Realtor Marketing Strategies 2025: The Ultimate Guide to Digital Success

Chelsea Gardner00:00:00

Right now, in 2025, I've actually noticed a huge shift just in the first few months of. People are actually craving more of that, like, authentic and all, like those videos that aren't so perfectly curated, right?That have all the lion images and the, you know, funny, fun text and everything. Because people just want to know you. People just want to know who you are as a human and not so much like the.The perfect curated, you know, person, because that's. Most of us aren't like that normally, and so they want to get to know you. And if you're stumbling through a video and it's like. And like, it's okay.

MIke Mills00:00:44

Well, nothing wants to work today, so we're just gonna keep rolling and move on. My intro, it's not working like it's supposed to. I just tested it a few minutes ago, so I don't know what the heck's going on, but. Hello, everybody.Welcome to Texas Real Estate and Finance Podcast, where technical issues are abound. Dealing with all kinds of fun stuff these days, my Internet doesn't work. I can't get my sound to work right. It's just having.Just having a ton of fun. So bear with us today. If this gets choppy, then you can hop on to the.The podcast feed, which I'll have available for you guys next week, and then listen to the whole thing then. But either way, here we go. So welcome to 2025. We are pretty deep into it now, almost into March, coming out of February, or coming out of 2024.And to say that the real estate market is a little slower than it's been in the past would be a bit of an understatement, which ultimately leads us to a place where we understand how important our marketing is and how we have to get in front of people, how frequently where they're at, how to find them, all that kind of fun stuff.And today I have with me a guru in all of this, which is Chelsea Gardner with fully online marketing, and she has spent her entire career doing this stuff. She studies it every day. She puts on webinars all the time about this. So highly encourage you guys. Check those out.But, Chelsea, thank you for joining me today. And how is 2025 treating you thus far?

Chelsea Gardner00:02:09

Yeah, thanks for having me. So far, so good, man. When you said almost March, I'm like, oh, my goodness, that's in, like, two days. Yes, it has flown by.I feel like it has just all of a sudden we're in month three of 2025. But it's. It has Been. It has been busy and good all in the same time.

MIke Mills00:02:28

Yes, it certainly has. Well, that's good to hear. At least that you've got, you're, you're keeping yourself going there. So, so I want to just kind of get right into it.I, I have a couple interesting stats and everybody knows this stuff, but sometimes, until you say it again, it doesn't really resonate all the time. And so right now, this is from a site called Real Simply. And they state that 96% of buyers start their home search.Online listings with video get about 403% more inquiries. Email marketing converts about 40% better than social media, which was an interesting one that I thought.And SEO brings about 53% of website traffic for agents.So obviously, you know, you spend a ton of time knee deep into this and I know you do a lot on the mortgage side of things, but it's, you know, apples to apples. There's not big differences in how all this stuff works.So if you were starting out today and you were going to be a Realtor, and like you said, okay, this marketing thing isn't working out, I gotta go sell some houses, you know, what, what would be your action plan? How would you attack this stuff to kind of get to get the most bang for your buck with your time and your efforts?

Chelsea Gardner00:03:37

Yeah. So what I would do starting out is one, create our accounts, right? You want to make sure you are on all of the things, Instagram, Facebook, right.If you can create a Google business, make sure that you are present everywhere and then honestly get started. I think the most common mistake that people make is they just don't start, right?It's like, I want to do this, I want to be front and center, but it's just creating the content and not thinking about it, right. Your first video as an agent or in general is not going to be good. That's okay, right? It's not going to be perfect.We, it takes people years to get to that point. So just get started. Take the videos. As a real estate agent, video content is easy in my opinion because you've got tons.Like if you have listings, go take videos in those listings, right? Share those things. That is such easy content as a real estate agent to do videos with, right?

MIke Mills00:04:37

So when you said all accounts, so this is something that I hear, you know, I kind of hear both sides of this where, you know, there will be some people that say, pick one thing, like Instagram, for example, and go all in on that thing. Get, become an expert, you know, know everything about it, et cetera, et cetera.And then I hear other side, which honestly, like, I kind of fall into the other category a little bit more, is that if you're trying to. And this is my opinion, so. So I. Please correct me.I think if you're trying to be, you know, go viral, be, you know, be this super influence or whatever you want to call it, okay, fine, Pick a platform and go after that, because, you know, you can get there.But if you're trying to just reach and get in front of as many people as you can as frequently as possible, and when I see it in front of as many people as you can, I mean, people that would potentially buy from you within your sphere of people. Right. That would see you then. I think personally that it's important to be on all the platforms because so much these days, content can overlap.You know, a reel is just as good as a TikTok. It's just as good as a Facebook reel. You know, you can YouTube short.You can repurpose all these for all these different platforms and just make one video. So what's the value to being everywhere all at once? Or what's the value to focusing on one thing? And which one do you think is more impactful?

Chelsea Gardner00:05:57

Yeah, so I'm kind of in the. The limbo land of both, Right? So I think we have so many tools right now to schedule and post content across all platforms.So there's no reason why we shouldn't be on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on TikTok. If we're doing video content. Throw it out there, throw it onto YouTube shorts, right?But I also know of the overwhelm of really kind of focusing, and it's like all of a sudden you're like, bing, bing, bing, right? So now it's get your content out there. But I still believe in, like, focusing on one to really dive into. In the sense of engagement.So engage with your potential buyers, engage with your audience on one platform so that you're not like, I gotta log into LinkedIn and TikTok and Google and Facebook, because that's overwhelming. But there's no reason why, if we're creating content, throw it out there, right? We want to be able to be in front of.Because we don't know if our home buyer is looking on Facebook or on LinkedIn. Right? So if we can throw it out there, by all means.But the engagement piece, I think, needs to happen on one platform so you, as a human, do not get overwhelmed with all of the pieces.

MIke Mills00:07:11

Gotcha. Gotcha. So so it is. So. So what you're saying basically is like, it is beneficial and probably should be on as many platforms as you can manage.But when it comes to engagement, which, by the way, you know, I want you to elaborate on that.That's such a big player these days, especially with not only just getting reciprocation as far as being seen, because obviously the algorithms, if you interact with somebody on Facebook on a regular basis, then when you post content, they're more likely going to see your content than somebody else's. But also, you know, it's probably a function of just. Just creating relationships. Right. Like you're.If you're engaging with people and you're talking to them online because you can't go see everybody in person all the time, then you're going to have a closer tie with that person as well.So when you become top of mind in that situation, when it's time to buy or sell a house, they're going to think of you more often because they see you.But that also, you know, kind of attaches to, yeah, you engage, get involved, but you still have to post stuff from time to time because you got to let them know what you do.

Chelsea Gardner00:08:12

Right, right, right, exactly. And that engagement piece is huge. Right. Because like you said in the very beginning, we want to be seen by as many people as possible in our area.We're not after those vanity numbers. We are, like you said, we're not these influencers trying.I mean, some people might be, but we're not these influencers that are trying to get millions of followers and likes and views. We want the people who can actually do business with us. Right, right.And that's a much smaller piece of the puzzle than trying to get millions and millions of views. We shouldn't be focusing on the vanity numbers. We should be focusing on the engagement and.And the actual communication that we're having inside of these platforms.

MIke Mills00:08:57

Gotcha. So if you had to pick. Because the hard part is, I think for most people is that they. There's so many.There's so many things that they get overwhelmed. Right. There's too much.And, and I think what you said earlier about starting right, is when you start, you know, you get better at something, you get better at something, Those habits build onto other things, you know, but until you start doing something, you know, it's very difficult to. To have any kind of real success.So would you encourage someone to, you know, if they're, even if they're not heavy on social media, let's say Facebook or Instagram, would you encourage them to. To start by just engaging with people more, or would you encourage them to start by posting stuff and then move to engage? Like what.What do you think has more immediate results? Or result. I hate to use the word results, because then it sounds like you're. You're just trying to get leads. But. But what.What is more impactful for someone that wants to get started? Is it the engagement side or the posting side?

Chelsea Gardner00:09:49

That's a really good question.So I would say the engagement, actually having those conversations, you know, reaching out into DMS or your local businesses and just chatting with them, like anything like that, that gets you in front of other people, I think is key because that's you putting yourself in front of them, right? Whereas we don't know if you posting gets in front of them right away. Right?So the engagement piece, to me, if you're going to get started, like, you still need something on your pages, right?You still want to be posting because you still need to make sure that, like, well, if Chelsea reaches out to Mike and Mike's like, who the heck is this Chelsea chick? And goes to my page and there's nothing there, he's going to think I'm a bot or I'm spam or like, whatever, and just completely ignore me.So we want to make sure that we still have some stuff there. But I would say the engagement piece is more important, right? So if you're thinking, should I post every day or should I engage every day?Engagement is going to be always, always.

MIke Mills00:10:49

Kind of trump that right now on the, the posting side of it, you know, again, this goes back to you saying, just start. And, and I, I know I did this a lot starting off, and I think other people do as well. But, you know, we get so wrapped up in. We may.We made a video, right? We spent time, maybe we came up with a script, we came up with an idea, we.We wrote it down, we read it off, we made the video, whatever, you know, right? We made it. But now we get into, well, I don't like the lighting here, or I don't like what I said, oh, I messed up that word.I need to do it again, or I need some B roll. You know, I need something to, like, cut away or whatever, right? And it's, it's the.You're trying to make the perfect video instead of just posting it. And, you know, I, I think I know the answer to this, but I want you to kind of explain why, why this is valuable.But the, the idea of consistency in posting, like just, just post and do it on a regular basis. You know, mix it up a little bit.Maybe what you're doing out there, it's not like call me today to buy or sell your house, but, but ultimately like get stuff out there as frequently as possible. Can you speak to the importance of that consistency piece?

Chelsea Gardner00:11:54

Yeah. So consistency for everyone is going to look different, right? So I always get asked the question, how often should I be posting?And it's really what you can do consistently for six months, eight months, 12 months. So if that's twice a week, three times a week.But what I don't want is start out at five days a week and then you fall off the bandwagon because you're burnt out. So you know the consistency piece is huge. And if you are trying to compare yourself to someone else's five year video, it's not going to compare.So you have to just start. And what I tell either my clients or just anyone in general is have someone else hit the post button for you.Then like, if you are like, my hair has a flyaway and I can't, you know it, I can't post it. You have that problem, right?

MIke Mills00:12:39

I mean, maybe some of these get flyaways before maybe out of my ears now that I'm getting older. That happens from time to time.

Chelsea Gardner00:12:44

But for the most part, the lighting, right? Or you can't really hear me, it's okay, like just hit post and I guarantee, like, because you can't get better if you don't try.So if you aren't posting consistently and just doing it over and over, I guarantee you your first video is going to be worse than your 10th video and your 30th video is going to be way better than your first video, right?But you have to just post and if it means handing it off to your, your kids to say, get this on my, my Instagram, like I did this video, I don't even want to look at it. Post it, then do that, right? Like hand it off to someone to post and, and just get it up there and going.Because that's the first piece and we're all humans and we all have to start somewhere.And right now in 2025, I've actually noticed a huge shift just in the first few months of people are actually craving more of that, like authentic and like those videos that aren't so perfectly curated, right? That have all the lion images and the, you know, funny, fun text and everything. Because people just want to know you.People just want to know who you are as a human and not so much like the, the perfect curated, you know, person, because that's. Most of us aren't like that normally. And so they want to get to know you.And if you're stumbling through a video and it's like, and like it's okay, it's okay, like it's okay.

MIke Mills00:14:12

What would you suggest if someone is not really fired up about making videos? Because you know, again, we all have our hang ups and you can tell people all day long, you know, video is important, it's the most important thing.They see you, they feel you, you know, they're whatever. Or even, you know, maybe it's not you, maybe it's, you know, you're reposting some other video or whatever.But, but if someone's not into that piece, but, or they don't, they haven't gotten there yet, let's call it that way. Right. We haven't quite gotten there to that point.What would you suggest what type of posting is, is at least in the, in the realm of hey, just, just get started. Like do put something out there. Like what's some easy stuff that they can do to post if they're not comfortable yet getting in front of the video?

Chelsea Gardner00:14:51

Yeah. So whenever I have someone that says they're not comfortable in front of video, my number one thing is just get in front of it and do it anyways.But secondly is find a way that you can still incorporate yourself. So there's two different ways that you can do this.One is take a video where you're not in it, but you do a voice overlay so your voice is in the video. So like maybe you're doing a home walkthrough, right.And you're, your video is just the walkthrough and then you go back through and actually talk the listener or the watcher through the house tour. So it's your voice. So that's one way to do it without you being in front of the camera is by doing it as a voiceover afterwards. Right.Another way is kind of what you had mentioned previously is B roll footage, which is where you put your camera up somewhere while you're doing a task and kind of forget about it being there and you just go about your business. Right.If you're working on a, you know, closing a loan or closing a home, whatever the case may be, and you've just got your camera right here, right.Like I could just be recording us right now to just chit chat and that can be B roll footage where I'm not physically talking, it's just the video in the background, but I'm in it. So those are the things.Those are two ways that I think people can start incorporating video and themselves without physically, like sitting down and being like, okay, hey guys, like, you know, like. Because I know that can definitely be stressful and overwhelming. Another really cool way that I actually saw.Oh, I wish if this is a real estate agent listening, I hope, like, they come forward because I don't remember who it was, but someone did a video of like a house tour, but did it as like a hide and seek game. So she basically was like, if I, if I hid in the kitchen, this is where I would hide.And like, she popped out of like somewhere in the kitchen and then she's like, in the bedroom, this is where I would hide. And she popped, you know, and that. And. But she was very far away from the camera, but she had a little microphone so, like, you could see her.But like, not really, but she was in the video and she was doing a house tour in a very fun way. And I think that was really, really cool too. So those are some, like, find ways that are going to make it fun.Like if you think you just have to get on camera and be like, so let me talk to you about, you know, the. You don't, you don't find creative ways to do video content. That's not you just being a talking head.

MIke Mills00:17:16

Do you think that, do you think it's, it's more important these days to, for it to be entertainment a little bit or more informative, or does it depend on your personality?I mean, what's, what's the, you know, what's a better method as far as, like, the type of content that you're going to produce, you know, and based on, you know, what people are interested in or looking at, you know, because real estate's one of those things that, you know, I think you could look at it as, as the, the HGTV world where people go and look at homes just because they're, they want to see houses and they like, you know, looking inside of people's homes and seeing the furniture and the design and all that kind of stuff. I mean, I'm not into that, but, you know, a lot of people are.But otherwise, most of the time when it comes to real estate information or mortgage information or whatever, they're not really looking for it until they're looking for it, until it's time to make that decision that I'm trying to buy a house Or I'm trying to do my mortgage or whatever. So, you know, what do you think is the best type of content to start with? And. And is there a better way to do it? Just combine the two.Like, what are your thoughts on that?

Chelsea Gardner00:18:21

Yeah, so primarily the content that's going to convert is going to be humorous, educational, controversial. Like, those are the ones that tend to get the most, like, right, the kind of the. Yeah, but you also got to look at your own personality.If you are not a humorous person, where you're cracking jokes all the time, but you're trying to do it in video, it's not probably going to convey very well. And then people, when they meet you in real life are gonna be like, oh, I thought you were like this jokester, right? And you're like, not.So you want to make sure maybe.

MIke Mills00:18:55

That could be extra funny is because you're not funny. And the joke is like, I'm not funny. And here's a joke that's terrible and, and deadpan and people like, that's actually pretty funny.You're like, oh, well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chelsea Gardner00:19:06

So it depends on you as a human. It depends on your personality. It also depends on your audience and who you're trying to attract too. Right?So if you put out like, and that's, that's the importance of also kind of looking at your analytics is what is performing well.So if you put out educational content, let's say you put out three pieces of educational content and then three pieces of humor content, what performed better for you, what got more views, what got more engagement, right? And see the difference in your audience and then start going in that direction in the sense of what's working for you and your, your following.Now, people that do do it really well are both educational and humorous, Right. So they can kind of incorporate all of it into one. And so that if you can, if you can nail that, that's fantastic. But that's difficult to do.So, you know, kind of airing on the side of who you are as a human.

MIke Mills00:19:59

So I want to switch gears for just a second because I do like to get some of that, you know, important nuts and bolts stuff right out of the gate just to, to help people understand, you know, how this stuff works. But I want to, I want to talk a little bit about you. So you, you know, been in this for a little while.Kind of give us a little bit of background of kind of how you got into this. Tell us a little bit about your company, what you guys do. I believe you're Say recently, but it's been a minute.You got had a baby within the near future or recent. Recent past I should say. So I'm curious to how that life's adjusted all your work and how you've kind of kept up with that.But, but give a little bit of your background kind of how you got to this place and, and where you spend most of your time with your company.

Chelsea Gardner00:20:43

Yeah. So. God, I've been in marketing for 15 years now.I started in the healthcare sectors, urgent care, dermatology, dental, got into mortgage and working for a company in the mortgage sector, phenomenal. And it has always been my dream to go out on my own as my own marketing agency.And so four years ago tomorrow, actually four years ago tomorrow I kind of dove headfirst into my agency and we're now a three person team and you know, it's. Yeah, we are, we are growing and rolling and so we do, you know, the done for you.Social media management, paid advertising, coaching, all of that kind of stuff. And yeah, it's been, it's been a whirlwind. I. And I had my son, he is now 2 1/2 actually.

MIke Mills00:21:32

Okay. Yeah, so it's been a minute. Yeah.

Chelsea Gardner00:21:34

So I, I found out no, so it'll be three years tomorrow that I fully dove in full time in my company because he was, it was the day I found out I was pregnant with my last day in corporate life. Yeah, a little bit of a whirlwind but it's been, it's been phenomenal.And yeah, so it's managing being you know, a full time mom and a full time business owner has definitely has had its challenges but has been fantastic. We've been able to manage and juggle and my parents have been phenomenal with coming and watching Aiden throughout the day. So. Yeah.

MIke Mills00:22:09

How is it, what, what is your experience as. Because this is your first child, right?

Chelsea Gardner00:22:15

Yeah.

MIke Mills00:22:15

Okay, so how's it compared to what you thought it was going to be?

Chelsea Gardner00:22:20

It's, it's probably much different. My life looks a little different because my son, if you're not aware, has a rare brain condition called lissencephaly. So I'm a special needs mama.We've got seven therapies a week that we go to pt, ot, speech, vision, horseback riding.So we are definitely very busy and so definitely much different than you know, your typical what I, what I would thought when I was getting pregnant, I would not trade it for the world. He is just an unbelievable child and, and so strong but definitely, definitely different.We actually started a nonprofit organization in his name called the Aiden Jared foundation to help other special needs families here in the state of Florida with, you know, care and things that they may need. So we started that about two years ago now. Like, he was just, we had just got diagnosed and we started the organization.So it's been, I mean, a blessing. So.

MIke Mills00:23:16

Well, that stuff makes you incredibly strong.You know, whenever you go through trials and tribulations in whatever realm it is, the, the, the, the other side of the road usually come out a lot stronger. And you're not, you do things that you're not capable, that you didn't know that you were capable of doing and capable of fighting through.So, you know, that's, that's, that's amazing because, you know, that stuff's never easy. It's always, you know, it's always challenging.But, but the, the, the things that you get from it that you don't expect, you know, and how it changes your life, I think is, is awesome. And, you know, hats off to you because that's, that's, that's hard work.But being a mom's hard work, no matter what, and then adding those other pieces to it, you know, make it a challenge.So, you know, I think these days that when it always obviously gets tougher when the market contracts and there's not as many transactions happening where, you know, people will tend to pull back on expenses, right? I don't want to spend money on this. I don't want to spend money on.And it's kind of a catch 22, I think, because when you look at the money that you would spend on your marketing, advertising, lead generation, whatever you want to call it, right? Well, let's take this, here's a good example. So you can go to Zillow and you can pay fifteen hundred dollars a month, right?Or eight hundred or whatever it is. I think they still do this, but if they don't passed. And you're gonna get leads, right?As a, as an agent or even a lender, sometimes these, you get these leads come in your email, you call, you email, whatever. And there are some people that are really, really good at working those leads, right? But the vast majority of people are not.And the vast majority of those leads that you're getting are not, they're not converting because they don't know you. There's the no like and trust factor, right?And they don't have that with you because they're just somebody that put their information on the Internet and you're just somebody that Called them. Right. And more often than not, that's kind of annoying. But re.But Realtors and mortgage professionals will look at that and go, well, that's money well spent. Because I can see the fruits of my labor right now because I'm getting these leads now.When you go back and look at how many you converted and what the cost was and everything else, sometimes that can make you kind of sick at your stomach. So why do you think there's a disconnect between that, Right.And willingness to spend money on that versus willingness to spend money on, you know, somebody that's going to put together a fully, fully functional marketing campaign for you and, and help you, like turnkey, walk through the door to do it at the same or even sometimes less than that cost, that not only are you going to be marketing to as many people as you can, but to people that know, like, and trust you already. Right. And so those leads that you get, they may not be as plentiful, but they're certainly more impactful.So, so when you deal with your clients, why do you think that disconnect exists sometimes where it's a challenge for the average loan officer or realtor to want to go hire an agency because they just have a different mentality with it.

Chelsea Gardner00:26:05

Yeah, no, and that's a really great question. And I get it very frequently because when it comes to, like social media marketing and what I do, right.There isn't a way for me to say, here's your roi, right? Here's what you're getting out of it.It is nearly impossible for me to do that one because most the time leads aren't just flowing into your DMs, right? They're not just, hey, I want to buy a home tomorrow, can you be my realtor? That's not happening 90% of the time. No, that's not to say that.But most of the time that's not what's going to happen. And so it, there is a huge disconnect between, okay, well, I can pay for all of these leads and they'll just be, oh, right here, right?Or I can pay to not see anything. And that's where I think it's really hard because what people aren't understanding is your buyers.A lot of first time home buyers right now are millennials. Do you know where millennials are? Social media. And you know what they do? They want to like who they work with.And so they go and they look at their realtors, they follow their realtors or their lenders or their bankers or their Neurologists, right. They follow those people, they want to know who they are.And so that doesn't mean that, you know, I'm sending you a message tomorrow that I want to work with you, but I'm watching you. And so when I want to buy a home, you're probably someone who I'm going to call. But it may also not happen in your dm.I might go to your Google's page and be like, okay, yep, Mike has really great reviews. Now let me just call them through Google.So now the lead looks like it came through Google, but I've been watching you on social media for six months, right?

MIke Mills00:27:42

Yeah.

Chelsea Gardner00:27:42

Or maybe I saw Mike on Google, went to his Instagram, saw he was pretty cool, chill, laid back, whatever. Yeah, that's someone who I think I could do business with. And now I go back to Google and call him.So that's kind of, I think where the huge disconnect is, is one we're not obviously, like, if I call you, you're not, you may say, oh, how'd you hear about me? And I'm going to automatically, the last place I just was was Google, right on Google. That's one huge disconnect. Even though I've been watching you.Right. The second one is the fact that we just want to be seen in front of these individuals.So when we are talking in our community, when we are out and networking, you want people to say, I see you everywhere. Well, how are they seeing you everywhere? They're seeing you everywhere because you are influencing your area by being visible online.So that that's a direct impact even if it's not coming in directly through social media. And I think that's the hardest part because, you know, a lot of people ask Charles, you know, if I pay you, what am I getting?And I'm like, you're getting a whole social media package, but I can't guarantee or tell you you're going to get five leads or you're going to get seven DMs. Like, that's just not the case. And I think that's where a huge disconnect comes from is, well, how do I know it's working?And to be honest, you kind of don't unless you're getting direct leads from there. You're asking in the follow up and like, oh, well, have you seen my social media? Do you follow me?Like, there's a lot on the back end that I can't control, like your processes and all of that stuff. I don't know that. So I Think that's the huge disconnect. Whereas. Zillow plate. Here's your leads. Right, Right.

MIke Mills00:29:24

Yeah, I, I had a personal experience with this a couple of years ago whenever I first started, you know, because I was never personally, I wasn't on social media, like, as far as hosting. It wasn't something that I did just because I was like, who cares? Like, I don't.Nobody cares what I'm doing, you know, so it, it wasn't something that I, I focused on. But.But then, you know, when everything kind of slowed down and, you know, towards the beginning of 2022, you kind of started to see the writing on the wall, things were changing, whatever. And I was like, okay, you know, I've got to do something different. I've got to figure out how to get out in front of more people.So I started doing the podcast, started doing some clips or whatever, and, and it was, you know, it's fine. There wasn't, you know, nothing was blowing up. It was just. It was just something for me to do that was marketing related.And I actually had one of my. I guess you would call him my cousin who lives in South Texas.And he had reached out to me and, you know, obviously, like, we keep in touch, like on Facebook and stuff, but it was never, you know, we just weren't engaged on a regular basis. I saw him, you know, maybe once a year, even sometimes less than that.And, and so he reached out to me and he called me and he said, hey, Mike, I, I totally forgot that you are a lender. He's like, we're, we're building our house right here in, you know, where he lives.And he said, you know, we were just using the, the, the builder's lender. And I saw your video the other day and it just totally forgot. And he's like, so, you know, can you help us do our mortgage?And I was like, yeah, absolutely. But. But that resonated with me so much because it was like, did I know my cousin already? Of course, you know, did he like me?Do we have a relationship? Yes, absolutely. Did he remember what I did for a living? No, because I was not in front of him on a consistent basis. We weren't talking about it.Just like any relationship, right? If you don't spend time with your wife or your husband or partner or whatever, then you're going to lose connection, right?You're not going to have that connection that you always had.So, so being out there on a regular basis, even though I wasn't talking to him, I wasn't sending information to him, but when he was sitting here scrolling through this thing, you know, for like we all do for hours a day, unfortunately, he would see me and, and then it triggered. I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot that Mike did that. So, so I, I took that away from that to say, okay, I know it's important.Whether my video gets 50 views or 400 views or 30, 000 views, it doesn't matter.Because the people that I'm trying to connect with, I want to remind everybody that already knows me and already likes me and already trusts me, but I have to remind them what I do because they're not thinking about me every day, right? They're not thinking about me. They're not thinking about you. I tell my kids this all the time when they get embarrassed. Oh, I'm so embarrassed.I'm like, nobody's looking at you. Nobody cares. Me and your mom maybe. But everybody else saw it for two seconds and moved on down the road like they don't care. So. And I.That sounds callous and it sounds whatever, but it's just true. Like, everybody lives right here. We all live in our own little world. We all live in our own reality. We're all relatively self absorbed.You know, we're concerned about what we're eating for dinner, what our kids are doing, where we're going after this event, something crazy might happen and I might see it and be like, oh, that was nuts. And then I move on and I completely forget.So you have to understand that and apply that to your marketing and say, look, I know that you don't think you're getting the traction that you're getting, but I promise you, you are. Because people are seeing you that already know you and then are reminded about what you do for a living.

Chelsea Gardner00:32:50

Exactly. Exactly. A thousand percent. And if you're not saying in front of people, that's exactly what happens.They don't one, they don't know what you do or they forget what you do. Right. If you don't. I mean, heck, I've even seen like where clients have come on, they don't even have that they're a loan officer on their pages.And I'm like, well, hello, like that. That's number one, right?So telling people that, I mean, and people just automatically assume, well, if I told you once that I do marketing, like, you should just know that. No, no, they're going to forget it in five minutes. Right? So, yeah, it's definitely that, that consistent reminder.And I use, I use my own Loan officer as an example. I. I've been in this house now for three years and I couldn't tell you who she is.I don't remember other than what she kind of looks like at the table. I've never seen an email come by. I've never seen a post. I've never seen a paid ad get put in front of my eyeballs. Like, I have no idea.So if someone were to ask me, hey, like, who did you use? I'll be like, I don't know.But I mean, now I know a ton of lenders, I can help you, but I don't know who the one I used was because I don't ever see her. And so, you know, and I'm a co. Borrower, so that's. I think another thing too is making sure that you're also targeting a lot of more into your.You want to make sure that you're in front of a lot of individuals.And as a real estate agent, something I highly encourage too, is making sure that you are after every transaction that you are following or that you engage with that buyer on social media, right? So you friend them or you follow them or you ask them to follow you, right? Making sure that.Because again, maybe if I was following this person, I would see their content feed into my, my social and I would know who she is and I would, you know, but I don't. So if you are closing with buyers, follow them, make sure, say, hey, by the way, make sure to follow me on social media, right?And, and that way, because you're feeding your social media, they're going to consistently see that in their feed.

MIke Mills00:34:42

So do you think that in our industry as a whole, do you think that enough people really focus enough time and effort on their database and database marketing? Because it seems like so many. I'll ask this to que.Because I'll, I'll do classes from time to time on this stuff and I'll ask people to raise their hand and say, like, who has a database? And what's funny is most people raise their hand and then I'll. I'll say, okay, well like, what is. Like, what kind of. What do you mean?And, and they'll say, oh, well, I mean, I have a sheet with, you know, my last closings, that has their email and, you know, their phone number, whatever. And I'm like, well, that's a good start. But that's not really what I would call a database, you know, and it's not exactly what it means.So, so why do you think that is a piece of this that gets so often overlooked, especially with, there's so many tools with, with you know, CRMs and all these things that are available that are, that you can literally put on autopilot, you know. Why do you think that that is? Because, because it's boring. I, I don't understand why that gets lost in the shuffle so much.

Chelsea Gardner00:35:40

I don't know. I don't know. I wish I knew the answer to that because honestly it's, that's like your low hanging fruit, right?You should always be in front of these individuals. They just worked with with you, they love you, right? And then I get so many times where it's like, I need more Google reviews.Well, are you asking every transaction? Well, no. Okay, well, hello, like I just, I, I don't know.I don't know that piece of the puzzle and I wish I did because I feel like if you are not maximizing your ability to be in front of even more people with the people that you already have done business with, if you aren't actively engaging with them, right. You should be sending, you know, even if it's quarterly newsletters to those past buyers, right.Just to again, stay top of mind, stay in front of them, say, hey, it's springtime, here's some spring cleaning tips. And did you know that you can, you know, use a cucumber six different ways to clean a mirror? Right?Like those types of things like just to get your name into their inbox on a consistent basis. And again, they're past clients, so you don't need to be there every week, but you need to be there, you know, every so often.You don't know when they're going to have someone that they know going to buy a house and oh, two years from now and have, don't remember who they worked with. Right? Yeah.

MIke Mills00:36:54

So here's an objection. I get to that when I, when I say something similar to that often too is, well, I don't read my emails, so what's the point?Because people just delete it anyway. So what's your answer?

Chelsea Gardner00:37:05

I still see the name. Yes, Cole send me, sends me emails every day, right? Like I might delete it, but guess what? But I know cold is in my.

MIke Mills00:37:14

Inbox and how many people actually unsubscribe from stuff?

Chelsea Gardner00:37:19

I mean, have you seen people's inboxes before? I saw someone's the other day with like 77, 000 emails in there.I'm like, they don't, they just sit there and they like, you know, Move out or, or do the ones. But like I will be the first to tell you, like my business solely comes from my email marketing solely comes.I do not get business directly from social media. I get it indirectly. Absolutely. People go to my website, from my socials, but all of my conversion still happens in email.So one of the biggest things, like one of my biggest frustrations be like why I don't send emails because I don't read my emails. It's like, well, to be honest with you, conversion, I mean I think one of your stats in the beginning was with emails.Emails are still a huge converter for individuals. So to think that like an why not? If you've got their emails, you got their name, like why not send it, right? Yeah, why not?And like one of the things too that I always tell people when they first onboard with me, I'm like, I want you to pull your entire database. I don't care who it is, who it's, who it was, whatever. And I want you to email them asking them for a favor to follow you on social media.That simple. I want nothing else in that email other than to ask them to follow you on social media. Right. How easy is that? Right? How easy?And like by gosh, we get, I mean you might not get all thousand followers, but if you get 30 more, 100 more. Right.

MIke Mills00:38:45

Like more than you had before.

Chelsea Gardner00:38:47

Yeah, right. So those types of things, like your email database, you should, I mean I'm a whole, I'm a whole tangent on emails, but emailing I think is huge.That's, you got to be email marketing as well. I think that's where for me that's the key to social media.You also need to have, and this is going to be a whole separate thing, but you also need to have something that is driving those followers.When you are putting yourself out there, you're doing the videos, you're doing the things right now we got to look at how can we get our new followers into our email database. Right. We saw it just went away. You know these platforms we don't own.So if we start building these followers and I'm not saying to do this first because then you're going to get real overwhelmed, but once you start building your videos and once you start seeing followers and once you start seeing your community community coming in, now how do we get them off of your Instagram and into your emails? Because again, we don't own that.So if your Instagram got hacked, shut down, banned, whatever, those new 5, 500 followers that could have been buyers. How are you going to contact them? You can't. You have no idea who they are. So that's our second, like. Well, level to it is getting them in the emails.And then the third piece, you got to send the emails. Yeah, yeah.

MIke Mills00:40:05

Well, that's a. That's a huge piece. I'm glad you said that because I. Do you know who Tim Ferriss is familiar with? Okay. So one of the.One of the things that he preaches often is about the. What do you call it? It's like losing the word here. But it's like the fickleness of social media and that these platforms, when you have. If you.If you spend all your time building a YouTube presence, you know, and everything's focused around YouTube and you get all these followers and everybody through there and whatever, and you've made videos for years and years and years and your channel's exploded. Right. And then you make one video that YouTube doesn't like for some reason, or you say one thing that is, you know, inappropriate, whatever. Right.Well, YouTube can cut you off and all of that time and effort that you spent and all of that money and everything that you did is just gone in an instant. Right. Because you don't have control over the platform, but what you do have control over is your database, your contacts, your email list.So there are plenty of people that, you know, will say this to. You know, my favorite. My favorite book is Atomic Habits.

Chelsea Gardner00:41:16

I love it.

MIke Mills00:41:17

James Clear, who wrote that he goes on a tirade many, many times about how his entire. He. He didn't really understand the impact of this until he.He had an issue with one of the sites, lost, you know, a lot of his followers, and then focused purely on, yeah, I'm out here in social media doing whatever, but I'm getting people on to my newsletter, onto my email list, because I'm gonna send them stuff because nobody can ever take that away from me, and I own that forever. Right. And you can monetize that in a hundred different ways.And so, you know, I think people lose sight because the social media is flashy and it's like, you know, the shiny object in front of you and email these days, you know, seems boring and like, oh, who cares? It's a newsletter. But it's so important and so impactful.And that is your database and your clients, and there's nobody out there that can pull that away from you.

Chelsea Gardner00:42:07

Yep. And how you build that is through your social media. Right. So that's, you know, because then people are like, well, how do I get that database?It's through your visibility. You gotta be out there and you gotta be collecting those emails. They're just not going to come to you. That's how you build your email database.So you gotta be present on social, but you also gotta be sending out your emails and getting them into that bucket because like I said, for me, they come from my socials into my email and all the conversions happen through email. So yeah, that's, I mean, that's kind of how that funnel works. And you know, I wouldn't have the email database that I did without my social media.Right. And I wouldn't have social media without the email that, whatever, you know, you gotta make sure that you're kind of playing those two.But knowing that if you put all of your eggs into Instagram and Instagram decides tomorrow it doesn't want to be Instagram, what just happened. Right. So that's, that's where we got to start kind of looking to.And that's, that's key, I think, is, is that's where you're going to build that database.

MIke Mills00:43:05

So I want to shift gears a little bit too now and get into something that you've been talking a lot about lately. I talk about it all the time. It's a tool that I use.It's my favorite thing in the world, probably to a bad degree, which is AI and all of the software and all of the different tools out there that, that people can use. And I think it gets, it can seem a little overwhelming.I teach, I teach a class for realtors about, specifically about chat gbt, but show them how to make reels, how to, you know, use prompts in order to generate this type of stuff.But, but really the, the point of my class, and I reiterate it multiple times, is that they have to get familiar with this tool and they have to learn how to use it and they have to start using it because, and in the end what the impact of it is that they don't understand because it just seems like another tech tool, but it's, it's not and it's, it's nowhere close to that.And you know, I have, honestly, I have real concerns, I have genuine concerns about my career, my job as a mortgage loan officer, because much of what we do in mortgage is documents, data interpretation, you know, examining things and then spitting out a result. Right. Well, I mean, right now there are plenty of tools that are in technology that can do that without the use of a human whatsoever. Right.The only part of the Process that still requires a human or is better is getting that person from the world into the bank. Right. I need to, I need to get them to use our, our company to do the loan. But everything that happens after that can absolutely be AI and automated.The only reason it's not is because we have a highly regulated industry and until laws and, and you know, laws get passed and you know, agencies change over or whatever, then, you know, it'll take a time to get there.Which, you know, with, with the Elon and the Doge and all the stuff that's occurring in the government right now, it may not be that far off, but, but I want you to talk a little bit about how impactful that is.And, and I noticed like, you know, seeing some of your stuff that you've put out lately, you're starting to very much switch to under, helping people understand the importance of it.But from your point of view, why is it so important for people, agents, mortgage professionals, anybody that's out there to get familiar with the tool and learn how to use it?

Chelsea Gardner00:45:25

Yeah, I think point blank, if you're not using it, you're going to get left behind at some point. Like, like just period. Because the people that are incorporating it, AI.There's great things about AI that I love and then there's also things that I absolutely hate. Right. But the things that I love is like the streamlining, the ease of being able to set different workflows up and things like that.And those that master that, guess what, can get people into their like pipelines way faster. They can work with way more people.And so those that are not incorporating AI and those processes are going to get left behind because they can't keep up. So I think that's the biggest factor when it comes to AI in general.

MIke Mills00:46:12

And on that I don't want to cut you off, but before you move to the next point on that, I get an impression when I talk to people about it that they look at it like Google, they look at it like I'm just getting information, I'm going to ask it a question, it's going to give me an answer. Right. And, and, and they're just looking for information and that's how they use it. And what you just said there I think is way more impactful.That and, and same thing that I tell them as well is like what it does is it can take your day and make it so incredibly efficient with all of the processes that you do. If you know how to build it out and know how to set it up and that takes a little time. There's a learning curve.You can hire people, you can do it on your own, whatever. But that's the impact of it. It's not the I can access information or I can get it to write an email for me. Although that's a piece of it. Right?That's a, that's a part of that, but that's a part of a much bigger puzzle of I can get it to take a lead from Facebook, right. And I can get it to put it into my CRM and I can get it to send out an email based off of what that lead came from.And then I can get them to schedule a time to talk to me and I can get it to dump onto my calendar. So now I've done absolutely nothing except post on social media.And now I have a lead on my calendar that I'm gonna set to call, you know, in a week because they've set that time. Now I'm not going to use AI to call them because I am the human and I still need to talk to that other human.But they've taken that person from the Internet and funneled them into my calendar and now set an appointment for me. And I literally had to do nothing other than set up that process flow and get it out there.

Chelsea Gardner00:47:44

Yep, exactly. Exactly. And that's where I think people are falling behind. Right. Because there think about if you had to do that on your own, right?If you had to do the post and then, oh, now I have to remember to go in and pull the lead that just came in and oh, now I got to put them into it and then I got to send the email. Right. So now you're like two minute tasks that literally took two minutes to make that post and then all the funnel part to your calendar.Now It's a like 25 minute post. And like, what if you do that 10 times? Right?Like that that's so much time and energy that someone else who does have it automated, guess what, they're filling up their calendar way faster, right?

MIke Mills00:48:23

Yeah.

Chelsea Gardner00:48:23

Because they don't have to do anything on the back end. They already have it all. And like you said, it does take time to set up a thousand percent.I'm in that process right now to start adding in more streamlined stuff. And I'm like, but once it's done, man, it's going to be like blazing. So, yeah, it is a, it is a process.But once you have that in place, like, man, it takes so much off your plate to have those Things streamlined and I mean that's really, that's really the key. And that's where I think when it comes to. And like plus a lot of our Systems now have AI components.Facebook has AI components, Instagram has AI components. All of our CRMs have AI components. LinkedIn. I mean everything has an AI component right now.And so if you don't even understand what all these little components are, you're also getting left behind, right?

MIke Mills00:49:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was there another piece? Because I cut you off earlier when you were, we were talking about the processes and systems that the AI is helping with.Was there was, I think you were going to one other side of it too. I don't know if I. You forgot where your brain, where your brain is headed on that one.

Chelsea Gardner00:49:26

Yeah, no, that's exactly what I was going to say when like the, with all the pieces, all of the other pieces also are having AI. One thing I will say though that I absolutely don't like about AI is if you're trying to pass off AI as you, I absolutely cannot stand that.Like you said, don't, don't let AI make your calls, don't. And like a lot of people are getting into video AI. That's personally not my thing. I don't like it.So there's, there's, there's benefits to AI and there's not.But in the back end of streamlining, that's where you're going to see the most impact is understanding how to use AI to your benefit when it comes to your time management. I mean, how can I be a mom doing all the therapies, going to doctor's appointments, running a full time agency without proper processes?I couldn't do it. I would be in like tears right now on the floor. Right.So you've got to have those processes set up in place and that's how you're able to continue to, to manage your life.

MIke Mills00:50:22

Yeah, yeah, well, and, and you know, I think that the takeaway from some of this sometimes when, when Realtors hear this and even lenders too, lenders are a little bit less than Realtors in this regard. But like I'll always ask people, I'll say where, you know, where do you get your business? Where, where does your business come from?And I will tell you that 90% of the realtors that I work with will tell me that they're, they work, it's probably like 95. They work by referral. I get all my, I'm work by referral. I get referrals and I Said, okay, great.And so when we talk about advertising and marketing and whatever, they're, they separate a little bit because they're like, well, I don't need that because I work off referral. And it's like, okay, I understand what you're saying, but you're, you're missing the part where you can't work off referral.If all the people that you know and that you spend time with and that you're around don't know that, that you need to be referred to. Right? Like, they, they. If you're going to work off referral, you got to remind the people that you know what you do on a regular basis.And, and when you start putting all this stuff together and you talk about posting on social media and making videos and using AI and all this, they get, people just get flooded and they're just like, I just can't, I can't. This is so much. I can't do it. And I know that you deal with that too. Where, you know, when, when people tell you that I just don't know how to do it.Like, how do you sell somebody? Okay, just because the answer is always, just start. So where, where, where's the place to start? Or how do they identify?Because it's maybe it's a little different for everybody. So how do they identify the place where it's like, just start here. What, what is that?

Chelsea Gardner00:51:55

Yeah, and that's tough. So the biggest thing that I recommend is one, there's a lot of AI platforms out there now, right? There's ChatGPT, there's Bard, there's.I don't even know all the names. One thing that I recommend is picking one one platform and learning it and understanding it.What I find a lot of times is people try to get into like five different AI systems and I'm like, if you don't know AI, you're going to get really overwhelmed. So don't go and try and, you know, learn seven different AI tools, pick one and stick to it. Right? That's.I'm a master in chatbots, because I've been on it since the first day it launched. I haven't even ventured into other AI systems because that's what I know. So when you can kind of narrow in that the second thing.And then like, it's like, okay, now I've got chat GPT, now what do I do? Well, now you figure out what are you doing in your business that is repeatable? What are you continuously doing that could be streamlined?What is some email marketing Right. Like you said, you get a lead, then what happens? What happens? What happens? Right. So what is that process that can then get streamlined?Pick one process and figure out how to build it inside of AI or a streamlined system. And that's where I would start. So like, don't pick, oh, I need all seven of these. No, pick one.One streamlined thing that you could, you could work on and get that figured out first. Because if you're like, I need seven things done, you're not going to do any of them.So start with one, figure out what you're doing that can be done and then figure out how to do it inside of the system that you're using.

MIke Mills00:53:24

So before we wrap up here, I want you to just kind of give a breakdown of what you guys do for your company, like what you guys offer to your clients and, and you know, different facets of it.You know, if you want to give some, you know, rough pricing, I know it always varies just depending on the client, but you know, what do you guys do, what do you offer? And then, you know, generally speaking, like, where does the cost lie?

Chelsea Gardner00:53:48

Yeah. So we are with fully aligned marketing and basically we handle social media for clients. So we're a done for you marketing agency. We do page paid ads.So uploading custom audience list or targeting a specific area right through Facebook and Instagram. So running those paid ads, we do full social media management.So taking over your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, making your posts, creating your graphics, helping you with your videos, editing those videos, no long form, but like reels and things like that. We also do, we have a full suite of marketing where we do email and email marketing and blogging.So that's kind of the full spectrum of okay, let's do social media and then get them into your email funnels and campaigns. So we kind of do a little bit of everything when it comes to that.And then I also do one on one coaching so people who are wanting to learn that process. And then we also have a monthly membership for those that maybe want to have a couple live Q and A calls with me every month.I have a monthly membership with group calls and Pricing starts at 4, packages start at 850amonth and go up and then my monthly membership is 97amonth. So.

MIke Mills00:54:57

Okay, cool.

Chelsea Gardner00:54:57

Yep.

MIke Mills00:54:58

Well, if anybody hears this, you know, Chelsea's been doing this a long time and you know, learning can be a challenge, especially if you don't have someone to kind of hold your hand through the process and go through it and you know, it's kind of the. Can you, can you learn how to do this stuff on your own? Yes, you certainly can. Do you have the time to do it? That's a whole other thing.Especially when you're running a business and a family and all the things that go along with that.And to say that the value isn't there and can't be had for, you know, learning these or getting help with this, this whole process, because it will pay. It will pay for itself. It pays dividends. But you have to give it a little bit of time, and you have to give a little bit of.Of effort into it, and in the beginning to, to really see that. But I know very few people that, you know, find good companies that do this for them. And sometimes that can be the challenge is.Is actually finding somebody that's good at what they do. But that's why I've had Chelsea on here twice, because she's awesome.But once you find a good company that does it and you give it a little bit of time to bear fruit, you will see the results.And, and, and most people that I talk to that start with, you know, at a certain level of payment, they generally kind of increase that after a while because they're like, man, this is.This is revolutionizing what I'm doing, and I don't have to do it as much, and I just, you know, kind of take a step back and let somebody else handle it. And if you want to learn, that's where the coaching part comes in.If you want to take over some pieces on your own because you want to get better at it, that's. That's great, too. But, but you don't have to. And, you know, you're good at running your business.You're good at selling homes or you're good at doing mortgages or, or whatever it is that you do. And to also expect that you're a, you know, tremendous database marketer, an email marketer is, Is a lot to take on. So I highly recommend if. If you.If you need help with this stuff, reach out to Chelsea. She's awesome. Her team is great. They're wonderful to talk to. You know, they're. They're here. They're not.Other places that I get bombarded with on a regular basis about. Some of them get a little rude, honestly. They're like, are you going to respond to me? I could do all this. Tell me now. I'm like, this is.Settle down, bro. Like, no, no.

Chelsea Gardner00:57:08

My, My staff, my. My gals are also military mamas. That, you know, they do this and and run their families and households, too. So.

MIke Mills00:57:17

Yeah. Yeah. Well, Chelsea, I really appreciate your time. Thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day. I know you're a busy lady, so thank you very much.And thanks for everybody that stuck around. We'll be back again next week with a little more AI Talk.So I have someone that's coming on that we're going to really dive into some of this AI Stuff to kind of get you a little better acclimated to it. It's kind of a I guess you could say it's a dorky topic, but it also is incredibly important. So, you know, tune in for that.But hope everybody has a great weekend, and we will see you back next time. Thank you very much, Chelsea. I appreciate it.

Chelsea Gardner00:57:47

Thanks, M.