Beyond Lunch & Learns: How Top LOs Are Scaling Realtor Referrals with High-Impact Agent Classes

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Mortgage Marketing Radio

Episode Title: Beyond Lunch & Learns: How Top LOs Are Scaling Realtor Referrals with High-Impact Agent Classes
Date: December 3, 2025
Host: Geoff Zimpfer (with panel facilitation by Connor Bartley)
Guests:

• Paige Ringcamp (St. Louis, MO)
• Elizabeth Tura (Denver, CO)
• PJ Holland (Dallas, TX)
• John Wells (Crown Point, IN)

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Episode Overview

In this dynamic episode, host Geoff Zimpfer, alongside guest host Connor Bartley, dives deep into event-based strategies for mortgage loan originators (LOs) seeking to accelerate Realtor referrals. The discussion features a live panel of four standout LOs who consistently fill their rooms with the right real estate agents, using creative, high-impact educational classes and panels—far beyond the standard "Lunch & Learn." The episode explores modern, scalable event tactics, touching on everything from leveraging strategic partnerships and social media to building agent-centric content (often not mortgage-related) and harnessing AI to stay ahead.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Host Realtor Events? – The Business Impact

• Events as Conversation Starters: Hosting events gives LOs a natural, non-salesy way to stay top-of-mind, reach out to agents, and justify follow-up, even if the event itself has modest turnout.

  “You create the event to create the reason to have a good conversation ... even if the event is just okay, you now have something to talk about with agents.” – Elizabeth Tura (12:46)

• Relationship Building: Events are likened to ‘gateway drugs’ for deeper business bonds—not just about mortgages but about personal connection and building trust.

  “It’s just like a gateway drug, right? Like it just opens the door ... and then you naturally, organically want to have another conversation.” – PJ Holland (14:05)

• Multiplication Effect: By collaborating with title reps, inspectors, or insurance reps, LOs get in front of not just one but many new agents through partner networks, multiplying their reach.

  “It’s a really great way for me to make that first impression... getting past that first barrier of entry.” – John Wells (16:03)

• Saving Time, High Leverage: Hosting one-to-many events is the most efficient way to reach top producers who otherwise have little time for individual pitches.

  “Getting in front of agents ... and getting to, you know, get them on their calendar, gets harder and harder ... this has just allowed me to get on their calendar and stay in front of them in a way that’s still bringing them value.” – Paige Ringcamp (17:32)

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2. Structuring & Promoting Events That Realtors Love

In-Person vs. Virtual

• Panel POV: All agree that in-person makes it easier to build trust and genuine rapport, especially with top-producing agents (24:28).

  “Top producers will come if you give enough value. Sometimes, the value is having them on the panel.” – John Wells (25:31)

• Virtual for Scale: Virtual is helpful to support a wide LO network and as a way to get started or support those not nearby. Hybrid (both) is ideal.

  “We did a great in-person event this summer ... but virtual made a lot of sense to help LOs in different areas.” – Elizabeth Tura (25:47)

Getting "Butts in Seats"

• Direct Text & Social Media: Personalized invitations (usually text), supported by engaging posts, are the most effective for turnout.

  “A one-on-one invite goes a long way. I send a copy/paste text for every class…” – Paige Ringcamp (27:35)

• Leverage Partners’ Networks: Tap into partner businesses—title, insurance, inspectors—who then invite their own agent clients, instantly doubling promo reach (30:00).

  “I work with the best title, best insurance agent ... I can pretty much ask them and their whole databases… That’s how I get 30+ per event.” – John Wells (28:42)

• Start Small, Stay Consistent: Most panelists began with rooms of zero or just a handful of attendees. Consistency builds reputation and reliability.

  “You gotta do it consistently to build that momentum ... most LOs quit after three people show up to their first class.” – Geoff Zimpfer (33:44)

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3. Event Content: What Works (and What Doesn’t)

Mortgage vs. Non-Mortgage Topics

• Shift Away From Loan Products: Avoid heavy focus on mortgage rates or products. Agents crave content that helps their business (marketing, AI, investing, social media).

  “I try not to talk about mortgages if I don’t have to ... My job: help agents market themselves, communicate better, convert better.” – Elizabeth Tura (35:25) “If I’m speaking, it’s usually real estate investing 101 or a CE credit they—and not about my programs.” – Paige Ringcamp (36:33)

• Business-Helping Content: Classes on AI, social media, business planning, investor education, tax strategies, and wealth building resonate highly.

  “If you're not teaching (AI) to your agents, somebody else will be. But if we're going to teach, we have to be the student first.” – PJ Holland (2026 business goals, 23:00)

• Panels as Content: Have top-producing agents as panelists or do unique twists (e.g., appraisal/underwriter Q&A, women in business panels) to bring value and draw attendance (52:03).

Continuing Education (CE) – Myth-Busting

• CE Is Not Required for Success: Most panelists do not rely on CE-credited classes to fill rooms; engaging, relevant topics are far more compelling.

  “The CE is a crutch … Do my classes need to be CE approved to get agents to show up? No.” – Geoff Zimpfer & panel (38:02)

Topic Selection & Naming

• Timely & Relevant: Use trending market needs, agent feedback, hot-button issues. AI tools like ChatGPT help brainstorm class names and topics that pop.
• Name Matters Most: The class title determines registrations.

  “The first thing that determines if people are going to show up ... is the title. There’s a lot of people doing classes with boring titles.” – Geoff Zimpfer (63:05)

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4. Frequency, Formatting & Logistics

• Monthly is Typical: Most panelists aim for at least one event per month—except during slow months (July, Nov, Dec).
• Hybrid Approach: Some do a big in-person event 1–2x yearly, supported by smaller monthly events (40:22).
• Partners Ease the Load: Affiliates/partners help with logistics, venues, and cost-sharing, making frequent events more feasible (41:20).

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5. Extras: Food, Format & Follow-Up

Food & Drinks:

• Mixed approaches. For short, frequent classes, skip elaborate catering (sometimes even skip snacks). For bigger, less frequent in-persons, “breaking bread” creates community and deepens relationships.

  “If my intention is to get the right people in the room ... food is a pivotal part of that.” – Elizabeth Tura (43:24)

Panels:

• Powerful for attracting top agents (they want to be recognized as experts), and easier for newer LOs since the focus stays on the panelists.

  “Panels are a tool for me to get in front of new agents I otherwise wouldn’t... it’s a recruiting and retention tool.” – John Wells (46:01)

• Select panelists who are successful at the topic (e.g., digital marketing), ideally those you want in your own network (48:20, 49:15, 51:00).

Follow-Up Cadence:

• Always have a call to action! Immediate follow-up includes sharing materials, recaps, or replays, asking for feedback, and setting up one-on-one meetings.

  “Hopefully you have a call to action ... then you follow up asking for feedback—and what topics they want next.” – PJ Holland (53:01)

• Pro tip: Use a QR code during the event to directly schedule follow-up calls or meetings on the spot, striking while trust is high (56:25).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Not Needing to Be an Expert:

  “You don’t need to be a subject matter expert. You just need to be a facilitator.” – Geoff Zimpfer (00:09)

• On The Power of Consistency:

  “You can’t just do it once and expect to build... Like the plane getting off the runway, it needs momentum.” – Geoff Zimpfer (42:03)

• On Leveraging AI:

  “If you are not on top of that AI wave and you are not teaching it, you are going to get left behind.” – PJ Holland (23:00)

• On Building Real Relationships:

  “You want to go fast, go alone. You want to go far, go together.” – Connor Bartley (08:40)

• On Targeting the Right Audience:

  “If you’re marketing to everybody, you’re marketing to no one.” – John Wells (61:09)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |------------------------------------------------|-------------------| | Why host events? Key business impact | 12:46 – 18:08 | | Frequency and format (monthly, partners, etc.) | 18:19 – 22:35 | | In-person vs. virtual events | 24:28 – 26:44 | | Getting butts in seats (promotion tactics) | 27:35 – 31:33 | | Choosing event topics, CE classes, content | 34:34 – 39:12 | | Food, drinks, and event logistics | 43:05 – 45:08 | | Panel events: how and why | 45:48 – 52:38 | | Event follow-up strategies | 53:01 – 57:44 | | Pro tips for class titles/content | 63:05 – 64:45 |

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Final Takeaways

• Start Small, Stay Consistent: Commit to a regular cadence, even when turnout is low at first.
• Leverage Partnerships: Strategic partners expand your marketing reach and event resources.
• Lead With Value: Build events around agent needs—not mortgage rates or products. Marketing, investing, AI, and business building always win.
• Event Title Sells Attendance: Use direct, compelling names—consider using AI to help craft them.
• Always Have a Call to Action: Strike while trust is highest; make follow-ups easy and direct.
• Panels for Leverage: Panels allow you to build relationships with both aspiring and established agents at scale, even as a newer LO.

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For more practical tips, templates, and community resources, subscribe to Connor Bartley’s Lowdown Newsletter and check the Mortgage Marketing Institute (links in show notes).

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Memorable Sign-off:
“You can’t just do it once and expect to build ... You are the brand.” – Geoff Zimpfer (final thoughts, 63:16/64:05)

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Transcript

[A]

Hey, are you tired of pouring time and money into agent classes that barely move the needle? Or worse, nobody even shows up.

[B]

Hey, you're not alone.

[A]

I've been there. Many loan officers have been there. And here's the thing. A lot of loan officers dread the idea of hosting agent classes and events because they think it means free food or delivering boring PowerPoints or they get stuck on. Well, why would an agent show up and listen to me if I'm not presenting topics that are about mortgage lending rates, products and those types of things? But I want you to imagine for a moment you don't need to be a subject matter expert. You just need to be a facilitator. Just need to be a messenger. And the value is conveyed not in you, right, but in the information and the content is provided. Imagine if you could consistently fill a room or even a zoom with the exact agents you want to work with and actually convert some of them into referral partners without chasing, begging, right, Cold calling or paying for leads. Hey, by the way, my name is Jeff Zimfer. You're listening to the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast where we help you market yourself, grow your business and elevate your personal brand, driving more engagement and conversations with Realtors to fill your pipeline. And we do it without begging for business.

Today on the show we're answering the question, how are top producing loan officers actually growing their Realtor referrals? With agent classes that work. And what you're going to hear is a conversation. I was invited to be part of a live panel of four standout originators who are crushing the event strategy in their markets. From investor classes to high production Realtor panels to marketing social media related content, they're getting creative with the content, they're filling the rooms and they're building real relationships that turn into deals. So what you're gonna hear is this is like an. A panel of subject matter experts have been doing this for a variety of time, right? From six months to multiple years. And it is a significant portion of their business. And this is a great conversation that I think I wanted to invite you to sit in on. And I was invited to be the panelist host by my friend Connor Bartley. And Connor runs the Lo down, right? Yellow down is a high value content hub for originators. It's a newsletter, it's a community. And he has great content and resources to help you get better at what you do. And that is build your business. I'll put links to that in the show notes, links to his LinkedIn profile so you can go follow him, find out more, learn more over there. But getting back to the topic of this panel that we're on, obviously Connor knows one of the primary things that I help originators do is exactly what you're going to hear today is on this panel. Now by the way, none of the people on this panel are members of my platform, which is called my agent classes. And this is our turnkey platform where we help you. We give you the content, we give you the PowerPoint templates, right? The train, the trainer videos, we give you the emails, we actually send the emails for you, we actually help you do all the marketing, help you promote and get butts and seats and turn you in into a high leverage facilitator that attracts versus chase agents at scale. If you want to learn more about how we do that, there's a link in the show notes or you can just right now go to go.myagentclasses.com and there'll be a brief video there from me with some success stories and a sneak peek in the back end of our platform about managing classes so you can see if it's a fit for you or not. So once again I'll say that none of the folks on this panel are members of my community and my platform. But that goes to show you and goes to prove is is that if you're not doing classes consistently, why not someone else in your local market is and they're probably capturing market share that you're missing out on.

[B]

So in this panel conversation you're going.

[A]

To hear three key things. Why events are the most leveraged top of funnel strategy for Realtor engagement, the biggest mistakes to avoid with your classes, and how to get butts in seats even if you're just getting started. Plus, we're going to share some surprising insights on how using AI, strategic partnerships and even non mortgage topics can drive massive value for you and your agents.

[B]

So if you're ready to flip the.

[A]

Script, stop chasing agents and start attracting the right ones, stick around for this episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio.

[C]

Good morning and welcome to beyond the Lunch and learn the lowdown on hosting events that agents love. I'm Connor Bartley. Bam. Bam.

[D]

Bam.

[C]

Bam. Clearly I'm pretty excited because what we're about to do today goes way beyond just free sandwiches PowerPoint presentations, the boring crap that nobody loves. Today is about learning how to host kick ass events that agents actually show up for that build real partnerships and that genuinely move the needle in your business. So can I get a few bams from everybody Here in. In the chat, just give me a bam. All right, let's warm that up.

[E]

Okay.

[C]

And tell me where you're at. Tell me where you're coming from, where you tree. I want to know who's here. All right, we've got a good group forming. People are starting to roll in. Bam from Cape Cod. What's up, Ed? Bam from Texas. What's up, Lee? Bam from Spokane. We got Colorado in the house. Connecticut, Sacramento, Fort Worth. People are from all over the country. This is awesome, guys. Thank you for choosing to spend your time here today. While you guys are putting stuff in the chat, let me set the stage. Okay, we've got four panelists joining us today. Each one of them have been guests on the Lowdown Mortgage podcast. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it. No bias there, right? And they're all executing event strategy at a high level in their respective markets. They're some of the most creative, most successful, most battle tested loan originators in the country. And they're here to pull back the curtain on exactly how they are doing the event strategy. Let me give you some a huge welcome to our panelists. First, from St. Louis, Missouri, we've got Paige Ringcamp, who has mastered the art of teaching through value, co hosting investing classes with agents that they absolutely rave about. From Denver, Colorado, we've got Elizabeth Tura, who has scaled events from small, intimate meetups to massive corporately sponsored productions that are generating real pipeline. From Dallas, Texas, we've got PJ Holland, who's live on, on location in, in Universal Studios, I believe today, uh, she's hosting content driven topic first approach that consistently draws crowds and creates loyal agent partnerships. And last but not least, you know, we had to go ladies first, we got Crown. From Crown Point, Indiana, John Wells, who's the co hosting speakeasy master, who uses exclusivity and strategic partnerships to elevate authority and fill rooms with the exact agents that he wants to work with. And then guiding this conversation, the man, the myth, the legend, someone who needs no introduction in this industry, the host of Mortgage Marketing Radio and one of the most respected voices in the Agent Lo strategy, we've got Jeff Zimfer. I'm going to drop in the, in the comments or the chat here, a link to Mortgage Marketing Institute. Institute for Jeff. You guys need to check him out. And let me give you a little background on how this started and a little story about Jeff that I think everyone should hear today. Okay. I had this idea that I've been talking to Some great people. And this topic had come up, and I said, you know, we got to host a panel. We've got to do a big thing with this. And. And then I know I'm going to Sales Mastery. That was here in Dallas back in October. And I'm like, jeff's on the stage. I know he's going to be there. He's the best, most authoritative person in this industry on this topic. I got to ask him. So we're in the lobby. It's a break between speakers. I see Jeff across the room. It's one of those moments where there's probably music playing in the background, right? And I'm like, tractor beams. I'm headed over to Jeff. I'm like, I got. Here's my moment. Here's my chance. And if you guys are ever at any of these events, you being shy is expensive. That's something I learned from my man Amir. Said, you've gotta. You gotta ask. You gotta step out of your comfort zone. So I go over to Jeff and I say, jeff, I'm hosting a panel, but I need a host. I need somebody who's an expert on this topic of Agent Ello events. Can you do that for me? And, you know, he looks at me and he says, whatever would bring you value, Connor. And that's what I'm talking about. That is the heart that we need more of in this industry, that open hand. The most successful people in this business live with an open hand. They are helping each other. They're being collaborative. And if there's nothing that you take away from today other than that is that you need to get in the rooms with the people that represent your future, find people locally, find people in your company, find people in this industry that you can talk to on a regular basis, collaborate with, hold each other accountable, and really get some meaningful conversation going. This job is hard enough. You want to go somewhere fast, go alone. You want to go far, go together and find your group guys, get in those rooms. So I made that decision about a year ago. It's paid off for me. I love what's come of it. The growth has been incredible. You will not regret it. So with all that being said, all right.

I want everybody here to be interactive. I want you to be present. I want you to take notes, listen, ask questions, engage with this panel. I'm going to take notes, all right? And I'm going to share those notes afterward through the lowdown on lower newsletter. Okay. If you're not subscribed, I'll put the link here in the comments or the chat so you can hop into that. But every week on Saturday, this email goes out to you. It's value added. There's some underwriting guideline tips. We'll preview, you know the or we'll share some, some details on the past podcast, maybe preview the ones coming up in the future. It's a great newsletter. I highly recommend it. I write it, so I'm a little biased, but. But guys, I'm going to take notes and I'm going to share those with you so that you don't have to worry about it so much. I want you to listen, ask questions and be a part of this. And so without further ado, I want to hand this over to Mr. Jeff Zimfer, let him take control of this conversation and start asking these wonderful people on this panel exactly how they are using this one to many strategy to build their business.

[B]

Well, good morning. Can you guys hear me okay?

[F]

Yes.

[D]

Morning.

[B]

Good morning. Hey everybody, thanks for being here. Welcome, welcome, welcome. What? I don't know how to top that. That was one hell of an intro and energy and amped up. So great job on that, Connor. Okay, so we've got a panel here of people who specialize in lead in with events and hosting panels and different things like that.

Okay, so I'm going to start with kind of broad types of questions and then we're going to get a little bit more narrow and focused.

First of all, I just want to say I respect everybody here on this panel. Number one, because what you do, I find that most loan originators shy away from. Would you guys agree with that?

[E]

Yeah, absolutely.

[B]

Yeah. And so we're going to talk about why they shy and what are some of the reasons Maybe you've heard, you know, I hear a lot of reasons as to why they don't want to host events and classes and so forth. And maybe we can unpack that and deal with some mindset issues. But let me go around the horn real quick. Let's, let's start with this. I want to ask your, your. The question is what has hosting events? And when I say events, I know we're talking like I don't like to use the term lunch and learns either because that's old school and that that implies something different. And you're going to get to articulate why you don't do lunch and learns per se. But when I talk about events, I'm talking about hosting a workshop class educational session for a realtor. Or it could be virtual or in person. We'll talk about the differences there as well. But what I want to ask you guys is what has been the primary impact to your business and hosting events? And seeing as I'm going to go from left to right here on my video panel, I'm going to start with Elizabeth. Just a quick, like, you know, 60 second takeaway. What's been the biggest impact for you hosting events for your business?

[D]

I would say easy. The easiest thing to, to really consider why you would do an event and why what you get out of it is a reason to have a conversation with your referral partners. So if you do not, if, even if the event is like just okay, like, first of all, not everybody's gonna go to it, but you have a reason to call them and invite them to something. You have a reason to remind them that this is coming up. You have a reason to follow up with them whether they came or whether they didn't come. So you create the event to create the reason to have a good conversation, to say, hey, I know what I'm doing, an expert in this arena. I'm local in your area. If it's a local event or I'm national because I'm badass. Right. And I have reach everywhere. And at the same time, I thought of you.

[B]

All right, so what I heard from there is it is the fire starter, if you will, the jumpstart to all the activities we should be doing anyways.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

And it's a shortcut, right? It's a shortcut to say, like, here's why I don't have anything to say. Well, yes, you do now you do. You just create the reason to have something to say.

[B]

Okay, so I'm actually going to take notes on this because I love. This is real time. Nothing to say, right? Exactly. We're also going to get into what do I teach or what's the topic, all that kind of stuff. Next up, Patty Jo, same question. What has been the impact for you hosting events?

[G]

So I'm a producing branch manager and doing this helps my newer LOS or those that have come back into the business get in front of people that they normally wouldn't do it. So I like partnering with a really successful, you know, title business development person that can bring people in, like, because they've got contacts that I can't get, I can't get through the door on. So I like doing that because then it's just natural exposure. And then when, and then when, you know, they just meet us, of course they're going to be attracted to us because you know, like minded people. And when you feel, when they feel your energy, and I'm really big on that, like when they feel that you're passionate and they feel your energy, then they want to do more business with you. And then it just, and then they naturally organically want to just have another conversation with you instead of just being like, hey, you know, that was just a great call. And you know, being scared to, scared to do another follow up because you probably naturally, organically had a conversation that wasn't about mortgage, that wasn't about the industry, or had a crazy file like you, you bonded on something on another level aside from just getting there. So to me it's just like a, like a gateway drug, right? Like it just opens the door just a little bit to just kind of get in there and then infiltrate. So that's why I like it.

[B]

Yeah, such a great point. I mean this, when it comes down to it, if we're working with real estate agents, it's still a relationship business and it's, you know, you've got to have that, right synergy. They've got to like you, you've got to like them. And the fastest, fastest way to figure out is, you know that sniff test sort of in the early stages, like, do you like each other? And the fastest way.

[G]

Yeah, it's a blind date.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Right. And so being in person, like as my friend Travis Newton says, for if you're doing a class for one hour and let's say it's you, well, you have one hour of a captive audience that gets to know who you are, your styles, your likes, your personality. And so that trust builds over that.

[A]

Time that you're with them.

[B]

Great answer. John Wells. You know the question? You're up, sir. Go ahead.

[E]

So what I really get out of my events is like I've always been working this like whale list of agents, right. And I never really understood how to follow up with them, get in front of them, et cetera. So now I'm with my current coach, we're doing these events to position myself to be able to get in front of these agents. And they're now inviting people from their office. So I'm also getting like minded people into these events as well. Right. So it's a really great way for me to make that first impression and get that agent one on one. When, you know, other loan officers are still trying to call on that agent, they're not having any success. So it's a way for me to get around that first barrier of entry. And then build that relationship.

[B]

Love that. What I wrote down is the multiplay. Multiplic. Am I saying this right? Multiplication factor.

You know, Connor, back to the sales mastery event. You know, if you recall, what Todd opened up with was a story about the power of one and the power of one to many. And I kind of riffed on that a little bit. I think he has been saying this for years, is that one plus one does not equal two.

[E]

Right.

[B]

One plus one equals many. And that's why we do events, is because we just heard from John is they're going to bring other agents. So you're going to get exposure to people we've heard from. People talk about title reps. It's like this is a one to many multiplication effort that's highly leveraged. All right, Paige, what's been the biggest impact for you in hosting events and classes?

[F]

Yeah, I think the biggest impact for me has just been, I mean, as we all know, your most valuable asset is your time. Right. And so getting in front of agents, especially the top producing ones, and getting to, you know, get them on, allow you on their calendar, gets harder and harder as time goes on because everyone's busy. And I think what used to help me get in front of agents, like we can close in three weeks or we can do a 580 credit score is now the norm. You know, that's no longer a piece of value. So this has just allowed me to get on their calendar and stay in front of them in a way that's still bringing them value.

[B]

Okay, roughly how long have all of you been doing events and classes? You can just randomly shout it out since day one.

[F]

So nine years.

[B]

Nine years. Okay, let me go reverse now. John, how about you?

[E]

I've been recently, like the last year. But I did do them for a while before COVID so we'll just say like a year.

[B]

Okay. How about Patty, how many? How long?

[G]

Probably since COVID started out with the Zoom.

[B]

Okay, so you started out on Zoom and then you went to in person.

[G]

Yes.

[B]

Elizabeth, how many years for you?

[D]

Point. Six years.

[B]

About six years. Okay.

[D]

No, no, 0.6 years. Seven months.

[B]

Six. So six months. Oh, really?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

All right, Good for you.

Has this become the dominant primary way by which you grow your awareness and engagement with real estate agents?

[D]

Are you asking me because I was the most recent baby in there?

[H]

Sure.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Okay. Yeah, I would say absolutely. And a couple different reasons. First of all, it's working, right? Like, I can tell you right now, it's working. My business is different than it was nine months ago. And a lot of that is because I committed to this, executed it, figured it out, and now it can be a lot more efficient. I mean, I've been watching Connor figure out how the heck to be a podcaster and a newsletter editor and all these other things. And some of you just figure out and you get better, faster, stronger at it. And to me, the, the response back from my agents, even if they don't go right, even if they don't attend the event, they're talking to me about it. When I talk to them in person, they're like, hey, that was a great idea of event or hey, I'd like the replay, whatever the case is. And I've never had them agents reach out to me asking me for something before. So why wouldn't I not double down and do more of that thing that's getting them engaged with me and noticing and asking me to participate in a conversation with them.

[B]

Isn't that fantastic? You know, the, the, the, the phrase is flip the script, turn the tables. But I always like to say, you know, let's stop chasing, let's start attracting. And so now you have agents coming to you and the, and the power dynamics have shifted because now you have something they want. Oh, by the way, at the beginning it's not loans and it's not interest rates. Right. It's the information that you have.

Patty, is this the number one thing you do to get Realtor referrals?

[G]

No.

It'S really word of mouth and then I'm really good at converting a listing agent to become my next client.

[B]

Okay, I love that. Let's keep going just for sake of time. John, is this your top way to get Realtor referrals?

[E]

It's actually not either. It's one of, one of the things that I do, but a lot of it, I mean, it helps me get in the door with newer agents, I will say that. But a lot of what I do is, you know, between conversations I have with agents, you know, doing office meetings with them and doing one on one stuff as well, to give them information on like loan programs and stuff.

[B]

How do you get to those one on ones and conversations in. You know what I mean?

[E]

Yeah, exactly. It's a way for me to draw in especially the larger agents that I want to work with. Events are definitely like the top of that funnel for sure.

[B]

And maybe I should have characterized that a little bit better in terms of activities we can do. Right. If you picture that funnel per se, like at the top of that funnel, what we really want at the end of the day is conversations with real estate agents.

[E]

Right?

[B]

Right. So I guess maybe that's the better question is, is this a primary or the. And. And that's great, by the way. It's not, but it sounds like for many of you, it is the top of the funnel that gets to the one on one, correct?

[E]

Yeah, it's definitely one of the things they do at the top of the funnel to bring agents in.

[D]

I think it needs to be a layer. Right. I like. I like your funnel, but I do think it's a layer that all these pieces stack on top of each other to create this new thing that wouldn't be as robust if we took out either any of those layers, just like Jonathan was saying.

[B]

That's a good point.

[D]

They're all important.

[B]

They're all connected. Paige, anything you want to add to my question?

[F]

Yeah, it's just everything that everyone else said, except for the other component for me is that I've just recently gotten over myself and realized that I need to do social media. And so the classes have given me.

[D]

Content.

[F]

To, you know, pull different pieces of content from the classes. And just like Elizabeth was saying, it's another reason to reach out to people. So I'll follow up from a post. Hey, did you see my class this Friday? Et cetera, et cetera.

[G]

Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna piggyback on that page because even though it's not my number one thing, it actually will be for 2026. So you. You mentioned the Sales Mastery class. And I tell you, like, if you didn't go to that thing, that thing was like, mind blowing to me as far as, like, what you have to do. And I think the biggest thing at startup that kind of stuck out, same with Paige.

[D]

I.

[G]

When I started this industry in 2018, I knew video was how I. What I needed to do because I didn't have. This was my second career, so I started in video. Didn't realize there were compliance things. And all my video got pulled because I wasn't compliant. And when you stop doing video, it's really hard to get back into it because you get busy. But what I learned from that Sales Mastery class, there is something that's coming out, and if you are not on top of that AI wave and you are not teaching it, you are going to get left behind. So I'm here in Universal, but this is actually my annual branch retreat with my team. And the one thing that we talked about was how to get in Front and how we're going to teach the realtors how to do this AI stuff, because if we're not teaching them, somebody else will be. But if we're going to teach, we have to be the student first. So we're not waiting for January 1st to start the diet. We're waiting for after Thanksgiving, and then we're going to start the diet of getting on social, just like Paige. Paige mentioned.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

So I love that. That's a great summary. All right, I want to pivot a little bit and start taking some questions from the audience. And so I'll go back and forth. Right now I see a question from Leslie. It's actually multiple questions. Let me start with the first one and let me go to John, the question, and I'll come to the rest of you guys. This is kind of the question around in person or virtual? Right. Like, where's the most successful. But what's your. Do you have a general response to. Because I get hellos all the time. Should I do it in person or virtual? Right. What do you say?

[E]

Yeah, so I like to do in person. For me personally, I'm working on, eventually I will do virtual events, but for now, everything is in person. And the reason why I do it is because I'm really thinking about my audience. And my audience are agents that are doing, you know, at least 10 million a year or more. Right. And so those agents, they're, you know, they'll likely come to something that's in person, especially with the local market that I'm in, as opposed to like they're not really going to hop on a zoom call, to be honest with you. So that's, I'm sure other markets might be different, but that's just where I'm at now with everything.

[B]

What market are you in?

[E]

I'm in Crown Point, Indiana. So it's like right outside Chicago about 45 minutes.

[B]

So a 10 million dollar producer is roughly how many units then?

[E]

That'd be like 40, 40 to 50 units.

[B]

All right, so they're doing some volume.

[E]

Yeah, we have like average loan amount over here is like 250. So.

[B]

Okay, well, while I got you, John, what do you say to the los who say top producers won't come to events?

[E]

They will if you give enough value and if sometimes the value is having them on the panel. So we could probably get into that a little bit later. But that's, that's definitely. You got to give them some value.

[B]

Okay.

Elizabeth, six months in, are you virtual or in person? Both.

[D]

Both. Both. Part of that is because I do support a group of loan officers who are not in my immediate vicinity. And so to do that, to create those events, it made sense for me to be able to help all of the loan officers who had capacity to like, do this. I wanted them to have that availability too. So virtual made a lot of sense for that. And then at the same time, we did a great in person event this summer. And just downloading with some of my closer agent friends talking, you know, what we do, right? What do we miss? Like, what was a flop? She said, you know, the thing that mattered the most about what we're missing here is being in the room and talking to other agents who haven't seen a lot and having that community.

[A]

Yeah, 100.

[D]

And so I need. That was very, very helpful reflection to me because you can't do that virtually like we can to an extent, but not, not a hundred percent. So I believe it needs to be a combination of the two.

[B]

Okay, now what I'm going to do is I'm going to pivot. I'm not going to necessarily allow every person to answer the same question just for sake of time so I can get more questions out.

My, my quick takeaway though, to the virtual or in person? I often say both. And the reason why I say both is because there's a place and a time for doing something virtual. It's an easy way to get started, cut your teeth a little bit, get used to the content perhaps. But ultimately what I think we would hear from everybody here is that the number one way to accelerate the trust conversations and referrals is in person. It's really hard to build trust with this tiny little screen that we've got here and all the things going on in virtual. Okay, let's now get into marketing and promotion. How do you get butts in seats? Let's see. Paige, I'm going to go to you. How do you get butts and seats? What's, what's. Yeah, your process around that.

[F]

I start with social media posts and then I individually reach out one on one via text. And then if I'm, if I'm really feeling like it's going to be a light class, then I ask friends for a favor.

[B]

What is that? Favorite? Please show up.

[F]

Yeah, like my team or some good friends of mine that are real estate agents. But usually with a one on one invite, it can go a long way.

[B]

All right, so break it down a little bit deeper. What's a one on one invite? You said a text. Is that a video? A voice. Are you using Reach app? How you managing all that?

[F]

I am copying and pasting. Hey, I'm having a class on this, if you or anyone would like to come. I'd love to see you. Here's the date, here's the address, here's.

[B]

The existing relationships you're sending that text to.

[G]

It is.

[F]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Are you going cold at all?

[F]

Not for these. Not yet. Um, I think once I have mastered a certain piece of content that I want to push out, like, spread my net wider, maybe. But so far, I'm just trying to keep it within the people that I know.

[B]

Okay. I want to definitely get some other folks here in terms of marketing, promotion, because that's a big thing. Lls want to know. John, how do you get butts and seats?

[E]

So almost all of my. Actually, like, literally all my events, I do with one of my, like, partnered relationships. Right. So what I mean by that is, like, title. My home inspection company, my insurance agency, whoever it is. Right. And I partner with. My market's a little bit smaller, so, like, everyone knows who everybody is. Right. So I work with the best title, you know, rep in my market. I work with the best insurance agent in my market, and I've positioned myself with these people to where I can pretty much ask them for a favor. And this is also promoting their business, so it's not really a favor for them. They're getting a promotion out of this, too. And so what we do is now I've brought in, let's say, Ryan from Chicago, Title. Who's the title rep in the area that I work with. So now it's myself and Ryan teaching about business planning for 2026. That's the one we just did a couple weeks ago. Now I'm hitting up my entire agent database that I currently work with and that I'm prospecting. And Ryan's hitting up his entire database as well. So that's where I can double my promotional efforts without cloning myself or even having anybody else do any extra work on my team. So that's. I would say, if you're looking to get some promotions out, especially if you're a new loan officer and you haven't done this before, partner with somebody who has a ton of existing relationships and ask them to market to their database as well.

[B]

Yeah, 100%. That's that Trojan horse strategy, because they have the relationships you don't.

[E]

Yep.

[B]

And they're out in front of those agents on a daily basis. Real quick question for you, John. You mentioned prospects. So this goes Back to your agent targeting of 10 million plus in production. Yep, exactly.

[E]

Yeah. So, yeah. And it's like, those are like the way the top of the of that list. Right. Like, I still target agents that are below 10 million.

[B]

Okay.

[E]

But, like, my minimum is like five for my market.

[B]

And how do you reach out to them in terms of trying to get them to the event?

[E]

So that's where I use, like, the triangle of trust. So I know either I know them directly because, again, my market's pretty small, or I know somebody who knows them. And that's where, like, if I'm having, you know, Ryan help me with this event, then I'm gonna. I know the agents that know Ryan, and I'm asking Ryan, hey, we're hosting this event. I want these agents to be there, and he'll get them there. Same with my insurance agent. They work with these agents or they know these agents. Like, hey, I need these agents at my event, make sure we get them over there. And so that way I'm not directly the one reaching out all the time. I'm able to leverage my relationship with my partners that are helping me with these events. And then, of course, if they want to meet with one of my agents, I hook that up for them as well.

[B]

Are you doing anything in terms of email marketing?

[E]

No. I mean, I do an email newsletter to my agents and stuff, but not for the events. No.

[B]

And just out of curiosity, what is your kind of average attendance size?

[E]

About 30.

[B]

Wow, really?

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. That is all. How long you been doing it again?

[E]

Under a year. Like, we just started doing a lot of these, like, partnered events in the last, like, four months.

[B]

And I bet you started out with 30 in the room.

[E]

We. Yeah, we actually did.

I will say. Okay, I'll be honest. It was one. The first event, the very first event we did, we had like 12 people. Ever since that, we had like 30.

[B]

Hey, are you tired of cold calling realtors and feeling like you're getting nowhere with my agent classes? You don't have to chase agents anymore. We hand you a done for you system of ready to teach presentations, plug and play marketing, and even 200 producing agents to invite. So you can double your agent referrals in 90 days or less. Plus you'll get weekly coaching and a community of loan officers sharing exactly what's working right now. Here's a quick win from one of our members.

[H]

I joined it because I was tired of doing business the way that regular loan officers have been doing it in my market, which is just making the core Calls every Monday and Friday, checking in with real estate agents. I had done that for years and it seemed like everybody was doing that. I needed something different and I wanted to find a way that I could work with the agents that I want to work with. I wanted to find a way that I could have a captive audience every month, every couple of weeks, where I could find agents that were like minded and that wanted to work with me as well. So it's probably brought in, I'm just guessing here, but it's probably brought on. In the three years I've been back with the program, it's probably brought on, I'd probably say about $40 million in volume since then.

[C]

Right.

[H]

And it's led to some massive relationships and I wouldn't be able to do those things without this program. The value of these Friday calls are so incredibly valuable for all of us. I get upset if I miss it on a Friday. The cost of this program is what is worth it. Just because of these Friday calls that we're on where we help coach each other. We're just here to help each other add value to our realtor partners.

[B]

Are you ready to stop chasing and start attracting agent referrals on demand? Book a [e-mail] or hit the link in the show notes. Now back to our show. Who here on the panel started with just a handful? Maybe one, maybe five people. Right?

[F]

Zero.

[B]

Zero. Right. Zero. Show up with your first event. Yeah. And I say I'm bringing that up for the people that are listening and watching right now is because don't. Here's the thing that I've heard consistently from everybody. You know, the shortest time has been Elizabeth at six months. But guess what? How many ELOs try and do a class once and they get three people who show up and then they quit.

[E]

Right.

[B]

You gotta do it consistently to build that momentum and knowledge and skill set and build their partnerships. Like with John with title, you might have to go through two or three title reps to find the one to get the lock in.

Five. There you go. Right.

All right, all right, let's switch now and talk about butts and seats topics. We'll talk about panels in a moment. But for doing your own events, how many of you are actually the presenter? Just show the panel here. You're the main presenter.

[F]

Sometimes. Sometimes.

[B]

Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes not. Sometimes you'll bring in a special guest or whatnot. But let's take for for example, right now, you're the presenter, you're the facilitator.

How do you Come up with the topics. What types of topics? Do you have a short list? Let me go, Patty, back to you.

[G]

It is whatever ChatGPT tells me or ask the public tells me. I'm just kidding. No, but really, it's whatever the hot topic is that everybody's talking about. If Barry Habib is saying something, everybody is always wanting to know, when's the market coming back, when the rate is coming back. But really, it's like my big thing right now is VA loans, renovation loans, and AI.

[B]

Okay, let me ask it this way. How much of your. And I'll go to Elizabeth and et cetera, from this. How much of your class content is focused on mortgage related versus non mortgage related? Elizabeth, go ahead.

[D]

I try not to talk about mortgages if I don't have to. My husband has taught me very well. Nobody wants to talk about mortgages as much as I do. So. And I know that, like my job as far as my real estate agents, like, I don't do loans. That is not what I do. I help them market themselves better. I help them communicate better. I help them convert better. That is my job to them. And I also take care of the financing when their buyers need it.

[G]

Right.

[D]

I am capable. I am that part of it. I don't have to demonstrate any more competence. And everybody knows I'm good at doing mortgages at this point.

[G]

Great.

[D]

Okay, fine. There's also a million other people who are good at doing mortgages. There's also a crap ton that are good at it. But. But like, I think anybody on this panel carries themselves in a way that's like, all right, they know what they're doing. Cool. All right. Now how can you help me? What's in it for me after that? Right. So anything that I talk about is always going to be how do I help my agents do better at their job? Either because they know something they didn't know, or I encourage them and I was like, positive force, helping lead them doing something that was uncomfortable for them. That's everything I do.

[B]

Paige, how do you come up with the content for the class?

[F]

I love that answer, Elizabeth. My. If I'm the one speaking, it's usually specific to either a CE that they need or it's real estate investing, which, to Elizabeth's point, it's nothing to do with our programs or our rates or anything like that.

[B]

Okay. So you tend to lean into the investing side of things now when it comes to ce, I mean, that that could cover a lot of things. Do you have a short list of Classes you already have CE approved?

[F]

Yeah, our compliance department allowed us to do three, so I think it's like VA 203K and like mortgage 101. So those are only few and far between. But we do get a lot of attendance for those, so it is an easy way to get in front of them.

[B]

The CE thing is interesting because a lot of. What would you guys say to this? John, I'll come to you in a minute. In terms of how you actually create the content.

And for those who don't know, I was an originator for 10 years in Southern California. This is exactly how I built my business as well. Um, and from, you know, zero to 50, like, you know, in 18 months. And it's just because of the scale.

I used to say, and I'm trying to be less flippant now, I used to say the CE is a crutch. And the reason why I used to say that is because obviously agents show up to CE just to check the box and get the credits. I'm sure you've got some personal experience with that. So what do you. What does the panel say to do my classes need to be CE approved to get agents to show up?

[E]

No.

[B]

No. Right, okay, cool. We all covered that. Now let me keep going for sake of time. John, how do you come up with the content to present to agents?

[E]

Perfect. So first I want to say that I've actually never hosted a CE credited event ever. So I've thought about it, but I haven't done it. But so how do I come up with topics I want to give Again, it goes back to the value for the agents. Right. So a wise man once told me this, and I hope he's watching. But as a loan officer, you should only be doing two things, marketing and qualifying. Right. And so that's where I take that to my agents as well. So I want to give them topics that help them with marketing or qualifying. And so that's how you get people in the room is because you're showing them how to. Maybe it's how to use chat GPT to get more listings. Right. Or how to business plan for 2026 so that you can close more business and you know exactly what your blueprint is. And so that's where a lot of my topics come from, is leading with that and what topics, you know, situationally and during, you know, in this time right now revolve around those main anchors and how, like what's the, the sexy topic now that we can go over?

[B]

So yeah, yeah, so you'll also adjust based on what's going on in the market or whatnot. For example, one of the classes we do a lot with my clients is the cost of waiting.

[E]

Yep.

[B]

Right. So if that might be relevant for your market or the opposite of that is leveraging seller buy downs. Right. To make your listings more attractive and create more affordability.

[E]

Exactly.

[B]

Two Very, very. It all comes back to relevancy. Right. Like you guys have said, how's it going to help solve problems? Okay, let's get into frequency. What's the average frequency you do for classes? Is it like once a month you're trying to hit, or is that. Is that a yes for you, John?

[E]

Yeah, it's once a month except for November and December, because nobody comes out to events in November. December, yeah.

[B]

All right, how about real quickly, let's go to the panel page. What's your. What's your frequency?

She's trying to find the unmute button. No worries. That's why we don't do virtual people.

If you can finally unmute, we'll come back to you. Oh, there it is.

[C]

Sorry.

[F]

Yes. Monthly.

[B]

Monthly. Okay.

[F]

All of that for just agreeing with monthly.

[B]

Sweet. Who else is monthly? Elizabeth?

[D]

I'm gonna do in person events every six months. I'm gonna go all in on in person events every six months and then infill those with monthly events. But I am also skipping probably July, because July is also thin. And then November and December, like John was saying.

[B]

Okay. Patty.

[G]

It's whenever I feel like it's needed. I don't do it on a monthly basis. Probably like every six to eight weeks.

[D]

That's a lot. It's a lot to put this much together. I mean, every six weeks feels like a pretty quick pace.

[B]

Yeah. Do you find that it's one of the hardest parts is actually coming up with formatting, organizing the content.

[D]

All day long. And especially if you're going to be in person, you need an event space and coordinating that timing and the scheduling of that. Ain't nobody doing it for you.

[E]

Right.

[B]

Which gets back to having the right team in place, like affiliates, partners, escrow, home, warranty, insurance, all these other places.

[E]

Yeah. I'll be honest, it's actually really easy for me to do it because I do have a lot of help with the partners that I work with, the insurance agency that I work with, like, they have a marketing development, like, business development person. And, like, she does 90% of the work for me. So I really just have to get invites done. And we use, like, the local chamber space and we get it for free because we're members there. So it is a little bit easier if you have the right strategic partners to for sure facilitate a lot of in person events. And then for the content like my partners come in with half the content as well because we co host it. So it's. I'm able to leverage like 80% of the work and then the cost, I leverage that too because my other partners help chip in for everything.

[B]

Yeah. By the way, a quick. I'll just interject here. What you'll see happen oftentimes when you do this consistently is you will become known. You will begin to build brand awareness associated to your events and classes. And as we mentioned earlier, the ripple effect, the one to many. I have clients that I work with that they do these classes and guess what, they get invited to the brokerage to come teach the class and they get invited to the local board of realtors to come teach the class. And the board of realtors does the marketing for you and the board and the brokerage does, does the same thing. Point being is do more, do better. Right. So double down on it. Have a commitment for the next quarter or whatever to do one a month or whatever the schedule is going to allow for you. But you can't just do it once and expect to build. It's like the plane getting off the Runway. It needs momentum. Right. To be able to get airborne. All right, I see a couple questions in the chat. Keep them coming. People, people are asking about real quick, let's just go. Food, drinks, like, you know what I mean? What's, what's the hot take on that? Anybody can jump on the mic.

[F]

I do not. I found that sometimes that brings the wrong people there. Now if it's a happy hour or networking afterwards or something like that, yes, of course. But if it's strictly just a one hour class, I don't offer free anything.

[B]

Okay, cool. Everybody must pretty pretty much in the same agreement.

[D]

I disagree with that because if, if my purpose of my in person events is going to be to create community and have space to share, I think breaking bread is a really powerful way to do that as human beings. So I don't, I, I mean, I think like Paige, you're saying like I agree with you, it's a one quick and out. Like I actually prefer that as an attendee I'd be like, I don't need to have time doing this other like you know, muffins and stuff. But, but I think with if my intention, every, if twice a year, my intention is going to be to get the right people in the right room and having a shared energy. I think food is a very, very pivotal part of that.

[G]

Breaking bread.

[D]

Right.

[G]

Like you want to break bread. Like, bread is in money, too. So I agree with that. But there's. But I usually it's all about who you're sponsoring with. So it's like the more sponsors they are and you have somebody's delegated something, or even if you're just splitting the total cost, sometimes it ends up being like 50 bucks. It's not that much.

[E]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Minor invite only. So, like, I do pay for food and stuff. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

I guess it goes back to, you know, frequency number one, and then number two, what is the event you're trying to create? Because if you are doing in person only twice a year. Well, to me, that is an event that's not a class. Right. And so the way. Just so you know, personally, the way I approach the classes, typically, because I'm doing a lot of them, is I'm going to do those around the hours when they would expect to be fed. So start time at 10 or 11, out of there by 12, you know, or 11, you know, sooner than that. Or if we're doing an afternoon thing. And that's just. If you're. If you're consistently hitting this, you know, repeatedly. Now, does that mean you don't, like, serve some snacks or drinks or whatever? No, but it's just not. We're not frigging going all out and doing, like, buffet and all that kind of stuff, Especially if your class is only 10 to 15 people.

[D]

Yeah.

[G]

Chick fil a chicken minis, 20 bucks.

[B]

There you go. I mean, the thing that I always say is this is it's more important to have a conversation than to deliver a presentation.

[E]

Yep.

[B]

Because if you've got 40 slides or whatever and you're feeling, like, pressure to do every slide and I got to go through all. No, it's like have an engagement, engaging conversation with the group. And if you don't even get to all the slides, that's more impactful and more important. All right, let's switch now to panels. Who here has done a panel in the past on the panel? Show hands. All right, how often do you do the panels, John?

[E]

So we did the first one in September, so we're going to do them every quarter.

[B]

Okay, that's probably a good cadence. And just to clarify, how would you, for those listening or watching, define for me what a panel means to you?

[E]

Yeah, so for me, it's finding and identifying top agents. Again, these ones are closing at least 10 to 15 million a year if they're going to be a panelist. And these are agents that I either already work with to continue helping them and being a partner with them. And it's also a way for me to get in front of new agents that I otherwise wouldn't be able to get in front of. So it's kind of a recruiting and retention tool for me with the panel events.

[B]

Okay. When it comes to panel, right, you got to pick a topic, which means. Then you have a topic. And it means, okay, who's the right agents to have on the panel for that topic?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

How do you guys go through that? John, if you want to just real quick. And then I'll go to some of the other folks.

[E]

Yeah, so we did Back to New School. So it was figuring out like, what are the modern ways that these agents are closing business? So beyond like the cold outreach and the like FSBO conversations and stuff. Right. So these agents are all. They're all like younger, like under 40. And you know, we're giving. We had a lot of questions submitted from the people. Like as part of the event registration, you had to submit a question. And so the topic was really about how to source business the unconventional way.

[B]

Interesting. All right, this question is for the panel. Whoever wants to grab it. How do you pick the agents you invite to be part of the panel?

[G]

They're my biggest fans.

[B]

Right. But let's go back to. Let's just say if we're going to do something that's social media related or modern marketing related. Right. So you can have a biggest fan who's wouldn't be necessarily appropriate for the panel if they're not. Right. Doing digital marketing.

[G]

Yeah, they. I have one that is. That's why I said that.

[B]

Okay, that's cool. So I just works out like that. But let's just say you're getting started. Let's just say somebody here in this, in this audience right now is like, hey, I want to get started by hosting a panel. Which by the way, my opinion is a panel is a relatively easy way to get started hosting events because you're the emcee. You don't have to be the quote unquote presenter or trainer, facilitator. So who wants to jump on? How would you identify? Obviously it's based on your topic, but let's just say it's like modern marketing. Right. The next gen, how to crush 2026. You know what I mean?

[E]

So how I identified mine was again, this was, the panel is a tool for me to get in front of top producing agents that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to get in front of. Right. So what I did was I identified the agent based on who are the people that I work with and what do we have in common? Right. So I'm a younger person. I'm, I'm probably not going to be bringing on an agent that's 50 or 60 years old. Right. Because it's just that we're not going to vibe as well as somebody who's, you know, younger. Right. Also, what are they about? Like, let me, let me scroll their social media and see what they're into. Do we have similar hobbies and similar interests? If I can't see myself having a real relationship with this person beyond just doing the transactions together, then they're probably not going to be somebody I'm really going after and prospecting anyways. And unless there's somebody that I can, you know, believe that I can go prospect and actually get business from them, I'm not going to bring them on onto my panel.

[B]

Uhhuh. Yeah. Yep, that makes sense.

[D]

And I just put a plug here. I don't know anybody better at this than Connor Bartley. So why don't we at least let Connor answer that question.

[B]

Come on, Connor.

[C]

Hey. Yeah, I mean for me, pulling a panel together is about people who are going to be, you know, topical experts and people that are going to know, you know, I found that out through conversation with everyone that's here that this is something that just specific to this group is that this is some, a strategy that you had executed successfully and was helpful in helping you build your business. So for me it's really just about you got to have some credibility in the people that are going to be on your panel, for the people that show up to the event to listen to the panel and so having that credibility established first. But it's a great way to flatter people as well and say, hey, you're clearly an expert at this and I want you to, to display your expertise to your peers and, and I think in terms of just business to business relationship and what you do, taking, you know, this concept to a realtor, it's a great way to show that you appreciate who they are and that they're, you know, doing a great job and validating them as, you know, someone. We're all to a certain extent, not every, I mean, we all have a little bit of imposter syndrome at some point. In our careers. Right. And so when someone comes along and validates that, hey, I see what you're doing, and it's tremendous that, I mean, you just rose 10 points in their world, in my opinion. And, like, I think that's a great way to really flatter someone and show that, you know, notice them.

[B]

So I agree. I agree.

By the way, back to partnering with other affiliates. Ask your title reps, ask your home warranty. Ask other people who, who. Who know Realtors. Right. And so if I'm looking for who is good on Instagram, let's say, for example. Right. First of all, you should know that yourself. Like, this is part of prospecting and identifying who's in your backyard as successful agents. If you want to be a modern lender, you should probably be pretty up on who's doing good stuff on social media. Right? So this is the strategy of searching, finding, you know, connecting with and then DMing agents and letting them know, hey, man, great piece of content, or congrats on that listing, or whatever. Right. But the point being is you can easily find people in your backyard who are already successful at the thing you want to do a panel on, period. You just haven't asked enough of the right people or haven't been paying attention. Right. So that'd be the first place I go, which would be, hey, Mr. Mrs. Title Rep, who do you know in town? Who do you work with? Who's crushing it on whatever?

[F]

Jeff, can I say one thing about panels? I actually have never done a panel of agents, but I have had success with doing an appraisal panel, an underwriter panel, because those are two parties that agents always want to pick their brains and don't have direct access to. So that would be an easy place for people to start. And then the other one that I did recently that was actually more fun than anything, but was also a good turnout, was a mom panel of different business owners. So one was a realtor, but the rest were different owners. Business owners and how they balance being a mom and running a business. So you can also think outside the box in that regard too.

[B]

That's great. I love that.

All right. Okay, so a couple more questions from the audience. The follow up cadence.

On the back end of the event. So let's just say your event's done, you had whatever, how many people show up, it went well. You got the contact information. What's your post, event or class follow up?

[G]

Hopefully you had a call to action at the very end of it. And like, you're, you're telling Them, whether it's a VA certification class, well then you've got a certificate to give to them. If it's stuff about appraisals and you, you've got like the cheat sheet that everybody was like probably taking photos of on that power deck. And then you're just following up with them and just saying, hey, did you get it? I want to make sure you have it. So there's, there's touching points because you had that. So some of it is either that or just touching base, like did you get thing out of it? And then the next question could be is, I'm going to host another class in X amount of time. What do you want to know? What are the top three things that you want to know about? Because then you're also getting information on what they're wanting to know. So it just kind of opens that up too.

[B]

I like that. I like that a lot. Who else has a follow up strategy.

[D]

I send on my webinars or my virtual ones?

[E]

I do.

[D]

I send the replay with a very beautiful email that's put together and it's probably got some kind of additional collateral. So not only has the replay, but it has my personal reflection on it too. I want to have an opportunity to, to demonstrate my value system and that I'm an intellectual who's wanting to help them. Right. Like that's my opportunity. It's not just here's the replay link, go with God.

[F]

Right?

[D]

So it's probably got the replay link and then like PDJ was just saying some other collateral that, you know, that's a cta. And then also I've also had very good opportunities within posting on Facebook and saying like, hey, I didn't expect this out of this event and all the people that are like, I mean, I got this from Connor. I steal everything Connor does because smart guy. But like if I say like, hey, if you want the replay, shoot me a message. Like all the interaction that I get from that and now that's on Facebook and other people are seeing that too. Don't not do that because you're just taking one thing you already did and getting more spread than people you already knew.

[B]

Love that. Love that. Real quick, by the way. Hey, Connor, can you turn on screen sharing? I want to share with somebody with everybody here. I'm going to share this. This link.

[C]

Sure will try, Jeff.

[B]

I know you can handle it.

Who here does follow up calls to the attendees after your event? Okay. Elizabeth. John.

Pat.

Right. Okay, Okay. I love the fact that you said call to action. And. And because here's how. Here's my framework is in the class, when you've got whatever butts and seats there are, that is your best time to strike. While the iron's hot, the trust is high, the resistance is low. And so whatever that call to action is. And by the way, when you get deeper on this kind of stuff, and some of y' all know this here on the panel, there's framing. Like framing, for example, is when you open up and let's say you're teaching a class on business planning, for example, or AI And I always like to frame it, which is like, hey, you may be wondering why a loan officer is hosting this class for you, because they're probably wondering that in their head, why the hell would I be attending a business planning session from an Lo? And the way we do it is we frame it around this whole talk track around being a partner versus a vendor, right? And so we set it up from the beginning that my job is to be a partner, not a vendor. And a vendor, of course, we deliver rates and close and blah, blah, blah. All that stuff you would expect.

[D]

But.

[B]

But here's my goal is to help you solve problems and help you achieve your business goals. And if we do a good job of that, at the end of today, I will have an ask. And the ask would be, should you be open to talking about potentially working together or working on the one big idea from today's class? I'm going to ask you for a conversation. Is that fair? And everybody at the beginning is like, yeah, that's fair. Just give me the goods, right? So that at the end, when that comes, here's my little secret hack. We put a QR code up on the. On the PowerPoint slide that goes to your calendar and it schedules a consultation, right? Or a go deeper on the one big idea thing so that you have that built in. And out of a room of 10 people, you're going to get four who booked right then and there. So do the math. You're going to get 20. And so this is how we multiply and leverage and all that fun stuff. Okay?

[D]

We all just got better. Did you hear that? Did you hear all the. Jeff, get better at the same time?

[E]

I ran out of paper taking.

[F]

Thanks, Jeff.

[D]

We're all like, oh, crap, we haven't been doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Well, I'm a big believer in leverage, and you know what I mean? Why not ask? Well, because, you know how it goes. Once they leave, you know, the car business, there's a Saying, right, there's no be backs. Like if you walk on the lot and they're like, you know, they let you leave and say, oh, I'll be back. No, you ain't coming back once you walk off the lot.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

All right, so let me share this thing. I'm going to share with everybody here. I'll put a link. So this is just a template from Canva and this is what we use a lot for creating flyers or whatnot. But look at, this is so easy.

I decided I wanted to share this with you because you could search on canva and blow 30 minutes searching. So I'm going to give you this link in the, in the chat in a moment, just as a make sure in the chat right now, give Connor a thumbs up, an applause. Are you liking this so far? Let him know how much value you're getting from this right now. But look how easy it is to create a panel now. You want to get rid of the, you know, handsome Jack over here with the whole cliche pose. I'm not saying you have to put your, you know, your picture there, but why not?

[G]

John, is that you?

[B]

John? That's funny. All right, so obviously your agents would go here, right? And so for me, the max of a panel would be 4.

Rare case, 5. But it gets a little bit, you know, crazy with five agents. You know, they love to talk, right? So three to four, ideally, and then, you know, you just, like fill in the bullets. What are you going to talk about? The date and the time. And like, if you're doing a physical flyer, I would add a QR code here as well.

Now this would be an example of a flyer that you give to your affiliates. Title escrow, all those other people, because they're going out there and they're meeting agents every single day and they want something to talk about with agents. They want to deliver some value. They want to. And you know what I mean. So now to what we heard earlier is you've got your sales force multiplied. Okay, Connor, I put the link in there, but it can only go to host and panelists because I, for whatever reason, can't share to everybody. Oh, wait a minute. Yes, I can. Sorry, my bad.

[C]

All good.

[B]

Technically challenged. There we go. All right, let's go back to questions of the audience. Let's begin to close out here on the panel. What's the one thing we didn't talk about that you want to make sure the audience gets? I'll take it from pay Patty. Anything else you want to share with the Audience.

You'Re muted there, my dear.

[G]

Oh, I was just replying in the chat real quick. So just to answer that person, Lewis Hamilton. I love Lewis. Okay, Ronnie. Okay. So the one thing that we didn't really get to chat about is I think the way the market is going as far as visibility and us staying on top and combating chat GPT because, you know, everybody's a do it yourselfer and, and things like that. So I think, I think we really need to talk more about that because I think it's going to be more prevalent, but it's like in addition to all the other things that we're doing day in and day out with, with everything else.

[E]

So.

[B]

Okay, Elizabeth, what would be one thing we didn't touch on or that you would just like that.

[D]

I would say that everybody who's on this call already has a thing they can build a class around in the next before the first of the year. They do you. Do you have it? Trust me, you if you don't have it, you think you don't and you really do. So I would just say, hey, what are the things that people reflecting back to you, hey, you're so good at this, right? Or what they're asking you that you have like a really good answer on and don't be afraid to just let that become the pull forward into bill into booking your first event or your first class for Q1.

[B]

Love it, John.

[E]

Hang on. There we go. So if you're marketing to everybody, you're marketing to no one. And so what I want you to do is if you're putting together an event, you need to be very specific with who you want at the event, the type of agent because if you have just anybody there, you're going to have the agents that don't close any business. They just want. They're there for the lunch. They're there for the wrong reasons. So be very specific with who you're inviting and you will get a better turnout that way.

I like that.

[B]

That's good. Paige.

[F]

I'll speak to. I mean the fact that I love to teach on real estate investing because it brings value to agents. They're 1099 employees. A lot of them need to reduce their tax liability. They don't know where to begin. We like, to Elizabeth's point, we know a lot more about even if you don't invest in real estate because you know the financial end of it, you know a lot more than you realize. And so it's just another way to bring value to them to Help them build wealth in general. But also, you know, you can bring in CPAs, you can bring in contractors. There's just that topic in itself can build out a 12 month plan. And it again, you're a person, you're bringing resources to them and you're a person that can bring more value to them.

[B]

I love that page. You just reminded me of back in the day. We used to host this event at the right time of a year where I had a tax planner come in specialized in realtors and self employed. So in your backyard, in your community there is somebody who's a savvy tax advisor who wants to get in front of realtors. And this is where you don't obviously need to be the subject matter expert, but you just need to bring them in as a guest speaker. That's how I got started. I personally brought in guest speakers and then I eventually did it my own.

But. And the last thing I'll say is this is one of my. When, when people ask me how do you get button seats like what, what, what's a successful class? I say the first thing that determines if people are going to show up for your class or not is the title.

[A]

Period.

[B]

It's just like a book. Do we judge a book by its cover? 100% or its title? Yeah. Do you judge a class by its title? 100%. So there's a lot of people that are doing classes with boring titles.

[G]

Yeah, there are, yeah.

[B]

So you can take a class that's mortgage related and reformat and restructure it. Use GPT or Claude and say you are a world class direct response copywriter. Take this class topic and bullet points of what they're going to learn and rename it reform. Right? And just run it through the thing. And now you're going to get a direct response driven between the eyes and give it the context. It's specifically for real estate agents, you know, etc. Do the training we all know we need to do on AI and just use AI to come up with better class titles because I've tested them like crazy. Like one of them is I don't have the slide ready, but for example, just listen to this. You got two classes, you're a realtor. One of them is called marketing your authentic self. The other one is called you are the brand.

No subtitle yet, but which one are you already leaning towards? Right, I know the answer. Most of you, it's you are the brand. Because marketing your authentic self, your brain goes what the hell does that even mean? I don't know, but I know I am the brand, right? And then the subtitle is, you know, very specific to how to get more clients at blah, blah, blah, blah, make more money, etc. What do realtors want? They want to attract more clients. They want to be more effective at what they do. They want to stay current to what's working and relevant, and they just want to write, get better. And if you be the conduit for that, just like we heard from the panel here today, you will attract agents, you will get more conversations and trust, and you'll get more referrals. All right, we're officially at the end. Where is Connor? I want to hand it back to him.

[C]

I'm here. Did I disappear on you? I don't know.

[B]

I shrunk the screen. My bad.

[C]

Okay, well, guys, I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you. Jeff, amazing job kind of running this panel and, and moderating everything. Elizabeth, John Page, pj. Awesome job with adding value and sharing your expertise and, and what you, you know, what you go through with this as a, as a topic and how you're bringing value to people. I know just leading up to this event, I know there are people in the room today that were really looking forward to this, this, and, and I know I took away some really great things. I hope they did too. But this was an amazing thing. I'm looking forward to doing more of these in the future. And so to anyone who's hanging on, still here, thank you for being here. You could, you could have done anything with the last hour and you chose to be here, and that's not lost on me. So I really appreciate, I really appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. And you know, I'll get the notes out to everybody later on. And I just. Thanks again to everybody being a part of this.

[D]

Hey, good luck, Jared. Tomorrow on your event. Can't wait to hear how it goes.

[G]

Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Connor.

[E]

Thank you all.

[F]

Thank you, Connor.

[D]

Thanks, guys.

[B]

Okay, that's it for today's episode.

[A]

Before we wrap up, I just wanted.

[B]

To remind you about my Asian classes.

[D]

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[A]

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[B]

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