Unlocking Real Estate Success: Cassie Spears' Insider Tips

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:13 to 00:00:22

Boom. Here we are, officially live. Yay. So we got to chitchat for a few minutes. Really good stuff that we came through.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:22 to 00:00:46

A little ten claire there. So we'll have to revisit some of it because I do want to chat about some of those things on here. That's why it's always hard because I want to engage with people when they walk in, but I also don't want to waste all the good stuff because you're going to get it recorded. So my name is Mike Mills. This is the Texas Real Estate and Finance Podcast, and I'm with Verity Mortgage Lender here in Dallas Fort Worth, based out of Mansfield.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:46 to 00:01:42

And I have with me today Cassie Spears. She is a broker, realtor property manager, jack, of all things, in Burleson. Well, that's where you're based, at least, obviously you do all over Texas. I do want to say before we get started that we're in a place right now in a market where things are a little slower than well, they're quite a bit slower than they have been for the last couple of years. So I would tell anybody that would be watching or paying attention that if you are looking for an agent and these days you want to come and use someone who's professional, you want to have somebody that's been in the business for a long time, especially as sellers these days, because the market has shifted and changed so much that your aunt or your nephew that just got into real estate a couple of weeks ago probably not the best source to be able to navigate this thing right now.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:01:42 to 00:01:58

So if you're in Burleson or anywhere around town and you are looking for an agent, I encourage you to reach out to Cassie. I think she'd do a great job for obviously. So let's get started to we said that you were born and raised in Burleson. Okay. There at Hughley Hospital.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:01:58 to 00:02:16

Can't be more Hughley Hospital. Yes. My mom actually worked there long time ago. It's rare that you come across people very often that literally born, raised, you went to Burleson High School and graduated from there and then started real estate pretty much right out of the chute. Right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:02:16 to 00:02:26

So you started taking real estate classes in high school. Yes. So tell me about that. So I knew that I wasn't going to go to college. There wasn't funds there for me to go to college.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:02:26 to 00:02:38

And so I just started looking up professions that you could make a good living and not go to college. And real estate was like second on the list. What was number one? I can't remember. Somebody asked me that not too long ago.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:02:38 to 00:02:46

I think it was like a CPA or something like that. Okay. Yeah, I guess you can get certified. Certified? I mean, you still got to get licensed for an agent.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:02:46 to 00:03:06

You still have to go to, like, four year school. Yeah. So I went online and looked that up. And then I got the phone book out because this was in 2001, and. I found if anybody doesn't know what a phone book is used to, they would deliver this book to your house that had everybody's phone number in it, and you'd get one every quarter or something like that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:03:07 to 00:03:31

Yes, those were the days. Those are the days. So I found a real estate school, and I called them, and I got all of the prices for the classes, and I signed myself up, paid for it myself, paid for half of it myself, and I took my first class on the weekend. And on Monday, I realized I had no idea I passed the class because they basically give you the answers as you're taking it. But I had no idea.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:03:31 to 00:03:44

I didn't know what a mortgage was. I didn't know what any of that stuff was. So I actually got in my car on that Monday after school and drove to the remax office and just walked right in, and I was like, hey, who owns this place? And they're like, oh, sus drunk. And I was like, okay, can I talk to her?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:03:45 to 00:03:58

They're like, do you have an appointment? I'm like, no, but I need to talk to her right now. So they're like, okay, well, let me see. And so I went upstairs and I talked to her. I was like, hey, I just started real estate school, but I know nothing about it, so is there any way you can give me a job and I can work at it right now?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:03:58 to 00:04:22

And she was kind of, like, thrown off, and she was like, what kind of hours? And I was like, well, I can work from three until you close Monday through Friday and then every other weekend, because it was every other weekend for real estate school. And so she hired me on the spot because the day before that, her receptionist came to her and said, hey, I need to get off at 03:00 from now on. Like, I can't work a full schedule anymore. Timing was perfect.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:04:22 to 00:04:35

It was literally, like, meant to be. Oh, wow. So, I mean, I started the very next Tuesday, and I just started doing office help. The MLS was a dos system, so you had to, like dos. What year did you graduate?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:04:35 to 00:04:47

2001. Okay, so you're not that far behind. They were just going into NETRIS. NETRIS was a new thing, and nobody in the office wanted to learn it, right? So I started learning the dos system, and I was like, were you all.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:04:47 to 00:05:07

Getting listings by fax back then too? Everything was by fax, yes. And so I just learned how to do the ins and outs, and by doing that, I learned a lot of terminology and things like that and learned a lot of bad habits that I was watching agents do things like that. You got to observe for a little while I did. I observed for almost six months.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:05:07 to 00:05:31

And so then I finished all my classes, graduated high school two weeks later, took the test, passed it, and then I was like, okay, now what? And then Sue's like, I don't want you to be an agent. I want you to come be my assistant. So I was her assistant for a full year, and then after a full year of working nine to nine because she's a hustler and worked all the time, I was like, this is cool. And I made a good amount of money in that year, especially as an 18 year old.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:05:31 to 00:05:43

Yes. I was 19 by then. I made like $75,000 my first six months, and back then, that was probably like 100. Yes, that's a lot of money back then. That was my first lesson in taxes too.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:05:44 to 00:05:50

Oh, was it all 1099? Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. She didn't kind of prep you for that necessarily?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:05:50 to 00:06:04

No. Again, she was a great mentor. But sometimes it's really important to learn what doesn't work for people. You got to make mistakes, their mistakes. So I set myself up from the beginning to set money aside for taxes and things like that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:06:04 to 00:06:14

And then after that year, I was like, I can do this on my own. So then I went out on my own and been doing this ever since. Wow. So you definitely had hustle out of the gate. I did.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:06:14 to 00:06:39

That seemed like that was something that was ingrained in your DNA. It was, right? Maybe the hustler by not having a know there wasn't any money laying around like Cassie can go try things was I needed to pay for even the funny story is once I found out that there was a real estate group that gave college scholarships. I petitioned for the scholarship and I got half my real estate school paid by the Burleson area tour group. Wow.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:06:39 to 00:07:07

And I had to stand in front of all a room full of people and give this essay about why I think that they should pick me even though I wasn't going to college, and they did. So I only ended up paying for half of my real estate school, which was kind of cool. Were either one of your parents, like, real I guess the word not aggressive, but just go getters no, kind of. They both had work ethics. They both worked, and they worked hard.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:07:07 to 00:07:31

We struggled our whole lives growing up, so I knew that I didn't want to live that same lifestyle, so I wanted to have something different. So I think, again, it was just more out of necessity than anything. And then I met my husband when I was 19, and he's eight years older than me. So I was a 19 year old dating a 28 year old, but I wasn't an average 19 year old. I'd already been selling.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:07:31 to 00:07:48

You were working and very mature. Yes, very much so. Moved out right away and been supporting myself ever since then. Well, just to go into an office and more or less, I would say you demanded a job, but you certainly I did. I mean, I just was like, hey, I need a job.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:07:49 to 00:08:01

And literally that was the first office that I found. It was very visible, red tin roof, like, just pulled in the parking lot. And I was like, if this one didn't work, I was going to go to sent you 21. If that didn't work, I was going to go to somebody that they were going to hire. Right?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:08:01 to 00:08:19

Somebody was going to hire you that day. There wasn't going to be an option to not do that. I mean, it was just like, she's like, I've never done this before, but I feel like this is fate. And like I said, so you met your husband Tim, right, when you were 19. And how long did it take before you guys decided to do real estate at the same time?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:08:19 to 00:08:44

So our journey is a little different because I was licensed in 2001, he got his license in 2003, and we worked together until 2005, right into 2006. And I was studying the market at that time, and I saw that we were about to go into some trying times, and banks were pulling back on funding. They were letting go of people. Kind of like what? It's not as similar to what's happening now.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:08:44 to 00:09:07

Really similar to what's happening now. So he went and got a job, and so he was the director of operations for the Fort Worth Convention Center for twelve years. And then I was looking for kind of a director of operations for my team, and I wrote out this whole job description of who I would want. And we went on a cruise. And whenever we were on that cruise, I spent seven days convincing him to quit his job.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:09:07 to 00:09:20

And I was just like, the person that I want to hire is you. Everybody on this list is you, and it doesn't cost me anything. We'll raise your salary. And he's making six figures. It was a great job for him, but it was just a job.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:09:20 to 00:09:31

There was nowhere else to go from there. He didn't have a lot of upward. Mobility with it, so he came back and put in his notice and put his license back active. And then you got to be his. Boss for a little bit.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:09:31 to 00:09:49

So that worked out for a year. And then when we were at Kelly Williams, they kind of snaked him to be the team leader, which is probably the most thankless job that there is in real estate, being a team leader of an office, like a whole office, not a team leader of a team. So he did that until I talked him again into quitting and coming back. So he's been back wait, so he was with you? Yes.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:09:49 to 00:09:56

And then he left your team and. Went to be the team leader of our office. Oh, of your office, yeah. Okay. So I thought maybe he went to.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:09:57 to 00:10:16

Another that's where we were at. I was like, wow, you're having to yeah. And he felt a calling to leadership, and then he realized I was like, you can lead, you can lead on my team. But my team is very small, so I never have any desire to have a big team. I want to have a team of everybody making a lot of money instead of a couple of people making a lot of money.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:10:17 to 00:10:32

You want to spread the wealth a little bit, keep it in there. So when you put your team together, how did that come about? I've had different kind of variations. The first time I formed a team, it was a group. It was just putting people together that we weren't forming in unison.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:10:32 to 00:10:47

And so when I realized that wasn't working, it kind of worked itself out where they either got out of business or did it on their own. So whenever I went to build my team right. So what I did was four years ago, I signed up for a coaching program. Which coaching program? Krista mayshore.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:10:47 to 00:11:08

Okay. And so when I signed up for that coaching program, I really realized that I wasn't attracting people the way that I wanted to attract people. So I kind of scrubbed it. And so I hired Tagler, who is my assistant now, so she's been with me for almost four years. And so for the first year of that coaching program, I just worked on myself.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:11:08 to 00:11:28

I was like, I need to work on how I can be the right leader so that I attract the right people, so that they want to stay, they want to work. So I did that for a year. Worked really hard on myself, my mindset. I worked really hard on my mindset. There's a lot of negative factors in this industry and so a lot of negative voices and things like that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:11:29 to 00:12:12

I think part of the problem is that everybody has this it's like a scarcity thing where you're terrified that someone else is going to take your business or your deal. Lending is the same way in real Estate Realtors, the same deal where instead of sharing, hey, this is what I do and this is how I do it, and that kind of thing, everybody keeps everything really close to the vest because they're terrified that someone's going to take their stuff. One of the things, we'll get into this in a minute, but with all the stuff that you do on social media, I wanted to ask you kind of where you came about and how you got to that point. And there have been some that are hesitant about talking about it because, well, it's like, why do I want to share all my secrets? And I'm like, well, here's the thing.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:13 to 00:12:27

It's one thing to know what to do. It's a whole other thing to do it right. And you can tell people all day long different ways to go about. I had a conversation with a colleague of mine the other day, and he was like, well, what are you doing these days with the market shifting? Whatever?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:27 to 00:12:37

And I said, Look, I'm not doing anything. That's rocket science, okay? You know how to do all of these things. There's no new way to invent the wheel. There's no shortcut.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:37 to 00:12:51

It's grinding, it's working. It's getting in front of people. It's putting yourself out there. That's what you have to do every day, and there is no way to get around that. So instead of searching for a way to shortcut, just do the work.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:51 to 00:13:20

But that's why you could tell people, I'll tell you how to make a million dollars, and you could tell them, and of 100 people, one person might actually go about doing it right. If that yeah. So it's definitely something where I think that in our industry as a whole, because everybody's terrified of losing their business. It's a very defensive strategy instead of offensive, and instead of dwelling on the stuff that you missed out on because maybe I'm sure you've lost out on listings. I'm sure buyers have left.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:13:20 to 00:13:31

I'm sure you're not batting 1000, but when that happens, you just got to move on, right? Oh, yeah. It's a transaction. I mean, it's a business arrangement. You got to take yourself and your feelings out of it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:13:31 to 00:13:40

Yeah. Do you say that you've developed some thick skin over the years? Yeah. Being a property manager, you have to have the thickest skin. Okay, so that's a good point.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:13:40 to 00:13:55

So you got into property management as well. And when did you or what was the impetus of that? Like, why did you decide to get a property manager? So I had been studying the market, and I knew that the crash was coming. I actually started it in 2005, and it was out of necessity.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:13:55 to 00:14:12

It's like, how do I get my real estate dues paid? How do I pay? Because I was at Remax 100%, so I had a desk fee. How do I get that paid? And it just was just grabbing properties each one at a time until I got to a point where it was like, okay, this was a sustainable business, and then just grew it from there.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:14:12 to 00:14:48

It's a good source of listings for me because those people already know, like and trust me, so when it comes time to sell, I mean, I usually sell ten to 15 of my rentals every single year, like clockwork. Well, that was the thing that amazed me that you told me in the beginning was because I joke with I have some budies of mine that sell insurance and I give them a hard time because, like, well, your policies renew every year. So once you get to a certain level of business, you can kind of go on autopilot now. You're going to have some fall off and you got to add back to it. So it's not like you don't work, but at the same time, there's not as much stress as to you kind of have a pretty good idea of how much money you're going to make that year, right?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:14:48 to 00:15:18

You're not lost. Whereas for us, we're always back to zero every single month. And so if you have a portfolio of 300 properties that you're managing and you know a certain percentage of those are going to turn over between investors every year and you're going to list them, then there's built in business for you every single year, right? And back in the day before the market was so hot, a lot of times there would be an active tenant in there and things like that, so they wouldn't want to go on the market. So then one of my investors would want to sell for some reason or another.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:15:18 to 00:15:36

And so I would get another investor to come in and buy that property. One, so I could keep managing, and two, so I'd get a sell out of it. So, I mean, I have so many houses that I've sold multiple times that I've managed for multiple people. It's been a great business for me. Well, a lot of times it just comes down to work, right?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:15:36 to 00:15:51

You just have to work. You do. And the thing about it is each one of those investors thinks that their properties are the most important, right? So I might not talk to every one of them every single month, but I have to be available to talk to them. Right now, I manage for 135 investors.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:15:51 to 00:16:18

Now, do you handle a lot of that yourself or do you have some of your team, like Tim, deal with it? Taylor's your assistant, right? Yeah, Taylor came in. How it works for us is any of my investors that I had before Tim, I have the 100% relationship any investors that it came in since then, Tim has the relationship with so that we can kind of divide the work up. Taylor's job is she's a transaction coordinator, but she also prepares all the lease agreements.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:16:18 to 00:16:33

She communicates with the mean. We have such a smooth, seamless move in process. That's a system. My son, Lex, he handles all the bank running, all of the sign placement. He takes pictures for them and he's just learning that role.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:16:33 to 00:16:53

So my future plan is for him to just take that business over completely and be me of that business. Hey, that's a pretty good deal, Lex. You got a little built in job right out of the gate. That's pretty solid. And he's seen me work and he knows, he's seen me at the water park with my phone in a Ziploc baggie, working on repair request and dealing with that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:16:53 to 00:17:08

So he's seen me and he understands that it's not just nine to five. You don't collect your check and go, now we have a way more seamless process. They don't even have my cell phone number anymore. Everything is online through a portal and things like that. So I'm a systems and process person.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:17:08 to 00:17:27

You can't do what I do and not have really solid there's no way to do that. There's no way to do most of it all runs very smooth, but it's years and years of putting in the work trials and tribulations. There's a guy, I read a book recently, I've mentioned this a couple of times. Anybody pay attention? His name's Novel Ravikant.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:17:27 to 00:17:37

Do you know who that is? Have you ever heard of him? So he created angel list. Do you know what angel list is? It's a know investor portal thing that they can pick business from.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:17:37 to 00:18:03

Anyway, he talks in his book about these different forms of leverage and using obviously, assets as leverage and money's leverage, obviously. And then people and resources are leveraged. But then he talks about he's a programmer, so he's a Silicon Valley guy who writes code, and he talks about coding being leveraged. Like, I write code, I create a software program. It runs, and then it makes money without me having to do anything.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:18:03 to 00:18:30

So that does something for me. And so as I'm listening to the book, I'm kind of like, well, I mean, I don't know how to write code, and I'm certainly not going to go learn how to do that tomorrow. But then it did kind of dawn on me, and it's what you said is absolutely true, is that the systems that we create to run our business are the same thing as code. It's exactly the same thing. So, for example, if you get a lead from a TikTok or something comes in online, you get a direct message based on what you're telling me.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:18:31 to 00:18:46

I would be willing to bet you probably have. First you do this, and then we do this, and then we do this. And it's like you could hand it over to somebody with the half a brain and go, hey, all you got to do is follow the steps 100%, right? Because that's how you manage everything. And it was what I was looking for when I was like, where's the manual?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:18:47 to 00:18:54

You have job manuals? Where's the manual for real estate? Where's the manual for property management? So I just created it. I was like, this is how you run a successful real estate business.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:18:54 to 00:19:14

This is how you run a successful property management business. And they're two completely different business, and they're not for the same type of people. I'm just a weirdo that's actually really. Good at both of well, it's it's a shame because I think a lot of realtors, if they work for Keller Williams or they work for Remax, they still see themselves as an employee. I'm an employee of Remax.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:19:14 to 00:19:43

I'm an employee of Keller Williams. And it's like, well, you're not I mean, first off, they're not taking any taxes. Like your fun little tax adventure on, you know, new agents coming in. Sometimes when you go to the bigger brokerages like the Kellers and the Remax of the world, they do have training, and they have things that they can put forth for you, but there's nobody holding your hand, typically, on how it's going to go. You get a mentor, maybe, but that person you just can call if you have a question from time to time.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:19:43 to 00:19:55

Or you get training from people that have a lot of spare time. And so you have to really realize why they have so much spare time. Why do you have so much time to tell me how to do stuff? I learned that really quickly. Well, okay.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:19:55 to 00:20:14

So the real reason I want to talk to you more than anything is that I am just like everything else that you apparently do. I'm very impressed with your social media platforms that you do. Now, I see you're on all of didn't you have a YouTube channel? But last time I checked, it hadn't had anything in a while. No.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:20:15 to 00:20:29

So we just started doing shorts. My son Lex will post, so we're all about repurposing. So we make a piece of content on TikTok, and then I will put that everywhere that I can. So, like, if it's less than 30 seconds, then I can put it on TikTok. I can put it on Instagram.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:20:29 to 00:20:52

I can put it on Facebook reels and Google my business. Google my Business is a platform that most agents are not using, and they're missing out. I went to a class Monday, and we were in there in a room with 32 Realtors, and it was the top of company putting it on, and it was all about marketing. And I was like, okay, I'll see what I go. I didn't take one note because I'm already doing all the things, which is.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:20:52 to 00:21:04

Good, but I can imagine you in that class. You're like and he knew it right when he saw me because he had met with me this summer, right when he took over. And he came to my office, and he's like, I want to show you all this cool things. And we were like, yeah, we do that. ClickFunnels.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:21:04 to 00:21:13

We do that this, we do that. And he's just like, I don't know what to tell. He's like, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to score your website. And so he put it on a scoring system where you scored a 97 out of 100.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:21:13 to 00:21:29

Because we do the work. We put things everywhere. So in that class, he goes, what y'all need to realize is when you're on your website, that you have to use keywords and search terms and things like that. He's like, Get out your phone and Google realtor near me, and guess who was number one. Number one.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:21:29 to 00:21:48

Everybody started sitting there, everybody started turning around looking. Half the people probably wouldn't turn around and look, but they do. But it's not something that I just like, oh, here's the one thing, and it's all of the things. So we post blogs all the time and do we make up these long blogs on our own? No, we use AI to write most of the blogs.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:21:48 to 00:22:01

We go in there and edit. We're using like the chat GPT stuff. Yeah, we use Jasper. Okay, yeah, I'm familiar with that. So we can take three sentences of what we want to do and then make a big old blog post from that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:22:01 to 00:22:09

And then we post those. Like we do three to four blogs every single week. Really? Do you post them on your website or do you post them my website? And that helps with the google helps.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:22:09 to 00:22:25

With your SEO because say I do a blog that says how do you pick the best realtor? So I'm using the term best realtor. I'm also saying in order to be the best realtor, you have to do this and you need to look for this when you're looking for the best realtor. So if you Google best realtor in Burleson, that's who comes up, right? Me.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:22:25 to 00:22:50

But it's not just because of the one thing, it's all cumulative. In 2021, I spent probably, I don't know, $75,000 in coaches. So I had three coaches that year and so each one of them taught me something different. I had my marketing coach, Krista, which I'd pretty much done most of the things that she had taught, but then there were some other ticketed items that I wanted to do. So I hired a Maps coach.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:22:50 to 00:22:59

He was really good. He's the one that taught me how to really track my numbers because there's clarity and tracking. Maps coach, what is that? Maps is like Keller Williams. It's a Keller Williams thing.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:22:59 to 00:23:32

So it's like a mastery coach and so it's only through Keller Williams. So when I left Keller Williams to go to Exp, I lost my maps, coach. And I'm really sad because I love clarity and I love systems and processes and he just really showed me how to project and forecast and things like that. And I wasn't doing it before, so yes, business was coming in, but I always was thinking, oh, what's next? Well, once I learned how to track and knew that if you do this much business from SEO and you do this much business from your sphere of influence and all that, then you can guess that I'm going to have this many deals.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:23:32 to 00:23:45

And so it kind of just takes the weight off your shoulders to think, where is this all coming from? And then when you track what you're doing, you also can put more efforts towards those things. Right? So I'm very visual. So we have like whiteboards in all of our office.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:23:45 to 00:24:07

So I can tell you where every single transaction came from, what my cost to get that lead in was from different platforms. And it just helps me to understand that all the efforts because it's a lot. What I do is a lot. I'm tired just hearing you talk about it. Most people will say, why do you do real estate when you can just make a great living doing property management?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:24:07 to 00:24:24

And I said, Why do I have to do one thing? I'm really good at both. I'm very good at negotiation. Like, I am a negotiation queen, and I thrive off of it. So the last two years, it's been fun for my sellers, but it sucked for the buyers because they basically gave the sellers whatever they wanted, and now it's flipping.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:24:24 to 00:24:41

Yeah. So the other coach that I hired, my husband and I got COVID. And this was when what was that clubhouse? You remember that when that was a. Thing that was the deal where you could all go into the same chat room, and it was like people talking over each other.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:24:41 to 00:24:50

It was terrible. It was a big sell. But I met this other coach, this other guy that was in there. He was like, hey, I'm going to do this coaching for $1,000. I'll coach you for 90 days.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:24:50 to 00:24:59

And I was like, okay, whatever. $1,000. And I looked him up on Google, and he had a really good Google presence. And that's what I was trying to do. Like, I was doing location domination.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:24:59 to 00:25:11

And what that basically is, is like, you want to be the mayor of your town. Like, if anybody thinks about real estate, they think about you. Is that a. Did? So what he taught me was how to really step up my game.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:25:11 to 00:25:24

So I changed my website provider. I use Sierra Interactive, which is an amazing website, but it doesn't do it all for you. Got to do the work. He also is the one that taught me how to do Google Ads. So Google Ads, that really changed my business.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:25:24 to 00:25:36

So we spent last year we didn't spend that much. We spent like $16,000 and we made $200,000 from client. Yeah. So that's a good but I was coached on it for a full year. Sure, hey, do this, do that, do this.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:25:37 to 00:25:51

And I did everything. So I'm the type of person, like, you tell me to do something, and if I trust you, I'm going to do it. So those are the three coaches that I had that year. And this was a time when marketing really wasn't that important. Like, you put a sign in the yard and it's going to sell you.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:25:51 to 00:26:06

Yeah. The last two years were not normal. Every listing that you took in 2021 and 2022, you're really auditioning for your next listing. If you didn't treat it that way, then you wouldn't do the professional pictures. You wouldn't do all the advertising and things like that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:26:07 to 00:26:25

So I just decided that I needed to do all the things like, it's everything. So having those three coaches really paid off because everyone in my area, especially the office that I read out, they're like, why are you doing this? Why are you hiring coaches and you're spending so much? I mean, I spent more than the average agent makes in coaching, right? Alone.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:26:25 to 00:26:25

Yeah.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:26:28 to 00:26:35

That's my sister, gino missy. Yeah, that's my sister. She's loving it. She's loving it. I'm sure she lives in this world all the time.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:26:35 to 00:26:53

We're going into fifth gear. Hang on, buddy. Put your seatbelt on. But I just wanted to be the very best, and I knew that I needed to market then. And you don't learn marketing now, so I think where a lot of agents are failing, especially like, the people that in their class, they're all taking these vigorous notes because they weren't doing it last year, they weren't spending the time.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:26:53 to 00:27:23

And I was I literally immersed myself in marketing and what makes a consumer do something and how do you show up and what's branding and client avatar like, all the things I know about, I know about the back of my hand. And what's really cool too, with my one coaching program is now I'm a mentor in it, so I get to help agents. So I spoke on stage a couple of times last year, and I've taught other agents, this is where you come from. Abundance mindset, not scarcity. And I taught them how to do a Google review funnel.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:27:23 to 00:27:42

So what I did was I spent the whole year of 2021 so I didn't have a Google presence on reviews, like a Google my business or anything like that. So I spent all of 2021 nurturing my past clients. I would drop off things on their door. I would send them postcards with a QR code that took them directly to leave a review. I had contests and things like that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:27:42 to 00:27:58

So at the end of the year, I had 105 star reviews on Google. That was what made my ads perform so much better, because not only am I paying so Google likes for you. To pay, but you're legitimate. I'm legitimate. And then, number three, I'm actually talking about the topics that people are actually searching on my website.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:27:59 to 00:28:15

So it just made me stand out. Now, last year, a lot of agents in the area started doing like, local service ads and stuff like that. So the amount of leads that were coming in became down. But it doesn't matter because the ones that call me, they're ready to do business with me. Yes.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:28:15 to 00:28:38

They're like, here's my keys, or I want you to do to property manage, especially. I was kind of scared to even have an online presence owning a property management company, because you cannot imagine how hard it is to keep all those tenants happy. Oh, I'm sure. So I was almost like a secret agent like, oh, my gosh, they're going to get somebody's water heater to get fixna, and they're going to go and give me a one star review. So what happened is, two months into this funnel, we took over a property.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:28:38 to 00:28:47

We didn't know it was a problematic tenant. They forgot to tell us that part. So we sent this whole, welcome, welcome to this is how we do things, blah, blah. Me a one star review. Never had a conversation with the guy.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:28:47 to 00:29:00

So then we turned it around, and I put my whole team in, like, a gel cell. And then I was like, oh, my gosh, we're in one star gel. And the only way to get out of one star gel is if you guys leave us. That postcard got us 20 reviews. Wow.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:29:00 to 00:29:08

They were like what? She's great. We truly made lemonade out of lemon. And we did. And we did that a couple of times because Google math isn't math.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:29:08 to 00:29:30

So I think we have, like, 188 reviews, and we have six one star. And they're tenants. Like, we have a tenant that allegedly burned down the house or burned down the kitchen after being evicted, and he went in and wrote us two reviews. So that's fun. And we've been trying to fight that with Google, but so we have a 4.8.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:29:30 to 00:29:50

So at first, I was like, when I had the five, I was like, I need this five star review forever. Once I dropped, like, 4.9, it makes you more relevant, because people have hired us because of how we respond to those one stars. We'll have people we're like, we don't even know who you are. We've checked our database, and we don't show your name. We've checked our call logs.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:29:50 to 00:30:01

We've checked every we don't know who you are. And a lot of times those people will go in and delete those, right? They'll just take them out. Man, I feel like I just ran a marathon with you there. That's impressive to me in my head.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:30:01 to 00:30:09

Yes. No, the cool thing is I teach other agents how to do it. I teach them like, hey, you do this. And it's helped. It's tremendously helped other people.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:30:09 to 00:30:30

And that's fulfilling for me, because, like you said, a lot of agents, especially your local market, they don't want to share with each other. They don't want to tell you what's working. If I could tell you the way that they pretty much made fun of me to my face for doing videos when I first started, like, Why are you doing this? This is ridiculous. Or like, oh, she says this when she does videos, or that when she does videos.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:30:30 to 00:30:54

And I didn't care because I had a bigger purpose, and I already had seen it work for other people in other areas. And so at first, there was a negative voice in my head for a while, so I hired another coach, and she was a straight video coach. And she taught me why I feel the way that I feel when I'm on videos. And I would almost make myself quieter on video. My voice softer on video.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:30:55 to 00:31:05

And that's not how I talk. I mean, you're sitting here talking to me. I'm not quiet, no. At. So and just going through the psychology of why I was doing that on video completely changed.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:31:05 to 00:31:23

Like, I was like, okay, I'm not going to do that. And she gave me a lot of helpful tips. So now when I do videos, I feel like somebody's going to watch a video and be like, that's Cassie, that's who I do business with or that's who I want to do business. So but if you don't ever stop, you're not going to do anything. So if you don't ever do the first video, just do it or send it to your friends.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:31:23 to 00:31:42

I started doing daily video texts to my clients when I was working on myself on video, because I wanted to see these are easy audience, they're not. Old people on the internet. And it's not going to be out. There to everybody rude things about you and stuff like that. What I would say to that, if you're an agent listening to this is you just do the videos.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:31:42 to 00:31:54

Even if you just make videos and send it to your friend or your husband or somebody, just do them. Because if I would have never done them, then I wouldn't be where I'm at today. And I mean, I can do a video. I'm not shy on it. I can talk about things.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:31:54 to 00:32:14

I mean, to do content creation, you have to be creative. But you also can't have a negative voice in your head because you have to practice too. And you do have to practice. And there's always this negative headspace, especially if you go online and you build an audience. And I mean, people are jerks sometimes they say rude things to me and I will respond with them.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:32:14 to 00:32:28

I'm pretty sassy, so I'll respond to them. Most of the time, they'll delete their comments. And it's not nothing rude, I'm just like, really? Because they'll say, oh, the market is crashing, or the market tell me this in two years. And I'm like, well, 22 years into it, I've been through three shifts.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:32:28 to 00:32:51

So if I was going to listen to anybody, I'd probably listen to somebody that's been through a couple of shifts. Who am I to say that, right? Well, and that's probably what you experienced too. Because like you said when we were going through 2020 through 2022, and this is the same, I tell people this all the time, that two year period was unlike anything that we have ever seen in the history of real estate. And it's not even close to reality.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:32:51 to 00:33:03

It's not even close to normal. It was just full steam ahead. Everybody was just trying to keep up. And anybody that came into the business during that period of time got a very and I don't fault them for it. They just didn't know any better.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:33:04 to 00:33:15

But you know what? You don't know. Yeah, right. So they experienced this thing that was completely unsustainable, but they had no idea that that's what it was going to be. And then we come to now where the brakes kind of came on.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:33:15 to 00:33:40

And really, you made a post about this the other day, I think, where you were talking about the market in general and where things are going. And I just made a comment about just the inventory shortage that we still don't have. And when people talk about the crash that's coming, unless there is just a massive amount of layoffs and people lose their job, which is possible. I did a video and I said, okay, if this happens, this happens, this happens, then you get your crash. Right?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:33:40 to 00:33:43

But I mean, it's bare a lot of things.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:33:45 to 00:34:00

There's a lot of property out there. There's a lot of homeowners out there. But you use that two year period like you said, which brilliant, is to actually master marketing because you didn't need to market then. I didn't. And business was running itself and the money was coming in.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:34:00 to 00:34:19

You didn't really have to do a whole lot. So put your focus over here. Instead of a lot of people, probably myself included, took a seat back and just like, oh, this is great. I'm a ninja at this. I can just keep making and then you wake up the next day and you're like and then you see, nowadays it's people starting to realize, okay, I need to get on social media.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:34:19 to 00:34:35

I need to start putting myself out there. But those that have been doing it for a long time, since two years ago, you already have a developed presence. It's already there. You're already refined your craft to the point that everybody's got to catch up. And I think what it develops is the trust factor.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:34:35 to 00:34:55

People trust me. I would say I get 15 direct messages every single week from somebody I went to high school with or a past client, and they're literally just telling me how proud they are of me. Well, they get to know you, and. They do because they've seen it. I'm a very transparent person, so I haven't ever stepped back and say, oh my gosh, this is so easy.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:34:56 to 00:35:17

I've never done that. I've never been complacent. And so if you are showing your day to day life, whether it's through stories or video or whatever, you're showing that people are watching, even if you don't realize it. Some of the message that I just got a friend from high school. I mean, I haven't talked to him since high school, and he messaged me yesterday, and he's like, hey, I have a friend that's a lender, and she just got laid off.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:35:17 to 00:35:36

Whenever I was like, I know somebody that might be able to help you. You were the first person I thought of. And I was like, yeah, I'll check around and see what I can do. And he's like, oh, and I want to tell you how proud I am of you. And it's just kind of nice because he's like and it makes me feel good to see people from Burleson that we go to high school with that are actually doing good, especially in the community that you live in.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:35:36 to 00:35:52

They didn't move off to go do something else. Well, and some of your stuff, too. And the reason I really like the stuff that you put out is because you see other things. And we're going to take you through a tour of the house and we're going to see this. And then you've got the let me show you how great of an agent I am and what I can do for you.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:35:53 to 00:36:14

Your stuff is humor. You do have some hey, here's where the market is, those kind of things. I think you pick up on the trends really well and you use that. I have a TikTok coach, too, but. For the most part, your stuff is either self deprecating or it's funny or it's light hearted.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:36:14 to 00:36:22

It's not call me today, please. Please. Which is what we do because the. People you have a TikTok coach, by the way. Yes, I have a TikTok coach.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:36:22 to 00:36:36

This is great. Okay, so I hired him for the why not? Why not? So I was just going at it and we built a following. Before I hired him, I was probably at like 3000 followers, maybe a little bit more than that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:36:36 to 00:36:58

And he really helped me with pillars and things to talk about. And TikTok is the hardest platform that I've ever tried to be on because it's not putting out to certain people. Like, if I strange something on Facebook Reels, then 90% of the time that's my people that I know. So on TikTok it's a little bit harder. But that's what you're trying to do.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:36:58 to 00:37:10

You're trying to reach the people. So not only am I growing my following, but I'm also serving. So I have my link in my bio. And my link in bio isn't just, hey, give me a call. It's not that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:37:10 to 00:37:26

It's like, hey, sign up for this free buyer's guide. And it's a click funnel. That's not just a free thing. I mean, I'm going to capture information and I tell you that I'm going to capture your information and then we're going to be talking until you tell me to stop talking to you. Well, that goes back to what you were saying in the abundance versus the scarcity thing.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:37:27 to 00:37:39

Okay, I have a buyer's guide. Well, somebody would say, well, I need to meet you in person in order to give you the buyer's guide, or I need to do a listing appointment with you to do that. And you're going no, you can get it for free. Just put your email and your phone number in there and you can have it instantly. Right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:37:39 to 00:37:52

And then now all of a sudden, you have somebody that you can market to all the time. And I tell them that. So when I first started pushing some of my guides, it wasn't hitting. Like, I would get people that would go to the page and I would check analytics, and I'm like, why am I getting so many clicks? But nobody's giving me the information?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:37:52 to 00:38:10

When I started holding up my guide to show people that it's tangible and it's on the video, on the videos that started getting do they print it or they no, it's a flip book. It's like a PDF that you can flipbook. They instantly get it as a flipbook, but then they also get it in their email so they can have it for later. Okay. And I tell them that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:38:10 to 00:38:32

I say, hey, you're going to get it instantly, but if you don't keep that link, don't worry about it because you've got it in your email, too. Wow. I don't think you have a lack of system them. And the thing is, it almost becomes like, addictive a little bit because once you get one system in place and then it bleeds to something else, and you're like, well, now I got to create a system for this. And then you look up and you've got 500 systems and they're all running like a machine.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:38:33 to 00:38:45

Yes. And I keep adding to it. So my husband always is just like, you could put the brakes on a little bit, and I was like, this car has no brakes. No, I don't think I don't think it does. Right now, I'm working on a buyer's book.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:38:45 to 00:39:02

I'm almost done with it. I'm co authoring it with my coach, Krista, and I'm going to give it as a lead magnet. I mean, I'm going to give that book, I'm going to get some printed. But the main purpose is to get something to people's because people want something of value. It can't just be a list of the ten things you need to do to get your house ready.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:39:03 to 00:39:15

They can google that. It needs to be something that shows, these are the ten things I'm going to do to get your house sold. Right. And it shows that you're actually out there working. And I mean, some of my guides, by the end of it, you know, I know my stuff, all of them.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:39:15 to 00:39:27

You know, I know my stuff. And it's not just what you're going to get in most people's. It's what we really get. Now, granted, we do get agents that download our guides. If you're out there doing that, don't it's not very ethical, but it's fine because you know what?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:39:27 to 00:39:37

They're not going to create it most of the time. Yeah. If they want to have my guide and they want to look it over. And if you create it, then if you want to steal my stuff, then steal it. Only if you're going to create it.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:39:37 to 00:39:44

If you're just going to do it just to do it, then don't do it. Yeah, don't waste my time. Of course, I pull them out of. My funnel immediately, and then I don't. Get anything else after that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:39:44 to 00:40:02

But it's just because people want to know what and I when I left Keller Williams, so I bought an office in Old Town Burleson. We had a great opportunity. Looks like a little house, a great little hair. Of course, we've seen it all the. Time, because the funny thing is, down to the color of my office was a choice.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:40:02 to 00:40:11

It wasn't just like, oh, she wants a pink office. No, because I want to brand myself. I've been branding myself. And so, of course, I'm going to paint my office pink because that's the color of my brand.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:40:14 to 00:40:44

When I bought my office, we went to our own place. So we went from an office, a know, pretty good size, Keller Williams office, which a lot of our agents left the content house. Yes, that is that can be interpreted in different ways there Tim. Be careful. And we separated ourselves, and it wasn't just because of course, I wanted to own office, but I separated ourself on purpose because we had a mission and we had a plan, and I didn't want any outside noise.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:40:44 to 00:40:59

I didn't want anybody else telling me because I'd already been dealing with that for a couple of years of people telling, why are you doing this? And giving me sideways glances and talking behind my back and all that. The haters always coming out, and that's fine. It's driving. It's a little driving fans at this point.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:40:59 to 00:41:20

Yeah. So being at my office really helped us to separate, and then we just started knocking out our goals, and we had a purpose. And when I say we had a purpose, everything that we do is for a purpose. There's nothing you put thought into like, oh, let's try this. I'm like, if I'm going to put money on something, then I'm going to be like, okay, does it work?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:41:20 to 00:41:34

And not every single thing that we've ever done has worked, but a lot of them. So okay, so I got a ton of questions. All right, so first off, I want to answer Gary. He works with me or in our company. He's out of Indiana, though, so he's in another state.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:41:35 to 00:41:47

But he's asking about Sierra Interactive. So what are your thoughts on it's? Sierra Interactive is just a platform. I like it because it's very easy to do it. What is it's?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:41:47 to 00:42:08

Just the website. It's just like any website provider, like KVCore, whoever you want to be, but it has a CRM with it, and it's just very user friendly. And when I say user friendly, it's not made for you. We paid for them to set it up, but then we completely scratched everything when I hired the one coach and he's like, okay, let's do all this all over again. And it works.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:42:08 to 00:42:26

But I mean, we post all the time, we change our content. It's not like Sierra has changed things. It's we'd made the choice to do things on Mean. Everything that we do on our website, you have to be thinking about where it was going to show up on Google, right? Like, how am I going to use these keywords and use them a lot.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:42:26 to 00:42:48

I mean, we do like geotagging on all of our pictures. So it's not like we're just putting a picture that pictures got coded and it says where that picture was taken and it just helps. But it's a building process. So I would just say to that person one, see if you can get they're really good at helping out and stuff, but also you just got to start putting stuff out there. It's not just going to kill itself for you.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:42:48 to 00:43:19

Right, well, from a lender side, I'm kind of at a point where I've started doing this kind of thing and I'm making little clips, but I really don't know what I'm doing beyond I even met with somebody recently because I was trying to figure out, okay, how do we get leads? Because my goal obviously is I want to interact with agents and then obviously sometimes with buyers as well. And I kind of got kicked in the head a little bit because she was like, well, what are you offering? And I'm like, well, I don't really know actually. And she's like, well then I can't help you until you know what you're trying to do.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:43:19 to 00:43:33

And I'm like, okay, she's absolutely right, I'm an idiot over here. I would say one of the key things that I don't think people pay attention is your bounce rate. Right. Your bounce rate is how long when somebody clicks on your page, how long do they stay there? If they're staying there for 4 seconds, you don't have anything of value.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:43:33 to 00:43:54

Yeah. And it's not like they're going to stay there for 15. Our average is two minutes, which is really that's a long time for somebody to stay on your page. But if you're noticing that people are finding you, which is good, but then they're not staying around or they're not coming back, it just means that you're not providing the right information to the people or the way that they found you. They're not getting what they needed for that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:43:54 to 00:44:10

Yeah. Okay, so obviously you're at what I would call super Jedi level of managing this business that you have. I think I have so much room to my husband, I beat myself. A lot of people are like, oh, she's so confident. Oh shoot.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:44:10 to 00:44:19

And I am confident, but I am also really hard on myself. Yeah, well, you're confident in your knowledge you know what you know? I know what I know. But do I think that I'm the best? No.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:44:19 to 00:44:28

Do I think that there's people that are better than me? Yes. Who are they and how can I learn from them? Yeah, exactly. That was what I was going to ask you, is you said, obviously coaching plays a big role in what you do.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:44:29 to 00:44:54

And I think a lot of people have a negative impression of coaching, which, again, is understandable because there's a lot of charlatans out there that are coaches. Everybody's a coach, right? So it's like, what did you do exactly to coach anybody, to do anything? So A, how did you pick the coaches that you picked? And then B, or really A, is what ultimately made you think that coaching was the route to go and put the dollar amount to say, this is worth it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:44:54 to 00:45:18

And then how did you pick those people? When I wanted to hire my first coach, I was just basically bored, and I was like, business is 90% referrals, and it's coming in. But I wanted to figure out, one, if I was going to build a team, how was I going to feed those people? So, one, I just wanted to learn how to I mean, I wanted to learn how to be on video, and this is four years ago, and then I want to learn how to get leads. Like, how do I get leads?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:45:18 to 00:45:33

What's the best place? So that was when I hired my first coach. Then when I hired my second coach, it was because I had done so many things, but I was just constantly like, oh, we got to do this, you got to do that. I needed somebody to be like, okay, tell me what you're doing. This is working.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:45:33 to 00:45:52

This isn't working. And it was just kind of a sounding board. He's also the one that taught me how to track my numbers and things like, you know, I don't think that one coach know of know Krista was great because that's how I even got into video, how I even learned how to do ads and stuff like that. And she still is great. She's a really good friend of but.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:45:52 to 00:46:07

Kind of trial and error, maybe. Yeah, and it was and then it's really cool. What I didn't know was the community that was going to come with it. I have real estate friends all over the world that were also doing coaching as well in this coaching program. Yeah.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:46:07 to 00:46:25

So then you would see it humanizes things. So it shows that they're struggling with video, too, and they don't know how to do this certain funnel, or they don't know their ads aren't performing. And then we'd be like, okay, then what can we do? So we would get together and we would mastermind and things like that. And it was expensive.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:46:25 to 00:46:51

This was in 2018, and it was $15,000, and I wrote a check. For $15,000 and did it because I knew. And the way that she had found me was through Facebook ads and online marketing. And so I was like, well, if she can find me here and she's in California, then I think she can help me find people around here. And so I just kind of took a blind leap of faith, and it wasn't just like, oh, I just signed up for coaching, and everything took off.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:46:51 to 00:47:14

It wasn't it was a whole year of once I realized what my bigger purpose was, then I needed to know how to execute it, how to do it, and steps and processes. I mean, I hired a Dang coach to help me do all the things that my other coach taught me how to do just so I could put it more in a systematic way. Well, it's funny. We had this conversation right before we came on about education, about college, and do you need a degree? Whatever.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:47:14 to 00:47:44

So it's crazy to me how it just highlights of what you just said is, like, if you want to spend $60,000 or these days $100,000 to go to a four year university, nobody bats an eye. Oh, yeah, that's what you need to do. Go there while you're learning liberal arts and you're having your history of whatever. It's just all this stuff that may or may not serve you any good, but then if someone says, well, you're going to pay $10,000 to have this person teach you how to get leads, like, well, that's ridiculous. Why would I do that?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:47:44 to 00:47:59

Why would I do that? You're like, Wait a minute, I don't understand how those two things mesh up, and nobody cares about they're fine. Oh, yeah, I'll spend $100,000 to pay for college, but not to have someone come in and teach me how to. Do that, and I really feel like have a master's degree in marketing. Did I go to four year I think you absolutely.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:47:59 to 00:48:24

But I learned from the school of hard knocks, and I learned from the people that were doing it, and I implemented one of the biggest things that I would say for people that usually don't have success in coaching is they don't take action. Right? That's everything. You can go to your zoom and spend an hour and then, oh, let me go back to the other things or my other bad habits that I was doing and mentor. So, like, if I'm going to spend $10,000, I'm going to need to get that $10,000 back.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:48:24 to 00:48:28

Yeah. Right away. Right. You're not going to wait for it to take care of itself? I'm not going to be like, oh, I spent $10,000.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:48:28 to 00:48:55

I'm like, all right, I spent $10,000 now. And so I have to do the things that they tell me to do or I'm not going to get my $10,000 back. And so, I mean, I could take that $70,000 that I spent in coaching. Did you kind of take it in chunks? And I ask it that way because I saw something the other day where God was like all the time that you spend learning, reading, writing, putting down all your lists and everything, in a lot of ways that's just procrastination to keep you from actually doing the thing that you're trying to do.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:48:55 to 00:49:24

And I would sometimes fill, especially when I had the three coaches at the same time. So on average, I was spending about 9 hours a week on some form of coaching, but I would implement, and I had a team, and so I'd be like, hey, you do this, you do this, I'm going to do this. And so it was a lot easier to delegate, but if I'd never learned anything, then they wouldn't be able to teach. Like, my assistant is my transaction coordinator, too, Taylor. She came to me as a pregnant flight attendant, and she's my best friend's daughter in law, and she couldn't fly anymore.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:49:24 to 00:49:34

And so I was like, oh, I'll hire know. And then I was like, okay, she's got it. And she's me. She is me all over again. So she can handle a lot of tasks.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:49:34 to 00:49:49

She's good at execution. She's never satisfied like me. What's the next thing or how do we improve that? So I think whenever you're out there finding your coaches and finding you need to find the people one that you like to be around. Because spending 9 hours a week, you.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:49:49 to 00:50:01

Want to make sure you got to like them. And one of my coaches that I think that's taught me, are they all. Local or do you do everything zoom? Yeah, nobody is local. One of my coaches, it's probably not somebody I'd be friends with, but he taught me a lot.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:50:01 to 00:50:10

He talked at me a lot. And I like to conversate like this. I like to like, hey, this is working. And he just talked at me. So we figured that out real quick, and we're like, fine, because what he's saying is knowledgeable.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:50:10 to 00:50:26

So then we just sit there for an hour and let him talk at you. And then when I felt like I drained pretty much all that he was going to teach me, I was like, hey, this has been great. See you later. And that was it. But if I hadn't taken action or if I would have said, oh, my gosh, he's just not my person, oh, my gosh, he doesn't understand me.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:50:26 to 00:50:34

He didn't give a shit. Honestly. He didn't care. He wanted to be like, this is what's working, and this is what you need to do. And his conviction just made me believe it.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:50:34 to 00:51:00

And then when I started seeing the fruits of the labor, I was like, okay, he's not my cup of tea, but I'll take a drink. Yeah. When you got the coaches that came through, how long do you judge or in your like, how long you keep them or move, like, do you just know, okay, I've learned everything I kind of know from this guy, so it's time to move on. And that's the case. So, like, my Maps coach, John, I would have kept him forever, so if I could have found a way to keep him outside, but he's because sometimes.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:51:00 to 00:51:14

It'S like motivation almost too it's just. Like, hey, accountability, maybe accountability. And then sometimes if you're a person like me that beats theirselves up, it's kind of nice to tell somebody. And I'll be like, oh, I did this, this and this. And I'll just gloss over.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:51:14 to 00:51:23

And he's just like, what? You did what? And I'm like, well, yeah, I mean, I did this, but I mean, I could have done this. And he's just like, stop. Let's talk about what you did and how you did it and how we do more of it.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:51:23 to 00:51:39

So he was just a good sounding board for me, and he helped me with teams. Because developing a team and building that is very hard. Lots of different personalities out there that. Have people that I call groups. So there's a difference between a team and a group.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:51:39 to 00:51:56

A group is just a bunch of people that come together at the end of the year, and they add all their production together and they say, oh, I sold 100 million. It's like, great. Like, four people made 100,000, and the rest are not making a teacher salary. So I wanted to form a team. I wanted to have everybody that had dual roles, because if I'm having a dual role, everybody else got to have a dual role.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:51:56 to 00:52:23

And I wanted to help them have a better life, help them. And I've had trials and tribulations with that, and I've poured into a lot of people, and sometimes it doesn't work, but I know that I can leave those relationships knowing that I gave them everything. And then if they chose not to do it and real estate is not for everyone and that's okay, then I can sleep well at night. But if I'm just sitting there taking, oh, she's going to take a percentage. I've never had a buyer's agent that I've taken splits from.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:52:23 to 00:52:31

Everybody has been like an integral role in my team. Right, but they have a role in lifting up the whole team. Yes. Right. And everybody has.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:52:31 to 00:53:18

And you don't do your job, then this person can't do their job, and there's not any business for us. So if you were, again, you've reached yoda level of the ability to do this kind of stuff, but there's a lot of people out there that haven't and not even close to it. So just go back to when you very first started. Let's just talk about social media specifically, right, because you have so many systems and so many things in place that we could talk for seven and a half hours and you could not run part two well, we're definitely going to have to have a part two. But on social media specifically, tell me if you were coaching somebody and they came to you and said, cassie on my radar, I need to get into social media, and I know I need to do your what would be the steps in the process to start from.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:53:18 to 00:53:39

Nothing, I would start with stories. So if you have an Instagram and a Facebook link those up with each other, you can produce the content in one to the other stories. And I'm not saying, oh, just listed this. Stories should tell who you are and what you do on a day basis. Like we'll have people be like, y'all have so much fun.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:53:39 to 00:53:51

And we do have fun, but we get a lot of work done. But we're showing you who we are. We're not like our dogs come to the office with us almost every day because we have no control. And so, you know that about us. You'll see them in our stories.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:53:52 to 00:54:20

I like to put like every morning I think of like, I find a meaningful quote. And it's not like I'm just like, oh, as a robot, I actually find something that I think would benefit somebody else and I post it. And those I will get something one DM every single day from just a quote that I found that I've shared. So invent the will, especially on Instagram, there's a lot of things that you can share and do, but it's just doing it, especially if you're nervous on video. So if you want to make a video, put it in your story because it's only there for 24 hours.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:54:21 to 00:54:30

Got you. And if you hate it, you can delete it. But that's one of the big things. That we've always where do the stories show up? Stories will show up on the top of your feed.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:54:30 to 00:54:44

Does someone have to go to your page? No. Oh yeah, the thing at the top. At the top. And you know that if you follow us and if we don't have a story going or we don't have something, you're like, oh gosh, are they sick or something?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:54:44 to 00:55:01

And we've had some shake up in our team a little bit, and so I've had to do a lot more marketing than I was doing. But it's easy for me because it's just what I'm doing, just what you do. This is where we're going and showing my family, showing my son doing it. People love that. And what's funny about it is I'll go to an event and they know.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:55:03 to 00:55:25

You don't have to tell them anything. Sometimes it's weird to me, especially like if I go to one of my events in California, because it could be somebody that I've never met, which my coach, I help Krista out a lot, and she's put me on a platform. So I've been in her coaching program longest. Me and one other agent have been in there forever. And so I'll have people that I'm just meeting for the first time, and they just know everything about me.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:55:26 to 00:55:45

So it is weird when you have somebody be like, hey, how's Tim doing at Tom Ferry right now? But when you put yourself out there like that, that's what it is. And that's what you have to realize, that if you put a fake persona out there and who you're really not, it's going to show. So just be yourself. And then it goes away.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:55:45 to 00:56:00

It's not there forever. So that's the easiest place to start with social media. And also, I'm a big component in TikTok. Do I think it's the best app on the market? No, it's the easiest app for me to produce content.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:56:00 to 00:56:24

Right? And then you can use that and put it everywhere. Use it, yeah. So you take a TikTok, you make it in TikTok, you copy the link. There's an app called Snaptick, and that takes off the watermark because you don't want to put those because if you share a TikTok to Instagram, other than stories, it doesn't really matter in stories, but if you share something onto Instagram, they're going to hide that because they're going to see that watermark, and Instagram wants you to make the content there.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:56:25 to 00:56:40

So we'll take it, and then you'll have it on your phone, and then you can upload it into Reels. You can upload it into Facebook reels or Instagram reels. And then Google my business. If people aren't using Google My Business, it's free and it shows your story. That's what you use.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:56:40 to 00:56:52

It not I feel ridiculous that I don't even know. So I've heard of Google my business, but I obviously don't use it. So you're saying that they have a platform for shorts and reels and stuff, too? On google my business. It's a profile.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:56:52 to 00:57:19

So we put educational stuff on there. If we go to lunch at our favorite restaurants or something, then we'll take a team picture, or we'll do a pan of the restaurant, and then we're like, hey, we really like this place, or have you. Or we'll be like, okay, these are the steps to buy a house. The thing about you should use that platform is, again, to tell who you are if they do decide to pick up the phone and call you, who they're going to get when they call you. So I think it's one of the most unused platforms out there.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:57:19 to 00:57:34

Well, then you're not having to sell yourself necessarily, right? So, you know, the process is that you'll sign up for it. And it sounds weird, but Google will actually mail you postcard the four digit Pin. That's how you get that validated. And then you can start directing people.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:57:34 to 00:57:51

So we have our Google Page for reviews, and we have it to a QR code. So I can be at a listing or I can be at a closing. I'm like, hey, can you scan this and leave me a review real quick? And if agents are trying to do. Reviews okay, wait, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:57:51 to 00:58:10

So you have a postcard in your hand that has a QR code on it, and then while you're at a listing or a closing, you can be like, hey, can you give me a review? And they'll scan it with their phone, put a review in right then, and that's it. That's amazing. Yeah, and sometimes if somebody like, oh, I want to write something really meaningful, I'm like, okay, that's great, but go. Ahead and do it now anyway.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:58:10 to 00:58:22

Or I say, okay, but I'm going to let you know that. Do I have your permission? That's what I say. Do I have your permission to bug you until you do? Because on average, it takes sometimes six to seven times to ask somebody for a review.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:58:22 to 00:58:43

So if I would have just stopped. And I'm sure you're asking everything. We literally spent all of 2021 dropping things off, mailing things. Like, we did contests on the slide. You're probably not supposed to do that, but we did contests where we gave away an iPad to the people that would give us reviews, and a lot of them didn't even care if they were in it.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:58:43 to 00:58:59

They really wanted to. And the cool thing is, last year we had eight houses that we sold that came directly from reviews. So they found us read a review, and they're like, this is the people I don't want to do business with. Those people leave the best reviews. Well, the reviews I did experience that to some extent because we have a software.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:58:59 to 00:59:06

It's called Social Survey. I think it's a different name now, actually. They changed it. But anyway and it sends out it's automated. We don't have to do much with it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:59:06 to 00:59:26

When we have clients that close with us, it'll send them stuff. Now, I don't have the system that you have, obviously, where I get as many, but we've had a fair amount that come through. And then what I started happening last year was I would get calls from people because most of the time somebody calls me and they say, so and so gave me your number, wanted me to give you a shout. I'm like, great. And then I always ask people, how'd you get my information?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:59:26 to 00:59:42

And they're like, oh, I found you on Google. I'm like you found me on Google. Okay, cool. That's awesome. But it was because those reviews had really because we had 100 of them or so that would be on there, and it was 4.99 or whatever, but that was helping us show up in the SEO a lot.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:59:42 to 01:00:04

It makes Google know that you're a verified business, and you actually have people that are saying good things about you, right? And you have to coach them on the review, so you're not going to be like, so this is my process. So when I start the transaction with them, I say, hey, at the listing appointment, hey, I'm going to let you know that I'm going to do such a good job at the end of this that you have no choice but to give me five star review. Then when we go under contract, I'll literally say, just plant seeds. Hey, guys.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:00:05 to 01:00:20

I was like, oh, it's pretty good. I got your household really quickly. I'm earning that five star review. Then when we set up their closing and say, okay, hey, you have a closing tomorrow, here's your link. If you want to go ahead and write a review now because I'm going to ask you tomorrow at closing, then sometimes they don't do it then and.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:00:20 to 01:00:35

Then, okay, let me ask you a question. So once you get to that point, right? Because if you were doing that to me, like I'm writing that review when you see me alone no, I think. It'S awesome to bother you until you. So how many people actually, by the time you get to closing right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:00:35 to 01:00:47

And when they know you're going to ask again, how many have already done it, would you say percentage wise? I would say probably maybe 15%. Not quite 30. But still, you got to prep. You're getting to 100 some way.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:00:47 to 01:01:00

That's right. And then some of them I'll have a client sometimes I've did the whole funnel. I've asked you, I've dropped off things. I've given you the basket, and we do some inventive things, too. So it's kind of funny.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:01:02 to 01:01:24

For St. Patrick's Day, we dropped off a Lucky Charms box with lottery tickets inside of them with a green balloon that kind of just was tied around it. And when you opened it, it was like, hey, we're so lucky to have clients like you be really lucky if you'd write us a review, because we have found that when our clients write us a review, that we attract people like you. So you've sit there and told them. That you like more people like, you.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:01:24 to 01:01:37

Told them that you want to do business with more people like you. And they're like, Well, Dang, yeah, I want her to be able to do people like me and she likes me. The funny thing is that one is we got a couple of text messages because it looks kind of creepy. It's like the it thing. That's exactly what they said.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:01:38 to 01:02:04

So I was like, hey, some of them got creeped out and gave us a review. And, I mean, we did it like, we went back far back into our database because a lot of the people that we were doing business with were kind of already writing us review, but we needed to get everybody on there. I had a client that I sold a house to probably nine years ago that wrote us a review, like Last Mean. And I didn't ask them because he didn't know I never asked. Well, because you didn't have your system.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:02:04 to 01:02:25

In then, so so we did a lot of drop offs and stuff. I spent the whole month of November doing video text. And so I'd say, hey, Joe, I really liked when I was working with you, and I really want to work with more clients like you. So if you could click this link and just write a couple of sentences about your experience with us. If you could mention your city, that would be really helpful because that helps with SEO.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:02:25 to 01:02:40

And they would do it. I'm literally sending them a message, calling them out, and they're like, oh my gosh, I've been meaning to, and I didn't do it yet. So, yes, I'm going to get on there right now and write your review. I feel so inadequate. Okay.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:02:40 to 01:02:48

You're nice about it. Yeah, no, look, most people are like. Why does she do this? Why does she do that? Now it's funny because now they're like, well, how does she do this?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:02:48 to 01:02:59

How does she do that? Same thing with property management. Like when you walk into a room and they're like, oh my gosh, you manage how many properties? Oh, I would never do that. I'm like, good or for me, yeah, no doubt.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:02:59 to 01:03:20

Well, and we've never met. This is the first time we've met, but I love people like you because you know exactly what you want to do. You know exactly what it's going to take to do it, and you execute that process. I live in this charlatan world in my head where I think, okay, and I'm like that with some things. Some things, but not everything.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:03:21 to 01:03:34

And that has not lend itself to grow the way that I've wanted my own business to grow for that reason. But when you see somebody that's done what you've done the way you've done it, it's inspiring. It really is. I hope that it is. That's my want to be inspiring.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:03:34 to 01:03:56

Yes. Well, I equate it. I don't know if you take this good or bad, but a big basketball fan to some extent, but I'm a Dallas Mavericks fan, been watching basketball for a long time, and Kobe Bryant was not my favorite human on the world because Lakers would kick our butt all the time. And so I didn't really have a good appreciation for him. And then of know, he passed away tragically with his daughter.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:03:56 to 01:04:20

But then thanks to TikTok, you see all the old interviews and stuff that I never was exposed to while he was playing. And when you learn about his mindset and just the way my kids out about it, because I'm like, there's one interview where he talks about failure, and he wakes up and he's like, what does that mean? He's like, what is failure? He's like, I don't even like that word. He's like, I get up, I do this, I put the work in.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:04:20 to 01:04:36

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, I learn from him, and I do it better the next time, and then I wake up the next day and I do it again. And it's just this idea that there is no quitting. Right? You're just going to keep going, and if something doesn't work, then you're going to try something different.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:04:36 to 01:04:52

And if that doesn't happen, then it's going to try something different. And I can't imagine that you would spend very much time living in poor me land, right? You don't have very many parties, right? So I think what really changed for me is when I really started becoming competitive with myself. Yes.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:04:53 to 01:05:09

Not looking to see what Sally doing over there and why did Joe get that closing? I'm super competitive with myself, which also sometimes leans on me being a little bit harder on myself. But it's because I want to do more. I want everybody around me to do better. And I know that I have eyes on me now.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:05:09 to 01:05:26

I know that there's agents all over the United States that watch what I do and emulate it. So it makes me one obviously know I have to show up. There's no slacking here. So it's kind of nice. But when I stopped worrying about what everybody else was thinking about me and just worried about myself, it just changed.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:05:26 to 01:05:37

It just opened it up to be more of an authentic self. Because it doesn't matter what Sally does or what Joe does. It matters what you do. Because if they have this and it works for them, what did you make off that? Right.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:05:37 to 01:05:40

Nothing. Make nothing off that. Yeah. You didn't lose anything. You didn't gain anything.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:05:41 to 01:05:53

It didn't impact you at all. Unless you learn to do what they're doing because it worked, then do it and keep on going. But I've just always been super competitive with myself and not other people. Have you seen the little girl? It's like TikTok reels.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:05:53 to 01:06:05

Whatever. But she's a little girl. She's in the car seat, and she's putting her buckles on, and her dad's like, hey, do you need me to help you worry about yourself? I have a shirt. My friend of mine made a shirt for me because that's like, my favorite.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:06:05 to 01:06:14

This little girl is just like, quit worrying about all worry about you. Just worry about you. I got this. Yes. So where do you get inspiration for some of your videos?

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:06:15 to 01:06:22

Do you follow certain people? R and D, rob and duplicate. R and D, rob and duplicate.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:06:24 to 01:06:56

This is great. A lot of that comes from my husband. He's always, hey, my favorite reel, the one I don't know if it was this or TikTok second or third one I saw of yours that I literally laughed out loud because I know people have done it before, but it was just being in the world is hilarious. And I think it's pinned on there right now where it's that whatever that song is that hopeful song that they play. And then Tim says he'll be back in a few minutes, and he walks out the door, flings the thing, puts on his sunglasses, and goes stroll into the golf course like I was dying laughing on that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:06:56 to 01:06:59

Just because I'm like, yeah, that's what we do. I'll be back.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:07:02 to 01:07:09

That is my husband. If you knew him, you would know. That'S literally his was trying to get. To the golf course. Yes.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:07:10 to 01:07:27

So you R and D, rob and. Duplicate love that I would say coaching. So with my TikTok coach, I found him online, I stalked him for a little bit, and I copied a lot of things. And there's some coaches out there, and this is the thing that people need to realize. A lot of them tell you everything.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:07:27 to 01:07:46

So if you go listen to their podcast or go watch their YouTube, it's all there. And he was just giving me little bit here and there. So when I signed up for his coaching program, which wasn't even really that expensive, I mean, in the grand scheme of things, but he had systems and processes. So I was. Out.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:07:46 to 01:08:10

He pulled out a Google Doc and all of these columns, and it was like, it's coaching every single day, monday through Friday for an hour, and each day is on Monday's mindset Tuesday's trends. So when you see me doing trending things, that's a lot of times, and the funniest thing is, a lot of times we're ahead of him. So he's, of course, I'm kind of being his little star pupil right now. And then on Wednesdays, we do win. So we all talk about what's working, what's not working.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:08:10 to 01:08:35

On Tuesdays, he takes over our accounts, and he's like, hey, you really need to not do that, or you need to do this more. And then on Fridays, he teaches us funnels because we're all on this social media to get leads. We're not just out there. I mean, you should be out there for the no, like, trust factor, but in the end, that's not going to pay your bills, right? So with him, he had such a process with it, and sometimes it's just what's going on, and sometimes I get blocks, and sometimes I'm like, I don't want to make any videos, so I do batch a lot of things, too.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:08:35 to 01:08:43

So you'll see me, if you really watch it, you're like, oh, she did three videos in the same outfit. That's because I made them all at the same time this morning. You do that a lot, do you? Mostly batch. Yeah.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:08:43 to 01:08:56

So this morning, I knew that I had this going on, and I usually so I get to the office, I'm the first person there, and I've kind of made it a rule that nobody can come to the office before 09:00 a.m.. That's my time. So I'll at least try to do three TikToks every day. Okay. Yeah.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:08:56 to 01:09:12

So if I have some, like, if I can tell things aren't performing as well, then I might not post all three of them that day. I just throw out one. But if there's timing, there's timing that's involved with those posts. Do you use an auto post software, like Sendable or anything? Or do you post them organically?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:09:13 to 01:09:25

I think that organic is the way to go because I've heard they've kind of throttled down. So like the back end, if you share something, it's not that image. It's all those, like, we talked about coding. It's all that images that goes behind it. Right.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:09:25 to 01:09:39

So then if you're batching it, then it's not original creation. So TikTok and Instagram want it to be original creation. So the batching, they kind of throttle down. Yeah, but the auto posting or whatever? Yeah, I don't think that there is one great auto posting site out there.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:09:39 to 01:09:49

I think that you need to post everything. And it's a process. It's easy. So you make it one place, and then you put it everywhere that you need to put it. And you can copy your content.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:09:50 to 01:10:03

You can like on TikTok, you can't put very much on Instagram, you can put a paragraph, three paragraphs, all that stuff. So you want to change it up a little bit, but it's just you're not recreating the will. You're just using that. I try to put everything that I make. I try to put it everywhere that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:10:03 to 01:10:18

I think that it will do good on Instagram. Because really, I mostly use Facebook because I'm a dude and I never really got into social media very much at all. As far as using it, I wasn't posting. I just started posting a couple of years ago. Really?

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:10:18 to 01:10:35

And so I never really got into Instagram. TikTok I found interesting because you just fall in holes and you can't crawl out of them. But looking at Instagram, I noticed that they have pictures and videos, whatever. But then, like you said, you could post like four paragraphs. Is that a beneficial thing?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:10:36 to 01:10:50

I think Instagram is trying to figure it out right now. They don't know what they want. They're not Facebook and they're not TikTok. TikTok is really going for like algorithm SEOs words and things like that. So that's why they added captions.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:10:50 to 01:11:00

So every video that you do on there, add the captions to it because all those words are going to show up in there. In search terms, do you have to use their captions? Or if you use like a cap. Cut no, you need to use theirs. Okay.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:11:00 to 01:11:10

Yes. Okay. That's another thing. I could go on for days. But if you post something and it already has words on it, on TikTok, none of that's going to keyword search, really.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:11:10 to 01:11:25

It has to be made in the app. Got you. And in their app, do they have the different types of okay, yeah, you. Can have different and the thing about TikTok is they want you to have a big following, so they give you more depending on more how many followers? So we're under 10,000.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:11:25 to 01:11:33

So the next thing we want is Siri so that you can all have to go watch. Like if you want to watch my buyer stuff, it's up there. If you want to do like this is just for fun. It's there. So that's the next thing.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:11:33 to 01:11:46

So some things are not available to all people. Right. Do you have any worry with TikTok about all the issues that everybody's freaked out out with it. No, because if they take it away, I'll figure out yeah, you'll find another route. And right now, my Instagram reels are doing amazing.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:11:47 to 01:11:58

I will post a TikTok that gets 200 views. You do get stuck in, like, 203. That's a real thing. I get it all the time, and I'm just like it's just the work. You got to get it to work it out.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:11:59 to 01:12:13

Where was I going with that? On the instagram. On Instagram. So the ones that have had music with them aren't doing as good. The ones of me talking the last three TikTok that I've posted with me talking all have 15,000 views.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:12:13 to 01:12:23

The reels instagram. Instagram reels. Yes. They all have 15,000, and they got like, 200, 300, 500. So again, you don't want to make that content and just put it one place.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:12:25 to 01:12:40

But the problem with all that stuff is it always morphs, right? Because the reason you have to post consistently and do it constantly is because it changes so much that sometimes the music works. I was so frustrated because I'm, like, my system is in process, girl. So when I'm like, okay, I learned this. I'm like, well, that doesn't work anymore.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:12:40 to 01:12:48

Oh. They said not to do this now. Used to be like tons of hashtag. Now they're like, no need, like, three or four hashtags. And you want to make sure that you do hyper local.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:12:48 to 01:12:54

So, like, I use burleson on all my yeah, if I used Fort Worth, my reach would go further. So much further. But I want to. But you want leads. I want to work.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:12:55 to 01:13:03

Burleson. I want to be the mayor of Burleson. Not really, because I live outside the city limits. I won't let my husband live in town because he wants to be on City. Oh, no.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:13:03 to 01:13:13

We live outside city limits. But I want to be so if you know hashtag Burleson, Texas my videos are all over. If you do hashtag Burleson Realtor, I own that page. Yes. And it's fine because I'm not trying to reach everyone.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:13:13 to 01:13:36

I just want to reach the people that are important to me. And it's hard because your ego gets in the way and you're like, oh, sometimes you'll spend more time on a video and it won't get any views. And then I'll make something that takes me, like, less than a minute, and it gets, like, 5000 views, and you're just like there's no rhyme. But if I stopped or if I didn't do it, it's just all of the things. So I'll do my three videos and I'll have them for like I'll do a trending video, then I'll do an education.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:13:36 to 01:13:51

And then I'm really starting to push like leads. Like, hey, I want you to click the link in my bio. But then you can't type the link in Bio and you type link in Bio. Or you can't say call me because they don't want you to take you off the app, right. You have to do the little link emoji.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:13:51 to 01:14:06

And then my bio, I do a B and then an Eyeball and then an O. But if I didn't have a coach, I would just be like, how would you know? How would I know? Yeah, and he's out there and honestly I'm like, he's out there spending time searching it. He's teaching me.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:14:06 to 01:14:22

So I'm spending an hour on the phone on a call with him. Well, again, it's so funny because it's just a different way you think about it. And I'm guilty because I just don't think about it that way. But it's like I would hire a plumber to come to my house and fix my sink or fix my toilet because I don't really know how to do it. I kind of know how to do it, but not really.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:14:22 to 01:14:38

I'm going to screw up a bunch of stuff. Yeah, it's going to have a problem. So I'm like, yeah, I'm going to pay that guy to come do that because it'll take 30 minutes and it's done. But I'm not willing to pay someone. This is my business and I'm trying to bring leads in and I'm trying to make money, but I'm not willing to pay this guy to come teach me how to do this thing because it's always changing.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:14:38 to 01:14:52

I mean, it makes complete and utter sense. But people again are defensive. They're not offensive. They're always on the defense. And what makes me sad right now is there's so many agents wanting to do social media now and now it's like they're not going to spend the money on the coach.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:14:52 to 01:15:17

And that's kind of upsets me because I'm just like just spend it because it's going to like I can show you mathematically how what I spent for coaching has earned me this much because I wouldn't have had that before. And so if you're listening and you're an agent, just take it out, swipe your credit card, do it. Because if you don't learn now, you're going to keep being behind. Because I think it's going to be a tough year. I think it's going to be a tough year for everyone.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:15:17 to 01:15:29

There's still business to be had. I think next year is going to be pretty amazing. 2024. Yeah. I think that either people are going to get used to rates or we're going to get smart and figure out ways around it and things like that.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:15:29 to 01:15:48

And I think that if you don't spend this year, when you do have time building your business and working on your business, it's not going to matter. Next year, you're going to be sitting there doing your average of four deals a year, one a quarter, and wondering why you're not doing any business. And it's because it's an art. You got to study it. So I got two more questions for you, because we're an hour and 15.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:15:49 to 01:16:04

I want to be like, I could do this for four and a half hours, but I know you got places to be because you've got a system in place and you got the next thing coming. Number one, have you ever thought about being a coach? Yes. And are you going to do that on my radar? Yes.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:16:04 to 01:16:47

So sometimes I get a little bit of imposter syndrome when you sit here and tell me I know, but I get if my husband was here, he would literally be like, he's the best thing for me, because I can tell him, hey, this is what I'm thinking. And he will just look at me with the blank stare and be like, what are you talking about? You're awesome at what you do. So I am really contemplating coaching because I do thrive on helping people, and I do think that I have something to offer, but then I do have a little double on my shoulder that says, you need to do a little bit more business, or, oh, well, she didn't do 100 transactions. She only did 53 last year while also managing or my goal last year was a million GCI.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:16:48 to 01:17:16

I wanted to hit a million GCI. I barely missed it, but to me, I missed it when most people didn't do a whole lot that last quarter of the year. I had five closings in December, but I'd missed that goal. But I also had a transaction number goal, and we raised our average sales price by 100,000. So if you take the 53 deals times 100, it's almost 6 million in production, pretty much doing almost the same amount of business, a little bit more than the year before.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:17:16 to 01:17:46

But marketing, well, I definitely think just in the what I just felt like I felt like I was sitting in front of a fire hydrant, and I cranked it open and it just I was like, Gosh, there's so much, I'm going to have to go back and watch this, like, four times. I've been drinking from that fire hose for a long time. So I definitely think that you have. And I have personally looked into different types of coaches and different people and kind of like you, I go online, I'm like, what's this guy talking about? Just to kind of get a gauge on who they are.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:17:49 to 01:18:11

Because here's my biggest problem with coaching, is everybody talks stuff up here. They're all like, you got to have the mindset, and you got to do this. But then you get into no, you do this here because you created your systems. You created all the little detailed steps all the way through. So you know them like the back of your hand versus just the hierarching overview of what most people, a lot.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:18:11 to 01:18:20

Of them will put, like this picture, and here's this beautiful picture that I painted. And you're like, oh, that's great. I want to paint that picture. Well, how did you slang I'm like, no, get your canvas out. It's blank.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:18:20 to 01:18:30

Let's get this color, get this type. Of this is what I did here. Don't even need an eraser because I did that. Don't do that. That's what draws me to it.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:18:30 to 01:18:49

It's because I generally do feel drawn to helping people, and I do know that I have something to offer. But again, I would pay for your coaching. I'm telling you right now, because simply. My husband's loving this right now. Well, I'm just saying because again, you're very detailed.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:18:49 to 01:19:09

A lot of people have a lot of smoke and no fire or whatever, however you want to say it. There's a lot of things that, oh, well, I think this, and I believe that, and you should do this, and you should do that, and you go, okay, well, how do you do that? What about this? But you just got to get into it and work with and you didn't say anything. You just put a bunch of words together that sounded good, and it meant nothing.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:19:09 to 01:19:25

But I need actual hard steps on how you get to it. Handfuls. And you do that. That's what you have, because you created all those things. So I absolutely think that you should get into that sooner rather than later, because like you said, if 2024 is going to be what it is, then this is your year to get after it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:19:25 to 01:20:01

So second thing is this might be a little longer, but what do you think market as a whole? We talked a lot about marketing and advertising stuff, but you've been in the market for a long time. You see this kind of stuff. My biggest fear right now, and you could tell me if this is wrong is that the opportunity to own a home as somebody your son's age and my kids age is shrinking rapidly because of the cost, because of what people can make as jobs and income these days and what they can afford, what we're building and corporate interest coming in and buying up properties. Okay, that's my biggest because if you.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:20:01 to 01:20:12

Last year talk about that last year. No, we didn't talk about it. It was happening all over the place, everywhere. And I mean, they were especially your entry level home. Yes, those were the lowest barrier to entry.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:20:12 to 01:20:21

You think you write cash for it. And they were cash and go, and we are literally robbing the Gen Z's. Is that the right one? Yeah, I think gen z's. No, we're Gen X.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:20:21 to 01:20:34

We're Gen Z or I'm Gen X. You're a millennial. Only by a year, by a little bit. But it just happened. And I don't think everybody was just like, oh yeah, this corporation is going to buy this listing.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:20:36 to 01:20:52

When I had multiple offers and it was a corporation, I had some sellers that they were like, I don't care who buys their house. And then I have some that did care. And I wanted to have that conversation with people, not to sway them one way or the other, but just to understand that. Here's the offers. Here's page one.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:20:52 to 01:21:02

This is so and so corporation. I look them up. They own this much real estate because I did my work. Because I also want to know, is this their first house? If there's a first house and they're trying to get into the investment, then.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:21:02 to 01:21:16

I don't want to what could be a mom and pop LLC? It could have been, sure, but they gobbled up a lot of property. And I honestly think if foreclosures start. To happen, it'll happen on those. I don't think that we'll ever see the foreclosures come on the market.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:21:16 to 01:21:36

I think that the banks are either going to rent them out or they're going to sell them for a profit. And we're not going to see them. They're going to start swapping out equities with other people. So before, like, when I got in the business, you had HUD homes and you had not just HUD, but you would have foreclosures and then you would go and look at them and then you bid on them. I don't think that those are going to ever come back on the market.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:21:36 to 01:22:09

Well, that's a mechanism that they already use with stocks, because dark pools, which I don't think many people are familiar with, where you have a certain group of people that get once they robinhood is really guilty of that. Where you think you're buying the share, but they're really transacting it to another and then selling it for a penny or two higher or lower or whatever the case may be. And then before it ever gets to the actual trade on what they're doing, and then they're just making gobs of money because of the amount off of your investment. Off of your investment. It's horrible.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:22:09 to 01:22:16

It's absolutely horrible. But that's what you're saying. That's what's going to happen. Yeah. And so when everybody's like, oh, wait, the markets to crash and we'll get all these foreclosures, guess what?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:22:16 to 01:22:23

I don't think they're going to hit the market. No. Even if it happens. Well, I saw something today about why. Would they can just trade with each other.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:22:23 to 01:22:26

Yeah. They can do it internally and don't have to mess with it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:22:29 to 01:23:02

Still is a little bit in my head because with my job, specifically with lending and you look at what's coming with Web Three and what's happening with Blockchain and all of that stuff on basically eliminating the middleman where the third party is kind of gone. I still think real estate, or Realtors, I should say, are always going to have a place because real estate is so local and it's so very much. They tried to come with Zillow, zillow tried to come in, and it's still a relationship based business. They wanted to make it transaction. Zillow is amazing at marketing, and anybody that says that they're not, they're wrong.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:23:02 to 01:23:30

Because they spent so many years studying the consumers and what their behavior was before they actually did the buying process, and they got in front of them before that. And I think that's showing right now that Zillow lost all that money because they can't be us, they can't price, because your neighbor sold for this. They can't tell you they can't buy in bulk. Honestly, it showed us that if you show up, you do a good job. It's a relationship based business, and people want to deal with a person.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:23:30 to 01:23:47

Right? Because if you look at, like Opendoor and those kind of companies, there's not a whole lot of people are like, I sold to Open Door, and it was amazing. Most of them was just like, oh, I sold it. They got me at this, and then they got me down to this price, and I'd already went and found another house, and what was I going to do? So then they would lose equity and things.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:23:47 to 01:24:05

A Realtor is not going to let that happen. No. Well, and this is probably a month or two ago, it was before the Christmas, I did a search in Mansfield just to see how many people or how many houses were listed, a certain price range. I think I was doing like 400,000 or something like that. And there was like 15 houses, and that was it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:24:05 to 01:24:18

Of those 15 houses, nine of them were owned by either Open Door or Redfin or somebody. Like most of them were open door. Open Door. When you see the pictures and there's holes in the wall and nothing's painted, they don't care. They do not care.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:24:18 to 01:24:28

Virtual staging to cover up the stained. Carpet, which is what's going to come bleeding into your other business, which is the property management side. Are you familiar with the software that they've come up? I don't remember what it's called. I have to go back and look at it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:24:28 to 01:24:53

I just saw it in passing. But it basically monopolizes how they charge rents, where basically they go in and say, okay, we're going to go to this landlord this, landlord this, we're going to sell all this software to them, and then everybody's on the same thing, and then we're going to raise renting them that way, pricing them that way across the board. Yeah, I hadn't heard that, but yeah. So that was a national thing. I saw on one of the things that I follow on YouTube, but I can't remember the name of it.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:24:53 to 01:25:09

But there's so many things like that that are starting to bleed into real estate because my opinion has always been, this is the last we're trying to commoditize it. This is the last thing. Water, your phone, your car. We don't own anything anymore. Nothing's owned.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:25:09 to 01:25:19

You don't own your music, you don't own your car. For the most part. A lot of people still buy them. And now we're moving that way into housing. And then everything is just going to be a monthly subscription.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:25:19 to 01:25:39

You're going to have to pay on a monthly basis. They're going to inject the little drip into your vein and they're just going to pull that money out every yes. So that's something that is a concern to me. But I didn't know with you seeing everything the way you sell it, if you kind of felt the same way. Or how no, I mean, I've seen where in our area people would overprice it.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:25:39 to 01:25:54

So then I would have an investor and be like, oh, well, so and so house got this much a month. And so I'd be like, okay, they got that much. This is the one time they're going to be able to do that. And that tenant is going to move out at the end of the year because the prices are they're going to find something more affordable. So I'd show them math, be like, okay, yeah, they're getting $200 more a month.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:25:54 to 01:26:12

Okay, yes, that sounds great. So then that person moves out. Then you have leasing fees, then you have it take on average about 45 days to rent. So you have a month and a half of holding costs. And so I could show them how if you will market value, your tenants will stay longer because there's not a better option for them.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:26:12 to 01:26:36

And I would lose some because if somebody comes to me, they're like, okay, my payment is 1700 and I have 1200 square foot house and I want to make $200 a month. I'm like, well, it's not there. They're like, okay, yeah, but if I did the math and if I charge $2,000 a month, I'm like, you can good luck. Because I will not take one overpriced because it doesn't work for my business. And I don't want my sign sitting in somebody's yard for four months because the owner decided to overprice it.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:26:36 to 01:26:59

And that's the cool thing is the way that I work with property management is they need me way more than I need them, right? It's just one house that I'm getting 10% off of, but they're getting a master at what she does. And so I look at them and if I'm having a problem with somebody and I'm like, okay, I don't think that this relationship is working because you don't want to fix things and you don't want to treat people, like human beings. So I'm just going to have to let you go. And they're like, wait, you're going to let me go?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:26:59 to 01:27:11

Like there's an option. Yeah, that contract can be rescinded by me. It's in my clause. I can rescind my contract at any time because they're humans, they're people. And a lot of my investors are like, oh, well, did they break this?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:27:11 to 01:27:25

And this happened, did they break this? And I'm just like, okay, you can't nickel and dime these people because they're already struggling. Have you gone to the grocery store lately and seen how much eggs are milk is and things like that? So they're going to stop reporting things. So, yeah, you're going to get them on this one thing and then you're going to move out.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 01:27:25 to 01:27:36

And your sink has been leaking for four months. You have mold. You have to replace the bottom base of the cabinets. You still have to mediate mold and make sure that you don't have that growing. So, yeah, you can charge them for that and then they're not going to report anything else.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:27:37 to 01:27:52

Wow. All right, well, that's an hour and a half of just chock full. You're set up for a long time, bro. This lady's got you headed in the right direction. So you won the DNA lottery, bro.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:27:52 to 01:28:11

Congratulations. So, Cassie, thank you so much. I definitely want to do this again sometime because I could do 100 of these with you and I still don't think we would be able to get to everything. And I hope that somebody's listening to this and says, hey, if she can do it, I can do it because I'm just the 19 year old that decided to get in real estate. And here we are.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:28:11 to 01:28:17

And here you are later, killing it. Well, thank you so much. Greatly appreciate it. We'll do it again sometime. Cassie Spears.

Mike Mills (Host) | 01:28:17 to 01:28:20

Great having you. Thank you. All right, we'll see you guys. It.