How To Grow From 40 To 60+ Transactions A Year

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah, by June and July, people are reaching out to me like they've known me. And they go, "Jason, I just wanted to reach out. We have a home to sell in Minnesota. I don't know if you can help with that, but we're really looking for something in Wisconsin." And I'm looking at the history and I never sent them a message. They are starting these messages, like we've had this relationship. And I know it's because that they were looking at my videos.

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. 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. All right. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of The Platform Marketing Show. I'm here today with Jason Newhouse. Jason, how are you doing?

Jason Neuhaus:
Doing great. How are you?

Tim Chermak:
Good, good. So Jason has a cool story. He was already selling more than 40 homes a year before he ever stumbled across the Platform strategy. So he was already at the point in his business, frankly, that most agents are like praying that they someday get to. There's tons of agents out there who sell five or six or 10 or 11 homes a year. And they think it would just be incredible if they could ever even get to 30 transactions a year. But Jason was already at 40 transactions a year plus, before he ever discovered Platform. But since joining the Platform family and starting this Platform Marketing strategy, he's grown from 40 transactions a year to actually over 60 transactions a year, just in the last couple years since he joined the Plat fam.

Tim Chermak:
So Jason, I'm excited to dive into your story, learn more about how you got to frankly 40, because 40 is already super impressive. And then we'll dive into what are the marketing tweaks you made in your business that took you from 40 to 60. So Jason, how long have you been in real estate and what market do you serve?

Jason Neuhaus:
Sure. Yeah. Started real estate in 2015, after about 19 years in higher education. So I wasn't a teacher, but I worked in residence life, student life, all the student development activities and 2015, the president eliminated my position. And so I said, well, real estate sounded fun. Well, let's give it a shot. So started in 2015, got my Wisconsin license in August. And by January I had my first closings. So I realized a commission check in real estate's a lot larger than a monthly or even every two month paycheck in higher education. So hit the ground running had 26 closings that first full year in 2016.

Tim Chermak:
Wow.

Jason Neuhaus:
And yeah, I've continued to grow since then.

Tim Chermak:
And you're in the Hudson...

Jason Neuhaus:
Oh yeah.

Tim Chermak:
Hudson market, in Wisconsin?

Jason Neuhaus:
I'm in Western Wisconsin, Hudson River Falls is where I live. The area that I was given is Pierce and St Croix counties. River Falls happens to be split right down the middle. Half is in St Croix county. Half is in Pierce County. So kind of made sense just to take both counties.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. So basically that area for those who have no idea what he's talking about, it's that area like east of the twin cities. Like right across the twin cities, but technically in the Wisconsin side, not the Minnesota side.

Jason Neuhaus:
Correct. Yeah. So about 35, 40% of my business is Minnesota. A lot of the places I worked were in Minnesota, University of St. Thomas, Inver Hills Community College. So it made sense to get my Minnesota license right away as well. And probably seven of my first 10 transactions were Minnesota clients actually.

Tim Chermak:
Wow. Okay. So you definitely, it sounds like you leveraged your sphere of influence and your network to build your business right away. Because the first couple years, correct me if I'm wrong, you really weren't doing any paid marketing as much as you just had a big sphere of people who knew you from that past career. And they thought to reach out to you when they needed help with real estate. Right?

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah. I did add realtor.com leads on in my second year. That was about 10 transactions a year. Still is about 10 transactions a year. But as far as marketing goes, I just tried to do what I could to keep up with stuff on Facebook, very little on Instagram or Twitter. And so I knew that was something that was lagging when I came across Platform in 2020.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. So how did you first stumble across Platform because as you were telling me before, it was like, you kind of had a speaker come and speak to your brokerage. And they just kind of inspired you to, "Hey, set a big goal and then pursue it." And then you just happened to see a Platform ad or something, and it just hit you at the right time, and you're like, "I'm going to sign up."

Jason Neuhaus:
Yep. Yeah, absolutely. So '17 and '18, I continued to grow the business. I was up to about 40 transactions, 250,000. But after this next year I hit about the same 40 transactions, 250,000. I go, "I need to do something." So I push it into gear. And then Travis Robertson happened to come to one of our Coldwell Banker presentations. And they said, "If your goals are here, you need to shoot your goals, so they're almost unattainable. Something to strive for. Something to reach for." So it's like, well, if I'm going to do this, I need to find something to help me propel myself to that. And I just happened to be scrolling through Facebook and it was either like the High-Hanging Fruit, I asked for a copy of that. And within a matter of hours, I think, I called Mitch and I go, "Mitch, this is going to be the easiest sell you've ever had. I would like to sign up for Platform." And the rest is history.

Tim Chermak:
So it was really that simple. It just happened to hit you at the right time where you were kind of inspired of, I need to grow my business. And you're like, "I'm going to do this."

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah. The testimonials were outstanding. I kind of peeked in on a couple of the realtors that had been using it at that point. So I knew that Facebook was a good way to go. I believe a lot with the philosophy of doing those videos in the community, reaching out. I'm one that believes that be true to yourself. And I'm not going to set up for marketing company that makes you do things that aren't part of my core values. And what am I doing? I'm reaching out to local businesses. Two of them are now clients from the last year or so because they've seen me and they respect me. People come up to me at the cafe and say, "Jason, I really like those videos that you shoot. Those are inspiring. They're awesome." So I know that it's definitely making an impact and people are noticing.

Tim Chermak:
That's cool. That's cool. So I actually can't even remember what podcast I was listening to recently. Like I actually can't remember, but the idea that stuck with me was there was some guest on some podcast I was listening to and they were just talking about this concept of does your budget match your goals? Because a lot of people like to talk about the goals that they're setting. Whether it's in their personal life or maybe it's you're trying to build muscle or lose weight, or you're trying to grow your business, add more profit, like whatever it is. Right. And then they say, "Does your budget match your goal?" Because a lot of people like, they like to brag about setting a big goal or they like the emotional high that they get by talking about the goals that they've set.

Tim Chermak:
And it almost feels like setting a goal and just getting to tell people, "Oh, I have a goal." That that feels good. But then you look at how they're spending their money or their budget, and it's like, "Well, you didn't really change your budget at all." And so basically the point he was making was if your budget didn't change, your goals didn't really change either, because your budget should align with what you say your goals are. So if you're in a business that requires investing money in marketing, and having that be related to growth, and you say that you want to grow your business, but the marketing investment isn't showing up in the budget, your budget is staying the same, stop kidding yourself. You don't actually care that much about growing or else it would be showing up in your marketing budget that you wanted to grow.

Tim Chermak:
Or even if you want to like gain muscle, lose weight, going to the gym. It's like, well, if you say, oh, I'm going to lose 40 pounds this year, or I'm going to gain 10 pounds of muscle, whatever it is. It's like, well, if you didn't budget for hiring a personal trainer, or at the minimum getting a gym membership, or buying more protein packed foods, or whatever that looks like for you. It's like, clearly you don't actually care that much if it didn't affect your spending at all. So your budget should always align with what your goals are. And obviously in your case, you're just a perfect proof of that because you got really clear mentally. That's like, "Hey, I want to grow my business from 40 to 60 transactions. I maybe feel like I'm stuck a little bit at 40 transactions a year."

Tim Chermak:
And for you mentioned 40 transactions in your market area was around 250,000 in GCI. Right. And that's obviously a really good living. It sounds like that was already substantially more than you were making in your previous career, in higher education. So that probably already felt amazing. But once you get stuck there, you're like, "I know I could be doing more. How do I get to 60 transactions?" And to your credit, you didn't just fill out a worksheet at an inspirational seminar or something, and be like, "My goal is 60." And then like you patted yourself on the back. And you're like, "Wow, I'm so ambitious. My goal is 60 now." And then you go off and don't change anything. Right. Immediately what you did, is you did some research on marketing companies, you stumbled across Platform, and apparently you just signed up. Like that was that. You're like, "All right, I'm going to do this." So what did that first year look like? Because I know that when you signed up, it was basically like right before all the COVID lockdowns, right?

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah. It was so right when I signed up, it was good. January, February were just starting to hear murmurs of things. And then the world just changed, but one of the podcast, or not the podcast, one of the sessions that we had for a Zoom meeting was about, you were saying now is the time to put more money into marketing. And then I'm starting to hear little murmurs here and there from a competing brokerages saying, "It's time to bring it in. Reduce your spending. Try to do what you can to bring it in." And it's like, "Oh, I'm going to listen to this new company that I just met last month and spend more of my money." And so I put a lot of money into the, I think I had a $500 budget to start and I went to a thousand pretty quickly. And it's been right around there.

Tim Chermak:
Awesome.

Jason Neuhaus:
Now I'm adding more with the listings too. I love it when the realtor says, "Yeah, but I'm going to put $25 to that, onto Facebook for my new listing." And then they hear how much I'm spending and their jaw drops. Maybe I shouldn't tell them so that my secrets are with me. But so I started spending more money and I got lucky there was some low hanging fruit that was in the first time home buyer lists or single level family homes. And so somebody said, "Yeah, I just fired my realtor. Can you help me buy a home?" Like he was driven. We closed at the end of March. So within two months of signing up, I had March closings. I had April closings.

Jason Neuhaus:
Then the great thing right now is, I'm reaching out to these people and they're saying, "Yeah, we want to buy another home," because they have the equity from the last two years. Maybe they're sick and tired of each other after living with each other for the last two years, whatever it is. One of my couples was a young couple that did decide to break up. They weren't married thankfully. But I mean, how often can you stay, in two years, they got a $50,000 check each for selling and splitting up.

Tim Chermak:
Wow.

Jason Neuhaus:
So now I'm really focused on that two years ago group, because I think a lot of things have changed with COVID. And so that's a good retargeting audience for us to focus.

Tim Chermak:
Well, I suppose that makes the breakup less painful if you each walk away with $50,000, huh?

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah. It sounds like a win-win to me.

Tim Chermak:
So you signed up, and I know you're referencing, we did like a private training for all of our Platform members. This was back in, I think, early, mid 2020, something like that. If I can't remember the specific month, but I'm just going to say it was April. It was probably April of 2020, if I'm remembering correctly. And what we did is I realized a lot of agents were kind of in the mindset of like, "Oh my God, the world's ending. The whole world's shutting down." Because if you're listening to this podcast episode, years later, because we're like recording this right now, actually, in spring summer of 2022. So if you think back two years ago, to April 2020, the world was very different back then. Because back then there wasn't a vaccine. We didn't know if there was ever going to be a vaccine.

Tim Chermak:
We didn't know what was going to happen with COVID. People were predicting there might be tens of millions of people who die. Like this might be really, really bad. So the whole world was shutting down. And I saw all of our agents, across the Platform, like. "Uh, I think I'm going to like decrease my marketing." And to be clear when I say spend more money on marketing, I wasn't saying, "Oh, Platform's raising our prices. You should send us more money." Because our fee has stayed the same. We have flat pricing. So it wasn't like I was saying, send us more money. When I said increase your ad budget, I'm saying let's increase the amount that you're spending on the actual ads. Because an interesting thing happened during, I think, the very worst of the COVID lockdowns in spring 2020, is that so many people did abandon social media ads. And they just got scared and pulled their spending, where all of a sudden there was extra inventory available in the newsfeeds.

Tim Chermak:
Because people don't realize that social media news feeds, Facebook in particular, operates on an auction based algorithm. So every available impression is essentially auctioned off to whatever advertiser is willing to bid for that spot. And you don't realize that's what you're doing when you're launching Facebook ad campaigns. But that's how the algorithm has been designed is to mimic an actual auction. So if there's not a lot of demand, what they're charging for those impressions goes down. And they charge on CPM, which is cost per milli, milli meaning thousand. It's the Latin term for thousand, like milli a millennium, right? So that's how any advertising is quoted across media. So even if you started doing billboard advertising or radio advertising, it's quoted in CPM, cost per thousand impressions. So Facebook is the same way. A lot of people think that Facebook ads or Instagram ads or whatever LinkedIn ads are a build on cost per click.

Tim Chermak:
Like they're not, it's actually CPM. Cost per click is just a really easy, kind of shortcut mental way of thinking about it, because they do show you that metric in case you're curious. But you're actually being billed for those impressions, whether or not anyone clicks on your ads. So it's being billed via CPM. That's technically what's happening behind the scenes. And what I saw happening in spring 2020 is like, "Oh wow. Ads used to be like 10 to $15 CPM." And now we're seeing it's more like five to 10, where basically the CPMs got cut in half. So basically it's like Facebook, Facebook didn't announce this, but if you just did the quick math, it's like, there's a 50% off sale on advertising. It's like right now, tons of people are home because we're locked down. They're on their phones. They're on their computers. And Facebook ads are half off. It's like Facebook is running a Black Friday sale.

Tim Chermak:
So I told all of our clients, "Hey, rather than decreasing your ads budget right now, which is what everyone else is doing. What if you doubled down? What if you doubled your ads budget? Because by doubling your ads budget, when the ads are half off, you're actually essentially getting a four X return. So you're reaching four times the number of people you would've reached in any other month and just think about like how much faster that'll grow your business if every month you're reaching four times the number of people." You will get the amount of results from your... I mean, just it's very simple. It's very simple math. You will get the amount of results in six months that otherwise would've taken you two years to get with a slow and steady marketing plan, if you can get four times the impressions in the same amount of time.

Tim Chermak:
And so some people that were courageous as you are like, "Okay, yeah, I'm going to do it. I'm going to increase my ads budget during this time where I'm getting a really good deal on the CPMs on Facebook ads." And look what happened, even in a crazy COVID lockdown year. I mean, man, wasn't 2020 weird, like just a weird year. Right. And you still grew your business from 40 transactions to 60. So I mean, that's incredible. What were some of the ads that you ran that seemed to work to kind of create that surge from 40 to 60 transactions?

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah. I think it was just a lot about doing all of them. I mean, some of the online lead generation was definitely helpful. The people were commenting on the ducks in a row video was fun. We shot the one about, I'm not your realtor. And I kind of made a spoof about one of our realtors that has his arms wide open and a big smile on his face, on every billboard in Wisconsin. And that got a few people in a good mood. So by the time June, July rolled around, I'm getting [inaudible 00:17:48]-

Tim Chermak:
Who's last name rhymes with findall?

Jason Neuhaus:
That might be it. Yep. So, but we had fun with that. And so, but yeah, by June and July, people are reaching out to me like they've known me. And they go, "Jason, I am just wanted to reach out. We have a home to sell in Minnesota. I don't know if you can help with that. But we're really looking for something in Wisconsin." And I'm looking at the history and I never sent them a message. They are starting these messages, like we've had this relationship. And I know it's because that they were looking at my videos.

Jason Neuhaus:
Someone in the community that I haven't spoken to more than once or twice in the last 10 years, we used to go to the same church 15 years ago, said, "Jason, we have some people, some family member or some friends that are moving into town and I want to have them work with you." Well, I think that's great. Where did this come from? And I realized, oh, it's Platform. His wife was a realtor for a competing agency, and they didn't use any of her friends or colleagues that she was working with. They trusted me. They knew me from the church, the background. And I'm sure they kept seeing all my videos online, over and over again.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. That's the beauty of this Platform strategy that I think doesn't get enough credit. Because people like to talk about the leads. Like leads are sexy. Like it's just kind of fun talking about a metric like that, that's so quantitative in leads, like, "Oh, how many leads did you get? What's your lead conversion percentage?"

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
The whole marketing industry, I think, is obsessed with lead generation in an unhealthy way. Like people think that lead generation is synonymous with marketing. It's not. They're not the same thing. Lead generation is part of marketing, but marketing is a much deeper and more holistic endeavor than just lead generation.

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
And all those videos and those photos, those retargeting ads that you're mentioning, that's what really changes the game. Because if people start seeing those and then every time they go on Insta, or every time they go on Facebook, or they find your videos on YouTube, and they keep seeing you, like you said, all of a sudden you get these phone calls, frankly, from complete strangers.

Tim Chermak:
And they're like, Hey Jason, I think I'm finally ready to sell my house. Here's the deal. My husband just got a job over here. Or my wife just got a job over here and we're really looking to move. What would the next steps be if we're going to list our house?

Tim Chermak:
And even in the tone of voice they're using, when they call you can kind of tell like, these people think that they know me. They're acting like I'm their friend. And it's like, I have no idea who these people are. We've never talked. And then you just realize, "Oh, they've probably been seeing all of my Facebook posts and my retargeting ads. And that's why, even though I have no idea who they are, they feel like they know me." Right. And that's what marketing should be. Right. Marketing should get people to feel like they know you. Rather than just generating a bunch of leads. I mean, leads are important too, but it should get people to feel like they know you. And I think that's that's probably why your business grew from 40 to 60 transactions.

Jason Neuhaus:
Sure. And this has been an interesting two years too, where the small business owners have especially been hit hard. One of the other videos that was super good was God Made a Small Business Owner, that we put together probably April right after the COVID shut everything down. And two of my recent contacts, or clients, are small business owners who I approached with that video and they remember me. I still get the small business owners reach out and say, "Man, I really enjoy what you do to promote small businesses. Could you promote my shop next?" And so it's like, yeah, of course I love to promote your shop. So that's turned into a couple of leads.

Jason Neuhaus:
One time I was driving to Nebraska, and a small business owner called, and said there was a million dollar property that was perfect for his wife. And of course the property is under contract by the time I call the listing agent. But I have a relationship with the small business owner who's looking for a million dollar property, which doesn't happen too much in Hudson and River Falls, Wisconsin.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. That's awesome. And that's a huge part of the reason that we preach, so consistently at Platform, about network with small business owners in your community. Get to know them. Film videos highlighting your favorite local businesses. Take photos. Use them in your retargeting stack of ads. Don't just talk about yourself or don't just talk about real estate all the time. Promote local small businesses in your community. And that's ironically the best marketing when you're not even talking about yourself, and you're not talking about how great of a realtor you are, or how many homes you've sold, or how many years you've been in the business, or what awards you've won, or designations you have. No one cares. But if you highlight some of your favorite businesses in the community, people just like that, because it makes you a likable person.

Tim Chermak:
It's like, wow, cool. Like he's using his advertising dollars to help out other small businesses. He seems like a really cool guy. I would want to work with an agent like him because he clearly cares more about just selling houses. He's actually trying to be like an advocate of the community at large. So for those listening, who have no idea what he's talking about when he says that, God Made a Small Business Owner, because maybe there's some agents listening to this that are like, "What? What is he talking about?" So we wrote like a video script a couple years ago and we just called it So God Made a Small Business Owner. And it takes a classic, I think it's like a Paul Harvey speech from the eighties or nineties, and it was originally So God Made a Farmer. So maybe people have heard of that.

Tim Chermak:
But we kind of just rewrote the speech to rather than being specifically about farmers, it's about small business owners. And really just the value that they bring to the world every day that often goes unnoticed, how hard they work, the long hours, the risk they take, because most small business owners are not getting rich. They're not sitting back making a million bucks a year or something like. They work super hard and sometimes earn very meager profits just because they feel it's important that their community has a good local restaurant or a good ice cream shop or a hardware store or a gym or whatever it is. Most small business owners are not making a ton of money, but they're doing it because they're passionate about it. And they want their communities to be a vibrant, interesting place to live that doesn't just have a bunch of chain national franchises. And so we just wrote this video script, honoring local small business owners.

Tim Chermak:
And what agents like Jason did, is they went and took pictures and video of these small business owners. And we featured them in the video that went along with this kind of like montage video script just honoring small business owners. And then Jason read a narration of the voiceover for the script for this video. And the ad kind of just went viral, like everyone who did it, like it just got tons of shares. I mean, I don't know how many video views your got Jason, but a lot of those videos got 20, 30,000, 40,000 video views because like the whole community was sharing it. It wasn't just like you spent money on the ad, and then the ad got some views. It was like the whole, everyone around town started sharing it on their personal profile. So it kind of took on a life of its own.

Tim Chermak:
And because you film a video like that, part of the long term strategy is you're also just building relationships with local small business owners, because even just that simple act of stopping in and saying, "Hey, I'd love to feature you in one of my next social media marketing campaigns. I'm a realtor here and I'm not at all trying to promote myself. This isn't about me. I'm honestly just trying to help highlight some of my favorite local businesses in case there's some people watching this who maybe don't know the area super well that are moving here. I want them to know what my favorite local businesses are here. And there's no agenda for you other than just trying to help out local small businesses." And doing that has resulted in a couple of those small business owners actually being like, "You know what? You seem like a really great realtor. I'm going to use you on my next transaction." And that probably never would've happened, had you not done these video assignments and these marketing campaigns, these small business owners wouldn't necessarily have reached out to you.

Jason Neuhaus:
Nope, absolutely not. I think that's just, yeah, and it's going to continue to grow and now it's like, well duh, why didn't I do this? And I'm sure it was something that was given as a technique when I started in real estate to go to the small business owners, to the financial planners, to the divorce attorneys. I know some of those come, but if you go to the restaurants or the hardware stores, all of the small businesses that are downtown, I mean, they're just as influential in recommending you. And on Facebook groups, "Hey, does anyone have a realtor in River Falls they could recommend?" My name doesn't always come up. But it's so usually from a small business owner or people in the community that, I don't even know some people who are recommending me. And I think that's a Platform advantage too.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, that's always cool. When you get to the point with like your Platform Marketing momentum, where typically once you've been doing it, usually it seems to be when you're 12 to 18 months in. Like once you hit that 12 to 18th month mark, where you often start getting referrals from people that have never even themselves worked with you. They've never even bought or sold a house with you, but they are referring people to you because they're that confident that you must be a great agent. Because they've been seeing your videos and seeing your ads on social media that they think you're really cool, and now they're referring their friends or family to you, even though they've never even worked with you, themselves. Which is cool.

Jason Neuhaus:
It is. And much like the freshman 15 that I got in college, I've gotten the Platform 15. I go into all these local diners and restaurants the last couple of years.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome.

Jason Neuhaus:
More so than usual.

Tim Chermak:
So you've been filming these videos, creating these retargeting ads. How has it affected your sphere and your network? Because one thing I've noticed too, is that when you regularly feature local small business owners in your ads... I think one thing that a lot of agents forget is that small business owners are pretty much the most networked people in a community. Because they're part of the local Chamber, they're part of various other organizations or institutions. Like they all work with a similar group of typically accountants or small business law firms... Small business owners are extremely networked. People know them. They're also the people that local charities and churches and kids' youth sports tournaments, whatever. They're always hitting them up for donations. So like everyone knows the local small business owners.

Tim Chermak:
So if you had to pick a group of people to become connected to as a real estate agent, it would be small business owners. Because if those people decide that they like you, and decide that you're worthy of their referrals, there's probably no more valuable of a referral source than having local small business owners in your corner, where they're referring people to you. Because they basically indirectly or directly know everybody in the community. So have you noticed that your sphere or kind of just your network in town has increased in the last couple years?

Jason Neuhaus:
I think so. And some of the things that Platform has also done is it's made me maybe to expand a little bit more. So now we have a shelter, or not a shelter, community organization that is more geared towards helping people who are displaced or homeless. And so it's like, well, it makes total sense with my real estate background to be a sponsor. So I'm one of the corporate sponsors for that. The athletic booster club reaches out and says, "Hey Jason, we love your stuff. Would you like to be a booster and have your name at the football games in the background?" I go, "Absolutely. I'd love to do that."

Jason Neuhaus:
So some of those relationships I even have had with the small business owners has taken different avenues in the community, where now, if someone comes up and says, "Will you be a hundred dollar sponsor for our gymnastics club?" I'll say, "Absolutely, I love to be a promoter of your gymnastics club." Because that hundred dollars is going to have at least 10 or 15 of the gymnasts who are in involved. And then from there it's going to go to their parents and other people who notice. So I guess that's the other thing I'd say, is my sphere is getting bigger because I'm willing to take initiative and spend some money.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. You're actually active in your community. That's I think that's super important. Because there's no amount of money you can spend on advertising that can disguise the fact, if you're not actually active in your community. You can throw money at Zillow ads, realtor.com ads, any, even even Platform ads, frankly. You can spend a lot of money on Platform ads, even with the ad campaigns that we are recommending. But if deep down you're not actually active in your community, you are so, I think, selling yourself short on what the potential for your business could be, if you were. If you were actually active in those organizations, whether it's the local football boosters club or Chamber of Commerce or your church or whatever.

Tim Chermak:
The more active you are in your community to where you're retargeting ads aren't faking it. Because like the whole point of our retargeting ads is we want to position you as someone who's very active in the community and cares about the community. But if that's not actually true and you're not super active, like you're going to get just a small shadow of the results of someone who actually is active in the community. You know what I mean?

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah, definitely.

Tim Chermak:
So yeah, I'm excited for you because you're only, I mean, no, you're actually not even two years in, you're only like a year and a half into Platform now, right?

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah. Just yeah, just at the two year mark.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. Okay. So you just hit the two year mark. You've added somewhere, I mean a hundred, what? 150,000, almost 200,000 to your GCI.

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah, I'm getting there.

Tim Chermak:
Since joining Platform. And I know, was it last year, you just bought like a new vacation home in Florida?

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah. Each year I've create that vision board. I think that's so important too, for having goals. You can kind of see I'm in the sunroom right now in the house. 2016 I put on my vision board, just a year into real estate, I wanted a updated kitchen. Well, we passed on the updated kitchen and just got a house that was 10 years new or 10 years old instead. So there you go. Then last year it was partly during COVID, it's like, "Wow. Business is actually picking up." So I was looking at like $150,000 town homes that were out on the outskirts of Orlando. And then I'm starting to look a little bit more and it's like, "Well, my income is increasing." And we put an offer on a fully decorated, one year old town home that was in a Windsor Island resort. It was part of, Pulte homes is just building like crazy down there.

Jason Neuhaus:
And we didn't get it. And we were devastated. And my realtor that I was working with down there said, "If we just spent a little bit more money, you could design the place yourself." And I wish I would've done MTV cribs on the whole process from the design because we just bought a brand new town home. They had great credits for purchasing with the lender. And I was able to use my lender that works with me on my Platform campaign. She's licensed in Florida. [inaudible 00:33:32] financial is one of Pulte's lender partners.

Jason Neuhaus:
So I got $20,000 off the price, or 10,000 off the price and basically no closing costs to buy this brand new town home. Had an interior designer decorate it. And we'll have to post the link or something, but 120 Jetty Way has a Star Wars room, a Mickey Mouse room, a Disney castle room, Cars, and then Finding Nemo with the Toy Story characters in scuba gear floating around in the room. It's like who in the world would've thought, a couple of years ago, that I would've been able to, A, purchase a second home. B, decorate it like this. And now I have a free place to stay when I go to Disney World.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I've seen the pictures and it is super cool. Because it's a brand new like luxury town home that Jason bought. And do you have it on Airbnb or is that...

Jason Neuhaus:
Yep. I have a management company that does all of that for me. So I don't have to think about it. Yeah. But it's Airbnb. Almost every weekend is full. The only downtime is like end of September to early November, it's kind of dead then. But otherwise every weekend's full. We need more international travel though, because a lot of Tuesday through Thursdays go unused. And so it could be only 70% full due to that [inaudible 00:34:51] week traffic. But right now, like this month, I only have one or two days that weren't occupied the entire month. So it's really doing well for itself. And then we get to enjoy it and property values in Orlando, like everywhere else, have increased. So I probably could cash out and still make a hundred thousand dollars on it today. So pretty-

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I mean there's there's yeah. There's tons of equity there, but I was going to say I've actually seen the pictures and it is really cool. Because like each room is like themed from a different Disney movie or Disney character and it's done like super professionally. So it's not some amateur job where you just put up some posters of Disney characters or something. It is like full blown professional interior design where one room is totally Mickey Mouse theme. The other one's like Cars, you have one that's like Finding Nemo and Toy Story. You said there's a Star Wars one. And it like, I know this is a podcast. So obviously it's audio and people are listening to this. So I can't show something visually on a podcast, but like imagine a townhouse decorated like that where like Disney itself was the interior designer and Disney did the decorating.

Tim Chermak:
That's how expert level professional Jason's vacation rental there is. It is super cool. Like I would actually love to stay there sometime. It's actually really cool. So that's kind of a side benefit of growing your business, is when your finances get to the point where you can start buying second homes and vacation properties. Because like you said, it add cash flows as an investment property, but whenever you feel it going to Florida, you now have a place to stay because you own it. And you get obviously the upside of the equity appreciation there.

Jason Neuhaus:
Except for Christmas. The revenue is too great over Christmas that I've told my family, we can't stay there. We can stay at the Disney Resort and still need make money than we would staying in our own town home. But yeah then, and again, it's an audio, but imagine walking into the Star Wars room and it's like you're walking into the Death Star. With lights that he created that make it look like the Death Star and an X-wing hanging from the ceiling. I wanted to sleep in the room, but my son wanted it more, so I let him have it. And my wife and I had the Mickey Mouse room instead. But yeah, it's pretty phenomenal to go down and realize that real estate has allowed me to achieve these things that would've been impossible to imagine as a Director of Student Life eight years ago.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Yeah. So what's the next goal?

Jason Neuhaus:
That's a great question. And now I'm to the point, and I had mentioned this to you earlier, but I did the same thing I did about three years ago. I said, "This is great. I want to set my goals last year for 60 transactions." And what happened? I hit 60 transactions and I stopped. So this year, I have a goal of 72 transactions to close and that'll get me closer to $500,000 for the year.

Tim Chermak:
In GCI.

Jason Neuhaus:
I would like to consider another investment property, but we're having some issues with people kind of being jerks. And I have to replace the carpet in my town home and some of those things. So I have to look past some of those small nuances and figure out what my next goal is. But now I'm kind of to the point, I'd like to retire earlier than I was ever imagining a couple of years ago. So get some extra money, and bank it, and then maybe just put the, not put the brakes on. But definitely focus on what I want to focus on. Work up with the clients I want to work with, and really make it easier for me.

Tim Chermak:
What would you say, Jason, for those listening to this who are already in the Platform family. So they've already joined, maybe they're in their first month or their second month, third month, something like that. They don't yet have a ton of closings because they're just early on, or maybe they don't have any closings at all from Platform. And they're maybe starting to feel a little bit frustrated or anxious that like, "Oh man, I signed up for this. It's not really working yet. I'm starting to get worried." What would you say to them to encourage them, based on the fact that you've now been with Platform for two years. So you have that benefit of perspective, looking back at what, of a two years of sample size. What would you tell someone who just started?

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah, I would just say to keep a positive attitude of the business is tough, and it's just like anything else when you're spending money, you want to see results. But if you do the work, if you do what your account manager tells you, if you're genuine, you reach out to the community, you shoot the videos, you take the photos, it can even just be something like walking down the street. You might say, "Oh, I didn't realize that this movie theater had Superman playing." You take a picture of a Superman in the background and say, "When's the last time you supported the movie theater. Come on down and Tuesdays is cheap day." Even that can make a world of difference with a little bit of 10 seconds of time, a quick selfie, and you're done. I kind of, I get teased by a couple of my colleagues because almost all of my listing videos, it's just me doing a selfie with the video running because I know that getting the video out there is a lot more important than me trying to find somebody. [inaudible 00:39:58].

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, it's not some perfect Hollywood production where you spend a thousand dollars filming a video with all sorts of fancy production equipment. But the point is you're getting it done. You're getting a video made.

Jason Neuhaus:
Exactly. So that's the thing is, get it done. Be authentic to who you are. Don't shoot videos if you don't believe in them. There's been a couple of times where something has been brought up as this would be great. It's like, well for my neighborhood, for my community, no one who's around that may not be the best for me. So then I try to figure out something else that would work. And there's always plenty of ideas to run around, to make, just keep working hard at what you're doing. And I think the other thing too is I'm starting to have a lot more Facebook likes for all of these videos and pictures that I'm shooting. I'm inviting them to my Facebook business page. And that's an automatic free audience that's capturing all the stuff that maybe you don't get on the Platform.

Jason Neuhaus:
Or when it is on Platform, they're definitely going to see it because not only are they following your page, but they're going to be captured in the ads too. So I think that's been making a difference. Within a couple of months here, now I've had two or three people who reach out. And it's never a phone call for these three, but it's a Facebook message saying, "Hey, could you tell me how much my home is worth?" And then I give them a call, and I get there and I let them know, and one's looking in a year or two. The other one's probably just trying to get a couple of realtors to give them an idea for who knows what. But I mean, it's still contacts and that's what we have to, we have to have contacts so that we can take those to the next level.

Tim Chermak:
Yep. And if people are engaging with your page too, in any way, what, whether it's messaging your page, liking a post, or whatever, now they're on your retargeting list. Which means they're going to keep seeing you every day for like the next six, seven months in a row. So that's a win because eventually if they keep seeing you, they will choose you as their realtor when it's time. Whether it's to buy or sell, they're going to choose you over some other agent. So like you said, any contact you can make, any of those connections, the cumulative effect of all that adds up over time.

Jason Neuhaus:
Yep. But when the time comes for all those clients, put them into your retargeting audience, send your account manager their emails, because I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people. And that was me before real estate. That's me now. It's like, if someone calls me great. If it takes me two years to contact somebody, that's fine too. But when they're in my retargeting audience, and they're a past client, even if I'm not reaching out to them, I'm reaching out to them. And they're going to see me in 6, 8, 10, 15 times a month. And when that time comes that they are ready to buy or sell again, they're going to see me all of the time and remember that I'm still in the business.

Tim Chermak:
Right on. Well, my last question I wanted to ask, because I know you're probably spending about a thousand dollars a month on ads now. That seems to be kind of the, that's the new general budget. Plus when you get a listing video, I know that you'll spend even more on those on top of that, which is why your business has grown so much. Because obviously if you're doing 60 transactions a year, you now have the profit to invest even more in more advertising. It kind of creates this snowball effect where then you can do even more business. Right? What are some of your favorite ads, specifically in the sense that you know people in the community saw them because they mentioned it to you?

Jason Neuhaus:
Boy. Well, definitely the God Made a Small Business Owner was one.

Tim Chermak:
Yep. Yep.

Jason Neuhaus:
I'm trying to think some of the other ones that I've been mentioned. When I promote, I just did a promotion for Carboni's. There's one in River Falls. The one in Holt, no it's [inaudible 00:43:46], it's outside of [inaudible 00:43:48]. It has a Willow River Saloon, so I couldn't use Willow River Saloon, but I took a picture of eating the roasted chicken up there. And three or four people have come up to me and they said, "I've always wanted to try the roasted chicken at Carboni's." And it's like at first I just, the first time I like, what am I? Oh yeah.

Jason Neuhaus:
So the other one that was really significant actually was we have a big chicken that's about 30 miles south of here at Hager Heights. It's a drive-in restaurant where you can't, you either you go in your car or you order at the window and you eat it outside. They have roasted chicken and shakes and fries. And I shot that video with the families that we went up with. And people are asking me about, "What's this Hagar Heights that you were talking about? I've never been there." And so I feel like I should probably ask for a free meal or something, because I'm sure I've sent 10 or 15 people that direction to a restaurant that just sits on the corner of a highway down in Southern Pierce County.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I mean you're probably doing more to promote the community and the county than the local tourism board is doing. And I think that should be the goal of every realtor who's implementing this Platform strategy, is like you are the real tourism board. Like you are the real local economic development. Like don't sit back and wait for a politician or some government body to do tourism because politics has to flow through all the BS budgets of the bureaucracy. And then by the time a committee approves some ad campaign or whatever, it's so watered down that it's terrible. You, as a individual local real estate agent, can do way more creative, interesting advertisements to help promote your area, and promote the local small businesses, and the parks, and the lakes, and the restaurants, and all that, than anyone could ever do.

Tim Chermak:
So don't just think of your advertising as a realtor about, oh, all my ads are about houses. It's like, no, it should be about the community and the area. Because even for the people who already live there, I think a lot of agents maybe underestimate the effects of this. They think, "Oh, well I don't want to do a ton of those videos because we don't necessarily have a ton of people moving here." It's like, well, no, there's a lot, like trust me. There's like, I'm from a small town myself in the Midwest. I live in Naples, Florida now. But I'm originally from Wilmer, Minnesota, which is about two hours west of the twin cities. It's a small town, about 20,000 people, right in the middle of Minnesota. It's not near anything, just surrounded by cornfield for a hundred miles in every direction.

Tim Chermak:
And trust me, there are people in your small town that still have not been to all the random restaurants and cafes and coffee shops in your town. I just took my grandma, a couple months ago when I was back home in Minnesota, to Frida's Cafe. And Frida's in Wilmer is this local hole in the wall, probably there's only 40 chairs in the entire place. It's a very small little cafe where you can still get coffee for 50 cents. And a plate of pancakes is literally like $3. I mean, it's just like the quintessential local hole in the wall place. And it has been, I'm pretty sure Frida's has been there for like 50 years. Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure it's been there for literally like 50 years, so much longer than I've even been alive actually.

Tim Chermak:
And my grandma's like, "Oh, this was good. I've never been here." And it's like, she's lived in Wilmer since 1927.

Jason Neuhaus:
Never been there.

Tim Chermak:
She's in her mid nineties and she's never been there. And it's been around, Frida's has existed probably twice as long as I've been alive. And it was, I was like, "What? You've never been here." She's like, "Oh no, this is really good." And so I just know that there's tons of people, even in small towns that have not tried all the local restaurants there. So you are doing a very valuable service to your community when you get out there, and you film videos, and you take pictures, and you run retargeting ads that just talk about the local businesses in your area. Even if it doesn't have anything to do with real estate.

Tim Chermak:
Because my favorite thing to say is the best ads don't look like ads. If you're out supporting it, your favorite spot to get a milkshake or your favorite coffee shop or your favorite spot to grab a cheeseburger, whatever it is, that's how people remember you. And that'll keep you top of mind because precisely because you're not talking about real estate, it lowers their guard. And so that message flies kind of under their bullshit radar. And they don't realize that they're technically seeing an ad, and that they're being advertised to. I'm saying that with air quotes.

Tim Chermak:
And because you're not talking about real estate, their guard goes down and then they'll actually watch the video. And they're, ironically, a lot more likely to remember that than if you filmed a video all talking about the real estate market and all the homes for sale or whatever, because they just tune that out. Because their brain immediately is like, "Oh that's an ad." And once your brain labels something is an ad, you typically just skip it, you're not really paying attention. So those are the foundation of a good local marketing strategy, is running a ton of these local ads that, well, don't don't look like ads.

Jason Neuhaus:
Yeah. Yeah. We're spending more on marketing for some of these small businesses then the small businesses are spending probably on Facebook.

Tim Chermak:
That's that's awesome. I've never thought about it that way. And it's probably a hundred percent true. I bet there's a lot of those businesses that you have spent more of your own money to promote them with your ads than probably they have. That's hilarious. And it's probably spot on. Well, Jason, thank you for joining me today. I think this has been a really cool episode, especially that we got to spend some time specifically talking about the impact it's made for local small businesses in your community.

Tim Chermak:
I'm really passionate about that. I know you are too. And I think that's kind of a cool side effect of all this marketing that we get to do together, is that it also helps lift up the local mom and pop businesses in your community. And it's a win-win because your business grows too, because your reputation increases as you promote your community. So I think that's awesome. Thank you for sticking with Platform for two years. Thank you for believing in it and seeing it through because adding an extra 20, and probably this next year, hopefully an extra 30 transactions to your business, it's been worth it. So this has been a really great episode. Want to thank you again for your time. And guys, I'll see you on the next episode of The Platform Marketing Show.