In today’s market, being able to properly market yourself is one of the best ways to set yourself apart. Social media offers a range of ways to reach present and future buyers, as well as a way to keep your name on people’s minds for referrals. Steve and Bernie both have some insight into what is the best way to use each platform to get the best results for your particular brand.

 

— Understand your Audience —

 

First, we want to get a hard truth out of the way: no matter how good your marketing is, you’re not going to appeal to everyone. But you’re not supposed to! Understanding who exactly your key audience is the most important thing when you’re building a marketing plan. When building your social media presence, it can be helpful to think about 3 to 5 things that aren’t Real Estate that you can engage with your audience about. Showcasing things like hobbies, family life, and things that are important to you can help you connect with your followers and keep you front of mind.

 

— Understand the Platform —

 

There are numerous ways of being online these days, and so there are differences in how you use each platform to market yourself. You might use email mailers to direct people to your website, or your website to your social media platforms. Social media has different ways of communicating in themselves as well, with posts and stories on Facebook and/or posts and reels and stories on Instagram.

 

How you use one shouldn’t be universal across all platforms as well. Steve uses Facebook for closer relations and features himself and his family more for that platform. On Instagram, however, he takes a much more professional tone and is more for industry insiders than friends and family. Either way, being consistent is important to building an active following and getting the engagement needed to grow your audience.

 

— Understand what Engages You —

 

Lastly, when you’re thinking about what kind of content to put out you might get overwhelmed with the different methods that are out there. What’s most important is being authentic with your audience; that is what’s going to draw people more than anything else. Think about what kind of brands or personalities you follow and enjoy. What draws you to them, and what keeps you coming back? Understanding that can help you put your own flavor to your marketing and get you started building a following.

 

Books Mentioned:

 

Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller https://amzn.to/3ssS9fK

 

Want updates on future episodes and interviews? Text OTB to 602-560-7027 and connect with us!

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ 

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

The world is changing under our feet, and we as Thinking OTB real estate agents need to be able to keep up and stay competitive. This week we’re talking about iBuyers and the real limits of their appeal to people entering the market. Technology based options are going to be with us for the long run, so it’s important for agents to understand how to speak to the advantages of having a human agent to really get what they want out of a transaction. — Thinking Outside the Box: Solutions for Unique Problems — The rise of iBuyers in the market has much to do with client perception of real estate agents. A bad experience can carry forward through word of mouth exponentially and is a reality of the business that every agent will have to answer for. In order to stand out from those bad experiences people have had or heard about, it’s on the agent to educate themselves as much as they can on how to Next Level the client’s experience. The biggest way we can do that is by exploring what the client wants out of the transaction and offering outside the box solutions to get the best outcome for all parties. “What’s a good accident attorney? You’re not looking at what they’re charging, you’re looking at their experience and what their win rate is. Why is it in the Real Estate industry that the consumer isn’t doing the due diligence on the agent?” – Steve Selling on your experience is not just limited to time in the industry, it’s also about what kind of network and mentoring you can fall back on to help you come up with those outside the box solutions. Remember, you should be able to walk the client through just what kind of experience they’ll be getting by working with you and you should always work hard to live up to that standard. “I would start with saying ‘walk me through this, tell me exactly what’s going to happen. What’s this going to look like? What’s it going to feel like? What do I need to prepare for?’ A good agent should be able to articulate the whole thing.” – Bernie “What iBuyers are trying to do is make the transaction easier for the consumer. The reality is, I don’t know that you can make it easy with the amount of variables that are involved with houses, people, and situations. When agents talk about strategies with clients, we look at all the ways to get from point A to point B, not just one.” – Steve Regarding iBuyers: “You have to do your homework; as the agent you can't just know everything about your systems and processes, you also need to understand how all the other competitors operate and how other people do what they do, too.” - Bernie Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast! Follow us on social media! Steve Valentine: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

This week we’re joined by our friend Carin Nguyen, a Real Estate veteran and Arizona business influencer... and just overall great person! We talked about a wide range of things from the differences between being on a team and running your own business, the importance of net worth over simple dollar values, and building a family legacy and what that can teach you about yourself. But mostly the subject always comes back around to the topic of success.

 

What it means to achieve success is one of those subjects that become more and more of a deep hole the farther you look into it. Sometimes the biggest roadblock we have to achieving success is our own mindset. In this episode, Carin shares many insights into what she’s seen with her own success and her own deep dives into mindset.

 

Here are some notable quotes from our guest Carin on the subject of success:

 

Working for yourself can be liberating, but be careful that it doesn’t take over your life:

 

“If you’re putting in all this time (into your business) you might be making great money, but if you’re not getting to enjoy that money you’re making, that’s probably not going to work either. You need to be able to shift and enjoy by putting up some boundaries.”

 

How working in Real Estate means working on yourself as much as your business:

 

“We focus a lot on personal development, emotional fitness, mental fitness, because that's a big part of the game. Somebody that takes things personally in real estate is going to have a really hard time. If someone doesn't call you back, they're just busy; it has nothing to do whether someone likes you.”

 

And finally having the right mindset to build upon the hard-fought success that you might already have:

 

“Life's a dance between our desires and our fears, right. And so, I either have to increase my desires or lower my fears.”

 

“Success is not the resources, it’s the ability to be resourceful. I promise you, if you find the opportunity, you absolutely will find the money all day.”

 

— Books Mentioned —

 

Untethered Soul by Michael Singer https://amzn.to/39HHtmY

 

Unleash the Power Within by Tony Robbins https://amzn.to/31M7a11

 

Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty https://amzn.to/3cQmn7G

 

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill https://amzn.to/39HgbNd

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ 

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

Carin Nguyen: https://www.instagram.com/carinnguyen/

This week we’re asking the question: Are you using your CRM to the full extent you can for your business? There are so many different systems out there that you can use that it may seem overwhelming to choose just one. The truth is, any one of those systems is only as useful as for what you use and need it for. So, let’s dive in!

 

— CRMs: What are they good for? —

 

Customer Relationship Systems can be anything from a yellow legal pad, to an excel spreadsheet, to specific software. Whatever method you prefer, it’s a way of keeping track of your current sphere of influence so you can maintain communication about you and your business.

 

“One of my favorite questions is when people ask me: What CRM should I use? I always say it’s the one that you’ll actually use.” – Bernie

 

CRMs exist to help you keep track of your clients at all the various stages of business that you might have. No matter what method or system you use, for today’s market it should have the basics of communication automation with texting and email scheduling, as well as being mobile friendly. Beyond that, you might also want a system that can help you manage social media or to help you schedule physical mailers, depending on how detailed you want to get with your communications.

 

It might help to think about what kind of audience you have with each type of communication. An audience you own would be phone numbers and email, methods that are unlikely to change over time. Audiences you are renting would be social media accounts, which are dependent on those companies and their business practices.

 

— Lists and Messaging —

 

To be the most effective with your CRM, you’ll need to tailor the messages you send to your clients based off of the relationship that you have with them. For Steve, it’s about what stage of relationship he’s in with his clients as well as based off of the business that they’ve had. He divides them up into:

           

         The Sphere – People you’ve met and built a rapport with whom you’d like to do business

           

         The Tribe – We’ve done transactions together, or they’ve referred business our way

 

         The VIPs – Multiple transactions, referrals, or investments

 

Depending on what bucket your client might fall in, you can make communications with them make sense given your history together and what kind of story you want to tell about your successes. It’s all about maintaining a level of contact that keeps you at the forefront of your client’s mind either when they’re ready to make a deal, or they need some outside the box thinking to help solve a problem.

 

“We take our CRM and we announce the stories of the people we’ve helped. People need information to help them make decisions and they need to know that you’re there to help them make those decisions.” - Steve

 

“There’s CRM, there’s lead generation, and there’s transaction management. A lot of times people use these terms pretty loosely, but in reality, if it’s lead gen you’re looking for, that’s not a CRM.” - Bernie

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ 

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

It used to be very natural for a new buyer entering the real estate market to only be pre-qualified before diving into listings. But in today’s market knowing how much you can afford is only the first step into deciding if your client is mentally prepared for the realities of the Arizona home market right now. In this episode we go into some of the hardships buyers need to prepare for to stay positive in their home buying experience.

 

—Today’s Market is Bananas—

 

One of Bernie’s favorite sayings is that the market right now is bananas, and that’s a good way of putting it. Some of the characteristics of today’s crazy real estate market are things we’ve covered before:

 

-    Listings can show up and go down in minutes

-    Asking prices are undervalued for what the house ends up going for

-    Negotiations over appraisals, repairs, closing costs, etc. are almost non-existent

-    Securing VA loans and down payment assistance can possibly be barriers

 

A pre-qual really is only a starting point on what might be possible. More than likely, buyers are going to need more in terms of financials just to be competitive, and even then success isn’t guaranteed.

 

—Be Mentally Prepared and Increase Success—

 

Understanding that pre-qual is only the beginning and knowing that you might have to settle for less house or more in the way of repairs or upgrades makes it less surprising when it does end up happening. In the housing market, we don’t want or like surprises, and because of that your client’s attitude can sour the longer it takes to get into a home. As their agent and representative, you need to be having those hard conversations to prepare them and to give them confidence that you’re working for their best interests.

 

Remember, as their agents we’re responsible for more than just a simple housing transaction; our clients come to us with their hopes for the future, whether they’re an investor or someone looking for a new home. Sometimes they might be better off staying where they are if they’re not ready, and as their representative you might need to convince them that more preparation is needed before they’re ready to get that dream home. But if they are ready, it’ll be because you’re fighting for them and thinking outside the box to make them successful in building that future they’re hoping for.

 

“It’s more than being mentally prepared. It’s being mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared for today’s market. Put on your armor because you’ll need it.” – Bernie

 

“As agents, we need to do a better job of preparing buyers so that they still have a good experience and know what to expect.” – Steve

 

“Do your due diligence on your agent. If that agent can’t explain how you should prepare as a buyer right now, that would be a red flag.” – Bernie

 

“Agents need to do our best to help people before they start looking to be prepared for this market so that we’re setting standards and truly helping families out there.” - Steve

 

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

You might have found some success as a Real Estate Agent and you want those trends to continue. Business might be good, but how do you go about securing success as a strategy into the future? At some point, you’ll want to start looking at legacy goals: increasing your net worth and contributions to things that you care about. Both of these long-term goal sets are going to make that business success that much more fulfilling as time goes on.

 

Contributions Remind Us What We’re Working For

 

The whole cornerstone of Thinking Outside the Box is being able to find creative solutions to better help your clients. Being a Real Estate Agent is more than just showing a house, it’s about helping people find a home that is also an investment in their future.

 

“It’s not the transactions that people are passionate about, it’s about the stories attached to those transactions, how you’re fighting for your client and making a difference.” – Bernie

 

Take that mentality a step further and think of ways you can give back to the community you live and work in. In many ways, this can keep us motivated to keep that success rolling. Start small and think outside the box: do you have time, talent, or treasure you can give back with?

 

Set a goal and start small if you need to. Generosity builds upon itself and gives you more than just increasing income to work towards.

 

Set a Goal of Increasing Your Net Worth

 

The other side of building legacy and securing your future is setting the goal of increasing your Net Worth. Money in the bank is good, but how is that money working for you?

 

Your net worth is your total assets minus liability. When thinking about Real Estate, we want to keep those properties working for us as best we can, which is a topic we touched on the last podcast. Paying down debt, contributing to retirement funds, stocks; these are all ways to increase your net worth.

 

“Very rarely do I hear I’ve got a net worth goal. It doesn’t equate to money in the bank, but it equates to legacy and retirement down the road.” – Steve

 

“What do you have to give: time, talent, or treasure?” – Steve

 

“Everybody, when they’re structuring their real estate business, should think about the ways in which what they’re doing can make a difference.” – Bernie

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ 

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

“I own my home, but I’m ready to move on to a different house. Should I sell my home or rent it out?”

 

This is a great question that every agent out there should be educating their clients to ask. In today’s market, if you’re not considering keeping property as a rental, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to build future wealth. This week we take a look at some of the details you might not have considered when deciding if it’s time to enter the rental market or it’s better to sell.

 

Rent over Sell: A Long-Term Investment that helps pay for itself

 

The market today is “bananas,” as Bernie likes to say. There is a huge shortage of rental properties right now meaning that there is a huge number of possibilities for homeowners. Putting a house on the rental market and getting into that investor mindset lets you hold on to that property while it’s accumulating value and having the rental income help pay it off over time. It’s a long-term investment with very little downside if managed right.

 

“If my house doesn’t appreciate this year, I still have a house. I have something to sell, I have equity, I have something I can live in, I have something giving me tax advantages.” – Steve

 

The thing that scares most people away from renting is the horror stories of bad tenants. Most of those stories are from people who self-manage their rentals, which brings its own headaches. Property Management companies exist to take over that stress, so use them. It’s about being smart about the investment and covering your bases for any kind of future problems that might arise.

 

It is important to remember, not every house is created equally, meaning that sometimes rental is not the best option, even in this market. Does the HOA prohibit rentals? Is this a large house that would require costly updating if it went through renters quickly? These are some questions that need to be considered as well and need to be answered. But as long as you’re asking the right questions, and are open to taking that risk, owning a home through the year and renting it when it’s a smart investment is a great way to build wealth into the future.

 

“We’re all in a place where no time in the near future you’re going to be able to replace that home for what you paid for it.” – Steve

 

“A lot of people would think ‘I don’t need a property management company,’ but actually they don’t understand the full spectrum of what a property management company does.” – Bernie

 

“Some people who sold their house 18 months ago, if they would have taken the advice with a rental strategy to keep their house, they could have sold it this year and put their kids through college.” – Steve

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ 

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

What can we learn from disappointment? In business, there is a tendency to try to keep emotions clear of our relationships and decisions. This can be difficult to do because at the end of the day, we’re all human. So how can we make use of those disappointments, to use them to push us forward?

 

Disconnect the Why from the What

 

Disappointments make us want to know why: why did this happen and why did this happen to me? This kind of thinking can lead us to spiral out of control and let emotions take us down. Instead, look at your experiences from a what perspective: what did I learn from this? What can I take away from this experience?

 

By focusing on what happened instead of why, you can head off some of those hard emotions that might send you into a harmful tailspin. When we practice reflection on our experiences, we can look at them as teaching tools we can use to avoid those disappointments in the future.

 

Disappointment creates space for Thinking Outside the Box

 

“Every challenge I’ve had with a client has been an experience that’s helped me think outside the box to create a better experience for the next client.” – Steve

 

Building upon your experiences can help make you better prepared for both yourself and your clients. Real Estate is always going to have those disappointments, especially in this market. But these are all the experiences that make a great agent if you can have the right mindset to put it into perspective.

 

“Don’t always shift away from disappointment; own it and use it to shift into alternative solutions.” – Bernie

 

“With the right mindset, disappointments can create space for new opportunities.” – Bernie

 

“This is not happening to me; it’s happening for me.” - Steve

 

Books Mentioned:

 

Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty

https://amzn.to/3dICFAu 

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ 

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

Thinking OTB Episode 11 Show Notes

 

This week Steve is busting out the Accordion File to share some insights from his past business failures. Not every venture or opportunity is going to pan out the way that we want it to no matter how much effort or how hard we want it to succeed. Every business is a risk and any kind of risk can bring about failure, but that doesn’t need to be the end of the story.

 

“Sometimes we take risks in order to see what happens. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t.” – Steve

 

Failure can very often be the best teacher. Learning from our mistakes doesn’t mean dwelling on the past, but using the lessons learned to avoid those mistakes in the future.  For Steve, the way to put those failures of the past into perspective is to keep them in an accordion file. From there, he can look back on the past while keeping an eye on what lessons can be learned. It’s not about focusing on the negative aspects of the past, but what can be learned to achieve success in the present and future.

 

3 Takeaways from keeping an Accordion File:

 

Don’t be afraid to try new things. There will always be risk involved in branching out. That’s what Thinking Outside the Box is all about! But without those new experiences, no lessons can be learned.

 

Know your numbers and structure your business properly. An accordion file is not just a random assortment of documents and numbers, but a record of what happened as it was happening. Any business needs proper organization to succeed, and organization can help you figure out what happened if the business doesn’t last.

 

Always try to surround yourself with the right people to get the best advice. Often the best way to figure things out is to get a fresh perspective, as well as learning from other people’s experiences.

 

Keep a record of what happened and what you learned from it. If you always keep the mindset that every experience can be learned from, then you can turn those experiences from failures into learning experiences. What can be improved on? What worked, and what didn’t?

 

“You have to have conviction and you need strategy. That’s what creates optimism.” -  Bernie

 

“Learn from those mistakes to change and figure out what you do and don’t want to do going forward.” – Steve

 

“Every attempt helps you see a better vision of what you really wanted.” – Bernie

 

Books Mentioned:

 

Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell

https://amzn.to/2MdT58G

 

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman

https://amzn.to/3dxbyID

 

The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham

https://amzn.to/2OTnpWZ

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ 

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

We had the absolute pleasure of having Brian North in the studio with us today. Brian is the Founder and CEO of North & Co., a Phoenix based residential real estate firm and one of the best in the business. Considered an industry influencer, Brian is a regular speaker at local and national industry events. It’s our honor to welcome him as our first guest, and we had the chance to cover a number of subjects with him.

 

On Achieving Success in Real Estate:

 

Brian achieved great success but found he was devoting so much time to maintaining that success he wasn’t enjoying anything else in life. Building a team that could help him further that success, rather than micromanaging every minute, helped him find what was important in life.

 

Building an effective team that benefits all parties:

 

Brian calls it ‘Holding the future in the palm of our hand.’ Each agent that works with North&Co. might have different motivations for being in the business, and understanding those motivations make the biggest impact on everyone’s success. If an agent wants to make a million dollars, well, we do too! But if an agent wants to make enough to pay for their kid’s education, that might require a different path to success that would need to be understood.

 

Figure out what you want out of your brokerage as an agent:

 

We all like to talk about splits and what is going to benefit ourselves the most. But before we have that conversation, we need to understand what it is we want out of the relationships we enter into. Is it a dollar amount or the potential and value of professional development that will get us to where we want to be?

 

The current state of the market and where it’s going:

 

If the market was the weather, we would be in a drought. In this type of market, we’re going to see widgets and new strategies thrive, like do-it-yourself applications like Zillow. That might work now, but eventually the market is going to turn and negotiation is going to be more important than ever.

 

Brian also shared some views on personal development, being the person we want to be, and some deeper emotional subjects that the last year has brought into focus.

 

Books Mentioned:

 

Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss

https://amzn.to/3quk0vK

 

How to See by Thich Nhat Hanh

https://amzn.to/3qrpwPB 

 

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

https://amzn.to/2Nt82nt 

 

Bluefishing by Steve Sims

https://amzn.to/3dnZ2et 

 

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

https://amzn.to/3diodPe 

 

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

https://amzn.to/3qtuMSQ 

 

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman

https://amzn.to/3jSsWZm 

 

The Bible

https://amzn.to/2ZirUfR 

 

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

https://amzn.to/3jQv7Nb 

 

Wild at Heart by John Eldredge

https://amzn.to/3anYUJI 

 

Power Moves by Adam Grant

https://amzn.to/2ZmrZPG 

 

The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work

https://amzn.to/2Zly5Qo 

 

Remember to subscribe and leave a 5-star rating, as well as a review if you’d like us to talk about a subject or if you just want to let us know how much you like the podcast!

 

Follow us on social media!

 

Brian North: https://www.instagram.com/briancnorth/ 

 

Steve Valentine:  https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/ 

 

Bernie Espinosa: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/