Jess Lenouvel

The Best Way To Get Real Estate Leads ISN’T What You Think

April 19, 2023 by Jess Lenouvel

Do you feel like you’re doing all of the things but you’re still struggling to get real estate leads?

Are you experiencing burnout and exhaustion, yet your commissions are looking lower than ever?

This might be why…

The reality is, a lot of agents waste dozens of hours every single week focusing on the WRONG things.

It doesn’t matter how hard you work.

If you’re not focusing on the *right* actions to get real estate leads, your pipeline will always be dry.

So if you’re ready to do real estate lead generation differently, read on to know about four shifts you need to make to get more sales rolling in.

Shift 1: Modern Marketing > Archaic Tactics

In real estate, people used to rely on traditional methods like cold calling, door knocking, and “geo-farming” to stay top of mind with potential clients and secure more real estate leads.

But the ONLY reason those methods were used is because we didn’t have any better options available at the time.

But now that we have computers that fit in our pockets, those methods no longer make sense. Yet they persist.

In his book Hook Point: How to Survive in a 3-Second World, Brendan Kane writes:

With more than 60 million messages sent out on digital platforms every day, we have an incredible amount of information being sent to us constantly…. In fact, the average person spends eleven hours a day interacting with digital media (including digital video, audio, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc.) and scrolls through 300 feet of content. People use their phones 1,500 times a week and check their email inboxes thirty times an hour. Every sixty seconds on Facebook, there are 400 new users, 317 status updates, 147,000 uploaded photos, and 54,000 shared links. Approximately 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram on a daily basis.

So why are real estate agents sticking to the old way of doing things?

Buckle up, because you might not like the answer.

Many of the agents who were successful in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s with those old tactics are now broker-owners teaching their agents what they learned way back when. They’re not marketers, and their lead-generation strategies are certainly not up to date.

That old way has got to go.

Today, there is so much software available that can automate the tasks you’ve been doing manually—and that technology should come before you hire another person because it’s so much more efficient.

The real estate industry is being challenged by tech companies and iBuyers. In response, agents are throwing their hands up and getting angry without actually doing anything about it.

You don’t get to choose not to adapt and then get angry when you’re replaced.

If you want to get more real estate leads, think about where your ideal clients are hanging out.

Rather than pestering them through cold messages and phone calls, show up for them through valuable content that converts them from strangers to clients.

You can read this post all about the three types of real estate content for social media you NEED to be posting to get started!

Shift 2: Niching Down > Serving Everyone

A lot of agents think that to secure more real estate leads, they need to serve anyone and everyone.

They believe that casting a wide net equates to more opportunities for sales.

But in reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Your niche is NOT a geographical area.

Think about it.

You can have a neighborhood that has upsizers, downsizers, first-time buyers, and investors, all in one postal or zip code.

All of these ideal client avatars have a unique set of needs and desires.

But if you’re using the older methods of marketing—say flyers, for example—your messaging has to be incredibly broad.

All you end up doing is getting an impression for the sake of an impression.

Understanding The Life Transition

When I tell agents to niche down, I mean choosing a group of ideal clients and customizing your marketing to attract them.

You must understand the psychology of the client’s life transition.

What is the deeper reason for their move?

Once you know what’s going on in a client’s head during their real estate transaction, you can use that to create incredibly targeted messaging.

Now, you may have heard other real estate gurus say you should get in front of as many eyeballs as possible—to paint with the widest brush instead of narrowing down to a specific market. But when you do that, you only get filtered out as noise.

The Generalist Trap

The riches are in the niches, and specificity wins—every time.

You probably wouldn’t trust your family doctors to install a pacemaker in your chest. Your clients also don’t want a generalist; they want someone who specializes in what they need.

Because let’s face it, we’re at a point now where everyone seems to have a real estate license. Effective marketing means being able to articulate what’s in the back of someone’s mind better than they can—sometimes even before they can.

You cannot do that if you’re painting with a broad brush. Make no mistake—if you’re still trying to use vague, nonsensical taglines, at some point you will disappear. You will become irrelevant.

Your Client Is The Hero

Most real estate advertising falls flat because agents lean on “I’m number one!” messaging.

They focus their attention on themselves—instead of their potential clients—because they can’t actually create marketing that will truly strike a chord with people.

But people don’t care about you. They care about themselves.

Hearing you talk about how great you are or how many awards you’ve won doesn’t solve your ideal client’s problem—that they’re terrified they won’t be able to find a house before their move-out date or that their marriage won’t actually survive the time it takes to find the said house.

Shift 3: Connection > Perfection

You can’t just hide behind a pretty logo anymore, especially in real estate. This is a human-to-human business, so it’s important that people get to know, like, and trust you.

People create comfort with other human beings, and guess what?

That DOESN’T happen by being perfect.

Perfection is boring, and it makes other people feel inadequate. People build connections through vulnerability and stories. We have to break down barriers to trust.

Become The Approachable Celebrity

One of the best ways to build familiarity and trust is to present as what I call “the approachable celebrity”.

Let me explain…

There are two types of celebrities.

One is very approachable; the other is not.

If you saw Brad Pitt walking down the street, you probably wouldn’t feel comfortable walking up to him and giving him a high five.

But there are certain influencers that most people would have no problem approaching to say hello. Yes, they’re “celebrities,” but people feel like they already know them because they’ve been following their story on their social media accounts and feel like they’re part of their lives.

It’s like when an actor breaks the fourth wall in a movie and talks to the audience. That’s approachability, and it’s what you need to build with your ideal audience.

You might think that to attract more real estate leads, you need to create an image of perfection, letting everyone know about how you’re the top real estate agent around.

But people don’t care about that. What they do care about is that you care about and understand them.

That’s part of what you can demonstrate with psychologically driven marketing content.

Shift 4: Emotion > Numbers

Too many agents focus on numbers and stats rather than creating an emotional connection with their ideal client avatar.

They think they can just pump out market stats and real estate infographics and bring in tons of real estate leads.

You need to understand the emotions your client is experiencing that are fueling the move.

Let’s say you’re serving “upsizers.” These are mostly young families and people who have outgrown their first space.

You need to show that you truly understand their pains, problems, fears, and desires.

There is the emotion of letting go of the first home they bought, the house that their kids were born in.

But there’s also the frustration of fighting every day because they’re tripping over the kids’ toys, and everyone is sharing the same bathroom. And, of course, there are the financial worries that come along with moving into a bigger home.

Most agents come at these situations purely from a numbers standpoint.

And as a result, the clients don’t feel understood. Even worse, they feel like they’re just another deal or transaction for that agent. In fact, I advise you to take the words transaction and deal out of your marketing copy altogether.

Speak In The Language Of Your Ideal Client

A sale is a transaction or deal for you—not for the client. Don’t decide for the client what a sale is for them.

Instead, do your research and find out what language your audience is using. Speak to them in their words and language, not yours.

So if you’re a real estate agent struggling to get real estate leads, remember…

You’re likely focusing on the wrong things.

You might be spending hours and hours on archaic, old-school marketing techniques like cold-calling and manual prospecting…

When you should instead be focusing on a real estate content marketing strategy that gets clients coming to YOU.

You might be trying to cast a wide net and serve as many people as possible…

When instead, you should hone in and solve a specific problem for a specific person.

You might be focusing exclusively on numbers and stats…

When instead you need to cultivate an EMOTIONAL connection with your clients.

Or you might even be falling into the trap that you need to show up as polished and perfect, when you really need to be embracing authenticity and vulnerability.

Not only will these mishaps leave your real estate lead pipeline dry, but they’ll also even repel clients.

Instead, use The Listings Lab Method to fill your calendar with appointments – all without fake or sleazy sales techniques.

Get all of the details for free by downloading The Listings Lab Method Guide here.

Standard Operating Procedures: How To Build Your Real Estate Operations Manual

April 12, 2023 by Jess Lenouvel

Have you ever gone to hire and onboard a team member, only to find yourself even busier than before you hired them? Building a real estate operations manual filled with thorough Standard Operating Procedures solves this problem.

You probably have a ton of moving parts in your real estate business.

And if the ONLY thing keeping those parts moving and processes going is your own knowledge…

You’re going to be extremely limited when it comes to scaling your real estate business.

Instead, you need to get that knowledge out of your brain and into a repeatable process that anyone can follow!

In this post, you’ll learn about:

What SOPs mean for your real estate business
An easy-to-follow real estate SOP template
How to create and organize your SOPs
The biggest benefits of creating SOPs

So let’s get into it, shall we?

The Meaning Of SOPs in Business

SOP stands for “standard operating procedure”. SOPs act as guidelines for any process you must complete in your real estate business.

In the real estate industry, you might also hear SOPs referred to as your real estate operations manual or your real estate policies and procedures manual.

They contain detailed instructions so that any team member can learn to do what you do!

They are essential for getting information out of your brain – and turning that information into a repeatable, scalable system.

Standard Operating Procedures

When the time comes for you to outsource, you must have standard operating procedures (SOP) for everything you want that person to do.

The purpose of an SOP is to provide detailed instructions about how to carry out a task so that any team member can do it correctly every time. It is critical to have every one of these tasks documented because once you document them, other people can follow them.

Once you have your SOPs clearly and concisely documented, it is so much easier to train new employees and delegate or outsource tasks. If there’s ever any question about how to do a particular job, team members or vendors can pull up the SOP document and video to understand what needs to be done.

Having SOPs saves time and money, and creates better communication within your business.

Real Estate SOP Template

There is a very simple template for creating an SOP.

Basics

The SOP should have a title, date of creation, the department name, and the owner of the document. If the SOP is about commissions or finances, someone who deals with those areas of the business should own the document. Also include when the document was last updated, so that you always know if it’s out of date.

Resources

Be sure to also link to any resources required to do the task. This could include documents, media, or references associated with that task, including email templates and passwords.

Clear Action Steps

Include clear action steps that are accurate or that apply to 95 percent of cases. I can’t emphasize enough how important clarity is. It is incredibly inefficient for team members to come to you every single time they have a question about something they don’t understand.

When they come to you for everything, you just become an assistant to the rest of your team. Clear, actionable SOPs take that off your plate.

Understanding when the job is done

Include in your SOP how to know when a task is completed. You need to give your team members clarity so they can know exactly what constitutes a job well done. Give clear markers and checklists so they can know they’ve done everything needed to complete the process.

SOP Organization

Once you’ve created the SOP document, place it in an accessible location, and make sure your entire team knows where to find it. We have our SOPs in our project management software. You can also place it in a Google Drive accessible to the whole team.

Building Your Real Estate Operations Manual

To streamline your real estate operations and minimize the need for constant oversight, consider creating a comprehensive real estate operations manual that outlines all of your standard operating procedures (SOPs). Once you’ve developed your SOPs, you can organize them into a tracker or playbook that provides a clear table of contents for all of the procedures. This will allow your team members to quickly locate the SOP they need by searching by department or SOP title, saving time and reducing the need for you to answer procedural questions on a daily basis.

Benefits of SOPS For Your Real Estate Company

Having SOPs not only makes operations more efficient, but it also means that your training of new employees is consistently streamlined. If you experience churn on your team, you don’t have to keep personally training them.

That’s especially true if you’ve created a video overview of all tasks and procedures, along with a written document that lists the people who are involved in each task.

Tools For Building Out Your Real Estate Operations Manual & SOPs

To make the videos, use a screen recording software (I recommend Loom) so that when you’re creating a new SOP, you can go through the task on the computer and record what you’re doing so a trainee can easily follow along. This covers people who are visual learners or who need to review instructions a few times.

Yes, your SOPs will take time to set up, but once you’ve done them, you’ll be amazed at the amount of time you get back in your day to commit yourself to the tasks your business needs you—and only you—to do!

Want more support with setting up systems, automation, and building a high-performance team so you can scale to seven figures?

Check out our exclusive year-long mastermind for high-level agents, The 7-Figure Agent Collective.

3 Simple Steps to Skyrocket Your Real Estate Sales (Even in a Tough Market)

April 5, 2023 by Jess Lenouvel

Have you ever told yourself you weren’t your real estate sales goals because of market factors?

Maybe you told yourself things like:

“The transactions are down in my market!”

“The interest rates are high in my market!”

“The number of listings is down in my market!”

Or something else of that nature?

Well, if so…I’ve got some tough love for you.

It’s time to ditch the excuses.

While certain market conditions can make things more challenging, there’s no reason why your growth has to slow down.

And there are agents out there who are KILLING it – no matter what the market’s presenting.

One of those agents is Kim Osborne, an alumnus of The Listings Lab who’s currently in our 7-Figure Agent Collective program.

Kim hasn’t let a tough market stop her.

In fact, she even says 2023 has been HER YEAR!

She and her partner are on track to hit their first multi-six-figure year.

Do you want to know what she changed to go from struggling to succeeding?

Read on for the three steps she took to skyrocket her real estate sales – even in a challenging market.

She Nailed Down Her Message

One of the most important things Kim learned throughout The Listing Lab and The 7-Figure Agent?

The importance of a clear and consistent message.

Before joining the program, Kim was trying to speak to everyone and anyone, just hoping that someone would listen.

But she soon realized that her message needed to be targeted at a specific audience if she wanted it to be compelling. Kim got to know her ideal clients better and then drilled down on her message – tailoring it to better resonate with them. By speaking directly to their specific needs and concerns, she created a stronger connection and built better relationships with them.

Once Kim got clear on her message, she then learned the value of consistency in delivering her message.

Instead of sporadic communication with her audience, she made a commitment to consistently provide valuable content that helped her ideal clients.

Potential clients soon started referring to her as reliable, and someone they could trust. Not only that, but by consistently delivering her message, to the *right* people, she established herself as an authority in her niche.

If you’re struggling with your real estate sales, take a look at your messaging. Do you know who you’re speaking to? And are you speaking to them in a way that will resonate?

She Stayed Authentic To Herself

Have you ever felt like you needed to fit a “mold” of how the perfect realtor should be if you want to succeed?

Before joining The Listings Lab, Kim certainly did.

She found herself trying to be someone she wasn’t, which made showing up consistently all the more difficult.

However, The Listings Lab and The 7-Figure Agent Collective showed her the importance of being authentic and true to herself.

Kim no longer tried to be overly professional, all of the time.

Instead, she embraced what made her her – like her sense of humor and big personality.

And in doing so, she started getting tons more clients reaching out.

No one wants to work with a corporate robot.

Not only will authenticity get more people reaching out about your services, but it will make content creation feel 10x easier when you no longer have to perform.

She Wasn’t Afraid To Have Tough Conversations

This step might be unexpected, but it was crucial to Kim’s success.

She didn’t shy away from difficult conversations with her clients.

It’s easy to always want to please our clients, and avoid any topic that might make them feel uneasy.

But through experience, Kim learned that transparency is key to success.

Having open and honest conversations with her clients about market trends, potential outcomes, and realistic expectations built trust and created a more positive experience for everyone involved.

By pretending you can promise a certain outcome – you only increase the chances of letting your clients down.

When you’re able to let them know what’s in their control and what isn’t, you’re starting off the relationship on the right foot.

You’re keeping it real with your clients, and they’ll appreciate you for it!

Which only leads to a better reputation, more real estate referrals, and glowing testimonials all around!

Kim is a shining example of what can happen when you decide you’re going to succeed.

While she could’ve blamed the market, she doubled down on her messaging and client relationships, and is now having her best year yet.

Want to know how to attract clients like Kim, no matter what the market’s throwing at you?

Apply to join us in The Listings Lab and build a real estate marketing machine that fills your calendar with appointments – all without fake or sleazy sales tactics!

Recruiting Real Estate Agents: How To Find & Retain A-Players To Help You Scale

March 29, 2023 by Jess Lenouvel

Need help recruiting real estate agents to scale your business to the next level?

You’re in the right place.

At a certain point in your real estate business, you can’t afford to do it alone.

Getting to your next milestone will require a powerhouse team.

In this blog post, we will share strategies to help you identify and hire the best candidates, including the five stages of hiring A-players!

I’ll go over:

Why hiring a-players is a must
How to prepare to hire
The best strategies for recruiting real estate agents
Interviewing tips (including must-ask interview questions!)
Setting up a trial period for your new agent
How to onboard your new agent and set them up for success
How to make the most of your new hire using scorecards

Let’s get into it!

Why You Need To Hire A-Players

What are A-Players, and why should you try to hire them for your real estate business?

To use a baseball analogy, you want to seek talent outside of your league because A-players understand the role, want the role, and have the capacity to do the role better than other people.

These players might be more expensive, but they always provide the biggest return on your investment. ( Also, A-players often introduce you to other A-players, which helps you to create a world-class team.)

A-players care deeply about your business and your mission. They motivate and uplift other people on your team, which also helps with the culture.

Because you’re not hiring someone straight out of college who has to look to you for everything, your A-players are actually going to push you out of your comfort zone to be your best.

From the moment they join, A-players are all in. Unlike people looking for a side hustle while they build their own thing, they’re fully committed to you and your business.

My COO, Ashley, whom I affectionately call the other half of my life, is the epitome of an A-player. Outside of being one of the most organized people I’ve ever met and having a phenomenal memory (she’s like a personal Google for the company), she treats my business like it’s her own—not from a place of ego but from a place of care.

As our primary project manager and the person whose job it is to spot inefficiencies and redundancies in our business and correct them, she holds our team to a high standard, and she expects excellence from everyone.

But she’s also the first person to give praise and recognition for a job well done. She sets the expectation for the team of what it means to work for us, and she makes sure that not only do we complete the projects we set, she usually sneaks in a few extra ones every quarter. My job as a CEO is a thousand times easier because I have her in my corner.

You want people who treat your business that way, from your eventual right-hand down to your runner who delivers paperwork and does pickups.

When you have A-players on your team, your primary job is to make sure their lives run as smoothly as possible, not to introduce an agent who makes them less efficient and changes their experience of working for and with you.

Another reason not to wait to hire until you’re desperate is that the top-level people you need are not always easy to find, so you need to give yourself time. If instead you rush and don’t hire an A-player, you plunge the lives of the A-players on your team into chaos.

Five Hiring Stages For Bringing on Top Agents

There are five stages to hiring A-players: preparation, recruitment, interview, trial period, and hiring and onboarding.

Preparation

Most people in real estate are flying by the seat of their pants when it comes to recruiting real agents for their companies. They know they need help, but they have no idea what they’re specifically looking for.

The biggest thing that keeps new hires from performing well is not having a clear role with clear expectations. That happens because the hiring agent did not prepare for recruitment.

You need to have an ironclad Roles and Responsibilities document that helps you identify the kind of help you need and that will allow you to clearly communicate your expectations to candidates throughout the hiring process.

You need an actual hiring process with a timeline. An example is a test or a screening call for a hiring interview.

Also, when I said not to rush into hiring, that means giving yourself at least two weeks to find a viable candidate. For more complicated jobs, you might need longer. You want a fairly large sample of candidates to be able to have the cream rise to the top in an obvious way.

Once you’ve got the Roles and Responsibilities done with a timeline in place, you have to create an application. Don’t just ask candidates to send in a resume. Create an actual application that candidates must fill out because you want someone who has taken the time to understand the role and fill out the application, not someone who’s blasting their CV all over the place.

At The Listings Lab, one of our most effective ways to screen is to ask applicants to follow these instructions:

“Fill out the application thoroughly, and
“Shoot a 2-minute video telling us why you would be an asset to our team, upload it to YouTube as an unlisted video, and email the link to our hiring manager.”

Right away, this weeds out 50 percent of applicants who don’t submit a video or who do it incorrectly because if people can’t read simple instructions, they don’t belong on the team. You need people who, at the very least, can follow instructions to the letter.

At a bare minimum, give an application, test, then interview.

Recruiting Real Estate Agents

Start recruitment with people who are familiar with your market and what you do. Your number-one source is always referrals. Ask your network, team members, employees, and clients, “Who is the best person you know at ‘X’ role?”

You can also go to your current audience via social media, email, newsletters, and the like. Your third option for recruiting real estate agents is online job boards.

Send that pool of people your application and a test that you’ve designed to weed people out. Look for things like attention to detail, level of care, mistakes, level of desire, skills, culture fit, and the ability to problem-solve. Depending on the role, this process should trim the list down to three to five people.

How To Continuously Attract Real Estate Agents

Your online brand and content should do the legwork to continuously attract and recruit real estate agents to your team.

When you tend to your online presence, you establish yourself as a leader in your market. Other agents look to you and admire how you’re growing your business.

This way, when you DO have an opening on your team, you’ll already have a pool of interested candidates eager to apply.

Interviewing Real Estate Agents

Everyone’s interview questions are likely to be a bit different, but your list should always include these three:

“Why is this the job for you?”

“What are your goals?”

“Why did you leave your last job?”

You also want to use those questions and others to look into whether the candidate—

—truly understands the position. Are they on the same page about what the role actually is? If they can describe the role back to you in a way that closely mirrors what you would say, then they get it. But if the clarity isn’t there, you can’t move on to the next step. Address that right away.
—actually wants the role. Are they hungry and motivated? Sometimes, people will temporarily sit in a role they don’t want, and it’s a house of cards. They’ll either leave soon after they’re hired, or they’ll be frustrated in their role and you won’t get the best out of them. You want someone who gets up every morning wanting to do their job. You can’t pay or motivate someone to want it. The desire for the role already has to be there. If you bump someone’s pay, the increase might motivate them briefly, but it’s not a long-term solution.
—has the necessary skill set for it to understand the role and what’s necessary to succeed in it.
—is open-minded, coachable, and excited to learn from you.
—is honest and direct with their responses, particularly about why they left (or were fired from) their last job.
—is clear about the direction they want to go in and why they feel this is the right time for this position.
—has income goals that are in line with what the position will provide.

Also, look at capacity. Does the person have the time, expertise, and the mental, physical, and emotional capacity to do the job? And do they have the time? Or will their life commitments consistently keep them from the weekly hours you need from them?

Skills and expertise, however, aren’t necessarily deal killers. Skills can be trained—as long as you or someone on your staff has the time or patience to bring them to the level you require. If you don’t, recognize that, and don’t settle for anyone who does not have full capacity from the get-go.

Throughout the interview, watch out for red flags, including speaking poorly of past bosses, being focused only on the money, or having no idea about your market.

Also steer clear if they don’t mention any past failures or areas where they can improve, or if they generally have a bad attitude or are overly confident.

Trial Period

Far too many people hire without a paid trial period.

If you’re hiring for a full-time role, the non-negotiable trial period should be thirty to sixty days. If you skip or shorten it, you will suffer the consequences. The trial period needs to be long enough to ensure that you’re not seeing a new hire on only their best behavior, which would be hard to sustain. Sooner or later they’re bound to slip out of their best behavior. Pay attention to that, and see it as the red flag it is.

If after their trial period, someone meets their KPIs and proves to be a good culture fit, onboard them. If not, go back to stage one.

Onboarding Your Real Estate Agents

During onboarding, set clear expectations about both the company’s communication rhythm and the position.

Give your new hires honest feedback about what they’ve done well in their first month or two with the company, as well as where they still have strides to make. You can’t expect someone to improve if you don’t clearly tell them that they aren’t meeting a specific expectation.

Are there weekly reports and check-ins? Is there a quarterly review? What are their performance goals? Talk about salary, performance, and role reviews at the six-month mark.

If someone is going to stay with you, invest in their performance with outside courses and consultants. And check in with your team members personally. If their excitement fades over time or they outgrow the position they were hired for, it’s time to move them to another role that does get them excited about their job.

Scorecards

So many leaders take care in recruiting real estate agents, but then FORGET that they need to retain them.

One key way to retain talent is to prioritize empowering your team.

There is a big difference between delegating tasks and delegating outcomes. For example, you can make someone responsible for the outcome of doubling the number of referrals to your company in that fiscal year. It’s then up to them to figure out just how to do that.

The role scorecard should clearly lay out the following things:

the person’s position
who they report to
the required skills, knowledge, and traits to be successful in the position
the KPIs they are responsible for in the business
the duties of the role and how frequently they are to be performed.

Essentially, everyone needs to know what key outcomes they have to produce. All too often, people run down their checklists each day without owning any outcomes.

Over time, you can change the KPIs for any role. In a quarterly check-in with your team, evaluate the performance of team members, make sure they are ROI-positive, and deliver both positive and constructive feedback to your team about how they can improve and be better accountable to their KPIs.

The quarterly check-in is also when you set the success metrics for that quarter. If , say, referrals were successfully doubled, do you want to maintain that or shoot for an even bigger goal?

Every team member should know what their responsibilities are, what their KPIs are, and what success metrics they are expected to be meeting. Essentially, everyone needs to know what key outcomes they have to produce. All too often, people run down their checklists each day without owning any outcomes.

The scorecard ensures these expectations are communicated in writing and delivered to team members. When they are onboarded, it should be one of the first things they see.

Recruiting real estate agents can be a challenging process, but by focusing on hiring A-players, following the five stages of hiring, providing a trial period, setting clear expectations during onboarding, and empowering your team with scorecards, you can find and retain top performers to help your business grow.

Remember that finding the right people takes time, but it’s well worth the investment in the long run!

Want more tips on growing a powerhouse team?

These blog posts will help!

Want To Build A Real Estate Team? Here Are 5 Mindset Shifts For Agents Looking To Outsource

How Real Estate Team Leaders Can Master Delegation And Step Into Their CEO Shoes

6 Levers To Massive Real Estate Growth In 2023

Create A Powerful Real Estate Brand Story With These 4 Steps

March 22, 2023 by Jess Lenouvel

Want to build a powerhouse real estate business?

Then it’s time to nail down your real estate branding story.

Your brand story is the baseline for your entire brand.

So many real estate agents get caught up in their visual brand identity, thinking that’s the most important thing.

But your brand is so much deeper than your logo and colors.

Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.

Your brand is what you want to be known for.

It’s what makes you memorable.

Why Is Having A Real Estate Branding Story So Important?

Human beings love stories.

They’re how we’ve connected for thousands of years. Our brains are hardwired to consume information in the form of stories.

In fact, storytelling is so powerful that studies show stories are 22x more memorable than facts.

So if you’re not telling stories in your real estate business and marketing…it’s time to start!

And your real estate branding story is the number one place to begin.

4 Steps To Write Your Real Estate Branding Story

Step 1: Capture The Heart

In the first step, “Capture the Heart,” the goal is to make an emotional connection with your audience by introducing yourself or your business and why you’re in real estate.

It should answer the question…

Why are you here in the first place? What was your drive and motivator for getting into real estate?

This section should be heartfelt, genuine, and personal.

You can think of this part of your brand story as the hook. It should immediately draw people in and make them want to learn more about you.

One way to do this is to paint a vivid picture of *exactly* where you were when you started your business.

Was it a dark and gloomy day?

Were you at your child’s soccer game?

Were you at your office watching the clock every minute?

Get clear on exactly what was going on in your life when you started this business, and what your primary motivation was.

Remember: This should NOT sound like an essay or in any way robotic. It should sound like your face-timing a friend!

If you’re really stuck, imagine you were writing a journal entry about why you started your real estate business…

That should get your wheels turning!

Step 2: Build Tension

In the second step, “Build Tension,” the goal is to hit on a human truth and make it relatable to your audience.

For example, your truth might sound something like this:

“I believe that your home should be so much more than just where you live. It should be the greatest investment you ever make.”

Another example could be:

“I believe we’re meant to do so much more than just pay our bills and die”.

You want to think of a specific moment in your life that gave you a profound realization.

This section should be vulnerable and emotional, as people are drawn to leaders who have overcome something.

In my brand story for The Listings Lab, the moment I build tension is when I discussed why I stopped selling real estate.

This is always a huge point of curiosity for people. They wonder why I stopped selling when my real estate business was thriving.

In my brand story, I pinpoint the exact moment I needed to make a change.

I was on vacation in Hawaii driving down the street in a jeep on an absolutely gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the roof was down…

But I was bawling my eyes out.

My husband looked over at me, wondering how I could possibly be unhappy in this moment.

But the truth was, I wasn’t living in integrity with my true desires.

That exact moment is the moment of tension in my brand story.

It’s when I had the profound realization that I wasn’t doing what I was put on this earth to do.

At that moment, I knew I needed to make the change and start doing what I truly felt called to do – serve other agents.

Step 3: Resolve The Tension

In the third step, “Resolve the Tension,” the goal is to talk about how you overcame the struggles you faced.

When sharing your struggles in your content, you want to follow one golden rule.

“Don’t talk about your mess before you’ve cleaned it up.”

If you’re in the thick of a crisis, you’re not ready to share your lessons from it and offer value to your audience.

I remember when I was going through a crisis, I actually started a fitness account. I couldn’t talk about my business because I was going through it – so I focused on another type of content altogether.

You need to pick yourself back up before you come back to share your trials and tribulations online. People love a victor and are drawn to leaders who have overcome something.

The goal here is to tell your story of how you overcame your struggles in a way that is inspiring, actionable, and relatable.

There is nothing more powerful than your own story.

Don’t be afraid to get vulnerable here.

When most members of The Listings Lab submit the first take of their brand story, it’s pretty simple. But slowly, we help them pull out the challenges they’ve overcome and share their biggest lessons in an authentic and vulnerable way.

You might be thinking…I haven’t had any big, grand challenges in my life.

But I’m willing to bet you have.

Ask your friends and family for ideas on what you’ve overcome in your life, and I’m sure you’ll get some ideas!

Step 4: Conclude By Offering Value

In the fourth step, you want to tell us how you got to where you are now.

And while you ARE permitted to brag a bit…this should not be a sales pitch.

Instead, this section should offer an insight, common humanity, or solution you’ve discovered along your journey – and why it’s valuable to your ideal client.

Your story should conclude by answering the questions.

Why should they listen to you?
How can you help them?
Why do you choose to serve the people that you do?

Remember: You can’t tell your entire life story on one page. You’re going to have to choose one aspect that you think will be the MOST powerful. Don’t worry about including every single detail.

When you’re crafting your real estate branding story, please keep this in mind:

Your life is far more interesting than you think.

So many people think their life is boring when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The things you’ve gone through and overcome in your life might not be top of mind for you right now…especially if you went through them years ago.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not impressive to other people!

By telling your real estate branding story, you can connect with your audience on an emotional level and create a memorable brand.

Want MORE tips on how to create a powerhouse real estate brand?

Should You Make A Separate Instagram Account For Your Real Estate Business? My Honest Opinion

March 15, 2023 by Jess Lenouvel

One of the BIGGEST questions I get asked as a real estate business coach is this:

Should I make a separate business Instagram account for real estate?

If you’re a busy agent…I’m willing to bet my answer to this question is going to be music to your ears.

Because in all honestly, I think making a separate account is a gigantic waste of time.

Not only that…but keeping personal and professional separate could actually HURT your social media lead-generation efforts.

In this post, I’ll explain why I think having just one Instagram account is the very best option for real estate agents.

But first things first, here’s how you want to set this up!

How To Set Up Your Real Estate Business Instagram Account

Rather than making a whole separate real estate Instagram account, I recommend converting your existing personal Instagram account into a business account.

Why?

Converting your personal account into a business account will allow you to access more sophisticated analytics, as well as allow you to run Instagram ads.

Even if you feel like you don’t need these features right now….

You might need them down the line as you scale your real estate business.

Here are the biggest reasons why having one account is the superior option for growth!

You Already Have a Following

One of the biggest benefits of using your personal Instagram account as your real estate page is that you already have a following there.

Sure, technically you *could* start a new page from scratch…

But you already have a whole network of friends, family, and people in your network who could be interested in what you have to offer. Or, they most likely know someone who is.

By posting real estate content on your personal account, you’re keeping yourself top of mind and potentially securing referrals.

Your personal network can be a powerful tool for getting the word out about your real estate business. But they *have* to know you exist and how you can help them.

Leveraging your existing social pages where you’re already connected with hundreds of people is the best way to do that!

People Want to Know The Real You

You are so much more than just your real estate business.

You’re a human with ideas, passions, and thoughts about the world.

People don’t want to just see your listings and testimonial graphics you made up in Canva.

They want to know the real you!

Don’t be afraid to show off your personality, your life, and what makes you unique.

By showing the real you on your Instagram page, you’re building a personal brand that people can connect with and trust.

Personal content is one of the most important types of real estate content for social media.

So show up in all of your glory!

Post about your family, travel, or your hobbies.

At the end of the day, people buy from people.

So the more you can showcase your authentic self, the more you’ll attract the people you’re meant to work with.

There’s no reason you need to keep personal and professional separate.

Real estate is an inherently emotional business.

Your clients want to work with someone they can connect with on a personal level.

It’s Easier to Maintain

As a busy agent, you don’t have the time or energy to keep up with multiple social media accounts.

By using your personal Instagram as your real estate page, you’re simplifying your life and streamlining your online presence.

You only have to worry about one account and can focus on creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience.

Personal Brands are More Profitable

Finally, personal brands are WAY more profitable than generic business accounts.

Especially on Instagram.

People are on Instagram to connect with friends and family, to be entertained and to learn new things.

Not to be sold to.

So when your posts look like ads, your ideal client will simply scroll on by.

This is why I always strongly discourage outsourcing your marketing to a real estate marketing agency.

You’ll lose the soul of your content.

By using your personal account as your real estate page, you’re showing the world that you’re a real person with real values and interests, and that you’re passionate about what you do!

Your content will start getting more engagement, and more engagement will lead to more visibility.

It will also help the people who already know you to develop more trust and connection with your brand.

So there you have it! The entire case for why you shouldn’t make a separate real estate business account – and instead keep personal & professional all in one spot.

By leveraging your existing network, showcasing your authentic self, and building a personal brand, you can attract more clients, generate more leads, and grow your real estate business to seven figures by creating relationships at scale.

Want to learn more about how to make that happen?

Download The Listings Lab Guide for free to fill your calendar with appointments – all without fake or sleazy sales tactics!

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