How To Get Listings Within 90 Days

Autumn Nottingham:  Platform, I feel like helps you brand yourself as an expert. But not necessarily just a real estate expert, but as a professional and as a person and as a human, and again, I'll go back to the “People do business with people they know, like and trust.” And  Platform gives you the ability to be that person for people. 

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. 

Hey guys, it's Tim Chermak and welcome back to another episode of The Platform Marketing Show. I'm joined today by Autumn Nottingham. Autumn is a realtor in Texarkana, and she previously had spent,was it eight years in DFW?

Autumn Nottingham: Yes, that's correct.

Tim Chermak: However, you're originally from the Texarkana area. So at the time that you joined the Platform Marketing Program, you were moving back home, I guess you could say, to Texarkana, but you hadn't lived there in over eight years. And I think it's actually quite the coincidence that it was eight years.

It wasn't four years or 12 years or 20 years. Eight years, because we know according to data that the average person moves about every seven years. So being you were gone for eight years, if you had built up, let's say a real estate business and a sphere of influence, et cetera, in your hometown of Texarkana and then you moved away, You essentially missed an entire cycle of people moving.

So if you had worked, for example, with some first time homebuyers, you were gone for eight years. Statistically, it's very likely they picked another realtor in that time for their next move. You missed out on that cycle of getting repeat business, essentially. Which to be clear, probably wouldn't happen if you were only gone for two or three or four years, but as soon as you get to eight years, essentially you've missed out on that cycle of move-up buyers and repeat business. And so essentially you had to start from scratch. You contacted Platform and you're like,“Hey, this looks interesting. I'm building my business over again from scratch, even though it's my hometown and I feel like I know the area. I also don't. And my people in my sphere, maybe have already started working with other realtors. They're no longer loyal to me,anymore. Can I build up a brand here? A local brand, personal brand from scratch?

And I'm pleased to announce that at the time we’re recording this episode you've basically, Autumn, you've been working with Platform. We've had all the ads running basically for like 90 days And you've already had pretty epic results in the first 90 days, considering it was the dead of winter. So we're recording this in March of 2023, but you got your ads going in early December last year.

So really your ad campaigns have only been running in December, January. and February at the moment we're recording this podcast episode. So you've only had 90 days of sample size, and those 90 days of sample size have also coincided with being the slowest months of the year for realtors, right?

If you were to ask, I think a hundred realtors, what are your three slowest months of the year? Probably what most people would tell you is December, January, and February. Right. And so that was exactly when your ad started running in the slowest months of the year. And yet you're already in contact with multiple sellers talking about listing their homes.

I think you said you have one listing that's coming on soon or pending, something like that. 

Autumn Nottingham: I have one that's pending, and I have two that are active on the market. 

Tim Chermak: Okay, wow. And I know in terms of the buyers, how many buyers are you currently working with or do you have in the pipeline that'll be  starting to house hunt soon?

Autumn Nottingham: I have a handful of buyers right now that have reached out when I was just recently able to get pre-approved. But for the pipeline, it's just amazing what I'm looking at for the next six months. I've had so many people raise their hands. I'm not sure of the exact number, but it's looking very strong. 

Tim Chermak: Would you say it's more than five? 

Autumn Nottingham: Absolutely. Yeah. 

Tim Chermak: Somewhere between five and ten or more than ten do you think in the next six months or? 

Autumn Nottingham: I would say ten to fifteen.  

Tim Chermak: Okay. So  let's just unpack that for a second. In your first ninety days  of starting The Platform Marketing Strategy, you already have multiple sellers, multiple listings, and you're thinking within the next several months it'll end up being ten to fifteen clients that are coming from this marketing and you've only been doing it for 90 days. 

Autumn Nottingham: Yes, that's right. 

Tim Chermak: Before we dive into your story, I wanted to set the stage of where you're already at and you're only 90 days in. Because a lot of these podcast episodes that I record with the Platform Realtors, it's because they’ve probably been with Platform for a year or some of them have been with Platform for 18 months and they're sharing, “Hey, after I put in the work and trusted the process and I was patient, this is what happened after a year,” and you're already getting results like that, essentially within 90 days, which. 

Autumn Nottingham:I certainly didn't expect that now. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, it's uncommon. So I want to say that it's not like we expect people are going to have that crazy of results within 90 days. But when it happens, we definitely want to celebrate it. Especially considering those 90 days are, happen to be, the slowest or what should have been the slowest months of the year for you, December, January, February.

So let's go back in time. You were born in Texarkana, and you ended up moving to the Dallas Fort Worth area, about eight,nine years ago.  And you became a realtor in the DFW area. So you mentioned you joined a team. Tell me about what your real estate career looked like for those eight years in the DFW area.

Just to lead us up to where we are.

Autumn Nottingham: Yeah, I joined with a brokerage. At the time, I didn't know anyone there. I was new to the area. And I got put on a corporate relocation team my first year. So they were able to provide a lot of business, but of course that came with kind of a steep fee.

And I was there for several years. I later joined a team because,I needed some more business, I didn't have a lot of that sphere referral business still. I did well, but I just always wanted more. I joined the team. I thought that would  be great.

So I've worked the lead business. I understand  what those leads are like. And when I was making my move to Texarkana, honestly, I thought about getting out of real estate because  I knew I was going to be starting over. I was tired of chasing the quote unquote leads. And I wanted a different kind of business.

And that's when I heard about Platform.  

Tim Chermak:Yeah. I was actually just working on my next book.  And for those listening, it's again, we're recording this live in March of 2023, but I'll actually have my next book probably coming out in Q4 of this year, I think is when the publisher said it'll probably release.

And the chapter I actually just submitted yesterday. is about this concept of linear versus geometric marketing and what I mean when I talk about having a linear marketing model versus geometric is that if your whole career you're just buying leads and it's like transaction to transaction and you're never actually building a relationship with these people that goes beyond the transaction. 

It means you'll never get referrals because most agents, most, and that's the reality for most agents on most teams. If you're on a big volume based team model where your team leader is just giving you a bunch of leads, you show them a house, show them a couple of houses, whatever, you make some offers, get it accepted.

It's like, more leads come in, move on to the next one. You don't really stay in touch with those people. You're not building a relationship. And therefore there's not a long term, long tail of referrals. That's the linear way of doing business. You can have a good business doing that. You can certainly make six figures of income doing that.

But the problem is, as soon as you turn the marketing off, as soon as the leads stop flowing, your income slows down with that. So your effect, like, for your entire career, you're held hostage by the size of your marketing budget.

Autumn Nottngham: You spend so much time. There's a lot of time involved with that. 

Tim Chermak: Right. If the leads ever stop, your business stops because you're constantly driving people around, so much.

That's like, you, as you said, you almost in effect don't have time to build relationships with people if it's just a high volume churn and burn model. But the inconvenient truth I think that most agents don't want to accept or they've never thought about it consciously, because maybe they're trying to like repress it, is if you've been in the business for more than I would say five years to six years and you still have to be spending a ton of money on just lead generation. 

Something's wrong, because it means you're not building referrals. You're not earning referrals by building relationships because at or around that five to seven year mark, you should start getting repeat business and you should notice a cascading snowball effect from referrals from the people you worked with in the first year or two or three.

And so If you're still having to throw the same amount of money buying leads with a Zillow budget or wherever, there's obviously tons of websites you can buy leads from. If you're still having to do that seven years or eight years into your career, you need to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, like, why am I not getting more referrals?

Because lead generation should help you build up a sphere.  Technically, and I say this as like the CEO of a marketing company, right? Technically, after seven or eight years, you shouldn't need to generate leads anymore.

Autumn Nottingham: Right.

Tim Chermak: You should have built a database large enough that it's kicking off enough referrals where you don't need to be getting hundreds of leads a month and yet ironically  It's the same agents that build their business with this kind of volume leads model where I'm going to have a team and just, I think you said that, before we started recording the team, you're on had like 16 different online lead sources they were paying for leads from. Or was it eight? 

Autumn Nottingham: No, it was probably 16 or maybe even more. They pumped a lot of money into it, and you could walk in every day and have a hundred leads to call if you wanted to. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, so like at a certain point if you're doing that, after 5, 6, 7 years, you should have worked with enough leads and had enough closed transactions that just the referrals from those essentially creates a residual endowment where you don't need to spend so much on marketing in the future.

And yet it's, I said, ironically, it's the exact people who build their business that way with just a high flow of leads in this lead volume approach that they're the ones that seven or eight years later are still doing the same thing. They still have to spend that same amount of money every month because they're not getting referrals.

We've tried to structure Platform differently. And I think you're already seeing the fruits of that in the first 90 days. That like, will you get leads? Yes, of course. You're probably going to get some leads with it, but you're doing so in such a way that they actually reach out to you.

And hopefully, you're building a relationship with them. You're actually getting to know them so that 5 years from now you start seeing a bunch of referrals and your business grows deeper not wider.

Sorry for that rant, but you saying that just made me think, I just finished this chapter yesterday so I have to get this off my chest.

I have to share this distinction, right, between  doing a lot of transactions on a Volume Model versus actually getting to know. getting to know people. So at a certain point, you don't have to generate so many leads. In the future. And it sounds like that team you're on at DFW, if you were doing corporate relo.

 And it's crazy,you said 16 different online leads programs they were subscribing to and paying for leads. Leads were never really the problem,  right? It sounds like you always had, if you would go into the office, you always had leads to call. So what made that frustrating for you? As an agent where you thought, I don't know if I want to do this the rest of my life.

Autumn Nottingham: Initially, I was very excited about it because I saw so much opportunity in it. And I went on so many listing appointments. I went out with so many buyers. But that did not convert well; I spent a lot of time and went on a lot of appointments for someone to say, “Oh I ended up going with my brother’s cousin”.

Tim Chermak: Yeah. 

Autumn Nottingham: And so and so sells a lot of real estate. And they ended up going with someone else. And after I had my first child, I was just like, I don't want to hustle as hard as I was to not convert this business. I want to spend my time a lot more wisely. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah.

Autumn Nottingham: And that was part of what was discouraging for me moving to a new market as I felt like I was starting all over.

Tim Chermak: Yeah,yeah, you may have had a bunch of leads in that system, but it's the efficiency  of the whole thing. It's like, if I have to talk to 120 people to get one who's serious, like 120 leads, and then I start talking with that person, and then I find out they're not even that serious, or I show them a house, and then they ghost me  for weeks afterward.

All the leads in the world  don't necessarily translate to closings, right? I've said this on many other Platform Podcast episodes. It's actually another title of another chapter in the book I have coming out later this year, but lead generation is not synonymous with marketing. 

Way, way too many agents think that marketing and lead gen are just like  synonyms. They're just two ways of saying the same thing, and I completely disagree. Lead generation is part of marketing and getting leads is hopefully part of your marketing strategy. But if your idea of being a realtor is, oh, I should have 10 or 20 or 30 leads coming in every day, and then I follow up and go show them houses, like you're in for a big disappointment because most of those people at any given time are not serious.

You were moving back to Texarkana, after spending eight years in DFW. It's almost like right when you were starting to feel like you're building up your own sphere, you finally have some roots planted there. You are maybe starting to get some referrals like, “Oh, we're moving back”, and you were actually, I remember when you talked to me about joining The Platform Program, you were like “my-”, and by the way, if I'm putting words into your mouth, feel free to correct me.

But this is how I recall the conversation “I think I'm going to either become a realtor again in Texarkana and join Platform and give it a go and go all in with Platform. Or I'm just going to quit and give up my real estate career, because I don't want to do there what I was doing while I was an agent in DFW.

Autumn Nottingham: That’s exactly what I told you. And I remember thinking in my head, this guy probably is like, “I don't know if I even want to waste my time on her. She's one foot out the door”, but it was 100 percent true. And to piggyback off of what you were just saying about the leads is my first broker had told me, “Autumn, people do business with people they know, like, and trust.”

And that's the truest statement I feel like, when it comes to real estate. And when I had looked at Platform I knew that I wanted to get away from the lead system. And when I was doing my research,I was like, I feel like this is a platform that gets people to know, like, and trust you, and that's what really just intrigued me about it. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, it's that, again, with Platform, yes, you get leads, because I think leads have to be part of any marketing system. There has to be some new leads coming in. 

Autumn Nottingham: Sure.

Tim Chermak: We view the lead generation as the icing on the cake. The actual cake itself is all the other marketing we're doing.And I think most other marketing programs are actually the opposite, where they would say,”Hey, the most important thing that you're getting when you join our marketing program is leads. And if there's any other tangential benefits, those are just completely secondary benefits. What you're really paying for is leads.”

You're essentially buying leads. Right. I think that Platform is literally the inverse. We are the opposite of that where, yeah, you'll get some leads as a side effect of the marketing we're doing, but the real marketing we're doing is helping you build a personal brand so that when you're out and about in Texarkana, whether you're at the church, grocery store, your kid's school, sports game, T ball, dance recital, whatever that people actually stop you and they're like, “Hey, do I know you? Oh, that's right. You're that realtor, right?”

Autumn Nottingham: That's right. 

Tim Chermak: That's how I view the purpose. That's the purpose of Platform Marketing. And if by running these social media ad campaigns,  as a by product of that yeah, you'll probably generate some leads. Then cool, that's awesome, but leads aren't the reason that we're doing it.

I want people calling you, messaging you, where it's warm inbound leads, not you having to spend all day cold calling people. Cause that's not why anyone got into real estate, is because they looked forward to making cold calls for two hours a day, right? 

Autumn Nottingham: That's right. Yeah, I also knew that I was moving to a much smaller area where the name is very well known of the three agents in town that do the most amount of business  And if I wanted to be in that top 5 percent that I had to have a brand.

Tim Chermak: Yeah when it's your hometown too, you want to appeal to the roots and the knowledge and the wisdom that you already have in that area where people already know that you're a local expert.

So again, you're only 90 days, and I want to keep repeating that so that people know. Hey, Autumn hasn't been with Platform for two years at the time that we're recording this episode. She's only been running ads for 90 days. So in your first couple months here, what have been some of your favorite ads you've run?

In terms of which ones seem to get the most engagement from your sphere and from the leads, like have people ever told you in real life, “Oh, I love that video you did, or I love that photo you did”? where they actually, again, in real life, told you, “I saw this ad.”  

Autumn Nottingham: Yes. I had someone yesterday comment on my post.

That's a friend of mine that said, “If I were going to buy or sell, I would use you. I love your post. I love seeing you here.” But my favorite ad, very recently I did the “I Have Home Buyers Looking For”.  Tim Chermak: Oh, okay.Yep.

Autumn Nottingham: Where you list your buyers. I was absolutely amazed at how much,  not just traffic to the post, but how many people were sending me direct messages on Facebook saying, Hey, I want to talk to you about my home that I'm looking to sell or that I'm considering selling or. 

Oh, what do you know about this area? Not just comments, people raising their hand and saying, I want to talk to you specifically. It was crazy. I spent one afternoon just chatting with people, via messenger.  

Tim Chermak: Yeah. And was that the one where you posed in front of a stop sign or what did you do for that particular ad? Do you remember? 

Autumn Nottingham: It was actually rainy that day. So I just had to impromptu, I just stood in front of a door in my house and was just pointing up. It was nothing fancy at all.  

Tim Chermak: Yeah. And that actually proves my point here that sometimes the best ads, the most engaging ads aren't necessarily the most creative or the most clever. They're just the most valuable. They're the most substantive ads where it's not meant to be cute or something where there's a pun or humor or something. It's just valuable information. And the information in the ad itself is so valuable and so specific that people almost don't even realize what they're seeing is an ad.

So on this ad, you're talking about, it basically just lists almost in like bullet point form. “Hey guys, here's some buyers I'm working with. Please let me know if anyone has someone that they know is thinking of selling. Because I can probably match one of my buyers with your home.” And it just lists out all the buyers you have and their price ranges like, “Hey, I have someone looking for a home up to 300,000 with three bedrooms, two baths. I have someone looking for a budget of $450,000. They want four bedrooms and two and a half baths. I have someone looking for a house with a pool,” and whatever it lists all the buyers you have. And they're specific wishlists of what they're looking for in a home and that ad works. By the way, this ad is absolutely kicking butt for all of our clients now across the Country. This ad just works super well in the late winter, early spring. 

Cause what happens is people start messaging you saying, “Oh, you know what? Like number four, it actually perfectly describes our house. And we're thinking of selling this year.” And people will start messaging you like, “Oh, there's actually a listing on my street that fits that description.”And essentially, you're getting referrals from people who aren't even working with you. 

Yeah, because they feel like they want to help you out by helping match someone up with one of those buyers that you listed in the ad that you're working with. But again, there's nothing creative or clever or cute about the ad copy or the ad. It's just, “Hey, here's the buyers I'm working with. Can someone help me out?”

And you end up getting of loads of messages, and then now all those people will be retargeted because they clicked on your ad. And they'll keep seeing you for the next six months. And so, you can basically rinse and repeat that ad every 90 days or so. You can launch a new version of it because you're probably working with new buyers every 90 days or so.

And so if it works really well now, it's like, cool, we can probably relaunch a version of that ad in May, for example. And then we'll get another surge of business coming in from it. Then you launch another version in August. Right. And yeah, that's like an old Platform classic that seems to work  every time we do it.

Autumn Nottingham: Yeah. I think the other ad is not really an ad, but the listing tour is what I would say has,I've done several listing tours, but has been a big kicker for me. I feel like at least one, maybe two of my listings have come from that. And it was just people seeing, “Hey, she's out here doing business. She's got a listing down the road or in my neighborhood” And so many people have commented on it and, friends and family even mentioned like, “Oh, I saw that home down the street that you had for sale.” And it just brings up great real estate conversations.  

Tim Chermak: Yeah. And that's the whole point of social media retargeting is keeping you top of mind long enough so that when someone is actually ready to go that Autumn is the agent that they think of.

So you've done listing videos you've done this buyers, we call it The Buyers I'm Helping Ad. Are there any other photos or videos that you've done, like highlighting things to do in the community or local restaurants or anything like that?

Autumn Nottingham: Oh, my gosh. I was actually telling my account manager this morning. I wanted to amp up my local community stuff because it really has surprised me how much that stuff has taken off. I had a local event in town. It was shared, I think, over 50 times. Yeah. 

Tim Chermak:. What was the event?  

Autumn Nottingham: We had a train come to town with Santa to where you could get on and see Santa and the elves and tour the train.

It was a kid's event, and I heard about it. And I knew that the community  was not really aware of this event. And I thought it was really cool. And it got shared so many times. I did a local business, a new coffee shop. So many people commented on it. Were asking what my favorites were there.

The business owner actually sent me a message directly and was like, “Oh my gosh, thank you so much for doing this. This is great. I love what you're doing with small businesses.” So that's also brought a great attraction.  

Tim Chermak: Yeah, I love when you get to use your advertising as a realtor as a platform to really just promote community events, what's going on in your neighborhoods, local small businesses that you want to highlight that maybe people haven't heard of. Because when you use your own advertising as a platform, it's why we call the company Platform actually.

When you use your own advertising as a platform to really promote your community, this really cool thing happens. It's like a stealth bomber strategy of marketing.  You're basically flying under people's bullshit radar, and they don't realize they're being advertised to. Because if it's a quick video or something of Autumn saying, “Hey, I love this, whatever, this local bakery, they make fresh croissants every morning. It's made from scratch. They're probably waking up at 3am or 4am every morning to bake these. It's not just trucked in frozen pastries from some wholesale distributor. It's like, they're making these fresh every morning. They're so good.” And you just film a video talking about, let's say,why you love the croissants at such and such local bakery in Texarkana.

Because you're not talking about you, because you're not talking about real estate or listings or any homes for sale or market trends or anything like that, people let their guard down psychologically. And they'll watch the video, and in doing so, they're getting a healthy dosage of Autumn because they watch maybe 10 seconds of the video. And you're in the video talking. So they're hearing what your voice sounds like. They now see what you look like. Subconsciously, they feel like they're getting to know you, but the reason they watch the video is because it never occurs in the conscious part of their brain that,”Oh, I'm being advertised to.”

Because it's not Autumn talking about how great of a realtor she is, it's her just highlighting something going on in the community. But the brain can't tell the difference, right? The brain just thinks, “Oh, Autumn seems cool, she's trustworthy, she knows what's going on in the community.” And over time, if you're putting content like this out every week, the cool thing is, you don't have to be salesy.

Tim Chermak: You don't have to be constantly promoting yourself. If you just promote stuff going on in the community, people will remember that you're a realtor because all the ads are coming from a page that's, Autumn Nottingham Realtor, right? Like, it's very obvious that you're a real estate agent in Texarkana, and the proof is what you've seen in the first 90 days.

You haven't done any super salesy ads or ads promoting how great you are. It's mostly been stuff focusing on the community and what's going on. And yeah, we mix in some listing videos and whatnot, but you already have, you said, you're expecting, within the next couple of months, it's probably going to be a total of 10 to 15 people come to you  as a result of your marketing.

I know that you told us when you signed up that, “if I could do 15 transactions this year. Being it's my first year back in Texarkana, I've lived elsewhere. I lived away from here for eight years. If I could come back and do 15 transactions, I'd be thrilled.” And it's already, or it's only March and you already are looking at, oh, there's probably 10, 15 people lined up that are already going to work with me this year.

And that's assuming you don't need to re evaluate the goals for this year.  That's assuming you don't generate. a single other lead for the rest of the year, and we're still in March, so that is evidence that what we're saying here, this kind of marketing theory of Use Your Own Advertising to promote the community,then you don't have to talk about yourself as much. And then paradoxically, it makes people want to work with you. 

Autumn Nottingham: I posted a picture of my daughter and I having cupcakes at a local deli/bakery. And it was just supporting that business. And one of the teachers at my kids school saw it and the picture of my daughter, and it was what brought her in.

And she was like, “Oh, I saw that picture of you and your daughter having those cupcakes. I didn't know that you were a real estate agent”, and the ad didn't say, “Hey, I'm a real estate agent” so that was, wow.  

Tim Chermak: It just serves as a perfect example of if you just put out fun, interesting content that again, isn't overtly salesy, it's not always you talking about the real estate market.

It's just  helpful or fun information. In this case, there's just a photo of you and your daughter. It sounds like eating a cupcake, but because it's at a local business, you tagged the local business in it. It just serves as a reminder of like, “Hey,I'm active in the community, right?

I'm an active part of this community and I just happen to be a real estate agent but you're not always leading with the fact that you're a realtor and you're looking for business and you want more listings or like, cause that would be annoying. If all your ads were salesy like that, it'd be annoying.

Autumn Nottingham: And let's be honest, all agents post the exact same thing, promoting themselves, promoting their listings and their closing. And this really stands out  

Tim Chermak: Yeah, because it doesn't look like it has some ulterior motive. It doesn't look like you have an agenda why you're posting. And again, that,ironically, makes people more likely to want to work with you because they feel like, “Hey, she's an expert on the community. She's active in this community. And she just happens to be a real estate agent.” 

That's a very different type of psychological positioning than, “Oh, I'm a great realtor in this community.”It's like,”Hey, I'm active in the community. I love the area. And I just happened to be a realtor. That's how I make a living.”

Right. That makes people want to work with you. More because they know that first and foremost. She's passionate about Texarkana, whatever local schools local small businesses  And she just happens to be a realtor. It's that you'd probably want to work with a real estate agent that's embedded in the community that they serve.

Tim Chermak: So okay Autumn, let's get into some of the specifics of your ads So do you know approximately how much money you're spending on the actual ads budget,the ad spend?  

Autumn Nottingham: I'm sure my ads budget was $600. I know I've been spending quite a bit more on my listing tours specifically.  

Tim Chermak: Okay. So it's probably somewhere I'm guessing between $800 and $1000 a month is probably average. Okay. So you've gotten all of these results. Again, we said, multiple listings three, four buyers you're actively working with. You said your pipeline is more like 10 to 15 people that have come from the marketing in 90 days. And you're only spending $800 to $1000 on the actual ads budget every month.So it's not like you're spending $5,000 a month on your ads budget. 

Autumn Nottingham: Correct. Yeah. And when I'm referring to those numbers of this is what I have in my pipeline, I'm speaking to people that have … I'm engaging with on Facebook or that have come to me through Platform or something like that.

But I feel like what I really haven't even spoke to is just the conversations that I'm having with the real people in my life, my family, my friends that may not necessarily be saying “I am going to buy or sell a home in the next year”, but they're saying, “We see how you are doing real estate.” And that's huge to me to have those people that I already know see me selling real estate or just know that I'm active,and being top of mind to those people.  

Tim Chermak: Yeah, because it takes a lot of social or psychological pressure off of you to annoy your friends and family by reminding them that you're a real estate agent, if you could just rely on these social media ad campaigns to keep you top of mind in a creative way. Because obviously every real estate broker for the last 500 years has told their agents like, “Hey. The most important thing when you're getting going is to assert yourself. And tell all your friends and family i'm licensed as a realtor. So if you need any Help buying or selling a home, I'd be happy to help you, just so you know, I'm licensed as a realtor.” Cause you don't want to find out that your cousin worked with some other agent just because they didn't know you were a realtor. Right. 

But for most agents, what that means is they have to manually contact their friends and family. They need to call their cousins and call their aunts and uncles and grandpa and brothers and sisters and brother-in-law and people from church and school. All the people that you would consider your sphere, you have to manually reach out to them. And frankly, that's annoying.

Autumn Nottingham: That can be very awkward too, especially if you haven't spoken to those people and longer than what you should have um, to reach out and, oh, I just wanted to touch base, see how things were going. Is that really the case? One day I had two friends reach out to me one morning. One said,“Hey,I want to talk to you about, we want to buy some land this year.” 

And the next person said,”Hey, I've been meaning to reach out. We want to sell our home this year.” And I was like, “Wow, okay. Those people contacted me within just a couple hours of each other.” And I later went back and they had both liked an ad that morning. I can't remember what it was, but I was like, that's not a coincidence that they liked my post on Facebook and then sent me a text directly and said, I want to talk to you about buying or selling real estate.

Tim Chermak: Yeah, again, your ads are basically doing that dirty work for you of keeping you top of mind with all the people that are technically already in your sphere. They're people you maybe already know. And that's a really important distinction to make is that when you run these social media and ad campaigns in the context of this Platform Strategy. It's not always about bringing new people into your database. It's not like we're trying to generate leads of cold strangers. Actually, I would argue the more important part of The Platform Strategy  is just keeping you constantly top of mind with your existing sphere, people who already know who you are.

Cause there's so much business and referrals that you can mine from that without ever generating a cold lead who is a complete stranger. 

Autumn Nottingham: I would 100 percent agree because these are people that I haven't spoken to in five to eight years. And they do know me, but I wouldn't be top of mind. They could have contacted another agent. But because I'm right there in front of them, I was on their mind. And I did not have to pick up the phone and reach out to them directly and say,”Hey, how's it been going?” And start that awkward conversation. 

Tim Chermak: Right. They reached out to you, not the other way around. That's really important. I also want to highlight that they probably know multiple agents. 

Autumn Nottingham: For sure. 

Tim Chermak: So like if especially if you haven't lived in Texarkana for eight years now. It's very likely that person already knows two or three or maybe even four or five other realtors in the area, and yet they reached out to you. So, I think when we think about marketing at kind of a philosophical level, like a really high macro 10,000 foot view of what we're doing here, most agents think of marketing as being synonymous with lead generation, right? 

And yet I would say  most agents should be able to make a hundred to $200,000 a year just from marketing to their sphere of influence and getting referrals from people who already know them. If you're extra ambitious and you want to make more than $150,000- $200, 000, maybe your goal is “I want to hit $300,000 in GCI or $500,000 in GCI, right?

Tim Chermak: That's awesome. Then yeah, you're gonna have to run more marketing campaigns, generate more leads, and probably some of them will be strangers that are coming in for a marketing campaign. 

Hopefully, they get to know you, because hopefully you're structuring things The Platform Way and you're running a bunch of retargeting ads. And you do actually get to know those people. So in effect, they become part of your sphere. But most agents, I think, completely underestimate that.

If you just stay in touch with your existing sphere, the people who already know you before you ever signed up for Platform, you should be able to do a hundred, $200,000 a year in GCI pretty much just from that. And that's why we've structured The Platform Program the way we have it. It is honestly more about staying top of mind with your retargeting list and with all those people first and foremost. 

And then yeah, we'll sprinkle in some new leads, but the first order of business is making sure that everyone in your life knows you're a realtor and knows you're active in the community. Because even people who have been in the business 10 years plus, they underestimate how much business they're missing out on from their sphere, because they're not staying top of mind with them in a creative way. 

Autumn Nottingham: Absolutely.  

Tim Chermak: How did you first hear about Platform, Autumn?  

Autumn Nottingham: I listened to a podcast that was Agents in a Small Town, and I found it on Facebook. I'm sure I was targeted  as being maybe in a smaller town, and that kind of led me to just listen to a few more. And I started doing research from there and I was like,”Hey, this is what I'm looking for, to have a different kind of business than what I've been doing.” 

Tim Chermak: If you were to describe what The Platform Strategy is or what The Platform Marketing Program is to an agent who had never heard of it, what would you,how would you describe it in your own words of what The Platform Strategy is?  

Platform,I feel like, helps you brand yourself as an expert. But not necessarily just a real estate expert but as a professional and as a person and as a human. And again, I'll go back to the “people do business with people they know, like, and trust.” Platform gives you the ability to be that person for people. 

Tim Chermak: It gives you the ability to be the agent that people know, like, and trust in a community. So obviously part of what we do is it's market exclusive. Is that something that was important to you?

Like knowing you would be the only agent in the Texarkana area? 

Autumn Nottingham: Oh, 100 percent for sure.  I knew that the reason why this would work so well is because it was going to be unique to me, and that someone else is not going to start doing it right behind me.

Tim Chermak: Are there any specific agents in Platform, Autumn, that you look up to if like wow,I really love all the ads they put out or they're always inspiring me with creative videos or retargeting ads. Are there any agents that come to mind that you just think are doing a great job with Platform? 

Autumn Nottingham: Yeah, for sure. Angela Musgraves, I don't know if I'm saying that correctly. I saw a lot of her videos in the beginning. She does such a great job with them. And the first podcast that I mentioned that I listened to was Heather's. I definitely started following her stuff after that, and she also does an amazing job.  

Tim Chermak:Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. So that's Angela Musgrave up in Idaho.

And then are you talking about Heather Mutz? 

Autumn Nottingham: Yes. 

Tim Chermak: Okay, cool. Yeah, actually just a couple of weeks ago, I recorded another Platform Podcast episode  with Heather Murray. Who's another Platform agent in Texas, also with Homestead and Ranch. 

Autumn Nottingham: Yes. 

Tim Chermak: And it's very easy to get them, it's very easy to get them confused, because they actually look really similar.

Their names are both Heather M. And they're with Homestead and Ranch Real Estate in Texas.

Autumn Nottingham: Yeah.

Tim Chermak: Both of them are actually having great results with Platform. They create a lot of content and their businesses have grown. Substantially in the last couple of years, Angela Musgrave as well up near Boise, Idaho.

So what ads do you have coming up that you would like to do in the next month or two of, are there any retargeting ads or video ideas you've seen other agents do where you're like, “Oh, I want to do that one” at some point in the next month or two?

Autumn Nottingham: You know, my account manager Emily and I had talked this morning about targeting some sellers. She sent me a couple of ideas for For Sale By Owners and the Don't Be a Lazy Seller. I'm excited about that one. I think that'll get a lot of trends or traction. One thing we haven't discussed, but I always thought was such a great ad was the Ducks in a Row.  

Tim Chermak:Oh yeah. Yup. Yup. It's crazy how many people on the Platform Podcast, when I asked the question, what's your favorite ad?

It's crazy how many people mention the Ducks in a Row all because it's such a stupid video. Like, it's so dumb. You know that you would just think oh like whatever. This is just some random ad we do. But so many people say “That's my favorite ad.” Because I had tons of people contact me.  It's just a quick video script where you have a bunch of rubber ducks and you talk about,”Hey, as a realtor, I can help you get your ducks in the row.”

And then you list off a couple of things you help people with. And you're either catching ducks that someone off camera is tossing to you, or you're just using these rubber ducks as a prop in the video, just to grab people's attention. Cause they see it pop up in their newsfeed, on Instagram or on Facebook. And they're like, “What is going on here? What, this is a realtor? Why are they playing with these rubber ducks? 

Autumn Nottingham: It's catchy. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, it is. It just makes you stop and watch it for a couple seconds because your brain is like what's going on here?

It's not the typical thing you'd expect to see from a real estate agent, popping up in your feed. 

But yeah, like lots of agents have mentioned that video that they got tons of messages and leads and just engagement from people when that video got launched out. Have you done the So God Made a Small Business Owner?

Autumn Nottingham: No. And I was going to mention that. That is definitely on my radar. For probably a couple of months down the line, I want to get some more small businesses in there and maybe go back and revisit those for that ad.  

Tim Chermak: Yeah. The only thing I would caution you is that it looks like you're about to become really busy. And so if you wait for a couple of months, you'll probably be pretty busy in April, May this year. Yeah just from experience, I would probably tell you do it now while it's still, I'm doing air quotes right now “the slow time of the year.” Because once you get into spring and summer, it's really hard to get that one done because you're going to be so busy.

If you're already this busy, just, so far in January, February, I would predict, Autumn,that you'll be you'll be scrambling for hours in the day. Once we get to the summer.

Autumn Nottingham: I am. I can feel such a forward momentum. I'm so excited to see what's coming for the rest of this year for sure. 

Tim Chermak: And just to think back in, October, November, when you were talking to Platform about getting started, and you were doing your research, you were 50/50. You're like,”Oh, I might quit real estate entirely, because I think it sucks. Or I might do Platform and give it one last go, because I think that could be what I've been missing.”And you were that close to just quitting the business entirely. And now look at where you are, just a couple of months later. 

Autumn Nottingham: I had actually started applying for a transaction coordinator positions. I was definitely considering that. And I knew when I talked to you that if I move forward for this, I am 100 percent in. And I don't know if you know this or not, but that was, not even 6 months ago when we talked.I've got my broker's license since then. I'Ve definitely done a 180.  

Tim Chermak: Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. So it went from like, Oh, I think I might leave the business entirely to, Oh, I'm going to ramp up and get my broker's license and go all in. Like I would guess just off of the activity you've had in Q1 of this year, you'll probably do somewhere between 20 and 30 transactions this year.

Like, especially if interest rates come down later this year, because if that happens a little bit, like the market's going to absolutely explode with people jumping back in.

Autumn Nottingham: That would be amazing. 

Tim Chermak: If rates come down to closer to 5%. And obviously it completely remains to be seen if and when that'll happen. I don't mean to be, acting like an economist on this,on this podcast. But it looks like based on what Powell and the other Fed governors have said that rates could come down potentially in Q3 to Q4 of this year.

Autumn Nottingham: I think the same.

Tim Chermak: Even if there's sentiment of people thinking they might, it still makes it much more likely that people will end up buying this year in June, July, August. Because they'll think I'll buy the house that I want to buy. And if I need to refi in Q1 or Q2 of next year, if I know that rates will likely be dropping, then I'll just refi next year. And so, that gives them a lot more confidence to buy this year, even if rates are a little bit higher. 

Autumn Nottingham: Yeah, I think the shock factor is wearing off for people as well.

Tim Chermak: Yes, absolutely. So much of why the market was tight last year… Yes, of course there was inventory issues. Everyone knows that. But a lot of it was just because I think buyers were in denial. About like, oh my God, a 7% interest rate, and they kept thinking, oh, if I wait another month, maybe it'll come down. Because it was just this sticker shock of I'm not paying 7%. My friend Jerry bought a house last year at 3%, right?

Like 7% is crazy. And like a year later. I think they've become numb to it, and they're basically, they've normalized it. 

Autumn Nottingham: Absolutely.

Tim Chermak: And people are tired of waiting. It just is what it is. 

Autumn Nottingham: Yeah. 

Tim Chermak: Cause like someone will wait. I just had this conversation with someone yesterday. Someone will wait maybe three to six months. If they need to buy a house, but they have a really strong hunch or intuition that rates might come down or even home prices might come down in the next three to six months, I think most people will wait three to six months, but they're not going to wait two years.

Right, like at a certain point, if you need to buy a house because maybe you recently had a child, or you accepted a new job somewhere further away from where you currently live, or whatever life event is going on. Maybe you're youngest children just graduated, moved out, and you're now empty nesters. And you're looking at downsizing, whatever. People will wait a couple months or even six months, but they're not going to postpone a decision for two years. Because at a certain point, you're just going to move even if the financial situation isn't ideal. You have to move at a certain point.

Tim Chermak: And I think a lot of people that postponed last year are reaching that point of they're getting out of denial. This year rates are what they are. Rates are not 2 percent or 3 percent anymore. This is just the world we live in. And so if I want to move, this is approximately the rate I'm gonna have to pay, and it just is what it is.

Autumn Nottingham: Absolutely. Yeah.

Tim Chermak: So with that trend, you know your business is only gonna grow even more. You know, later this year, Autumn So if you're already that busy, I'm pretty excited to see where things are six months from now  

Autumn Nottingham: Me too. I'm excited to see how it goes. 

Tim Chermak: So, what would you say has been the biggest surprise about The Platform Strategy so far? Something you didn't expect would happen or has there been anything surprising that you didn't think of when you first joined?  

Autumn Nottingham: I certainly didn't expect to have these kinds of results within 3 months. But, we've already talked about that.

1 thing that kind of caught me off guard was just peoples’ perception. I had a guy call me up and say,”Hey, I've been following you on Facebook and I'm an investor. I own 75 Doors. And I want to start buying properties in your area.” Oh, wow. This is not someone that wants to buy one or two properties.

And he said, I just feel like you are the person that I need to know. I'm looking for a hustler.  

He just developed a perception of me, that's,it was surprising to me in, like you said, a short amount of time. he hasn't been following me for two years and thinks that I'm the neighborhood expertHe thinks this in a short amount of time. 

Tim Chermak:Just because of all the Platform retargeting ads, right? And again, you didn't know this person. All right.

Autumn Nottingham: This is a complete stranger.  

Tim Chermak: Okay. That's awesome. What, and this is the final question, what would you say to someone who's been with Platform for maybe six to nine months, and they're starting to get a little bit anxious or discouraged? Because obviously you getting results like this in 90 days is amazing. And we want to celebrate that. 

Autumn Nottingham: Yeah. 

Tim Chermak: But it's not common. Like typically it does take six months plus to really see the results that you're seeing, and you're only 90 days into it. What would you say to someone who's been in Platform for over six months, and they haven't yet seen the results just to encourage them? Or, the other side of this coin is that if there's an agent listening to this right now that hasn't yet signed up for Platform, and they're thinking about it. With the benefit of now you've been in The Platform Program for a couple of months, what would you say to that person?And it's all about potentially giving it a go and signing up. 

If you're thinking about it, I would say you're not going to regret it.I  wish that I would have known about this sooner. Honestly it's just an amazing thing. And for agents that are, maybe not seeing early in, I would say do more listing videos. I feel like that's something that has really surprised me. The people that make the comments about, oh, I saw your video or … I think that has just got me a lot of traction. 

Tim Chermak: And were those your listings or were you borrowing listings from other agents? 

Autumn Nottingham: So the first one I did not have any listings. I actually borrowed it from an agent and he was the owner of the property as well.  And at first he was like, Why do you want to do this? And then after the ad ran, he called me and he was like, how do you do this? There's 20, 000 video views on this and so many shares and comments. This is amazing. And there's a lot of people out there that are thinking the same thing that, are not saying it to me directly. And I think that's huge. It's something that really sets me apart for my competition.  

Tim Chermak: Yeah. We've talked about listing videos on many of the other Platform Podcast episodes, but I view them as like the Swiss Army Knife of The Platform Marketing Strategy because it's simultaneously doing so many things at once.

It's building your brand. It's generating leads. It's positioning you as an active agent. Like, “Hey, I actively have business going on.” The thing is, even if it's not your listing, no one knows that. Right. 

Autumn Nottingham: Yeah. And as agents, we all want more listings, right. And I feel like the listing videos, that's the kind of people that's bringing in. It's sellers going, I'm looking for somebody that does something different versus just putting it in MLS and walking away. If I'm a seller and I see that someone's publishing stuff that's getting 20,000 views, I'm gonna want them to sell my house for sure. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, because it's like, Oh, wow, this agent's actually marketing the property. They're not just putting a sign in the yard and waiting for another agent to bring a buyer. They're out there actively promoting the property, bringing exposure to it. You would want to work with an agent like that because you charge probably the same commission as other agents in the area. And yet you're doing so much more to market your property. So of course that's going to result in more, in more sellers contacting you. 

It is definitely setting yourself apart from the competition and I'm excited to do more of those. I'm doing another one on Friday and I think that it'll continue to bring in sellers and hey, that's the business we're looking for.

Yep, absolutely. Autumn, thank you for your time today. And guys, we'll see you on the next episode of the Platform Marketing Show. 

Autumn Nottingham: Thanks for having me, Tim.