Get ready to be F.I.R.E.D U.P! Today, we have Tara Roy, one of my most cheerful, and positive students. Tara is a ray of sunshine for us because her positivity is contagious! We will discuss how video marketing helped her in her journey to become a top producing realtor in her area. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!
Krista Mashore:
Hey everyone. Are you ready to be fired up because I sure am. I have Tara Roy with us today.
Tara Roy:
Hello.
Krista Mashore:
How are you doing?
Tara Roy:
Great. Thank you for having me.
Krista Mashore:
Good. We're going to be interviewing her today, so if you want to hear what's working in her business and her life, and if you see her smile, you'll know that you want to listen up. And so, sit back and get ready to be fired up.
Krista Mashore:
Tara, how are you doing?
Tara Roy:
I am so good, Krista. Thank you for having me. I'm feeling fired at this being here, so I'm just excited.
Krista Mashore:
Well, I'm so happy to have you. Tara is just seriously a breath of fresh air.
Tara Roy:
Thank you.
Krista Mashore:
Really, really, it's true. She's just got such a happy spirit and happy demeanor, and she's just one of your best friends kind of people if you get to know her. So, tell us about yourself. Tell us where you're from, how long you've been in the business. Tell us about you.
Tara Roy:
Sure. So I am from that Eastern Pennsylvania, which is in the Southeastern portion of PA. I'm about equal distance between New York City and Philly. So I'm in this really cool quadrant of the state where we're close to Baltimore, Boston, Washington DC, New York. We're just in a really good centralized location. I've been a realtor, this is my fourth year. So, prior to this, I had a big career in advertising technology, so it's a huge change going from this big career to kind of being an independent consultant, and it is amazing. I love being my own boss and I love what real estate is, the direction I'm going with real estate.
Krista Mashore:
Oh, good. [inaudible 00:01:42] There's a lot of people coming into your area, huh?
Tara Roy:
There are. In fact, when I was trying to figure out who my client avatar was on the buying side, for a long time, I was like, I really want to reach out to people in New York city, but it's not a really kind avatar, but then with my YouTube channel, I just naturally started to get people from New York because I would tell about our area and how great it is. So I'm like, why can't that be my avatar? So New York City people are my avatar.
Krista Mashore:
And most people that are listening to this don't even know what an avatar is. So I know you learned that from me. Explain what an avatar is.
Tara Roy:
An avatar is basically your target audience. It's who you are trying to reach and get to be your clients. And you attract your avatar, you basically attract like people. And it's great because it kind of filters out the people you don't want to work with. When you're on video, as you know, you're going to attract people that like your personality. If they don't like your personality, they're not going to reach out, which is an awesome way of filtering out people you don't want to work with. So I've loved that about video.
Krista Mashore:
You're actually attracting people that you do want to work with and not attracting the ones that you don't want to work with. You mentioned video, so tell us, what are you doing with video in your business, how is it helping you? What exactly are you doing with video?
Tara Roy:
So I have a YouTube, which I love. I love it. It's hard work. I'm not going to lie, it's hard to put content out there. I maybe not as consistent as I always should be, but I get so many leads from it anyway because it's evergreen, it's always there. So if people are searching anything about the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, which is Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and all these little surrounding towns and boroughs, they're going to find me pop up. I get leads from there and I love it because it's self-generated leads. It's not a referral, it's all my effort. So I love having a YouTube channel.
Tara Roy:
I do a live every week on Facebook and I really just come up with topics. A lot of it I learned from you Krista, honestly. Sometimes I'll hear something from you and I'll be like, oh, let me repurpose that and say it how I would say it. Or I do my own research. For instance, this week, I mean, does anyone know who Anna Jarvis is? Probably not. Well, she's the person who started Mother's Day. And I know there's a lot of mothers out there, so I just gave a little history lesson and some ideas on what you could do with your mom. I'm getting such a great response from people just by being engaging and getting my myself out there.
Tara Roy:
And I'll tell you what, every Tuesday morning, it's Tuesdays at 10 with Tara, I call it, I love alliteration, I just think it sticks with people. And every Tuesday morning I get up and I'm kind of like, oh my gosh, I have to go live, but I do it, and after it's done, I just feel so great about it. And I don't think I would have had the confidence to do that had I not had a YouTube channel and stuff. I love what video is doing for my business, it's giving me exposure.
Krista Mashore:
Giving you exposure, yes. And it's a different kind of exposure, it's like, [inaudible 00:04:49] about video, just business is attracted to you and you're not having to chase it. And when you meet with clients, it's like they feel like they already know you, so the conversions are so much stronger.
Tara Roy:
The know, like, and trust is so key. And I learned that from you last year, a year and a half ago is, again, it's the avatar, you're attracting people that like you. And you're right, the conversion rate is huge because they already want to work with you. I had someone tell me last week, “Oh my gosh, I feel like I'm talking to a celebrity.” And I was like, “I'm just like you, I'm just a regular person,” but people think of you differently because you're out there and you're polished, you're professional, and you're also real. You're doing things and, when I do my lives, I mess up sometimes, I say um too much, but I just go with it. I drop a piece of paper and I pick it up and you just go with it. People like that I think. It's been really great.
Krista Mashore:
So good. You know you secretly liked being called a celebrity, come on.
Tara Roy:
All right. Well, maybe a little. Maybe a little.
Krista Mashore:
Okay, so you were creating video content. So you have Tuesdays at 10 with Tara, and I've seen you, you're not just talking about business, you're talking about goal-setting and the Pomodoro technique, I saw you do that one. You're just doing [inaudible 00:06:05] Mother's Day.
Tara Roy:
So one of the things I learned really by you as well is in doing video, you don't want to be out there saying, I'm Tara Roy, I'm an amazing realtor, you should work with me, here's how great I am. Humility I think is everything with videos. It's that service and not the selling because I've seen a lot of people doing video and they are doing it in the wrong way. They are saying here's how great I am. Well, to me as someone who is a consumer in any capacity, not just real estate, but if I'm looking for an insurance broker, if I'm looking for anybody, any kind of business, I'm not going to be super attracted to the people who are like, I'm so great, work with me. That's not who I would be attracted to.
Tara Roy:
So, instead of doing that, I like to just promote goodness and kindness and community support and helpfulness, and that is really what's working. Humility I think is really key for video.
Krista Mashore:
And that's so who are. So talk about the person that is afraid of doing video, what would you say to them?
Tara Roy:
Video is, when you're first starting out, it's scary. It really is scary. I would say that I'm a pretty outgoing person. And it's not a natural thing. I have forced myself to be an outgoing person in my life because I remember I always have looked up to my dad who was super outgoing. He's a real estate attorney, which thank God, I have him in my life because he helps me so much. Whenever I have a legal question it's like, “Hi dad, is it okay to do this?” So it's been really helpful.
Tara Roy:
But he told me long, long ago, if you're at a party or something, do you want to be a wallflower or do you want to be out there talking to people? And he told me that sometimes he doesn't feel like it and he has to make himself do it. I just always look at that lesson, it's like putting yourself out there, even if you aren't super outgoing, you don't have to let people know that you're not super outgoing. I know there's introverts, I know there's extroverts. I would say I'm kind of somewhere in the middle, but video has helped me come out of my shell even more. And there's people in the program that I've just seen blossom so much.
Tara Roy:
When I was in college, I remember it was back when there were camcorders, there was no such thing as cell phones and video with all cam quarters, and I was always the girl, it's funny you're abroad, I was always the girl who would pop in front of someone's cam corner and be like, “Hi, we're in Germany,” or whatever, and people would think I was the jam. But when you actually get in front of the camera, I'm in my studio by myself and I get nervous sometimes still. Still I still get nervous and sometimes I'm like, get a little bit of the sweats, but you just do it. And then when you do it and you see kind of what you're producing and how the audience relates to it, it's pretty awesome.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, it's great. What's your state like? Are you stuck inside or are you allowed to go out?
Tara Roy:
We are allowed to go out. We don't have to wear masks when we're walking around downtown. They go back and forth talking about maybe that. But our city actually did a really cool thing when COVID was happening, and they brought in these giant concrete blocks and they partitioned off the streets and made these tent restaurants for outside seating so that people could still eat outside, even during kind of the throws of it. There was only a short periods of time where we were completely closed off.
Tara Roy:
So it's been pretty cool. People are careful and cautious, but yeah, we can go out. As I was telling you before, we did have a period of time where I couldn't show people out of state houses unless they had approval.
Krista Mashore:
Tell me what happened, what your city did?
Tara Roy:
Our governor, [inaudible 00:10:04] actually said, put a rule out there for realtors that we couldn't show anyone from out-of-state properties unless they quarantined for 10 to 14 days, or they could show a negative COVID test within the three days of the time they were doing a showing. So for me, my buyer avatar, especially being, or the people I'm attracting are coming from New York City, that made it really kind of difficult for me because I couldn't show them houses. I'm pretty much a rule follower too, it's just who I am, so I wasn't breaking the rules.
Tara Roy:
But now things are, it's spring, people are excited, people are getting their vaccine. So I think people are feeling a bit more free and things are starting to come up a little bit more. So, it's exciting.
Krista Mashore:
So you've got some buyers and sellers you're working with now, correct?
Tara Roy:
Definitely so. Yup. I've got four listings in the wings. I'm just waiting for one to have a house built, one to buy a house in another state, one just to get their property ready to go, and another one who just can't decide where she wants to move. So, I'm excited about what's to come with listings too. I really enjoy working with both. I enjoy working with buyers and sellers, but it is a tough environment for buyers right now because of the competition.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, so it's nice to have some sellers coming up, especially in this limited inventory market. So good for you. So tell me what you're doing right now in your business. What is working for you? You sent me this really cute text earlier. What are you doing that's working as far as like, how would you say, I know you're a very happy person, you've done well, but what's working right now for you in your life? [inaudible 00:11:45], professional, whatever type level.
Tara Roy:
A big deal for me is starting my day earlier. I've been starting my day earlier since about September and it has changed everything for me. I used to kind of be, I work really late, I don't have children, so I'll work until 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock. I'm pretty much always available. And I get that from being an executive support level client support for executives and advertising. It's like if they call you at midnight and ask you to jump, do you jump for that multimillion dollar account? Of course you do because your job online. So I just have that kind of New York fast-paced mentality, where I'm just available if you need me. I want to learn how not to be that all the time.
Tara Roy:
And so getting up and starting my day earlier has been key for me. Accountability with my peers has been super huge for me. Getting on a phone call, I don't know if your listeners know anything about our accountability call.
Krista Mashore:
Nope, tell them about it.
Tara Roy:
So, we do this thing, can I call it my name?
Krista Mashore:
Yes.
Tara Roy:
Skin in the Game, and it is incredible. So we do this thing called Skin in the Game and it's a 15 minute accountability call. And I get on there, I've been doing it with Mike Brown, I almost said Mike Roy, Mike Roy is my husband. Mike Brown, one of your team leaders. I've been doing it with him since October when it first started. So for me personally, it's been incredible because it starts my day earlier, and I state what I'm going to do, my intentions for the day, just two, because it's that compounding effect that you've taught us. Two intentions a day are 10 a week, are 40 a month. And it just kind of compounds on itself, and it gets things done that maybe you wouldn't have done without having this intention of I'm going to get it done today.
Tara Roy:
So I've been doing that personally for myself with Mike since October. And now in January, I was asked by you to start a group as well, and I'm loving both of the accountability calls I do because not only do I have it for myself, I'm also seeing people grow and blossom by doing accountability calls and seeing how their business is growing. So that has been something really, really awesome too to be a part of as well. So that's super working for me.
Krista Mashore:
With Skin in the Game, so the idea is day one you show up and you're with other people, right? So you [inaudible 00:14:24] same call at the same time. You try it at the same time every day. And you state your intention at least one professional and hopefully one personal or two professional, whatever you need to do. The idea is to get that thing that no matter what before the day ends. And then you do it the next day, you actually have to show up the same call and you have to say whether or not you did it.
Krista Mashore:
So Tara would be like, yes, I did my commitment, today my commitment is. Or if she didn't do her commitment, she'd have to say, no, I did not do my commitment, I let X get in the way. Today, I'm going to modify my behavior by doing Y and then restate another commitment for the day. Can be the same commitment or could be a different commitment that day. That's what Skin in the Game is.
Tara Roy:
Exactly. And what's great about it is if you were committed to doing it and really saying, okay, I'm going to hold myself accountable, you don't want to get on that phone call with your peers and say, guys, I didn't get done what I said I was going to do, because it's embarrassing. We are all there to hold ourselves accountable, if you don't do it, and things come up, especially business, sometimes you're working with a client for much longer in a day, but there's always adjustments you can make. You can stay up a little later, you can get up a little earlier, you can take lunch at your desk instead of sitting in a restaurant. There's always things you can do to make it happen and I love that about it.
Tara Roy:
When you're with a group that's committed like you're committed, you get this sense of community too, and you're all there to support each other. That's been really, really beneficial is having that community support as well.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah. Good, good, good. So what else is working for you?
Tara Roy:
So, marketing materials. I come from an advertising background, and I love Canva. It's my favorite toy is Canva. So creating marketing materials and actually knowing what works. So, having been in your program and understanding what a marketing plan should look like and what a listing presentation should look like, and creating these things, giving them my own flare, and then being able to hand them to clients has been so awesome.
Tara Roy:
So, you taught me a little trick. And some of the things, Krista, that you do, I remember listeners know are so simple, but I didn't think of it. I wouldn't have known to do if you didn't tell me. So just things like a CMA drop-off. That got me listing. It's just incredible the things that are put together and that are working, and it's all coming in this great package, and all of a sudden one day it's going to boom, and it's going to all be there. I'm laying a fantastic foundation, I'm excited about it.
Krista Mashore:
You're putting in the work so you're doing all this stuff. So kind of explain that. So just in case you haven't noticed, Tara is in my program, and she actually is also within my EXP Organization so we get extra time together. Talk about that. So first of all, Tara, she just joined us with EXP a few months ago. It was just very reluctant to do so, but talk about your journey with EXP.
Tara Roy:
So what happened was, I had been with the broker, kind of a small mom and pop brokerage actually. It was Berkshire Hathaway but a small, tiny office of Berkshire Hathaway. And I love my broker to this day, I still love him. I was very reluctant to leave because I didn't know what kind of support I would get from EXP, digital, everything. There's no office to go to, things like that. But when I had the opportunity to do it with you, I was like, I don't care, I'll go to the moon with Krista. I don't care if it's EXP, I don't care who it is, what it is. And it just turned out that EXP is actually blowing my mind way more amazing than I would've even thought. I really didn't join EXP for EXP, I joined EXP, it was a means to an end for me. And it just ends up that EXP is just so incredible.
Tara Roy:
The broker support is wonderful. I still talk to my old broker, so I can still have that relationship with him. I feel like for me, coming from an advertising background, being really digitally focused, EXP has been great because that online world that we have where everything's right there at our fingertips, actually perfect.
Krista Mashore:
You're loving the online presence and you're loving EXP?
Tara Roy:
I am. Absolutely. I really truly am. The splits are incredible. The opportunity to build wealth in various ways rather than just selling real estate is super attractive to me. So, I already have a little nest egg in the stock plan. I mean, 5% of commissions going towards stock on every deal I do. I don't miss it, I don't even know it's gone, but it is now in my little nest egg for retirement. And then talking to other agents and bringing them into my sales organization is amazing. And I also have you to offer to them as well, so it's just this great partnership that I'm so thankful for.
Krista Mashore:
Oh, good, good, good. So talk a little bit about our organization. So tell me, how has that impacted you, your business and your life, being a part of the Krista Mashore Organization through EXP?
Tara Roy:
The support and the sense of community is incredible. I did some research on EXP before joining because I didn't want to join a terrible brokerage. And there were some people who didn't have great experiences to be honest, but I do believe truly that when you join EXP, it's all about who you choose to work with when you join EXP. So if you're joining an organization like ours where we actually get together, we talk about real estate, we talk about agent attraction, we talk about strategy.
Krista Mashore:
We have meetings almost daily.
Tara Roy:
Yeah, we see each other a lot, which I love. And we're all over the country. I mean, a lot of you are in California, but I'm here, there's people in Florida. I mean, there's people everywhere. So, the sense of community that I have being part of this group is bigger and stronger than I have had in real estate before because we're all like-minded individuals. We have this thing, it's you, [inaudible 00:20:39], we have the policy where we don't bring on jerks. We want to work with people who are cool and who are ambitious and driven and are going to implement, and implementation is key.
Tara Roy:
But yeah, the organization is incredible. The support and the friendships and the relationships professionally that I've created in the last six months are just, they blow my mind. I just have so much more support now than I feel like I would anywhere else locally.
Krista Mashore:
She's only been with us for six months. Tara is a bit of a newbie, but you wouldn't even know that because she doesn't act like it whatsoever. So the accountability, video is working really, really, really well for you, you're attracting more sellers. What else would you say that, if somebody was listening to you right now and they were having trouble or needed some support or guidance, what would you say?
Tara Roy:
I would say do a time study because that is huge. In my Skin in the Game, I can't tell you how many times during the week we all hold up our little cubes, our little time cubes. A time study has made an incredible difference in my life. So, focusing my time on something and putting, I was going to show you how I put my phone away, but I'm on my phone right now. I make sure to take my phone, put it on do not disturb, set it down next to me when I'm doing my Pomodoro technique that we were taught, and focusing fully on what I'm, I get so much more done.
Tara Roy:
So, I would say really looking at your day and how you're spending your time, are you being as productive? It's one of the things I've heard in my Skin in the Game group, someone said just a couple of weeks ago, “I just joined this program and I thought I was so productive before, but now I see that I wasn't super productive before,” because when you don't have guidance on what to do and you're not given kind of instruction on how to do your day, sometimes people can't figure it out for themselves. And then all of a sudden they have all of these things to do, and they're like, well, I thought I was busy before, but now, I really have to focus. And it does change you. You become way more driven. I feel like I was always driven, but now I have a purpose, I have an end goal in mind, and I'm just soaring to it, so I'm excited.
Krista Mashore:
You're just so happy.
Tara Roy:
Thank you.
Krista Mashore:
You're definitely an attraction magnet for just happiness and positivity and good energy. I wanted to let you know how that alone is going to help you be an amazing real estate professional, or any type of professional quite frankly. I'm just looking at your text from earlier, it was really, really cute.
Krista Mashore:
If somebody was to come to you, Tara, and they were to say, Tara, what advice can you give me professionally, what advice would you give?
Tara Roy:
Align yourself with people who are smarter than you, but you strive to be like, and you will go far.
Krista Mashore:
I like that. Now what about personally?
Tara Roy:
Personally? Okay, the question is what would I suggest people do personally?
Krista Mashore:
Yes. If you had advice to give it in a personal level, what would that advice be? I mean, the aligning yourself works with both for sure, both professional and personal.
Tara Roy:
Get more sleep.
Krista Mashore:
Oh gosh, I think she's speaking directly to me right now.
Tara Roy:
I'm speaking to myself, this is something I struggle with a lot. And in fact, one of my Tuesdays at 10 with Tara, a few weeks ago was all about the importance of sleep and how it affects your day and how it affects your mood and how it affects your productivity. There've been studies on it, and I have a hard time turning my brain off at night. At night when it's one o'clock in the morning, I'll be on my phone watching people's videos, getting ideas for my my business, thinking about how I'm going to structure my day tomorrow. It's not to my benefit that I'm not sleeping as much as I should.
Tara Roy:
I think a lot of people have a lack of sleep. Personally, I would say, get some good sleep. Nutrition is key. I'm switching everything about my life right now. Sleeping, dieting, exercising. I'm just becoming this person that I've always wanted to be and it feels really good.
Krista Mashore:
Oh, that's so good. You can call tell you are that way just by looking at your beautiful, happy demeanor. So that's great.
Tara Roy:
Thank you.
Krista Mashore:
Well, thank you so much for being on here. To wrap it up, video, marketing materials, having a positive attitude, productivity, and you're in love with EXP. That about sum it up?
Tara Roy:
Pretty much. And you, I'm in love with you too.
Krista Mashore:
You're so cute. Okay. Tara, thank you so much. And she gave you guys her advice, and Tara, anything you want to say before we go?
Tara Roy:
Guys, just always smile. Oh, I learned something, actually. I do want to tell your listeners and viewers something that I learned in a real estate negotiation class last week. If you are feeling down and you have a sour face and you just can't get out of a depressed mood, take a pencil, stick in you mouth. It forces your muscles upward. Hold it for about two or three minutes. Your mood will improve.
Krista Mashore:
That is so cute. I will try that. I don't get down very often, but if I do, I'm going to try that.
Tara Roy:
You were muted again, I don't know what happens.
Krista Mashore:
You're good, you're good, I heard everything. No, Tara, thank you so much. Everyone, thank you for being here. Tara and I absolutely appreciate it, and I really appreciate you spending your time with us. And don't forget that listening is wonderful but implementation is actually where it's at. So I hope you were inspired because I am listening to Tara. Tara. Thank you so much.
Tara Roy:
Okay bye.
