The Power Of Having Just One Video Go Viral

Neal Cox:
I have had several of these moments where so-and-so acquaintance referred me to this person, but the absolute pinnacle is when I had a guy call me out of the blue, wanted to talk about listing his house. And when he told me who referred me to him, I had no idea who he was talking about... none.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. So actually, you're now at the point where you've rolled the snowball so big with your database and your sphere, that you're getting referrals from people who have never even worked with you?

Neal Cox:
Absolutely.

Tim Chermak:
This is The Platform Marketing Show where we interview the most creative and ambitious real estate agents in the country, dissect their local marketing strategy and get the behind the scenes scoop on how they're generating listing leads and warm referrals. We'll dive into the specifics of what marketing campaigns are working for them, how much they're spending on those campaigns and figure out how they have perfected what we call The Platform Marketing Strategy. This is your host, Tim Chermak, I'm the founder and CEO of Platform. I love marketing and I talk too much. So let's dive in. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Platform Marketing Show. I'm here today with Neal Cox who's a realtor in Louisville, Kentucky, and I just recently learned how to pronounce it correctly. Louisville, not Louie-vill.

Neal Cox:
You were close Louisville.

Tim Chermak:
I was close. Okay, Neal, hot damn. Neal has a cool story. Neal joined Platform. Neal, was it back in 2018?

Neal Cox:
2019.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. So 2019. So you've really been in The Platform for less than two years?

Neal Cox:
Right at about two years, it was spring or early summer 2019.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. And Neal's, he actually just sent me over kind of a spreadsheet he had compiled of his production the last couple years and his GCI the year before Platform was $64,000. That was kind of like the control, right? That was like before Platform, $64,000?

Neal Cox:
Yep.

Tim Chermak:
Neal, do you want to share with the class, what you're projecting your GCI to be this year? Keeping in mind that while we're recording this podcast, it's in June, just in case you're listening to this, months or years into the future. So what the numbers Neal is about to share really aren't reflecting all the business, he'll probably pick up and end up closing in Q3 and Q4 of this year. And so Neal, where is your business at just right now in terms of what's already closed, under contract and set to close in the next couple months?

Neal Cox:
Let's see, I've got about... It'll be about $300,000 in GCI that is either under contract, active listings already closed, or something solid that's coming up, like a seller that I'm listing their property. We're going to buy. We're not there yet, but that kind of idea. This is not pie in the sky, hey, I talked to this lady.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. So really in terms of what's already under contract, you told me it's pretty close to $250. And then when you add in deals that you're basically 99% sure are going to close, but they're just not yet technically under contract?

Neal Cox:
Correct.

Tim Chermak:
You're basically at $300,000 for this year?

Neal Cox:
Yep.

Tim Chermak:
And when you started, gosh, you were at more like $60,000 in GCI. So it would actually be accurate to say that these Platform Marketing Strategies, didn't just like quadruple your business. What is after quadruple? Quintuple, is that right?

Neal Cox:
Quintuple, I think.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I should have paid more attention in school. It's actually quintupled your business. I think that's the first time I've ever said that on a podcast where it's like that degree of business growth. But the interesting thing is, this isn't like an overnight success story where Neal signed up and within 90 days he's making 300 grand a year in GCI. It took you about two years to get there. So Neal walk us through what that business growth looked like. What were the results in the first six months or the first year? Because I know it's not something where you were just absolutely floored or blown away in the first six months by The Platform.

Neal Cox:
No, it wasn't The Platform. I was looking for something because I was here, as you said, making like 60K GCI, that's not even profit. That's a gross number, so. And I left a teaching job to do this so I was making less than what I was making teaching. And I wanted it to grow, so I started looking, web searches of this and finding a book on this. I had this idea of like curating an entire Pinterest board of all the neighborhoods in Louisville, doing weird things like going and sitting at a coffee shop with a sign that said, ask me about real estate or something like that. And just brainstorming all these sessions. And I guess Tim's marketing picked up that I was looking for marketing for real estate services somehow. So I start getting served his ads on Facebook and I had gone to a webinar because that was my first contact with them was going to a webinar.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. So you weren't referred to us or you didn't have any personal connections to Platform at all. You actually just clicked on one of our Facebook ads way back?

Neal Cox:
Correct, correct. I had gone to a different webinar the week before that was just abysmally awful. It was like, oh, this sounds cool. This could be a way to grow. And I go to it and all it is like, hey, buy this thing, whatever it was, there was no substance to it at all, so.

Tim Chermak:
Was that one of our webinars or was that someone else's webinar?

Neal Cox:
It was someone else.

Tim Chermak:
Okay, because I was going to say this conversation got real awkward real fast.

Neal Cox:
No, no, no, no. This was before yours. So then I sign up to go to your webinar and I guess it was Mitch that I was talking to. I was like, "So is this just a sales pitch or is there something to this?" And he says, "Well, it's both." He says, "There'll be a thing asking for information and ability to sign up at the end." He said, "But there is actual meat on the bones on this." And he was correct and I go in and it was such a logically, well put together webinar that I could see it. I could see the possibilities and when I talk to them, they're like if your market's already taken, too bad.

Neal Cox:
So I ask him, right after the webinar, they're like, "Well, it's open." And I think maybe you all had, had someone previously here. I'm not sure. And I didn't sign up on the spot because the cost, it's not super cheap. And had I done that, my wife would've killed me. When I told my wife what I wanted to spend on this marketing thing, she about had a cow right then and there because we really couldn't afford it at that time. It was kind of a leap of faith. My hope at that time was that I wasn't getting scammed, that was what I was hoping for. So not only was I getting scammed-

Tim Chermak:
Well, I'm glad that we started our business relationship with a very low bar where all Platform had to prove is that we were not literally scamming you and that it was a win.

Neal Cox:
That was it. And-

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome.

Neal Cox:
And they followed through. And so I'm like, okay, cool, not scamming me. But The Platform experience, I mean, it's more ... I didn't just hire a marketing agency, I'll say that. It has been maybe quintuple what I imagined, how's that? It goes hand in hand with my expected growth this year.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. We're going to have to just find as many creative ways as possible to work in that word, quintuple, into this podcast just to make good use of it. That's incredible though. So you just clicked on one of the ads way back when, you watched one of our webinars. And by the way, for folks listening, the webinars we do... I actually, haven't done one in a year.

Neal Cox:
Oh wow.

Tim Chermak:
So this is actually really interesting. We'll share some inside baseball about Platforms ads account, and how we attract realtors. We used to do webinars all the time, but in the last year we are getting so many referrals from our clients that we're kind of growing at the rate right now that we are just comfortable with and so we haven't had to do any paid ads, driving to webinars to get new clients in literally a year.

Neal Cox:
That's amazing.

Tim Chermak:
And we're still growing. We're still growing every month. I think we've grown the company in the last year, probably 25% or something like that. Even in like a really difficult year for realtors, right? The real estate market's tough and we've grown that much just with referrals. And so yeah, I mean, it's literally been a year since I've done a webinar, just because people keep telling their friends about us and that's how we've been growing, so that's cool. But, yeah. I mean, to get back on track here, when we did webinars, it was always something I actually felt personally passionate about, that you deliver real value on a webinar because I've been on the other end of it, right?

Tim Chermak:
I've been the person who clicks on a webinar because I'm interested in whatever topic. And I figure like, hey, I'll listen to this for 60 minutes. And it's kind of one of those calculations where you're thinking, well, if I get one or two good ideas and the rest of it is fluff, if I have to spend 60 minutes to get one or two good ideas, it's actually probably worth it, right? But that got super annoying because I think a lot of marketers realize that, and so when they do webinars, and at the end there's some pitch for their product or company, it is straight up just inspirational motivational fluff for the first 59 minutes. And then it just goes into a pitch at the end and you're kind of left thinking like, oh, I kept waiting and waiting and waiting, thinking that the content and thinking that the actual substance was going to come and it never came. It was just a bunch of fluff and then a pitch.

Tim Chermak:
So when I put together slides for webinars and we're teaching realtors, my mentality has always been let's just completely over deliver based on what the person might be expecting is going to be on this webinar. Let's actually share all the specific ideas of the Facebook ads. We'll tell you how to target them. The specific videos that you should be filming. Let's just give away everything. And if the right agent is listening to it and they realize like, hey, this sounds like a brilliant marketing plan, but honestly I probably don't have time to do this. Then they'll reach out to us and they'll hire us. And if someone wants to steal all of our ideas, that's fine too.

Neal Cox:
Had you completely hidden the sauce on that, I probably would not have signed up. It was the fact that you laid it out, here's what we do and here's how it's going to work. And then at the end, when I'm talking to Mitch, he says, hey, here's some phone numbers of some people, give them a call. And the social proof there too, hey, this is actually working for people.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. So let me ask you Neal, because this is something I've heard from a lot of agents that end up joining Platform. Did you reach out to other people, did you do research kind of beyond the obvious testimonials and case studies of the agents that Mitch gave you? Because often, right? If you're signing up for a marketing service or any type of service, right? You go to their website, you look at testimonials and you kind of have to have your guard up, you need to be skeptical because it's like, well, of course the names and the phone numbers, they give you as like references, right? Of course, they're going to give you the happiest clients and the ones getting the best results. And I know one thing that a lot of realtors have told me, after they make the decision to join Platform, what they told me is, "Hey, the real reason I signed up, wasn't even your Facebook ads or your testimonials, which were all impressive." But it's like, guess what? Lots of companies have testimonials because they, obviously, are just cherry picking the very best examples, right?

Tim Chermak:
But they said, "What made me make the decision to finally try Platform and just give it a try, was that when I started reaching out to people that I found out just, with some basic Googling and research, I found out that they were Platform clients, but they weren't listed as public testimonials. All of those people had amazing things to say about Platform too."

Neal Cox:
Wow.

Tim Chermak:
So it wasn't just the public case study type clients that were getting good results. It seems like everyone was happy too. So I'm curious, did you reach out to anyone or how many people did you call or what did that process look like? And by the way, for those listening, I just want to add this for those listening to this, I promise we're going to loop this back into marketing strategies for realtors. So just hang on one second.

Neal Cox:
Well, if I remember correctly, the list was enough to convince me. And then I went and checked out those people's websites. I didn't even call because to me, it was like, well, if they gave me a list, the people are going to say, it's awesome. There's not going to be people that say, well, they gave you my number, but it's crappy. So I didn't feel the need. The proof was that there were people out there that could vouch for it. I go to their website, look at their stuff and like, oh, wow, this really is a thing.

Tim Chermak:
That's cool. That's cool. So, for all the agents listening to this, right? I don't want to spend the entire hour talking about Platforms marketing, right? Let's talk about marketing for actual realtors and let's get into Neal's story. But as we're thinking about this sales cycle, right? Because that's what it is, it's the sales cycle of realtors doing research and the due diligence to consider hiring a marketing company, like Platform. Realize that buyers and sellers in your market are going through the same thing, right? We often think of generating leads and getting appointments as this very calculated, mathematically precise process where, oh, I buy leads from a certain source. Whether it's Google Pay Per Click, Facebook, you're getting leads from Realtor, Zillow, WYLO, Book Here or BoomTown, whatever, right?

Tim Chermak:
You think it's, oh, I spend money a lead contacts me, right? But you're missing the entire process of what happens to make that lead generation process feel so reliable, right? That person probably spent 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 months behind the scenes slowly, silently doing research, checking you out on Facebook, looking for homes on Zillow, whatever. And you only see the very last part of that process where they actually reach out to you and they click an add and opt in. But more than likely, that person has been kind of doing their research, checking you out for months and months, so what we try to do at Platform.

Tim Chermak:
And what we're going to start talking about here with Neal is some examples of Neal's ads, right? That are specifically written in such a way to appeal to that person who's doing research, but they're probably not yet ready to reach out for whatever reason, right? Because everyone has their own timeline. And so it makes sense for someone like Neal that, hey, he didn't get crazy results in his first 90 days or even his first six months with Platform. And he got positive financial results in his first year. I mean Neal, what was your ROI in the first year that you kind of started The Platform Marketing Strategy?

Neal Cox:
Well, in 2019, I ended up with $95,000 in GCI and $28,000 of that was directly from Platform. So if you do the math there, it's the previous year's GCI of around $60,000 plus what came from Platform. And it was interesting. That was four deals and they all closed on the same day.

Tim Chermak:
Really?

Neal Cox:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
Well that was a nice day.

Neal Cox:
It was.

Tim Chermak:
So your first year you're profitable, right?

Neal Cox:
Mm-hmm.

Tim Chermak:
It looks like, hey, I hired platform. I added an extra about $30 grand to my GCI. My wife's not going to kick me out, at least I showed that this thing is paying for itself, right? But let's be honest, that's not life changing results, right?

Neal Cox:
No, it's not.

Tim Chermak:
It's not like, hey, we're going to go buy a yacht because I made an extra $30,000 this year. Because a lot of that ends up going out to fees and advertising budgets and taxes, obviously. And so, it's not life changing results, but you saw the growth. So this is like the real question, right? This is like the question behind the question. What convinced you to stick with it that second year, knowing that after the first year, your business grew a little bit, but it wasn't amazing, right? A lot of people would've quit at that point that would've been like, oh, well I expected a lot more out of my first year. What convinced you to stick with it? Because I think both of us know that had you not stuck with it, had you quit at some point in 2020, you would not be on pace this year to make $300,000?

Neal Cox:
Absolutely. So the sales funnel that I'm sure people are familiar with, I squeezed out $28,000 that at the end of the year there directly from Platform, but at the top and middle of the funnel, I had so much going on still. I was talking to people, I was running ads, I was doing everything. And there was still so much happening. When I first started, I was on a team that provided some leads from CINC, Commissions, Inc.

Neal Cox:
And I mean, those things are hard to close and I'd close one every now and then, but nothing else was going on. You're like, okay, I've got this one. I've had a conversation with this one person. But with Platform it's okay, I close these four on one day, but I have 30 conversations going on.

Tim Chermak:
So you basically looked out and you always saw there was a big pipeline in the future, of you always had leads that, it's like, hey, I don't know their exact timeline, but I know that I have a ton of buyers and sellers that are probably six months, eight months, nine months out, or even a year out. But I know they're there.

Neal Cox:
Yeah, because conversations happen daily with multiple people. And so you just extrapolate and you say, well, if I keep up with this, this stuff's going to happen.

Tim Chermak:
Neal, how long did it take for you to really be able to look your wife in the eye, and you both knew that okay, I made a good decision with this, this is paying off, this was the right decision? And I mean, because your first year, like I said, you made a little bit more money, but it's not really life changing, right? It's not like a case study type testimonial result where you're going to go shout it from the rooftops that Platform helped me make an extra $28,000 this year. That's nice, but it's not life changing, right? At what point was it halfway through the second year, so was it like 18 months in or... I mean, how long did it take for you to really feel like, oh man, this is really paying off, now I know I made the right decision and I know my wife's not just not only not mad at me. She's probably really glad that we made this decision?

Neal Cox:
It's probably right before the end of year two and into year three. It's this year, because when this year started, I had business, it was going, but it's been the year developing where I've said, oh wow, look at what's really happening.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. So, I mean, for you would say the major growth in your brand that, obviously, resulted in a bunch of people calling you to list their house and people calling you because they want to buy a house, that didn't happen in six months?

Neal Cox:
Nope.

Tim Chermak:
Neither did it happen in 12 months. It kind of started happening around 18 months, but it really took you nearly two years to get to that point?

Neal Cox:
Yep, and in 2020, I was ready to go, made all these plans at the end of 2019, okay, I'm going to do this. And then I go in on the first Monday of 2020, and I'm starting with all these systems and implementing this and that, and then COVID happens and my business completely died. I had things fall out of contract, I had buyers that were looking, stop looking and no matter what follow up I did with anything, there was just nothing there. It was just not happening. And it wasn't until about May or June in 2020 that things picked up. And then that half of 2020 still ended up being my best year ever. Then 2021 starts and it's going good. But it was probably April, May, before it was like, to the wife even, hey, come look at this spreadsheet, what's happening. She's like, holy. So I'd say it took about two years to get to where it is just a it's a runaway train at this point.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. It took about two years to where you'd be comfortable using the phrase life changing?

Neal Cox:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, in the first year you made a little bit more money, cool, but it wasn't really transformative or life changing until about the second year. And I've always thought that's a really interesting dynamic with realtors who are implementing this Platform strategy because thinking about waiting two years or with some agents that happen sooner, sometimes it only takes nine months to a year to really kick in, right? So it's going to be different for everyone, but it is a constant narrative that I hear that, yeah. I knew it was working in a technical sense in the first six months or the first nine months, but it really didn't start to blow up in terms of tons of commission checks, until about a year or until about 18 months or in your case even two years, right?

Tim Chermak:
And I find that interesting as a marketer because it's simultaneously a challenge because we have to convince the agents that are brave enough to start this marketing strategy. We have to convince them, hey, stick with it, do not give up six months in, do not give up nine months in, stick with it and it'll work. So it's kind of a challenge in that sense, but the other side of the coin is that it becomes a competitive advantage in some ways, the longer it takes to work because you know that your competition isn't going to copy you. Your competition does not have that vision and that patience and frankly, they don't have the courage to stick with a marketing program for 18 months or two years, if that's how long it actually takes to really, truly kick in. So it kind of gives you peace of mind.

Neal Cox:
Right, right.

Tim Chermak:
And it seems like it attracts a different customer for you guys because we've got a closed private Facebook group of all of your clients and you and your team. And we interact in there regularly.

Neal Cox:
And my mom's in there too, just so everyone knows.

Tim Chermak:
Okay, I'll keep it clean then. The agents, the insights, the experience and just the social capital that everyone has in there, you're not leading the [inaudible 00:25:24] line, so to speak, you've got high quality, great agents that know a lot about a lot of stuff. And they're a great resource.

Tim Chermak:
And so, taking two years to work, we could probably talk about this all day because I think that alone is crazy that yeah, you get a little bit of results, but it really took two years to kick in. What was your wife telling you this entire time? Or what was your broker telling you or other agents you knew, this entire time? Because shortly they probably saw a lot of the ads or the videos that you were running and I'm sure that they looked at you're a production numbers. And they're like, okay, it looks like Neal's trying all these marketing ideas, but his business really isn't blowing up. Did you have any, I don't want to use the word haters because that's a cliche term, but did you have any people who it seemed like they doubted you or who were skeptical of why are you trying all these marketing ideas? What is the point of all that?

Neal Cox:
I think I got enough from it to keep that at bay, my wife was not like, hey, we got to really look at this. Also, at the beginning of 2020, I brought on a lender partner who pays part of my marketing budget, which means that my margin is better so that I was able to keep it going longer with medium results and just kind of like hiring Platform on faith, sticking with it on faith because here we're two years from seeing this webinar. I can hardly remember anything from it. But what I do know is that I interact with agents in our Facebook group on a daily basis and people say, oh, this is crazy, someone just called me out of the blue and I'm listing a million dollar property tomorrow or Hey, this ad had 50,000 views or whatnot. And it's enough to where we can see it working in other people before it's working 100% for us.

Tim Chermak:
So it just kind of it keeps you motivated, seeing other agents' success stories?

Neal Cox:
Yeah. And this podcast back in, I guess, February-ish when the very first episodes of this were released, I would not have categorized my success as case study worthy at that time. But I start listening to these agents and it's like, all right, let's go film some videos. Let's go do what we need to do. There's enough there that you can see it, even when it hasn't happened yet.

Tim Chermak:
I think that's a really interesting point you just made that when we debuted this podcast, right? You were still one of the agents that was kind of in awe looking up to some of the agents that I had interviewed on here, because you were thinking, wow, they're in this different level of success than I've had. And I'm doing fine, I'm a successful realtor, but whoa, look at those agents that are getting interviewed on The Platform podcast, they're really crushing it, maybe one day I'll have results like them.

Neal Cox:
Exactly. That was exactly what my thoughts were. It's like I would love to... And listening to it, you get some motivation to keep going, but you're doing the exact same things that they are doing. So what is the expected result? The same results they have.

Tim Chermak:
Yep. Yep. That's awesome. So Neal, let me ask you a couple specific questions on what the actual ads are that you're running, what your actual marketing plan has looked like these last couple years, because I probably can't say it enough. It's absolutely insane to take a business from $60,000 a year to $300,000. I mean that just doesn't happen randomly, oh yeah, I don't know. I guess I just got a lot of referrals this year. No one's business spontaneously grows from $60 to $300,000 just because the market's hot or whatever.

Neal Cox:
No, you can't dumb your way into that. You might dumb your way from 60 to 80, something like that.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I mean very, very clearly the marketing and the ads that you're running to generate leads are driving that business growth. And so let's dive into what some of the specifics of those ads are. So the first one I want to bring up is the buttered brioche Sunday and people listening to this are just like, what the hell is he talking about? So I was actually speaking at a real estate conference in Louisville where Neal is. It just happened to be in his hometown. It was the Real Estate Distilled Conference. And so I was one of the speakers there and I think on one of the afternoons we had off, we headed over to a local ice cream parlor, I guess, near the hotel, kind of in downtown Louisville. Neal, what was it called again? What's the name of the business?

Neal Cox:
Louisville Cream

Tim Chermak:
Louisville Cream. Yep. And so I love ice cream. That's a fun fact for anyone listening to this in case you just wanted to learn more personal facts about Tim Chermak. I love ice cream. It's one of my passions in life. And so whenever I'm traveling somewhere, I have to find a locally owned ice cream parlor, ideally a place that makes their own ice cream, not just someone who's a retailer for some national brand of ice cream, but ideally they make it there. And so I go to Louisville Cream and it's just amazing. They had this Sunday that was being promoted called the Buttered Brioche Sunday. And Neal I'll let you explain it, but it's almost this fine art masquerading as a dessert.

Neal Cox:
It is. It involves some, I guess it's like French toast or something like that, and then ice cream on it and all this stuff, but it's finished with a blow torch and it's kind of a joy just to watch them do this. And when we had hooked up, I think you and Mitch had already had it a couple times. You're like, Neal you have to try-

Tim Chermak:
We were only in Louisville, I think, for three days. And I think we went there and had Buttered Brioche Sundays, four times in three days, that's how good they were.

Neal Cox:
I didn't even know about this place. There's a restaurant right next door, or very close to it, that we went to for dinner, that I love that place and then you guys are like, "No, you got to check out next door." And Tim pulls out his phone and says, "Okay, here's what we're doing." And I'm like, "Oh, what? We're making an ad?" So he gives me very few directions and just starts filming and essentially I order one of these things. And then the star of the show is the guy behind the counter. And then the Buttered Brioche Sunday, because it is something that's really cool to watch being made. He's blow torching, he's pulling this, he's doing that. And when it comes out, it's gorgeous.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I mean he pours condensed milk and caramel and sugar all over this fresh sliced piece of bread from a local bakery. I mean, just the story is amazing. You can almost taste the story when you're eating it, right? And then to caramelize all of it, he just covers it in flames with a blow torch. And so all Neal did was... I was like, "Hey Neal, go up and order that. And I'm going to film you ordering it." And then as soon as he ordered it, I just turned the camera on the guy making it. It was basically, like what, a 60 second video just of the guy making the dessert. And then at the end, I followed you over and I'm filming the whole time as you walk over and pay for it and take the first bite.

Tim Chermak:
But the interesting thing about this video, right? Is that, because at some point I should probably stop fantasizing about the dessert, just get to the marketing point of this story, right? The interesting thing about this video is that you got, I mean, what was it, 50,000 video views on this video?

Neal Cox:
Yep.

Tim Chermak:
Or something like that. Yeah, I mean, it went viral in the Louisville area and there's no fancy graphics, no animations, no video editing. There's not multiple cuts that we splice together and post and then made this cool looking fancy video, right? No lower thirds, no animations, no titles, no nothing. It's just a video of Neal walking up, like, "Hey guys, this is one of my favorite desserts here in Louisville." Then he goes and orders it. And then the rest of the video is just a closeup of the person behind the counter making this dish, right?

Tim Chermak:
And then, so that's it, that's all it is. And then Neal runs this as a retargeting ad from his realtor Facebook page. And it's just showing to all the people that have clicked on his recent real estate ads, right? Homes reports, and new listing ads and open houses and all the various lead gen ads that platform runs to actually generate leads. Now the next day, on Instagram and on Facebook, this video is popping up of... I think the title we went with was kind of like hyperbole, and it was, this is the best dessert in all of Louisville or something like that. So that title or that headline kind of ropes you in because if you're just scrolling through Insta or scrolling through Facebook, and then this titled video pops up of the best dessert in Louisville and you see blow torches involved, you're going to watch the video, right?

Neal Cox:
Yep.

Tim Chermak:
But the cool thing was anyone who watches that video is also watching you because you're in the video and it's coming from your page, obviously. So it starts to kind of build these indirect, I guess, emotional bonds between all these people that are in your retargeting database and all these people following you on social media. And they know you're a realtor, but now they start to think of you as like, wow, this guy is just a local expert on Louisville. He even knows where all the cool places to, for example, grab dessert are and it was just a simple video, right? I just want to emphasize that again, that the video went viral, not because it was expertly edited or we had fancy camera equipment or professional mics or lighting or anything like that. It was filmed on an iPhone with no editing whatsoever, none.

Neal Cox:
And no prep.

Tim Chermak:
We just took the video file and... Yeah, exactly. No prep. There wasn't any second takes or anything. We just went and filmed it and that video got 50,000 video views as a retargeting ad in the Louisville area. And so I think that was probably, I mean, I would imagine that was one of the early times where you think, okay, there's something to this strategy. It's like the one, two punch, step one is get leads who are clicking on actual real estate ads, right? Like homes lists and homes reports, and new listing ads, whatnot, get actual real estate leads. And step two is simply stay in touch with them in a creative way that just reminds them that you exist because all you have to do is stay top of mind long enough for them to finally be ready to sell their house. And all that we want to do is in that moment, whether it's three months from now or nine months from now, when they're finally ready to actually sell their house, we just want them to think of you because you have enough interesting videos out there.

Neal Cox:
And I had kind of an example of how this works done to me. So every now and then there'll be a new video idea that another agent has done within The Platform network. And we'll be talking to our account manager and they'll say, "Hey, go look at this person's video as an example, because our markets are exclusive. We're not competing with anybody." And one of the videos was done by Amy Lucas, that's down in the Space Coast of Florida. And what happens is you go to their page, you watched their video. Well now you're in there-

Tim Chermak:
And by the way, we actually, we actually recently did a podcast episode with Amy, so after this episode go listen to the episode with Amy because that one's super, super inspiring too. But Neal go on.

Neal Cox:
Yep. So I ended up in her retargeting list because I had clicked on her stuff on her page. So now every time I'm scrolling Facebook, for months, I see Amy. I see this agent in on the Space Coast of Florida. I've never met her. I don't know anything about her, and that happened for months. All of a sudden I feel like I know her. Forward to the end of 2020 in Minneapolis where we had a Mastermind Event and I met her in person for the first time and already felt like I knew her. And I was like, oh, okay. This is how people feel when they meet me now.

Tim Chermak:
Yep, because you were seeing her ads for six months or however long it was, you finally meet her and you kind of just kick off a conversation because you feel like you know her. And that's exactly what's happening in your market this entire time is, someone clicks on one of your, let's say, open house this weekend ads. And then the next time they're on Facebook, they see this, is this the best dessert in all of Louisville ad. And it has nothing to do with real estate, right?

Neal Cox:
Nothing.

Tim Chermak:
There's no like secret tie in at the end where we try to loop it back into homes for sale or something. It's just a video of, hey, I think this is the best dessert in Louisville. And it just happens to be coming from your page. And so the reason we would categorize that as a marketing victory is that you're in the video, it's coming from your page and so people will remember you, right? And then if a couple days later they see another retargeting ad from you and then a couple days later, another one, eventually when they're ready to sell their house, what realtor do you think they're going to think of?

Neal Cox:
Yeah, that's right.

Tim Chermak:
Of course, they're going to think of you.

Neal Cox:
And I assume that it is the same in other markets, but you can't throw a rock in Louisville without hitting six real estate agents. We've got way more real estate agents than we do listings so I'm not necessarily the only agent that people know.

Tim Chermak:
Right, right.

Neal Cox:
But they're choosing me over other people because they feel like they're getting to know me. And one thing that I've found, especially this year, is people that I know that I haven't talked to maybe in years are starting to reach out to me. And I know for a fact they know other agents because they're mutual acquaintances or friends, but they're reaching out to me because they keep seeing my face.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah and so a lot of that content that we're putting out there with the retargeting ads, both on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, if someone sort of knew you from a long time ago, but they're not really close friends, right? But they technically knew you, whether it's from high school or it was someone you took a class with in college or whatever, right? A friend of a friend from church or your kid's school or whatever. The difference that Platform makes in someone's business over the long term is that all of those really weak ties on kind of the outer rims of your social network start to call you and work with you. Where before they probably weren't, you were only getting the referral business from close family members or coworkers who really knew you well. Or people who really knew your wife really well, actual friends, right?

Neal Cox:
Mm-hmm.

Tim Chermak:
What Platform does is we're putting so much content out there, both with photos and videos, that they're like, oh, that's right, Neal. Yeah, I remember Neal from college or I met Neal at such and such. And then if they need a realtor at some point in the next year, or they're having a conversation maybe with a friend who needs a realtor, they're a lot more likely in that moment to be like, hey, I actually have a good friend, he's a great agent, Neal. And I think there's a correlation too. And you can never really prove this unless you did like a long term, double blind study, right?

Tim Chermak:
But I've seen enough over and over and over again anecdotal instances of agents telling me this, that how enthusiastically your sphere refers you is a function of how many retargeting ads you have going at any given time. Because if they're constantly seeing you, even if none of those retargeting ads specifically are talking about how great of an agent Neal is or here's five logical reasons that Neal is better than other agents or I sold so many homes last year and that proves why I'm more competent than other realtors or whatever, right? We're not making often technical claims in the ads that say I'm better than other realtors and here's why, because that just comes off as douchey, right?

Neal Cox:
Yeah, and everyone markets that way.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Right, right. But the greater frequency that they're seeing new ads from you again, whether they're photos or videos, it could be, hey, this is the best dessert in Louisville or maybe the next one is just a photo of you holding a cheeseburger because you discovered a new burger place in Louisville that you wanted to tell the world about. Or maybe it's a photo of you with one of your kids or maybe it's you jumping into a pool, whatever, right? All the various retargeting ads that we run, the more people are seeing this, the more they kind of subconsciously just assume that like, hey, if Neal's constantly marketing and I keep seeing him, he must be a good realtor.

Neal Cox:
Absolutely.

Tim Chermak:
So I'm going to tell my friends that he's a good trustworthy realtor, even though they've never done independent research to verify that you're actually an excellent competent agent. I mean, because technically for all they know you could just be really good at marketing and you could be the shittiest agent ever, right?

Neal Cox:
That's true.

Tim Chermak:
You could just be really, really good, I guess, at manipulating social media or making it look like you're competent, but that's how the human brain works, right?

Neal Cox:
Right.

Tim Chermak:
That's a constant theme, I try to impress on all the agents in The Plat fam, is that we like to think that people make logical decisions, that they do their research and there's tons of due diligence and they're maybe making T-charts of the pros and cons of Neal versus this other agent, of who am I going to list my home with, right? Like how many years of experience does Neal have or does he have a college degree or how many homes do you sell last year? Or all these things that they might compare realtors, no one's doing that.

Neal Cox:
No.

Tim Chermak:
No one's no one's doing that.

Neal Cox:
No. And I have had several of these where so and so acquaintance referred me to this person, but the absolute pinnacle is when I had a guy call me out of the blue, wanted to talk about listing his house. And when he told me who referred me to him, I had no idea who he was talking about. None.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. So actually, you're now at the point where you've rolled the snowball so big with your database and your sphere that you're getting referrals from people who have never even worked with you.

Neal Cox:
Absolutely.

Tim Chermak:
So you're getting referrals, not just from past clients, but total strangers that have still never even met you, are confident enough that hey, this Neal guy really looks like he knows what he's doing. I see a lot of his ads, that they're referring their friends to you, even though they themselves have never worked with you?

Neal Cox:
Correct.

Tim Chermak:
That's really cool. And that's what marketing success looks like. Because again, people are not making these decisions logically, rationally. It's a very emotional and primal decision making process. Most people, they would never admit this, right? Because everyone wants to think they're really sophisticated, but most people make very intuitive gut decisions, it's kind of like, does it feel right to work with Neal? Does he seem like a trustworthy guy, right? And if your ads that you're putting out there into the world, build up slowly and over time kind of this reputation that Neal seems like a trustworthy guy, he seems like a cool guy. That's going to result in way more business over time than just bragging about how many homes you sold or what your volume was or how many years you've been in the business or only ever posting about real estate.

Tim Chermak:
The agents who post every time they have a closing or every time that a sign goes in the yard or whatever, not that you shouldn't be doing those things, right? But that shouldn't be the only marketing that you're doing because ultimately people don't really care. They just want to feel that peace of mind of knowing, hey, I think I made the right decision working with Neal, in the same way, right? That it took some time for you to feel like, hey, I made the right decision working with Platform and at first you couldn't necessarily justify that decision with raw numbers because the numbers weren't there yet, right?

Tim Chermak:
But I'm assuming the reason you stuck with Platform and you saw it through and you trusted the system, was that you had that gut intuitive feeling of, I like these guys, I like what they're doing, I feel like the marketing is working. Notice the word feel, because you don't really have spreadsheets yet. You can't really say, hey, I have all these closings, but you feel like it's working and that's what made the decision. And that's what helped you make the decision to keep using The Platform strategy, even though you didn't get absolutely mesmerizing life changing results in that first year, right? I mean honestly took, it sounds like, two years.

Neal Cox:
Yep, and that's true. And there's kind of a cyclical thing because a lot of our strategy is to run video tours of listings. So when I was first in real estate, my listing presentation looked something like, looking at their house and saying, yeah, here's how much, and I'll put it on the MLS and follow up with people. But now I have a sophisticated listing presentation that shows an entire process of how we're going to do video, that I can guarantee the most eyes on their listing, and then you go and you say, look, when someone opts in, they end up in this database and I have their actual contact information that I can follow up with them and they're going to start getting seeing more stuff from me. And then you use that video that you're proposing to make, you put it out there and you're getting more listings based on that video. So it's kind of a cyclical thing and it makes your listing presentation now something that's impressive rather than, okay, so you'll put it on the MLS for how much?

Tim Chermak:
Well, yeah, I mean it's like you're proving that you do more than what other agents do.

Neal Cox:
Absolutely. And then-

Tim Chermak:
You're actually different.

Neal Cox:
And then from all that's happening, I've got a note that's just called the idea list right now on my computer. And I'm like, oh, I could do that. I could do this. I could do that, because my wife and I have slowly kind of expanded what we're doing and me having an increased income like this is allowing us to do that.

Tim Chermak:
So I know that you've started a few side businesses because you realize the opportunity that you had with a lot of this marketing. Real quick. Tell us about the side business of selling, gift packages for other realtors because it sounds like it sounds like that's going like pretty well for you.

Neal Cox:
It is. I had a closing at the end of 2018, this is pre Platform, with some very close friends and I thought, I want to get them a nice gift, this has been fun, I'm happy for them, it's a big celebration. And I had in my mind, a gift bag shaped like a house that I was going to buy. So I go onto Amazon, can't find. It long story short, it doesn't exist. I mean, honestly-

Tim Chermak:
Yeah and you're like, how is this? How is this not for sale on Amazon, something this obvious, right?

Neal Cox:
Yeah, and I'm there on page 30 on Google, like, well, it really doesn't exist. And so I said, heck, I'm going to make it. And what's funny, my wife's face when I first pitched the idea of, I want to produce a gift bag that looks like a house and she's like, you want to do what? And I cold called packaging distributors until I found someone to work with me. And through the process, I'm growing a side business company right now that sells these gift bags to realtors and then we're slowly adding gifts and products to the line as well.

Tim Chermak:
And the core product that you're selling is it's a heavy paper gift bag shaped like a house. That's the easiest way to describe it, right?

Neal Cox:
And with house artwork on it as well.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Yeah. So it's a fun kind of cool thing that realtors can use to put whatever gift, if you get your client a bottle of wine or whatever you do as a closing gift, you can put it inside this special gift bag that's actually shaped like a house and has artwork on the outside to make it look like a house. And that's just a lot more personal of a gift to give clients than some random generic gift bag. So how much are you selling these for Neal?

Neal Cox:
So they come in 5, 10 and 50 bundles, probably sell tens the most they're $27.99 on welcomehomebags.com.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. So for anyone listening, if that sounds interesting to you and you want to get these custom gift bags, that's actually Neal's side business. So on top of being, now I would say, you're a top producing realtor, you're going to make probably $300,000 this year in GCI, he also has a side business and I just want to make sure I get this right. It's welcomehomebags.com.

Neal Cox:
Correct.

Tim Chermak:
And you can get 10 of them for under 30 bucks.

Neal Cox:
Yep. That's with free shipping.

Tim Chermak:
Neal, what has your sales been on that the last year?

Neal Cox:
So interestingly enough, based on my work with Platform, I was able to kind of dumb my way into some marketing on Facebook, in 2020, my wife and I, we were printing money. It was crazy. The Apple update to iOS 14, just slammed the brakes on that for us.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Yeah. That's been a kick in the nuts.

Neal Cox:
Yep. So I reached out and had to hire a marketing agency that works with physical objects, to put together a huge funnel for me, it's three campaigns and 10 different ads in each campaign. It's huge. It took a long time for them to do. And we're working back up to where we were, because we were grossing $12 to $15,000 a month in sales there for a while.

Tim Chermak:
That's fantastic. So I mean the confidence you've gained over the last couple years, not even just in real estate, but in business and marketing in general gave you that inspiration to start the side company, which is now, depending on how the year finishes out, this side company will probably do somewhere like $100 to $200,000 of revenue.

Neal Cox:
Yep. And then we dabble in some real estate investing as well. And then I've got a new side business that's going to work hand in hand with real estate that I'm starting right now. As we speak, I'm waiting for an email for the next step on putting this together. And essentially, it is hard money lending, but the pitch is, right now on this market, you cannot get a contingent offer accepted, hardly ever. And some people need to close on their sale before they can purchase, so there's different ways to go about it. There are banks that offer similar products, but it takes like 30 days because you have to go do all this stuff. So we're proposing to, and it will be a secured loan, they'll be a lien on the house, there'll be a note on the mortgage to lend that little bit of capital so that people can free up that equity and move forward.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Just to float people for whatever a month or two so that they can find a house and they can sell their house with the confidence that, hey, we have money to tide this over, essentially.

Neal Cox:
Yep.

Tim Chermak:
And I mean, obviously, normally your home equity is not that liquid. And even though technically, you think of it as being your money, you have to go through the full blown loan process to get access to your own money.

Neal Cox:
Yeah, it's potential money.

Tim Chermak:
So you are solving... Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You're solving that problem on behalf of buyers and sellers, which I think is really cool. And I'm excited to have a brainstorm session with you at some point here in the next couple weeks to write some ads for that because I bet that will probably generate an even new source of buyer and seller leads for your business. Because maybe someone clicks on an ad, they opt in, they request more information and for whatever reason they find out, hey, this really isn't a fit for me or I don't think I like the fee you're charging or they don't quite qualify for it for whatever reason, right? They decide not to, it's like, well cool, you still now have a lead, they might still want to work with you as their realtor. So it's kind of like a win-win.

Neal Cox:
That's right and that goes along with the ability to offer more service than the average agent, if there only pitch is I'm going to put your house on the MLS, you don't have a pitch, not if you're up against me, that is.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I mean, you really, with a combination of these side businesses you have, and I know that you actually have a podcast of your own in the Louisville area and all of the photos and the video campaigns that you're doing with Platform Marketing, you are positioning yourself as not just being a realtor, but just the local real estate expert. And yes, I'm a real estate agent. Yes, I can help you buy and sell homes, but I'm also kind of in this broader, bigger picture level, a real estate expert in general, right?

Neal Cox:
That's right.

Tim Chermak:
And so people, they're a lot more likely to refer you to their friends and family, because they feel like by referring you that you're so smart and you're so well connected that when people refer people to you, I think there's an important tipping point in professional services. When you make a referral, if your brand is strong enough, and this is what we're always shooting for at Platform Marketing, right? We want our brand to be strong enough where when someone refers someone to us, they're not spending social capital, making that referral. They're actually enhancing their social capital because the person is so grateful that they referred them to Platform because we're so good at what we do or we're so well respected at what we do, that the person who got referred is actually grateful to you for making the referral.

Tim Chermak:
So when you refer people, I just want to be really clear, right? You're not spending up scarce social capital. Because sometimes if you refer someone to something you're kind of burning up social capital, it's like, well, we'll see if this referral works out, but you're actually taking a risk making that referral. Any professional service business, whether it's me talking about Platform or you right talking about your own business, you want to get it to that point that your clients love you so much, that they're going out of their way to send their friends and family to you because it actually makes them look good in the process that they were lucky enough to be connected to you. It's almost like by referring people to you like, oh, by the way, I actually know Neal Cox. Yeah, really? You actually know him because you're positioned as almost a local celebrity where someone almost feels like they're bragging or it's virtue signaling like, hey I actually know Neal, do you want me to give you his number?

Neal Cox:
Yeah. And then you are the local expert but you're also the local person. So there's a custom t-shirt place right around the corner from where I live and they were advertising all of these just Louisville t-shirts. So I went in and bought five of them. I'm like, I'm just going to keep wearing these Louisville t-shirts and be the Louisville guy. I've got my own podcast, which is Talk About Town and it's about Louisville. So it evolved a little bit. The first idea was it was going to be about real estate. Well, no one wants to listen to that, but luckily we didn't have to change the name to rebrand because we're still just talking about town. And now we have on human interest stories, the last posted episode was with a girl that just graduated high school from the children's hospital in town because she's waiting on a heart transplant and she's an awesome, awesome student and person and who doesn't want to listen to that? It's just not about posting hey list with me and I'll get your house sold. That's boring. Nobody wants that.

Tim Chermak:
So you've built this brand, you've quintupled your GCI in the last couple years, which I mean, we're an hour into this conversation, I'm still kind of just like blown away, like holy crap, that is really, really impressive growth. We mentioned that video Neal of, this is the best dessert in Louisville. What are some of the other videos that you've done that when you look back on kind of your cannon of like retargeting campaigns, what are some of the ads that you really feel in hindsight like, hey, that particular ad or that video drove a lot of business to me?

Neal Cox:
So I was looking through in preparation for this, just some of the stats on different videos, and it's funny, you're like, oh I love that video. Well, other people did too. It's counterintuitive what people are into. We did one video where it starts with me outside of my office door. And I say, "I put all these electronic ads together all the time and it's not just me. I've got an entire team behind me," and I open the door and my dogs and cats are in there and you're like, "Guys, you're supposed to be working." That has nothing to do with real estate. And the engagement on it was off the chart. And I have a lead gen ad right now that is for a homes list with full fenced houses. That's it. But the picture is me and my dog taking a selfie together and people love it.

Tim Chermak:
What kind of dog do you have?

Neal Cox:
It's a lab mix. I got a beagle mix too, but the lab mix is the one in the photo.

Tim Chermak:
So it's basically, this ad is a photo of you and your lab, and the call to action of the ad is like, hey, I've put together a free report of homes for sale that have a fenced in yard. So if you have a dog that would want a fenced in yard, click here and I'll send you a list of, I mean, it's essentially all the homes for sale here in Louisville that have a fenced in yard, if you, if you have dogs, right? And I love ads like that, right? Because you're generating leads, but you're doing it in an interesting and creative way where it's not just stock photos of homes. Friends, don't let friends use stock photos in their ads. And you're putting that extra little bit of creativity into it by featuring a photo of you and your dog. And so when this pops up on someone's newsfeed in that moment, that split second, that's so crucial to having success with social media ads, in that moment, they don't realize they're seeing an ad.

Neal Cox:
Yeah and the comments on it, it's hilarious. People are commenting on that. They're like, "Oh, he's such a good boy." "Oh, so pretty," all that. And-

Tim Chermak:
And we think they're talking about the dog.

Neal Cox:
I think so. I'm not much to look at. No, I'm just kidding. They're obviously talking about the dog and then it's funny, it took me five or six shots to get the one that I wanted to use. So there's some kind of blooper shots. And I posted that as a comment too. I was like, hey, he didn't want to participate in this. And then people start commenting on that. They're like, "He's a good boy all the time." It's on a lead gen ad, so.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. And so that ad is simultaneously building your brand and making people think of you, but it's also generating leads. And so often in marketing people think there's a distinction between either you're lead generating or you're building your brand, it's mutually exclusive. Either you have to pick one or the other, right? And this is a really cool example of an ad that we actually do with a lot of Platform clients. I know a lot of the realtors that work with Platform have a version of this ad, where it's a picture of them and their dogs. And it's like, hey, by the way, if you want a free report of all the homes for sale here that have a fenced in yard , just click here and I'll send it to you for free. And it gives people the warm fuzzies and it's generating leads for you. So I mean that's the ultimate marketing win. Neal, what other ads have you run when you look back on the last couple years that you feel like have just been really big wins for you, whether they're photos or video ads?

Neal Cox:
It's counterintuitive, but these personal moment ads, that we call them, perform really well lately. And the reach grows and grows, as my retargeting list grows, the reach grows. And I mean, I had one ad that was a picture of me grilling. It was a Saturday evening and I'm grilling, I was like, oh, this'll make a good ad. Well then people start commenting on that. It has nothing to do with real estate. I had one, my COVID project when my business died, I was like, I'm building a tree house. My kids are basically too old for that. So I have my youngest one come up and we take a picture of me and him in the treehouse. And people love that. It's so counterintuitive because it's like you're using your feed as the same as you would your personal feed and people appreciate that. And it's counterintuitive because you'll see agents in agent groups that are just full of people across the country and their questions are like, hey, do you ever post business stuff on your personal page or vice versa, or, hey, have you ever done any social ads? What's some good ad copy. It's so much bigger than any of that. Those questions are thinking small and with Platform, we're thinking big.

Tim Chermak:
Neal, when we look at all these ads, obviously, it's not free to run ads on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, et cetera. What is the actual dollar amount on the average month that you're spending on the actual ads budget? I know that, obviously, every month might be a little bit different some months are more or less, but I mean, is there a general average that you like to stick at in terms of the monthly advertising budget?

Neal Cox:
I usually keep it at about a thousand dollars a month on ad spend. When all the COVID shutdowns happened, it was real funny, "Tim gets on our groups and starts saying, okay guys, Facebook ads are on sale right now, people are stuck at homes, so the number of eyes increased, so when you're spending money, you're going further." So he says, "While other agents are saying, oh, my business is dying, I need to scale this back. He says, scale it up." And I started throwing money that I technically didn't have, at my ads budget during that time. And I had a month or two where it was like $3,000 or $4,000 a month. And I'm at home not working, so I filmed a lot of videos to put that budget behind.

Tim Chermak:

My man.

Neal Cox:
Yep. And I believe that I'm reaping the benefits of that now.

Tim Chermak:
Absolutely. Yep, absolutely. So, I mean, you basically in the most scary months of COVID last year, when the world seemed like it shut down during March, April, May last year, you actually increased your ads budget?

Neal Cox:
Yep.

Tim Chermak:
And you were spending more in those months and a lot of agents spend in an entire year, and you were getting more results for it. Because what I meant when I said like, "Hey, Facebook ads are on sale," is that typically Facebook ads are governed by CPM and I'll spare people a really nerdy lecture, but CPM stands for cost per milli, and milli is just the Latin term for a thousand, milli meaning a millennium. And so it's just the metric that companies like Facebook use to say, hey, here's what we're going to charge you for a thousand impressions.

Tim Chermak:
So for every 1000 people who see your ad, this is what it costs to run that ad, right? And typically, CPM's different in every market, but typically most of our realtors we work with are seeing CPMs of, I'm just going to say $15, could be a little bit less, could be more, but let's say 15 bucks. What we were seeing last year was, it was like less than half of that. We were often running ads and the CPM was like $5. And so in some markets, you could spend the same amount of money on ads and get three times as many people seeing your ads, if you just had the courage to run ads during those scary months, because so many people were at home on Facebook that the ads got cheaper, right? Just basic supply and demand.

Tim Chermak:
And so what really ambitious agents did, like Neal here, is he's like, well, wait, if I'm getting like a basically two for one or even three for one special here, I might as well spend even more during this month because then I'm technically getting like 10 for one. And I think the burden of proof would be on someone to demonstrate that, that is not what caused your business growth in the last year, rather than you having to somehow demonstrate that this was exactly why my business grew. Because I think it would take a lot of faith to believe that, that wasn't what blew up your business. I mean, it would take more faith to believe that, that had nothing to do with your business going from 60 to 300K than it would to believe that hey, I think there's some sort of cause and effect correlation there.

Tim Chermak:
There's definitely some fuzzy ROI happening there. You can't always track it. You can't always look to A straight line to B, I ran this ad or I spent this money and then boom, I got that closing. It's not always that neat and organized when you look at the return on investment, but looking at all the ads you've done and the money you've invested in building your brand, it's really, honestly not surprising to me that you're now at this level of approaching 300,000 in GCI, maybe even beyond because if you pick up a bunch of business later this year, your GCI might not even be $300, it might be $360 and then we'll need to figure out what the next verb is after quintuple because I don't know.

Neal Cox:
Oh, gosh.

Tim Chermak:
Is it sixtoupled or

Neal Cox:
Yeah, it sounds dirty.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. We'll try to keep this PG-13, but I mean that's awesome. That's awesome that you had the courage to do that, when so many agents, over the last year were like, hey, how do I cut expenses, how do I reduce my marketing budget and lower my burn rate? And you just have the boldness to say, no, I'm actually going to like increase when everyone else is trying to cut expenses. I'm going to zig when other people's zag.

Neal Cox:
Yep. I would say The Platform journey thus far, there's been a lot of faith in it, but not faith on nothing. Faith that I'll get the same results as I've seen other people have. And I think the proof is there now.

Tim Chermak:
Neal, as you've looked back on these last couple years, I know that you start generating leads right away and you're getting clicks right away, right? And so even in the first month or two when you start this process, you kind of have early leading indicators that it's working, right? But how long did it take you to actually have people in real life start telling you, oh yeah, I've seen your ads or, oh, you're that realtor I've seen your videos or I've seen you on Facebook or? How long did it take or how often nowadays, do you have people telling you that, oh yeah, I've seen your videos or maybe you meet someone and they're like, oh yeah, I know who you are, I've seen your videos, right?

Neal Cox:
I'd say it took maybe a year or more before that really started happening. I had closed leads that were directly or from Platform and Facebook. Before that started happening, I took the car into the shop recently and I'm explaining to him and then he needs my contact info and he says, oh, I know who you are. I watch your videos all the time.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome.

Neal Cox:
The thing that I keep finding is that I have people that I don't expect that I maybe know, and they have been watching. Sometimes someone I know that lives out of the market will know and they'll be like, oh my gosh, yes, I see your videos all the time. And that's always surprising. I had a coworker from a long time ago, I mean, I probably haven't talked to her in 10 years, she put a Facebook post about her daughter needing a washer and dryer used if somebody had them and I've got all these deals going on that are going to result in some excess washers and dryers. So I say, hey, I may have an end to that. And we chatted a little bit. And she said, yeah, they're moving to this apartment, this sounds perfect. And when they're ready to buy, we'll be calling you. It's like, oh my gosh. And I know for a fact she knows several other agents and I haven't talked to her in 10 years and I'm going to be the one she calls.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome. Neal are there any other closing thoughts? Or if you know there's realtors listening to this that are maybe discouraged with their marketing or feeling frustrated, because maybe they've been trying to build a brand and maybe, they've seen testimonials and they've heard stories, they've heard the legends right about realtors who really set out to build a local brand, and that's what motivated them to get started. But they're kind of in that in between period where they're trying to build a brand, they're trying to film some videos, they're trying to maybe run some ads, but they haven't yet hit pay dirt and they're not yet reaping the benefits and they're not harvesting all that they've planted yet. Knowing that was just you six months to a year ago, you would probably have categorized yourself as being in that category, what would you tell them to just encourage them if maybe right now while they're listening to this podcast, right now they're frustrated.

Neal Cox:
So at the beginning of 2020, I mentioned before my business died and even when some stuff started opening up, even when things were going, it took a little bit to get it going again. And I was talking to my account manager, Emily, she says, "Here's what I want you to do, call Jill Lightfoot in Columbus, Ohio, because it's a similar market as yours. And you're going to talk to her." So I call up Jill and Jill says-

Tim Chermak:
Shout out to Jill.

Neal Cox:
Shout out to Jill. She says, "Just keep doing your videos." That's it. She says, "Get intentional about filming videos, post them, keep it up, keep going." And I did. I took her advice and that was kind of led into that period where I was tripling and quadrupling my ad spend and this is the result. And so I would say to any agent that's in that in between time, just keep filming your videos. Platform doesn't have a limit on how many videos you can send them that they'll run for you. So keep them filled up with videos. There are-

Tim Chermak:
It's an all you can eat buffet. We are the Golden Corral of real estate market.

Neal Cox:
Absolutely. If you run out of an idea, ask your account manager, they've got a list of them. They'll say film this one and go look at so and so's example, and they'll give you two or three examples. You tweak it, make it your own. And then there's tons of those and-

Tim Chermak:
By the way, I'll actually share an idea right now. That's like a brand new, fresh one that the public hasn't even seen yet that we just tested, and I just got results on the last 24 hours. And it's a retargeting ad that's getting a 25% click rate when we run it. And it's just a photo, so the cool thing is you don't even have to film a video. And so it's you go to your town sign, every town has some sign when you're driving in a town and it's like, welcome to Fort Myers or welcome to Amarillo or welcome to Louisville, whatever. There's usually a sign on the side of the road, sometimes there's landscaping around the sign or lighting, sometimes there's not whatever, but I think, you know what I'm talking about, right?

Neal Cox:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
Most cities have some sort of welcome to, fill in the blank sign and you go there and you bring a couple suitcases and just take a photo of your self looking like you're walking by the sign. And I'm fully aware that these signs typically do not have walking paths next to them, right? So just walk by the sign and make it look like you're moving to town, but you're walking into town. You're holding a suitcase in one hand and you're pulling a suitcase that has wheels on it, in the other hand, it looks like you're moving to town and you have everything own in these suitcases and you're walking into town right by the welcome to Louisville sign, right? And what we did is we wrote kind of a template ad that you'll need to customize this, obviously, because every market's different. Right? But what the headline of the ad is that kind of ropes people's attention in, is it says eight reasons to pack your bags and move to Louisville.

Tim Chermak:
And so it's a photo of you looking like you're moving to Louisville and the eight reasons are... You mentioned how the people are so friendly or when people ask you, how are you doing around here, they actually mean it. How are you doing? Or if you have great schools talk about that, right? Or if there's one of your favorite restaurants, one tactic we use to get more engagement on the post is we'll just have like reason number six be Louisville Cream. This one's so important that it gets its own shot out. That's it, right? Just one sentence of one of the eight reasons to move to Louisville is Louisville Cream, enough said. And you tag them in it, and a ton of the shares that we're seeing on the first realtor that I tested this with are actually the owners of that restaurant that we tagged.

Tim Chermak:
And they're like, we're so thankful we were listed as one of the top reasons to move to Louisville and they're sharing it and their friends start sharing it. And so, because this ad is kind of a mixture of you bragging about the town that you're in, and about what's actually great about living there, whether it's the weather or taxes or the great schools, or... I don't know if there is there's pro sports there, is there a super cool local music scene or whatever it is, right? You come up with eight reasons that people are packing their bags and moving to Louisville, right? Tons of people start sharing it because sharing a post like that of... And by the way, it's you in the photo, to be clear. So you're the one in the photo, holding the suitcases, looking like you've packed your bags and you're moving to Louisville, right?

Tim Chermak:
People are sharing it because by sharing it psychologically what's going on, is you're giving them an opportunity to virtue signal that they're proud to live in Louisville. Hey, this is what the cool people are doing, they're moving to Louisville. So when they share it, it's essentially, it's implied, I'm proud to live in Louisville, right? So people start sharing this post. And when they do that, they don't necessarily realize it. But they're basically doing your advertising for you because when they share it, a bunch of their friends on Facebook will see it. And, obviously ,it's coming from your page, Neal Cox, Louisville Realtor, right? And so this ad is going viral for the first person that I launched it with. But the cool thing is there's nothing about the ad that necessarily makes it specific to one market, right?

Tim Chermak:
If you put in the time to customize the ad copy and you get a photo of yourself holding these suitcases, walking by the sign, I know it's going to work for any other agent who tries it. So this is just one example of the constant stream of creative marketing campaign ideas that we come out with Platform on like a weekly basis. So when an agent like Neal is in The Plat fam, we're launching new ideas like this literally every week. So anyways, anyone listening to this podcast, there's a free idea for you. And I don't worry about sharing our ideas because we come up with new ones every week and we'll never... If your competitive advantage is creativity, no one can take that away from you, right? It's not a scarce finite resource.

Neal Cox:
Yeah. And there's a secret sauce behind that too. They're not just posting that ad and calling it a day. There's a lot more that goes into it.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I mean, to be really clear, right? We're not running that to the general public because that would be a waste of money just blasting out that ad to anyone who lives in Louisville. We're only running it as a retargeting ad, only showing to people who have recently clicked on a real estate specific ad. So, people that are actually interested in buying or selling a house in Louisville, the next time they go on Insta or on Facebook, they'll start seeing that post. And it's just another example of creative way for Neal to stay top of mind with them. And then maybe the next day they'll see his ad about, is this the best dessert in all of Louisville, and they kind of start piecing together this mental reputation for Neal that, this guy really seems to understand Louisville. I guess we have to pick a real estate agent, we might as well work with him because he really seems both like he knows what he's doing, but he also just kind of seems really cool. It seems like he loves Louisville.

Neal Cox:
Yep. And I do. I wanted to leave this place when I was growing up, end up here and I completely am in love with my city. For real too, it's not just an ad.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome. Well Neal, thank you for joining us on the podcast today. I already know this is going to be just a super, super valuable episode. Your story is really inspiring and I hope that those agents listening to this, that we have encouraged if maybe they're in that in between phase where they've put in the work and they've made an investment, but they're not yet harvesting those seeds that they've planted. I hope that they can get encouraged from listening to this, hearing your story going from, 60K GCI to 300 or maybe even north of $300,000 by the end of the year. I mean that's insane. So thank you everyone for joining us, Neal thank you.

Neal Cox:
Thank you. Film those videos.

Neal Cox:
That's really good.