In this episode of my “F.I.R.E.D Up” Podcast, I interview Real Estate Marketing Dude, Mike Cuevas. Mike Cuevas is the founder and owner of The Real Estate Marketing Dude. The Real Estate Marketing Dude is a Done For You Video Marketing, Branding, & Content creation company focused on Brand Authenticity THAT Creates Connections. We talk about being consistent, making sure we add value, video marketing, and how being a little rough around the edges is ok. So, sit back relax and get ready to be fired up!
Click here to listen to this interview
How To Be Consistent With Your Videos And Marketing With Mike Cuevas
Krista Mashore:
Hey everybody. Are you ready to be fired up? Because I sure am I forgotten the marketing dude here. Mike Cuevas, and we just can't wait to interview him. You want to know about marketing for your real estate or lending business? He's the guy. How are you doing Mike?
Mike Cuevas:
Hi, Krista. How are you? Thanks for having me.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, I know you're busy. It took us about like 20 minutes to get on the call today.
Mike Cuevas:
Yeah, it's pretty… It was actually 24 minutes, but yeah, just to what happens when you put a couple of D personalities on the same zoom room? I think.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, yeah. So, but we made it and we are super excited to be here. So if you are looking for marketing strategies that are different, that are cutting edge and help you stand out as the authority figure in your space, then this is the show for you. Awesome. Okay. Mike, tell us a little bit about what you do.
Mike Cuevas:
Yeah. We create content mainly in the form of video and website content for real estate agents, without necessarily having to bore people with a bunch of interests rates, turn back the clock emails, or anything else that sort of makes people cringe.
Krista Mashore:
Gotcha. So explain what you mean Mike, tell me…
Mike Cuevas:
Yeah. So we started this basically, it's always the way I practiced when I was still in sales. When I was still selling myself, I used to be an agent in Chicago. Fast forward to today, it was about two and a half years ago, I moved out to San Diego and started what is now called the Real Estate Marketing Dude. And I always had the problem where I loved… Like I liked the real estate business, but I hated talking about it. I hated having to… But you have to do it right? You have to… If you don't market your database, someone else is. So it's like, what the hell do you talk about?
So we started creating hyper local media. And we always, it was more of a giant game of attention. So we created content that reminds our database, what we do for living without hitting them over the head with our lockbox. And that could be hyper local community videos, case studies, business interviews, real estate content, if you like. But there's no shortage of it to create.
What we found was that as long as you just constantly remind your database, what you do for a living, you naturally attract business. And the same exact business model that I use with Real Estate Marketing Dude, is like exactly the same process I used in my real estate business. It's the same thing. You create content, make it authentic, make it count, and put it in front of your ideal customer and people attract.
Krista Mashore:
I feel like we're absolutely… We are coaching the, and teaching the exact same thing. And that's all we teach its hyper local, make it speak to your client avatar and as much as you can. Anything community real estate related, you're the go to person so that you become the authority figure. It's amazing just what happens to your business when you do this consistently. Because even the amount of referrals, like we just find skyrockets because people are reminded that you're actually in the business
Mike Cuevas:
Totally. And the whole… This is what drives me nuts with a lot of, I'm in a lot of Facebook groups, Lab Coats, Real Closers, all these groups. And you see 90% of the conversation talking about shiny objects, lead generation. But the 2019 stats just came out and they overwhelmingly, just like they have the previous a hundred years they've I've been counting them, all show that roughly over 80% of your business comes from referrals, repeat business, or people you've personally met either in front of your house, your open house, or your signage. And it's like, why aren't we putting the majority of the conversation on generating more referrals? And you don't get referrals from strangers, you get them from the people you know. So it's pretty simple. We farm relationships with video content and we become unforgettable. And that's how we attract.
Krista Mashore:
I love that. So basically you… So I know there's a software that you sell, is it through this? Or is that completely different?
Mike Cuevas:
So we have a software company too coming out. It's called Sweet Assist. Inside of Suite Assist, there's a call it, a farming system for your database. Which just involves what we believe in is really like the free model. I call it the bed bath and beyond marketing plan. So this is stuff that everyone can relate to. We all have these 20% off kitchen coupons sitting in our drawers right now at home. And we're like, what the hell are these for, right? It's 20% off. But we save them for whatever reason, that's just direct mail. But when we go to Bed, Bath and Beyond, no one actually brings the freaking coupon with them.
We scan our email for the exact same thing. Email is just a second channel. And then when we leave bed bath and beyond those towels start following us all over the internet. My point is, is that Bed, Bath and Beyond farms their past customers, the same way that we farm our entire database. Because they understand that you'll drive more sales. Like what you just said prior. You drive more sales, staying in front of the people you already know, then trying to acquire new ones. And in real estate, it's the exact same thing. Zillow is expensive to buy business. The money in Zillow leads is not in the actual transaction. It's in the referrals and the repeat business you get after that transaction because it costs you X amount of money to bring in. You know what I mean?
Krista Mashore:
Yeah.
Mike Cuevas:
So it just, that's how you build a brand. I mean, consistent communication to the same audience over time period. And when you become unforgettable, people are going to use someone they know, like, and trust. That's just the way our business is.
Krista Mashore:
It's so funny. I have something called the eight Cs. If you commit, to consistently, producing content, you're going to convert, because you're more likely to make a connection. If you continue to do this full sales cycle over and over, you have a complete sales cycle. And that's the thing that people don't understand is consistently producing content. You're inadvertently nurturing your leads constantly, right?
Mike Cuevas:
Totally.
Krista Mashore:
And lead generation is so simple, it's easy. We all have Facebook, we run ads, not a problem. But the nurturing process is the difficult part. So when you utilize this strategy, it no longer becomes difficult.
Mike Cuevas:
Yeah. It's a giant game of attention, right? It's like, here's like, what is it, like 80% of buyers forget their agent's name after six months. You can't work in a referral dominated business that way. I mean, you can, but you're not going to last long. And that's why the failure rate is so damn high in this industry. It's because we're taught to go chase a bunch of leads. And the truth is, is that most of us are human, we bleed. You have to be a freaking robot to prospect five days a week, seven days a week. It's exhausting.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah.
Mike Cuevas:
Who likes to get on the phone and cold call? Nobody.
Krista Mashore:
And that's, most of these companies are always teaching cold calling door knocking, just do open houses. Do all this same stuff that they've been teaching over and over again for years and years and centuries. Because they didn't have this wonderful thing called the internet, social media video. Now that we have that, we've really got to start changing our mindset and the way that we're dealing with our ideal client. Right. And I think that's an important rule for people to understand. I love that you teach that. So you're just constantly being in the face without being super salesy in the eye of your consumer so they can't forget about you.
Mike Cuevas:
Correct. But we take a little bit of a twist on it. It is also, there's no shortage of content to create, right? Anything that we do on a hyper local level even if it's a business owner interview, reminds people we're in real estate, otherwise we wouldn't be doing it. Unless you're a complete total loser and you have nothing better to do with your life except create business owner interviews. But they would probably still assume you're in real estate on it. Right. But each of these videos all have different strategies for it. Regardless of what type of content you're going to try to create. There's like seven, or eight different types of video scripts we create mostly. But they're all used primarily to nurture your SOI first. And then secondarily multipurpose for additional legion and further brand building.
Things like optimizing on YouTube, right, for ranking. Put it on your website and writing a blog post so that you actually have content on your site. And you're not like that agent that doesn't have any content. Which, means you don't really have a business. Content is business. Like content today, I think that… And I'm sure you agree with me on this, but every one of us are forced to create content. Content is the only way that we stay on top of mind. Because if not, we're just selling something.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely. Gosh. It's like, I always talk about when you produce one video, you've got like seven or eight uses. Create a video, then you send the video to Rev to get it transcribed. You do a long form, post on Facebook, you create an ad on Facebook. You send the video to YouTube. Then you put the video on your blog as a written post, as a video post, you put it on Instagram. I mean, and then you take the video and you insert it into your CRM as a part of your updating and then do an email newsletter. That's like what? Nine different usages for one video right there.
Mike Cuevas:
Yep. Most people though, as you know, they're just like, they'll get a video, I see agents get a video. They'll spend the four or 500 bucks to get someone to come out and do it. It's done half assed. But they'll just let it die in the newsfeed. And great, like, at least you're getting on video. But squeeze every bit of energy out of that thing. Because just don't do it to put in your newsfeed. These videos live forever.
And for anyone that is, if you're not using the content you're creating and putting it on your website, you're missing the point. Because some, I like to tell people like, have you ever bought a vacation on Travelocity or Expedia or one of these sites and press the buy button without first reading the reviews?
Krista Mashore:
No.
Mike Cuevas:
Most people don't because you need to confirm that decision. So the question I always ask realtors is that, would you hire you if you visited your site? Most of them say, “Hell no.” Well that's what content does. The videos connect, the written content is what converts. And it's important that you have content on your site because when people look at your website, they don't look to see if you sell real estate. They look to see if they like you, or if they can trust you.
Krista Mashore:
Well, not only that, but whenever you, what you got to understand is, when you post content on your website and you post content on YouTube, that gives you higher search engine optimization because then you're now ranking on Google, right? So producing video content is great, but if you don't know how to properly distribute the video and distribute the content, you're, again you're missing the boat. It's not just about creating video. [crosstalk 00:10:15] I see those people they're like, oh they're great video superstars and they're doing everything. But if you go Google them, or you look on the YouTube they don't show up. It's because they're not properly distributing it. That's a huge, huge aspect of making sure that you're getting your biggest bang for your buck or you're even showing up at all. And it's getting more difficult and more difficult to actually get the eyes of the consumer because we have an attention span of a goldfish and now we're competing for more and more, we're competing for more eyes. Because there's so many people that are starting to market.
Mike Cuevas:
Well, there's a, we did a show the other day with… Let me give you an example. We started talking about brand, I think it was an agent in South Florida, 63,000 realtors in South Florida. 63,000. So it's like, what the hell are you doing to sort of stand out? Because most the general public, whether we want to admit it or not believe we're commodity.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely.
Mike Cuevas:
If you guys don't believe me, for your listeners, and that's the reason why every single year, one of us loses that one deal to little cousin, Billy, who just got his damn license. Or aunt Susie, because she's freaking just got her license. Well, you know why that is, is because blood is thicker than water. If the consumers truly knew that little cousin, Billy was going to make a bad fucking investment for them, I'm sorry, they wouldn't use him. They just think he's going to do the same service as us.
Krista Mashore:
Well, and here's the thing. So here's what I always tell everybody. And tell me if you agree or not, Mike. So I'm an expert in real estate. I've sold just around 2000 homes personally. I'm an expert. I know real estate and marketing like the back of my hand. But if community does not see me as an authority figure, whether I'm an expert or not, it makes no difference at all. You have to position yourself as the authority figure, right? So that you can actually say what your value proposition is, why they should hire you over Redfin. Excuse my French [inaudible 00:12:10] Why they should hire you over these buyers that are just buying houses that I've never seen. Or now Zillow's doing that. I mean, it's, you know, right… We've got to show people why they want and should hire us. What makes us different? Why are we different than everybody else?
Mike Cuevas:
Totally. And then let's talk about that. Because that's a good point. I had a show yesterday and we were talking about this, like the focus, if you're going to create content, what's the focus going to be? It's not just about creating a video to check a box to say you did it. Because let's be honest, the other half of the market is doing that. The video thing's coming in, you got these influencers like get on video, get on video. But everyone's problem is like, what do I say? How do I say it? Oh my God, I look fat. Oh my God, that is really boring. So then we talk ourselves out of it. We don't do any of it. And we end up at square one, right?
So you have to create content. It's hard to create content consistently unless you know what your brand is and you know what your story is, what you stand for. So for me, for an example, this is how I talk normally. I asked Krista I was like, Krista I'm doing my best not to swear on your show. [inaudible 00:13:11] guys go on my show, just there's an F bomb every 10 minutes. And it's just the way I talk. All right. It's not about trying to put on a show or anything. It's just who I am.
But my point is, is that's part of my brand. When I was selling real estate in Chicago, I was the Chicago Real Estate Dude. I completely got up and moved across the country and I became the Real Estate Marketing Dude. Even though, what I sell has changed 100%. My brand has not. Because I'm still a dude. If you put me in a kitchen and forced me to cook, I would be the cooking dude. If you made me play workout, I would be the fit dude. It doesn't matter what it is because I'm a dude. And your brand is nothing more than just the one sentence or syllable or adjective that describes what other people think of you.
Krista Mashore:
And that's so right. You see people think of your brand is your business card, your colors, no. Your brand, like who are you trying to come up with? What image and what feelings do you want people to provoke? Who are you trying to attract? Who do you want to work with? It's so much bigger than that. And that's like the very first part of-
Mike Cuevas:
You have to start there. No doubt.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely. It's funny, today I just had a coaching call and I did a whole strategy teaching my students. How do you create… Let me show you how to content for a week, right? I'm sorry, for a month. Like really, really simply. And the first thing is, what's your mission? Who are you trying to… What do you want to accomplish? You know, who are your people? Who are you trying to attract? What's your niche, right? You want to have buyers, sellers, and what's your niche within that market. And then now what kind of content are we going to actually produce to actually make them want to watch it? What questions are we going to answer? How are we going to move them away from pain and more towards pleasure, right? How are we going to speak their language.
Mike Cuevas:
Well, most times… So here's what I realized because I remember when I decided to brand into Chicago Real Estate, Dude, I might've been one of the first people to do it with a cartoon. And everyone at the time, in the city, and I worked downtown Chicago. So it was more a 400, 500,000 and above, people were like, “Mike, you're crazy. You're going to go out there with a cartoon and call yourself the dude?” I'm like, “Fuck yeah I am. I'm going to go ahead and do that.” Because I don't care. And honestly, what I ended up finding was I started attracting people just like me. Like they would bro me, “What's up, dude.” Like that's how the calls come in off the internet. Which, meant that they were connected. Trust me. A lot of people didn't like it, but that's fine. Right? We're not supposed to… God didn't make us to resonate with every single person. Right? That's not how we're wired. No one's perfect. You're not, God so quit trying to be.
So when you look at marketing and you do that, you end up actually resonating a lot with a lot more people. And if you don't believe me, go look at your last 10 clients. The reason they all became beer drinking buddies, or gal drinking wine pals or you're getting mani's and pedi's together now is because you attract like people. It's not done on accident. It's not a coincidence. It's just how it is.
Krista Mashore:
And especially it makes your job easier. When you start attracting people that are, that want to work with you. And that's the coolest thing about video, right? When you, again, properly distribute it. Is that you're attracting the people that are more likely to want to work with you and be easier customers. And you're detracting the ones that are not going to, they're not going to flow with you. And some people are afraid, even when let's just take this step further, they're afraid of niching, right? Oh my God, if I niche, I'm going to lose out on all this business. No you're still going to get all that business you would have normally gotten. You're just going to attract the people that are looking for that specific type of thing that you're continuing to produce content about. Right? So when they go and Google, hey, buying a foreclosure. And if you specialize in foreclosures and you're producing content, then you're going to show up when they do their search, if you're distribute it right.
Mike Cuevas:
Let's just put it in their own shoes, so they really get it. So all you people are on the treadmill right now, running on your treadmill, listening to this podcast. Literally, think about how you make your own purchasing decisions. I want you to look at the financial planning industry. Do you invest your money with the individual who is completely opposite than you? I'm investing my money with the guy who's going to have a couple beers with me over at the bar. That's just who I would have more comfortable with because that's just who I am. I'm a dude, right? I need to feel that connection for me to make a purchasing decision.
So it's no different than in any agent's position. But I think you're right. I think you have to niche now. You have to. You cannot be a generalist because you resonate with none. A Jack of all trades resonates with zero. So like let's give them some examples. Like if you're a mom, be the best mom, realtor in the world. Let everyone know, call yourself the real estate mama. It's my favorite brand name ever. [Crosstalk 00:17:36] Just own it. If you're a bodybuilder, then great. Be the most fit realtor ever. If you give back, great, then you're a giver. Serve others first. But regardless of what you stand for, you have to understand what you stand for. And you create content around that.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely. And it's been proven that the more that content speaks, the language of somebody, the more likely they're going to raise their hand and say, choose me. Let me give you an example. I'm 48 years old, probably getting ready to go through menopause. Sometimes I get a little, you know, night sweats. [crosstalk 00:18:08] on the internet, I'm clicking. I'm not looking at, hey, thinking about getting married? No, totally different subject matter. But when somebody says night sweats, I'm like, “Holy crap, you can help me with that? Yeah. I'm buying that.” It's the exact same [crosstalk 00:00:18:23].
Mike Cuevas:
You just did it. You just did it. So like, look it, this is… So, I've seen Krista, before this is the first time we've met face to face. Right? Krista's authenticity comes across in our ads because you keep fucking retargeting me everywhere I go. Right? So stop it. No I'm just joking. And you guys are on good at retargeting too, she follows me around Facebook and the internet and all this stuff. And you always have a lot of engagement on your stuff. Now you don't do that, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure that your students, the people who buy your stuff and the ones that join your coaching club are attracted to you as an individual person. They respect you. They feel like they can relate to you because what you just said, not too many women will come out and say, I'm 48. I'm probably menopausal. But that's real. It's real. And that authenticity is just part of your personality. And you're not scared to scream it from the rooftops. The question is, is what's that for you guys?
Krista Mashore:
It's so true. And don't try to be like somebody else be who you are. Many times people will try to be like somebody else. Or I always hear, well, I'm not as energetic as you Krista. Well good, because I detract a lot of people because I am so energetic. [crosstalk 00:19:27] Because they're like, you know, we like you, but you're just a little bit too hyper for us and my mom is like 85. You're going to scare her.
Mike Cuevas:
You're like breathing down her neck, get out of here. I got a showing woman, get out of here, beat it.
Krista Mashore:
I love that. So tell us a little bit more, a little bit about your software that you have.
Mike Cuevas:
The software we have. All right, so it's a all in one, it's a transaction management solutions. It's meant for brokerages and teams. But it's more of a resource center. It's not a software, it doesn't generate leads. It's not, there's plenty of lead generations out there. So we're not trying to recreate the wheel. But if farms your database. So we could automate direct mail to your database. That's got a video email system to your database. So you could automate email, direct mail people whom we're doing their videos for hitting their social for them on that. But it's also a gift giving center, a training university. It's a membership community. It's a whole lot of stuff. But the only thing that basically, it's one spot that you could build your brand. Whether you're gifting people brownies, or you're going to send them birthday reminders, or automate direct mail to them. It just makes it simple to farm your most important asset, and that's the people you know.
Krista Mashore:
What's the name of that again? Because you said it kind of fast last time.
Mike Cuevas:
It's called Sweet Assist is going to be the brokerage facing version. That would be for teams and brokerages.
Krista Mashore:
Sweet? S-U-I-T-E?
Mike Cuevas:
Sweet as in like ice cream sweet. And our logo is a Popsicle.
Krista Mashore:
Oh sweet. Like S-W-E-E-T. Sweet.
Mike Cuevas:
Like sweet.
Krista Mashore:
Okay sweet is [crosstalk 00:21:01] okay great. So that's something that you can look into for trainings. And that's a great resource for you as an agent or lender to look into, to help you, stay top of mind awareness and do it in an easy way. Now let's talk a little bit real quickly. Now, I'm kind of jumping all over the place. That's my personality, sorry. About, you mentioned this, people are afraid of doing video. I hear the same thing, I'm too fat, I'm too old, my nose is big. I don't like my voice. And I always say, “Well, that's what you look like, so we got to love ourselves.” Right? But I have my strategies on how I teach people, how to look more comfortable on video. Give me some of your ideas and strategies.
Mike Cuevas:
Sure. It all starts by identifying the brand first. It's impossible to determine what type of content you can create without knowing what your brand story is. So I'll give you the Nike version and I'll go into the real estate side. So we're we're doing what Nike does. Nike doesn't have to showcase their products and services in any of their marketing. Instead, they put the swoosh right next to Michael Jordan story, Tiger Woods story, and all these other famous athletes. Therefore, we start associating them through association that wow, they must be an athletic brand.
So if your theme is, I'll give you a couple of examples, if your theme is a mom, then maybe your content strategy is that you're doing business owner interviews, but at kid-friendly restaurants, kid-friendly breweries. Maybe you're doing points of interest or places that you could have… Like one of our clients today, Ostrich Farm, she did her kid's birthday party. That's a point of interest type video. Basically you have to create kid friendly stuff, beaches with changing stations, everything you do should be spoken to like a mom, because that's what a mom does.
If you're a military guy, we have a military guy, 95% of his business is catered towards the vets in San Diego. So he has a media series called the San Diego Salute. And he'll do business owner interviews, but specifically veteran owned businesses, or businesses that give back to the community. If he does a neighborhood tour, it's always in respect to vicinity to base. If he's doing real estate content, it's in the form of a bootcamp. And if you don't listen to him, he'll be your drill sergeant, you'll drop and give him 20.
Krista Mashore:
Got you. I love it. Yeah.
Mike Cuevas:
So, all about finding the voice. Like mine's a dude, right? So I could just dude out whatever the hell I want. [crosstalk 00:23:15] I'm just being me.
Krista Mashore:
I'm not a dude.
Mike Cuevas:
Everyone has one. That's the thing is that all of us have a brand. I'll give you a really cool story. This is someone that she listens to our show. So she hears this. This is a touching one. So we have an agent that we're doing a brand with now. We created a show series for her, but what we did was determine what her brand was. This is somebody that for the last 15 years was sick and couldn't get out of bed because they had a metal plate in their neck. For some reason, in the last four years, she started to get out of it. She could actually get back work. She only likes doing two things in life. One is working out, and the other two is volunteering. That's it.
So we came up with a program for her, where she is now going to give back 10% of her commission to the four charities that she spends all her free time with anyways. The name of her series is called Live to Give. The name of her… We basically started a whole, call it a charity, it's called Live To Give. But it demonstrates exactly what she's all about. So she sells houses to save lives and give back to the shelter and that becomes the story. Now think about all of the different… I hate when agents say “Just listed. Just sold.” I like saying, “Hey, another life just saved. Here's how.”
Krista Mashore:
Nice. Yeah.
Mike Cuevas:
So it's all storytelling. But she wants to build her brand as the most charitable realtor in her marketplace, which is in Sarasota. So great. If you want to do that, then you go ahead and tell a bunch of charity stories. I want to focus on businesses that give back to the community. I want to focus on points of interest that were donated by some family that made a statue there. I want to talk about case studies where you know, now she's focusing on the money she's raising for awareness for her closings, as opposed to how much she made. She's accomplishing the same thing, but she's doing it in a very charitable way. That makes sense?
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely. I love it.
Mike Cuevas:
So there's so much… It's once you… There's so much content and it becomes unlimited. Because all you do is you speak through your voice, you speak through your brand.
Krista Mashore:
And then you enjoy it while you're doing it too.
Mike Cuevas:
That's where the authenticity comes in, 100%. You have to be into it. Otherwise no, one's going to force anyone to go out and shoot videos. You have to be excited about what you're doing.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah. And remember it can be learned. Like I don't think out of… If you interview a hundred people, and I have. Out of a hundred people, maybe two are going to be like, “Yeah, I like doing video.” Everyone is like, “I am petrified of it.” It's like the biggest mental mind screw ever getting yourself out of it. But understand that anybody, no matter what age, how you look, how you feel, what size, what shape, what nationality, anyone can learn to do it. It's a skill. Just like riding a bike, just like kissing. Right? The first time I kissed [inaudible 00:26:09] I bit his lip. But I still kissed him. I did. I was in junior high.
Mike Cuevas:
You got to start somewhere.
Krista Mashore:
I know. [crosstalk 00:26:13] When you're in junior high, it pretty, much sucked. Right? [crosstalk 00:26:19] great. But my point is I still kissed, and I learned how. It's just like video, it just takes practice and getting used to it.
Mike Cuevas:
So, here's the thing too, is you guys remember, no one has to see the video if you don't want them to.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely.
Mike Cuevas:
So what are you so nervous about during the filming of it? That's what always gets me. It's like, if you don't like the video, you're the only one who's going to put it in your newsfeed. Like I'm not going to. It's not going to suddenly appear there. So therefore don't be worried about what you're going to say. Here's a key… People only retain 10% of the content that comes out of your mouth guys. That's a mathematical fact. So, that means 90% of the stuff coming out of your mouth, no, one's going to retain anyways. So why the hell do you care what the hell is coming out of your mouth? It doesn't fucking matter. Sorry. But 90% of the communication is based upon the tonality and the body language you're using. That's why video is such a powerful brand building tool. You can not do that with a text, you cannot do that with just your voice.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely. And when you show up after someone's seen you on video and see it everywhere I go, people are hugging me, people know me. At least they think they do. My kids are always like, who is that mom? I'm like, I have no clue. But because they developed a relationship with me [crosstalk 00:27:27] told me about something called a para-social relationship.
Mike Cuevas:
I was just going to mention that. He told me that too. And I meant to write a blog post on it. I haven't got there yet, but you're exactly right. No, it turns you into a celebrity.
Krista Mashore:
So, para-social relationship is something that we've been programmed as children because of watching the boob tube, right. To see that people that we see on the other side of that screen as an authority figure and as a local, as a celebrity. And it's like, we're living with the way our brains have been programmed. So imagine if you start doing this on a regular basis, and then your community is seeing you. And then you show up for a listing appointment and you're interviewing against three other people. Your chances of getting that have just like quadrupled. And if they didn't like you to begin with, they wouldn't be calling you because they've already developed a relationship with you. True?
Mike Cuevas:
Yeah. Every time. That's why it's like everyone says become the digital mayor. Become your local celebrity. Because you literally, that term is not just like pulled out of someone's butt. Like literally, that's what happens. You'll be walking down the street and you'll be like, you actually watch that? What? That's when you know, it starts working. And it actually happens a lot faster than most people think. Do you… I have a question for you. I see content creation in more rural areas, work way, faster.
Krista Mashore:
And people think-
Mike Cuevas:
[crosstalk 00:28:47] than in busy… Than in cities and like busy, busy, places with high populations? Have you seen that same thing?
Krista Mashore:
I have. But I will tell you this, that I think that no matter where you are, or what you do, or where you live, it works. It's just a matter of it.
Mike Cuevas:
100% it totally does.
Krista Mashore:
Because have you heard people say, my city's too big? My city is too small. There's already a top producer. There's not a top producer. I mean, it's like, you hear every excuse. It's just do it. It works.
Mike Cuevas:
Yep. And it doesn't, well, there's two opportunities I think now. One is that no one is doing it yet in your market and the vast majority aren't. But there'll be forced to trust me. There'll be a lot of people. And the other question we get a lot is like, well, “Hey Mike, do you have anyone in my market doing this?” I'm like, “Who cares if we had 50? There's only one of you. You're not going to resonate with everybody the same way.” Just like, I don't. Just like you don't. Like, I have people I'm sure, don't like me at all. Great. I'm human. That's just how it is guys. You know? But you just have to… Don't overthink it. It's that simple.
Krista Mashore:
And not only that, but 96% of people aren't going to do it consistently anyways right. They're going to do it once a month. And then you're not making the connection. It's about doing it consistently on a regular basis. And so don't worry about what anyone else is doing. Just worry about yourself and worry about doing it. And remember consistently and getting it out there correctly, is more important than even creating. If you're going to create a video and you're not going to properly distribute it via social media sites and all the things we talked about earlier, don't waste your time because nobody's seeing it. And it's getting harder and harder to actually be seen organically on these types of sites, unless you… It just is.
Mike Cuevas:
Yep. I agree.
Krista Mashore:
So what do you want to leave us with Mike?
Mike Cuevas:
Well, I would leave you with… Are we at the end of the show here? [crosstalk 00:30:33] All right. Well, I think that this isn't rocket science. I think right now there's a tremendous amount of opportunity for anyone in the real estate space. What we're talking about isn't a real estate thing, it's at any business thing. It's virtually what every business does. You build an audience. But you only build an audience through your content creation. So content creates awareness, awareness creates conversations, conversations creates trust. And then trust leads to you eventually getting hired. It's farming with video content and yes, you have to do it consistently. So it's the exact same process as direct mail farming. It's just video has, it's less expensive and it has a bigger impact because of the way communication is perceived. But if you understand the concept of farming, well, you understand how to do this.
It's very simple. You do same audience over time. Just don't do it to a bunch of strangers because strangers don't refer you business. Your friends, your family, and your clients, people who know you do. Rinse and repeat. Distribute your content, it's really that simple. I also think that personal branding is going to be the new… It already is, but I don't think that an agent in the future say five to 10 years from now, will exist without one. I don't think you could borrow your broker's brand and have a career anymore. You're going to have to make a name for yourself, regardless of who's license you're hanging with or what brokerage you're at.
Krista Mashore:
I love what you said earlier too, about it's for any business. I got to tell you, so I just finished writing my fourth book. And it's basically to local professionals. Because we've shown that this strategy works for everyone. How do you like the name? So we just, today we came up with it. So we're naming it The Ultimate Lead Gen Playbook. Okay. Maximize profits. And no… It's not that, we changed it. Okay. The Ultimate Lead Gen Playbook, Take the Guesswork Out of Marketing and Maximize Profits. Something to that. And we're doing it to local, for local professionals. Because this strategy works for anyone.
Mike Cuevas:
It does. It really does. It's honestly, it's you guys, when you guys, everyone has an agent in their market that we despise. You're like that guy or gal, is she really… How do they do the business they do? Right? We know, you know what I'm talking about? Well, they're just more popular than you are. They're not better than you are. Just more people know what the hell they do over you. That's it. It doesn't mean you can't beat them. It just means that they have more attention than you do right now at this given time. So if you want to beat them, start creating attention, stop chasing leads.
Krista Mashore:
He who markets the most wins, he produces the most content will win. It's just there's no… Because you have more… Think about all the opportunity. I'm going to leave… I'm going to just leave with this. I want you to think about all the opportunities that you are missing because you're not properly distributing content on the multiple platforms. Think about how many opportunities you're listing. Is it one a month? What does one deal a month? Which is 12 a year, is your opportunity that you're missing because you're not producing content? What does that costing you? For me it's $144,000 a year just by one month. So the more that I can get my content out there and establish myself as the authority figure, the more that I'm going to have more opportunities to be able to make more money. And I don't want to lose them. Right? So I always ask everyone Mike, if there's one tip that you can… How are you doing brother? That you can… This is my brother. Come over and say hi, this is Goose.
Mike Cuevas:
What's up Goose?
Krista Mashore:
I'm the more attractive one of the family. [crosstalk 00:34:07].
Goose:
I just came [inaudible 00:34:09] because she has chocolate.
Krista Mashore:
He's doing this mustache thing, he looks like a pervert, I always tell him to quit.
Mike Cuevas:
You got the Mo-vember thing going on?
Goose:
It's my Mo-vember.
Mike Cuevas:
There you go. Nice. Nice to meet you, man.
Goose:
Nice to meet you.
Krista Mashore:
[crosstalk 00:34:18] So what is the one tip you want to leave people? One tip, or make sure they can get in contact with you, but I always say what's the one tip you could say, what would it be?
Mike Cuevas:
The one tip is just, you got to do it. It's already here. You know, if you don't, someone else is. And if you're not marketing your database, someone else is as well. So, the balls in your court. The only one's going to stop you from this is going to be yourself. So my advice is just to do it, do something. Do anything. Just do it.
Krista Mashore:
Just do it like Nike, my email address is doit@kristamashoredot com. So I believe in that.
Mike Cuevas:
I like that.
Krista Mashore:
Okay, well, Mike, you have been awesome. Remember Sweet… One more time. Sweet?
Mike Cuevas:
Sweet Assist is a software. But our main site, because that is launching, is real estate marketing dude.com
Krista Mashore:
realestatemarketingdude.com. So, and I will tell you, he speaks my language. I feel like I was talking to my twin on this podcast. We absolutely have the same philosophies and beliefs because we know they work and we are doing them. So everyone, Mike, thank you so much for being on. I appreciate your time. I know you're busy.
Mike Cuevas:
Thank you for having me. It was a lot of fun.
Krista Mashore:
You are a rock star and everyone remember it's great to learn, but if you don't take action and you don't implement, nothing's going to happen. And as always, make it a great day. When you do what you love, people love what you do.
To read, watch, or listen to my other podcast interviews just visit https://kristamashore.com/category/podcast-stream/!
