Hey welcome back to the podcast uh, so my team specifically brenda over here posted on, i figured it was probably instagram and said: hey. Who would you like us to interview we've never done this before i have a feeling after this podcast we're going to do it again and the name shannon gillette just got over and over. She crushes it on video. She crushed it on instagram and she crushes it in her business, so shannon welcome to the podcast.

Well, thank you so much for having me, i'm i'm a huge fan of tom ferry. I feel like i mean. First of all, i can't believe how much free content you gave to the real estate community. So thank you for all.

You do and i honestly don't think i'd be where i am in my business. Without you know the videos of yours, the podcast that i watch like so it's a complete honor to be here well, thank you, you're very you're, very kind, but you know what and - and i know you know the benefit of it - i'm doing exactly what i want. Everybody else to do and you're seeing huge results from it. So i want to get into all of that, because you've got some great instagram stuff, some video stuff.

This woman has created a cult-like following everybody wants the same thing. You call it a come list me call, we call it a. I know you like you and trust you call and shanna gets them all day every day and we want to teach you to do the same um, but you weren't always this rock star. So we were talking off camera you and i have a different or a similar experience that we didn't go to college and straight out you went right into real estate, so so give us just a little bit of the back story of your real estate career from The leasing side into new home construction, like give them your story, so they understand yeah.

So i learned a strong work ethic from a young age. I was raised by a single mom. We didn't have a lot. I had to work for everything that i have so right out of high school.

I got a job leasing apartments and i learned at this young age also just what an honor it is to help people with their home. Even if it's an apartment, that's still the safe place they go to at night where they raise their family like their home. So i just developed this passion for helping people with their home. I was leasing apartments.

I was doing really well at it winning all the awards, but i was making a hundred dollars every time i used an apartment. So after, like three or four years of that, i'm like man, i want to sell new homes, and this was 2005.. I got my real estate license and back in 2005. We all know the market was crazy, builders, weren't, even hiring and if they were hiring, they required a college degree.

So, for one year i applied and applied, it was my goal i didn't give up. I'm like. I know i would be good at selling new homes. You just have to give me a chance.

Finally, a year later, i got called in for a group interview offered the job, the end of 2006 to sell new homes, and i went in running like this was my dream job. My co-workers just got out of this crazy market. The recession was coming. I honestly i was 23 years old.

I was the number one new home sales consultant in the entire country for the largest builder, probably one of the youngest new home sales consultants during the recession. I did that for eight years, but during that time i got married. I started, i have three little boys. I had two of my kids and in new home sales.

You live in your sales office. You don't get to go to your kids football games. I got to see. I was sitting in my sales office, as my oldest took his first steps.

I got to see that on a video from work, i'm like this is horrible, so, the last year of it i was literally like crying driving to work every day, and anybody that comes from like a corporate background, can probably relate it's just like horrible you're stuck In this office, but i also saw the recession i saw so many realtors fail in arizona where i sell. We have 55 000 licensed realtors and i was like man, this new home sales. It's a little bit more consistent, it's very scary, to leave this, but i couldn't do it anymore. I didn't even have days off with my husband.

I left new home sales in 2014 started 100 100 fresh in resale. Even my own family didn't consider me a realtor. Even though i had sold and closed hundreds of new homes, so i just start fresh, i didn't have any money to do anything crazy. So i really wanted to do things different and really focus on social media branding and video, and thanks to a lot of your podcasts and things, i implemented that and this year in 2020, i'll personally close over 40 million dollars.

Personally, those are the clients i took out and showed homes to not my team, so so shannon that you, you gave so much insight there, but i want to unpack some of that. So, let's go back to you're 18 years old and you're leasing. These old people apartments they're like 25, 27 28. Maybe in the early 20s did you ever have any of the the hang ups with like girl, you're young, like you know, did you ever? Did you have any of that insecurity that lack of confidence and if so, how did you overcome it? In the early days? Yeah, honestly, when i was young, i would get very embarrassed when people they just assumed, i probably went to college and leased apartments part-time and they would ask well where do you go to school and i'm like i don't go to school.

You know i'm working full-time and you know learning the life skills of sales. I i was more qualified than probably those college graduates to sell homes, but yeah i mean it was tough and i still get that today. I'm now 36 and some people are like wow, you're, really young, to sell my home but yeah. I specialize in a very unique form of marketing with social media and video and yeah.

You know i'm one of the top agents in in arizona. So it's it's different. When you're 36 and you're female versus when you're 18 they're, like you're young you're like why thank you so so, then you go into new home sales. But but when you said i spent a year interviewing, you were raised by a single mom like help us understand.

Like are you an only child? You have lots of siblings. Where did that tenacity come from yes? So i had to work for everything that i have. I mean we didn't have anything growing up. We didn't even have a dining room table.

We there were many years. We ate dinner sitting on the floor around a coffee table, so i learned this great work ethic, but also i knew i didn't want that for my life, like i, you know i just work hard. I don't give up, i don't take any you know shortcuts and ultimately you have to care about your clients too. You have to really know your.

Why and why we're doing what we're doing like i never run after money. I genuinely i've only ever received a five-star review from my clients. You can google, it like nobody's ever said, a bad thing which is awesome and um just going in and knowing like we're helping people with a really big thing: they're home yeah. Yes.

So but where did the tenacity come from? I don't know i mean i guess i just from an early age. You had to hustle and grind, you know and have a goal mindset and just not give up. Yeah yeah is your mom. Is your mom alive and still around? Do you see her all the time? Yes, yes now i have three boys so she's out grandma, that's cool, that's cool! So you go into new home sales and anybody.

That's done new home sales. One of my uh mentors who passed away uh built thousands and thousands and thousands of houses and it's a different sale, new home versus going out on a listing presentation helping a buyer. You know you know, decide between all these different communities etc. What did you learn? Most in the new home sales business that that helped you going into resale yeah, so it was during the recession when all at one time i there were 19 other sales consultants.

In my one office it was a very big master plan community. I was selling it. I watched all of them get laid off during this time, like they were spending their time standing around the water cooler like complaining about the market. Nobody wants to buy a home like like.

Why are you guys doing that like work like we can sell homes like our prices are great like i was just on the phones calling learning everything i could about new homes, knowing my products. So then, i'm therefore confident about it and then you know treating people like human beings and ultimately they bought a lot of homes and also learning how to overcome objections and close the deal, and all that, like so many new home sales, you go into the office. They're sitting at their desk, they don't even stand up, they don't demonstrate the model and they don't even ask you. You know for the sale.

So i think that's really what helped me - and you know i had great success in new home sales. It was incredible yeah. So where did like, where did you learn those skills? Because you know you, i mean you're you're talking the language of very sophisticated. You know, handling objections, dealing with conditions and especially when you're in new home sales, it's a lot of almost like sales negotiations right to.

Ultimately, get to the yes, so was it? Was it just battle tested? Did you dig in through some books some audio programs like where'd, you get the training yeah. So i'm a big believer that everything we want to learn is on google and youtube like there should be no excuses of why we don't know something. And thankfully, when i was leasing apartments, it was for a luxury apartment. You know management company and they had a great training program, and so i learned a lot of those skills and just developed them over time and worked really hard.

That's awesome! So when you went into retail it's 2014., that doesn't feel like i mean it's six years ago, but it doesn't feel that long ago. So so you make that transition. How did you let the world, like you said, like my family, didn't even know i sold houses like they didn't even know you were a licensed real estate agent. How did you make that transition and then we're going to get into all the insta and video? But you know people are always curious about the back story yeah.

So when you're selling new homes you work with a lot of realtors. On the other side, i can only sell new homes, so i got to sit on the sidelines and see these realtors come in, because if somebody wanted to buy my new home, they had a home to sell, they had to hire a realtor and i would watch It over and over and over again, and unfortunately, it still happened happening today where these realtors would not do anything to market the listing they take. Pictures put a sign in the yard. Put it in mls, wait for the buyer to find it.

I saw that i saw just know everybody using stuff. They were using 15 and 10 years ago, and i still see that today, like as a realtor, you shouldn't have an aol.com email address. Your website should be amazing, like your branding should be awesome like i wanted to just hold on. You have to know, like my team, is over here dying laughing right.

They know exactly what you're saying so keep going. I apologize yeah, so i just i was watching from the sidelines because i was sitting at my new home sales desk. You know, while the realtors were coming in, i'm like man one day i'm gon na sell resale. I was scared.

I should have done it way sooner, but i was scared because i left like a very comfortable situation. Yeah and i just want to do things different like i want to be doing things today - that other realtors won't start doing for five years. So i went in just branding my social media, doing video doing all the things and now i'm to a point where people just call me and ask if i'll list their home. So so, let's talk about uh strategy, i mean obviously along this whole journey.

You know you were blessed to work for like this sort of corporate apartment scenario and then new construction, where there's there's a lot of training. There's a lot of marketing a lot of resources go into selling these properties. So when you made the dive into resale, like did you come out with a plan with a strategy like hey, i'm going to go after all the people i sold a house to in that new construction area and ask them if they want to sell their house As an example like what was the early days, what were the plans and then we'll get into the whole instagram and everything else yeah. Really, i think, when my career really started to take off was implementing video for my listings, because i was like why aren't realtors marketing their listings? Not every buyer is actively looking on mls every day for a home or in your town or in your city.

Like there's so many people moving from out of state, it's so lazy to just throw a home up in mls, even in today's market. I just had a closing. A few days ago, 1.6 million home, the buyer literally saw the video on facebook. Wasn't looking for a home had enough money to buy.

It was like this house looks cool. I'm gon na put in an offer like there's so much power in video. So i i do a professionally produced 60. Second, video commercial for every home.

I list 60 seconds because the average human attention span is only like seven or eight seconds. Why don't do a three minute, video and then another thing is i'm on every one of my videos, because then you have to get your face out there as much as possible and gain that trust. And now i'm recognized in public, like instagram, is so crazy. Even people recognize my kids, because if you follow me on instagram, you know my personal life.

You know that i have dogs and a lizard and all that stuff so started doing the video and then um sellers were like man. I see your videos everywhere cause. I take that video and i target marketed out. I learned how to target market on youtube, so my average video is getting 10 000 views within the first seven days.

I've had videos, you know with 100 000 views and that's all targeted, so that's kind of where it started, and then i slowly built my instagram into more of a tv show versus a non-stop commercial like most realtors use, instagram, yeah or worse right, just house after House after house for sale totally stagnant, so you just you just talked about a lot of different strategies. Short form videos, 60 seconds, keeping your face inside it. That's branding right, that's creating that. I trust you.

I know you. I understand you, and you also talked about having your kids right, your lizard, the dogs right like so that's kind of the behind the scenes. The real me, so these are all you know very well thought out - plays that smart agents and savvy entrepreneurs are running today to create that notoriety and brand was that the was that the thought early was was the strategy. I want to become this recognizable agent or was it hey? I got to do video on listings and it just one big out of the next.

I never knew it would get to this level. Like i never thought i'd be on the tom ferry podcast. Are you kidding me like what i still think like? I can't even believe i'm here right now, but it just because you're hey girl, because you're killing it that's. Why that's why um so the great thing with real estate is there are so many different ways.

We can generate leads and be successful and you just have to be consistent, so mine, i focus on instagram facebook, video consistent every day posting i never list a home without a video and you all. You also have to have a call to action, so every home i list with the video their their home, gets its own website with its own domain name. I use real hq for websites and then i have an ip tracking pixel id on the back end. So anybody that clicks on the website - i can now continue to market them.

So i can talk for days about everything i do, but it's just consistency and it's really only three things i mean i don't do a lot of the other things like. I don't door knock, i mean i spend my time on that. So so what are the three things listing video on every property? Yes, so every home i list, even if it's a 90 000 lot, i have my own videographer and we produce a beautiful commercial. It's called i've kind of started, my own little um, i don't know, maybe tv show you could call it.

It's called home of the day, so welcome to the home of the day. I'm shannon gillette with the gillette group at launch real estate. Today, we're featuring this home 60 seconds fast, moving with a goal for you to click on that website, um to learn more about the home, and i launch that on all the social media platforms and then i pay to boost it to the right people. I also on every home i list i'm actually paying to reach other realtors, which some realtors are like.

Why would you pay to get your video in front of me? Well, i mean i sold so many homes from the videos and a realtor that maybe follows me on instagram saw the video brought a client and yes, the market's crazy. A lot of realtors are like you, don't need the market, you just throw it up in mls and get an offer well. My listings are getting 20 offers and multiple offers and we're negotiating waived appraisals and weighted inspections and 30 000 over list because of the marketing. So my clients deserve it like i don't want to cut any corners, we shouldn't cut corners and you stay consistent and then, when the market changes you're going to, you know thrive.

So where did you learn like when you just like? It was funny when you said, like you know, and tagging and pixels i'm watching. You know like two of my producers over here going yeah yeah like that's like that's the like. That's how you win. So where did you learn all that? Well, i mean some from you right tom ferry's podcast, but this is literally my life, i'm like man when i go to hilton.com and click off.

I see those hilton ads everywhere. How do you do that? So i go to youtube: how to add a tracking pixel id on the back end of my website and i watch a video and i learn and now i know how to do it and i do it with everything and then i also like google how to Do a facebook um ad to people that have recently been to my website and i did it so i taught myself because everything we need to know is out there for free on the internet. There's no excuses, don't sit around and wait for your broker to teach you or the title company to teach you. We can learn it and it's been awesome like it's incredible, to see the success not only for me but for my sellers, like they're, getting an extra 30 000 and you know they'll refer me to all their friends and family and i genuinely care about my clients, Like i want the best for them, yeah you can.

You can see that and what i love like, i'm like i'm old school like i've see you have three boys. I have two boys that mine are 21 and 19., but you know going back. You know seven or eight years ago, hey dad. How do i i'm like gts google, that stuff man, everything you want to know is there but like be resourceful, so that also being raised by a single mom? My dad was in the picture, but very not in the picture right.

So i know what that's like. You got, ta hustle. You got ta go after it, so i'm gon na hit you with just a bunch of just random questions but all related to video. When did you hire your first videographer and what did you do prior to that and how much did you pay him? Okay, so the video thing wasn't really being done in my market, like people would do this video of like a drone flying over the home for a minute, and it's like nobody, watches that and there's like so i had to start this.

I don't know of another agent that does it the way i do like a 60-second home of the day, video. So um do you know jessica, edwards. Of course, no. She was like my role model and like yeah in north carolina yeah, so she was on all her video shows so like she was my inspiration, i'm like man, jessica, edwards, like she's, so classy and professional.

I can't be like that, and so i would watch all of her videos implement that, but i had hired a photographer. He was in college like through a real estate, photography company. He was at a listing and i go man, you know, have you ever done? Video he's like no, but i you know i'd, be willing to try i'm like will you? Will you go on this journey with me like this college? Kid now, you know who works for me like goes to college works. For me that day, you know the days that he's not working and we went on this journey like my first videos were horrible.

I delete a lot of them. I can't even look at them, but it's just me and it wasn't easy. It wasn't overnight. I didn't start getting come listening calls the first day it took years.

You know a year or two so yeah i found them in college and literally was paying him about 300 video. Some people might think man that's a lot of money, but when you're there's so much return on the investment, it's not even funny. You have to do video. You can't be doing what you're doing five years ago, you're going to be out run by these other agents.

That are willing to do it. So you, you literally answered every one of my videographer questions in one. It was per like my team's like yeah right because we always say find the college kid or we say, find the you know find the wedding videographer who's. Only working on the weekends and they're available monday through friday, so you nailed that and got the cost.

But let's talk about instagram, so i'm gon na i'm gon na i'm gon na change. It though, i'm gon na say to you tomorrow, you leave chandler arizona and you go to newport beach, california and you're licensed and you're at banana real estate start on social. What do you do? Yes? So there are a few things number one. You have to have your your profile public.

There are a lot of mentors that have a private page or they have two pages. They have their personal instagram and then a business one i say do what i did years ago: delete the business run off your personal, make it public if you're a mom of young kids. Like i know, it's scary, it's scary, to think i do probably have some crazy people watching my stories and they see my kids whatever like it is what it is and just make your your profile public and be consistent, and you know you there's so much online To learn about about instagram, but really, ultimately you have to treat it like a tv show and not a commercial when we like, before the days of netflix and dvr, when we would sit down on the couch and put the tv on, we didn't go there for The commercials you had you watched your show and then the commercials were sprinkled in. We were forced to watch them.

I don't understand why realtors use their instagram like a big commercial, because nobody wants to follow that they want to follow something. That's entertaining you know, they're going on instagram for entertainment and to escape reality so letting them in on your daily life, like i really focus on my instagram stories and um. So i guess, if i built if i went to a whole nother market, just really continuing to do that and um. You know gaining my following and at the end of the day my goal like when you see your instagram story and you look at everyone.

That's seen it, i want to look at that and say if they were asked today, because i sell mainly it's queen creek arizona if they were asked who do you think of when you think of queen creek arizona? I want everybody that follows me to say: shannon gillette, whether it's somebody that lives in my town, another town, a realtor here, a realtor there, because even if it's a realtor in my own town, i want them to say shannon gillette, because it's so powerful. I had um an offer in for a client last week. Multiple offers the agent called me and she goes. I've been following you on instagram for a while.

I trust you. I love what you do. I've always wanted to work with you we're going to accept your offer like it literally my clients. Yes, yes, it has again it's you know like i've been talking about this for, like the last three or four years, people are like well, why did you start doing video and i'm like a? It, was a way to put out content for free.

That was high value and i knew the internet and connectivity would catch up from 2007 89. That eventually had become the thing right. I didn't know it was youtube i was hoping, but today shannon can you think of a better way to engage? Show people who you are and scale trust than on video? Can you think of anything better? It's incredible! You have to get your face out there, whether you're doing a professional video or holding the video in front of your face and just talking to your instagram followers. Even if you only have 20 followers a lot of people get caught up.

Well, oh, i don't have 11 000 followers. Oh, you have 20 people that see your instagram story every day. Could you fit 20 people at your dinner table tonight? No, like that's, 20 people. It'll slowly grow don't get caught up in that everyone else can start somewhere.

You just have to be consistent and then those 20 people will be your fan club. Like my followers, they will refer. Everybody to me like they'll, come up to introduce themselves at a restaurant. You know in my town like it's incredible the power and you just you can't have those excuses of why it won't work for you just get going with it and you'll see incredible results and it's awesome like who doesn't love.

Somebody calling you to say: hey. Will you be my realtor yeah, so go back and describe for us so so for the person that doesn't get tv show versus commercial kind of give me the give me the more tactical like what does it mean to go tv show and do that versus commercial? We get the commercial side give me the tactics on tv show, so you have to let people in your life like and it's so crazy, because if you're not on instagram, you might not. You might think it's weird like why post a picture of your like your smoothie, you just made after a workout like why do people like that? I mean i don't really understand it either, but people love it like. I follow a realtor in texas that every morning he takes a sip of coffee and he says good morning my instagram family, like that's weird, but i love it like it's weird like we have these virtual friends.

We don't even know if we've ever met in person, but you run into them. You're, like hey how's. Your daughter, like, like my kids, were homeschooling them like how's homeschooling, going like have we even ever met like i feel like. I know you, it's awesome.

So just a tv show - and it has to be like imagine if you take real estate out of the picture if you are following maybe a mom that sells makeup and all she did was post makeup makeup makeup. Would you want to follow that? No, but if she branded herself and showed you her kids and her mom life and her husband and date night and travel and then she sprinkles and hey by the way i sell this awesome makeup, you'd be like man. You know i want to buy that from her, so yeah totally tv show - and you just have to let people in on your personal life. So so what do you say to the person that says? Because i get this all the time, but you know it's easy for you because, like you're actually interesting, you have all these things going on right.

What do you say to that person that really and truly they're they're judging themselves against you right, they're, judging themselves against everybody else and not putting themselves out? What do you say to that person, so you have to have a life outside of real estate. Obviously, i'm a mom i'm really involved in my church, like i'm, not scared to say i go to a christian church, i'll post, a video banned at church singing like you, not everyone's gon na love it like, but my followers will and um you have to be. Who you are - and you know like - have a life outside of real estate? I have to schedule things in i'm out showing homes late at night many nights a week. I have to schedule in like a dinner with my family and maybe a date night with my husband, like we're very intentional, about getting out of town.

You know every every few months like even for a weekend and that's instagram content like you're added you're on a date night like it's instagram content, it's gon na inspire people like man. We really need to go out on a date night. Like say you don't have kids, you have a dog like you can brand your dog. I saw somebody that had a plant and they branded the plant like and everyone's like how's.

Your plant, doing, like you know, maybe you're, just a single guy and you like to hike or work out like have a like a real estate, have that on you know, brand yourself, there's so many different different things so yeah my team, like robert mack who's, constantly Showing all of his crazy hikes and his journey on pallets on my little brother, my so if i say my little brother is 45., my brother patrick, who sells zen in san diego shannon he just starts posting photos of his visla dog and literally hi, come list. Our house right, we have a vista. Also, can you bring your dog over right like over a dog, but it's it's people like to work with people that they feel are just like them or they aspire to be like right or they aspire to be like. So i'm gon na ask the question that i guarantee somebody's thinking right now, and i know it because i've gotten it from my own life put your phone down we're on a date how'd your.

How does your husband deal with all that man? It's not easy! It's tough, like it's amazing, like he's homeschooling, our kids right now and like but he's he also knows, like i've told them. Like trust me, family i'd much rather be with you, but there are emergencies like there's times i have to get up from dinner and you know negotiate an offer or something, but it's tough. I wish i said, that's that's r, but that's okay. I mean i do like definitely if i'm at dinner on a date night like i'm, not going to be on my phone like it's an hour and it's at night, so there's not much much going on but yeah.

It sounds like the struggle is real. I'm uh yeah out there selling homes, i'm not just a team leader like it's yeah, it's hard yeah and i and i appreciate that honestly because you know, like my wife and i she's like i know you could be on your phone 24 hours a day. Seven days a week, there's by the time by the time we come out of a movie, even if that might be in our home theater, because we, you know, can't go to movies yet, like there's 75 more text messages, there's 8 million dms. So you know it's like balancing that to the best we can right, so just just keeping it real so and being intentional and planning out your calendar, because real estate will be for your life, but when you're selling, like i do 70 homes a year like that's A lot of clients calling me and texting me and, like being intentional, like man, we're going out of town this weekend, like obviously i'm still going to probably have to be working, and i mean i hired a transaction coordinator years ago.

Best decision i ever made like one other agent on my team too so and just really leaning, i'm learning slowly like i don't have to take on every client. That's like your goal for me, like i'm handing things over, which is hard, so i'm controlling and i want to like help everybody but yeah for sure it's uh, i think every business owner listening right now knows. There's just there's levers that you pull right to increase sales increase revenue, but there's also leverage that you can pull to buy back time right to get more freedom to to do more of the highest and best we've talked about it. Obviously, a ton on this podcast so so go back to instagram.

Like i wrote down, you know they they keep evolving like. What do you think about reels uh, you know how much time do you spend creating content? Is it just you boom, or am i going to see some snippets of like text, and you know some animation like is somebody else doing it? It's all on. You help us understand that it's all on me. I do all my own social.

I do all my own ads like i know, i'd, probably that's an issue of mine. I need to work on, but i do it all um, it's it's a social network. So imagine you go to a party. I heard this on another podcast.

There's three types of people at the party they come in, one sits in the corner, doesn't talk to anyone they're just watching everyone, one comes in and they're like hey look at me. You just listed just sold and then another comes in and they have a genuine conversation with you. How are you, what do you do for a living like? What's your favorite? What's your favorite restaurant, like oh, you know, and here's what i do like social media has to be. You can't just go post and then go on with your daily life.

It's an investment in time, like i'm, investing like three hours a day into my instagram. I don't plan anything out it just kind of like i mean i'm strategic about it, but it's not a set plan or anything like that and i go and take time to communicate and dm. And you know you have to build relationships with me. Well and so much power right now with how the market is with multiple offers, developing relationships with other realtors like don't be against each other, like there's enough real estate out there for everyone, like don't be enemies like be friends and it'll pay off in the end.

Yeah big time so so you do your own, and it's interesting like i'm. Looking at my team looks like i've got a couple people that will help, because i can't edit and it's just not the highest best use, but thank god. These guys can right and a few more, but i'm the one that engages all the time - and i think that's a huge like you mentioned it like a lot of people will post content and then they won't engage like when this goes up on insta facebook, linkedin And twitter and everything else and someone's like: oh, my god, omg tf, you finally got shannon. Oh my god she's.

So amazing, i'm the one! That's like heart. Like yes, i totally agree she's the real deal. That goes a long way, but it intimidates some people and they all say the same thing. I don't have time.

What do you say to that? You got ta prioritize your time better. Get up earlier like be intentional, don't watch netflix! I don't watch any tv. I use every minute of my day intentionally if i'm driving in the car, i'm listening to a podcast like you have to be intentional. There is time, trust me and it's so powerful.

If you do this right, your business will flourish, you'll be able to help more people like um. It's incredible, and i respond to every single dm that i get. I agree with you, like you, have to respond like these people took the time to reach out to you, and you know you have to you have to respond for sure. Have you tried the amas yet like on uh on instagram stories, where you can say just ask me any question: have you tried that yeah? Definitely i love that i actually copied that from you yeah it's a that one is i for all my friends out there.

Listening right now and shannon you, you know one day: you'll do the same, like i literally could write five or six books just based upon this is what's on the minds of the people that are in my community like this is my tribe. This is what they're thinking this is where their problems are and if i can keep delivering that value, it's massive, but it also helps you shape your marketing, your messaging, everything about that. What we're doing is like we're learning from our customer right. Are you seeing the same and also like the more you respond, the more comments we all know.

It's gon na more people are gon na see your stuff. So if you post a story like um, there was one time i was showing a house. I was on the second floor and the neighbor had all these bikes and trash in their backyard. It was horrible and, like the clients, did not buy the home because of the backyard neighbor.

I took a picture i said: would you guys buy a home with this view? Everyone was commenting. No no like it was like my highest ever engagement of anything people love giving their opinion. So as a realtor, you could be out showing a home. You see a cool laundry room, take a picture and say put a pole up and say: do you like this laundry room like get engagement and and all that and yeah i mean it's awesome.

I love it. I love that you messed in uh, jessica, edwards. I've known jessica forever. I did a speech for her company one time and i was literally talking about the power of video and everybody kept like murmuring and looking at jessica, and i was finally like okay girl power like what's your story.

She's, like oh, my god, tom ferry, like i did this video this video like and we became fast friends overnight. It's an important distinction beyond just a mutual respect that we both have for is that you found a model right, someone that you could say hey if she can do it, i can do it. Have you always used the power of modeling and if so, what advice do you have for people in terms of finding that role model, so they can figure it out and take it to the next level? I think that's a great idea like, even just if you want to start on your instagram, find some agents that are doing it well and what does their bio look like like? What kind of things are there? They posting like don't copy them, but you can use that as inspiration same with video - and i know you say it all the time on your podcast, like you, have to get in front of the camera. There's no excuse, like we've all heard it like.

Oh, your well, first, your first listing appointment ever like i remember being so nervous and feeling so under qualified, and these people are never going to hire me to list their house and going in so nervous sitting at their dining room table. But guess what now i've been on hundreds and hundreds of listing moments? I'm not nervous going in same with video like it's not going to be comfortable. The first time you go on film, but it'll get easier and you just have to stop the excuses. Like you, you just have to get in front of the camera.

Don't worry about it act like you're talking, you know to your client. I write a script. I think that helps. I write a script for every one of my home of the day.

Videos. The only time i'm on camera is when i'm welcoming people to the home of the day and then when it's my voiceover, i'm actually reading from a script, so that can help you as well so you're prepared or else you'll, be there for five hours. Doing a bunch of retakes and um yeah just definitely just implement it and be consistent and it'll pay off for sure and people. You know you're going to help with your branding and all of that big time.

How close are you to one take shannon? I mean it's getting there, it's more when you're shooting in front of a house, it's more like airplanes, dog barking, landscaping waiting for the car to pass. Oh a truck, just drove by like sometimes it can take hours because of that. But it's definitely gotten so much easier over time and now i'm on a show called american dream tv which airs on cbs now in our local market. So it's been really cool and it you know, i really just highly suggest everybody does it, and even if you don't have your own listings like there's plenty of different videos, you can do you can go to my website and see like we've done.

Um client appreciation event, videos and lately i've been doing a lot of restaurant videos and local businesses like there's so many things you can do and even if you don't have any listings, go to a neighborhood and and do a video there, and i really believe in The power of professional video, just like professional photography years ago, was you know not as common, but you have to you know i believe, invest in in that professional video. So so shannon you have you've shared a ton um. I knew i wanted to be mindful of your time in my time today, but i wanted to get you on this show. I wanted to recognize that you are just a fire like you're.

A force like i was gon na, say fireball, but i think force is the better word. Let me ask you a question: are you gon na be in this business for a long time? I think so mean i'm going on 15 years yeah. I think, if you keep your, why at the forefront and you're helping people with the where they're going to raise their family and all that, keeping that first, you won't get as burnt out and overwhelmed, and all of that you know like i'll, go show a two Hundred thousand dollar house today, like people, can't believe it they're like shannon. While you really will show me a 200 000 home.

Yes, it's your home like who am i to say. Oh, i don't deal with that price range like you, just we're just going to help people and stay consistent, so so play a game with me. It's 20 years from today, it's october 2040.. What advice would you have for yourself today? Probably something about the amount of hours i work, i know i know i need to probably delegate more so that'd probably be the advice that i'd give my younger self like shannon, stop running all of your own ads and i'm like i'm the only one that knows How to do it this way like um and yeah? Probably that's uh! That's good advice! I'll hit you with one last question.

So if you could never talk to agents again forever, a lot of people are gon na. Listen to this and watch this. What's that one piece of advice you wish the entire industry would take on that would make their life better their business better their experience in this business better, i think, focusing on modern marketing and branding and just the basics, like i use agent image for my website. I'm really proud of my website, like so many websites are all the same like they don't even have an about us page like just making things a little bit like prettier, and you know having a domain name for your email address like all those things that really Aren't that hard they're not very expensive, but i guess my advice would just be to work on your branding like google yourself.

What do you find you know just i don't know if that answers your question. No, that's i mean so much of as the world continues to speed up. We talked about it this year at the summit as the world continues to speed up and you've got more and more arbitrage players coming into the marketplace, trying to inject themselves into the 86 billion dollars of u.s commissions from real estate agents. One of the ways to separate yourself is to create that shining brand.

So people recognize you and say shannon. Will you list my house right that you have to be intentional to make that happen, so i think it's a very, very solid point. So as we wrap first of all, thank you for being on the show brenda. Thank you for posting that, and you know all these peeps that were like you got to get shannon on the show so um again super proud of you and honored to uh.

To have you in our community and ecosystem, so this will be out soon for my friends out there watching shannon. What's your instagram like where should they follow? You yes, come follow me on instagram at shannon underscore gillette. I respond to every dm, so i know i like threw a lot at everyone today. So how do you do this? Like i'm happy to help and respond so yeah? We had another one of our clients down in miami recently.

Sarah, a newer agent three four years in the business killing it and she just got in today with questions. So i'm assuming for my friends out there listening. If you hit her up with a question, you're going to get a bunch of really good answers, because this guy's got a lot of wisdom right now when it comes to, how do you build your brand and be that agent of choice so shannon? Thank you again for being on the show, we'll look forward to seeing you soon for my friends out there watching give us a like, maybe share this with a friend of yours, that's been afraid to maybe jump into video, and maybe just maybe shannon's message will get Them over the fence and doing modern marketing the way we all should be doing so tom perry, podcast we're out thanks so much you.