Speaker 1 (00:00):
In her first year as a real estate agent, Marissa Lindsay produced nearly 50 transactions and every single one of them was generated through a Facebook group. Why? Because she's an introvert. It allowed her to sell without selling, to be of service, be of value, and be herself. Since then, she spun up about five dozen Facebook groups that support her five agent, Colorado Springs based team, but also have produced a national network for referrals. She's flown into local markets to find the right agents to operate these groups according to her proven strategy, what the strategy is, how they developed it, why it works for introverts, and how they set it up in other markets. Join Marissa and Dubs right now on real estate team os

Speaker 2 (00:42):
No matter where your business is today or where you want to take it, you'll get there faster and more profitably with an operating system. Welcome to Team Os, your guide to starting, growing and optimizing real estate team. Here's your host, Ethan

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Butte. Marissa and Marissa. Welcome to Real Estate team Os.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Hi, thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Okay, so I will honor dubs you as dubs really quickly before we jump into the standard opener on the show. Give us a little bit about dubs. I know why, but I want everyone else to understand it. How simple and powerful a nickname can be.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yes. Well, it does convey the fact that all I do is win, just get no stubs. But actually since I worked with Marissa, there's way too much confusion between Marissa and Marissa, so it's very simple. She spells her name with one s and mine is spelled with a double S. So since I think week one I've been dubs and now my whole TC life, everything in real estate world, I am dubs. So

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Awesome. Again, appreciate you both being here and standard openers. What is a must have characteristic of a high performing team? And we'll go to you, Marissa. To kick it off,

Speaker 3 (01:56):
I would say you have to have a visionary, so that's me, and you have to have an integrator that's dubs. If you don't have both of those, it's really going to be hard to go anywhere. I think that especially in this business, it's so competitive. You really have to have somebody who thinks outside the box and can find creative ways to connect with others. And so that's where I come in. However, my big brained ideas need somebody to tie them in and make them happen. And so I think that we have an incredible team with dubs and I mean since day one she's really come alongside myself in making sure that the ideas that I have for the team, not only within our city and state, but also nationally, that they come to fruition and they're done in an effective and efficient way.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well, we're definitely going to get into the story of how you two connected and when each of you knew that this was going to be a good partnership, but because you've coached dozens of teams, dubs, I would love for you to share a must have characteristic of a high performing team, real estate or otherwise.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
Sure. I think it ties into what a combo of what Marissa said there, and that's creativity with execution. Great catchall term is just grit on a personal level, and so that's something you see from Marissa, from everybody on our team. It's like not only will they put their head down and work, but they will work creatively. They will find a way to solve a problem no matter what problem comes. I think you see it on sports teams, of course you can find the scrappy player, but eventually you're going to reach a level where you peak and you'll find the people who continue sustaining success for years are the people who just will put their head down and they'll figure out a way to solve the problem.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, I love the combination there of creative problem solving with the persistence not to leave it until you've tested and proven a solution. I have a note from a call that we had earlier that one of your goals was to become the highest performing team in Colorado Springs. Does that sound about right?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yes. It's not my goal.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Okay. So what is your definition in that? When do you know that you're on track to that? Is it an efficiency play? Is it, I assume it's not just a pure top line number that a lot of people like to point to. What does it mean to you to be the highest performing team in a market?

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Well, for me as the team leader, I think that really tapping into all of our team members' abilities and ensuring that they're reaching their goals and we're bringing out their potential. And so to me that would to me mean that we are the highest performing team in the springs. I mean making sure that everybody's hitting their potential and that's really where Debs comes in to make sure that we're highlighting everybody's strengths.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Close that gap a little bit. Debs, when you have some amount of formal or informal responsibility for that, what is that and how do you step into it and how do you tap into it?

Speaker 4 (05:00):
Oh yeah. Well, it's fun because it's just that creative problem solving with each agent. One of the things I love as a coach or being part of any team is seeing what makes people thrive, what makes somebody great. And we have a small team with lots of different personalities and what's fun for me is when this person is seeing and achieving their goals. And so while we might not ever be the highest grossing team, the most successful is when our agents are just absolutely killing it with their specific niche and with their personality because we have some people, we do have a few callers on the team who insist on calling and we have some people like Marissa. It's hard for even me to get her on the phone. So it's fun to watch those people thrive.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
That's cool. So we're going to get into the shape of the team and how it's structured, but first I'm going to get into Marissa. When did you get into real estate? When did team occur to you and then how did the two of you pair up and when did you know that this was going to be a successful partnership?

Speaker 3 (06:06):
A wild ride. Okay, you ready?

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
So I left the military, so my family and I, it's my husband and we have four kids. We came down to Colorado Springs from Alaska in 2019 and somehow I, as a public affairs soldier in the army thought that that tied in with real estate. I'm like, yeah, easy transition. I know what I'm doing here. I'm going to go get my license and I'm going to sell real estate in a estate and city that where I know absolutely nobody, this is going to be fantastic. Easy peasy, easy peasy. So I went to HUD and got my license and started a social media group in order to find clients because I am a very introverted personality, very, very much so. I will get out and talk to people, but I'm really awkward and so it's not salesy. I'm not going to get a sale.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
This is another checkbox of definitely on the right path with real estate.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
So I went the social media route because I am safe behind a keyboard and I love sharing value, sharing knowledge, and I use that as a space to welcome people to Colorado Springs if they were thinking of moving here and giving them best information, best practices, if they were new. So started that did really well. My first year sold almost 50 houses and I started my team out of an absolute need. I remember halfway through my first year thinking to myself, if this is what real estate is, I don't want to do it anymore because I was working 15 hour days, I was barely home to see my children. We had to hire a cleaner that year, a cook that year, and I just had no time for anything personal life. And so going into my second year, I was told that the best thing for me to do would be leverage my time and bring on a team to start doling out the clients that I had that I could no longer take care of that I just didn't have the space for.

(08:13):
So that's how my team was born. So DOS was a client of mine at this time and she was teaching and didn't sound like she loved her job, but she was so organized and she has this coaching background and I'm like, well, you know what? I have a business proposition for you and I promise that I would take care of her financially if she would just please, please trust my vision. And she did trust my vision and we've been together ever since and it's grown into so much more than a team dubs. It's gone into so many different directions.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
I'll say when we worked with Marissa as our, we had to really lean on her as a negotiator. It was hot. She was selling, and I remember her calling her up and we put in the offer for the house and we were like, do we need to raise it? Do we need to come back after we had already submitted the offer, we were hassle learn about it, and she was like, no, it's fine. It's fine. And as all real estate deals do, it took its twists and turns, but at the end of the day, I actually don't like, I'm a coach who doesn't like coaches and I'm part of a real estate team that doesn't really real estate agents. So it's just like this inherent like, oh, you're fake. But working with Marissa as her client, I got to see that she actually cares about clients and that was enough to convince me to align my goals with her.

(09:41):
So when she came with the job offer, I was like, okay, you actually care about clients. You're going to serve people. I can get behind that. So I actually took over for her husband Mike, who had been her TC before he moved into the world of lending. We won't hold it against him. So I took over there and so there was a lot of trust needed from the jump for her to let me talk to clients, for me to quit my job and pursue this full time. So I think we started with a lot of trust and just kind of have really made sure we've kept our goals aligned this whole time and then worked our butts off, honestly.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, I love it. Okay, one really quick question, Marissa, how many agents had you brought alongside you before you said, I need an admin or a TC or support, or was dubs your first kind of teammate?

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Dubs was my first because my husband was serving in that admin capacity already. He left his contracting job. I think I was two months in the business, and we realized that this was taking off and that this real estate was going to be a big career and that I could not do it alone. So I convinced him to leave his six figure job and join me. And then Dubs came in to take over for him once we realized that we were doing so much that we needed an in-house lender where I can nudge him at 11:00 PM at night and say, get up. We need a lender letter. Let's go

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Another way to avoid the phone. Am I right?

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yes. So we brought him in and then do came on board and that was the foundation for what we were choosing to build.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
We already heard coaching and organized, and obviously you clicked from a personality perspective or else you wouldn't have even entertained the idea, but was there anything else about dubs that made that she was the right person such that you would come with an offer and then I'll turn it to you dubs with a, what was the offer and did you have any questions about it?

Speaker 3 (11:47):
For me, dubs has integrity. Huge. That's very, very, to me, the way that she would ask questions when we were doing our transaction with her personal home, she reminded me a lot of my husband, and he's just very, very direct. I love people who are direct. I don't like it when people skirt around. And so she handled buying a house is stressful. She handled that stressful situation with just very direct questions and with integrity. And then she was also on top of that, very organized, and I'm like, you know what? That's the trifecta. Let's bring her on and see what we can do here if she'll leave her job and join me.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Cool. So what was the offer, dubs, did you have any questions about it and what has changed between the initial vision for the role and today?

Speaker 4 (12:38):
Yeah. Oh, that's a good question, but first, thank you, Marissa. My integrity, all that matters a lot and words of affirmation that matters to me. So just thank you for saying that. It goes a long way to have a boss who actually listens and gives you the rewards that you asked for. So initial offer was, I'll replace your income and I'll keep you busy. And so it's like, okay, you seem pretty busy. So I think I can do that. And I saw the success and I love competency and working with people who are competent. So I'm like, okay, let's see where this adventure takes us. It seems like a very scalable thing Now, very quickly what happened? It went from a TC role and because of all the trust that she gave me and because of my own personality of like, oh, this can be better.

(13:31):
Oh, this can be better. The role just kind of grew and grew and grew to where we each have our roles, like she was saying with a visionary and integrator, but she never once treated me help. She has been empowering and says, off you go. Yep, you think this is going to make the business better, let's do it. So all of that, that encapsulates from everything to hiring agents, talking about different brokerages that are good fits for the team, just being a sounding board that she can trust even to the technical things like switching to follow up boss and using A CRM and those types of things. Just kind of putting those and saying no sometimes to Marissa's escapades and fun things that are

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Great,

Speaker 4 (14:23):
Or at least not yet. Exactly. Not yet. Yeah, that's better. Not yet. Let's give her a board just to put all those ideas on.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, that's great. Okay, so we're definitely going to get into CRM because I think it's so interesting how far you took your business, Marissa before you realized what it could bring. You also generate leads in a very unique way, and I think there's maybe some operational pieces to that that will be interesting for people because a lot of the conversations we have are around not the way that you all are generating leads. So I want to get into, from a process standpoint, how does that go? But before we jump into that, I would love for you, Marissa, to characterize the collective as it is today, market size, structure, culture, however you want to describe it, what roles are in the organization, whatever you want to share about it. I'd love to level set for where we are right now as we record.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
We are a very small team here in the springs and we prioritize. I think the culture is prioritizing clients over profits. That is our motto. We live by that. Decisions are made along that line always, and it's making sure that we earn our paycheck. I feel like a lot of real estate agents don't really go when we are making money, we are earning lots of it, so we have to make sure that we're actually earning that paycheck. And it is really morphed from this small team in Colorado Springs to this team in Colorado Springs, and then this entire network of agents across the United States on top of that. And so Dubs and I are managing this team, our network of referral partners and then our business of teaching others how to use social media to really maximize their social footprints in order to find their clients.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
What is the structure and what are the main roles here in town?

Speaker 3 (16:28):
So I have, well, it's myself and then Debs is the tc, but so much more than that. I am not even, is there a word for director

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Of ops or something? I don't know,

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Director of operations, but

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah,

Speaker 3 (16:43):
I mean sort of CTO. Yeah, more CTO. That's kind of where we leave. Yeah. Yeah. And then I have a financial officer. She was actually one of my clients who turned into my financial officer. She's now living in Germany, but she does everything from there. And then she also runs my social media team. And so I have a whole crew of social media gals who work for us, and they're also all my former clients. I am trending here. I get to know people and I'm like, I have a spot for you. We have that, and then we have an in-house stage room cleaner, and then we have the team. And then of course, my husband Mike is our lender, and he's just kind of off on the side because on top of helping our team with leads and with lending, he has his whole entire other business also built on social media. Right now he has over 30 under contracts across the United States. So he's doing his own thing.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Love it. So when you say social media, I think it either gives people a specific of the social media platforms that they use and the way that they use them, or it's some big vague thing. I would love to jump into, you mentioned your referral network, that's a part of the way that you use Facebook groups. You mentioned starting a social media group, which I assume was a Facebook group. I would love for you, Marissa to kick off and then dubs jump in wherever you would talk about generating opportunities, essentially building your business and your referral network on Facebook groups.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So back in 2020, I built a social media group here in the Springs that was focused on moving to Colorado Springs. I didn't really talk about real estate at all. I was afraid to become a realtor because I didn't want to ever come across as salesy. I didn't want to give anybody that icky feeling of, wow, she's just trying to sell me something. And honestly, consumers, this generation of consumers, they can spot a sale coming a mile away and they'll run in the opposite direction as fast as they can when they see it. So I created the social media group with the intent of if I provide value, if I can help someone with their needs of where the schools tell me about traffic, tell me about temperatures, tell me about where to live, something along those lines. So I would get on this social media group every single day and talk to myself because there's nobody in this group with me. Eventually it grew and by the time I got my license, there were 200 people in this group and all of my 48 clients from my first year came from that social media group. And then we just built upon it and built upon it. Now we have several groups here in the springs, and that is what the majority of my agents use in order to build their businesses. Well, back in 20, was it 2021 or 20? 22?

Speaker 4 (19:39):
22, I

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Think 22, 20 22,

(19:43):
The interest rates started to change, and I got nervous about relying upon our one marketplace for my income. And so I came up with this crazy idea. Everybody thought it was crazy. I presented it to my team and they were just like, okay, sure, whatever you want to do. I was like, guys, let's create a group in Texas. We can create one there. We can do one in Alabama. Let's do one in North Carolina. I was basically naming places that I lived before that I could talk about to myself if I created these groups. And I thought to myself, it didn't occur to me that I would put an agent in there. I thought that I would just grow the group and then find clients to give to my referral partners from there. Well, that grew fast and it grew so fast that I ended up that following year, going out and interviewing agents in person and then putting those agents into the groups to find their own business because I no longer had time to get in those groups and do anything with it. There was no management time that I had on my hands. And so that all took off pretty quickly. And now this is it. This month, Debs, we're doing 17 closings for our referral partners,

Speaker 4 (21:00):
Something like that. Yeah. This month was our highest, both for the team and for our referral partners by units and volume. So it's been cool.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, so I took those. We now have 60 groups across the United States, and as they grow, as those groups get bigger, then I find the spot where I think it's ready for an agent. I go out and interview them, and then we put them in those groups.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Groups. So many questions. First of all, it's so cool that you found your own unique way to start building your business, zero cost except for your time and attention, which does have a value, but

(21:37):
Super unique. How do you turn those conversations into sales conversations is a question I assume most people listening are asking. So I think a smart strategy B, I think there's a first mover advantage where if you can get some momentum behind it, it becomes probably a or the dominant community of its type for that town or that market. But I think a lot of people probably stop short of even trying this because they have no idea how to turn social media into sales conversations in a way that feels natural to you, same reason you started the group, but it's also effective. So I want to start with how do you create that? And then I want to move to dubs on how do we track that? That's where this thing came from.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
That's the beauty of it, is that I don't even start those conversations. I never start a conversation about sales. The way that I've gotten every single one of my clients is them reaching out to me and saying, Hey, we've seen your posts. Can you help us buy a house? And the thing is that some of those people have been following me for a couple of years, maybe they've been thinking about moving to Colorado Springs for a while. And so they've been following me for months, several months or several years. And then by the time they get ahold of me, they feel like they know me so much that their conversation starts off as though we have been friends for forever. They're like, Hey, Marissa, so hey, we're going to be in town in a couple weeks. And we were thinking about maybe moving to Northgate. What are your thoughts on that? And I read the message and every single time I'm like, okay, wait a minute, who are they now? It's what group did they come from and have we had conversations before? So I'm searching for their name and trying to figure out if we've been talking,

(23:34):
But I probably get six or seven of those messages per week.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
So it's known in the group that you're doing this as essentially a local real estate agent who loves the community. So it's known in part that you're an agent, but you don't have to sell.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
It's very, very subliminal. I don't harp on the fact that I'm an agent. So a lot of my posts, we have an exploring group as well and exploring and moving to Colorado Springs and those posts are, I do a lot of what I call hot tips. And so I'll say, Hey, you got tickets to the adss game. Here are some hot tips. And so people will follow those. You're going to Estes Park, here are some hot tips, and they'll follow those to see what information I have. And then they'll give their own advice at the bottom. And so we end up developing this relationship in somehow some way they realize that I'm a realtor, I never push it in front of anybody, but it's turned into this thing where I really don't have to sell and I don't have to ask anybody for their business. They reach out to me asking me for my business, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, I love it. A quick aside, and then we'll go to UBS because I feel like a, I felt you light up. You're both for folks watching and listening. There're on two sides of me on my own screen right now. I'm kind of bouncing back and forth between you. So I saw you light up and I definitely want to hear on how do we know that this person came from the group? But I just want to touch on this idea of the way that you're selling. And I think I come from essentially software sales and marketing world, at least for the past 14 years or so. And as I spend time on a platform like LinkedIn where people are talking about how to sell and how to market essentially in business to business environments, software and other services and things, some leaders, some visionary leaders, are able to make the leap of faith to say, if we do things in the right way, the outcome will happen.

(25:38):
I mean, you said it before, put people in front of profits. Profits or revenue or whatever are the natural outcome of treating people the right way and doing things in the way that feels natural to you. But a lot of people really need this kind of performance basis from the get-go at every step of it. And we're going to over track and over metric everything. And if that's how someone is operating, awesome. But I've carried the title chief evangelist at two organizations and have hosted 47 episodes of a show called Chief Evangelist. And it's really in this zone. Essentially you're evangelizing the community, helping people in the community. So when I'm evangelizing a particular on behalf of a particular company, I'm not out there saying company name, company name, company name any more than you're out there saying, buy real estate, buy real estate, buy real estate. It's just a natural outcome. But I think for a lot of people, that's a really difficult thing to do. Again, it's at some level, it is a leap of faith to expect that if I do things in the right way, people will behave in a way that is rewarding to me for the effort that I'm making. So anyway, that's just a monologue with no in it to say, I personally appreciate your approach very much. Now, dubs,

Speaker 4 (26:48):
Yeah,

Speaker 1 (26:48):
How do we know that this is worth our time and effort? How are we tracking this?

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Okay, well, first I have to just say why I actually care about these groups because of the way it repositions sales, you actually get to be a real human. And what Marissa does so well is she puts herself out in a real way and that's what draws people in. And so I want to dispel two things real quick. One is there is no first mover advantage. Sure, it's easier once you have it built to a certain level, but there's a reason there's more than one car dealership in every city you go to.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Yeah, good. Very good.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
And so when we talk to people about these groups, so we spent the last year hashing it out for hundreds of hours. Why is Marissa so good at creating connections through these Facebook groups and how does that generate business? Because we're like, this is good. You can teach people how to do this, and they can be, I know it's like a broken record, but they can be the best version of themselves on social media, create real value for people and communities, and then because they're creating that value, that value is going to come back to them in their business. And so we really break it down in lots of ways because like you said, people have these objections of like, well, there's already a group with 20,000 people. How am I going to add anything to that conversation? I started my group, who do I invite?

(28:17):
Okay, I have a group, I've named it. What do I post? How do I not sound like an idiot on social media? And these are real fears that we've spent a lot of time addressing. And I'll say, go to real estate for introverts. We answer a lot of these questions very specific, and it's like, wait, how does this work? But it's something I truly believe in, and it's what make me light up, because people can bring their real selves to the table. They can really bring what they, it's cheesy or whatever, but they can what they have to offer the world, whether it's as somebody who was in the military, somebody who's a mom, somebody who really cares about the school system, somebody who loves their dog, whoever you are as a person, if you're able to just put yourself out there and contribute to a community in a real way, you have so much to offer the world. And what Marissa does is she has figured out how to do that in these Facebook groups. And so I'll evangelize for that all day because you see how the difference between who a real estate agent is as a person, and when they try to grow their business, it's tough. It's tough to watch. So we want to see them be real people first.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Really good, by the way, I love that you knocked both of those down. They're like, now I feel like there were assumptions on my part that are just foolish, but they're also common because you're running into them all the time. And I agree. I think what you turned on for me was this idea of yeah, people like to go to lots of different parties and they all feel different. And it's based on who's hosting them and the tone that they set and who they are and their personality. And to your point, I am viewing this city through the lens of being a mom, a dog owner, a former military, whatever your characteristics are. That's how I'm viewing this city. And we all have different friends who prefer different types of restaurants or different parts of town or whatever. And so you're just throwing a different party in the same town and people can go to multiple parties or just your party. They like your party best.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
That's right. No, I love that. That's a great analogy. And I don't mean to knock anybody down. I myself was the first disbeliever of social media sucks. I don't want to be on social media. I don't want to post. That's a bunch

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Of, I show that to myself daily.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Exactly. It's like, ugh, gross is my basic reaction to Facebook specifically. But once I got in the trenches with Marissa and we really hashed out what it was, and I started my own group, I was like, whoa, there's a different part of me that's lighting up right now. And I was like, okay, if I can become a believer in what this is, then this is something good to share with other people.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
If you can sell the best skeptic and answer all of her questions, then you're in good shape.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
Exactly. Exactly. And so she did that, I'm convinced. And so I think it's a really powerful tool for people who want to be the best version of themselves and grow their business at the same time. Now that being said, how do you track it on Facebook? So you're in the tech world, I know you have a lot of people who listen who are pretty deep, and then also people who are not deep at all.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Totally.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
So for those who are pretty deep, the struggle for tracking things via Facebook. And so for many years basically we just had to say that these groups were the CRM, they were the line of communication. And what's really cool is it just cycles up appropriately. It keeps those touches. So you don't have to set a drip, you don't have to follow up with once every six months with some fake thing. It's like Marissa's just posting in there and being herself and providing value, and it will hit your base over time. And you get those texts or dms out of nowhere that they think they know Marissa, they think they're best friends, and she's like, okay, I don't really know you. And that creates a connection in a way that's really hard to get through email or even that texting. So it was a facto CRM that offered a lot of value. And so we're learning how to combine those two worlds of just natural relationship building, providing value, and then just getting what you can and also learning how to help people who want that extra step, that extra follow up. But yeah, we're working on it.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Okay, so before we hit record, I was chatting with Marissa and she was a late comer to the benefits of running on A CRM. So I would love for you to share that story of, and this is not just a follow up boss plug, but it's running this business. It's successful enough that I need to plug someone in for my husband. We need to bring additional agents alongside us. We should be building a referral network. You've got all this stuff going on and you got to a point where at some point the conversation came up of like, are we going to implement a CRM when we feel like these groups function a bit that way I have access to everybody there. I can see my communication with everybody there. I can search for particular people. Why would I need that? So when did that conversation come up? How did it come up? How did you vet the different potentials and solutions? What were you looking for and how did you settle in?

Speaker 3 (33:46):
I was not a believer until we actually had it. I was just like basically do what you want to do dubs. I know you think that we need something to organize our systems. I'm fine. So I essentially put Debs in charge of just figuring out something that would organize the team. And Debs, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
Sure. So first of all, thank you for the trust. It is fun to just get to be like, okay, I think this is really helpful. Can we do it? She's like, yeah, go ahead, do it For me, I've always been really into systems checklists, whether it's in coaching, it's like you got the game day checklist, you got travel checklist, and that's how things don't get missed. It's like you make sure you have your list. So since I've been a tc, I've switched from spreadsheets very quickly to open to close, which is a great software for transaction automations. And the reason I chose them was because of the ability to automate the templates and specifically the smart blocks based on the conditions. Because I don't like fake, I don't interactions that dehumanize people. And so what OTC allows is you to do that from a limited point of view of we're in a transaction, here are the factors.

(35:01):
We can implement this with a little tweaking with each person. Now what happened for me and why I really pushed actually moving to A CRM for the agents and moving them into a system was I saw where AI is going. We had an agent who's really good friend of the team who showed me some of the voice calling stuff. And I've been kind of following it and I was like, oh, this is almost there. We are almost there with AI and agents and them being able to answer apply and problem solve and just can't deny the amount of leverage. If you can plug in a smart AI agent who then has access to your database and your agents have access through that same database and you can basically link everything in a spider web with this smart agent, the amount of leverage is just undeniable. And so that's what I saw and that was why I really pushed it with Marissa. And to her credit, she said, hell yeah, let's do it. Let's see what you can do. And so that was what October?

Speaker 3 (36:14):
That was October and then it was kind of going in December, right?

Speaker 4 (36:18):
Yep, yep. We got everybody moved over in December. Still lots of holes to plug and all that, but we've officially moved everybody to their follow-up boss number. They're putting people in, they're using it. And that's what is really cool about Boss Plus the AI is it actually is useful for the agents. It's like if it's going to be useful, they'll use it. If it's just for tracking, they're not going to use it. It is like, okay, I'll pay my penance and go put in my stuff. But if it's like, oh, you mean it just automatically fills out this form for me, great, it's going to automatically just tell me when to text them. That's nice. And so they've really bought in with Marissa being the number one person who's bought in, even though she was chief skeptic. She's like, whoa, this is

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Cool. I'm telling you. Okay. So I was at, do you know Ninja selling with Larry Kendall?

(37:13):
Okay, love Larry Kendall. And so I was up in Fort Collins and I was still not a believer. We had this system for a month and I was kind of going in there but not adding anybody. And so I was in this class and I was going to be in this class for four days, and so I didn't have time to sit and message people back that were messaging me about home buying. And so I'm like, okay, I'm just going to add them to the database, whatever. And I realized I added 10 people in those four days, people that had reached out to me and I still kind of wasn't a believer. But then when I got back home, I started to look through them and I'm like, oh my gosh, I would've forgotten about these people had I not put them in the system.

(37:59):
So tracking, that's number one because up until this point, I literally thought that I was some kind of a genius mastermind who has figured out how to keep track of all of, I'm not joking how to keep track of all of my clients. And I thought that I was so on the ball. I'm like, you guys, I know what I'm doing here. I do not drop anybody. I don't know how many times I've told that to Doves. I don't drop people, I do not forget them. Apparently I do. I would've forgotten eight of those 10 that I had put in my database and a couple of them did have to follow up with me. But now that I have them all in my system and it's tracking my texts, it's tracking our conversations and then coming up with a summary on what we talked about.

(38:41):
So I remember the first time I made a call using Follow-Up Boss, I was in there typing notes and I'm like, oh, what are the names of your kids and putting it in there? When are you going to be here? And then we got off the call and it said the same thing that I had written down all in notes and I was like, why have I not been using this for the last five years? And I'm so client focused that I feel like I've robbed my clients of something by not using this because I would've been so much better about just really remembering what their kids' names were and their dogs and all the things that they want to tell me because they do, they share everything and I forget it because I have not been using a system. So from that moment on, I was an absolute believer and I am now the number one agent on the team who uses it. I'm waiting for everybody else to really jump on board and buy in, but I know that there's going to be a moment where it clicks and they're going to say, wow, this is for the clients, it's for me, but it's also for them.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
I love that you were the first one to have that massive discovery, but I want to plus up the idea of using the phone and text number because so much of what the AI is doing in part is summarizing the communication at some point you've been communicating with someone for years, and if you scroll that screen of all the back and forth communication, AI is summarizing all that. Now it's turning it into suggested tasks specific like topical summaries. There's so many directions that this is going to go that, I mean the vision for it just in general is more consistency and more efficiency. And I hear a little bit of that in your kind of turn on to the idea of it, Marissa, which is I thought I was completely consistent, but it turns out that I was still missing some things. The efficiency of just knowing who people are like with, here's a quick snapshot to remind you of what you've been talking about for the past 13 months since you haven't transacted yet or in the past two years since you last transacted or whatever.

(40:49):
I want to go a little bit to the referral piece. I think that's also really interesting for people, just some of the logistics behind it. I mean, you already mentioned we can set up these groups and then when they have enough momentum, I will personally fly out and find an agent. I mean, that's another logistical thing to close. Who makes the list of agents in that community that you'd be open to considering and how do you vet them? But whatever level of detail you want to start with, including, here's another direction that you could go if you wanted to, is where does this fit with your core business? Is this something where you put on this other hat of now I'm focused on these or because it's like a similar essentially lead generation mechanism or tactic or strategy or all of those things. I think about them all equally, and some of them is business for our agents, and some of it just happens to be business for our network of agents. So walk into the logistics of the referral network at whatever depth you're comfortable with.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Well, why don't we use North Carolina as our example dubs? So I have a group out of North Carolina, it's one of the first groups that I've ever created outside of the groups that we have here and dubs and I too, no, early last year, early last year, last January, we flew out there to go interview agents. I compiled the list. We had somebody that we were already loosely using in that area because I was already getting referrals out of that group and just sending them to her. But no one was in the groups yet. One of the agents that I was interviewing was actually one of my clients here. I had sold her house and she moved to North Carolina and she told me that she was just thinking about getting her license. And so I'm like, well, I guess I'll interview you two. You're brand new, but we'll see what happens.

(42:37):
And so we had interviewed three or four agents, and Vanessa is the agent that we chose, the former client of mine. And in since then, she's closed 22 deals and has six more in the pipeline right now out of that group. So she killed it. And this girl, well woman, she's just like dubs and I, she's very, very introverted, but can really be herself and lead with that value in this group. She can completely understands the no sales tactic of no, I'm here to serve. She's former military. So I think she understands that point and she gets in those groups and she serves. Now the logistics side, I really leave that to dubs because if I was in charge of the referral piece, well, we did put me in charge of the referral piece for a little bit. It was kind of a nightmare, nightmare. I was like, I dunno who has what? I think we're closing two or three referrals this month. I'm not really sure. I'm just leaving it to the agents to let me know when they have a deal from the group. And then Dubs was like, I think we could do this better. And so I gave it to her. Go ahead, dubs.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
So we've only been going full tilt on referral network for a year where we're like, okay, we're going to work these groups, we're going to try to find people. Like she said, our first person was last March I think. And so it's just a lot of that in the moment. How can we make this better? So from my end, I was like, okay, what can I automate? What can I tie in with APIs? What can I solve? And quick, because 350 referral agreements with what? 40, 60 different? No, I think we have 72 different agents that we've sent referrals to. Not all of them are our partners or in the groups, but that's a lot of work. And anybody who does admin stuff, it's like, oh my god, this is so repetitive. This is so dumb. I just spent two hours trying to put in this same information.

(44:42):
Again, a big piece was solving that, which we do through both open to close and we use Airtable as our backend, which is great for automation and then some low-code tools as well. But shout out to our CFO, Courtney and MEA has just compiled great team and we've just worked as we can. Okay, what do we need to do to talk to our agents who are in the groups? What do we need to do to follow up on different referrals? When are we going to send that referral agreement? How are we going to communicate that? When are we going to get their brokers information? When are we going to sign an agreement and kind of working through all that, how is that actually going to execute on the backend? And again, Marissa's like find good people and they'll create good work. And so we just kind of followed that directive and tried to execute it.

(45:32):
How does that look at this location? And it's been an adventure because as much as we try, not everybody we hire has been the best and there's a lot of trust that's involved when you hand over a group or you bring somebody in. And so it's really nice that I'm in the weeds with the agents because I'm sure you feel the same way. It's like how you treat anybody is how you'll treat everybody. I watch how they email Marissa, I see that. And then if they start emailing me differently, my ears perk up because I'm like, okay, let's see if you're going to have integrity and just act with integrity with these clients that we're trusting with this strategy. Or are you just using it to make money? From the logistics side, it's just honestly building out the pipelines, building out a lot of automation, learning from our mistakes because it is a people business. We want to put good people in the groups who have good intentions to actually provide value. And some of 'em it's just not for them. And some of them are all in and great. And so we have some real superstars like Vanessa who was kind of unsuspecting at first

(46:47):
And not sure, and she has just done really well, especially for a new agent and her clients love her and now those people she's pulled from the group are going to be her clients for life. And so we're happy to help facilitate that and kind of hands-on help people with that strategy.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Really good. I have a ton of additional questions, but we're kind of getting on toward the end of our time. I wanted to do a quick drive by, you already mentioned real estate for introverts. I also am an introvert. I can go to a social event and I enjoy it very much, but if there's an option to cut out two hours early, I will do that. I'll pull out of the social event in order to recharge myself. So introversion can look a lot of different ways, which I know you already know, but what was the spirit for starting that? How's it going? What do you love about it?

Speaker 3 (47:35):
So I started that group. It was I think almost two years ago I was getting all of these questions from agents across the country. Somebody would post a question on a mastermind group or something along those lines about finding clients like, oh, I'm a new agent. How am I supposed to find clients? And I'm like, if you don't have money, that's fine. I started my entire business on not using a single dime of my money. I just used a lot of time pouring into a social media group and then it did lead to something. And so I would speak on that and then from that one comment would end up getting flooded with direct messages. And I have a servant heart, so I want to respond and I want to help people, but I was also a very, very busy agent who is running a very, very busy team and I have four kids and I have a house.

(48:25):
And I mean we don't have that kind of time. So I remember I am so good at creating groups now that when I create one, I get in there, get it done, start posting, I don't even think about it. I was so nervous to start real estate for introverts because in my current groups, I'm the only realtor in there. And so I am the subject matter expert on all things real estate. And it was paralyzing putting myself in front of other agents who maybe did a lot more business than me, had been in the business longer than me at this point, I'd only been in the business for three years, and here I am acting like I'm some kind of an expert when I really don't know what I'm doing. I am just working as hard as possible. To not have to put myself into social situations is basically the driving force behind everything that I do.

(49:19):
I don't want to door knock, I don't want to cold call. I don't want to put myself in social situations. So I do everything that I can to find clients this way. So I started this group, I created it in July, but didn't actually post in it for a couple months, and then I started to post in it. And then when somebody would ask a question on a mastermind group, I just say, Hey, join me here. I talk about this. And then that group took off quickly. I think I had over a thousand people in that group within a couple months. Now we're almost at 15,000 people. Then those people wanted a class and so then enter dubs. I went to her of course, which is what I do for pretty much everything and I'm like, okay, you're an introvert too. You've got this, you've seen me build it and you're a coach, so now let's teach people how to do it.

(50:04):
So that has really been on our heart the last year to build this instruction course with Real estate for introverts. We kind of did a test run with YouTube with a podcast and teaching people how to build social media groups that way. We talk about how to build social media groups and build connections within the Facebook group. And every once in a while on a Monday we'll do a mastermind for 30 minutes and talk about different strategies that people can use to strengthen relationships and lead with that relationship in value versus sales. That's real estate for introverts. It's going to be two years old this August, and it's definitely our little baby. It's really grown and turned into something magical.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
It doesn't surprise me that when you start commenting in other real estate groups that there's this group for introverts where we address some of your common questions that it would take off because we're everywhere. Just like any other kind of characteristic we want to identify about someone like we're everywhere. This has been awesome. I appreciate you so much. I love the partnership that you've created together. I love this kind of like you take it from here or I know how I can make this better. Just really appreciate you a both joining me for this. I really like having a visionary and integrator together. We've only done it a handful of times on the show, but before I let you go, I've got three pairs of closing questions for expediency and cleanliness. I'll direct them. So dubs, what is your very favorite team to root for besides the collective or what is the best team you've ever been a member of besides the collective?

Speaker 4 (51:42):
Okay. The answer is one and the same. Shout out to McNee State, my alma mater where I played ball. They're a lot better than they were when I was playing, but I got to be part of a really cool transition there and have really made some lifetime friends and some teammates felt really special. And it was always about more than softball, but still if I see them on tv, I'm like, Nope, this is what I got to do. This is what I got to do.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Setting everything else down for a couple of hours.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
That's right. That's right.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Love it. Marissa, what is one of your most frivolous purchases or what's a cheapskate habit that you hold onto even though you probably don't need to?

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Oh, Deb's knows. I don't have cheapskate habits. Frivolous purchase. Oh my gosh. I will spend so much money on trips. I love to take my family on trips. It's what I did growing up. My dad was military, and so we'd jump on an Air Force flight to the Caribbean or jump on an Air Force flight to California. He just was always taking us on these adventures and the fact that I make the money where I can take them on great trips. Like we went to Italy last year. That's the most expensive trip I've ever taken my family on. All six of us in Italy over Christmas. It was magical, but that's probably where I splurge and I don't have any cheapskate hacks.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Love it. Dubs, what are you doing when you are resting, relaxing, and recharging? Or what are you doing when you're learning, growing and developing

Speaker 4 (53:17):
One and the same? Honestly, I am a learner. I love to read and absorb information. So I'm either on YouTube watching some talk or some new technology thing or I'm reading. I have a stack of books here. So my background before I was coaching is in philosophy, specifically apologetics. So I just love thinking about life and people and really getting into the why of things.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Love it. I love the human approach, but you're such a systems oriented person. At the same time,

Speaker 4 (53:47):
I'm an enigma.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
You all are a power combo. If anyone wants to follow up on this, they want to learn more about anything that we talked about. Marissa, where are some good places for people to connect with you?

Speaker 3 (53:57):
Probably our real estate for Introverts group is the number one spot. Or you can, what's her email address? Don't

Speaker 4 (54:03):
Email her. Oh my God. Don't DM her on Facebook. Get on Facebook. She's Marissa Lindsay, L-I-N-D-S-A-Y, not EY, so a y. Find her on Facebook. I'm dubs on Facebook. DUBS. But yeah, don't email Marissa. I don't do that. So

Speaker 1 (54:24):
Good. Okay, well that stuff is linked up right down below. Appreciate you both. Hope you have a great rest of your day.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
Bye. Thank you. Thanks Ethan.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Thanks for checking out this episode of Team Os. Get quick insights all the time by checking out real estate team Os on Instagram and on TikTok.