Why Radio Advertising Still Packs a Punch for Realtors with Matt Wagner

[00:00:00] Suneet: Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the reside platform podcast. I'm your host today, Sunita Agarwal. And I feel like I have a real treat as a guest. We have Mr. Matt Wagner himself, Matt, what's going on, dude? How

[00:00:17] Suneet: are you?

[00:00:17] Matt: Hey, what's up Sydney? Good to hear you. Good to see you, man.

[00:00:21] Suneet: Yes. Um, so many, the top teams in real estate definitely know who you are, but how about for the new people? We may have never heard the name at Wagner. Can you just explain really quick? And by the way, let me say everything to the, to the audience. This is not going to be a pitch on this entire podcast.

[00:00:45] Suneet: I'm talking about his product. I just want you guys. To hear about what Matt does. So you get context around the rest of the conversation. Fair enough. So Matt, go ahead, please.

[00:00:57] Matt: So, I'm originally, I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. And, uh, I've lived, I've been in all 50 states visiting and I've lived in six different states. So I've been around currently I'm living in New York city, uh, not New York city, but about two hours north of New York, uh, away from all the hustle and bustle.

[00:01:18] Matt: But what I, what in a real small nutshell, basically I was always around radio and and, and TV, I happened to meet a guy named Jay Kinder 20 years ago, many know Jay, and basically. Taught him how to do radio and TV the right way that's different. It doesn't sound like commercials and it's proven to be a true source for not only good branding to make conversion improve and also commissions improve.

[00:01:49] Matt: We could talk about a little deeper later, but also it's been a great, great source for listings and opportunity to really get what they call, you know, easily converted listings. It's. So that whether they call you right away, ready to list, or they know you by the time they list with you, that's probably the number one thing.

[00:02:09] Matt: And because of that, it's also attracted agents too, as an indirect recruiting tool to help grow agent count. Because obviously, as we know, and you guys know, very important to grow, to grow agent and build a team.

[00:02:23] Suneet: Okay. That is great. I love that. And also I am a client. I've been a client for about three months. Dude, did I? Did I tell you, I got a recording of a call where somebody said, Hey, I just heard Sonny's name on the radio. Can you guys sell my house? It was last month. It was the second month in. So good job.

[00:02:43] Matt: No, you didn't tell me that. That's cool.

[00:02:46] Suneet: Maybe I was holding onto it for, uh, um, and you know, I met you through, uh, Nick McLean, um, co host of the podcast, co founder of where it reside and your client list of the who's who. And I was glad to. A space opened up because you're exclusive to markets, right?

[00:03:03] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's it. A lot of times it's the opportunity to what's available. There's not a lot, especially with all these eye buyers and a lot of other agents that have figured out what we do. You know, there's, there's, there's only so much you can do, but what we've learned over the years to figure out where the holes, where the opportunities and we snag them.

[00:03:21] Matt: And we also can create opportunities too.

[00:03:24] Suneet: Yeah. It's super cool. Advertising on, on the radio for like a rock and roll guy, like me on a rock station, like I go there and I have fun, man.

[00:03:32] Matt: I love it.

[00:03:33] Suneet: a new friend here with the DJ and the, and the marketing gal at, at their office are super cool. So,

[00:03:39] Matt: And I gotta admit, I never, I never pegged you as a rocker until I got to know you. Like this guy's awesome, man. That's cool.

[00:03:48] Suneet: Yeah, maybe a little dorky, but anyhow, so, so, you know, part of our, your Is talking to top agents, the top agents in every market. And helping them with their listing acquisition using like traditional media. Right. But also you talk to them about everything, like you and I had an in depth conversation about Google.

[00:04:18] Suneet: So right now, no doubt the U S is at the tail end of an election. In fact, this one may come out and we may have a new president. I don't know. Today's the 31st of October, Halloween. So we're at the tail end of an election and I'm hearing a lot of realtors. Expressing some challenges with the market. Um, what kind of convert?

[00:04:44] Suneet: And we both know that the amount of homes sold is even less than last year a day, right? So people are experiencing challenges. And your conversations with top teams, what are you, what kind of conversations are you having?

[00:04:56] Matt: That's a really interesting question. I think for one, yes, this market has definitely separated the warriors from warriors. And if you're a warrior, they see it as an opportunity that they can capitalize on the market and the opportunity that's there. If people had good systems in place. And good followup systems in place.

[00:05:24] Matt: They're optimistic, they're positive, and they're taking on this market. If they're not, they're backing out. They're making excuses. Or I've even seen some people completely leave the industry that would have never guessed, but it's a product. It's a, it's an interesting time. You can either step up or step out.

[00:05:48] Suneet: Yes. Do you step up or step out? So how are people stepping up?

[00:05:53] Matt: So I think by stepping up, what's been really interesting, and I, we were just talking about this before we jumped on this call that, you know, with the NAR settlement, I was ready to hear like, what was me? Oh, this is tough. It's funny. I won't name names. But our top agents have a consistent theme was that we love this new market because now we're getting our best commissions we've ever gotten.

[00:06:22] Matt: Because if they're the listing leader in the market, they can now show buyers, Hey, we're getting plenty of homes before they hit the market. We're the listing leader. So we're getting more opportunities that most people will never hear about because they sell before they hit the

[00:06:39] Suneet: Yes.

[00:06:40] Matt: And when they can articulate that they're getting 3 percent or should I shouldn't say specific, should I, they're getting

[00:06:48] Suneet: No, no, no, no.

[00:06:49] Matt: fees. They're getting kids. They're getting very even better fees than they were getting before because they can articulate value better. But I think what that speaks to is they've got a good follow up system. They've got good scripts and dialogue. They've got a good database. They work their database. They stay consistent.

[00:07:08] Matt: They grind. Basically, they do the things that I know you guys, you know, really speak about highly reside in the chef teaches. And I'm a fan of it. So I'm honored to be invited on this call because we're talking, we're preaching the same music.

[00:07:22] Suneet: Yeah. I mean, they know how to sell. There's still transactions out, albeit less, um, but they know how to sell. Um, and I just did an episode. It came out eight days ago with Steve Hawks. I don't know if you know, Steve or not. He's out of Las Vegas, you know, um, he in Las Vegas, the top agents are experiencing.

[00:07:47] Suneet: Um, they're able to sell and provide value and go the extra mile. And the commissions are on the increase, uh, cause they're working for their money. Right. Which, like you said, that's the separator. And I love that too. They're warriors, not warriors. It's kind of hard to say warrior, not warrior, but good. Um, what changes are you seeing the top teams do in their traditional media?

[00:08:20] Suneet: Advertising.

[00:08:22] Matt: I have a couple of things. I would say the top, um, top three things that we'll look at when anybody says, man, radio TV, not feeling it right now or having some problems. First thing I look at, how many reviews do they have on their, on their, on, on Google?

[00:08:43] Suneet: Okay.

[00:08:44] Matt: Count on Google, critical. You've got to keep adding reviews.

[00:08:49] Matt: If the people that stopped adding reviews, it's in, it's been interesting to watch the drop that I've seen where Google's taking reviews away because in their mind, I've talked to some, some high level folks on this that know Google at a high level. They've even said if Google doesn't see that reviews are being in, uh, being, being added on.

[00:09:11] Matt: They assume the business is slowing down and they're taking reviews away. That's powerful. So the lesson I took from that, it doesn't have to be, don't do contests because Google watches that, but make it a point to add and make it a goal for your agents to add at least one or two a day that's sustainable. In other words, don't try to drop 30 in a week. Google's not dumb. They're watching and they'll take them away as fast as you put them up. But if you do one or two a day, if you figure what's one a day, that's 30 more a month to a day is 60 a month over three months, that's now another 200 reviews.

[00:09:58] Suneet: Absolutely. Dude. It's so easy.

[00:10:00] Matt: right.

[00:10:00] Matt: That's doable. That's number one. Number two is they're also paying close attention to their website activity. They, the top leaders right now know what are ha what's happening on their website. You know what? That's like, it's almost like if you had a camera in your store, but, but you weren't selling product and you had three, 400 people come in through your store and no one bought anything. Is that the, is that the advertising's fault? No, you're not stocking your shelves. Right. Right. You're not watching the activity, what's going on in your store, right? And so that's the other thing that they're watching very, very carefully. Uh, what's happening on their other website. The other thing they want to see is you've got to have some, some form, and I'm a huge fan of Fellow.

[00:10:48] Matt: You probably are too. Maybe you, maybe you've got a system that works like Fellow that can get response and get people to respond right away. Whatever it is, something on your website to get people to raise their hand and take action. And also the other thing I've watched fellow is woken people up to this.

[00:11:12] Matt: 10 years ago, people would put a phone number out on the air, vanity phone number. People would write down the phone number and they would call. I would challenge anybody listening. If you still think vanity numbers are relevant, tell me what your mother's phone number is right now without looking,

[00:11:33] Suneet: I know mine is still,

[00:11:36] Matt: but how many, how

[00:11:37] Suneet: know my,

[00:11:38] Matt: how many that have moved can say that we don't look at that anymore, or what's your best friend's number.

[00:11:43] Matt: If I ask you what's

[00:11:44] Suneet: yeah, no idea.

[00:11:46] Matt: you tell me,

[00:11:47] Suneet: No idea.

[00:11:48] Matt: you

[00:11:49] Suneet: has a 702 in it somewhere. Yeah,

[00:11:50] Matt: Yeah, we click, it's on our phones, right? And if we need to know how to get to, you know, Outback Steakhouse, you Google it, right? We're in a Google world, and we've got to embrace that. So, those are the things I would say. And then the other system, the last one, is follow up.

[00:12:11] Matt: It was interesting, when I asked Nick this, A year ago, I said, Nick, what's the number one problem that you see agents having when they come over to reside? Cause you guys attract great people, right? Many of our clients. I said, what's the number one problem that you see immediately? That's holding them back to making more money when I couldn't finish the sentence.

[00:12:36] Matt: And he said they don't use follow ups correctly. Would you agree with that?

[00:12:42] Suneet: Yeah, it's, it's, it's true. And I think for me, I have standards that work for me. So my, my suggestion to anyone listening about wanting to improve follow up is. You have to set a standard first, and then you hold people to that standard. Um, as a matter of fact, my standards are available all over the internet.

[00:13:08] Suneet: You can probably get them and I'll ask the team to put the link in the show notes too, if you want to download standards, but yeah, um, follow up with a huge problem. Using the CRM correctly is a huge problem. And then also leaders not looking out, the expectations is maybe just as, just as big of a problem, right?

[00:13:29] Suneet: So it's not all dependent on any party. You have to have something, you have to hold people to it and people have, or if they have something, people need to, You need to try and follow it and you need to hold them accountable,

[00:13:41] Matt: Absolutely.

[00:13:42] Suneet: It's super simple. Um, so I love the Google conversations because last time we had the Google conversation, you kind of, you, you kind of sent me down a rabbit hole and I really liked it so selfishly, and I know you're not the Google guy, but your, Advertising a lot of the intent now is to drive people to look up the website or look up whatever, right?

[00:14:11] Suneet: I mean, isn't that because people don't look at phone numbers anymore. You want to get them to a website. Am I right?

[00:14:17] Matt: Absolutely. Well, because here's the reality. Think, think of another industry. Let's pretend that we're, what's the city you've never been to? Because you've been all over the country.

[00:14:29] Suneet: Um, a city I've never been to St. Louis.

[00:14:32] Matt: Okay. Let's, we're going to meet up in St. Louis. And we want to go to a, I want to take you, or no, better yet, you're taking your wife and kids. You want to take them to the best steakhouse in St. Louis. St. Louis. What are you going to do? Are you going to

[00:14:47] Suneet: So me myself, I would go to open table. However, many people just go to Google.

[00:14:53] Matt: right. You can go to OpenTable, Yelp, right? I'm a Yelper, right? So I'm Yelp and I'm going to look up or OpenTable because why? I'm going to read the reviews. I'm going to see how many people review it. I'm going to see pictures. I'm going to get all that info before I ever make a decision. And

[00:15:13] Suneet: Yeah, sure.

[00:15:14] Matt: we've been conditioned to do that, right?

[00:15:17] Matt: And other things. It's only hit Google's only hit real estate in the last five years, right? But now every year that goes by, it's more and more pronounced and it's more important. So what, what happens is now, even if radio is successful, it used to drive phone calls. Today, it's driving Google search. So think of yourself, the consumer journey, when I want to look up, and we had this discussion in deep because, you know, we had to discuss if we're going to push your website or your name, what are we going to do?

[00:15:49] Matt: Right? So making sure that is clear, and now what your call to action is, making sure that when they go there, it's easy to find you, and when they get there, now, now what are they doing? They can read your reviews. They can check you out, right? And so now there's only this happened one time and I'll never forget it.

[00:16:09] Matt: I had a client that kept saying, Oh, radios and that radio TV, not working, not working. Well, when I went to his website, when I went to Google and I Google searched him, no exaggeration at 15 reviews, 3. 8 stars.

[00:16:24] Suneet: Hmm.

[00:16:25] Matt: I said, bro, if you were a restaurant, would you eat there? No. You think it just opened, right?

[00:16:33] Matt: That's what the consumer is seeing. And the other thing that I think people miss a lot, when you do look at your Google profile, what pictures are up there?

[00:16:44] Suneet: Right.

[00:16:45] Matt: to read more about, you know, your team and you, do I want to see a bunch of houses? No.

[00:16:52] Suneet: hell no. Dude.

[00:16:54] Matt: want to see you. I want to see your team. I want to see a happy team.

[00:16:59] Matt: I want to see happy clients shaking hands that that Google profile that the photos there. That's like the photo album on the coffee table in your living room or in your office that I'm looking at.

[00:17:15] Suneet: analogy, bro. Good analogy.

[00:17:18] Matt: It's before I ever see it. Now I'm getting a vision of what I can expect. That's the second thing I read the reviews and see the folks not go to your website and that website isn't consistent with, with what I've just heard, what the offer is.

[00:17:33] Matt: And so if I want to know my home is worth in less than 30 seconds, can I, can I get that from your website? That's what I want to see. I don't want to read. I don't want to look at houses. I don't want to look at homes that are for sale. I want to sell my home. Right? Too many websites. And it's funny, I did this a couple years ago at a mastermind and Rob Dukansky, I love Rob, he said, Matt, you should have looked around the room and saw the jaws drop.

[00:17:58] Matt: Right? Or the heads sink. And what we did was I said, okay, guys, open up your, take your phones out. You've got permission, pull your phone out, look up, open door, look at the website, the offers, clear testimonials, easy, click, click here, click here, click here, find out what your home is worth, get a cash offer right, right at the top.

[00:18:23] Matt: Now have your neighbor, not you have your neighbor neighbor, Google search you. What do they

[00:18:32] Matt: see? Can they even find you? Can they find your

[00:18:37] Suneet: Many people know

[00:18:38] Matt: Look at your website. He said, but you know what that did? It forced people to realize you've got to make the consumer journey easier. And the people that implemented that,

[00:18:51] Suneet: make sure.

[00:18:53] Matt: that's what those people are still around today.

[00:18:57] Suneet: Do that. So good. Yes. Cause I mean, now it's like, we're using the traditional traffic to drive to the digital assets. Aren't we? It's crazy.

[00:19:10] Matt: it's

[00:19:10] Suneet: Cause you've seen probably both ways. Cause you've seen drive to phone numbers and that obviously worked for so long. That's

[00:19:17] Matt: right? People wrote down stuff. People don't write down numbers anymore. They don't have to.

[00:19:22] Suneet: they don't have to.

[00:19:24] Suneet: Yeah. Cause I was even thinking like, Oh, I should put a catchy. It was one of them. It was one of my friends and I, and I remember, and I was all bro, you don't have, you don't have a phone number on your billboard, you just got a URL and it doesn't even say like. com. It just has the words up there now too.

[00:19:45] Suneet: So that's crazy.

[00:19:48] Matt: It's people are people. Google has made people lazy and you know what? It's easy. It's convenient. And people pick convenience over, over, uh, you know, quality. But when you've got

[00:20:01] Suneet: And

[00:20:02] Matt: it's a great combination.

[00:20:03] Suneet: yes, yes. And your experience, um, Like, and this is totally like just your opinion. What kind of brand awareness does a consumer need to like, reach out to somebody like you think it can be, is it more often right then, like right then I'm like, okay, I talked to my wife in the morning, we talk about selling the house, I drive to the place and I hear, and I hear a radio ad for the first time, or is it, I've been hearing the radio ad for the last eight months now I'm thinking about selling.

[00:20:44] Suneet: Well, in your experience, which one do you think happens more often?

[00:20:48] Matt: Well, I think with a couple of things to that, and the other thing that I think is also a trend of you've asked, what have I seen lately in the last year or two that's changed the P people now more than ever, they've been inundated. Yeah. With the open doors, offer pads, national companies that are pounding radio a, because they know it works be getting, they're offering cash, cash, cash for your own cash for your own, right?

[00:21:15] Matt: It's very confusing and there's a lot of disruption that way. So if you notice with you, even as a, as a case point, what was 1 of the things I made you promised me you would do go in and talk to the

[00:21:29] Matt: talent, right? Okay.

[00:21:30] Suneet: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go in and talk and make a relationship. Yeah. Cause

[00:21:35] Matt: the relationship? People want to know who they're,

[00:21:37] Suneet: A hundred percent.

[00:21:39] Matt: they want to know who they're dealing with.

[00:21:41] Matt: And the more they hear, Oh, this is a nice guy, man. This guy knows his stuff. I trust him. I like him. And he knows what he's talking about. Building trust doesn't happen overnight, but when you can piggyback the trust of a great personality with someone that they can like, know, and trust, Now, what will happen is rather than saying, Oh, Sadiq, I heard your ad on the radio. Now they'll hear, Man, I heard Justin talking to you. Right? Big difference. And the more you're addressing one problem after another with a solution, what is that implanted in my brain? This guy's a problem solver. I want this guy on my side when I'm ready.

[00:22:32] Suneet: yes. Good. So that long term brand awareness. I love it.

[00:22:36] Matt: it's what it is. And you know, you'll get people now a year from now, or, and I've even, I've even when some people have told me, Oh, well, we got three phone calls last month for radio.

[00:22:46] Matt: Well, you know what? And I guarantee of those people that talk to you, probably none of them said it was the first time they ever heard you.

[00:22:54] Suneet: Sure.

[00:22:55] Matt: What do they say? I've been hearing you for years. I've been waiting

[00:22:59] Suneet: you for years.

[00:23:00] Matt: that because let's face it less than 1 percent are going to list this month, probably even less every two months.

[00:23:08] Matt: Right. So when they're ready, they want to know who can I trust, who can I, who's a, who's a go to.

[00:23:17] Suneet: dude. I just, yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, the brand awareness, knowing them, having a relationship and the radio as the context, they listen to that DJ every day, like they think that the DJ is their friend, right? And they, you know, and

[00:23:36] Matt: I might be going on a limb and saying this. I didn't want to say that. I didn't want to post this anywhere, but I thought if you wanted a good illustration about how powerful the, is radio still relevant, right? I'll still get that question. Are people still listening? So we're right now, we know what

[00:23:53] Suneet: I was,

[00:23:55] Matt: We know what happens next week, right? Right. Big, the biggest voting day of the year, right? Biggest, you know, biggest job in America, right? Is on the line.

[00:24:05] Suneet: yeah,

[00:24:07] Matt: So what is it? What does this candidate do? And I'm not going to say whichever side I'm not going to go, I'm not going to go there. Right.

[00:24:15] Suneet: No, we're not going to go there.

[00:24:18] Matt: a marketing perspective, right? He catches a popular radio host, Charlamagne, the God on the breakfast club, right? Shows on like a hundred markets. Guys like a legend in the R and B world catches him saying, yeah, this one candidate, she supports transgender, you know, uh, rights in schools and our tax paid dollars is going to support that candidate take, takes that clip, puts it not only in his commercials, but put 65 million behind the ad campaign to push that out nationally.

[00:24:58] Matt: Why is he

[00:25:00] Suneet: Yeah.

[00:25:01] Matt: An influencer. Is making a statement about now what's he, what he edited out of this. Charlemagne went on to say, why are we talking about this? There's bigger issues we should be talking about. Right.

[00:25:15] Suneet: Yeah. Right.

[00:25:16] Matt: But just the fact that he isolated something that gets to people's hearts, right, that can move them.

[00:25:23] Matt: That is important to people. Right. But he's putting 65 million behind it. If radio wasn't relevant, why would he even do that?

[00:25:34] Suneet: I mean, absolutely. Absolutely. It's shocking. Right? Um, the amount of people tell me that they listen to the radio

[00:25:45] Matt: Well, you know, I think it is and to be fair Yes, are

[00:25:48] Suneet: also at the same time, my wife, Matt only listens to the radio. Yes. Yes.

[00:25:54] Matt: you know, I think the reality is because I get some people old people who use the podcast now and that's true But I think if you've got a relevant morning show Or you've got a relevant show people are people listen to the radio for one of three reasons They want to be entertained. They want to be informed and they want to be comforted And what's interesting, why don't we choose a station that you're on that nobody else thought about in the market during, during the pandemic, people want to be comforted.

[00:26:26] Matt: They want to hear something that they know, right? Classic rock brings you back in time to when it was a better time. You've got great memories. In fact, I saw you'll appreciate this being a musician. So I saw a documentary about Paul McCartney. And his lead guitarist commented how he goes, I love every night I play.

[00:26:48] Matt: I can start strumming the first few chords of a Beatles tune. I look in the audience and I can see that guy going back in time, thinking of what he was doing at that moment. And so why classic rock stations boomed during the pandemic. People wanted to be comforted. They wanted to go back to a better time and place.

[00:27:10] Matt: Now you couple that with a popular person who people want to be entertained by because just as a great personality, you combine those two elements and nobody thinks about it, right? But that's where the connection comes in. And that's one example. So when, when we ask, what do we do, we go into a market and we figure out.

[00:27:31] Matt: Where are the ears? Where are the hearts? Where are the people that are compelling? There's a difference between being interesting and compelling. Interesting, I might want to get some facts and figures. Compelling, that person is going to move me to do something. There are some coaches out there that are interesting.

[00:27:52] Matt: John is compelling. You hear chap and you're moved by it, right? That's the difference. That's why you come home with notes. Like, okay, these notes are nice. But when you got someone who's moving you, that's a big difference. And that's what we look

[00:28:11] Matt: for in personalities. So that's

[00:28:16] Suneet: dude. That's fire. I love that. Now I want to shift the questions because I'm super curious. Uh, I want to ask the audience out there. Have you guys ever seen like the commercials of a realtor and Barbara Corcoran and said, Barbara Corcoran's with dude from my town? Because Matt Wagner, I'll tell you that about seven, eight years ago.

[00:28:39] Suneet: I was like, Barbara Corcoran's with Tom Dave's? Yeah. How the hell did that happen? And then every time I got in the car, I would hear all the ads, right? Shout out to Tom for being an absolute legend and inspiration for me in sack. Um, but, um, you guys are the guys that put Barbara Carcher in, in the ads, just out of sure, selfish curiosity.

[00:29:09] Suneet: How did that collaboration even come about, dude? I'm curious. I'm

[00:29:12] Matt: I love telling this story because it actually came, it came on the heels. It was 10 years ago, actually, this, this month, since we started the program. It's still going strong today. Love it. We keep innovating with it. But what happened was I, I was starting to watch Shark Tank is about seven years. I think that, no, about six years.

[00:29:31] Matt: And I love this. I started watching the show and I kept telling myself, man, I wish Barbara was still selling real estate because I'd be, I'd go after her and I'd get her to be a client. Right.

[00:29:44] Suneet: Yeah.

[00:29:45] Matt: So I thought, so I was getting into the show and then it was right around the time we were starting to do masterminds.

[00:29:52] Matt: That we used to go and piggyback like Keller Williams events and remix events where we'd like do like a little breakout group, like 2030 40 people, you know, before the conference starts. And so we finally started breaking out and we did our first. Our own mastermind. And it was great. You know, we had, we had, we had it in Vegas, like 150 people there.

[00:30:15] Matt: Well, now we're like, okay, we got to do this again. We're going to do this in Dallas. Right. I already, I booked the hotel. I booked everything. And then I find out not John, John wasn't around yet. Another coach who I worked really closely with. Did a mastermind that exact same week. And I'm like, crap, I know what's gonna happen.

[00:30:38] Matt: I'm going to lose half my audience. Right? So that's when I said, okay, if I'm going to, I can either give up or I'm going to raise the bar and say, I'm going to bring someone to my mastermind that they're not going to hear anywhere else. I

[00:30:55] Suneet: that's

[00:30:55] Matt: an email off to Barbara. I took a chance. I emailed her because I also noticed on Barbara's website, it was ancient at the time.

[00:31:03] Matt: She had a broker's I trust section.

[00:31:08] Suneet: Oh, okay.

[00:31:09] Matt: And I'm like, I don't know any of these people. And I'm not to say I'm not going to be arrogant to say I know everybody big,

[00:31:15] Matt: but I looked at the introduction. These are all like no name agents that bought in on this. Right. So I emailed her and said, Barb, I've got the top agents in almost every market.

[00:31:27] Matt: That I know would love it if you endorse that. Would you speak at our event? I'll pay the freight and, and we would love to partner on that. And I'm like, she emailed me back. I'm like, what?

[00:31:43] Suneet: Wow. That's so cool, dude. That is a great story.

[00:31:47] Matt: she said, I'm not ready. I'm not, I'm not ready for a new agency, but we could talk. When I speak at your event. So I'm like, all right, deal. So at that point I paid her 35, 000 to speak at our event, which that's not, that's not chump change. Right.

[00:32:05] Suneet: Seven years ago, right? You said.

[00:32:07] Matt: 10 years ago, right now, now

[00:32:10] Matt: I help.

[00:32:10] Suneet: especially not chunky. Yeah.

[00:32:13] Matt: 110, 000.

[00:32:15] Suneet: Sounds right.

[00:32:16] Suneet: Yeah.

[00:32:18] Matt: so now I know cause I just helped someone else book it, but the, um,

[00:32:22] Suneet: I'm sure you know.

[00:32:23] Matt: and that was even before a mad discount. Right. But, um, but anyway, so she comes to our event and it lit. We were actually, we were, we were at Glenn Beck's studio and we had, we were coming back as we had him, we had him speak to our group in the morning and then we had her speak in the afternoon.

[00:32:41] Matt: So

[00:32:42] Suneet: Cool speakers to have, dude.

[00:32:44] Matt: Yeah, that was it. That was I stack. I stack the deck on that one because like, I want to be the best and baddest mastermind in the planet. Right? So that was when, uh, so now we're getting back and my, my event planner calls me. She's like, Barbara wants you in her in a room. You know, two hours before she speaks or before our meet and greet.

[00:33:06] Matt: So I'm with, she said, bring your wife. Cause she's hitting on the bodyguard. He's walking her up there. Right.

[00:33:14] Suneet: Yeah. Yeah. That's

[00:33:15] Matt: So anyway, I'm up there in her dressing room. Me and my wife are sitting there and Barbara's telling the whole, she's like drilling me with questions while she's getting makeup put on. She's like looking in between like the makeup artist, like watching us.

[00:33:29] Matt: Right. But she's asking me pointed questions about our network. Right. How many agents we have, where they rank all of them. So now we go down to the meet and greet. And I made sure that I lined up like 20 agents to meet her. They were all like, number one, number two, all heavy hitters. Right. Ask Gary Ash the next time you talk to him, what that was like.

[00:33:53] Suneet: Okay. For sure. I just saw him a couple of

[00:33:55] Matt: It's a little X rated, but I'll let him tell the story. I know you guys are buddies. Um, but yeah, that was, that was interesting. So, but anyway, when we're all said and done, she gave a presentation as we were walking out. She just said, um, Matt, normally events I speak at 70 percent belong there. 30%. Like, I wonder why are they even here?

[00:34:22] Matt: She said, every single person in your audience was engaged. Ask good questions and they looked like they were top agents. They looked like people I would hire at the Corcoran group. She goes, here's my agent's number. Let's make something happen.

[00:34:38] Suneet: Wow.

[00:34:40] Matt: So now here's the funny part of this funny part of the story.

[00:34:45] Matt: Actually, two parts I'll add. I'm driving now about a week goes by, I'm going back and forth with her agent and he's just not, he's a little old, not quite getting it right. I'm driving. I was in California. I'm driving to San Diego Zoo that day with my, with my wife and my in laws in the backseat. All of a sudden on the, on the phone, Barbara Corcoran's calling me.

[00:35:11] Suneet: Oh shit. I got a better answer to this. Hang on

[00:35:14] Matt: Yeah, I'm like, uh, guys, excuse me. So like I pressed speakerphone. She doesn't even know it. I'm like, Barbara, please don't talk dirty, please. My in laws are in the car, right? She was all business. She goes, Matt, I love my Jack, but he, he, he blew and she dropped, I won't met my name names, but they were national providers.

[00:35:37] Matt: He blew this deal. He blew this deal. I don't want him to blow this deal. What do we need to do to make this happen? We talk it through done deal. Now I got to go find a producer and this is the other part that people don't understand. When you work with us, when you work with a high level celebrity, it's one thing to get them to agree to do it. It's the other thing to say, okay, now you got to find a producer that meets their standards. You can't just call, you can't just, you can't just film this on your iPhone, right? You can't just get an average production crew. I called three producers that were on her short list. One of them flat out said, no.

[00:36:21] Matt: The other one quoted me half a million dollars for a day to

[00:36:25] Suneet: Wow.

[00:36:27] Matt: right? I had that ain't going to happen.

[00:36:30] Suneet: Yeah.

[00:36:31] Matt: one was Chris Strand, who was very creative. Based in New York City, thought it through and said, okay, I can plan this like a wedding. Like he planned a per person figure that was reasonable, lower than what they would normally spend on production.

[00:36:48] Matt: So now a normal day for him is 70, 000. Our agents get it produced. For roughly between 1500 to 3000.

[00:36:57] Suneet: Yeah. That's awesome.

[00:36:58] Matt: That's unheard of. So you're getting a great quality production. So that fell into place, but then you got to get the agent buy in and I give credit to my rate family because they stood up, they took a chance on all this, they committed to it.

[00:37:13] Matt: If they didn't say yes, this wouldn't have happened. Our team stepped up, we found the right people. We organized it. It all came together and then Bob's a trooper. So this is also one last detail and we'll move on. But when we initially, what it was going to be was Barbara doing an intro, Barbara doing an outro and locally, we would film footage and marry it

[00:37:36] Suneet: Sure.

[00:37:37] Matt: spots we've been fine with that. Chris, the producer said, he said, you know, man, it's actually easier. If people fly in and film, you know, with. Bart with me, because then the sound quality would be consistent where we feel with Bart, what we filmed with

[00:37:54] Matt: the

[00:37:55] Suneet: It sounds a big deal. Yeah.

[00:37:57] Matt: I said, well, you know, if we do that, if they're going to come all the way to the New York, why don't we have Barbara involved with that to me made all the difference in us still doing this 10 years later,

[00:38:09] Suneet: Wow.

[00:38:10] Matt: because the authenticity of being with her.

[00:38:13] Matt: And we've had a driving in a car with her. We've had them on the phone with her. We've, we've done walk ins, but there's no doubt they are with her talking. And from that, it adds an authenticity that's just unseen in TV commercials. You just don't see that. I mean, like, look, if you watch a State Farm commercial, right?

[00:38:33] Matt: You see like Aaron Rodgers and, uh, um, uh, uh, Mahomes does, you don't see, you don't see a local real, you don't see a local, uh, insurance agent on that commercial. You don't see the number one guy from, you know, Pittsburgh on there, right? You see the national rep to see a local realtor with a national celeb in a TV spot.

[00:38:59] Matt: It just comes off like very first class and uh, how did he pull that off? And if he does that kind of marketing, that's credible, right? You know, you know, you and I know Brandon Brittingham really

[00:39:12] Suneet: Oh, hell yeah. My

[00:39:14] Matt: Love

[00:39:14] Suneet: Yeah.

[00:39:15] Matt: So his first year with us, he actually bought a cart, a cart, a cutout of Barbara that he puts in

[00:39:21] Suneet: seen those cutouts in lots of people's offices, but I'm on a coaching call. I'm a who's. Oh, you got Barbara stand up there. Okay. Yeah,

[00:39:29] Matt: without saying the specific numbers. What he said to me his first year, he went from 240 million up, 260 million. Basically, what I'm really happy about is my C word, because I went from 2.6 to 3.5. I said, what was the difference? He said we were showing our team, we're showing people on the appointments, how our marketing justifies this percentage. And you know what? It's not, so it's not just if people call you because of it, when your marketing can justify What you're worth that makes it even more valuable.

[00:40:13] Suneet: absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:40:15] Matt: that's missed a lot from people.

[00:40:18] Suneet: That's

[00:40:19] Matt: anyway,

[00:40:20] Suneet: way you got with her. Yes.

[00:40:22] Matt: of ages later, it's still going strong. We love it. It's a great, unique tool.

[00:40:27] Matt: And it's definitely something on a tool chest that, that that's been, that's been a very effective medium could only happen because of the network that we have.

[00:40:36] Suneet: Last Wednesday morning at 545, I'm standing in the airport, a restroom. And frigging Sacramento, Sacramento airport. And I see Andrew lamb walk in and I know that he, he just did his ad too. So yeah, good stuff. It was weird. I was all, he was traveling to an event just like me. So, so that was

[00:41:02] Matt: Nice.

[00:41:03] Suneet: Um, to wrap this up, I'm an agent out there right now.

[00:41:09] Suneet: Uh, maybe I don't have the resources to hire rate, but I want to sell more houses. What should I do?

[00:41:22] Matt: Well, selfishly, I'll say call you, but, um, cause,

[00:41:26] Suneet: don't have the resource yet.

[00:41:28] Matt: well, I would say this, I think interviewing what you, they would find interviewing a good coach like you guys, you know, the right foundation that they need and where they should be at. So definitely interview and even with coaching and I'll be fair, I'm friends with Tom Ferry.

[00:41:43] Matt: I'm friends with Mike Ferry, I'm friends with Rick Rocker. There's a lot of great coaches that are there. I encourage people to interview multiple coaches. Because now you're going to get a chance to really see which one matches what's right for you because just like You don't, you don't want someone that's not coachable.

[00:42:01] Matt: You don't want someone that's not going to listen or respect you, right? There should be a two way street, but you should know what's important to you and where you want to be, right? That's number one. And number two, find out what you want to be. Get a clear picture. What type of life do you want? Find the agents that match what you want.

[00:42:19] Matt: Ask them how they did it. I know one thing that we, that's number two, number three, just get serious about this industry and align yourself. If you can align with a team, even that can be a good start,

[00:42:32] Suneet: Hell yeah.

[00:42:33] Matt: team, you know, um, get a good

[00:42:36] Matt: mentor.

[00:42:37] Suneet: team in your market and on Zillow and give them a call.

[00:42:40] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's crazy. This is a true story. Um, uh, one of our agents now, um, was, uh, She, when I signed her up with, with, with rate, you know, we got a private little mastermind group, you know, inside of our, our Facebook page. And I said, uh, Hey, I was explaining this to her. She was, Oh no, I've already been at the page.

[00:43:01] Matt: I go that that's impossible. I said, it's only for rate owners. Because, will you forget, I was, I was Hal Swayze's marketing director. Oh! That was you? She left the team, developed her own team, and now she's the number, Lindsay Harn, number one agent in San Luis Obispo.

[00:43:23] Suneet: Oh, that's not a bad market to be a number one agent in.

[00:43:25] Matt: Oh yeah. She has like six people on her team and did 180 million.

[00:43:30] Suneet: Damn. Yes.

[00:43:32] Matt: She's a

[00:43:33] Suneet: San Luis is one of my favorite places to go to too. So

[00:43:35] Matt: Yeah. But anyway, that the point of all that is that figured by joining a good team, you can see maybe it's not your model yet, but you have a structure. You're going to get opportunities presented to you. You wouldn't get getting a good coach, interviewing a good coach, but like what you guys offer with reside, which I love, by the way, love what you guys are doing.

[00:43:58] Matt: And, and, you know, and then, and then just figure out and then start getting reviews, building reviews and taking care of people.

[00:44:07] Suneet: Love it. Matt. If anyone wants to get more information on rate and talk to you, where should they go? Who should they call

[00:44:14] Matt: Go to real simple. Four words, spelled out, radio and television experts.com.

[00:44:24] Suneet: right on radio? Matt's on Facebook and active. So shout out.

[00:44:31] Matt: and we're friends. Just, I just look at Cindy's friends. Find me there. That's cool. Reach out Facebook. That's cool.

[00:44:36] Suneet: Um, well, Dude, I learned a lot and I love talking about marketing. I think we could probably talk for hours about marketing and geek out. So we have to get you back on here on a upcoming episode. And guys, I just want to let you know, right? There's so many different ways to do this. And what Matt brings to the table is unique, Matt.

[00:44:56] Suneet: So thanks, man, for coming on.

[00:44:58] Matt: Hey, it's a real honor. Cindy, you've had some great people on this. I'm honored to be talking with you. We're honored to be working with you. You've got such a tremendous respect in the industry and I love it, and thank you and happy to, happy to help whenever I can.

[00:45:11] Suneet: Yes. All right. Uh, it's Halloween. I got to go make sure my kids are getting dressed. Everybody listening. I hope you got something out of this great episode with Matt. As he said, you want more information, go to radio and television experts. com. If we did get something out of this, share it with a friend.

[00:45:29] Suneet: Um, give a like and a subscribe and we'll see you on the next episode of the reside platform podcast.