How Seth Bailey Generated Listing Leads In His First 120 Days

Seth Bailey:  It’s just different than any other marketing company I've been with. If you want to build a brand, I don't know how to do that, so you have to hire someone that knows how to do it and has done it for a while. I would say that would be just the main thing, would just be invest in your business and look at it that way, kind of mindset shift. 

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 today by Seth Bailey. Seth is a realtor in Nixa, Missouri, although you're from the south in Missouri. Is it where they call it Missour-uh? How far south are you guys? 

Seth Bailey: Still Missouri. 

Tim Chermak: It's still Missouri, okay. I asked that because my wife and her family are from the Springfield area nearby and her dad still lives there and calls it Missour-uh. He's like, “You know, in certain parts of Missouri, it's Missour-uh.” I always give them crap about that. I'm pretty sure you guys aren't that far south in the country. 

Seth Bailey: It could be the older generation too. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah. Seth joined the Platform family, I believe, in March of this year. We're actually recording this live in July, so it's really only been four months. This isn't one of those conversations with a client who's been with us for a year or two. You've really only dove into the Platform strategy just in the last four months. 

Tim Chermak: I actually can't even keep track of all the wins you've had just in these last 100, 120 days. I had to ask Seth before we started recording, “Can you list off all the random leads you've had contact you because I can't keep track of how many potential listing appointments you've had, buyers that have contacted you.” Let's just try to ground this, I guess, in a solid before and after of the numbers before we get into the conversation, Seth. 

Tim Chermak: I know that last year, you said that you had some investor deals that were actually up in Kansas City. If you factor that out, you did about $6 million in sales volume last year. In other words, you were already a successful realtor. I think for many, many agents, their dream is someday getting to $6 million. You were already selling more than $6 million, again, plus the sales volume you had from an investor up in Kansas City. You were already a pretty successful agent. 

Tim Chermak: This year, though, even only having been with Platform for the last four months, you've already sold $5 million, you've got plenty in the pipeline, and it seems like you're on track to actually hit $10 million this year, which was your goal. Walk me through, Seth, what has been working with the Platform strategy, maybe what did you expect? Give me the executive summary of what that's been like over the last four months since you signed up.

Seth Bailey: I didn't really know what to expect. Honestly, I've been with a couple other lead generation companies and one of them evened out, the other one was a total loss. Coming into it, you didn't really know what to expect. I spoke with a lot of agents before I joined Platform and not really any agents had bad things to say about it. They're all with you guys for two, three, four, five years. I was like, “Well, some must be going good.” I just took a leap of faith. 

Seth Bailey: Starting out, first month, did an ad on buyer needs that I needed with a stop sign and had a random guy call me from the stop sign that was in his yard. It's pretty funny because he called me as, “I noticed the stop sign added in my front yard.” I was in Florida at the time, but didn't end up getting it. That was the first cool win that I had, this random person calling me and wanted to list their house in my subdivision. That was really cool. 

Seth Bailey: I've had quite a few other wins. Recently with a seller that called me randomly out of the blue, has seen my videos, and didn't interview with anyone else. It was super easy, felt like they already knew me. Just seeing my stuff consistently was definitely paying off. A lot of wins, and just trying to keep consistent with that. Honestly, I just didn't really know what to expect, but it's definitely heading the right direction for sure already four months in.

Tim Chermak: I think the numbers are always the ultimate proof. Something can feel like it's working in this ambiguous sense, but when you look at the numbers, that tells you is it working or is it not working. I think the fact that you're on pace for $10 million this year when last year your total was more like $6 million, that shows the growth you've had. 

Tim Chermak: Comparing apples to apples, this year is a far more difficult year than last year. The market overall for most agents in most markets across the country is down something like 25% to 30%, not in terms of home prices, but it's down in terms of transaction volume. Just year over year, there's 25%, 30% fewer closings than the same time last year, and yet your business hasn't stayed the same. Your business is on pace to almost have doubled even while the market is down. I think that's phenomenal. You're in the Nixa, Springfield area of Missouri. What is the population there? What is the approximate price point set of the homes that you're selling?  

Seth Bailey: Nixa has about 20,000. Ozark, which is right beside Nixa, has about 18,000 to 20,000. And then you have Springfield, which is a very big population, as well as Branson with the lake and everything, but I'm specializing in Nixa since I live here, which is about 20,000 or so.  

Tim Chermak: What was the price point that you typically see? What is the average home that you're buying and selling? 

Seth Bailey: I would say $275,000, $300,000. Right now, my average sale price is $315,000, so a little bit higher than the average.

Tim Chermak: Okay, great. I think that frames it up for people watching or listening. Sometimes you hear, “This agent's on pace to sell $10 million,” and some people hear that and they roll their eyes like, “Oh, yeah? Well, what is he? In some super expensive market where every home is $1 million, so he's only selling 10 homes a year?” It's like, “No.” How many transactions have you already had this year, Seth?  

Seth Bailey: I've closed 16. 

Tim Chermak: You're on pace to do over 30 closings this year. In the future, obviously more as the marketing continues to snowball. Is there a particular ad, Seth, that you can look back at all of the ads that you've launched within the Platform strategy over these last four months, that you feel has worked the best?

Seth Bailey: I did a video on a local business that was opening up in Nixa. It's a food hall. If you saw it or not, but it's called 14 Mill Market. Basically, it's a food hall with about 10 different restaurants inside with outside space for games and music and stuff like that. Basically, you can pick what you want. Did a video with them before it even opened up and I was shocked to see how many shares and comments and views I got. I think we only spent $100, $150 on it and they got over 104 shares. Actually, it shows up as far as views, when they share the video, but it got 104 shares with tons of engagement. That was one that I can point out that worked really well with not much money spent and I got to meet the owner and stuff like that. 

Tim Chermak: Cool, yeah. That's always honestly half the reason that we really encourage our Platform clients to film videos where you're getting out into the community, you’re featuring local small business owners. It's almost an excuse just to network and get to know the small business owners. 

Tim Chermak: Normally, if you would call up any random local business, a restaurant or whatever, and you would say, “Hi, my name is Seth. I'm a real estate agent here. Would you like to meet me?” they're going to say, “No.” That just sounds like a sales call. If the context in which you meet them is you're doing a free promotion, you're filming a video to run a social media marketing campaign, giving their restaurant or giving their small business free publicity, essentially free advertising, then of course they're going to meet you and they're really grateful to meet you. I just think that's a way better context to get to know people when you're doing something of value for their business for free. 

Tim Chermak: We always tell our Platform agents that if you do nothing else but you film 12 of these small business highlights every year, one a month, at the end of the year, you should have 12 relationships of small business owners that you actually got to know and they refer people to you. Typically, in most communities, the small business owners are the most networked, most well-connected people. They know everyone. If they know you and they like you and trust you, at some point in the future, it might not be this week, might not be this month, it might not even be this year, but at some point in the future, they will refer business to you if you made a good first impression. 

Tim Chermak: Seth, did anyone mention that they saw that video? In real life, has anyone told you, I loved the photo you did here or the video you did there? Have you had that happen yet where anyone told you in real life that they liked an ad or a post that you did? 

Seth Bailey: I have a really tight neighborhood. We're always talking, so a couple of them mentioned it. No one that I didn't know as far as reached out to me about it or said, “I loved your video you did,” but some neighbors and stuff like that. 

Tim Chermak: Well, I suppose you actually had that seller you mentioned who saw your ad pop up because he recognized which [street you are.] That was the first one, I guess. Again, you're only four months in. That's a very, very common side effect that we see with agents. The longer you stick with Platform, the more likely it is that you might just be walking down the street, you might be at church on a Sunday, you might be grocery shopping, you might be at one of your kid’s T-ball games or dance recitals, whatever, and someone will come up to you and be like, “Hey, I know you. You're that realtor. I saw your video. I saw your ad.” You have this almost local celebrity feel in your market. You're on the way towards building that. 

Seth Bailey: I think it'll be just consistency over time. I've listened to, I think, every single podcast on here. I've heard most of the agents on there that's been with you guys for a while that have mentioned that. It'll be cool to get that in the future.

Tim Chermak: Seth, speaking of consistency, I think one of the reasons that you have been so successful early on in your tenure with Platform is consistency. I know that you've put out a lot of content. I was just perusing your page this morning before we had this podcast interview and you aren't just doing one ad a month. You're not doing the bare minimum of just putting a little bit of content out there. Regularly, you're putting out photos and videos and you're listening to your account manager. It seems like every week you're probably averaging at least two new pieces of content are going out, and so the people on your retargeting list that click on your lead generation ads are regularly seeing new posts, new videos going out. They're not just seeing the same ads recycled over and over and over again popping up in their newsfeed, they're regularly seeing new stuff. I think that's why, again, even though you've only been running the Platform strategy for four months, you're already seeing results. It's because of that consistency.  

Seth Bailey: I'm typically doing four listing videos a month and then we'll do, usually, a typical personal moment and then a business highlight and then an education. Goal was eight a month, so really making sure I do the listing videos.

Tim Chermak: Those are the Swiss army knife of the Platform Marketing strategy. The more listing videos you film, they generate leads, they build your brand, they accomplish all of the above, and you're doing one a week. 

Seth Bailey: That's how I was able to get that builder. He kept seeing my stuff and I did the video on his personal home that was listed with someone else. I was able to show him all the examples of what I've been doing and seeing how many views I've been getting. I asked him, “What are the other agents doing to market your property?” He didn't really have an answer. If I'm able to show value and that many people bring it to his listings as far as views, then why wouldn't he list with someone who does that? 

Tim Chermak: I think that's one of the coolest benefits of the Platform strategy, is the data it gives you when you go into a listing appointment, or even if it's not a formal listing appointment, just any conversation you might have with someone who's thinking about selling their house, is what they're always asking or what they're always thinking, I should say, even if they don't ask it out loud, is what are you going to do to market my home or what are you going to do to sell my home that every other agent isn't already doing? Why should I list my home with you versus any of the other agents that would love this listing? They might not say those words out loud, but that's exactly what they're thinking. 

Tim Chermak: With all the data that we're tracking inside of the Platform Marketing program, we know exactly how many clicks and views and impressions and video views, we're tracking all of that for you so we can create reports for you and you could tell this builder in this instance, “Well, here's exactly how many video views and exactly how many clicks I've had on my listing promotion video just in the last 30 days or just in the last 90 days.” No other agent has any sort of data like that. They're just going to give bland, ambiguous answers. “Well, I do a lot of promotion,” and they speak in generalities because they don't have any specifics. The more specifics you have, I think, the stronger your value proposition is of why someone would want to list with Seth versus any other agent in the area. 

Seth Bailey: You're going into a listing presentation, you feel pretty confident now versus before. 

Tim Chermak: Now, Seth, if you've been, you said, doing four listing videos a month, that's obviously one a week, I'm assuming you haven't had that many listings yourself just in the last couple months because we're in such a low inventory market, are you borrowing these listings from other agents? How are you finding the properties to film?  

Seth Bailey: Typically, I'll have at least one or two of my own and then I'll borrow the other two or the other three. Usually, it's 25% mine and 75% borrowed. 

Tim Chermak: I think that's really, really important to point out for those watching or listening here, is that the more listing videos you put out into the world, the better your brand is going to be. People might not do the work of looking you up and looking up your transaction volume or how many millions of dollars you sold last year, whatever, most people don't do that level of granular research when they're looking up an agent to work with, but they do get a intuitive sense of is this a successful agent or not just by looking at your social media profile or Googling you. 

Tim Chermak: If they search you on Google, YouTube, or even Facebook, we want videos to pop up that you're regularly showing off homes even if they're not your listings. Even if it's another agent's listing, the thing is most people assume it was your listing. They just think, “That was probably Seth's home that he sold. It was Seth's listing.” 

Tim Chermak: For legal reasons, we're always putting that, “Hey, this listing is courtesy of Bob Smith at RE/MAX,” or whatever. We're always giving the actual listing agent the proper credit that they deserve, but we know, like wink wink, nod nod, that most people are going to immediately forget that. If they see Seth on camera, what their brain remembers is that, “This must have been Seth's listing,” even if it wasn't. 

Tim Chermak: I really obviously just want to emphasize that, that just because you might not have any listings of your own, doesn't mean you can't be regularly filming listing videos and running those as ads every single week. Just find listings from other agents. You create your own reality. At a certain point, perception becomes reality. If they're always seeing Seth showing off homes, they just think, “Wow, Seth must be a top agent here. He always has new listings. He's always promoting new homes. I see him showing off homes way more than I do other agents.” What they might not know is 75% of the listings are other agents' listings, you are just ambitious enough to go out and regularly create those opportunities so that you always have listings to film. 

Seth Bailey: You don't always get a yes from those agents you asked, but you got to ask until you get a yes. I have someone in my neighborhood that they're like, “No, we don't want to do that.” “Okay.” I think they don’t want their client to see you marketing their property better than them. I get that. If you can find a new construction where it's empty, or I found that vacant ones are a little bit more easy to do, new construction, but I've done many occupied ones too. You just gotta ask until you get a yes and find a good one that stage well. 

Seth Bailey: I try to find houses that have one specific thing that I can have my first actional. I found one that had a pool table. That was my first actional. One that had a really cool front door, open it up, trying to find things in houses that you can have your first three-second actional– 

Tim Chermak: Just always making sure that the opening three seconds of the video is doing something unexpected, something creative to grab their attention. You don't want to ever, ever start a video saying, “Hi, it's Seth Bailey. Today, I would like to–” because immediately, you've lost their attention. They've scrolled on the next thing on Facebook. 

Tim Chermak: Always figuring out what is something unexpected, what is something creative I can do in the first three seconds to grab someone's attention. I know you mentioned you had one that had a pool table. What is it even called, the pool where you hit the cue ball and it breaks the– I don't even know what that phrase is called, where all the balls go in a hundred directions?

Seth Bailey: I think it's called breaking or something.

Tim Chermak: Okay, breaking, yeah. I saw that video and that was great. I wanted to keep watching because it says that you're a realtor on there. It's like, “Okay, well what does this video have to do with anything?” and then you realize you're showing off a house, but the point is by that time, you've hooked me in and now I'm watching the video. Every home, no matter how vanilla or boring or cookie cutter a home may seem, there's always something you can do to pattern-interrupt and make that first three seconds memorable and unexpected and get the people watching. 

Tim Chermak: I want to circle back and just emphasize again that listing videos are not like other social media content that you can create as an agent. You can do all sorts of photo ads, or you can post announcements of upcoming open houses, you can even post announcements of new listings you might have coming up, you can give updates on the market, but listing videos are the ultimate social proof. Listing videos actually prove that you're an active agent who's out and about selling homes. 

Tim Chermak: Technically, a brand new agent who's never sold a home in their life could just pull some data and talk about what's the average days on market for homes in Nixa or how many months of inventory do we have of listings here. An agent who literally has been licensed for one day can share information on the market, and so I think there's a lot of coaching programs out there or a lot of marketing companies that try to overemphasize sharing market information. Honestly, most people don't care about that. 

Tim Chermak: Most people don't even know what it means when you say, “Hey, we have two months of inventory,” or “We have six months of inventory.” They have no context of what those numbers even mean. If you say, “We're a buyer's market or a seller's market,” that just flies over most people's radars. They don't even understand the language that you're speaking. If you get out and you're regularly touring houses, I think that appeals to the part of people's brains where it gives them the peace of mind of knowing, “Hey, I constantly see Seth out there showing off houses, selling houses. It looks like he's a really active, successful agent. I want to work with someone like that who just looks like they're out and about regularly in houses doing their job.” 

Tim Chermak: Most people don't know what realtors do all day. They don't know what your average day-to-day looks like, but if they see you out in homes constantly in these listing video tours, they can piece together a mental picture that, “He looks like a really successful agent. I don't know a lot about real estate, but in some emotional level, I want to feel like I'm working with a successful agent.” I think there's no better way of accomplishing that than just putting out regular listing video tours. 

Tim Chermak: If I could almost narrow it down to anything, the reason you've had so much success so far, Seth, and that you're on pace to do $10 million this year when last year you did more like $6 million, is that you've consistently done listing videos. That's the number one factor, I think, in your success so far. What's cool is that you're only four months in. I'm sure if we check back in month six or month seven, you're going to be even further along because that continues to snowball.  

Seth Bailey: It's just a matter of consistently doing it. I usually just try to find a day where I can get a video done or even two videos done a day and get those done. It's not like you're showing house all the time of day, so just trying to get those done. The photo ads are pretty easy to get done. The listing videos usually take about an hour and a half, for me anyway, but so just trying to find a day that I can knock two of them out at least.

Tim Chermak: Seth, how much are you spending every month on the actual Facebook ads themselves? What's your ads budget every month?  

Seth Bailey: It was $800 until this month. Now, I bumped it to $1,500. I was like, “I'm getting a closing. I wanted a contract for $600,000 and so that's going to be a really good one so I figured I might as well get snowball effect and increase it to $1,500.”

Tim Chermak: Up until this point, though, just to be clear, what's got you all the results that we've been talking about thus far has been spending about $800 a month on ads? 

Seth Bailey: I think one month it was a little bit more like $950 or something, but I don't think I've ever spent over $1,000.

Tim Chermak: Okay. Well, that's really good to know. I know that there might be some people listening to this and they're like, “Yeah, okay. It sounds awesome. His business is growing. He's getting all these leads and listings, but is he spending $5,000 a month on ads? What does the actual ads budget look like?” You've spent $800 to $900 a month most of the months. 

Seth Bailey: I was talking to Emily because I think my retargeting list is more like 40,000. We want to be able to reach all of those people, so I think eventually, I had to increase my budget to make sure I'm hitting a lot of those retargeting lists as well.

Tim Chermak: Sure. That's awesome that your retargeting list is basically the entire adult population of Nixa at this point. You pretty much have everyone in your retargeting list in the town.  

Seth Bailey: Nixa and Ozark is about 40,000. It's probably most of Nixa and Ozark right now.

Tim Chermak: How far away from Springfield are you in Nixa? Is that 15 minutes away or 20 minutes away? 

Seth Bailey: 15 minutes south of Springfield. 

Tim Chermak: Okay, so it's kind of like a small town that's about 15 minutes-ish from– I mean, Springfield isn't a big city, but it's definitely bigger than Nixa. 

Seth Bailey: Yeah, a lot bigger. It's not a city, but a lot more population there. Nixa and Ozark’s about 40,000 combined. 

Tim Chermak: I heard that you also got a pretty awesome referral from someone in the PlatFam. Are they under contract right now?  

Seth Bailey: Yeah, I got a referral. It wasn't technically from her, but she knew an agent in her office or something like that where she's like, “Yeah, [he gets to] Branson,” which is about 30 minutes south of Nixa. They called me a couple from Wisconsin, drove down last weekend, and we toured [two 115]-acre properties. They ended up getting a contract with one over the weekend.

Tim Chermak: What was the price point on that? 

Seth Bailey: It was listed for $750,000, we got under contract for $700,000. 

Tim Chermak: Okay, awesome. I think that's one of the hidden benefits, I guess, of being in the PlatFam is that, yeah, of course, the reason you sign up for the Platform Marketing program is to hire us to manage your ads for you and have a marketing agency behind everything that you do, but a cool side effect is that you're also getting access into this national network of agents who love referring business to each other. 

Tim Chermak: Most people I've found in the PlatFam, they don't really care what brokerage you're with. They don't care if you're with eXp or KW or Real or RE/MAX or whatever. No one cares. They trust you that because you're in the PlatFam, it means that you're probably a trustworthy agent that they can refer people they know to you knowing that you're going to take care of them. That deal right there, if it's a $700,000 closing, pretty much pays your marketing fee for the entire year. 

Seth Bailey: Yeah, it will. With the referral fee, it'll be a little under, but it'll be pretty darn close to entire marketing.

Tim Chermak: It's nice having that essentially just as icing on the cake, that you weren't relying on that to justify any of the marketing because it's already more than paid for itself, but that's just icing on the cake at that point. Seth, how did you first hear of Platform?  

Seth Bailey: That's a good question. I'm pretty sure I saw you guys on Facebook. Yeah, pretty sure it was Facebook, and then got in a call with Diana and she sold me. It was just refreshing to hear what it was all about. It intrigued me with the business owners and building a brand versus just getting leads. 

Seth Bailey: I was more excited about the brand versus you guys send leads and stuff like that. I was more excited about building a brand for myself, and being here for a couple of years and I want to be that guy in this area versus the other big guys. I want to be able to be on their level. It's building a brand that really excited me. Even though it's expensive, I'm with a lender that pays for half of my Platform as far as money. I felt like that was a big help. Yeah, it was initially Diana because she was really good at explaining everything and she definitely sold me on everything.

Tim Chermak: What you just said there, I think, is what makes the Platform strategy unique from so many other marketing opportunities that agents might have, whether it's lead generation on this company, that company, buying leads from Zillow. So much of the focus with other marketing approaches is on leads. 

Tim Chermak: What makes Platform different is yes, you're going to get leads because at a certain point you have to generate some leads as part of any marketing strategy, but Platform is really about building your reputation and building your brand in a community and that the brand generates leads almost as a by-product of establishing that local brand. 

Tim Chermak: Leads are the icing on the cake. Leads aren't the reason you do it, it's to build the brand. Leads follow from that. I think you're probably already starting to experience that just in your first couple months of what we mean when we say, “Hey, we're building your brand. We're not just generating leads.”

Seth Bailey: I've had other companies that just produce leads and that's not going to last long term. Yeah, exactly. It's building a brand over a lifetime versus just getting leads that don't really pan out, I think. Building, having your face on stuff is the way to go. 

Tim Chermak: Seth, what are you most looking forward to with Platform in the future? It sounds like you've already talked to some agents that have been with Platform for a year or two or even longer. Are there any ads that you haven't done yet that you're excited to do or any results you've heard other people talk about that maybe they've accomplished that you're looking forward to getting to yourself?

Seth Bailey: Yeah, a couple. Just getting recognized in public will be fun. Just get randomly stopped and say, “Hey, you're that realtor.” That'd be fun to get my first one of those, and getting random calls. I've heard people getting one, two a week, messages, calls, and just building a pipeline where you're constantly busy and the sellers are calling you versus you calling them. That's probably the main thing, is just creating that brand and you being the main guy in this area to help them out. Just people calling you versus you going to them, which I've done a lot over the past eight years of being a realtor. 

Seth Bailey: I've done a lot of cold calls, which I think is good as well, but it's definitely nice when people call you versus you calling them. Like the lead that having a contract, they called me out of the blue, met with them, no one interviewed them besides me, got exclusive right to sell the next day. Probably the easiest client that I've ever worked with. 

Tim Chermak: That's, I think, the ultimate Platform success story right there, is that you're not just getting leads, you're getting leads that specifically want to work with you. They're not even interviewing other agents because they saw your marketing, they fell in love with your approach, in some sense, they got to know you even before they ever spoke to you because they saw enough of your ads, getting to know who you are, that they reach out to you. Again, you aren't calling them, they actually reached out to you and they said, “Hey, we like what we see of your social media. We'd like to sell our house and we want you to list it. We're not even gonna interview other agents. We just want to work with you.” That's the ultimate win from a marketing perspective. It doesn't get better than that. 

Seth Bailey: I was bummed that I wasn't able to do a listing video with their house because we ended up getting sold off market and they were moving all their stuff out pretty quickly. I wasn't able to get a listing video inside the house in my full video, which I was kind of bummed about, but I was like, “Well, I got them on a contract, so that's a little better.”

Tim Chermak: Yeah, no kidding. That's a win. Seth, last question here. What would you tell someone who's doing their research, doing their due diligence, they're thinking about maybe giving Platform a try, but it's a lot of money? Platform isn't cheap. It's expensive because it works, but it's not $200 a month. Platform is a serious investment for people that are actually serious about growing their real estate business. What would you say to someone who's in that process of researching Platform, but they're just not quite sure if they should move forward? What's your perspective after having joined the Platform program about four months ago?  

Seth Bailey: I would say instead of spending money, just look at it as investing in your business versus just throwing money away. I felt like I'm never gonna get to the point where I want to be unless I invest in my business, invest in my marketing. It's a leap of faith. I think you have to give it, I've heard other agents say, at least six months to a year before the snowball really kicks in. Agents I've talked to before I joined, they're like, “You have to give it at least six months, give at least a year before you really see the effect of it.”

Seth Bailey: I would say for them also to try to team up with a lender as well to help with the cost like I did. I teamed up with a title company that's paying some of my fees. Just right there, it's about $1,000 that I'm getting from other vendors. That's one help people could do. You just gotta look at it as an investment versus just throwing money down the drain because even one deal is going to most likely pay for half, at least half of your budget. 

Seth Bailey:  It’s just different than any other marketing company I've been with. If you want to build a brand, I don't know how to do that, so you have to hire someone that knows how to do it and has done it for a while. I would say that would be just the main thing, would just be invest in your business and look at it that way, kind of mindset shift. 

Tim Chermak: Seth, this has been really encouraging to me to hear how much success you've already had just in your first four months of Platform. Again, what all those other agents have told you is the truth. Most people, it takes for sure six to 12 months to really see the results start to kick in in a major way. Obviously, you see leading indicators even in the first couple of months because leads are flowing in the first couple of months, but it's not as if you typically get a bunch of closings in the first couple of months. 

Tim Chermak: For most agents to really feel like, “Oh, okay. This is definitely working. I'm super excited about this,” that usually takes six to 12 months. You're already seeing clear results basically just 90 days in. That's really encouraging for me to hear that. We'll have to do a follow up podcast episode maybe next year once you've been with Platform for a full year just to see where your business is at. Will I see you at the Mastermind later this year?  

Seth Bailey: Probably not this year. We're actually probably going to Florida in October. Going back would be a little stretch. Hopefully, next year. Next year, will get my wife on board and we can get down there where it's warm. Yeah, hopefully by next year 

Tim Chermak: Cool. Seth, we’ll have to schedule a follow up episode, like I said, at some point next year, once you've already had a full year, just to see where your business is at. I have a sneaking suspicion that you'll be in an even better spot than you already are now as impressive as the results have been just four months in. Guys, thank you for joining us on this episode of The Platform Marketing Show. We'll see you on the next one. 

Seth Bailey: Thanks.