July 15, 2021

How To Grow From $2m To $20m

How To Grow From $2m To $20m

Jessica Ford shares the specifics on what she did to literally 10x her business using the “Platform” strategy.

Jessica Ford shares the specifics on what she did to literally 10x her business using the “Platform” strategy.

Transcript

Jessica Ford:
You have to 100% be intentional in reference to marketing. Never, ever, ever, ever, if everything else in your budget has to go away, never let that be your marketing budget, ever, because that is 100% your oxygen and your lifeline to any thriving business.

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 market strategy.

Tim Chermak:
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 here today with Jessica Ford, a rockstar realtor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Jessica has what is maybe the most impressive business growth story of maybe any realtor that I've interviewed yet for the show. She's actually on pace.

Tim Chermak:
I have to preface this by saying, I know this sounds too good to be true, or like I'm exaggerating or lying, but Jessica's actually on pace to have literally 10 timesed her business from where it was at in her career before Platform. So, she did about two million the year before Platform in sales volume. And this year, if everything goes according to plan, she'll probably hit $20 million in sales volume. Keep in mind in just a couple years, she's gone from 2 to 20. So, that's not doubling or tripling or quadrupling that's literally 10 timesing in your business with apologies to Grant Cardone for stealing his slogan there so that's incredible. Jessica, welcome to the show.

Jessica Ford:
Thank you.

Tim Chermak:
So, let me dive right in and just ask you, what did you start doing differently in your business when you first noticed that things were working, like things were growing? Was it you think that you filmed a lot of videos? Is it that you followed up with leads? I mean, what do you think was the key ingredient early on that kind of was the spark that started that fire?

Jessica Ford:
I would definitely say that Platform has been my secret sauce. So in 2018, I actually got my license. So prior to that, 13 to 15 years we had a real estate investing business and so we helped people who were in foreclosure and I didn't have to be licensed for that. We did primarily the investing side strategy then when the market had corrected, made a shift, the banks realized that they were losing a lot of money, they corrected and then that's when I got my license. So I got my license in 2018 and knew that I needed to do something in reference to marketing. So in 2018, I did 1.9 million, that was my first year in real estate as a licensed agent.

Tim Chermak:
Sure, but you already had you many, many years of experience doing real estate. So you really knew-

Jessica Ford:
Right. And marketing has always been the secret sauce in reference to that, that's how we got all of our buyer/seller leads in reference to foreclosures when that was the market. And so, in jumping in and partnering with Platform at that time, I knew for myself that getting in front of people, telling the story, telling my story and having that one-on-one communication with people is the absolute key for any business to thrive.

Jessica Ford:
And so I look at my real estate as I'm not an agent, I have a real estate business. And so, I look at it very differently than a lot of other agents do that. This is an actual business, and in order for any business to function and run, you have to have marketing behind it. And so, I would say all of it goes together, but primarily shooting the videos is the only way that you're going to get in front of people on a regular basis to where you give them that know, like and trust to where they want to call you and no one else.

Tim Chermak:
Yep. I love what you said there about I don't just think of myself as a real estate agent, I think of myself as an entrepreneur who just happens to own a real estate business. And so, it's like I put on my big girl pants and I make decisions like a real business owner. And that means sometimes investing in marketing, investing in business expenses because you're not just going to sit back and cross your fingers and wait for business to come to you, which is what most agents do.

Jessica Ford:
And there's no business that is on the planet that is successful that does not have marketing pushing them out there. Let's just take Coca-Cola for example, they are a well known name, everybody knows them worldwide. However, I'm still seeing commercials for Coca-Cola on TV. Why? Because they want to keep their presence known so no matter how big or how small you are, that's the key to any business to have oxygen in order to breathe and thrive.

Tim Chermak:
Yep. It's like oxygen for a fire. If you have a Yankee candle burning on your countertop at home and you cover it up, what's going to happen? The flame's going to go out because you're starving it of the oxygen it needs to keep burning. It's the same thing with marketing in your business and so I'm sure people listening to this right now, Jessica are still like, Okay. Yeah, this is all interesting but tell me how you grew from 2 to 20 million," because that is absolutely... When you were telling me that, we were just chatting for a couple minutes before we hit record on this podcast and I was like, "Oh my God, I've known you were successful because you work with Sam Kerstetter or Sam's your account manager on Platform.

Tim Chermak:
And Sam probably every month gives me an update on how well you're doing and he's like, "Dude, you've got to interview Jessica for the Platform podcast, she's just on fire. You've got to have her on," and I've been like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know." So, you've always been on the list, but I didn't realize that you had literally 10 timesed your business. Because we obviously get excited, rightfully so, when we hear that a realtor that works with us has doubled their business or tripled their business or quadrupled their business. But 10 timesing is almost just like, it doesn't feel real, it doesn't sound real.

Tim Chermak:
I'm sure there's a lot of people who still probably think we're lying right now and you're a paid actress or something. So what have been some of your-

Jessica Ford:
Well, I actually was just crowned this month as number one in my office and I contribute all of it to Platform. Just the back-end system helps me to be successful, but I try my very best to listen to everything that Sam tells me to do, because I know that is his goal.

Tim Chermak:
Sam's probably listening to this podcast and he's taking notes on everything you say, so he'll hold you accountable in the future if... Yeah.

Jessica Ford:
What he'll be like, "Remember when you told me that you were going to listen."

Tim Chermak:
So what have been Jessica, some of the let's just say most successful videos or retargeting campaigns that you've run in the context of this Platform strategy because obviously I think the point you're making is that you have to do the work, right? If you do the work, it works. If you actually follow the platform strategy, but for you, what have actually been some of those specific campaigns you run where when you look back on the last couple years, going from two to this year on pace to do 20 million, are there any specific videos where you're like, "Hey, that one did really, really well," or, "That one really resonated with my sphere and people were telling me in real life that they loved such and such video or such and such ad." Even if it wasn't a video, if it was a photo.

Jessica Ford:
Well, I have to tell you that I randomly have people that will come up to me and be like, "Hey, I know you. I see you all over on Facebook," and so I will let you know that's my number one goal in my marketing is for people to be like, "You're everywhere and I hate you." So, I just recently did a transaction with another agent and he was like, "I have to be super honest with you. I kind of hate your face sometimes because you're everywhere all over Facebook and Instagram," and I laughed it off. And he was like, "Seriously, how are you doing that? How are you everywhere?" And I'm like, "I can't tell you my secret sauce, dude. Sorry." And he was joking with me but I know it's the truth because I'll have agents just be like, "How are you everywhere? What is-"

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. How are you doing this? Or they might assume that your marketing budget is like $10,000 a month or something.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah. And I was out at a restaurant the other night and I had this random person come up to me and he was like, "I know you don't know who I am and you're going to think I'm weird, but I follow you online. And I love all the stuff that you do downtown Broken Arrow and that's the reason why we're downtown is because of the stuff that you do." And so I'm very big in our local area. I make it a point to talk to the business owners that are down there to showcase their businesses and they absolutely love and appreciate me for that.

Jessica Ford:
And so now when I go into those local businesses, I know them by name, they know me by name. They are referring people to me which is the highest compliment that you can receive as a business owner to have other business owners refer business to you. So, I would say that the funnest ones that we have done have been like our snow cone videos, like the best snow cones in town. The other one that I've gotten lots of feedback on are the different kinds of ice creams, so-

Tim Chermak:
Okay. I'm sensing a pattern here.

Jessica Ford:
... we did one like the different kinds, like you can go here and have gelato and what's the difference between gelato and-

Tim Chermak:
Ice cream.

Jessica Ford:
... and the difference of just regular ice cream and stuff.

Tim Chermak:
And you were featuring local businesses in this video.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
And so that's a cool example of like a retargeting ad that is educational, informational. It's kind of like fun facts and you're finding a way to kind of sneak in local businesses into this video so it feels like a local video, but most importantly, because you're not just tying it back into real estate, there's not some awkward tie in where it's like, "And that reminds me of real estate," no, it's just a fun video about local ice cream or gelato places and therefore it doesn't feel like an ad, but you're in the video, the video's coming from Jessica Ford's realtor Facebook page, or they're seeing it on Instagram right on your page and it doesn't feel like an ad.

Tim Chermak:
So, it kind of flies under their BS radar that they're kind of like, "Wait, wait, is this advertising? Am I being manipulated or persuaded?" It's like, no, it just feels like a fun video Jessica put together to highlight local small businesses. So you do that consistently and over time and then you just start to develop this brand or this... Really, a brand is just a reputation when you're talking about a business. It's just the word we use to describe a business's reputation. We no longer call it a reputation, we call it a brand.

Tim Chermak:
And so you've developed this reputation as like, hey, I'm a local expert and I'm an advocate of the community here in Broken Arrow and in Tulsa. And I just happen to also be a real estate agent. People almost don't even think of you as a realtor, they think of you as like, "Wow, she loves the community. She's an advocate of the community. She's always out there supporting and trying to give free promotion and marketing to local small businesses and she just happens to be a realtor." So if you want to buy or sell a house there, of course you would want to work with Jessica because you can just tell your love for the community oozes out of you, you're not faking it, you actually like living in that area.

Tim Chermak:
You like the small businesses there, the church that you guys go to there, the friends and family and the community and so why wouldn't you want to work with someone like you who's that plugged into that sense of community there. And if you go to Jessica's Facebook page, you'll see the videos that she's talking about, they're just fun informational videos. What mix of leads you typically get from your phone calls and leads, Jessica when people message you? Is it all buyers, all sellers, what does that mix usually look like over time?

Jessica Ford:
Well, initially it was a lot of buyers and I would say this year, it's been a lot more listing heavy than buying heavy. And so, what I find that has been happening recently is that I'll have somebody call me for a listing based on they've seen me online and they've been seeing my stuff for a long time and then I'll sit down with them and go over the listing presentation and then they'll be like, "Hey, and by the way, we're also looking to buy." So yeah, this year in particular it's flipped for me. I would say I was 50-50, but this year it's been more listings than it has been buyers.

Tim Chermak:
That's cool because obviously that's really valuable this year in such a low inventory market.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
If you can get a stream of listing leads, that's like gold.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
And so with this flow of leads coming in, you're finding that often every lead can be multiple transactions because that comes in and the person's like, "Hey, I need to sell my house," and so mentally you're thinking like, "Okay, cool. A listing lead, a seller lead," but then they're like, "By the way, I'm also moving over here. Can you help me buy a house?" It's like, "Well, sweet. I just got two transactions out of one lead that came in." So when a lead comes in, Jessica, what is the most common way that you're converting these leads? Is it because people just call you and your phone rings out of the blue? Is it people who message you on Facebook? Do they text you? Are they clicking on one of the ads that Platform sets up for you and they're actually registering kind of the old fashioned way on a landing page? How are the leads actually coming into you?

Jessica Ford:
Just recently, a lot of them have been calling me. I do a lot of email follow up, like a ton and I also have some staff that help me in reference to that so that nobody falls through the cracks. And then typically, we're emailing back and forth several times and I always am like, "Hey, can I give you a call? Do you mind giving me a call at your convenience?" And then we connect that way or I'm sending them a property that they're looking at like, "Hey, have you looked at this? Would you like to schedule a time to view that property?" And then that initiates a conversation.

Tim Chermak:
Okay, cool. So you have pretty good lead flow coming in. I'm sure one question a lot of people are thinking as they're listening to this right now is like, "Wow, that's so impressive." Sounds like you'll hit 20 million this year, how big is your team? Do you have a team of five buyers' agents or how big is that structure, is it mostly just you? What does the business model look like for Jessica Ford?

Jessica Ford:
Okay. So, I have a full-time assistant. I also have-

Tim Chermak:
Is he or she licensed?

Jessica Ford:
She is not a licensed assistant, no. She's full-time, I also have a guy that all he does is follow up for me and he is part-time to full time, it just kind of depends on the week. And then I have another assistant that is licensed.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Jessica Ford:
And that's it for now.

Tim Chermak:
So there's really a full-time assistant and two kind of part-time assistants. So it's almost like the equivalent if you have two full-time employees, but it's really three people. One of them's full-time, two of them are part-time and you're the only one who's licensed, is that correct?

Jessica Ford:
I have one other girl who is licensed.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. And most of that production is yours though. And you say that you're hitting about-

Jessica Ford:
It's online.

Tim Chermak:
... 20 million. Okay. That's the interesting question I was trying to get at is because so often you listen to success stories or blog articles, podcasts, whatever, and you hear that some realtors doing these really impressive sounding gross numbers, the sales volume is really impressive, 20 million, but then you dig into the specifics of the story and you find out that's being split amongst four agents or five agents, that's not unimpressive, I guess, if you did 20 million and there's four agents, I guess each of them are technically producing 5 million a year. That's really not that bad, but it's not nearly as impressive as one agent managing a business in an area that one agent is producing 20 million.

Jessica Ford:
Right.

Tim Chermak:
And so often I think people build teams for the wrong reasons. You start building a team because someone told you to build a team, not because you've thought it out and really run the numbers and spreadsheets and decided like, this is what I want to do. And I just know a lot of people that build big teams and then they crunch the numbers at the end of the year of how much they spent providing leads to their team and CRMs and websites and paying the fees and everything for their team and it's like, you might have a really impressive number at the end of the year of 25 million or 30 million or 50 million, but if you have a bunch of people on your team and now your office rent is way more because you're providing office space and all that, it's like the actual net profit isn't nearly as impressive as you might think.

Tim Chermak:
One of the first podcasts we did here was with Shane Saunders and Shane talks about like, he knew one of the top RE/MAX agents in the country. And they had rented out essentially an entire office suite for all the agents they had, just a huge team and Shane had him and his wife and that was basically their team. At the end of the year he compared what was our actual taxable income of what's the net that we're taking home, and his was just slightly below this other guy's even though he had this incredible business and Shane had always like looked up to him his whole career of, "Wow, this guy must be crushing it, he must be making millions of dollars a year every year."

Tim Chermak:
And he actually compared what they both made and it was like a rounding error. They more or less made the same amount of money and Shane didn't have any of that big team, he's just keeping all the money because he doesn't have such a big cost structure, all that overhead. So, that's really impressive Jessica, that you yourself are essentially producing 20 million with just a couple assistants supporting all of that.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah. And their whole goal is to assist me in what I'm doing and so I'm not doling out anything, so to speak, to them I'm doing the production.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. You're working with clients directly so every client actually personally works with you.

Jessica Ford:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
Jessica, I want to switch topics a little bit here. What was your experience like at the first Platform Mastermind that you went to? Because I remember that was in, was it San Antonio? Was that the first one?

Jessica Ford:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
And you were still a relatively new client when we had that event and I think that was kind of a turning point for you, a platform where you kind of realized maybe for the first time what this is all about. We're not just a Facebook leads company or it's not just about getting leads, it's really this holistic bigger picture mentality about marketing and building your brand for the long term. And yeah, leads are part of that but I think that was when you really kind of saw behind the curtain of like, this is what we're all about and you probably met a lot of other agents there. What was that event like for you? And would it be accurate to say that it was kind of a turning point for your relationship to Platform?

Jessica Ford:
Yeah, I would definitely say it was a turning point for my relationship with Platform because as an agent, we get bombarded with, "I can provide you leads," and this company provides leads and all of that and so from my perspective prior to this, I was thinking this is just a little company that's kind of trying to get into the real estate space and I kind of had this vision of kind of more mom and pop kind of, and then we went to the Mastermind and I'm like, "No, this is legit. They are an actual, fully functioning company that is servicing the real estate market and they're going to be around for the long haul." And I remember having this conversation with Sam, like I just want to know the health of the company.

Tim Chermak:
Really? That's awesome.

Jessica Ford:
Because you guys are it for me, you're my secret sauce. I don't share Platform other than with agents in other markets because I'm like, this is my secret sauce and so prior to that, had that conversation with Sam kind of like, "What is the health like of this company because I'm putting all my business trust into Platform and being successful and it is a partnership." We are partnering together to do this and so it was absolutely a turning point for me. And I took away so many nuggets of information and so there were so many takeaways from that I was like, "Wow, this is truly a thriving company that has top producers that you can rub elbows with and it is a mastermind." I know that that term is utilized a ton.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. It's a super cliche term that people-

Jessica Ford:
It has become that.

Tim Chermak:
... often use it when they probably shouldn't.

Jessica Ford:
And so just from like a business growth and business development, it really helped me to hone in and dial in. So I went from then 1.9 to 6.4, then 9.5 and so essentially almost 10 and then now this year, 20. So it's just been like-

Tim Chermak:
So every year you've been with Platform, your business has doubled.

Jessica Ford:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. That's amazing. So at these Platform Masterminds or let's just say even in the private Facebook group we have for realtors that work with us, who are some of your favorite agents that you've met at the events and kind of gotten to and networked with? Who are some of your favorite, most inspiring people that you've met in the Platform?

Jessica Ford:
I would say the Remy is-

Tim Chermak:
Oh yeah, right across the border in McKinney.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah. Because our markets are somewhat similar to each other we've really been able to connect and just bounce ideas off of one another so yes. And then I just love just the collaboration that happens on the Facebook group just with everyone like, "Hey, check this out," or Sam will send me a video like, "you need to look at what they're doing over on the East Coast." And-

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. And that's a really cool, I think underappreciated part of the platform strategy is that you work with Sam as your account manager, so Sam's the one on a daily basis kind of managing your campaigns, setting up all your ads and kind of advising on the overall strategy for you. But the cool thing is Sam, doesn't only work with you. Sam works with about 20 other realtors around the country so he can see what works in their markets and sometimes they might have an interesting creative idea and they'll test it out. And then if it works well, he can say like, "Hey Jessica, let's try this. It worked really well for this realtor over in Kentucky or over in South Carolina or whatever."

Jessica Ford:
Yeah. And sometimes he'll send me stuff and I'm like, "That is not me. I cannot..." So, someone was rapping on one one time and I'm like, I am not that cool or singing is it-

Tim Chermak:
Bill? Yeah.

Jessica Ford:
... the guy from Nebraska, Bill. Yeah. The singing with his guitar like-

Tim Chermak:
Hereby known as the guy from Nebraska, Bill Catlett. Yeah.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah. The Nebraska guy.

Tim Chermak:
He actually spoke at the Mastermind last year. Were you there at the Platform event when Bill spoke?

Jessica Ford:
I was not, no.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Jessica Ford:
Unfortunately the dates fell when my husband had a business meeting at the same time so that didn't work for us.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. He gave a whole presentation at the last Platform Mastermind about how he'll... Bill used to actually be a professional musician before he was a realtor so he's like super talented at singing and all sorts of instruments and everything. And for some listings if the seller agrees to the idea, he'll literally like write a custom song for the listing and sing about the house. He'll write a song that rhymes and everything, custom lyrics about like whether it's a ranch or a three bedroom, two bath, he'll include all the details of the house in the lyrics of a song. Like one of them was set to the tune of Yellow Submarine. And it was like (singing), like a two story house, (singing) and he is playing guitar the whole time.

Tim Chermak:
And he actually goes to a studio to record the song so it's professional quality. And then he won't film a standard listing video, he'll film a music video with the song he recorded playing and so the listing tour video becomes like a legit professional music video and people see it obviously pop up on Facebook and they don't even know what to think because it's like, "What is this realtor like?" And so they all go viral. They all just get tons of shares and video views, it's so novel. That's an example of some of the eccentric realtors we have in the Platform Marketing private Facebook group, so that there's just constant inspiration and a flow of new ideas that you can test out.

Tim Chermak:
But as you said, the cool thing is it's only one agent per market and so if you see a creative idea, you can apply it to your market and you don't have to worry about some other agent copying it because you're the only person we work with in the Tulsa area, so that area is kind of yours on lockdown. So Jessica, how much do you typically spend in a month on the actual ads?

Jessica Ford:
That would be a Sam question, I don't even know. I want to say maybe 1200.

Tim Chermak:
I'll actually go look right now. I'll pull up a tab here.

Jessica Ford:
Okay. Please do.

Tim Chermak:
I'll just double check that. Because it's always interesting to me when someone has a really impressive story of business growth and I think people might hear that and they think like, "Yeah, but is she spending $10,000 a month on ads?" It's like, well, even if you were spending $10,000 a month on ads, if your business is doing 20 million, you're still making a lot of money. If you're doing 20 million, you're probably making half a million dollars a year or more in GCI so it's like, even if you were literally spending a hundred grand a year on your marketing, that's still a very, very good ROI. All right, let's see if your account pulled up here, just give me one second.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. It looks like you're spending somewhere in the neighborhood of... Varies by month, but you're spending somewhere in the neighborhood of like 800 to $900 a month on your ads. And so, if you just multiply that by 12, you're spending less than $10,000 a year on the actual Facebook ads, which is pretty crazy that a less than $10,000 investment in ads has scaled your business to $20 million a year in sales volume, that's incredible. How many total transactions will you do this year, do you think?

Jessica Ford:
Well, right now I am at 52.

Tim Chermak:
Wow. And by the way, we are recording this podcast in June of 2021 so she's already at 50 transactions and it's only June.

Jessica Ford:
Well, that will be the end of June, going into July and then I've got some things cooking that I haven't put into my numbers yet.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
When someone hears that you're already at 50, I think that dispels any skepticism that someone might have of like, "Yeah, but is she just in a market where all the homes are a million and a half or $2 million where yeah, sure. She sold 20 million, but she only sold 10 homes all year?" It's like, no. Jessica's doing this the hard way, the old fashioned way where she might sell $20 million, but it's a bunch of $250,000 homes.

Jessica Ford:
Right.

Tim Chermak:
And yeah, You'll get some sprinkled in there where you got a million dollar buyer, a million dollar seller, but the vast majority of them are like $250,000, $300,000 homes so you're building your business on volume, the old fashioned way. That's actually much more resilient, because that way if there's a correction or something or some bad luck happens, your business is still going to be really strong.

Tim Chermak:
A lot of agents think, "I wish I had a business where I could only sell 10 homes a year and they're each $2 million homes." It's like, well, that sounds great if everything's working perfectly, but what happens if two or three of those deals fall through? It's like, now you just lost 25% or 30% of your income for the year, because so much was riding on each deal. You actually have a much more stable, long term business when it's built on volume like that, because a couple deals might fall through and it's like, well, who cares? That only is going to be a couple $100,000 dollars of volume per deal. So, if it's built on just having a steady stream of those kind of like middle class homes, $300,000 homes, something around there, that's a really stable way to build your long term business.

Jessica Ford:
And then they refer their friends and family and because they had such a great experience working with you... I also keep track of out of these where everyone is coming from. If they are a Platform family, I keep track of that because we always talk about that fuzzy ROI. So 27 out of the 50 are from Platform that I can actually tie them back to Platform.

Tim Chermak:
Wow, wow. So literally the majority of your business is being sourced from these Platform Marketing campaigns, that's pretty cool.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
It's cool because it means it's predictable, it means you're not sitting back crossing your fingers kind of worried like, well, I've had a really good year this year, but it might just be luck, maybe I just got a bunch of referrals. When you know that your business and the leads are being driven by a paid marketing campaign that you can turn on and off and you can scale it up and down, it means that you are in control. If you want to make more, you can literally just put more money into the ad campaign.

Tim Chermak:
So, that actually leads me to my next question, Jessica is on a typical month, I know that some months you might film way more videos, maybe some months you're just so insanely busy you don't film as many as you'd like, but try to think of the average month throughout the year, how many videos or ads, new videos or new ads do you put out every month? Knowing that even some of the ads are like photos, it's just a quick picture you take.

Jessica Ford:
Sure. I would say probably on an average five.

Tim Chermak:
Every month?

Jessica Ford:
Probably you might need to verify my numbers, but I would say that would be an average in reference to the videos, the photos, and then also the listing tour videos as well.

Tim Chermak:
Well, I just went and looked it up. Actually, I pulled up a tab here in your ads account and it looks like you have eight different marketing campaigns running right now. So, that gives people an idea of how I guess, complex this platform strategy is behind the scenes. It's not like Jessica grew her business because she was running one or two Facebook ads at a time, it's like there's eight different campaigns going together, working together simultaneously to both bring new, fresh blood into her system, but also retarget all of those people so that when someone clicks on one of Jessica's ads, they're on her retargeting list and they'll keep seeing Jessica.

Tim Chermak:
Like you mentioned earlier that realtor is like, "I hate your face. I hate your face. I see it all the time on Instagram and on Facebook." And they're obviously being facetious or at least we hope they're joking but the point is well taken. It's like they're seeing you constantly because they probably at some point clicked on one of your ads and so every day you're popping up with these new videos and photos. You've mentioned Sam a couple times, for those listening to this podcast right now who are actually not working with Platform yet, Sam is Jessica's account manager.

Tim Chermak:
So Sam works at Platform, he works with about 20 realtors and Jessica's one of them. And so Sam and Jessica meet for a phone call every week and Sam's the one actually behind the scenes designing and managing all of her ad campaigns, and he'll tell Jessica what videos to go out and film and so every week there's new photos or new videos going out. So, it's not like when you sign up for Platform, it's not that Jessica films a video and then just runs that video forever, we're constantly in the behind the scenes, putting in new videos, new content, new ads.

Tim Chermak:
So, if someone clicks on one of Jessica's ads, they're seeing a steady stream of new stuff, like new photos, new videos from Jessica new ads, because it's really annoying if you see the same ad from someone over and over and over and over again. You want there to be some diversity and creativity in the stack of ads. And so if someone clicks on one of your ads, there's kind of a core group of probably three, four ads that we run pretty consistently and they're evergreen, but then every month we're mixing in new stuff so there's new ads going out constantly so that it doesn't get old and boring and stale.

Tim Chermak:
And I think that's why your business has grown every year is that there's constantly new stuff going out so like if let's say one of the first years you did 10 transactions, if you build a relationship with those people and you stay top of mind with those people, if five of those people then refer someone to you in the next couple years, that 10 becomes 15. And then if of those 15 another five refer, that gets you to 20. It's just very simple compounding math that eventually we're only in June of this year and you've already closed 50 this year. That's impressive, but it's even more impressive that you've already closed 50 transactions this year by end of June and just two and a half years ago, you only sold $2 million in the entire year.

Tim Chermak:
As of right now your production's what? You said 12 or 13?

Jessica Ford:
12 and a half.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. So almost 13 million and the year's not even half over yet and you used to sell $2 million in the entire year. So, you could literally take off the rest of the year, take a like six month vacation and you would still make six times as much money this year as you used to make in an entire year, if you took a six month vacation for the rest of this year, that puts it into perspective how much your business has grown. So Jessica, what have been some of the turning points maybe in this marketing journey and in this entrepreneurial journey that you've been on? Was there any specific points you can look back on where you realized like, "Hey, I think this is working"?

Tim Chermak:
Because when everyone signs up for Platform, typically the first couple months they're cautiously optimistic or they're a bit nervous because it doesn't work right away the first month, you're not going to get 10 closings your first month. You're building the pipeline, you're establishing the brand. Really, it just takes a couple months to build up the retargeting list so it's large enough that we can actually run retargeting ads because if there's only a 100 people on it, there's just so much you can do with only a 100 people. So it takes usually a couple months to get going. Was there a time or was there a month where you can kind of look back and be like, "That's the month that I really knew I made the right decision," like this was really truly going to work?

Jessica Ford:
I would say for me it was early on because as I stated before, I knew that in order for any business to thrive, it has to have the marketing oxygen. And so for me, it was very early on when I started seeing 20 new people communicating with me, 30 new people communicating with me. And then as it started to grow and I started getting listings and buyers out of it, I just knew, okay, slow and steady wins the race. And so, if I'm consistent just in getting my face in front of people, then there's exponential growth that happens as a result of that.

Tim Chermak:
If you put in the work, it works.

Jessica Ford:
Absolutely.

Tim Chermak:
I want to return to something that you said earlier because I don't want to gloss over this, when I asked you how many videos do you typically film every month and you said in an average month I probably film about five videos, that's really impressive because I think there's a misconception out there that people think, "I'll just sign up for a service like Platform," maybe it's not Platform, maybe they signed up for Curaytor or BoomTown or Ylopo or Sync or maybe you just signed up for a bunch of Zillow Leads or leads from realtor.com or whatever and you think marketing is as easy as just signing up for a paid marketing program.

Tim Chermak:
No, you have to do the work. Platform is useless if you're not filming videos and actually doing what we tell you. So you film five videos a month, I think a lot of agents think they can film one video a month and then they're like, "Platform isn't working. I'm not getting the success that all these other agents are getting," and it's like, "Well, what are you doing?" It's like, "Well, I try to follow up with my leads and I'm filming a video every month." It's like, "Okay, you will take half a year to film as many videos as Jessica does in a month."

Tim Chermak:
I should say someone on Jessica's retargeting list will see more content and photos and videos from her in just one month of being on her retargeting list than you're putting out into the world in half a year. Of course Jessica's business is growing faster than yours, they're just seeing that same video over and over and over again. So, I just really want to emphasize that for those listening, that to really truly grow your business, it is not enough to film one or even two videos a month. Most of the really successful people that I've interviewed on the podcast and even those in the Platform Marketing hall of fame... And by the way, Jessica, you're probably going to be a finalist for this year's hall of fame. I can't make any announcements ahead of time, but it'd be pretty hard not to nominate someone who has literally 10 timesed their business.

Tim Chermak:
Those people, the true case studies that all of us look up to that's like, "Wow, that person's really crushing it with Platform," they're not filming one video a month, they're usually not even filming two videos a month. They're filming 3, 4, 5, 6 videos a month so that the end of the year... What we found, actually I'll just share some inside baseball here. We did an analysis behind the scenes of Platform last year, we kind of categorized all the clients in like the clients that are absolutely crushing it, just super duper premium clients that are getting an insane success, and then we put clients that we are doing pretty good, they're doing well, and they have a good return on investment and they're happy. And then we've had other clients that are kind of just like still building the pipeline or they're breaking even, they're not yet doing super well or they're actually struggling and they're frustrated.

Tim Chermak:
So, we kind of grouped all of our clients into one of these three categories. And fortunately like 80% to 90% of our clients are in the top two. We have very, very few clients right now on platform that are frustrated or feel like it's not working, very, very few. And the interesting thing is, one thing that everyone had in common who was struggling or feeling like it wasn't working is they were filming one video a month or less or sometimes there'd be two months that go by and they've only filmed one video in two months, every single time. Another thing that's true is of the people that are absolutely crushing it, like in the top tier of just super successful platform clients, all of them are filming three videos a month or more, all of them without exception.

Tim Chermak:
There's no one who's just having incredible success filming one video a month. So that's just not surprising to me that if you're like, "Hey, I'm putting out four or five, six videos every month," or sometimes they're photos, not videos but there's constantly new ads going out, that makes perfect sense that your business has grown the way it has. So, what do you think is in the future for you, Jessica? Are you looking to recruit a team or bring in a buyer's agent? Are you maybe going to expand and do another market? What is next for you?

Jessica Ford:
Well, I have an agent right now that is getting her license that I'm going to bring on and mentor. The whole thing with being a business owner and entrepreneurship is to duplicate yourself and so that's-

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, gives you scale-

Jessica Ford:
... my goal is just to bring on one other agent and then the assistants, they facilitate what we need and in reference to the transactions and just continue to grow and...

Tim Chermak:
Honestly, once you hit like 15, 20 million, you kind of hit this point where it's like you don't have any more hours in the day left. Like it's not like, hey, by myself, I can get to 30 or 40 million. That's probably not doable unless you're working 80 or 90 hours a week and at that point, no one wants to do that. And let's be honest, if you're going to sell $20 million in real estate this year, you have a pretty good lifestyle, you're making a lot of money. At a certain point, you're not running the business for money anymore. It's more of like a game and it's fulfilling because it's not like you worry about paying your family's bills or.

Jessica Ford:
So right. My ultimate goal is I want to be in Tulsa's top 100 agents for actually this whole area. And so, right now I'm in the top 300 and there's 5,700 agents.

Tim Chermak:
Wow.

Jessica Ford:
So my goal is to be in that top 100 mark.

Tim Chermak:
You'd be in the top 5% then of all agents in Tulsa.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah, right now. And I am the top agent right now in my company but that's my goal. So I set specific yearly goals for myself and really keep that in front of me to work to achieve that success.

Tim Chermak:
So Jessica, I want to change topic a little bit here and ask you about the business structure of, are you currently working with a lender that has partnered with you-

Jessica Ford:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
... with Platform? Okay. What does that relationship look like? Are they helping you pay for some of the ads or how have you structured that so that it's a win-win because I know that's something that lots of realtors are wondering like, "Hey, when I hit a certain level of production and it's really working can I meet with a lender? Can I convince them kind of co-invest with me to kind of build this brand with me so that I don't have to pay for all the marketing myself?" And I know that you have partnered with a lender.

Jessica Ford:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
What does that relationship look like?

Jessica Ford:
And I partnered with a lender early on and I wanted someone who mirrored me in reference to timely communication, responding back to people in a timely manner and just handling everything so I don't have to worry about that piece of the puzzle. I know if I send somebody to her, she's going to close them and she's going to give them excellent customer service. And so we sat down and I said, "Okay, I'm just going to lay it out to you straight. This is what I have going on. I want to partner with you, I want to send all my people to you and I want you to pay a $1000 a month of marketing." And she said done, and there's never been an issue since then. And so she has, I would say probably tripled her business since we've partnered together.

Tim Chermak:
That's incredible. That's the definition of a win-win where they're investing with you. And because of now the new volume of business that you're able to send her because she's investing in you, her business has tripled. And I think anyone who invests a $1000 a month, if they're like, "Hey, could you triple your business for a $1000 a month?" That's a no brainer.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah. So, last year we were talking over numbers, we were going over everything and she was roughly around the same dollar amount closed as I was. And we do videos together and Sam will be like, "Hey, I think Jennifer should hop in a video with you." So we just did one like Best Outdoor Dining Spots in the Tulsa Area and so both of us were on there and just chit chat back and forth. And so she'll throw me business, I send all of my business to her just because I know her and her team are going to handle it. And that's not something as an agent that you want to have to... There's too many job descriptions that you want to partner with somebody who you know is going to have excellent communication, follow through and they're going to handle it from start to finish and there's not going to be any hiccups or problems. And if there is, that they're going to jump in and they're going to solve those in a timely manner.

Tim Chermak:
Yep. And I know historically that the advice is like, "Well, you should always give your clients five different options of lenders and then they can pick." It's like, no one wants to interview five lenders. I promise you if you're going out and buying a house, that's the last thing you want to do is call references and interview five different loan officers. Maybe you might shop around to a couple, some buyers are really concerned about what the interest rate on the mortgage is going to be, but most people are going to be super competitive these days because they're more or less all getting the funds for the loans from the same wholesale mortgage companies anyways. And so I don't know, you might save a couple bips on a loan from this company to that company, but it's not really going to amount to anything noticeable.

Tim Chermak:
So, it's always just surprising that some agents are like, "Yeah, I always try to give my buyers a bunch of options of lenders they can reach out to." It's like, I don't think that's what they want. I think that buyers want you to tell them this is the person you should reach out to because they provide excellent service and I know them and they'll take care of you. They're looking for the certainty in that referral from you that you can confidently say, "Hey, go work with Jennifer because she's great at what she does." And they will go off the strength of that referral and then they'll work with Jennifer. And so from your perspective, having a loan officer who's kind of invested in building her brand alongside of yours, she's investing a $1000 a month, that essentially pays for the ads budget, if you think about it.

Tim Chermak:
I said you were spending $800, $900 a month on ads, essentially the lender is more or less paying for that if you just think about it that way, they're not directly paying for the ads per se, but the amount that they're kicking in towards the whole marketing strategy, essentially if you think about it on like a line item, you're not even paying for ads and you've still grown your business to $20 million this year and they've tripled their business, what a win-win. What a win-win.

Tim Chermak:
Because I think so many lenders just have horror stories of realtors that just beg and grovel on their knees, "Hey, please pay for my marketing. Please pay for my Zillow. Please pay for my realtor.com leads," and lenders hate that because they often just end up paying for crappy leads that the agents don't send them any business anyways and it feels like an act of charity like, "Okay, I'll pay for some of your leads." So, it's really refreshing to hear a story of you and you've worked with Platform and now Jennifer works with us at Platform and she's tripled her business too, that's really cool. That's the way it should be, right?

Jessica Ford:
Yeah, absolutely. It's certainly a win-win for both of us.

Tim Chermak:
If they're going to partner with you and they're going to put some skin in the game, they're going to invest money it's not just like, "Yeah. She's there for emotional support," it's like, no, they're actually investing money, their business should grow right alongside yours. And that's exactly what's happened so that's really cool. Jessica, as we wrap this up, one question I like asking at the very end of these podcast episodes is there's a lot of agents that are in the middle of their Platform journey and they're maybe frustrated or they're skeptical. And I don't know, maybe they're four or five months in, or maybe they're seven or eight months in and they see the marketing working, but it hasn't yet turned into a bunch of closings, like the high hanging fruit hasn't dropped yet, they haven't harvested all those seeds they planted.

Tim Chermak:
What would you tell someone looking back on your Platform journey, what would you tell someone who's at that point now where they're starting to feel a little bit discouraged, they're starting to feel frustrated, with the benefit of hindsight looking back at your journey, what would you tell them to help them keep the faith?

Jessica Ford:
I would say get out into your local community and start showcasing local business. And I really feel like when you partner with your local community in that way of where you're showing your love, your support, your dedication to the business, from a standpoint of partnering with the community, people see that genuineness within you in those videos and they'll just start connecting with you on another level. And when you have those connections outside of real estate, it will turn into real estate transactions because they see your authentic, genuine love for the area, for the community, for the businesses, the local businesses. And you have to 100% be intentional in reference to marketing. Never, ever, ever, ever, if everything else in your budget has to go away, never let that be your marketing budget, ever, because that is 100% your oxygen and your lifeline to any thriving business.

Tim Chermak:
That is a killer soundbite. That's a killer soundbite. Really you can distill that sermon you just gave to, if you're feeling discouraged, put on your big girl pants and go out and film more videos.

Jessica Ford:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
Jessica, thank you for your time today, this was really powerful. I'm actually feeling really encouraged after being on this podcast interview with you, I feel more inspired like we've got to get this message out into the world and help even more realtors, because hearing a story like yours where you've you've 10 timesed the amount of money your family's bringing home from your real estate business, you've increased it by a factor of 10. I mean, you can pay cash for your kids' college tuition now, you can buy a second vacation homes and fancier cars and give more money to your church or any charities that you're passionate about, that's amazing.

Tim Chermak:
And then I didn't know this before the podcast interview so that's why I probably sound so genuinely surprised right now and excited is like, I had no idea that the lender that had partnered with you had also tripled her business in large part because of you're now sending them so much business as your GCI has grown, that's amazing, that is that's what capitalism is all about, that is a win-win, you partnered, your business has grown, her business has grown as a loan officer, that's beautiful. So, thank you for your time, this is going to be a really cool podcast episode for everyone to listen to and guys until next time, thanks for joining us on The Platform Marketing Show.