Does the "Platform" Marketing Strategy Work If I'm A Newer Agent?

Chelsea Schmidt:  I learned at a really early age about real estate. They wanted me to go into real estate when I was 18 and I was not having it. I wanted to go to the University of North Texas and experience college life. I wish they would have been like, “Hey, go ahead and take this test just in case. You can always go to college.” I wish it was more of that, but my dad wanted me to do what I wanted to do. He didn't make any decisions for me. They flipped houses and I would be painting, I would be cracking up some tile on the floor and ripping up carpet with them. I did get to see that my whole life so I knew real estate was what I wanted to do.

Tim Chermak: This is The Platform Marketing Show, where we interview the most creative and ambitious real estate agents in the country, dissect their local marketing strategy, and get the behind the scenes scoop on how they're generating listing leads and warm referrals. We'll dive into the specifics of what marketing campaigns are working for them, how much they're spending on those campaigns, and figure out how they have perfected what we call the Platform Marketing strategy. This is your host, Tim Chermak. I'm the founder and CEO of Platform. I love marketing and I talk too much, so let's dive in. 

Tim Chermak: Hey guys, it's Tim Chermak. Welcome back to another episode of The Platform Marketing Show. I'm joined this morning by Chelsea Schmidt, coming to us from Texas. Chelsea, welcome to the show. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Thanks. Thank you so much for having me.

Tim Chermak: Chelsea has actually only been licensed as a real estate agent for a little bit more than a year. She's only been with Platform, actually, for about six months. She was only even licensed as an agent for half a year before she signed up for Platform. She's new both to the real estate profession as well as the Platform Marketing program. It's actually a very interesting case study here of what's possible if you follow the Platform strategy, even as a new agent. Even if you don't have a bunch of past clients and a database and all that, what's possible if you embrace this marketing philosophy. Chelsea, you are in Bandera County, Texas. That's West of San Antonio, right? 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yes. We're about 30 minutes outside of San Antonio. We are in the Hill Country. 

Tim Chermak: What is the population of Bandera County? 

Chelsea Schmidt: On our sign, it will say 957  people, but the actual city is so tiny. We do have a couple of thousand. San Antonio is the largest city and then Kerrville. Kerrville is another large city that has about 20,000. It's in Kerr County, but my market is Bandera in Kerr County.

Tim Chermak: Okay. So really, the largest town in your area that you're marketing only has 20,000 people. Against this backdrop, Chelsea basically just got licensed as a real estate agent, joined Platform, and in your first 12 months as an agent, you did about $4 million in sales. I think a little bit more than $4 million in sales. This year here in 2024, you're actually on pace to hit $8 million with the possibility of actually getting to $10 million once you look at your pipeline and what's coming up. It would be accurate to say that you signed up for Platform about six months ago and you're on pace to, hopefully, have more than doubled your business. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yeah. I would say too, Tim, I would have signed up with Platform from day one, but someone else had my territory. I was on Diana and Heather Mutz, my team lead, to let me know as soon as Vandera and Kerrville were available. I was like, “I want in, I want in, I want in.” Even though I just signed up for real estate or took my exam and passed, I have been in the real estate/marketing world since I was 12. 

Chelsea Schmidt: My dad and step mom, she just had graduated and done her real estate license. She was at 22. We were together all the time. They paid me 5¢ per flyer and my dad and her would drop me off in a neighborhood and be like, “Go door to door, put these flyers on.” I learned at a really early age about real estate. They wanted me to go into real estate when I was 18 and I was not having it. I wanted to go to the University of North Texas and experience college life. I wish they would have been like, “Hey, go ahead and take this test just in case. You can always go to college.” I wish it was more of that, but my dad wanted me to do what I wanted to do. He didn't make any decisions for me. They flipped houses and I would be painting, I would be cracking up some tile on the floor and ripping up carpet with them. I did get to see that my whole life so I knew real estate was what I wanted to do.

Chelsea Schmidt: When I moved down to South Texas, originally from North Texas and I was a junior in college, that time I could be anything I wanted. My family was like, “Why don't you change what you want to do?” I went to the University of North Texas to be in marketing. I was like, “Down here in a small town, what am I going to do?” There's teaching or ranching or your family owns something out here. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I wanted to go into real estate and my husband at the time and his family were like, “You need something that you have a guaranteed paycheck.” I was like,” Well, I love coaching. I love sports. It's always been in my life.” They're like, “Okay, great. Go get a teaching degree.” I had to do teaching to be a coach. My family wasn't supportive of real estate at the time so I divorced that husband and that family. I got my upgraded husband I told you about that's amazing. He was like, “Why are you in real teaching and coaching? I just feel like you're trapped. You can do so much more. You're meant for so much more.” I was having lunches with Heather, meetups with our kids. I was just like, “Man, I can't stand this anymore.” COVID really changed things and going back to work, I did not want to go back to work after my 30-minute lunch. Heather was like, “It's time, Chelsea. You need to get into real estate.” 

Tim Chermak: Heather used to be a teacher as well. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yes. Heather Mutz and I, she's my team lead, and we met back in 2010 in our Sunday school class. Our oldest children are the same age. We met when we were teachers, went through teaching. She knew exactly what I was going through. I got out of teaching, took my test. Within six months, I got my license. I wanted to be in Platform because I saw Heather go through Platform with her old broker. Her old broker at the time was Platform and Heather was doing Platform through her. I had the luxury of also doing that with Heather so I feel like I've been around this fraternity, sorority, and getting to see it but I couldn't go to the meetings, I couldn't go to the parties and dances. 

Chelsea Schmidt: As soon as Platform became available, I was like, “I'm in. Okay, sign me up. We're ready.” My husband too, he saw what Platform did for her. He was like, “Let's go. I'm investing with you now and you'll invest with me later.” He's law enforcement officer and retires in five years and he's going to be going to real estate, teaming up with me. 

Tim Chermak: That's awesome. You had seen this Platform strategy working  for other people before you dove into it for yourself, but you also weren't a stranger to real estate because you were seeing your parents do it from a very young age. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yeah, and since I was on Heather's team and she has Platform, I had access to call her leads through the retargeting ads. I actually closed five via leads from calling. I was calling anywhere from 100 to 500 a week. I tried to hit 200 to 500 leads, or texting. I know that's bad, that's not the Platform way, but I text a lot of people because if it's working hours and that's the only time I have, I'm like, “Hey, just wanting to make sure you got the email. Do I need to send you a fresh link?” Text really worked for me. Like I said, I closed five Platform buyer leads from Heather last year. 

Tim Chermak: I will correct you right there cause what you're doing is the Platform way. If you have those leads, you should absolutely be following up with them. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Following up, yes, but not the call, call, text. Sometimes it's just a text first.

Tim Chermak: I think a lot of agents, honestly, and I'm not even just talking about Platform agency, I just mean realtors in general, over the last couple of years since COVID, when the market got so hot and there was a limited inventory and multiple offer situations, a lot of agents got lazy with prospecting because they just expected in 2020 and 2021, when rates were really low too, that, “People are just going to come to me and the market is so hot. If I get a listing, there'll be 12 offers or 30 offers or whatever,” that I think a lot of agents stopped doing the fundamentals. 

Tim Chermak: It was just easy to put a sign in the yard and a ton of phone calls would come in, a ton of offers, that agents stopped prospecting. They stopped staying in touch with their database. They stopped marketing. It may have been true for a year there that you didn't really need to and you would still have a successful business. Now, what you're seeing is when the market corrects and things shift, you need to have marketing in place when the market's not so hot like it was in 2020 and 2021. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I tell my other real estate friends that it's slow right now so you have to invest in yourself so whenever it does get busy, everybody that's seen me doing all this stuff, they're going to call me, they're going to think of me because I've been getting my ads out there. Actually, I've been doing 10 to 12 ads a month. 

Tim Chermak: Okay. To put that into perspective for those who aren't yet in the Platform Marketing program, I would say our average client probably does five to six ads a month. We usually recommend eight. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I had no idea, by the way. I just do what Allie tells me. Allie is my marketing manager. I love Allie. Shout out to her because I would not have anything if it wasn't for Allie. She pushes me. I tell her, “Hey, get on my butt.” I tell her to make sure she's on me if I don't do what I'm supposed to be doing. I had no idea it was 10 to 12. I thought she was going to say, “Oh, seven, eight, six.” When she said 10 to 12, I was like, “Holy moly.” 

Chelsea Schmidt: I listen to the podcast all the time so I'm super excited to be on it. I called, we had our weekly call, I talk to her every week. If I don't get to talk to Allie on a weekly basis, I feel like my week is not going well. I really miss her when she's on vacation or I'm on vacation or we have something, but I look forward to talking to Allie. We became really great friends and I love how y'all match personalities up. I feel like she's my soul sister. She's a little sister to me. I just love her. 

Chelsea Schmidt: When she told me 10 to 12, I was blown away. I was like, “Okay.” I seriously print out her follow up email that she sends me immediately after a phone call. If I haven't gotten it, she'll text me and say, “Chelsea, I'll send it to you by the end of the day,” cause she knows I'm looking for it. I just do check marks on everything that she has for me to do. Whatever ad she wants me to do, I start putting my ideas next to it, I write all up on it. I actually have some already right here. I just start writing. I have a folder full of all my Allie follow ups. I could go back from when I first started and I would show you exactly what ads I was running at the time. 

Tim Chermak: Again, for those who aren't in the Platform Marketing program, part of what we do is we're managing your social media marketing, but we have a call with you where we give you marketing homework. That's what Chelsea's referencing there is that when Allie, her Platform Marketing manager, sends her a follow up email, “Hey, here's a reminder. Here's your marketing homework,” that you're taking that seriously and you're getting all those ad ideas done. Usually, we say eight ads a month. That's ideal if you can do eight ads a month cause that's two new ads every week is eight ads a month. The fact that you're doing 10 to 12 new ads a month, that's 50% more than the average agent.

Chelsea Schmidt: I have no idea. I also like seeing the check marks off my to do list so I think printing it off really helped me. She puts down there, “Make sure you have one personal moment, one customer story,” each thing that she asks. If I don't get that checked off, it annoys me. 

Chelsea Schmidt: On our team, we do plan content days. That's probably one of the biggest helps of me getting everything. I'll meet up usually with Heather or one of my other teammates, [Brittany or Denae], and I'm like, “This is what I'm doing,” and they'll meet me in Bandera, they'll meet me in Kerrville, and we'll knock out certain things. Yesterday, I just went with Heather and I was like, “Look, we're setting up our time and you're doing this ad.” 

Chelsea Schmidt: We hold each other accountable on our team because we have so many in Platform, in our brokerage that we just help each other out. I am always, even in my bowels, I'm a big team player. I feel like you have to have the right team, the right support group just to hold each other accountable. The women on our team, we just love seeing each other be successful. 

Tim Chermak: How did seeing Heather's success influence your desire, not just to get into real estate, but also to join Platform? Let's say Heather Mutz didn't exist. Do you think you would be a realtor with Platform marketing today if Heather just didn't exist?

Chelsea Schmidt: Because of my step mom and my dad, I would definitely say I would be into real estate today. I don't know if I would have seen all the Platform. I'm sure it would have came across my Facebook or Instagram because I'm always posting, but seeing her success, I knew it was possible. If you work hard and you're the hardest person in the room, everything's going to work out. At some point, you're going to make your way up there.

Chelsea Schmidt: I don't know how long it would have taken me to jump on the Platform. I think because I've seen what she's done, we knew right away, my husband and I, that  Platform was the way to go. If I got into it early, because Heather's been with y'all pretty much for eight years. I know that, underneath Danny and then now. Seeing her through the whole eight years, I have to keep reminding sometimes our team members who are new in Platform. I'm like, “She's not where she is today overnight. It's only been a year for you. It's only been six months, but she's been here for eight. That's where you're moving. That's where you're going.” I'm in for it for the long run. I know that this is investing in us and that it's just going to keep getting better.

Chelsea Schmidt: That's a tricky question. I think that I would eventually have seen Platform come across social media, but it might've been a little bit more hesitant at the beginning to be like, “Do I want to invest this much money?” Just knowing that it was so successful, it was a heck, yeah right off the bat.  

Tim Chermak: Again, at the time we're recording this podcast episode, you've only been with Platform for six months and yet you're already tracking to have doubled your business this year compared to last year. Honestly, it's possible you might do more than that because I always tell agents when they sign up for Platform that usually the most results kick in, like it really starts to snowball, the real momentum kicks in around that six- to 12-month mark. You're actually just getting to the point when most people start seeing massive results, you're already on track to have doubled your business. If we fast forward into the future another six months, I wonder where you'll be six months from now. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I'm so excited because last night, I've showed and had, not listings yet, but showings of million-dollar homes. Last night, I took another friend of mine to go look at a house that was $640,000. The million-dollar home here in Bandera that my friend has listed, that was probably the most expensive one that I've gotten to do the listing video and show people, like do showings on. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I have a listing appointment I just went on last week and I followed up this morning. She was like, “It speaks volumes of you just for following up.” She's interviewing one more agent, but that's a $800,000, $900,000 listing I wouldn't have without Platform. She and I work together. Our kids went to school together. After that, we haven't really spoken in 10 years and her husband was like, “Hey,” who I coached with. I coached volleyball, basketball, track, softball, I did a little bit of everything.

Tim Chermak: Is there anything you don't coach?  

Chelsea Schmidt: Wrestling. I don't know a darn thing about that. Funny enough, soccer, my son plays varsity soccer. I had to learn everything about soccer. Now, I'm officially a soccer mom thanks to him. 

Tim Chermak: Okay, so you don't coach wrestling and football. That’s it.

Chelsea Schmidt: I would love the football part, but soccer. They kept seeing my ads on Facebook and they called and interviewed me with one of the other top people in Medina County. It's actually in Heather's territory, but we're all so close. Our counties back up to each other so sometimes she's over here, I'm over there. 

Tim Chermak: You know that these people have been seeing your Platform Facebook ads. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Oh, yeah. This is funny, so Texas. I was walking in Walmart and the husband, the coach that I had worked with before, he was like, “Hey, you're doing great. I see your ads all over the place.” At the time, this was right with Platform, very beginning, and I'm like, “It's September, October. It's slow,” but I'm not going to say that. I'm like, “Yeah, thanks. Awesome.” In my head, I'm like, “It's working. It’s Platform.” They thought of me because the ads that they keep seeing on Facebook. I was so excited about that. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I have a fuzzy ROI with a couple. One, I met her up for coffee, hopefully potential listing again. Her house is going to be around $400,00, $420,000 and that's our normal, our average house here in Bandera. She comes back, she went down to the Valley, she's coming back and they want to list their house. She texts me and said, “Hey, I'm coming back. Can you meet me at my house to walk it?” Because the first time we met, we met for coffee and we just talked. I was like, “Yeah.” 

Chelsea Schmidt: She was on my to-do list today to follow up cause she doesn't get back till Monday with the eclipse so I'm going to her house on Tuesday. She's not interviewing anyone else. She said she saw my name on Bandera chat, she went to my Facebook, she saw my pictures, my videos, and she was like, “I'm sold. You're the agent that we want and we need.” I'm like, “Sweet.”

Tim Chermak: That's awesome. It's always cool when people actually tell you how your marketing influenced them. I feel like for most businesses, it's a crapshoot where you're guessing, hated my ads work, or if you go to a restaurant or some places, they'll be like, “How did you hear about us?” Or even if you buy something in an online store and often there's a survey after you check out and it's like, “How did you hear about us?” They're trying to do some sort of attribution tracking of like “Hey, if this customer bought, was it because of our billboards? Because of our radio? Because of a Google search?” or whatever. 

Tim Chermak: That's one thing I think is so unique about realtors who work with Platform is how often the clients actually tell you, “Oh, yeah. I called you because I saw your Facebook ads and I love your posts on Facebook.” They're telling you that it's the social media marketing you're doing is why they called you. That's pretty rare in most other businesses. Customers aren't that transparent. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yeah. I have a listing that's been right under a month. He had listed with another agent, didn't renew, and he called and he said, “I've seen you all over Facebook. I love what you do and we want you,” so I got that. He keeps messaging me all the time about how happy they are with the video that we do and the post. We use Lofty CRM and it does automatic landing pages and stuff. It does reels for us. He's just so ecstatic about all the stuff that I think is normal because, again, I've only been in real estate for about a year, but I'm like, “Why are there agents out there not doing that?” At the same time, it just really makes them, the customer, our clients, see that we do go the extra mile. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, that you're going above and beyond what the average agent does. What are some of the most effective ads, Chelsea? Let's dive into the specific ads you've been running on Facebook, Instagram, etc. What are a couple that stand out in your mind of, “Hey, these are the most engaging ads that I've done so far?”

Chelsea Schmidt: Support Allie. She has to tame me down cause I'm like, “Oh, Heather's done this. I want to do that.” I have eight years worth of stuff that I want to do. God Made a Small Business Owner, I knew right away I wanted to do that. Heather got 100,000 views. She's amazing on hers. I hired the same videographer, drone, photographer, and he followed me around. We were out and about in Bandera all day. That right now is about 30,000 views. That was one of my favorites and people love.

Tim Chermak: How many people are in Bandera County again?

Chelsea Schmidt: The county is a few thousands. I think that we will be pretty big, but inside Bandera town, our sign says 957.  

Tim Chermak: The fact that that video you said has 30,000 video views puts into perspective. Essentially everyone in the whole county has seen that video. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Definitely everybody in Bandera has seen that, yeah. All the small town business owners here, all of them, it's almost like they know me by name. If I walk in, they're like, “Are you going to put us on Facebook?” They already know that I'm wanting to ask if I can film them and they get excited. That was a big one. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I really think that because I was in real estate before I moved into Bandera or working with Heather before they got to know me, because my SOI was Hondo, Castroville, San Antonio, really, outside, I'm not from here. Bandera is where I moved to be with my husband and I've lived here for three years. I was pretty much new and there's agents who have been here for their whole life. That God Made a Small Business Owner really put me on the map with them and it allowed everybody to know who I was, whether they're an agent or they're ready to buy or sell a house. I really like that and I know a lot of people do.

Chelsea Schmidt: Allie and I made up one, I don't know if she made it up or someone else did, it's called, Of Course I Live In. There was a TikTok or a Instagram reel or something going around and they're like, “Of course I blah, blah, blah, blah. Of course I…” We came up with that and that's been a hit in Bandera. I went to different places that weren't in my God Made a Small Business Owner and put that in there. 

Chelsea Schmidt: A funny one was in Bandera, the best hamburger is at a gas station. I said, “I live in Bandera. Of course I get the best hamburger at a gas station.” That was one of them. And then our golf course has been not working for two or three years and I live in this community and so I said, “Of course I live in Bandera. We have no golf course, you got to go into the other town.” We put funny stuff on there and people love that. 

Tim Chermak: People actually are, again, telling you in real life, “Oh, yeah. I saw that video,” or “I saw that ad. That was great.”

Chelsea Schmidt: It's huge. My friend who has this gorgeous house in Bandera, it's listed right over a million, has an amazing hill country view, infinity pool, I mean this house is gorgeous, I got 35 shares and we're almost to 30,000 just for that listing video. That was really cool. Another listing video that I did was New year's. We had the poppers and the noisemakers and that video got close to 20,000, 17,000, I want to say. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah. Again, if you're in a community where the broader county has, whatever, 30,000, 40,000 people and you have listing videos that are getting 30,000 video views, it doesn't take very many of those videos for you to become famous in your area. People will know you because, more than likely, no other agent in your area has ever done videos that got any more than a couple thousand views, if even that.

Chelsea Schmidt: Those are my top. My normal are getting 15,000, which is still huge for our town of a thousand people. People around here don't do any online, social media period. They may post a picture and put it on there, but reels and videos and nothing. It's brand new to this area. That's what's really setting me apart from the older agents here and I guess I'm the new one, newest. 

Tim Chermak: Now, Chelsea, how much are you actually spending on the ads every month? What is your ad spend? 

Chelsea Schmidt: I started off at $800 is where I started, and I've been at $1,000 the past couple months on my ad spend. 

Tim Chermak: Okay, so everything we're talking about, all these results, you could accomplish that with $1,000 a month in ad spend. Because I always wanna put in perspective for people listening like, “Hey, Chelsea's on pace to have potentially more than doubled her business this year. She's getting all these video views.” There might be someone listening, thinking, “Okay, yeah, but is she spending $5,000 a month to do that?” It's like, no. Her ads are costing about $1,000 a month. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yeah. My first three to four months, $800, and then the last couple months have been $1,000. And then I try to get at least two listing videos. That's probably the part that I'm not as good on, that I can improve on, that I told Allie to hold me accountable for. Once I start getting more listing videos, I'll put more into that. I want to work out to spending more on the listing videos so I get more views. 

Tim Chermak: Awesome. I know I actually first met you in person at the Mastermind last year. Now that I realize that you've technically only been a client for six months, that means you must've been basically brand new to Platform when you went to the Mastermind. What was that experience like being at the Mastermind and meeting all the other Platform agents and the speakers and etc.? If someone has never been to a Platform Mastermind event, what would you say your experience of it was and why should they check it out? 

Chelsea Schmidt: I felt like it was like Hollywood, meeting all your favorite actor, actresses there. I'm like, Paul, there's Amanda, and there's Jill, and it was like, “I want to go touch.” Whenever I shook your hand when you're walking by, I was like, “Oh my gosh, that's the CEO of Platform Marketing.” Getting to meet everybody, I can't tell the listeners the wealth of the knowledge just from having pizza and sharing a drink and talking to every agent that's there. It was brain overload. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I took so many notes when I was in the airplane. I tried to list down my top 10, 15 when I was flying home. It was just so amazing. I've been in sales conferences before, but you make a Mastermind not just on real estate and I've loved that. You had something for family. You had something for, what was the other? The S corp, just like your own business. You didn't have to be a real estate agent for that speaker. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Grant and his wife, listening to them. I ordered immediately while I was there, listening to them. The family calendar. I was like, “Let me order The Manners.” We have that down. The kids read it on a weekly basis. I had so many books from everybody that spoke. Kara, she's Kara Newton. She's like my big celebrity Platform person. Getting to listen to her, the Pink Queen, seeing her all over Facebook, I was just like, “Man, when you want to be successful, you have to learn from the people who are being successful and who are in it.” 

Chelsea Schmidt: That's what you do at Platform Mastermind, is you have everybody here. They're not just telling you, they've already walked the walk. They're in it. They're still doing it. It's not something that they have done. I was blown away. I was so excited. Of course, getting to see everything before I signed up when I was getting to work with Heather and then I finally was like, “Okay, now I'm part of the club. I'm getting to be part of Platform. It's finally open.” When she was like, “Do you want to go to the Mastermind?” I'm like, “Yes.” It was right away. I got to meet Stacey from Tennessee, just so many amazing people and talking. You just bounce ideas over dinner. It was like every single corner you turn, you got to talk to people and learn from them. 

Tim Chermak: I'm finally in the cool kids club. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yes, that’s how I felt.  

Tim Chermak: I'm finally sitting at the cool table in the cafeteria. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yeah. I was like, “Oh my gosh.”  

Tim Chermak: What was your favorite meal or dinner you went to? 

Chelsea Schmidt: When they were singing. The box lunch or the buffet when you had Bill and the–

Tim Chermak: Oh yeah. The Flyovers. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yes. I loved that. That was awesome. That's sick. You got a horrible picture of me. Tearing that. Someone did. I'm sure it was Emily. 

Tim Chermak: It's actually a really great picture for retargeting ads. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Hilarious. I was like, “Tamara, what are we even doing?” We had the sun. It was beautiful weather. It was like 80-something degrees. We did not have our sunglasses and we were talking to other agents at the lunch and we couldn't see. That was funny. That was my favorite because I love listening to Bill. We had gotten to meet his group the night before, down at the beach and just talking. Yeah, that was cool. We got to talk to them and hang out with them at the beach, and then here we are, they're singing to us at our lunch. 

Tim Chermak: They're amazing. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Oh, super amazing. The Flyovers, if anyone gets to go see them or listen to them, wow. It was amazing. 

Tim Chermak: I actually had never really heard them. I just knew that Bill had an acapella group and I know Bill's standards for anything related to music. I'm like, “Okay, if Bill's in a group, they're probably really good.” 

Chelsea Schmidt: He's hilarious. I had so much fun listening. 

Tim Chermak: Honestly, the true story is that I wanted Bill Catlett to be at the Mastermind, but the last couple of years, he hasn't been able to come because The Flyovers have so many shows. It was always like, “Oh, I can't go to the Platform Mastermind this year because The Flyovers have a gig.”

Chelsea Schmidt: So you're like, “I'm scheduling you. You're coming. 

Tim Chermak: Exactly. I'm like, “I'll just schedule The Flyovers to be here and then your show will be here so you have to be at the Mastermind.” It was like, problem solved. Yeah, they were amazing. 

Chelsea Schmidt: They were. I love the beatbox people, so good. 

Tim Chermak: Beyond Heather, who's obviously right in your neighborhood, right in your backyard–

Chelsea Schmidt: It's weird because people say that she's their Platform person that they look up to. I'm like, “That's my friend Heather.” Kara is the one for me. The way that I see, I'm like, “Oh my gosh, it would be her.” 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, cause there's so many people you'll meet at an event like that that are from an entirely different part of the country, but seeing them in person, it's like, “Oh, cool. We're at the same event and I've been following you on social media for months or, potentially, even years.”

Chelsea Schmidt: I was spoiled because I really didn't know who Paul Allsup was. We hung out, he drove us home from going out and went to the grocery store. I've gotten to hear about the grocery store for years and finally got to go to the grocery store, so that was amazing. 

Tim Chermak: I have to interject now that that's hilarious. For anyone listening to this who's not been to a Platform Mastermind that doesn't know that you're referencing a seat at the table, they're like, “Okay, we went to a grocery store?”

Chelsea Schmidt: Heather was like, “You’ll have so much fun. It's a grocery store, there's a club, there's dinner.” I'm like, “There's a club and dinner at the grocery store?” Once you go, it works. It doesn't make you feel weird or anything. I love their dumpsters, their bathroom. I was taking pictures, send it to my husband. It was amazing, awesome. Great experience if someone gets to go to it.

Chelsea Schmidt: Yeah, so we hung out and was talking to Paul and I didn't realize what he was known for until I started following him. I'm like, “He's the singing real estate agent.” People know him from the Philippines. It's just, you get to be around these celebrities when you go to the Mastermind and learn from them. It was so, so awesome. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, it's always the most fun week of the year, especially for me being Platform doesn't have a physical office or location where we have 100 employees or something. I don't even get to see my coworkers that much throughout the year. You work with Allie as your marketing manager. Allie lives in Missouri. I don't regularly make it out to Missouri. Yeah, right. I was born and raised in Minnesota, but I live in Florida now. Unless I see our team at the rodeo that we sponsor every year, the Mastermind is basically the one time a year I might see people like Allie.

Chelsea Schmidt: That’s crazy. You brought up rodeo. The mastermind, I got to meet Tanner and his wife. Following him through the whole NFR, I was in shock when someone else, there was another real estate agent that ran into Tanner at a hotel and the picture of them was a selfie out in the hallway and he had my nephew’s shirt on. I just lost it. I started crying and I sent it to my sister in law. Now, I'm Tanner's biggest fan. My father-in-law, he was in the rodeo and he rode the bareback. That was my nephew's grandpa. For us, just putting it all together, that was really cool. That was a special moment. 

Tim Chermak: For those listening, she's referencing Tanner Aus. He's a champion, a bareback rider that is sponsored by Platform Marketing. Tanner actually came to the Mastermind just to hang out. Obviously, he's not a real estate agent. He's a professional rodeo cowboy, but it was cool for him to hang out and sign autographs for people. He went to see the table at night too. By the way, he actually just won the Austin rodeo. 

Chelsea Schmidt: That was so awesome. I was cheering him on. That was so amazing. I wish I was in San Antonio when he came to San Antonio. I've been following him on all the rodeos.

Tim Chermak: He's actually had a really great season so far. He's had a really great season so far and he's 33 years old, I think, now. He's 10 to even 15 years older than a lot of the guys he's competing against and he's kicking ass. That was really cool. Again, you've only been with Platform, Chelsea, for six months. Where do you see things going over the next year? What's your gut feeling about where your business will be at? 

Chelsea Schmidt: I haven't made it past this year, but I know that I should have my five- and 10-year goal. This year, my goal is $10 million, to double what I did last year. With Platform, I felt like doubling is very doable and achievable. So, $15 million to $20 million. I mean, I want to keep growing every single year, every year. I look at Neil Cox's number, I look at Jeff Williams’, I look at Paul's, I look at Cara, I look at Heather's and I see what they've done after three years or five years with Platform and I'm like, “That's what I want to do.” I just want to keep growing every single year. 

Chelsea Schmidt: That question gets me. I know that this year was my year to double. That was my goal, is to double and then just keep growing. I want to have an assistant. I want to grow just mine. I never seen leaving Heather's team. I want to keep growing our team and have my own assistant, have our own buyers, agents, and be more listings because I am still learning. I don't have as many. Heather has, what, like 25, 30 listing. 

Chelsea Schmidt: We were in the car taking those pictures for her content and two listings called right away. I was like, “That's just $1.6 million within 20 minutes.” It's amazing. That's what I want in the next year, but I know that Heather's eight years in and I remind myself. That's where I see myself growing with Platform. 

Tim Chermak: As you grow in your career and you build the personal brand more, you start doing more listings and probably fewer buyers.

Chelsea Schmidt: It's been great learning with the buyers. I had a lot of first time homebuyers, and I loved getting to help some of my former students. I am way older than you and Tanner. My students are married and having babies from when I started teaching them in 2010, 2012, 2011. Some of my athletes now are buying their first homes and it's so amazing. They trusted me when I was their coach. They call me because they trust me then and they know that I would have the best interest. 

Chelsea Schmidt: Being able to learn first time homebuyer programs, USDA loans out here because we're in a very rural area and the opportunities for them and helping single moms who didn't think that they could purchase a home, get them in a home with no down payment, those little things are the ones that pull my heart. I love helping buyers do those, that I don't think a lot of agents are just like, “Oh, you can't because of this.” I like taking the hard ones and figuring out what the lenders can do for us to get those families into home.

Tim Chermak: What couple ads have you not done yet that you're most excited to maybe get done in the next month or two? 

Chelsea Schmidt: Ducks in a Row, I was super excited about. I just got that, Allie has it in production. I'm thinking it's going to be out next week, so that one should be going out. My next one that I'm super excited about doing in a month or two, I've had on, I think it was Shanda. Am I saying her name wrong? Last name starts with a G. I follow her. She did one about getting your house ready to list. She's sitting in her car, just talking to them, and then she goes in the house and she shows the house getting all ready and everything. I'm excited about that. 

Tim Chermak: Allie's had it on my to-do list for a week or so. No, a couple of months. It's been sitting there. That's the one that's hard for me because it's so much video-ing content that I haven't been able to get it. I am excited. I told her to keep it on my to-do list. She actually asked me yesterday. She’s like, “Do you want me to take it off?” I'm like, “No, keep it there. I want to get it done.” Those are the ones that I'm super excited about. I know with the election going on, I can't wait to get my picture went out for the political–

Tim Chermak: Yard sign? 

Chelsea Schmidt: Yeah.

Tim Chermak: That's one of my favorite ads where we get a photo of you posing next to a yard sign. It doesn't matter who it's from. It can be from someone running for governor, congress, city council, school board, whatever. What we do is we have you stand or kneel next to it, and then we photoshop the sign. 

Tim Chermak: It's not a political sign. Instead, it would just say something like, “Chelsea Schmidt. She's not running for anything. She's just my favorite real estate agent.” People look at it, because when you're scrolling through Insta or Facebook, whatever, and that picture pops up, it immediately looks like a political photo, like Chelsea's running for something. It forces you to stop and click on it and then read the fine print, and you're like, “Oh, okay. It's a joke. She's not actually running for anything.”

Chelsea Schmidt: It's eye-catching. I think it's wonderful. It does what it's supposed to do. It makes you stop on it for sure. 

Tim Chermak: That's the whole philosophy of Platform, is make ads that don't look like ads. 

Chelsea Schmidt: It's so organic. People are just like, “Wow, you're so busy.” I'm just taking pictures out and about and making them into ads, but they're usually when we're doing something or if we intentionally schedule our content day. I have this one on my list too coming up, the grocery basket, returning it. That's just an easy one to put on there and those people don't think it's ads. 

Chelsea Schmidt: The listing videos are like, “Okay, you're selling this house,” but when I do the ones about our family, the retargeting, our daughter just turned 13 and my son's in the top 10 percent of his class, and then also on top of that, he's taking college classes in soccer so I like to brag on him sometimes because I am super hard on them, but I love that our audience feels like they already know me. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I had a real estate agent. We put an offer on her house that she had listed and she's like, “Chelsea, I'm so glad I'm getting to work with you. I feel like I already know you. I think you and I could be the best of friends.” I've never met this lady ever and she's telling me that we could be the best friends. I'm like, “Oh, I can't wait to work with you again either,” but I'm like, “Awesome.”

Chelsea Schmidt: I had the head of marketing for, what are they? Old Republic Mortgage Title Company out of San Antonio. Old Republic, she's the marketing executive. She called me and she was like, “What are you doing? I love your Facebook and your Instagram.” I'm like, “I hired Platform.” She called me back the next week or two. She was like, “What was the name of that company again?” I'm like, “You're the head of marketing. You're the executive for Old Republic Title.” That was really cool, that other people were seeing. San Antonio is huge and for her to see that of all the agents that she works with, I mean she sees thousands of agents. I felt honored when she called and asked about that 

Tim Chermak: Chelsea, what advice would you give to someone either who hasn't signed up for the Platform Marketing program or someone who signed up, let's say, in the last six months, but they're not yet seeing the results that they want to be seeing, maybe even they're starting to get frustrated or anxious because they thought they would be getting results by now and they're not?

Tim Chermak: We know that when you sign up for Platform, it's not a quick fix. The whole philosophy that we preach is that it's probably going to take six to 12 months to see the big results. What would you say to someone to encourage them so that they can get the results that you've seen so far?

Chelsea Schmidt: I would ask how many ads they're doing, making sure that they're doing the ads. Also, second, make sure they remember to invest in themselves. When you're investing in yourself and that you need to be in it for the long run, and I have. That's one thing I remind my teammates all the time, is Heather's not where she is because of just six months of work. This is eight years. We are very privileged to see someone as fabulous as Heather on a daily basis and we get to work with her. 

Chelsea Schmidt: When real estate agents compare themselves to other people, they're not remembering how long it has taken them to get where they are today. That's why I said to do the ads and invest in yourself and remember it takes time. Those would be my top three things. Call the leads. Call your damn leads. Make sure you're wearing your bracelet.  

Chelsea Schmidt: That's the other thing. I actually talked to a fellow Platform member and I told him how much I'm doing. Allie's like– Sometimes I'm busy and I can't call any leads. I'm not doing this on a daily basis. I'm not texting on a daily basis. She says, “If there's a day you can only do five or seven, just do five or seven.” 

Chelsea Schmidt: I try to time block hours where I'm setting down two or three days and I can actually get 100 to 200 in. If they're not time blocking, that's something too, that you are not following up with your leads for the whole reason that you have Platform. You have leads setting there, so make sure you follow up with them.

Tim Chermak: That’s some that’s honestly, in this podcast episode, we probably should have dove more into, is the fact that yes, you're creating a lot of ads, you're getting content out there, but one thing that you're doing that a lot of agents are not doing is that you're calling sometimes 100 leads everyday. 

Tim Chermak: Obviously, that doesn't mean you're spending four hours doing it because a lot of those people you call don't answer. That's how you're able to call 100 people a day, but it's a pretty undeniable reality that if you string together a couple days in a row where you're calling 100 people, you're going to have some really good conversations even if it's a small percentage because you're calling so many people. 

Chelsea Schmidt: We all have slow days. When I hear agents saying, “I don't have time,” dude, you always have a day or two that is slow. Those slow times, that's when I ask myself, “What can I do to make my business better? What can I do to enrich my business?” I didn't tell you is I worked with Cutco when I was 18 years old, and I have cold called everybody. I don't care if someone tells me no. I don't care if they– I got that I was a cringy lady the other day. I'm like, “That's fine.” I don't know who these people are. They don't know me, but they signed up. If I got the wrong number, I'm sorry. No problem. Most people are nice. I would say 90% of people, if I have the wrong number, they say I have the wrong number. 

Chelsea Schmidt: The ones that are looking and you do get those golden nuggets of leads, you have to dig through there. You have to make calls. You have to hustle to get it done. I make sure that I save my text. I actually have, up here, my second, third, fourth, and fifth. I printed it off. If I'm texting them and I've already sent them a text, I copy my second text and I have it on my notes or an old text from someone else. I just sit there and copy and paste. If it's a text message and you only have 10, 15 minutes, you can text five to seven people in those 10 to 15 minutes and make sure you're saving it. 

Tim Chermak: For sure.

Chelsea Schmidt: Just save all your text messages when you reach out to people and that makes it really easy. If they're not time blocking the couple of hours to call, then send them a text message. They always reply. If they don't reply, I've sent up to five and someone's replied after the fifth one.  

Tim Chermak: Most of our Platform agents are getting at least 100 leads a month. Usually the amount of leads you get from the Facebook ads is somewhere in between 100 and 200 leads a month. It's shocking how many agents aren't really making any attempt to follow up with those leads. The thing is, you don't know which one of those hundred, let's say, might be a $700,000 listing. You'll never find out if you don't call the leads. If you just consistently call the leads, it would do miracles. 

Chelsea Schmidt: I think too, because I got to call Heather's leads before I signed up with Platform and I got five buyer leads last year from calling her leads or texting her leads. I knew that once I got my own, I was going to start calling. I'm like, “These are mine. I'm paying for these. I want to make sure that I'm calling. I'm not going to let them sit and rot.” That's how I felt. I'm like, “I'm paying for them, so I'm going to call.”

Tim Chermak: Chelsea, thank you for your time. It's always inspiring to talk to someone who's already seeing results and taking so much action when you've only been with Platform six months. If there's anything that you guys take away from this episode, I hope it's that, yeah, Chelsea's had a lot of success in her first six months. She's not one of those realtors where it took two years to see the results of the marketing investment. She's seeing results in her first six months, but look at everything she's doing. Look at how much action she's taking. She's doing 10 ads a month. She's calling 100 leads a day. It's almost like, “Well, of course she's seeing the results she's seeing. Look at everything she does.” I hope that's the takeaway that there's definitely a connection between inputs and outputs. If you put in the work–

Chelsea Schmidt: They'll get success. Put in the work. Thanks so much. 

Tim Chermak: Yep. Thank you, Chelsea. A reminder, Platform works if you do.