← Massive Agent Podcast
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- [00:00]
Dustin Brome
If you actually want to grow on Instagram in 2025 and get clients from it, then you need to stop doing what was working in 2022. This week, I'm joined by real estate content coach Tessa Bella Jelten, who's going to break down the ultimate 2025 Instagram strategy that every agent can follow. You're going to walk away from this episode knowing exactly what to do on a daily basis and how many times to post per week, how to do it consistently. This is the episode you've been waiting for to actually start getting business from social. The Massive Agent po. We lead generation tips and strategies to get you more leads and sell more homes. I love to buy houses. I like to sell houses. It takes brass balls to sell real estate.
- [00:43]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Wait a minute.
- [00:44]
Dustin Brome
The leads are weak.
- [00:46]
Tessa Bella Jelten
You're weak.
- [00:47]
Dustin Brome
I've had better.
- [00:49]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Oh, have I got your attention now?
- [00:52]
Dustin Brome
Here's your host, Dustin Brome. What's up, guys? Welcome to episode 382 of the Massive Agent podcast. I'm your host, Dustin Brome here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Today we have Tessa Bella Jelton on the show. She's going to break down what is working today in 2025 for real estate agents to get actual business. We're going to talk about how your followers and your view count and those vanity metrics from years prior are less important now than ever before. And we'll explain why. We'll talk about some tools specifically you can use to track what's actually working and how to know what's working so you can do more of it. But this is a great breakdown from Tessa Bella into what is getting, what's working on social to get actual business, not just to have your videos perform well, but to get actual business, which is the whole point, I think you'd probably agree. Would you rather have ten thousand, a hundred thousand followers, or would you rather have ten deals a month? Obviously, you'd rather have ten deals a month. If not, you're absolutely insane. So we're going to show you how to do that today. And she really brings the heat with a ton of great information and tactics from for you. And there's some tweaks you're going to have to make. Just letting you know there's some tweaks you're going to have to make because what worked before does not necessarily work now, but it's a good thing you know about it. So let's jump into the interview right now with Tessa Bella Jelton. Let's go. What's up, guys? I'm here with Tessabella Jelton. We're talking Instagram strategy, not what worked four years ago. What is working today in 2025. So Tessa Bella has done a hell of a job on Instagram, and she's helping a ton of agents do a great job and get actual business on Instagram. Welcome to the Massive Agent podcast. How's it going?
- [02:33]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Going great. I'm so excited to be here. Only a couple years in the making. You know, I finally booked my. Finally booked my spot.
- [02:41]
Dustin Brome
Well, I appreciate you being here. You know, from afar, I've been watching what you've been doing. You do a great job personally, and I know that you help a ton of agents to, you know, better brand themselves, build up their. Their social media presence, not just to get followers, but to get business. So let's open this thing up in 2025. What should a real estate agent be doing on Instagram to grow and get business?
- [03:07]
Tessa Bella Jelten
I think, in short, the easiest way to put this is to knock the digital dust off and start posting without so much of a marriage to the vanity metrics. And I think a lot of people probably heard that before. But specifically looking at what your true goals are, what is a measurable, like result that we can look for, whether it's new people on an email list, more clients, new leads, new conversations, versus just chasing the views or the new followers, because that doesn't always translate into something that we actually want.
- [03:39]
Dustin Brome
I love. Okay, this is. This excites me. I agree. I know Gary Vee has been going on this tear about this too, and I've seen a ton of big content creators talking about this concept that the algorithms are now so smart that, like, you don't need followers if you put out great stuff. The algorithms are so smart and powerful, they will find the right people. But your numbers may be a little bit lower. Like you may not get as many followers or views or whatever, but that doesn't mean it's not working. So talk more about this concept that, you know, followers and views are not what we should be tracking, at least as the top priority.
- [04:17]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah, I mean, the views definitely contribute to how many people are seeing the video. Right. So in some matters, we have to take into consideration the actual views, but followers, it really is so true. That used to be the ultimate, like, echelon of what you're chasing is more followers, more followers. First it was the 10k so you can get a swipe up, and then it was like you're trying to chase 100k and it's. It's always kind of chasing after this number of followers. So much so that a lot of people ended up purchasing followers or using kind of these different strategies to hit these benchmarks. Because, you know, in some ways it is true that if I have my content that I'm sharing on a profile with 50,000 followers, or somebody sharing that exact same content on a profile with 500 followers, that the natural assumption of a human is that this person with 50,000 has some more credibility and is a little bit more qualified to talk about it. Whether that's true or not, that tends to be the perception of people. And so I think that was pushed really heavily for a while, and people are constantly chasing that. But now with reels and with the way the algorithm works on Instagram, like, you can be seeing things of people you don't follow and people that you've never engaged with just because those reels are starting to gain more traction. And so it is kind of funny. People who spent a lot of money or put a ton of time and effort into growing their follower count is sort of doesn't matter to them anymore. Now it's really about creating good content that meets people where they are, which is something I say all the time, and then kind of guides them through a journey, whether that's to entertain them or to talk about real estate or to talk. Just bring them along the path that you're ultimately trying to take them down.
- [05:52]
Dustin Brome
I want to take this in a few different directions because, so first off, you called me out there, and people that have followed me for a while know that I bought followers back in the day, like 2,500 to get over the 10,000 mark so I could get the swipe up in stories. And it completely crushed my account. Like, it destroyed me. It was not good. I had to completely start my Instagram over from scratch. This is probably three or four years ago now.
- [06:15]
Tessa Bella Jelten
I actually remember this because I messaged you and I said, hey, are you doing this, like, as a social experiment or what's. What's the deal? Why did you start a new one? So I do remember that.
- [06:24]
Dustin Brome
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I wish it was just, like, out of curiosity, as a social experiment, but no, I. I was chasing that stupid number because I wanted the functionality in with the Swipe Up. And, you know, I. Back then, I had too much of my ego tied up in follower count, if I'm being honest. And it crushed me. So I started over, and it was one of the best things I have ever done on social. I wish I would have done it before, but. And I'm going to. I know that there's people listening who are like, well, Tessa Bella, this is easy for you to say that followers don't matter that much anymore because you have 64,000 followers. What would you say to those people?
- [07:05]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Well, the first thing I would say is I started exactly where everyone else did. I started and especially when I first got licensed and was getting into traditional real estate sales. I think I had 1200 followers, maybe, which even still to some people may sound like a lot, but it really wasn't. And the majority of those people were people from high school in a different state. Like, it was things where that audience truly wasn't going to matter much. And so, yes, I have built a larger audience, but you can also still find people with less followers than me, significantly less followers who are getting more views on videos. And so I don't. I think back to kind of what we were talking about. The follower count is essentially, it kind of washed the slate for just about everybody and it sort of leveled the playing field. As if you can commit to creating good quality content. That doesn't necessarily mean your production style means good quality in terms of what you're talking about. And people find value in that or entertainment in that, that you can truly skyrocket past somebody with a lot more followers than you really quickly. The only other thing I would add to that is I just like I opened up this, this conversation today is I try to not care at all about that anymore because my goal is that I'm getting more people into my community, onto my email list that I'm having DMS with that I'm truly building relationships with for collaboration purposes. And so as much as, yeah, if I post something and it doesn't perform that well, that never feels good to our egos. Right. But. But if it's still, I have some of my content that, you know, looks like it has lower views or has lower, like, count overall, but it's added 400 people to my list or added, you know, 200 people to my network and things like that. I find a lot more value in that. So I try to focus on what truly matters to me versus just what feels good or what other people will think looks cool.
- [08:52]
Dustin Brome
Yes. And I think people need to look. Followers matter. But it's like 18th on the list. Yeah, it used to be near the top. It's now way down the list. But here's the thing. If you put out great stuff and it's consistent and it's like if you're thinking about who your audience is and then you create content for them, you will gain followers.
- [09:15]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah.
- [09:16]
Dustin Brome
But they will be the right followers.
- [09:18]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Which is so much more important a million times.
- [09:22]
Dustin Brome
Like, there's an agent I know who's constantly chasing views and getting a video to go viral. And so he's posting all this random stuff about random things in society. And I'm like, that's. That's literally the opposite. Have you seen. I'm curious what you have to say about this, but have you ever seen somebody who gets a viral video and the video is not in line with necessarily what they put out on a regular basis? If a video go viral and it crushes their account?
- [09:49]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yes. Yeah. No, I'm so glad you brought that up, because it is extremely true. I had. And it didn't matter too much because she doesn't use her Instagram for any business purposes. But a friend of mine, she's a mom in Texas, you know, she's got like five kids. She's just chilling. She posted this funny video as a reel, and I think she had like 800 followers. Doesn't really get many people to engage. I want to say she was even a private account, and she had just made her account public, posted this reel of her new kitten. It went 18 million views. Viral. I mean, like insanely viral. And as a result, she grew to almost 10,000 followers and has since dropped off completely because the only thing she ever posted was, like, once a month at one of her kids, football games or something. Like, people would follow just because they saw this viral video and they thought, oh, maybe this is an account that has that. And then they quickly realized that's not the case, and it kind of fell back off. And now she's like, I don't even know what to post because when I do, she posted something of her young son. She was having all these creepy comments, all these weird things. So I feel like that was a great example of. Of how viral does not always translate to the result that you're hoping for. I would personally choose slow, consistent growth with, like you said, the people that I actually want to follow me. I would choose that a hundred times over. One viral video that just spikes out of nowhere, but doesn't really correlate to what I'm actually trying to accomplish.
- [11:14]
Dustin Brome
Yeah, that viral video, if it. If it's not what you normally put out there, you're gaining all the wrong followers who are expecting something totally different. And once they realize they don't get it, the algorithm is going to notice, hey, this account's getting no engagement anymore. Like, nobody likes the content and then they just stop showing it.
- [11:33]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah.
- [11:34]
Dustin Brome
So it could be the kiss of death.
- [11:35]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah. I also do believe that Instagram, and they've spoken about it in a couple different ways, but I do believe they have many different ways that they're categorizing and classifying what the content is about. And so again, in that example, if you're only ever posting family, personal stuff, like your kids, and then you post something about even a cat, it goes super viral. Instagram is naturally going to be confused with now how to classify and who to put your content in front of. Because they're thinking, oh, well, you just got 18 million people that love this video, but this next video is about football. Like, it means it has no direct connection to what you previously shared. And I think that they're. Yeah, like, you'd have to really dig yourself back out of a hole after doing something like that.
- [12:15]
Dustin Brome
So how would you help an agent who's trying to figure out what they should be doing on a consistent basis, what they should be posting about, how often, all that stuff. Because you mentioned doing content that meets people where they are. How do you recommend people figure out what that is for them so that they can have a coherent strategy and be more consistent?
- [12:34]
Tessa Bella Jelten
I think there's sort of a combination, like a. What is it? A Venn diagram? A little bit is how I always visualize it. I think part of that is definitely looking at the people that you have helped or that you would like to help. I always find you can get some of the best data from what has happened. So looking back at who you have already worked with, that may not be your ideal vision for your real estate business at some point. But I'll tell you, when I started selling real estate, I was selling like the cheapest, most dirty get little houses. And I had dreams of being that luxury listing agent like many agents do. And that didn't correlate. But because I was able to set aside and see that that was a longer vision and focus in on. Here's where I am right now. Here's who I'm already speaking to. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I can get a result for these people. I understand them. I created content around that. And the reason that I believe that works so well is because the ultimate thing that you can achieve with your content, in my opinion, is somebody watching it and thinking, oh my gosh, they know exactly what I'm going through. There's actually a phrase that's commonly used in marketing and it says if you can explain their problem better than they can, they will automatically assume that you have the solution. So I think that's something that agents should hold on to dearly is if you can explain something which, let's just use the example of a first time buyer because that's very common and most of us all know that you can think about what are some of the challenges that somebody might feel, what are the fears that will come up, what are the concerns that they may have when they're going on this journey of starting to purchase their first property. And so then creating content that like I said, meets them where they are, is going to have this impression of wow, she knows, or he knows exactly what I'm feeling. That's definitely the person that can solve this problem and help guide me through it. And so I think back to my kind of Venn diagram example. You've got that section which is either people you have helped or people who are in your direct network. And then you've got kind of this other angle which is where you would like to be. So whether that's investments, luxury, maybe you don't know yet, maybe it's a specific neighborhood and there's sort of a sweet spot in the middle there where you can start connecting with people who have these goals, these aspirations. And I think that is where you should start with outlining what kind of content to share is. Think about the person who's actually going to be consuming it and how you can communicate that you know what they're going through.
- [14:54]
Dustin Brome
I love that. So I'm walking myself, as you're explaining that, I'm walking myself through that, that Venn diagram and I'm thinking like first time home buyers, which is where most agents start. It's the low hanging fruit, right? First time home buyers. And then there's luxury on one side and what's in the middle is the people who bought their first house and want to get into luxury. So if you can teach people how to get into luxury real estate in a more affordable way, for example, I mean, or, or tips on, you know, how to, I'm not saying you should do this, but like how to make more money, how to, you know what I mean? That's where that overlap can happen. And I think that's a great way to figure out the sweet spot of content. Figuring out who you're talking to and then create for them a hundred percent is the key. So, so what else is working in 2025 on Instagram, like, what else are you teaching agents and where are you seeing them getting results?
- [15:49]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Well, another thing that works extremely well, and I believe it has for the last couple of years, but it changed even More so in 2025, is of course, that localized content. And I know there's a lot of pushback at times from agents because they're like, why didn't. I didn't get into real estate to be like an influencer and talk or a tour guide, you know. And so I get some of that resistance at times and I understand it. But the way that I love to look at sharing highlights of local content is twofold. Number one, it gives you the opportunity to also display who you are, what you're interested in, and a little bit about yourself without it just being the post. It's like, hey, here's three things you didn't know about me. You know, that works too. But instead, if you're choosing this time to highlight, maybe like, let's just do a workout classes and like ways to get active. In Scottsdale, Arizona, which is where I'm based, I could use that and create almost like a series with my content. And subliminally, I'm also communicating that that's something I'm interested in. And so I'm able to really pull together this content that's not just business or personal. It now becomes this marriage of that content. And I believe that's where true magic happens because people want to see you actually experiencing it and why you actually care about it. But then it's also educating them in the same way without it being so like, hey, I'm educating you right now. I'm telling you these three things that you should try or that you should do. I think that that's really what's working extremely well now. So more than ever, and the reality is, you know, very few people are getting onto social media to they're not getting on to scroll and find three tips for buying a house in 2025. You know, they're getting on there usually to maybe find local things to do, maybe engage with something funny, maybe engage with something that's on trend, learn something about their local area. You know, so trying to find ways to take the real estate angle, but incorporate it back with the things that someone's actually going on to social media with an intention to consume.
- [17:45]
Dustin Brome
I love that. So who comes to mind? There's this agent here in my market in Utah, Mia. I apologize, I forget your last name, but Mia does. She's a she's a new mom and she does. You know who I'm talking about. She was just featured on incredible content. Like, she's a new mom. And so, like, that's her frame of reference right now. Like, that's her whole world. So she approaches real estate from the mind of a new mom and the struggles and like all of that. And it makes it so damn relatable and interesting. And I know that it's working for her very, very well because she's merged the two. And it reminds me of Ed Mylett's concept that. That you are most qualified to help the person you used to be or the person you are.
- [18:27]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yes.
- [18:28]
Dustin Brome
You know, and doesn't that make it so much easier rather than like, hey, I'm going to help these luxury people. But, like, I live in an apartment.
- [18:35]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah.
- [18:35]
Dustin Brome
And I'm not a luxury person myself. Isn't so much easier just like, hey, here's who I am. Let me help others like me.
- [18:42]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah. I think that's also how you avoid any of the sort of imposter syndrome that a lot of people do deal with on social media is if you're not trying to step out and talk from this frame of reference that you don't actually know anything about. There's really. You defeat that feeling of any sort of imposter syndrome. And you also. I kind of complimentary of that phrase you just shared. There is you only need to be 10% ahead of somebody to be 100% of service to them. I've always loved that because it is true. Like, I think and I've never seen somebody do this, but I would love to see this. So if there is an agent watching and this is your situation, I feel like this would just crush on social media is. Let's just say you're the kind of agent who has not yet purchased a property yourself, which we know there's a lot of them. The majority of agents have not purchased real estate before. If you started like sharing your own journey of working towards purchasing a property and documenting that from your angle, I think that would just be so incredible because there's an element of transparency and just being really raw and authentic and talking about it while also educating people who are watching it on what it takes to purchase their first property. And so instead of trying to hide behind the fact that you haven't, I would say display it and use that as a really cool content strategy. And I just think that would take off.
- [20:00]
Dustin Brome
I agree. That's. Yes, that's brilliant. And I know because I've I've been that agent before. The I know why agents don't do it is they think, well, no one's going to hire me if they know that I haven't gone through the process myself. Sure. Like, there's probably a few people who won't. But think of like the dozens and dozens and dozens who that would appeal to. They're like, wait, this is actually really cool. This is real, it's authentic. They're honest and they're going through this right now and I'm learning from it and they're going to connect with you personally through it. Like, there's no reason not to do that. Yeah, I think that's brilliant. Like, please, if you're watching, do that.
- [20:36]
Tessa Bella Jelten
I think it would be really cool.
- [20:38]
Dustin Brome
Yes. And real quick, it's Mia, Willie. Mia Willie. Mamma Mia, underscore Realtor. I'll link to that in the show notes. That's her Instagram. Mamma mia, underscore Realtor is doing a great job of doing what we're talking about. So Tessa Bella, what else, what else are you seeing working right now on Instagram or what are you seeing people screw up?
- [20:59]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Well, good question. Okay, so first, what I'm seeing working, I'm going to go more content style type because obviously I think everyone talks about reels at this point. We definitely understand that reels are important. They're really powerful, they're an incredible tool. I don't think you should choose one or the other. But I do also want to highlight how powerful carousel posts can be. I personally love them and what I've noticed be so different in the Last probably like 9 to 12 months is that previously a carousel post I think was most often used for like a photo dump where somebody's sharing a new picture in every single slide. Now what I like to use this for is previously I've always loved sharing written content, longer form captions, these kind of things is I take essentially what I would put in my longer form caption and I'm putting that on each slide of this carousel. And so now somebody instead of just expanding the caption and reading a long caption, they're swiping each time and it's little bite sized, easy to read pieces. And now they're getting the full piece while sitting there and swiping through all 10 plus slides of what I just shared. And so there's a lot of ways to utilize that type of content to further like develop a relationship with the people who do follow you. And I find that content to Be really fun to consume. Like, I always try to put myself in the frame of as a consumer, what am I liking to see? What do I like to find myself scrolling and stumbling across? Like what captures my attention? I try to pay attention to that and then bring that into my own strategy.
- [22:25]
Dustin Brome
Yes, I needed this reminder. It's so easy to just think real, real, real, short form, vertical, short form, vertical all the time. And when you switch it up, like first off, that's good for the algorithm, it's good for everything. I also enjoy consuming stuff like that when it's done the way that you just described. I mean, even, even the photo dumps, if it's a photo dump that I want to see. Yeah, I like that Instagram has that format. Doesn't it also like when you do a carousel, doesn't it also like give you two at bats or like it shows that content twice to the people who follow you?
- [23:01]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Because a lot of times the second time that it'll show it. The second time that it'll show it, it's going to start not on the first frame of that carousel, which I find really, really interesting for people who are consuming that. So yeah, it does push it out a bit more. It's less likely to get you in front of a ton of new followers or non followers, I should say. But that's again why I think it's really important to incorporate both into a strategy because reels do give you a higher likelihood of getting in front of the non followers. But then the carousels give you more opportunity to get in front of the people that do follow you and to deepen that relationship. So I find that to be really powerful to pair the two together. And I actually use something that I call, I call it my three by three strategy. I'm sure there's plenty of other people who do something similar, but I will take one concept, so one like content topic and I'll create three hooks for it and choose three different styles of content. So maybe one is a reel, one is a carousel and maybe one is a reel. But it's like B roll and I just put the text over it and it's a bit shorter and then I'll combine those and at the end of that I get nine different posts off of one post type and I incorporate that in my content over and over because I think the thing you can really do to stand out is set yourself apart as somebody who consistently talks about something. So to answer also what you had kind of said, what is a mistake? A lot of People are making, I think a big mistake is assuming that all of your followers are seeing everything you post because that is just absolutely never happening. And that's great because it gives us more opportunities to experiment and test with different styles and then see what somebody actually likes as a result of it.
- [24:43]
Dustin Brome
Well said. Yeah. So Neil Dhingrad talks about this all the time and he's spot on in the context of his big event, his forward event that he does in Vegas in July. He'll run into somebody like after he's been promoting his event for like eight months, and they'll be like, dude, like why didn't you tell me you had this event going on? He's like, what the are you talking about? Like, I've been posting about it 87 times a day and it's a great reminder that not everyone sees your stuff.
- [25:11]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah.
- [25:12]
Dustin Brome
And there's a lot of reasons for that. So great reminder. What I also heard, and I'm curious your thoughts, is it better to kind to pick one one niche and just nail it from a different angle over and over and over versus talking about a few different things so that you can just be known as like the person who's that versus a few things?
- [25:32]
Tessa Bella Jelten
That's a good question and sort of, I don't think there's a one size fits all answer to it because I find that having a niche and having something that you focus on more specifically will make your journey into content creation a lot easier because you don't have to think about branching out and incorporating all of these other things. However, because of a lot of what we're just talking about this whole time and talking about, you know, that it doesn't matter. Followers and reels can get you pushed out in front of people who've never seen your content before. You can experiment with a bunch of different things and see, you know, and kind of use that to build a very holistic brand, I would say. But I think the best way to approach this is give yourself. And I love to work on kind of like timeline sprints. So I would choose 90 days and over those 90 days maybe choose a couple of different topics ideally that are sort of complimentary of each other, but it's okay if they're not entirely and create a bunch of content that hyper focuses on those couple of different topics. And then from there, at the end of your 90 days, pay attention to what performs best. I always say, you know, like the audience. Just like in real estate, the market dictates the price of a property and what it will actually sell for. Right. We can give our best guesses, we can try to spruce it up a little bit, but ultimately the market dictates that. The same thing is true with your content. Your audience is going to dictate what works and what doesn't. And you can definitely try and throw other stuff out there and test other things, but ultimately they're going to tell you based on what they engage with or don't engage with what works. And so I think paying more attention to that, looking at the data and using that to drive your future content is a really smart way to do it.
- [27:08]
Dustin Brome
I like that a lot, and I'm glad that you said what they engage with, not just what did better with views. I remember when I first deleted my Instagram and started over within the first 24 hours, I told people I was deleting my account. So I had a few hundred follow over to the new one. And I remember my engagement rate and how many story replies and messages I got on the new account with, like a few hundred people was so dramatically more like it would. It blew my mind. I was like, holy, my engagement is through the roof with a few hundred people. Where, you know, 12,000 supposedly, or what was it, 15,000 is when I deleted, really taught me that engagement is where it's at. You know, views only tell one little teeny part of the story. And I think agents know what's working. Like, you know, when you put out a piece of content, you start getting messages and you start getting replies, and people like, you know that that's working for you. So, like, do more of it.
- [28:11]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah, well, not a hard concept on a small scale, too. Like, it doesn't always have to be that you got 50 people that shared it or a hundred comments or like these big numbers. I pay attention to a post that got two saves when other ones got zero. That tells you something. Like, it can be a very small metric that'll give you a bit of insight into what's working and the engagement that you're getting on something. It doesn't always have to be this huge shift. It's like little adjustments. We pay attention to the little things and adjust 1% each time. A year from now, your content will look completely different and will be so much more engaged with and connected to the audience that you're trying to grow.
- [28:48]
Dustin Brome
Well, what would you say to the agents? And I know they're out there and I want to smack them, but they're like, well, look, I barely have enough time to do the content now. You're telling me that I need to dive into the analytics on a consistent basis. What would you say to them?
- [29:03]
Tessa Bella Jelten
I probably wouldn't talk to them. I'm just kidding. But really, I think that if you're even taking the time to do the content and you're not taking a little bit of extra time to look at the analytics and what's working, what's not, you're sort of wasting your breath on social media. And so taking that extra. And it doesn't take that long to look at some of these insights. I actually use a platform for my content that aggregates all of that so I don't even have to look at individual posts. I can go on and it'll show me data on like a larger scale that I like to look at. And so I glance at that at the end of every week, at the end of every month for five, 10, maybe 15 minutes. Then I'm looking and just paying attention to, hey, this worked well. This didn't work well. And I find that more motivating for showing up on social media because I know things are going to improve. If you're just posting just to post, not paying attention to what's working, you're sort of wasting your effort. And you would almost be better off not doing it at all if you're not going to actually pay attention to what works and what doesn't.
- [29:59]
Dustin Brome
Right. Because you, you could have stuff working and you have no idea if it's working. Like, how are you supposed to do that?
- [30:04]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Maybe you didn't like how it looked so you stopped doing it, but that was what was working. And now you're only doing the stuff that wasn't working, but you like it. And it's like your social media is not for you, it's for the people that you're trying to connect with.
- [30:15]
Dustin Brome
Yes, exactly. Right now I'm, I'm doing an experiment that I'm like two weeks into where I'm auditing other agents videos.
- [30:23]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yes.
- [30:24]
Dustin Brome
And I knew when I started it, I'm like, these are not going to be viral. Like, I'm not going to get big view counts on these. But these are going to be deeply impactful for those who follow me for advice like this, because I can break down what's good, what's bad about an agent's video and give tips and, and that's what I've seen. Like they're not big, they're not big view getters, but I get a ton of messages, I get a ton of messages from those more than any other type of content I do. So I'm like, well, I'm onto something. I should probably keep doing this. But it again, back to what started this conversation. I have to let go of those old vanity metrics that we were beat over the head with for years. Followers and views. Followers and views as like the end all, be all. So yeah, that type of content's been working for me. And I have to be okay with stuff not going viral. I don't expect 25,000 views on a agent video audit, but when I think.
- [31:20]
Tessa Bella Jelten
That that's something too, because I always love to look at things from different angles. Like, I've been noticing those posts of yours. I think they're great. I, for a little while did Instagram like profile audits. It was mostly just critiquing their bios and things like that, which honestly people loved. But it's just a lot. That's a lot of work that goes into that. So I give you credit for doing those because there's a lot that goes into those videos. But I will say I think that that's something an agent also listening to this could take that same style and instead you're pulling up properties. Like, I actually was just working with a client of mine. She's going to start doing these, I said, because she's trying to hit kind of the investor agent market. I said, pull up properties in your area and start doing them. Throw it up as a green screen behind you and not necessarily audit the listing, but say, hey, this is a good investment or not a good investment and why and break that down and start to sort of give yourself like, and again, I love this too because the general consumer doesn't really know the difference between something that's your listing or not. And so of course you're not getting on there and saying, hey, these are all my listings. But if they're just seeing you talking about properties and highlighting properties and deals of the week and listings of the week and assessing different investment opportunities, they're assuming you're doing a lot more business than you probably are. And as a result, that usually brings in even more business. So it's kind of like a win win across, across the board. And it's usually something you don't have to get out of your house to do. You can pop up a photo from the MLS or even Zillow behind you and start talking about a property and if it would make a good Airbnb or a good long term rental or good investment or, you know, great for a family and why and kind of breaking that stuff down, I think would be a great piece of content for an agent to do.
- [32:57]
Dustin Brome
That's a great example of how you can build your own credibility.
- [33:01]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yes.
- [33:02]
Dustin Brome
And this is great for people, for agents that have maybe moved to a new market and because I hear this all the time, hey, I, I'm moving my, you know, my husband just got a job and so we got to move across the country. I know nobody, but I've got to start my real estate career. Career over. What would I do? We'll do this, like, just start like building your own credibility by showing off your expertise, highlighting what's cool in the area. Like my buddy Rick Gonzalez just moved from Florida to Denver and he just started doing those videos before he even moved. He would just start highlighting what's cool in the Denver area and he start to, he built up his local brand there and I believe he's already getting business. So like that's the strategy if you're moving to a new market or you're new or you're just trying to establish yourself or go to the next level, like just do this.
- [33:47]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Or if you're trying to jump from. Yeah. From working with first time buyers to now you want to, like you said earlier, you know, work with people who are moving out of their first time property and moving into something that's a bit bigger and a bit more luxury or a bit higher end. And that's again, a great way to start introducing your audience to that. Because you didn't go from just talking about first time buyer tips to only showing $5 million properties on your, on your Instagram. You're kind of bringing them along the journey with you. And I think that's the key of all of it is like people want to be brought along. That's why reality TV only continues to get more and more popular, is because people like to feel like they're a part of the journey. They kind of like to watch behind the scenes and see what's cool and what's not cool. And I think if you can replicate that with social media, that's really where you start to stand out and build this like cult following, which is really powerful.
- [34:33]
Dustin Brome
Oh, well said. Well said. So in, in your community and in your network of agents that you help with social. What do you, what, where do you see agents fail? Like, like what, who are the agents that, what we're talking about doesn't work for?
- [34:53]
Tessa Bella Jelten
I think where I see a lot of people fail is, and I mean, this is not going to Come as any sort of surprise, but it's a lack of consistency. I sort of coined this phrase. I call them my roller coaster posters. So it's somebody who signs up for a course or they go to an event or they listen to a podcast like this or something. Gets them excited and they're like, okay, I'm doing it. This is my year. I'm going to be on social media, I'm going to post, I'm going to do consistent content. They get excited about it and they do it for a week or two and then they fall off because they didn't have a good strategy, they didn't plan things out ahead of time. They underestimated probably how much work really goes into it, and then they go silent for another couple weeks or a month or something like that. So it's this constant roller coaster. I find that that is the most detrimental thing you could do. And so what I consider to be consistent content is three posts a week for 90 days or more. That's what I classify as being consistent on social media. And when you look at it that way, that's really a small bite to take. That won't take you that long, especially if you set aside a little bit of time. It could be at your open house where it's slow and people aren't coming through. It could be extra time in your day. I know many agents, unless you are truly one of the absolute top producers in the world and even still have that extra time in their days and they're just not using it well, so set aside an hour and plan out even just your three posts for the week and you'll be miles ahead of other people. But even if you plan it for a month, that's 12 posts. That's quite simple. You guys have tools like ChatGPT that changes the game. I mean, it's so funny. I do. We still manage agent accounts, but there was a time years ago where I managed actually 400, up to 400 social media accounts for agents. And it's so funny because I was just talking about this the other day. I said, you know, the most impressive piece of that is that that was before ChatGPT ever existed. So that means we have 400 accounts that we're creating at least 20 posts a month for, and we are writing and designing every single piece of it. And now you guys have these tools at your fingertips to just completely change the game and really use that to be effective in such a short period of time.
- [37:04]
Dustin Brome
I use chat GPT constantly, like all day.
- [37:07]
Tessa Bella Jelten
If it's not loading for me for a day. I'm like, what do I do?
- [37:10]
Dustin Brome
I just switched to grok. Yeah. It's. It's so integral in what I do. And I still use it for post ideas like a memory jogger. Or like, hey, I want to do this concept. Give me some ideas of, like, how I could start it out as a hook. Or like, I use it to just get me further down the road. I. I don't think I've ever taken it word for word.
- [37:32]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah.
- [37:33]
Dustin Brome
But I'll take 90% of it and just reword some stuff and move it around. Like, I don't understand why more agents don't like Chad. GPT is the best assistant imaginable.
- [37:44]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yep.
- [37:45]
Dustin Brome
And it could write a hundred posts for you in 20 seconds.
- [37:50]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah. Even if you do just use them as ideas and frameworks.
- [37:53]
Dustin Brome
Yes.
- [37:53]
Tessa Bella Jelten
It's still going to give you such a leg up. Instead of just sitting there on a blank piece of paper trying to come up with what to post, you could have at least a direction somewhere that you're headed. And I am, I consider myself a very creative person. I'm still consistently surprised by how creative some of the ideas are and things that I wouldn't have otherwise thought about. And it gives me that competitive advantage. I just, last week I was talking about this on a training I did, and I actually was talking about. For the last six months, I've been training my own custom GPT. I call it Virtual Tessa Bella. But I took everything I've ever done. So I exported all of my content from Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, every podcast I've been on, every YouTube video. I also downloaded transcripts of some of the books of, like, marketers that I really enjoy, some of the videos that I watch and get a lot of value from. And I have uploaded all of this into a custom GPT so that now when I ask it for post ideas, it's even that much better because it speaks in almost exactly how I would speak. It talks about. It remembers the programs that I have, the links that I usually share. It has that already kind of baked into it. And so when I'm asking for ideas, it really is like 99% there. And I just need to put my own little spin on it and then put it out. And it takes me such a short amount of time in comparison to previous.
- [39:14]
Dustin Brome
I love that. Is that pretty easy to do? Like, I feel like I'm a very advanced basic chat GPT user, but when it comes to, like, using it to code other stuff and build it. Like that's where it goes over my head.
- [39:26]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah, no, it's super easy. And I actually have. Which I can share with you. I have this. I made a document that's like an interview form and basically it's all the questions that you would want your custom GPT to know about you to start improving on content and what I tell people, because it is pretty long to fill that out. I like to write, so I type all my stuff out, but I said if you don't want to do that, even jump on a zoom, just you and yourself record it and be talking through all of those answers and then use that to train it. So it's quite simple to do and it will just make a world of difference with what you're putting out.
- [39:59]
Dustin Brome
And you just do that within the Chat GPT platform itself, or do you need a separate platform?
- [40:03]
Tessa Bella Jelten
No, it's just right on ChatGPT, you go to, it says Explore GPTs and then you can click Create and you can make a totally custom one for anything, really. And honestly, if you haven't explored the custom GPTs too, not even just your own, but in that little Explore section, I mean, any of your favorite influencers, people, specific skill sets, you can find ones that other people have programmed and trained. So, for example, I just pulled one up recently because I'm trying to commit to getting back on YouTube. And I said it's specifically a YouTube thumbnail designer and script writer. And so it's trained on all of these things and you can oftentimes look at what they trained it on. And so now it's going to give me this information that's essentially that of a coach or somebody that's really skilled in that specific topic or area.
- [40:51]
Dustin Brome
I love it. And so at Real, I know you're. You're an agent at Real as well, we have our Leo Chat GPT AI assistant. It's being trained on literally every piece of content that Sharon has ever done so that you can ask IT marketing questions and it's going to respond as if it's Shiron. Like, so it sounds like that that's. You built your own version of that, but we're building it for the whole company. It's awesome.
- [41:16]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah, Leo's pretty incredible. But it just goes to show, there's so much that will continue to be available to us in regards to, like, AI and how much you can utilize that to elevate what you're doing. It's just gonna. I feel like a lot of people I know are still resistant to it. But you've got to just be open to using this to buy back your time and give yourself an advantage that other people don't yet have. Because if you're choosing not to, much like I talked about with the content, if you're choosing to not look at the analytics and see what's working, you, you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot. I believe the same is true with AI. If you're not using it, you're sort of just saying, hey, no, I'd rather take four hours to do this instead of doing it in 10 minutes. It's like an active choice at that point.
- [41:58]
Dustin Brome
I think that's the understatement of the century, to be honest. You're right. But that's such an understatement because you are also competing with agents who are using these tools. And if every single day more stuff comes out, more, more tools, more options, I can't keep up.
- [42:16]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah.
- [42:16]
Dustin Brome
And I'm pretty up on this stuff. And like I'm trying to keep up with like these new website builders and like all this stuff. I can't imagine if I hadn't even started using them yet on a regular basis. I, I. Okay, not to be hyperbolic, but no. If you don't use Chat GPT or Grok or one of the others all day, every day, you are going to screw your, you're going to kill your business.
- [42:46]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah.
- [42:47]
Dustin Brome
You just are because it's taking you way too long. You are at a competitive disadvantage compared to all the others who are using those things. I fired a doctor the other day because they don't and I now have one who does. Like, why wouldn't I want a doctor with the AI assistant with access to this giant brain?
- [43:06]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Mm.
- [43:07]
Dustin Brome
I got rid of a doctor.
- [43:09]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Not agree more. Yeah. And I think a lot of the reason, I mean, we could go on a whole tangent about AI. Just that because I love talking about it, but I do think a lot of times it's intimidating to people because it's this new thing. It can be very technologically advanced if you go too deep into things. But the reality is you don't have to use all of these other tools. You don't have to go too, too deep into it even just what we're talking about, using ChatGPT on a regular basis. Make it a habit to. When you go to Google something, instead of going to Google, go to ChatGPT and start just ingraining it in your day to day life. And you'll notice that you can become a lot more comfortable with it. And when new tools are introduced, you have more of a like, understanding of how you could use them. You don't have to, but you have a better understanding just by using it and incorporating it into your day to day routine.
- [43:58]
Dustin Brome
Well said. Yeah, we could do, we could talk for another hour on, on AI and maybe we'll have to do that sometime because it's. I really. Maybe I sound like a dick. Well, I think you're a total idiot if you don't use AI all day, every day. I, I don't know what you're doing with your life if you're not. Yeah, it's just, it's one of those things. It's like, would you not use a smartphone? Would you not use the Internet? It's the same thing.
- [44:23]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah, no, it truly is. And yeah, there's just so many ways to use it as an advantage in real estate. And the reality is, we talked about this a little bit too. You only have to be 10% ahead of other people to be 100% of service to them. In real estate, we're constantly striving to position ourselves as professionals and experts. So why would you not use a tool that you can actually go in and have it tell you all of the latest market data and insights and how that would impact a buyer or seller? Have it prepare that information for you and provide it to you basically on a silver platter so that you can be that expert in that professional to the people who are trusting you with the biggest transaction of their lives. I think you're doing a disservice to clients if you're not using that kind of stuff.
- [45:06]
Dustin Brome
Totally. And it even asks you at the end, like, would you like me to turn this into an email newsletter? Would you like me to turn this into an Instagram post? And you're like, well, yes, yes, I would actually.
- [45:16]
Tessa Bella Jelten
I would. Didn't even think about that.
- [45:18]
Dustin Brome
Absolutely. Okay. You mentioned something earlier. I've got a. For my own curiosity, you mentioned you use a platform or a tool for all of your analytics. Are you using like Metricool or something like that?
- [45:28]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah, that's actually exactly it. I couldn't be happier with a platform than I am with Metricool. And I've used just about everything under the sun, especially when it comes to social media. Of course. I love that you can like schedule out content. All that kind of stuff is great. But my main obsession with that platform is the insights and analytics.
- [45:47]
Dustin Brome
Yes.
- [45:48]
Tessa Bella Jelten
And you can put in, my favorite piece is at the bottom you can add your collab or competition. So anybody who, you like their content on social media, you want to create similar things. You like their style. Maybe it's in real estate or a different industry, you can add them in there and every single week or month you can look at stuff and it's going to pull and aggregate again the their top posts based on. And you can sort it through whatever. So I can pull up. Let's just use Sharon, because we already mentioned him. I could pull up Sharon, I could pull his latest and top content and base it off of like how many comments he got or how many saves he got or shares he got or whatever and sort it that way and use that as an inspiration tool for the content that then I create. And so I use that so, so heavily in strategy and I just find it to be the best fricking tool.
- [46:33]
Dustin Brome
I love that. And I'll make sure that I link to Metricool in the show Notes. Yes, but I use that as well. I don't use it to the extent you do, but I absolutely should. But the analytics are gold and I don't think people realize how, how little time it takes to just look at your analytics. It could be like 30 seconds, 90 seconds. And if you don't want to do all that, just open up Instagram, click on Insights and like sort your best performing posts over the last 90 days based on shares, based on saves. And then you're like, oh, that worked well. That worked well. What do they have in common? Let's do that again.
- [47:07]
Tessa Bella Jelten
Yeah, it's not a difficult thing. It doesn't take. You don't have to like put on your lab coat and your spectacle to be finding this information. It's like pretty readily available to look at in just a few seconds. And that can drive where you're headed with what you're sharing next to basically ensure that you're going to get better results than you did last time. It's almost a guarantee. It's as close to a guarantee on social media as I think you can find, is looking at previous data and using that to drive your future actions.
- [47:34]
Dustin Brome
I love it. No spectacles or lab coats required. That's good. Well, Tessa Bella, we could talk for another few hours. I'll have to have you back on the show. Thank you so much for, for being here. You do a ton of great content and coaching and training for agents. Where can they find you? What, what's the best place to find you and connect with you and, and just stay more in your world?
- [47:55]
Tessa Bella Jelten
I Mean, feeling very on brand for what we're talking about. The best place to connect with me is on Instagram. That's definitely my favorite place to connect with people. That's where I'm sharing a ton of content every day and sharing a lot of the resources that I have. And from there, I can invite you if you let me know that you came from this podcast even. I'd love to invite you into our free community if you're not there already, because that's a place you can get access to calls and trainings and connect with other agents and myself and my team.
- [48:20]
Dustin Brome
Awesome. I love it. I will link to your Instagram in the show notes as well. There's a lot of great links in the show notes, so make sure you guys all click into the show notes or on YouTube into the description. Of course. Tessa Bella, this has been awesome. I'll have to have you back again so we can dive deeper. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us.
- [48:38]
Tessa Bella Jelten
This has been great for having me. I will, of course, be happy to come back anytime. This is great.
- [48:42]
Dustin Brome
I love it. All right. We dropped a ton of links, a ton of references to links and everything in the. In the episode today. Make sure you go to our show notes. If you're listening to the pod or if you're watching on YouTube, go into the description and get the links for how to connect with Tessa Bella and how to find Mia and her stuff on Instagram and everything else we're doing. Incredible episode. Please take action on what you learned. Please take action on what you were inspired to do and the changes you were inspired to make, because this doesn't have to be so difficult. It does not have to be rocket science. But we naturally we overthink it when I say we, because I do it too, and I have to be reminded constantly to not overthink the shit. So hopefully this helped. If you found value in this episode, please share it with a friend. Share it with another agent in your office, an agent on your team. Share it with your team leader or your broker or just the interweb in general. And let me know what you liked about this episode. And make sure you go follow our guest, Tessa Bella and let her know if you found her through this episode. Let her know that you found her on the Massive Agent podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you guys back here next week with another great episode. Take care.