part series that we do over two days. So it just depends. Okay, so, yeah, open to anybody.

00:58:06 - Mike Mills

Perfect.

00:58:06 - Mike Mills

So if you want Amanda to come do a class for you, reach out, she'll definitely do that for you. Let's do it. The other thing is, if you were talking to somebody in your class that was like, I want to do social media, it's important to me, I know it has value, but how should they start? How would you tell somebody, okay, first you do this, then you do this. Give me the first let's call it condensed six months of your social media adventure. What would you tell somebody that? How would that process look?

00:58:37 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, I think it's definitely going to start with creating your avatar. Who is it that you want to work with? Who is it that you're going to talk to? When you're talking to everyone, you're talking to no one.

00:58:47 - Mike Mills

Got you.

00:58:48 - Amanda Ryan

Figure out who it is that you want to work with and who you're going to talk to. What content pillars are you going to post, what's going to be most relatable with that person, with those people audience that you're looking to talk to. And then from there, batch your content, get a game plan in place. Just like lead generation. You have a couple of hours every single day that you're working on growing your business. That still applies to social media. So take a day where you're planning out your content. You're maybe creating it, or you have the lay of the land on Monday, and then every day throughout the week, you're creating that content. You're going on social media, you're engaging with your followers, with new local businesses, with people that you haven't yet met. You're sending DMs that's really where I would start. And I think even before all of that, pick a platform that you're going to go all in on. You don't have to be present and show up consistently on all the platforms because that sounds exhausting.

00:59:57 - Mike Mills

It's a lot of time.

00:59:58 - Amanda Ryan

That's a lot. And so figure out where is it that you're going to commit to go all in on that platform and I promise you're going to see your followers turn into clients DMs you're going to end up taking those offline, turning them into appointments, whether it's on Zoom, Google, Meet, or in person. That's. How our business?

01:00:21 - Mike Mills

A do you feel like you have a pretty good idea of the amount of and I know it's hard to quantify because people come from all kinds of places when you're doing business with them, but do you have a pretty good grasp on how many people you think, say, on a monthly basis, that you get just specifically from social media. That isn't part of the sphere. New people that are coming to you?

01:00:42 - Amanda Ryan

We typically get two leads a week.

01:00:44 - Mike Mills

Okay.

01:00:45 - Amanda Ryan

And so the way that that works is a lot of it is agent referrals. So I'm putting content out there from other states. Yes, putting content out there. And other agents are like, okay, wow, she is the Dallas Fort Worth expert. She knows what she's talking about. And so I gain that know, like and trust factor from them and they're following me. I have agents all the time that are like, yeah, I put out content, but it's only agents that follow me and that's okay.

01:01:12 - Mike Mills

Yeah it's good.

01:01:13 - Amanda Ryan

It's a huge opportunity for future referrals. So typically we get on average two leads a week and that's agent referrals. And then organically when I'm posting content, I'm always posting either a local business or I'm just tagging Arlington. I'm putting Arlington as the location or know tagging.

01:01:38 - Mike Mills

You're trying to be as local as possible.

01:01:39 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, putting on hashtags or I'm tagging like a local business in Mansfield or know, just because I want to be able to show up in those search areas. If you notice when you go to searching on Instagram, you can put hashtag Arlington, Texas and the top posts with that hashtag are going to show up. The goal is always to stay relevant and stayed to the top of the searches for any of those local searches. Again, the point isn't to go viral. Right. I don't care know all of these people know Canada are liking my stuff.

01:02:17 - Mike Mills

Because doesn't really help you a whole lot.

01:02:18 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, I mean that's great if they have an intention to move to Texas, but chances are that they don't.

01:02:24 - Mike Mills

Yes.

01:02:24 - Amanda Ryan

So when I'm really speaking to the local community here, tagging those businesses, tagging the locations, checking in areas, I know that anybody that's watching that content or that's liking that content, most likely they're going to be local and they're going to reach out to me for their next real estate need.

01:02:43 - Mike Mills

Right.

01:02:48 - Mike Mills

We're over an hour now, so things gone quick. Are you working on anything right now. Do you have a next project where you're like, okay, I've gotten pretty good at this. And it could be something within Instagram. It could be another your what's? Your Mike toy right now that you're trying to figure out.

01:03:04 - Amanda Ryan

Yep. So I've dove all in on Instagram over the years and have loved it and still love it. It's still my go to the next platform that I would really like to grow in is YouTube.

01:03:19 - Mike Mills

Okay.

01:03:20 - Amanda Ryan

And so I'm working on a game plan right now to getting one video posted a week, getting with professionals for the recording, for the editing, researching how to upload with the best intention, or that's really going to trick the algorithm or just relate with the algorithm. Because YouTube is like its own animal. There's just so many things Instagram I can record post, boom, done. Whereas YouTube, you've got to write the title, you've got to create the thumbnail, you got to put in the caption. Now you can put chapters like, oh my God, talk about just like so many things going on. So I'm working and learning and growing through that. And the goal is to continue Instagram because I will always love butter.

01:04:15 - Mike Mills

Can't let it go.

01:04:16 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, that's right. But to do something new and exciting and just different.

01:04:21 - Mike Mills

What do you think your YouTube content's going to be? I mean, obviously to be focused around.

01:04:25 - Amanda Ryan

Real estate, but I've been posting I mean, it's not like I haven't been on YouTube, but it's just you haven't.

01:04:30 - Mike Mills

Been dialing in on getting the traction on it and what all the little tricks are that you need to yeah, yeah.

01:04:36 - Amanda Ryan

So as much as I love watching the videos of somebody taking you on a tour to a pretty house, I do love that. I also really find enjoyment, like teaching others on local businesses or areas to go check out. And so I recently did one on Visiting the Grandscape in the Colony.

01:04:56 - Mike Mills

Okay.

01:04:56 - Amanda Ryan

And the reviews and just the feedback that I got from that video, I put it out there and I got so many comments and even emails like, hey, because I put it into a newsletter like, hey, check out this new video I posted. And I got so much great response from that. People are like, hey, this is great. I didn't even know this existed. Like, what there's, a Ferris wheel? Like, oh, this is where Nebraska Furniture Mart is. And so being able just to provide that value, highlight local businesses, maybe show somebody somewhere new, or just shouting out a local business, an area, put the.

01:05:34 - Mike Mills

Good vibes in the world, and that stuff comes back to you. And you always try to help people as much as you can. And if that means highlighting businesses in your area, for sure, I think that's great.

01:05:42 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

01:05:42 - Amanda Ryan

So I do think that I will put out there some real estate. Of course I'm going to get my content pillars for YouTube, squared away.

01:05:52 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

01:05:53 - Mike Mills

Like your take on the football game afterwards.

01:05:55 - Amanda Ryan

That's right.

01:05:56 - Mike Mills

I'm marking that down. You're going to do that?

01:05:59 - Amanda Ryan

I might, yeah. I might. Well, I don't know.

01:06:01 - Mike Mills

It depends on how you're the female not born and raised cowboy fan opinion on how the game went.

01:06:12 - Mike Mills

Yes.

01:06:13 - Mike Mills

Right. And I would tune in.

01:06:15 - Mike Mills

Okay.

01:06:15 - Mike Mills

What does she think? Because I always joke, especially like, you're dealing with our kids and stuff as parents. You have rose colored glasses. Everything your child does looks great, and everything your home team does looks great. So it's always nice to have someone outside going, look, bro, here's the problems. Here's this, here's, this.

01:06:31 - Amanda Ryan

I could do a whole video on Zeke leaving and see after the first.

01:06:37 - Mike Mills

Game, it's like we only rushed for 75 yards today. If he'd have been here no, I'm.

01:06:42 - Amanda Ryan

Actually are you on the other side of the fence?

01:06:45 - Mike Mills

See how much better Tony Pollard is? We told you he's been sitting forever. He was the guy. He should have been out there.

01:06:53 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

01:06:53 - Mike Mills

Just hope he's durable. That's the only thing. He's a little guy. So those are I'm big football fan. There are 300 pound, six foot five guys that run a 4244 flat, and they are coming down on you hard. And when you're five foot eight or nine or whatever, how big he is, and he weighs 220, maybe taking those hits every day after every game, it's a lot. So I'm hoping he stays healthy.

01:07:20 - Amanda Ryan

He's going to zip past them. It's going to be great.

01:07:22 - Mike Mills

I agree with you. There you go. Well, I really appreciate you coming in today. This was a lot of great information. I try as much as I can, like I said in the beginning, to bring people on that have gone through this stuff, because it's one thing for somebody to tell you, oh, you should do this, you should do that, and whatever. And everybody always makes it sound like if you just do this, it's so easy. But the truth is that we all start whatever. It's not just social media, anything. Whatever you do, you're going to start and you're going to fail, and you're going to fail in a number of different ways. And it's the resilience to keep trying and keep getting better and keep refining what you're doing.

01:07:58 - Amanda Ryan

That's right.

01:07:59 - Mike Mills

If it matters. Right. There are some things that fail. You need to bail, and it's fine. But once you find a thing that you know has an impact and can have a benefit to what you're doing, and you focus on that and you put the time and the effort into it, it will pay its dividends down the road. But you just got to be patient. And Rome wasn't built in a day. You can't eat it well in one bite. All the tropes that come along with it's a process. It's a step by step, and you learn and grow as you go, for sure.

01:08:27 - Amanda Ryan

And I will say this, it's easy to compare yourself on social media. It's easy to look at somebody's Instagram or Facebook or YouTube and you're like, wow, they have it together. I could never do that. I can never be on that. Like, I'm just not even going to try. Don't let those thoughts get to you because we all started at square one.

01:08:52 - Mike Mills

Yes.

01:08:52 - Amanda Ryan

We all started at the beginning. And I would say the majority of us, myself included, I don't always love the way that I look or the way that I sound or even what I say. I stumble over my words. It's okay. People are going to relate with you in that authenticity. They're going to see you for who you are and what you're putting out, and they're not going to judge you for it. So stop judging yourself.

01:09:19 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

01:09:19 - Mike Mills

Don't be so hard on yourself.

01:09:20 - Amanda Ryan

Yeah, absolutely.

01:09:21 - Mike Mills

It's going to be fine. You're going to do okay.

01:09:23 - Amanda Ryan

Yes, absolutely.

01:09:24 - Mike Mills

Well, again, I really, really thank you for coming by. Thanks for spending some time with us and sharing your Instagram journey with us. So that way we'll hopefully oh, Jen wants to chime in and say that your reels are also very aesthetically pleasing.

01:09:43 - Amanda Ryan

Oh, thank you.

01:09:43 - Mike Mills

Really enjoys that.

01:09:44 - Amanda Ryan

I use canva. Yes. I do have a branding guide that I created for myself on Canva.

01:09:50 - Mike Mills

Okay.

01:09:51 - Amanda Ryan

And so I was able to really figure out what colors do I want my brand to represent? And you'll notice know, they're very pastel y, like light, airy, and so thank you, Jen. And that's what I'm using is Canva to help make sure that my brand is consistent.

01:10:10 - Mike Mills

Does it just give you color schemes and you just pick from it so.

01:10:14 - Amanda Ryan

It has a palette and you can put know, I want these six colors as my branding palette. And then whenever you're creating content, they're saved. And so they're automatically going to show up as your branding colors.

01:10:28 - Mike Mills

Okay.

01:10:28 - Amanda Ryan

And then so you're able to without finding the hex code every time, you're able to just click on those colors and same thing with your fonts, click on those and that way all of your content is the same. Yeah, it's consistent.

01:10:42 - Mike Mills

The brand stays consistent.

01:10:44 - Amanda Ryan

Yes, I'm very protective of my brand.

01:10:46 - Mike Mills

Love it, I love it.

01:10:47 - Amanda Ryan

The colors and the fonts.

01:10:48 - Mike Mills

Yeah.

01:10:48 - Mike Mills

Well, and that's I was trying to go along with the brand. I know we came in, I've got my pastel pink shirt. We're all you see, I paid attention to this stuff for me.

01:10:59 - Mike Mills

There you go. Yeah.

01:11:00 - Mike Mills

You got the collar on today, combed.

01:11:01 - Amanda Ryan

Your hair and everything.

01:11:02 - Mike Mills

That's right. Well, thank you as always, I really appreciate it. We'll be back next week. Thank you for everybody that stuck around and we'll see you later.

01:11:09 - Amanda Ryan

Thanks for having me.

01:11:10 - Mike Mills

You got it.

01:11:11 - Amanda Ryan

My pleasure, guys.

01:11:11 - Mike Mills

All right, see you guys.