What To Do When You Don't Have A Sphere To Rely On For Referrals

Beth Ann Lynn:
It's not about selling houses. And I think that's where so many agents falter is that they think it's about selling houses and it's not. It's about the community, and marketing in a way that benefits the community. And I don't talk about my numbers. I don't post anything when I've reached my first million, my two, I just don't do that. I don't like to see that from other agents. And I think I focus more on the people. It's more of a relational journey for me than it is about selling houses.

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, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of The Platform Marketing Show. I'm here today with Beth Ann Lynn. She's a realtor in central Georgia, and she has a pretty cool story to share about her experience implementing this Platform Marketing Strategy that you constantly hear us talk about. So, Beth, welcome to the show.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Thank you, Tim. So glad to be here.

Tim Chermak:
So, Beth, how long had you been licensed as a real estate agent before you discovered this Platform Marketing Strategy?

Beth Ann Lynn:
My story's a little different. So, I was originally licensed in 2004 in South Carolina. And so I rode through the crash. I stuck around until about 2010. Then we moved away. I did not get my license when we moved. And then when we landed back here in Georgia in 2016, I decided I wanted to pursue that. And so in 2019, I got my license in Georgia.

Tim Chermak:
So, it was almost 10 years. Went by that you weren't an active realtor?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Right I had my... My major was in business and I had previously managed private practices, hospitals, things like that. So I was back in that arena in that spread of time.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. Okay. Yeah. It's so crazy thinking about when the last like financial crisis mortgage meltdown was, right? Because it's now, I mean, what was that 2007, 2008? So it's now like 15 years ago, right? And there are many, many real estate agents that have not been in the game for 15 years. So, almost one way of putting it is like, if you have anything less than 15 years of experience you've never known anything, but a crazy bull market where home prices are just appreciating and things are going really well. And for the most part it's smooth. And yeah, maybe there were some times in the last 15 years where it was a little bit more of a seller's market, or more of a buyer's market, but overall things have been really good for your entire career, unless you've been an agent for more than 15 years.

Tim Chermak:
And I mean, that's probably what most agents now haven't been doing it for 15 years. So, I always find it fascinating when I get to chat with an agent who was in the game before the mortgage meltdown, financial crisis of '07, and '08, because you just have an entirely different perspective on the real estate market on these economic cycles. It's not like the market has been going up every year of your career, right? So you started in South Carolina, you moved to Georgia. What specific city in Georgia are you in?

Beth Ann Lynn:
I am in Houseton County, Bibb County. It's middle Georgia. Macon Warner Robins area.

Tim Chermak:
Okay, cool. So for people who aren't familiar with Georgia, it's kind of right in the middle of Georgia. And what is like the general population there, like in your market? Is it a couple hundred thousand people?

Beth Ann Lynn:
About 160,000.

Tim Chermak:
Okay, cool. So it's not like a tiny small town, but it's also not like millions of people like Atlanta.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Right, right. I have to hustle.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. So you basically took 10 years off from being a realtor, I should say, you didn't like take 10 years off of your career, but you weren't an active agent selling homes for about 10 years. You got back into the game in 2019. What inspired you to do that? And how did you discover this Platform strategy?

Beth Ann Lynn:
I'd always loved selling real estate. And I was in a high pressure corporate job as an HR manager for an international company. And it was very, very stressful. And I just said to my husband, one day I was like, I just, I cannot see myself continuing on in this manner for very much longer. The stress was just horrendous. And so I decided to go back to what I loved. I always loved real estate. I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Back in the day, I was a hairdresser and had my own salon. So I've kind of always had that drive. And so I did it, I just jumped in. I mean, I quit my job and jumped into real estate, and just prayed for the best. And I think I did that, that was in 2019 about May of 2019.

Beth Ann Lynn:
And then about May of 2020, I don't know if you reached out to me, or if I saw something on Facebook, but I contacted you and we had a lengthy conversation. You sent me your book. And I read that we had a couple of other conversations. And then I decided just to take the plunge I knew from being a realtor pre previously that I needed to do something different and I wasn't looking for Zillow leads, or anything like that. I needed to do something unique. And I recognized that in Platform when I had that conversation with you. 

Tim Chermak:
So, that was in May of 2020. So that was after COVID really started.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah. I signed up with you guys at the very end of June of 2020.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Might as well say you might as well say July. It was like the last day of June or something like that.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. So like COVID was basically in full swing and the world was going crazy and you're like, "Hey, let's start this entirely new marketing program."

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah. I don't know where my head was, but I'm glad I did it.

Tim Chermak:
It's actually really interesting, right? Because so many agents back in like the ground zero moments of 2020 when no one really knew what was going to happen with the economy, or I mean society as a whole, right. Like things were nuts for most of 2020, because I think it all started in March, if I remember right. March of 2020. And so you made that plunge, you decided to start this Platform strategy, right? How did things go that first year? I mean, because you basically had about six months implementing Platform in 2020, what happened to your business in 2020?

Beth Ann Lynn:
2020 was a really good year for me. I want to back up. So, in 2019, I did about 45,000 GCI that six months that I was operating in 2019. 2020...

Tim Chermak:
Did you feel that you had like a strong sphere there in like the Warner Robins area? Or were you kind of feeling like, even though I've lived here now for 10 years that I don't know a ton of people I'm starting from scratch. What did it feel like starting in a new town because you had sold real estate in South Carolina for a long time, but you were still at least relatively new to Georgia. It's not that you had lived there your entire life. So what was that like starting back up as a realtor in a place that you hadn't been a real estate agent before?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah, actually it's a funny story. So my husband, and I he's Air Force, or was air force and we were PCS to Georgia in 2016. So I got here in 2016, didn't know a soul. Started selling in 2019 and really, I mean we had handfuls of close friends, but I really didn't have a sphere at all to speak of, but I like to talk to people. So, I just, everywhere I go, I make sure everybody knows that I'm a real estate agent, and I have conversations with people. And I think that helped me, but I didn't know a soul. So, it was like starting from scratch.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Yeah. So when you, so when you got going in 2019 and probably even into 2020, it wasn't like if you started creating advertisements, and marketing campaigns and whatnot, that it was somehow like supplementing the fact that you had sphere and referral business coming in, it's like those marketing campaigns and strategy had to basically drive the entire growth of the business because you couldn't rely on a bunch of referrals from friends, and family, and sphere.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes, absolutely. So 2020...

Tim Chermak:
That's always interesting to me, just to point that out because this kind of forms, it's close to a split test, I guess, as we'll ever get in the marketing world to like seeing the impact that marketing can make in an agent's career, because so often we talk about fuzzy ROI, the Platform, right? And it's hard to distinguish between what is my sphere, business, or referrals versus what is the impact that these ads and these marketing campaigns are making because often it's the marketing campaigns that end up helping you get more referrals, right? But then it's hard to attribute, well, is it 80% because of the marketing and 20% because I've done a good job staying in touch with my sphere?

Tim Chermak:
Or is it 80% because of my sphere and the marketing is only driving 20% of it? Figuring out what that attribution looks like is kind of difficult. So, it's always interesting to me to hear a story like yours, where you'll just admit that, "Hey, I didn't really have any sphere or referrals to fall back on. There wasn't like this strong foundation of people I knew. So if my business has grown", you can actually say it's because of the marketing I've done. So what happened then in 2020?

Beth Ann Lynn:
And absolutely that's exactly what I can say is that it was 100% the marketing. 2020 was a pretty good year for me. I had about 100,000 GCI for the year, and which for me, that was great because I was making six figures in my corporate job. And so I had replaced that pretty quickly and we were just cruising along.

Tim Chermak:
And that's impressive in the middle of like this pandemic lockdown year of 2020 to do 100K, because we have a lot of agents, I feel like in the last couple years, even in the Platfam, that have gotten frustrated because their business hasn't grown as much as they expected it to in the last year, like it's still grown, but like they're... It's like, "Oh, I thought I was going to add whatever 200,000 to my GCI, and I only added 60 or whatever." And it's like, well, if you're still growing or even sort of maintaining your business in the middle of like a global pandemic where the world just decided to go crazy for two years, that's kind of a win. So, that's pretty impressive in and of itself. So, in 2020 you went from, you said, making what like 45,000 in GCI in 2019. So you did over 100K in 2020. What were some of the things you did differently in 2020 that you maybe weren't doing in 2019?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Well, it would definitely be all the marketing. So, all of the videos, I mean I did everything my marketing manager asked me to do. My account manager asked me to do. And it was just a lot of videos a lot of, I guess, you would call them lead generation ads where you do the home searches, a lot of those. And then just following up with my Platform.

Tim Chermak:
Sure. So, where are things, Beth, now? Let's just fast forward, real quick. And we'll come back to this, but where are things now in 2022. So you've now been doing this for nearly two years. What was your GCI in 2021. And then what do you think you're on pace to hopefully do in 2022?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Okay. My GCI for 2021 was about 220.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. Well that's awesome. So, you basically doubled your business from 2021 or from 2020 to 2021. You doubled your business. That's fantastic.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes. And so my anticipation for 2022 is that I'm going to double as well. So at the end of January, I have, I think four or five closings left for January, and I'll be at 2.2 million in January.

Tim Chermak:
Wow. Yeah. So people can't see my eyes right now because this is obviously just an audio podcast, but my eyebrows just went way up when you're like, "Well, I think I'm probably going to double my business again."

Beth Ann Lynn:
It's awesome. I can't, I mean, I just, I am blown away. I'm just, I'm blessed. I just can't even express to you how grateful I am for you guys.

Tim Chermak:
So, just to put that into perspective, you will have closed more business in January of this year than you did in all of 2019?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
Like you will have more GCI in January of this year than in all 2019. And that's especially noteworthy because those two years is a complete like apples to oranges comparison. Because one thing that was not happening in 2019 was the COVID pandemic right? Like that was like, those were the before times, right? When the world was still somewhat normal and the housing market was... It was in a seller's market, certainly, but it wasn't like a crazy generationally once in a lifetime, low inventory market like we're in right now. Right? Like it's possible that, I mean, how old am I? I am 30 years old. It's possible that for the rest of my life, if I have like 50, or 60 years left, that we will actually never see a market with as low of inventory as we are right now.

Tim Chermak:
It truly is like a once in a lifetime crazy low inventory, perfect storm that we're in, because of these multiple factors converging all at the same time of obviously the supply chain shut downs because of the whole economy shut down for almost a year. So there wasn't timber coming down from Canada to build houses, and they weren't manufacturing enough shingles, and all the building materials that go into houses. So they weren't building enough. And you put that on top of the fact that interest rates are super, super low. They've been held at functionally zero for a while now. So when obviously interest rates are lower, buyers have way more purchasing power. So, that bids up the price of houses, right? And on top of all that you have, it's been 10 years where overall in the American economy, they weren't building enough houses. They were just underbuilding basically ever since the great recession in '07, '08. New home builders, just straight up, weren't building enough homes to meet demand.

Tim Chermak:
And so all of that kind of converged on this perfect storm in the last couple years where COVID was kind of the pin that popped the balloon where now you have this just, I mean, ridiculous sellers market, where almost every city that Platform works with a realtor, and they tell me like, there's more realtors here than active listings. It's just crazy homes get 10 20 offers and they're going 100K over ask, with no contingencies, no inspection. I mean, lease backs are going on. I mean, it's just, it's crazy, right? So I could talk about that for the next 45 minutes, but I won't. Right? I just want to make that clear that in case someone's listening to this podcast episode, years from now, that they remember that if you grew your business that much in the middle of this like crazy lockdown pandemic COVID thing that we're still dealing with now in January of 2022, when this podcast was recorded, if you grew your business that much, and you've closed what you said, two million in January of this year?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
That's even all the more impressive that you were able to do that when you look at what your numbers were in 2019, because 2019 was before any of the pandemic. So, it's like, I guess the overall point I'm getting to in this epic rant is imagine how much, Beth, that your business is going to grow when the economy kind of settles back to something resembling normalcy, like when things eventually get back to somewhat normal, right? Even if we're in a seller's market, I'm not saying it'll be perfectly balanced, or a buyer's market or something, but even if we get back to something that's just resembling a normal market. It can still be a seller's market. Just not this crazy once in a lifetime, low inventory market. Imagine how much your business is going to grow with all these buyers you have, if you can actually find them houses.

Beth Ann Lynn:
I know.

Tim Chermak:
Because I mean, if you're crushing it to the extent that you are, and we're in this ridiculous market where so many buyers, you just can't find them a house, right? Like let's just be honest. Like they might be totally qualified, have 750 credit scores have 20% down. It's just the perfect buyer to work with in any situation. But it's like, the reality is like, "Cool, we can't find you a house unless you're willing to overpay 50 grand, or 100 grand to get it." So like, if you're doing that well, man, that makes me super excited for you for the coming years, because you're going to do even better when the market's a little bit more balanced. So, what did things look like in 2020 going into 2021, when you look at what's driven that success, because you basically went from making less than $50,000 in 2019 to over 100K in 2020 to over 200K in 2021.

Tim Chermak:
So, I mean, the growth curve is undeniable, right? What were some of the most successful videos, or photo retargeting ads that you ran? Let's dive into some of the specifics here. Are there a couple ads that like really did well, like, "Hey, this particular ad got a lot of people talking about me, or a lot of people mentioned to me in real life that they saw this ad. So I know that one worked." Are there any videos or ads that you, that you've done Beth, that really stick out to you in hindsight?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes, there are. And I think the first one would be, I think in August of 2020, McCall me the idea of I have a pool, and I was needing houses that had pools. And so I did the jump in, in my pool, and I actually got my first listing from that video. So I got a text from some random person that said I have a house with a pool. And so I texted them back, and they wanted me to come talk to them. They had another realtor, but they saw my ad and they felt like they wanted to work with me. So that was my first listing. And that was August of 2020. And I joined late June. So, one month in, I got my first listing.

Tim Chermak:
And that basically came because they saw one of your Platform, marketing campaigns.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah. They saw me jumping in a pool.

Tim Chermak:
So, the video, just to kind of explain this and give a little bit more context for people that aren't familiar with this strategy, because this is something we have a lot of Platform agents do right in the, in the summer when you can jump into a pool, is if you have a listing with a pool we often encourage agents to like film a video where they jump into the pool and they're wearing like their normal clothes. You're not necessarily wearing a swimsuit, right? Because if a guy is wearing a suit or whatever, and you jump into a pool, it's just totally unexpected. You're not expecting a person when you're watching a video on Insta, or on Facebook, if they're walking around the pool to all of a sudden jump in, if they're wearing normal street clothes, right?

Tim Chermak:
And so it kind of grabs people's attention and it just makes it memorable, because that's really the goal of marketing for realtors, if you're running local ads is you don't need to convert every single person to work with you, because at any given time in any community in the United States, typically only about 2% of people are actively in the market to buy or sell a house, right? So it's not as if you have to have this incredible following where everyone in the community knows what you are. We just need to make sure that the marketing is interesting enough that the 2% of people at any given time who are thinking about buying, or selling a house, remember who you are, and they think that you're cool.

Tim Chermak:
And that you know what you're doing, that you're competent obviously at being a realtor. So having something like a pool listing where you jump in the pool is just a really great shortcut to accomplish all that, because it grabs people's attention and makes you memorable. So you just filmed a quick video where you're saying, "Hey, I'm looking for homes with pools", and you jumped in. I mean, is that pretty much what it was like that simple?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah, that's pretty much what happened. I think it was a 20 or 30 second video. I mean, it wasn't very long at all. I mean, I was in my clothes, and I just jumped right in and, yeah, and I got a listing out of it. And I still have people mentioning that when they see me out, "Oh, you're the one that jumped in that pool", and that's been almost two years ago. Well, a year and a half ago.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when you do interesting, funny things, it has this staying power, right? Like people remember it for a long time. I mean, that's the problem with most realtors advertising, frankly, is that usually it's just so boring that no one remembers it, and you can't counteract boring by increasing your ads budget. Like that's a really important insight that I think a lot of agents need to learn is that if your ads are just fundamentally boring, like you're not putting any creativity whatsoever into your videos, or even on ads that aren't videos, even if it's just a photo ad, but you're not really putting creativity into how you write the ad copy, right? Pouring more money into ads. Doesn't solve that problem because now you're just broadcasting to your whole community, how boring you are.

Tim Chermak:
Right? So, I would way rather have an agent who has maybe a slightly smaller budget than is ideal, but they're willing to be super creative, and just have fun in their marketing, and take those emotional risks of doing things that maybe make you nervous. Like, "Oh, am I going to look stupid if I jump into this pool? Or am I maybe having too much fun in my ads, whatever", right? Do that, and even if you have a slightly smaller budget, it makes you so much more memorable than people who are just throwing money at ad campaigns, whether it's Google Pay Per Click, Facebook ads, YouTube, direct mail, whatever, right? There's agents who spend thousands and thousands of dollars a month on ads that don't get the results in terms of their GCI growing that you have gotten. I mean, because to put it into perspective now, your business has literally doubled every year, and is actually on pace to double again. Like you already are on pace to double from the last year that you made over $200,000, but it's even crazier.

Tim Chermak:
If you compare what you're going to do this year to what you did your first year, which was like under 50,000, because really then if you think about it, your business is basically already quintupled. You're not hoping it's going to quintuple in the future. If you look back to what your first year was in Georgia, it's all already quintupled. And so, I mean, most agents would kill for that level of growth, especially because all of this has occurred in a pandemic, right. So I just have to keep, keep bringing us back to that point. That like, man, if you've grown your business that much in the middle of all this COVID craziness, imagine how things will be going for you a year or two from now, God willing, hopefully the world has gone somewhat back to normalcy like a year from now. I'm really hoping that 20, 22 is kind of the transition year where things start to go back to normal. And if that happens, like I'm really excited for you because your business will grow even more if we can get some more inventory on the market.

Tim Chermak:
So, I was actually talking to McCall before we did this interview and I was asking her, what are some of the most memorable ads that you've done? And for those listening, who they've heard Beth mention McCall, or me mention McCall McCall is the marketing manager here at Platform that personally works with Beth. So Beth chats with McCall every week, and they discuss strategy, and what ads they'll do next, and what videos. And so McCall is kind of like the personal marketing manager for Beth. And so I was asking McCall, what are some of the best ads that that Beth has done? And she mentioned that you did a listing video fairly early on that got you like a 500K cash buyer. Is that the same one or is that a different one you did from the pool video?

Beth Ann Lynn:
That is a different one.

Tim Chermak:
Okay. So, what's the story on that one, because that's also quite remarkable.

Beth Ann Lynn:
That was the first listing video that I did. And I borrowed the listing from my broker and it was a $500,000 house.

Tim Chermak:
So, it wasn't actually your listing?

Beth Ann Lynn:
No. Was not my listing.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Beth Ann Lynn:
I didn't have any listings. I hadn't, I mean, I hadn't had any listings. My first listing was in August of 2020 when I did that pool video. So, yeah, I borrowed it from her and I got so much engagement on that. I think for, I want to say probably for two months after that, I kept getting calls of people that were interested. Of course the house had sold, but I was able to move them in a different direction, so that turned out to be probably the biggest impact listing wise listing video wise that I've had.

Tim Chermak:
And this house-

Beth Ann Lynn:
-most expensive too, so.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, this house, I mean, what was the price point of this house, you said?

Beth Ann Lynn:
It was 500,000, and most of the houses, I mean, most of the houses that I sell, my average house is about 230, 230K, so that's considered high end.

Tim Chermak:
So, this is substantially over the median. Yeah. Right. This is like substantially over the median. You're not in New York or California where like a 500K house is like a tear down.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah no, it was fancy. It was bougie.

Tim Chermak:
So, you borrowed this listing from your broker, filmed the video. I just want to break this down from kind of a strategy perspective because this is something that is a very common thread amongst success stories of agents that have great success with Platform is when they're starting out and they're implementing this Platform strategy, a very common thing. I mean, like, especially in the last year, because like listings are basically an endangered species right now. Is that they come to us and they say, "Hey, like I know that filming listing videos is a big part of the Platform strategy, but I don't have any listings. So what do I do?" And we always tell them like, "No problem. It literally does not matter if you do not have any listings, because guess what? Most agents don't have any listings right now."

Tim Chermak:
I mean, there aren't listings, we're in like a once in a lifetime generational, low inventory market. Like it's the rule, not the exception right now to not have any listings, right. So what we tell them is go talk to your broker, go talk to other agents in your brokerage and see if any of them have listings. And I love the phrase that you used, Beth, you said, "Can I borrow your listing?" And what she means by that is like, Hey, it's your listing. I'm not going to claim that it's my listing, but can I go film a video, like a quick video tour promoting your listing. And I'll mention, whatever, in the video that it's this listing is courtesy of fill in the blank who's ever listing it is. And it can say in the ad copy that this listing is courtesy of whatever. So, you'll give full credit and everything to the actual legal listing agent. It's not as if you're trying to take credit or imply that this listing belongs to Beth, right?

Tim Chermak:
But you film this video and it's a video tour because what happens is that anyone watching this video tour, if the ad pops up for them on Instagram, or on Facebook, they're not going to remember that casual line where you said, "Hey, this listing is courtesy you of Bill Smith, or", they're not going to remember that. They're going to remember seeing you in the video. So even though technically it might not be your listing, and technically in the ad, it might even say this listing is courtesy of Bill Smith.

Tim Chermak:
Functionally, they're going to remember... I mean like functionally, they will remember essentially a false memory that this is Beth's listing, right? Yeah. And you didn't mislead anyone. You didn't lie. You didn't even imply anything. But like the way the human brain works is that if they see you in the video talking about the house, they will associate that listing with you, right? So it's kind of a way to create your own reality, even if you don't have listings. And this is also something we always preach that like the reason you do listing videos has nothing to do with the fact that you're trying to sell that specific house.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Absolutely.

Tim Chermak:
And so this is probably never more true than when you borrow a listing from someone else, because you don't really care if it sells because you weren't it's not your listing anyways, right? But the real reason we do it is because it positions you as being a marketing expert and a listing expert in your community, and it'll bring forth both buyers and sellers whose homes are kind of near in proximity to that price point. Right? So if you film a listing video of a 500K house like you did, it doesn't matter if it's not your listing. Because if people in your community start to see you promoting 500K homes and they see this video, keep popping up on social media, they'll just start to think, "Oh, wow, beth must really specialize in selling 500K homes, or she must really understand the market really well in this price point, because look at this creative ad she's doing for this house." And then what happens long term? I mean, you can't just do one, right? If you only do one, no one's going to associate you with that. They're not going to make those connections.

Tim Chermak:
But if you consistently do this over time, you'll cultivate this local reputation though. People just think, "Wow, like if I have a house that's around the 500K price point, I'm going to call Beth because she must really have a handle on that market. She really understands that niche." Right? Or if you're thinking about buying a house in the 500K price range, same thing. If they saw that video, they'll probably just call you because they think, "Wow, she must really understand this market. This is the type of representation I would want if I want to buy a home in this price range." And it sounds like that's exactly what happened. You actually got phone calls of people that were, what, a cash buyer who wanted a home in the 500K range?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yep.

Tim Chermak:
And it's because they mentioned that they saw that video. That's the reason they called you.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yep. Absolutely.

Tim Chermak:
And again, I've said this 10 times, so I'm going to say it for an 11th time. It wasn't even Beth's listing.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Nope.

Tim Chermak:
Right. So, not having listings is not an excuse to implement this Platform strategy. You borrow listings from whoever and then film videos, and the buyers, and sellers out there will come to you because you've positioned yourself as the expert there. So that was actually one of your first listing videos, right?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yep. It sure was.

Tim Chermak:
So that happened towards the end of 2020 as you rolled into 2021. What are some of your favorite, most like memorable retargeting videos that you've done that seem to get a response from your sphere? Have you done videos above and beyond the pool video we already discussed that people mention to you in real life? "Oh, I saw such and such video. I love that." Or maybe it was a photo ad. Like what other ads have you done that you just know resonated with your fans and your sphere because they actually told you in real life, "Oh, I saw such and such ad. That was awesome."

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah. I think probably the one that I got the most feedback on was God made a small business owner.

Tim Chermak:
Okay.

Beth Ann Lynn:
You remember that one?

Tim Chermak:
Yep.

Beth Ann Lynn:
And I promoted local businesses and it has, I mean, it's still... People are still mentioning that to me. So, and that's been, I'm not sure when we filmed that. I think that was in 2020 latter part of 2020 maybe.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Okay.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Maybe 2021. I can't remember, but that it's gotten more views than any of my videos, and it has created a lot of talk about supporting small businesses. So, I actually have businesses that will reach out to me, and want me to do my monthly marketing update with them. So, I think it's very important in this community because we're... I mean 160,000 people, it's pretty small and that encompasses several towns, right? That's the whole county. So it's not just Warner Robins. And I think it just gives people a connection. It just makes it feel like a close knit community and people are wanting that now.

Tim Chermak:
So you've actually had local small businesses reach out to you, asking you to do a highlight, promoting their business? Like they're actually calling you. You're not calling them?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes. I've had that happen several times. I've also had people call me and asking me if they could be on my list of vendors. So, McCall had me create a list of vendors of local vendors, like for inspections, flooring, electrical, that kind of stuff. And I've had vendors reach out to me, wanting to know how they could get on that list.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome, so-

Beth Ann Lynn:
I know.

Tim Chermak:
...you've kind of created your VIP list of vendors where it's like, "Hey, here's the electrician I trust", or "Here's some plumbers I recommend", whatever. And because so many people in the community are seeing your ads, you actually have people contacting you saying, "Hey, I would love to be on this list." So like your marketing is almost becoming because I mean, that's an ad, right? Let's call it what it is. That's an ad. Your marketing is almost becoming a respective, or a respected source of information in the community. Like people look to Beth Lynn's marketing and they're thinking like, this is really valuable.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
I mean, we take that for granted sometimes I think at Platform, because we so often see ads that do well, but like that's remarkable, that someone's Facebook ads or Instagram ads, our of ads are viewed as an authoritative source of local information. Like most realtors that is not the case, right? If they're making posts on social media, no one is looking at their posts as like, wow, this is a great substantive source of information. They're just really in knowing ads talking about how many homes they sold, or what their production was, or what awards they won, or what licenses, or designations they have, or... Like most agents marketing is just boring. But people are actually contacting you saying, "Hey, I would love to be featured in your next video" or, "I'd love to be featured in your next ad." I mean, that's really cool. That's...

Beth Ann Lynn:
It is.

Tim Chermak:
That's that's really cool.

Beth Ann Lynn:
And I think the shift for me is when I realized it's not about selling houses and I think that's where so many agents falter is that they think it's about selling houses and it's not. It's about the community and marketing in a way that benefits the community. And I don't talk about my numbers. I don't post anything when I've reached my first million, my two, I just don't do that. I don't like to see that from other agents. And I think I focus more on the people. It's more of a relational journey for me than it is about selling houses. So I'm building relationships and that in turn through my marketing is doing what it's doing to my business. I mean, this is amazing. And I sold real estate. I had four good years before the crash in Charleston, and I was successful there, but I have never seen anything like this before to where I am doubling, I mean, it's just, it's absolutely mind boggling to me.

Tim Chermak:
So, yeah, I mean, you're on pace to have doubled your business three years in a row. In a community that you don't have a big sphere or connections in. It's not like you have family ties that are going back generations, right? Because sometimes there's agents where they're still selling houses in the same hometown that they grew up in, and their parents lived there, their whole lives and maybe their grandparents lived there, their entire lives. So they have like deep family roots, and relationships and they know lots of people like, well, that's not you haven't lived in-

Beth Ann Lynn:
Not at all. But I do feel that way now. I feel like I have a deep connection here in the community now just from the families that I've been able to service, and the referrals that they're giving me. I had one gentleman from Platform that we had conversation after conversation. He wasn't quite ready to buy. He referred me to his niece who was looking for a house and she wasn't even on Platform, and I closed a deal with her. And I mean, it's just so... You just can't explain it.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I mean, that's one thing that I always think is so cool about once you hit kind of like cruising altitude with the Platform strategy and you hit that like escape velocity, right, where you've rolled the snowball big enough to where you start to see the actual effects of all that retargeting, and staying top of mind for once you get six months, and eventually nine months, and then you're 12 months in, and a lot of people have been seeing you constantly for a year. And you get to that point where you start actually getting referrals from people who themselves have not even yet worked with you, right?

Beth Ann Lynn:
I know.

Tim Chermak:
They haven't yet used you to buy a house or to sell their house, but they're like enthusiastically referring you to their friends, or family because your marketing has made them trust you that much. And I think that's a really important thing to point out is that 99% of the time when a referral happens, that referral is based on the actual, real life, psychological experience of working with someone like Beth, and because they have a good experience, they're willing to spend some of their social capital referring you to a friend because they're basing that off of, "Well, I already personally worked with Beth and she was great. So I feel comfortable referring her to my brother, or sister, or coworker, or person I know from church, or another parent at my kid's school". Or whatever it is. They're willing to refer you because they've worked with you so they can like vouch for you, right?

Tim Chermak:
So that really shows how powerful and how effective your marketing campaigns have been over the last couple years that they're getting people emotionally and psychologically to the same place where they're willing to refer people to you, even though they've never even met you or worked with you. Your marketing is getting them to that same place where psychologically they trust you that much before they've even ever worked with you, that they're referring people to you. That's really, really cool. So, what's fueling all this, right? How much are you actually spending Beth every month on ads? And I don't need a specific number, but are you spending $500 a month on the ads budget? Is it $1,000 a month? Is it $2,000 a month? Like what are you somewhat averaging on a given month in terms of your actual advertising spend?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Well, I decided in August to double my ad spend, and I think that is one reason why I finished so strong in 2021 was because I decided to do that. And I think I'm about $1,800, $1,600 to $1,800 a month. And then I decided to start backing all of my listing videos with a $500 budget. So every listing video is getting an extra 500 buck ad spend thrown to it.

Tim Chermak:
And that's awesome. And that's typically on top of the normal baseline?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes. Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
So, this is actually really interesting to me because a lot of agents, I mean, even agents in Platform, right, they're probably spending $800 to $1,000 dollars a month on their ad spend. And that's already quite impressive relative to the average agent in the United States, right? Because the average agent spends maybe a couple 100 dollars a month on marketing, right? If they're spending much at all. And so you have gone even beyond that to a more ambitious number where not only are you investing every month in the Platform marketing fee to hire us, to manage a lot of this stuff for you. So, you're paying us every month. On top of that, you're investing, you said $1,600 to $1,800 some months on ads. And then anytime you get a listing, it's an additional $500 on top of that. So, if you had a month, let's say, where you had three listings, you're spending $1,500 on those three listings, and another $1,500 on ads. So, in that month you probably spent $3,000 on ads.

Tim Chermak:
I mean, that's more $3,000 in that month that you spent on advertising. That's more than most agents spend in an entire year. And so this is something really important that I want to spend a couple minutes exploring is that Beth's business hasn't blown up just because of how amazing of a person Beth is, or how great of a realtor she is, or frankly, even because of how good the Platform strategy is, right? A lot of it has to do with your courage in investing in more ads, because you probably would not have doubled your business three years in a row if you were only spending, let's say five or $600 a month on ads.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Right. I think I started out doing about 700. Seven or 800. Something like that.

Tim Chermak:
...eventually you increased it. I mean most agents I think, I mean, probably the average of Platform is they're probably spending, I'd say seven, 800. That's probably the average. And yet you're spending more than double that some months even triple that, so that's not a random coincidence. That's really the point I'm making is that you're obviously a great agent. You've been licensed as an agent as far back as like you said 2003 was that the first year got into... Four?

Beth Ann Lynn:
2004.

Tim Chermak:
2004 was the first. So you've been... You have years, and years, of real estate, and selling experience. So you obviously know what you're doing as an agent, but there's also a lot of agents that have been selling homes for 20 years that aren't making the amount of money you're making. So there's really not a long term relationship between, though, the longer you stay in the business, the more money you'll make. Like that's not necessarily true, right? There's a lot of agents who have been doing it a long time that aren't making a lot of money, but they're really great agents. They're really experienced. They have lots of wisdom. Like they truly do know what they're doing and they give their clients good service. But growing your business is more a function of how courageously you're willing to invest in your advertising budget than it is how many years you've been in the business.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Absolutely. And I just started the $500 ad spend toward my listings this month. So this is going to be new for 2022. And it was one of the things that I wanted to implement to get me to my goal for 2022, because I have quite a ambitious gold for 2022. So, and I know the more that I put behind my marketing, the more money I'm going to make, so.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, I mean, it really is that simple, right? And especially in this low inventory market that we're in, what you want is to build your business on the foundation of listings. You don't want like a ton of buyers in a market like the one we're in, because that's not scalable, right? If you're working with a bunch of buyers right now, you might work 80 hours a week and still struggle to make decent money because they might have to submit four or five, six offers before one gets accepted. Maybe more.

Beth Ann Lynn:
It's exhausting. It's exhausting.

Tim Chermak:
So you have to have a very healthy percentage of your business, be listings right now in this current market, we're in, if you're going to grow your business, because you just can't grow your business with buyers. Like you normally could in other years, like in a normal year, it's totally fine if 80% of your business is buyers and 20% is listings, because you're not spending that much time, but right now if 80% or 90% of your business are buyers, and you're only getting the occasional listing here, and there, you're going to really struggle to make money because you're spending way more time and energy with those buyers than you are with the listing. So, one reason I'm really excited for you Beth in 2022 here is that as you start investing $500 into every listing video campaign, if we see CPMs in your area probably around like 10 bucks or so, so every $10 you spend on your Platform, marketing campaigns, a thousand people are probably seeing that video. That means every time you get a listing, you can pretty much mathematically guarantee 50,000 people are going to see it.

Tim Chermak:
So it's like, obviously, if you're doing that every time you get a listing what's going to happen is that you will very quickly create this reputation of I'm a listing expert, if you want your listing to get a bunch of exposure, you better call me, right? So doing listing videos and having them get that much exposure over time is a pretty surefire way to make sure that you're getting listing leads contacting you versus just buyer leads, right?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Absolutely.

Tim Chermak:
Actual listing leads, not just buyers. And that's a very, very important distinction, especially in the last couple of years.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah. And I think my strategy, so for 2021, I probably was at about 35 to 40% were listings 60% buyers and I need that to flip. So the strategy is to throw as much money as I can behind my listings so that I can make that shift.

Tim Chermak:
Get more listings. Yeah.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
I mean, and already like, let's be fair here, if you did over 200,000 in GCI last year, and 30 to 40% of that was listings, that's already really impressive, relative to the average agent, because most agents are dealing with like 90% buyers and 10% listings. If you ask the average agent in the United States, hey, let's say you did 20 transactions last year. Like probably two of them were listings and 18 were buyers, right? So if you're already at nearly 40%, that's already really good, but you can obviously grow your business even more, like you said, if you can flip that and let's say maybe 60% are listings and 40% are buyers because the more listings you get, obviously also the more buyers you're going to get because listings attract more buyers.

Tim Chermak:
So I want to change topic a little bit, Beth, and talk about the sense of community that you've experienced in the Platfam, because I know that you've been to a couple of our masterminds now, like the live events that we do every year where all of the Platfam gets together. What has that meant for you in your real estate journey? Because I know that moving to a new area when you PCS'd your husband was in the Air Force, you move around, you don't always have a deep sense of community everywhere you go because you're moving, right? What has the Platfam community meant to you in the last couple years of just like meeting agents, and getting to talk with them about, I guess, business, and marketing, but knowing that they're not necessarily competition to you?

Beth Ann Lynn:
It's it is absolutely the best thing ever. And I have made so many close relationships with other folks that are in Platform. We look forward to going to the meetings, to collaborating with people. We're exchanging ideas. What's working for us. What's not, we're always talking, and I love how we support each other. So when I do a listing video or any kind of video, you'll see comments from other Platform, people. So people are watching and supporting. And I think it's just priceless because you don't get that working with real estate agents in your zone or in your area. I mean, you might be close to some of them, but you don't share, right? I don't share with them what my strategies are and that kind of stuff. And so I'm able to collaborate with agents across the country.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Some of them are in similar markets like mine and some of them are not, but I'm able to connect with them, talk about what's working, what's not. And then just being, whenever we go to a mastermind, and just reconnecting with people, it's like family. I mean, you guys are like family now. I think we've been to three masterminds. We've been to one flyover. And those are just absolutely essential that we go to them, like we will not miss one unless something's wrong. We will be there because it means that much to us, to both Paige and I, which by the way he is now licensed. I don't know if you knew that.

Tim Chermak:
Oh yeah, yeah. That's right. Yep.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yep. So, he's joined the team. He's not quite ready to retire from his job yet, but he is going to be helping.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome.

Beth Ann Lynn:
I'm looking forward to that in 2022, too.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, I...

Beth Ann Lynn:
It's really y'all are just special people. Everybody is.

Tim Chermak:
I love the impact that getting together in person can have, right? Because like, if you, I don't know, if you've built your business by buying a bunch of realtor.com leads or buying a bunch of Zillow leads, or whatever, there's not really any sense of encouragement or any sense of community where it's like, you don't know anyone at Zillow or Realtor.com. These are just like numbers to you. It's just like blind statistics. When those leads come in, right? With the Platfam, there really is this sense of community where you meet people and you see them every year at our live mastermind event and you are getting to know them.

Tim Chermak:
Then if you know someone who's moving to their community, like you can refer that person because you actually know someone there. And one thing that I think is really underrated with Platform that I think is probably attributable to a lot of the success our agents have is that you've worked with McCall now for a while, right? She has been your marketing manager Platform and unlike basically any other professional services company, you actually have gotten to know her in real life. Like you've met her now multiple times, right?

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yes.

Tim Chermak:
So she's the one kind of behind the scenes who's dialing in your ad campaigns and setting things up. And she's the one kind of managing all of your marketing strategy behind the scenes all your Facebook ads, Instagram ads, the video campaigns, all that. And she's talking with you every week, but you've actually met her in real life and hung out and gone out to dinner and things like that multiple times because of these annual mastermind events that we do. So you actually feel like you know her, right? When you call her for your weekly strategy call it's like you're calling a friend, someone you actually know versus agents who their entire business was built on Zillow.

Tim Chermak:
It's like, well, they don't know anyone at Zillow. Right. They can't call someone at Zillow for advice on strategy or advice on how should I film this video? It's a very cold relationship relative to what agents have with the Platform strategy. So I think that's really cool because every time I've talked to McCall it's like, "Oh, I just love working with Beth." And it's cool when it's such like a win-win relationship like that, because you're actually getting to know people. I mean, that's the foundation of a long term partnership. I know that's a super cheesy term to call it a partnership, but like that's what it feels like it is, right?

Beth Ann Lynn:
It is. And I think it goes beyond that because we are now connected on a personal level. I think it's important with any account manager that they understand your personal life, because that a lot of that affects my videoing, or what I'm capable of producing quickly, or why it's taking me longer. And so we have gotten into the personal... We spend the first 10 minutes catching up. I mean laughing, and catching up with each other what's going on in each other's lives. And so I think that brings a personal touch to it that is just undeniable. You can't get that. You can't reproduce that. And it's nice to know that she's in my corner. If I'm having difficult times she's there for support and the same on her end for me, I'm supporting her. So, it's been a great relationship and I absolutely adore her.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome. That's that's super cool to hear. I'll have to make sure that McCall listens to this episode, because I definitely want her to hear that.

Beth Ann Lynn:
She knows. I tell her all the time.

Tim Chermak:
So the last question Beth, that I often like asking on these podcast episodes is if you were talking with an agent who was either considering signing up for Platform, but they were scared because it's too expensive because the Platform marketing program is expensive, right? It's not a cheap thing that you can do for 200 bucks a month, right? It's a major investment for most agents and the cost of our marketing program to do it right, is probably going to be more than your own mortgage, right? So it's probably going to be the biggest expense in your life. But we think that's backed up by all the results we get people where we very often are adding 100K, or even $200,000 to a realtor's annual GCI, but it's not cheap to get started, right? So it's a scary investment to make, especially if your business isn't already super successful.

Tim Chermak:
So what would you tell someone who is in Platform, but they're scared to pull the trigger, or someone who has recently hired Platform, and they've recently started the journey of launching the Platform marketing strategy in their market, but they're only a couple months in and they haven't yet seen all those closings come in, because they're still kind of building that retargeting list and they're starting to roll the snowball, but they haven't yet seen the results. What would you tell that person to encourage them?

Beth Ann Lynn:
I think probably the most important thing is just the commitment. You just have to commit and you have to let the time roll by. It may happen quickly for you. It may not. I mean, it could be a year. I feel like it's been a year and a half for me, a little over a year and a half for me. And I have, I think, the shift was probably at the year mark where people started calling me instead of me having to work so frantically to try, and keep the relationships going. I started having phone calls coming in, and that's when I realized I had made the shift. So I had been hanging on, and believing for so long. And I think that's what you have to do. You just have to make a commitment that you're going to stick to it and you're going to see it through until the snowball is big enough, where you're getting phone calls and people are starting to recognize you out in the community.

Beth Ann Lynn:
"Oh, you're that girl on Facebook." Once that starts happening the financial benefit is coming. And so it's just commitment. You have to commit and you can't waiver on your belief in the system. Like I never once doubted Platform, I never once thought I'm not going to do this, or I'm going to cancel or I'm going to quit. I never, never, ever, ever let those thoughts come into my mind. I just stayed committed, stayed positive, believed in the process, believed in my account manager, did what she told me to do. And this is where I am today. And so I think that's probably the most important thing that I would tell them. And then I would share my numbers with them to give them hope that the same thing is possible for them.

Tim Chermak:
That's a pretty good spot to end the interview, with the context I'll repeat this one more time, that the year before Beth started the Platform strategy, her GCI was less than $50,000. And this year it's probably going to be closer to 400 to $500,000.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Yeah. My goal is 500. My goal is 500.

Tim Chermak:
And you're actually on pace for that right now. So it's not like this crazy stretch goal that you're thinking you won't actually hit. You're actually on pace for that right now, going from 50,000 GCI to nearly 500,000 in GCI. So Beth, thank you for taking time to chat with me. This was an awesome interview. And, and honestly, I didn't even know your business was at that point before we scheduled this podcast episode. So, like I'm learning now how much actually, to what extent your business has really grown, so that's incredible. So, Beth, would you mind sharing your cell phone number for all the people listening to this, if they want to text you with any questions or call you about advice on marketing or business, would you mind sharing your cell phone number?

Beth Ann Lynn:
No. Sure. It's (478) 550-5678.

Tim Chermak:
Cool, cool. So if someone wants to get in touch with Beth and just ask her about her marketing strategy or what she's doing, that's working. There you go. There's her cell phone number. Thank you guys for listening. Beth, again, thank you for your time. And I'm super excited to see you crush it in 2022, and beyond and hit that goal of 500,000 in GCI.

Beth Ann Lynn:
Me too. Thank you so much, Tim.