Your Memory Is Not a Real Estate Follow Up System with Andrea Kugler

Andrea [00:00:00] stop expecting everybody to get on board and to kinda believe and whatever.

Andrea If you have a plan and you have the thing, you just have to jump all in and do it. It's scary, and you're not gonna know it all up front and, but you just do it, and you figure it out as you go.

Suneet What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Reside Platform Podcast. My name is Suneet Agarwal, and I am hosting this amazing podcast for your listening p- pleasure today. t- today I have a good friend of mine, a great human being, on her second time on the show, Andrea Kugler. Andrea, what's up?

Andrea What's up? I'm happy to be here. You had me back a second time. I must have something helpful to share.

Suneet Yes. Yes. why don't you give everybody, like, the super short bio about you?

Andrea I've been a real estate agent for about seven years now. Was a solo agent, for all of my career [00:01:00] until this year, and, part owner in our small family brokerage.

Andrea Kinda came into real estate in a really unique way. Had a really successful first year, but I had no tools. I kinda was just grinding as hard as I could, but it wasn't really, like, a sustainable business model for me. And in the last couple years I've been actually implementing tool systems and things, and I started my real estate team this year in hopes to try to share that with others so they can build, a sustainable career, too.

Andrea And for myself, also learning these things, learning through leadership and all that fun jazz. Yes.

Suneet So good. And I think that the timing of this podcast, it, the, the recording of this podcast is worth mentioning. Today is September 18th, and Andrea showed up to her first CHEPLAC... Was it first CHEPLAC event ever?

Andrea Yes. I hadn't even thought about a real estate team until that event.

Suneet So nearly a year ago. I... It's gonna [00:02:00] be a year in a couple days. In three days. So what a journey you've been on in your first year.

Andrea Yes. Actually, and I do say, I was texting John the other day, and he was like, "Yeah, kind of like life-changing."

Andrea I'm like, "No, it genuinely was life-changing," because multiple things kind of came out of that. And it's cool to look back a year. I always feel like, oh, I'm not doing enough. You know, we all kind of have those moments of we could be doing more, we could be doing more. And so I like to say, where was I last year?

Andrea And it's been a total 180 from last year. So I'm excited about that and excited to keep seeing where I can take things.

Suneet That's so cool. So professionally-

Suneet Name the first thing that you think that you saw change.

Andrea Yeah, I think Tahoe really opened my eyes to a lot of things. Like I said, I come from small brokerage, solo agent, never used a transaction coordinator, did [00:03:00] everything myself. Not that there was an, an issue with that. I mean, I was able to run my s- business successful, but it was a lot of kind of running myself into the ground, and I was like, "There's gotta be a better way to do this."

Andrea I liked real estate, it just felt, a little exhausting. And I had no systems, I had no CRM, nothing like that. Then I come to Tahoe, and I was kind of like, "Okay, I need to somehow get my business more organized," or, "There's gotta kinda be more to this." And I started having conversations with different people and, you know, having a leadership role in my brokerage.

Andrea And I've trained agents before and done things. I knew I kind of liked that, and then I started having conversations with people who are like, "Have you ever considered starting a team? Have you considered this? Have you considered this?" So I came back from that like, "Okay, maybe I should try a CRM." That was my first big professional change.

Andrea Yeah, which is crazy.

Suneet Isn't that crazy? That is. But it's so cool. But yes, that's what... Wow.

Andrea Like, I made it that long without any kind of automation or tools [00:04:00] or tracking or systems really. So that's been a huge impact, for me since then. Paul, gotta give a shout-out to Paul, 'cause he's like, "You gotta try Reside.

Andrea You gotta join Reside. You gotta join Reside." And I talk to a lot of, Reside people, and Paul, and Paul's crazy. "Hey, let's go on a run. Let's go on a seven-mile run tonight." And then, you know, Paul, he's crazy. But I will credit to Paul. Paul's like, "Let, let me at least get you on a call with Nick. Let's talk about Reside."

Andrea And I talked to them, and I was like, "Look, I'm coming from s- somebody with, again, no CRM. I didn't even really keep that track of my sales. I'm just doing anything and everything myself, and now you're like, 'Join this thing and start a team,' and all this organization." And Nick had me try Reside for a couple of months, and then he's like, "Come January 1, you wanna do this, do it."

Andrea And that changed everything. Having the support and tools and people to guide my very unguided [00:05:00] self on what, how to kinda start a team.

Suneet Okay. So use the CRM. That's the first thing that you learned. Let me ask you, so has using a CRM made an impact on your business in the way that you had believed from those initial conversations?

Andrea Yeah, 100%. Even just small things. Like before I was like, "Oh, I follow up with people." You know? I'm, I keep in touch with people. And it's funny, you know, as a real estate agent, you have so many different roles and you're not doing the same thing every single day. I'd be driving in my car like, "Oh, I need to follow up with that person," like the idea, but then you just don't.

Andrea And then I'm like, "Oh my gosh, it's been four months. I haven't even talked to that buyer. What is wrong with me?" it's just literally not humanly possible to do it without a system. So that for sure, I mean, so much more organization. I know where I'm at with everybody, who I've talked to, all my people.

Andrea I mean, it's just so streamlined.

Suneet [00:06:00] Yeah. So but being able to be organized with your consumers and your sphere and any marketing, you know, leads that you got, super important. And I remember too, right, like, back in the day, like I was a great like loan officer back in the day, like 2002, and our phone would ring, off the hook with inbound leads, like people wanting to refinance, and I didn't even have a piece of paper, dude.

Suneet Like, I had like a free calendar that the title company left on the desk, a big one, and I would just... If I didn't get somebody's Social Security number and was able to pull their credit within like six minutes, then I would never call them back. And I was still the top guy in that office, but what if I actually like called one person back once?

Andrea I, yeah, it's funny because now that I do have that and I have like my flows for how I do everything, I'm like, wow, there's so much business I left on the table because I [00:07:00] never followed up with people. I just didn't have a system. I talked to them one time and it was like, surely they'll reach back out.

Suneet Yeah. Well, good. Yeah. and now you know. So I love that something was like a system that anybody listening to this, not even in real estate, can implement some version of that, right? So talk about like what's something that you learned when it comes to leading people?

Andrea Yeah. one, it's r- it's hard and you have to do...

Andrea I feel like I have to do a self-check every single day on am I doing the things that I'm telling these people they have to do? And am I holding myself to the standards that I'm holding them to and asking them to, hold themselves to? So it's good. I say that it's, it's humbling, sometimes and it doesn't let you get away with, like, old bad habits, which I have a lot of old bad habits from just kinda doing things how I always wanted to and, like, now we have to do things in a structured manner.

Andrea so [00:08:00] another thing that's really, you know, real estate's a, a hard career. There's a lot of, uncontrollable things, a lot of emotions, and, being able to show my agents how to handle those things with grace and, like, coach them through those, that, that's been another challenge too, but a good challenge.

Suneet Good. So what are some things that you've seen work?

Andrea With like coaching people through those hard things. So I, it's funny, I tell all of my agents and, for people that follow me online, they know I'm, I annoyingly say all the time, "Do hard things." So I tell all my agents, "You need to have one personal hard thing that you inflict on yourself that you have to handle, whether it's like working out, something inconvenient, something hard, because that's the reality of this career, is that there's something inconvenient and hard, and I need to know that you're constantly working on the tools to do those things, handle those things."

Suneet Let me stop you right there. John likes to say conscious suffering.

Andrea [00:09:00] Yes. Conscious suffering. I love that. Yeah. That, it's exactly what it is. It is exactly what it is. And it's funny, we had a team meeting this morning and one of my agents said, "I just don't know." She's a fantastic agent, and she's like, "I just don't know if I'm cut out for this.

Andrea Like, the emotions, I, I can't handle it." I'm like, "First of all, y- yes, you can handle it. We have to like, work through that." But I've seen her in situations when her clients are emotional, be able to walk them through that. And you know, it's just, it's practice. Everything's repetition and practice, and you have to inflict those difficult things.

Andrea The only way you learn is from handling the difficult thing once and then doing the difficult thing twice, and then three times and four times. And so they see me do that a lot. and again, that's the thing of like, as a leader, you have to show up and do those things first if you want them to follow.

Andrea So if I get all bent out of shape and cussing and screwed up because one bad thing happens, then that's how they're gonna react. practice what you preach [00:10:00] there a little bit, but...

Suneet Does everybody around you have a fitness routine?

Andrea Yeah. Every, everybody on our team does. It's funny. And, one of my agents who, she joined the team, she's like-

Suneet It's, it might be funny, but it's also like attracting like your tribe and creating your tribe, man.

Suneet Yeah. And one of our agents said, she's like, "I just, after I had my daughter, I fell off for years from working out." And now every single morning she's up early doing her workouts, like posting that she's doing her workouts and, it's really cool. It's cool to see that because I want to help people in real estate and I wanna help them have a fulfilling career, but I love that, I hope you take something away personally from it too, Yeah. So you're inspiring people.

Suneet I, I think you are. If you just gave me an example of a woman that works for you that, that got inspired. let's get into, like, marketing, 'cause you and I talk about social media quite often, [00:11:00] and, you know, for everyone listening, like I said earlier, this is Andrea's second time on the show.

Suneet So make sure you go back and listen to the first episode too, 'cause she dropped a lot of stuff about business on there. this is a good, continuation to that conversation. So to the marketing, and social, what platform is crushing for you right now?

Andrea Actually, Instagram is. I'd say like a mixture of Instagram and Facebook.

Andrea Facebook I don't really monitor as much. My VA is in there like looking at my messages, and I get a, a ton of messages on Facebook, people reaching out. One thing that I like about social media, so I tell my agents, social media is not necessarily going... There's not like huge lead conversion. It's hard to track lead conversion, but it's gonna help you stay top of mind.

Andrea And I want lead conversion and staying top of mind, when I think about marketing. But the conversations I have because I post on social [00:12:00] media, and then people who, and I get lucky here, the people that I sold homes to when I first was an agent or I worked with years ago that I had no plan for follow-up, haven't pr- probably talked to them in years, come back into my world because they see the things I'm posting or different things.

Andrea I'm constantly in their face, "Hi, I'm a real estate agent. I'm a real estate agent. I'm doing all these things." And like I'm listing a $500,000 house next week with people that I haven't talked to in eight years, but they're like, "We've loved your triathlon journey. We've missed you. We wanted to touch base.

Andrea Love to see that you're crushing it." Like, and they have an agent that's in that neighborhood who sells primarily all of those real estate agents. They're like, "Yeah, our neighbor said we should list with her." We were like, "Absolutely not. we had to call you first." So things like that of, is it gonna make somebody buy or sell a house with you?

Andrea Hopefully at some point. It's like planting seeds. And the husband even said, like- Branding ...

Suneet Yes. Right It's your brand.

Andrea Yeah. He said, "You are, every single time I open Facebook, you are on, you're right there at the top," 'cause I post [00:13:00] multiple times a day. He's like, "I can't go a day without opening the app without seeing your face," like laughing.

Andrea I'm like, great. And the people who don't like it, they'll unfollow, but everybody else, you're seeing me. so Instagram and Facebook are my two big ones that do well.

Suneet It's 'cause you're not posting on TikTok, isn't it, Andrea?

Andrea No, I do, I do post on TikTok. I post everything on TikTok. TikTok, Threads, Facebook, Instagram.

Andrea I believe my VA puts everything on LinkedIn too. She might have it on a-

Suneet You guys using like Metricool, a poster? Yeah. Got to. Good. So TikTok, you're not getting like... Dude, I'm getting, like, a lot of views on TikTok. Tons. Massive.

Andrea For whatever reason, I get none on TikTok. Although, I've gotten two agents on my team from TikTok, so I guess it is working.

Andrea Just my one agent that absolutely crushes, she found [00:14:00] me on TikTok,

Suneet How much preparation are you doing for the media, for the social media content?

Andrea Yeah, this is what I tell people. It, this is hard. One, social media for me feels easy, and I don't spend too much time on it. One, I'm somebody, I don't, I don't care or think too much about what people are gonna think about what I post.

Andrea If I have a thought or a thing, it just pops in my mind, boom, I do it. I'm gonna post it. So if you're somebody who overthinks a lot, you gotta cut out overthinking what you're gonna post or things like that. I don't put much thought into it. I really don't plan it much. I might be driving and an idea comes in my head, so I'm like, "Stick it," "Hey Siri, put this on my reminders." But for the most part, it's like click record, boom. I have my VA edit some stuff for me. I also kind of, I do in my free time enjoy, like, vid- video [00:15:00] editing. So, like, if it's a weekend and I have free time and I'm relaxing for an hour, I sit there and I just edit random videos.

Suneet That's what I was gonna say is who's editing all these short little, the short little clips for you? And it's you doing it some of the time, and then you sending it off some of the other time. Mm-hmm.

Andrea Yeah. So I have... And then I also have a ph- videographer that does stuff for us, like for the team and kind of some interim things.

Andrea but it really, like, I think it works well for me because I will post about anything, like not just real estate or not just certain things. And I also, I kinda don't really care, and I don't, I never look at it like, "Is this perfect or good?" I'm like, "Good enough," and I post it. when, my agents, when they wanna do social media, like, my rule for them is, do not...

Andrea If you're spending more than, like, 30 minutes doing this a day, like stressing about it, you need to refine your process because it shouldn't take a great time.

Suneet Would you say your, most of your leads come from, like, a story [00:16:00] format or, like, a feed format?

Andrea I think probably feed, but I think stories are important.

Andrea I post stories every single day because I think it helps keep you relevant.

Suneet You know that I never post stories anymore.

Andrea I do all the time. That's easy to me. One tip and trick if you want to up your social media game, and this sounds-- People are like, "Oh my gosh, that must be so annoying to constantly do that."

Andrea It's really not. I don't even think about it. I'm just constantly taking pictures or videos of things. Five-second video clip.

Suneet More than anybody else that I know, that is you.

Andrea Yes. Suneet knows. Yeah, he sees me. There, picture. And I might not use it all, but it, like, backlogs content, and then I'll, like, tell my VA or something, "Hey, I need a couple things for next week," and, like, she has stuff to pull from.

Andrea I mean, it's... I just kinda, like, get things here and there.

Suneet Yeah. See, like, did I tell you about this? I have, like, thousands and thousands of old social media posts, videos, like, from since, like, 2018. I [00:17:00] used to have a videographer. I have so much, right? And, I had a videographer for, like, three, four years to just going at it, like, came to my house and shit.

Suneet So I have so much content.

Suneet So I had AI go and go to my bank of old content and schedule all the posts on all those new accounts. So what's that? An additional, like, 20, 16, 18, 20 posts a day? And I'm getting thousands, 100,000 views a week.

Andrea I need to learn how to better use AI in my business.

Suneet Yeah, so let's talk about it. What are you using? What kind of AI usage are you... For those of you guys who aren't watching, Andrea just made a face at me.

Andrea I think I hopped on one of your AI calls, and I was so confused.

Andrea I'm like, "This, I... What I should do is have my VA do those," because I'm... One thing about, okay, I can edit [00:18:00] videos and, like, post them on TikTok and Instagram.

Suneet Did you just read my mind? I was hella about to call you out. Like, here you are editing videos, and you can't figure out AI.

Andrea I know. That's what everybody says.

Suneet Okay, so I'm not the only one.

Andrea Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're like, "That's ridiculous." And somebody else just asked me, "What are you using AI for in your business?"

Suneet Okay, this is where you start. what's the AI app you have on your phone? Okay, perfect. Great one. are you, It's the- is it a paid account?

Andrea Yes. I have a paid account 'cause my VA u- I think she uses it for stuff.

Suneet Yeah, so then why don't you go in and say, "Hey, this is Andrea. I have this business. I'm into this. I use these tools. I wanna automate stuff and get, become more efficient." Where do we start?

Andrea Okay. I actually, I 100% will do that because I need more efficiency and more automations, I can [00:19:00] tell you that.

Suneet Even I do, and my whole life is almost automated. I've almost succeeded on entering into the Matrix. yes. What advice do you have for people listening to this episode?

Andrea About real estate?

Suneet Advice one year into our community, what advice do you have?

Andrea I, my biggest piece of advice is if you believe in something or have an idea for something, and you will see it to fruition, but you just don't know how to get there, then I think you should go all in on finding the tools and resources and making the investment to get there.

Andrea And I'm not, I think I'm a s- I think I'm a pretty coachable person. I think I listen to people. I don't know what I'm doing half the time, but it's gotten me this far, and then I just have awesome people like Suneet that are around me that I try to [00:20:00] s- that's what I try to do, is surround myself with people where I wanna go so I can learn from them.

Andrea And I'm somebody that I just won't give up on anything until I can get what I want. So I think if you have that, you're just also the missing piece for a lot of time people, and sometimes the scary part about that is investment or maybe a big leap of faith. but you just have to do it. And when I first was gonna start my team and work with Reside, my husband's like, "You have six months to make this, like, work."

Andrea 'Cause everybody thought I was crazy. They're like, "You're doing good as a solo agent. Why would you start a team?" My broker's like, "Why would you do that?" Now they're like, "Oh, okay. All right. We see the vision. We kinda get it." so if you ha- like, no, stop expecting everybody to get on board and to kinda believe and whatever.

Andrea If you have a plan and you have the thing, you just have to jump all in and do it. It's scary, and you're not gonna know it all up front and, but you just do it, and you figure it out as you go. And that's, that served me.

Suneet [00:21:00] Yes. Y- you will never know it all. that is the secret, right? Everything you all s- resonates so deeply with me, so I love that.

Suneet if somebody wants to send you a referral out there in Ohio, what's the best way for the- or follow you on social media, what's the best way for them to do that?

Andrea Follow me on social media, andrea_coogler_realtor, or you could email me, andrea@akcollectiveco.com.

Suneet All right. Andrea, I'll see you in a couple days.

Andrea Can't wait.

Suneet All right. Thank you so much for being on the show. Everyone watching, make sure you go check out Andrea's, previous episode. It was awesome. In fact, all our episodes are pretty frigging awesome, 'cause we got some really good g- guests. Oh, thanks, Andrea. so if you liked it, click like, share, subscribe.

Suneet Subscribe with a friend. No, share with a friend, and we'll see you. Ring a bell. I don't know what all the cool work kids say these days, but I know I'll see you in the next [00:22:00] episode of the Reside Platform Podcast. Peace out.